HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED; OR, FIVE THOUSAND FACTS FOR PHYSICAL EXISTENCE. the poor man’$ tmltl|, the ritl| mnn’^ By A. H. PLATT, M.D., «V-V--V 7 Author of “Poisons and their Antidotes;” “Origin and Perpetuity of Organic Matter, Animal and Vegetable;” “The Physical, Mental, Moral, Religious, and Financial Effects of Tea, Coffee, and Tobacco, upon Man; ” “ The Pictorial Family Register,” etc., etc. PHILADELPHIA: QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE, 217 & 219 QUINCE STREET. 1871. INDEX OF AUTHORS. PAGE | Andrew, Dr. J. M 50 Avery, Dr 50 Abbott, Dr .... 233 Abernethy, Dr. . 570, 558, 95, 68 Alcott, Dr.W. A ..608,393,262,73 Adair, Dr 121 1 Aristotle 454, 178 Ames, Bishop 287 Allen, Dr 472, 405, 340 Allen, Prof 427 Addison 454' Agnes, Dr 637 ; Bedoes, Dr 330, 24; Beaumont, Dr. S. 583, 372, 188,1 245, 48. | Buchan, Dr 50, 341 Bell, Dr. 586, 373, 300, 103, 299 Bostack, Dr 116 Buffon... 178 Boyle 317 Burdell, Dr J 395, 344 Bailey, Dr 421 Bostwick, Dr 42! Blagden, Sir C 45 Beecher, Rev. II. W 570 Cheyne, Dr.G... 73,223, 26 Coudie, Dr 119, 60, 79, 206 Cuvier, M 178, 104 Cornaro 224 Cullen, Dr 79 Colton, Rev. C. C 205 Carson, Dr 268 Clievallier, M 293 Carpenter, Dr. W. B 2147 Cox, Dr 23 Cass, Gov. L 233 Cooper, Sir Astley 421 Clark, Prof. A ... 417 Caldwell, Pro;'. 579, 399 Chaubert 1 453 Cooper, Dr... 470 Chapman, Prof 528 Clarke, Dr. Adam 627, 637 Dick, Dr 120 Dunglison, Prof. R. 310, 303 Drake, Prof 373 Dalton, Prof 483 Dnpuytreu, M 549 Edwards, Dr M 523, 289, 24 Edwards, Rev. B. F 232 Euler, Dr. C 317 Evans, Dr 421 Fowler, Rev. Mr 55 Franklin, Dr. B 57 PAGE] F(melon, Rev. F... 232 1 Fyfe, Dr 116 ] Frank, Dr 421] Gregory, Prof. J 310 : Galen, Dr 265 ] Green, Prof. II 418 ;] Gross, Prof. S. A 418 ] Howard, J 157, 318 ( 11 uinphreys, Dr 50 i Hooper, Dr 50 Hensler, Mr 298 Hodgkin, Dr. F 239 Hitchcock, Prof. E. 600, 102, 71 Ilersey. Dr. T.. 176 j Haller, Dr. A 313 Henry, Mr 26 Hufeland, Dr 71 llarvey, Dr 312 Harrison, Prof 402, 373, 372 Hall, Dr. Wr. W 585, 443, 499, 506, 424,436, 469, 447,399, 415 Holmes, 0. W. 415 Hunt, Dr 393 Hunter, Dr 454 Hippocrates 591 Hahnemann, Dr 682 Ives, Prof. 591 Jackson, Dr. J. C 39, 56, 267 44, 49,104, 63,184,189,95, 180. 145, 129, 357, 354,405,484, 500, 508. Johnson, Dr....120,119,161, 267. 223. Jenner, Dr. E 195 Jones, Sir W 585 King, Dr. J. S 370, 120 Lee, Dr. C. A 62, 53 Lambe, Dr 104 Lawrence, Prof 103 Livingstone, Dr.. 260 ; Liebig, Prof. J. 361,359,215, 140, 84. Locke 317 La Place 317 Larry, Baron 367 Lewis, Dr. Dio 570, 560, 538, 557, 567, 449. Lobstein, Prof. J. F 454 Lapasse, M. De 551 Lambe, Dr 585 NcNish, Prof 128, 257,23 Mann, Hon. Horace 319, 231, 27 Mohammed 124 Mussey, Prof. 637,140, 2911 PAG! Marryat, Capt 343 Magendie, Prof 421 McClintock, Dr 422, 418 Mackintosh, Prof 454 Napheys, Dr. G. II 48, 20J Napoleon.. 157 Newton, Sir 1 366, 317 Ostrander, Dr., 566 Ortila 591 Pearson, Dr - 50 Parish, Dr 265, 60 Philip, Dr 223 Phinney, ReY. Dr 231 Parr, Thomas 312, 224 Plato 552, 178 Pereira, Dr. J 299, 268 Parker, Prof. W . 417 Peaslie, Prof. E. R 418 Pepys, Prof., 427 Parry, Captain. 453 Parniley, Dr 584 Ross, Sir John 241 Reed, Dr 419 Robinson. Dr. S 454 Rush, Dr. B 600, 528 Stael, Madame De 60 Sewell, Prof 121 Solon. 124 Smith, Dr. E 132 Smith. Dr. Adam 435, 144 Socrates 178 Shakspeare 178 Shauglinessy, Dr. 0 293 Schultz, Prof 372 Scoresby, Capt 453 Scott, Prof. J. W 459 Sullivan, Gen 470 Salmon, Dr 454 Swift, Dean 434 Stowe, Mrs. II. B 549 Saunders, Dr 584 Stevenson, Dr 637, 600 Thompson, Dr. A. T 268, 25 Temple, Sir W 119 Trotter, Dr ... 382 Thacher, Dr 454 Tissot, Dr 606, 594 Villerme, M 477 Willich, Dr 129 Woodward, Dr 572, 340 Walker 519 Wilson, Dr. E 517 Winslow, Prof 616 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by A. H. PLATT, M.D., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. STEREOTYPED BT J. PAGAN A SON. PRINTED BY (SHERMAN * 00. PREFACE. EXISTENCE is immensely more important to man than all other earthly considerations combined; yet millions of years of such existence are annually lost to the human family, for want of the necessary information, brief and simple as it is, to prolong human life; hence whatever promotes longevity is of first importance to all. At present, disease and drugs are the general order of things, and the prevention of sickness the exception, which are both unnatural and unnecessary; for if the public mind were duly aroused to the importance of health, the latter, on an average, would not cost in time and money one-tenth what sickness and drug medica- tion now do, saying nothing of the suffering and fright- ful loss of life by the latter. And, further; if but one-twentieth of the time and money now bestowed upon drugs and cure were devoted to the laws of life and the prevention of disease, the physical health and stamina of this nation would be im- proved fifty per cent, in a single year. For while medi- cation at best only aims at cure, or the removal of the effects of violated law, obedience to the laws of our being secures exemption from both the cause and effects of disease, with their long train of pains and penalties. M. De Lapasse, a very distinguished French writer upon health and longevity, basing his opinion upon well known physical facts, declares that man by nature is capable of living to the age of two hundred years, while his age in this country is now dwindled down to an average of less than thirty years; and Dr. J. C. Jack- son, who is well posted in statistics, states that three- PKEFACE. fifths, more than half \ of all born in this country at this day die under five years of age. Now, the writer has not the presumption to suppose that his feeble efforts at physical reform will have the effect to raise man from his present dwarfed existence to his maximum longevity of two hundred years; yet he has ventured to hope that, by arousing public attention to the vast importance of the preservation of health, he might be instrumental in adding something, at least, to the sum totum of human life in this country; and if it should be a little to each one who may read these pages, he will be amply remunerated for all his labor and out- lay. His object has not been authorship, not literary notoriety, not to write a “ doctor book,” not to add to the science of medicine, nor yet to present anything new or interesting to the medical practitioner; but sim- ply and solely to embody and condense in the plainest and briefest manner in his power, adapted to the masses, an array of dietetic, hygienic, physiological, and pro- phylactic facts, and well-sustained opinions upon these subjects, which would, to some extent at least, arouse public attention to the immense importance of prolong- ing human existence; and to what extent he has suc- ceeded in his attempt, is left to the intelligent reader of these pages to decide. In doing so, he has drawn upon every reliable and available source for facts, and made free with the lan- guage and sentiment of many eminent writers, whose names will be found in the “ Index of Authors.” And he has the vanity and assurance, if such it is, to believe that there cannot be found in the whole volume five pages, if even one, which do not contain aplurality of highly valuable vital facts, which all who choose can turn to practical account in the preservation of health and the prolongation of human life. The Author. Philadelphia, Pa., 1871, HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Sleeping Together. mHE vital powers of tlie aged are already below a healthy standard, and rapidly on the decline. The production of animal heat is comparatively feeble: the secretions and excretions are less active and healthy than in earlier life; and a vast majority of aged persons are in some way more or less diseased; and if children or youth are allowed to lodge in the same bed with them, they will suffer in health in the following ways: 1. The temperature of the child being higher than that of the adult, the latter will constantly absorb the caloric from the former, to produce an equilibrium in the bed. 2. The nervous energies, or innervation of the child, exceeding those of the adult, the current will constantly pass from the former to the latter; so that the child is steadily being drained of its caloric and nervous forces. 3. The child will be incessantly exposed to the morbid or vitiated exhalations of the adult, both in and out of the bed ; and if to the effects of age we add disease, the case is made very much worse for the child. Fluids of any sort, even water, taken during the meal, have these effects upon the stomach and digestion : Slops at Meals. A clean glove often covers a dirty hand. 14 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. A faithful friend is a strong defence. 1. They remove the food from the mouth so rapidly that the teeth have little time for mastication as it passes. 2. Time is not allowed for the secretion and due ad- mixture of the saliva with the food. 3. When the fluid enters the stomach, the gastric juice is so much diluted and weakened by it, that it acts much less vigorously upon the food. 4. When solids and fluids enter the stomach simulta- neously, the fluids must first be absorbed and carried out of the stomach before a healthy digestion will be estab- lished upon the solids; and thus the important function of digestion is seriously impeded and interfered with, by the use of fluids at meals, in four distinct and different ways. And when we add to the evils of slopping at meals the fact that the extremes of temperature in our food and drinks always induce inflammation of the stomach, need we be surprised that the American people, and especially our females, who are so much devoted to hot tea and coffee slops, should have become a nation of dys- peptics and invalids, and appear as old and withered at twenty as their temperate, hardy mothers did at middle age? If females desire either to retain or regain their personal beauty, the total disuse of the poisonous drugs, tea and coffee, is indispensable. Home-made Bread. That wife or mistress of a family who does not make her own bread, or cause it to be made under her own immediate supervision, fails to fulfil a most important part of her mission, and neglects a duty to her family for which she can never compensate in any other way: A flatterer is a dangerous enemy. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 15 A full purse never wants friends. Bread is an article, unlike most other things, always upon the table; and upon its quality and fitness for use depends, more than upon any other article of food, the health of the family; hence the preparation of so impor- tant an item of food should never be wholly intrusted to thoughtless and unprincipled hirelings. Pain in Death. Were man to live as he ought, enjoying every gift of Heaven, and abusing none, he would, accidents excepted, live to extreme old age, without any disease, and die without a pain or a struggle, as is now occasionally the case with very abstemious persons. The pains and agonies of death simply show that while some parts of the vital apparatus are exhausted and worn out, and no longer able to serve their purpose in the economy, others, which have suffered less, are still comparatively vigorous, and struggling to preserve the integrity of the organism. Man dies from the exhaustion of those parts which he has abused and destroyed; and if he would abuse none, and favor weak ones when present, all the parts or organs would wear out simultaneously, and there would be no healthy one to struggle at death against the dis- solution of the system, and cause those heart-rending scenes riow so common at the bedside of the sick and dying. The popular notion that every one has intestinal worms, and that no one can live without them, is wholly erroneous; for no one, old or young, will ever have them while in a perfectly healthy state ; as living animals, like worms, cannot resist the action of a healthy stomach and Worms. A rash man rides a runaway horse. 16 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A hasty man never lacks trouble. digestion, and the presence of healthy gastric juice, and would be destroyed by the ordinary process of chemical digestion. But when the stomach becomes impaired, and the juices defective either in quantity, quality or both, such animals are often not only able to maintain life in opposition to such a digestion, but to greatly increase in number, and sometimes grow to an enormous size, as in case of tape worms. Admitted Gluttony. The common remark, “ I am bilious,” is simply a frank admission of a gross dietetic abuse, either in quantity, quality, or both, of our food; for one whose dietetic habits are correct will no more be bilious, or have too much bile, — for that is all it means, — than he will have too much hair, skin, bones, nails, or any other part. Early Sleep. Nearly all animated nature that sleeps at all retires soon after the sun goes down; and all the wisdom of the world agrees that the early hours of night are the most refreshing and invigorating to the nervous and muscular systems; and practical experience and observation in those avocations where men are compelled to be broken of their regular sleep have abundantly proved that sound and unmolested sleep from 9 to 12 p.m. is worth more to the wearied body than from 12 p.m. to 6 a.m. The Beard. Cutting the beard is a most obvious infraction of a very plain and important law of our physical being, and an attempt, like corset-lacing and many other murderous practices, to improve upon the works of the Creator, A young man idle, an old man needy. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 17 A little pot is soon hot. which cannot be practised with impunity. In the first place, it is painful and expensive; secondly, it deprives the male of his genuine masculine air, and gives him an unnatural, feminine appearance; thirdly, it is exceed- ingly irritating to the nerves of the face, and often affects the senses, especially the vision ; and, fourthly, remov- ing the hair from the front of the neck is one of the most prolific sources of bronchitis and throat disease. Killing Children. Let them eat when they please, what they please, and as much as they please ; give them freely of hot tea and coffee slops; let them sleep on feather beds in warm rooms ; let them retire and rise when they please; dress them fashionably, with naked neck and arms, and then expose them to a cold, damp atmosphere; keep them tightly harnessed up and hived up in a house-poisoned atmosphere, excepting an occasional closely caged-up carriage ride; and when they sicken from such stupid and murderous treatment, as they surely will sooner or later, administer poisonous drugs, which would have killed a hale adult, until the work of infanticide is com- pleted, and then console yourself with the wicked idea that the “ Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away,” etc. A Common Cold. An ordinary cold, if promptly attended to, can just as well be thrown off in one day as a month ; and the only safe and efficient means are hot applications externally and internally, as warm baths and sweats, and hot teas, as ginger, pepper, pennyroyal, etc. If our sallow, clingy, shrivelled, dried up, blue-veined, What is Needed. An empty belly has no ears 18 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A fop is tlie tailor’s friend and his own enemy. tea- and coffee-steeped, carbon-stuffed, house-poisoned, laced-to-death American women desire health and per- sonal charms, they must give Nature at least some chance to bestow these qualities upon them, and not keep her constantly bound and prostrate; and to this end the following is indispensable: First, no narcotics; sec- ondly, a simple diet, mainly vegetable ; thirdly, no har- ness or “stays; ” fourthly, a full and free circulation of the blood; fifthly, a full and free respiration; sixthly, early hours ; and, seventhly, much light but active ex- ercise in the open air. These are Nature's cosmetics, and the only ones upon which the least reliance can be placed, either for the restoration or preservation of health or beauty. The Tobacco Slave. What a wretched slave he is who has learned to chew that nauseous weed — tobacco. He must always have a big box in his pocket, and a big quid in his mouth, and a big dish for his filth. Poor fellow! if he had not plenty of associates in the dirty business, every one else would surely think him crazy. He is always free to declare that he can quit the filthy thing at pleasure; and if so, let him clean out his mouth and pockets, have his linen purified and bleached, and burn cotton until the disgusting odor and stench are obliterated, and then never again touch the unclean thing. Sleeping after Meals. Justin proportion as the stomach has been overtasked with food, will it gain the mastery over the brain, and deprive the latter of its due share of nervous energy, and produce temporary dulness and drowsiness or, per- A great fortune is a great slavery. 19 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Rashness is the great error of youth. haps, induce sound sleep; hence, a comatose condition after a meal is sure evidence of gluttony and gorman- dizing. Sleeping after meals is, to say the least of it, in an ordinary state of health, a very low and swinish habit, which fully merits the penalties which the Creator has attached to it, viz.: lassitude, languor, debility, irres- olution, irritability, obtuseness of the moral faculties, neglect of business, self, and friends, and, when carried to the extreme, imbecility and almost idiocy. The Potato. The fact that a pound of potatoes, which costs about one cent, contains nearly twenty-five per cent, of nutri- ment, while a pound of butcher’s meat, which, on an average, costs fifteen cents, only contains thirty-three per cent, of nutriment, affords a good illustration of the comparative expense of a vegetable and flesh diet. The poorer classes, who generally consume more flesh than any other, according to their numbers, could subsist, on an average, upon less than one-half what it now costs them, and be more cleanly, healthy, vigorous, intellect- ual, and moral, if they would adopt a mainly or exclu- sively vegetable diet. Abusing Nature. When not molested in her operations, Nature is always simple, hardy, and adventurous; but we usually com- mence a warfare upon her as soon as we enter the world, and seldom cease our labors in that direction until we leave it. A soft dress, a soft cradle, a soft carpet, feet wrapped in silk or wool, avoid the wind and air, breathe a house- poisoned atmosphere, sleep on feathers, keep late hours, eat all sorts of indigestible trash at all hours of the day Ignorance is the mother of superstition. 20 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. An idle brain is the devil’s workshop. and night, tie up the vital organs so they cannot half perform their functions, become seriously ill and suffer much, murmur at Providence for a bad constitution, which we ourselves have ruined, and then take poison- ous drugs and close the scene of fashionable suicide. Shoes. A mock thing made of cloth or lasting, and called a shoe, with a sole as thick as paper, may do very well upon a dry floor or carpet, but to put such a thing between the foot and the cold, wet ground, and call it a shoe, is evidently a misnomer, and a disgrace to that im- portant and useful article, and as silly and ridiculous as to venture out in a pouring rain with an umbrella made of tissue-paper. A good substantial calf-skin shoe is, in all reason and sense, thin enough, light enough, and pretty enough, and affords none too much protec- tion to the foot from the cold and dampness; but “ none excepting vulgar Quakeresses (?) wear such thick heavy things as these.” A Hint. De Salis, Archbishop of Seville, who died in 1785, at the age of 110, being asked how he had preserved his health to that great age, replied, “ By violating the laws of health when young, by excess in food and wine, I found myself old, and by obeying those laws, now that I am old, I find myself young.” Choice of Occupation. The common practice of placing delicate and weakly constitutions at confined and sedentary occupations, and those of vigorous health at active out-door labor, is A bad workman quarrels with Ms tools. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 21 A clear conscience fears no accusation. wholly reversing the indications of Nature; for the latter will be much better able to endure the pernicious effects of inactivity and confinement, while the former, with due care not to over-do, will be greatly improved by the activity and exposure to the fresh air. In placing boys at trades, especial care should be had in the adaptation of the physical strength and powers of endurance to the trade; for to place a slender, feeble boy, of little vitality, at a heavy trade, requiring much muscular power, is ruinous to him, and almost sure to break him down before he reaches maturity. Safe Dancing. To insure safety, dancing should be practised in the day-time, in moderately-heated rooms, well ventilated, without the use of any alcoholic drinks, and not too long continued. The Difference. Women who superintend their own household affairs and perform the whole or most of their own work, usually have good health, enjoy their food, and sleep well; retain their youthful looks and beauty late in life, and are cheerful, happy, and contented; while those whose condition in life enables them to command ser- vants, are generally nervous, dyspeptic, debilitated, and complaining; early fail, and fade in health and beauty, and enjoy little else than the immense satisfaction of being deemed “ affluent.” Beauty. We should all be early taught, fully impressed with, and never lose sight of, the great fact that genuine beauty cannot exist independently of sound bodily A cracked bell is never sound. 22 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A contented mind is a continual feast. health, and that the former is unattainable by any means incompatible with the latter. Rusting and Wearing Out. Muscular exercise is to the human body what friction is to metal; the latter will tarnish, rust, and decay with- out use, and the former will become dull, stupid, and diseased without exercise. If, instead of consulting Doct. Bolus, or depending upon drug-medication, man- kind would take three grains of common sense three times a day, and a “ quantum sufficit ” of active exer- cise in the open air, how many pains, dollars, sighs, and tears might be saved! saying nothing of the years that would thereby be added to life. It is immensely better to wear out than to rust out; and the former is not only a much longer process, but a much more useful one. Dirty Children. A popular impression prevails to a considerable ex- tent, among a certain class, that because tlie dirty, smutty urchin which runs at large in the streets and fields, un- heeded and uncared for, is tough and hardy, with ruddy cheeks and plump muscles, therefore filth is healthy. But this is a great mistake; for it is not the dirt that promotes the health, but their free and romping exer- cise in the open air, in connection with plain, coarse food, and none too much of that, which are more than adequate to compensate for the injury done by the dirt; for if, in addition to the fresh air and coarse food, they had proper attention to personal cleanliness, they would be still more hale and hardy, and still less subject to attacks of disease during the excessive heat of summer. A good cause makes a stout heart. 23 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The fop and the prude are Folly’s advertisements. An Error. It is a great mistake to suppose that health and lon- gevity are providential, accidental, or the result of fate; for, hereditary influences aside, they are the result of causation, by the use or neglect of which we may greatly prolong or shorten our existence. Waring against Nature. Man is almost constantly engaged in a warfare against his own health and Nature’s plainest pointings. He over-eats and under-eats, over-v orks and under-works; turns day into night and night into day; brutalizes him- self with alcoholic liquors, and stultifies himself with tea, coffee, tobacco, and opium; practises sensuality which would disgrace a swine; and when the day of reckoning and retribution comes, and a premature grave opens upon him, he charges all to Providence, or a bad consti- tution, when, in fact, he has committed suicide just as much as though he had done it with a knife, rope, or revolver. “ Persons habitually addicted to the use of these drinks increase enormously in bulk, and become loaded with morbid fat; their circulation is languid and sluggish; the eyes become prominent and the face bloated, and the whole expression stupid and meaningless in the extreme ; and, in seven cases out of eight, they die of palsy or apo- plexy.” — Prof. 31cNish, Edinburg. Dr. Cox, a very eminent American physician, of thirty years’ practice, says : “ The use of malt liquors is most pernicious to the physical constitution; and the children of beer-drinking parents easily and readily Malt Liquors. A good life puts olf wrinkles. 24 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A guilty conscience needs no accuser. yield to slight causes of disease; and cases requiring sur- gical treatment are even more difficult to manage than those of confirmed whiskey drinkers.” Vinegar. That the use of this article is highly injurious to health, is shown by its effects upon plump healthy fe- males, who from a silly desire to be delicate, (sickly,) habitually swallow large quantities of it. This practice soon destroys the digestion, and deprives the system of its necessary nourishment; and as the only true stand- ard of beauty is a high state of health, it of course defeats the very object aimed at by the user. In most such cases, extreme emaciation and paleness take place, and consumption closes the scene of folly. Liquor versus Digestion. Many imagine that the use of alcoholic liquors aids digestion, and hence the usual dram after the meal; but Dr. Bedoes, the distinguished English analytical chemist, ascertained, from actual experiment, that when alcohol was mixed with the food of animals, it required fully twice the time for digestion that it did in the absence of it; and the same fact has since been proved true of the human stomach. Temperature of Infants. Infants are supposed by some to possess greater calor- ific powers than adults, and that they are therefore bet- ter able to resist exposure, which tends to “ harden and toughen them ; ” but Dr. Edwards has shown, beyond all possible doubt, that the production of heat, in all animals, is at its minimum at birth, and gradually in- A libertine’s life is a life of slavery. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 25 A man is known by the company he keeps. creases with the development of the body until the me- ridian of life, when it declines; and hence the folly and absurdity of attempting to “ harden ” infants by expos- ure. Water. Water enters largely into all animal and vegetable bodies ; and in the animal economy holds a midway im- portance between air and solid food, being more neces- sary than the latter and less so than the former, seventy- five per cent, of the human body, by weight, being water. The following is the quantity of water which can be removed, by drying, from a few of the more com- mon articles of food. Sugar, 10 per cent.; wheat, 14; rye, 16; oats, 20; barley, 13; Indian corn, 18; peas, 16; beans, 14; potatoes, 73; beets, 87; turnips and cabbage, 92; fresh meats, 75; white of eggs, 85; yolks, 53; and cow’s milk, 87. Ventilation. “ I always sleep with my window open, more or less, depending upon the weather, at all seasons of the year; and I have not had a common cold in forty years. How strange it is that mankind should be so fearful of their best friend, fresh air, without which they cannot live five minutes.” — Dr. Thompson. Alcohol. All alcoholic and fermented liquors contain more or less alcohol; and the following is the proportion of alco- hol in those in common use, viz.: wine, 18 to 25 per cent.; cider, 9; ale and strong beer, 8; small beer, 1; brandy, 54 ; rum, 55; whiskey, 57. Industrious youth makes happy old age. 26 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Abundance gives trouble ; competence, delights. Sugar. Henry, Duke of Beaufort, who died in 1702, at the age of seventy, ate a pound of sugar every day for forty years, and enjoyed excellent health to the end of life. During all the forty years that he ate the sugar, he never had a cold or cough; and at death his teeth were good and sound. A post-mortem examination showed all the organs of his body to be in a perfectly healthy condition. Flesh and Vegetables. “ If you put improper food of any sort into the human stomach, it will become disordered and diseased; if it be vegetable food, it simply ferments, and becomes gas- eous; but if animal food, it will be changed into a putrid, acrid, irritating, and abominable stimulant.” — Dr. Cheyne. Tobacco and Cancer. Of thirty-seven cases of amaurosis, (paralysis of the optic nerve, causing total or partial blindness,) which came under the notice of an English surgeon, thirty- five of the subjects were inveterate tobacco users; and of thirteen cases of cancer of the lip, which have come to the knowledge of the writer, during about thirty years, nine of them were located precisely where the pipe had rested upon the lip; and all of them were either free smokers or chewers. Viability. Every human being comes into the world with a certain degree of viability, life-powers, or ability to pro- long existence, varying greatly in different individuals; Better poison your blood than your morals. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 27 Oppose courage to misfortune, and reason to passion. and this viability is the ultimate measure of his exist- ence, even under the most favored circumstances. But if in any way the laws of his being are violated, this allotted measure of his longevity may be much or little curtailed, according to the degree of the violation, but can in no case be extended; and millions, born with life- powers which would have carried them on to good old age, have cut them short by physical abuse, all the way from infancy upward, and sunk to untimely graves. This is caused either by decayed teeth, disease of the lungs, or a bad condition of the fluids of the body, or all combined; and the remedy is obvious. Ordinarily a bad breath is wholly unnecessary; for proper attention to the teeth, blood, and lungs, excepting in case of ulcer- ation of the last, will always obviate this difficulty. Offensive Breath. Rum. “ Who manufactures alcoholic liquors ? Who imports such liquors ? Who are wholesale dealers in such liquors? Who are retail dealers in them? From whom are the intemperate taken ? By whom are all the drunkards made ? One answer will serve the whole six questions — the temperate. Blast the manufacturer of alcoholic liquors! Blast the importer of such drinks! Blast the wholesale dealer in them! Blast the retail dealer in them! and blast the man who will not blast the whole of them! ” — Hon. Horace Mann. Leaden Pipes. Soft water carried through leaden pipes acts upon the metal, and becomes more or less poisonous; while hard A drowning man will catch at a straw. 28 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. To forewarn is to forearm. water soon deposits a portion of the solids held in solu- tion in it upon the surface of the pipe, forming a coat- ing which protects the water from the further action of the metal. Progeny of Great Men. Few distinguished men are blessed with talented children; first, because they are governed by fashion- able motives in the choice of a companion, and seldom marry women of superior intellectual powers ; secondly, few such men enjoy vigorous bodily health themselves, and their companions are still worse off; and, thirdly, they live in such a manner as to debilitate, effeminate, and greatly impair all the functions‘of the body. The Infant Stomach. The stomach of a new-born infant will hold but a few table-spoonfuls; yet silly mothers and ignorant nurses cram food into the stomachs of these little innocents by the teacupful, and thus early sow the seeds of dys- pepsia and other serious stomachic derangements, from which they never after recover. Obesity. Corpulency, or fatness, beyond simple plumpness of the muscles, is positively a diseased condition, whether in man or beasts; and in nearly every case just as much the result of over-alimentation, or feeding, as drunkenness is the effect of over-drinking; and absti- nence, with reasonable bodily exercise, is the only sure remedy. Early Decline. First and foremost, as an indication of early decline and premature bodily dissolution, is a long, slender, A mischievous cur must be tied short. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 29 A needy man’s budget is full of schemes. narrow chest, with a diminutive waspen waist; shoulders narrow and sloping; posture slightly stooping; neck long, slender, and slightly inclined forward; head large and brain active; limbs long and slender, with hands and feet deeply cleft; cheeks high, broad above and sunken in the centre, with a narrow chin; hair usually light-colored, fine, and thin ; and the individual of a restless, irritable, and uneasy cast of mind. Hereditary Descent. The world has yet to learn that degenerate and un- healthy parents cannot have healthy children; for surely we cannot impart to our offspring that which we ourselves do not possess. And what a heinous sin it is for us, through our own ignorance and stupidity, to im- plant life-lasting pains and sufferings in the youthful constitution! Pork. Fat pork contains a trifle more nutriment, pound for pound, than fine wheaten bread, and costs at least three times as much; and as the flesh of the swine is already generally diseased, and rapidly becoming worse, the more intelligent are beginning to reject it from their tables; and the day seems not far distant when its use will be wholly discarded by all who make the least claim to intelligence. Hereditary Taints. So far as congenital defects have to do with health and longevity, the subject of them is not in fault; but even then it is in our power, by rigid temperance and fidelity to the laws of our being, to greatly ameliorate A cent saved is two earned. 30 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A bird is known by bis note ; a man, by his conversation. our own condition, and improve that of our offspring. The fact that all who have reached great age, so far as known, were from sturdy, long-lived parentage, seems good evidence that inherited qualities play the greatest part in longevity ; yet they can avail but little without obedience to the laws of health. Poison Potatoes. The sprouts of the common potato contain an alkali called solania, which is a very active poison; hence potatoes kept late in the spring should be often sprouted. The tubers, or potatoes themselves, do not con- tain this quality, unless exposed to the light and air, until they assume a darkish blue-black color, when they should never be eaten either by man or beast. Tea and the Skin. Tea is well known to chemists to possess active as- tringent or tannin qualities, and, when habitually used strong, produces an effect upon the human skin similar to that produced upon the hide in the tanner’s vat, by the action of oak or hemlock bark; and the early de- struction of the complexion and personal beauty of our females, by the use of this article, is rapidly becoming a matter of common knowledge, especially among the more intelligent and thoughtful of our women. Corset-Lacing. From an extensive professional observation and inves- tigation, for more than a quarter of a century, the writer lies become fully convinced that at least one-fourth of all the deaths among females, from fifteen to thirty years of age, is directly and positively chargeable to corset- A joke is no argument, and laughter, no evidence. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 31 Poor freedom is better than rich slavery. lacing; for, as generally practised in this country, it is impious, murderous, and suicidal. It is impious, because it attempts to improve upon the works of the Creator, and give to the female a form which he never intended her to have. It is murderous, because millions of parents allow their daughters to practise it after they know full well that it destroys their children. And it is suicidal, because nearly all who indulge in the practice are well aware that it is ruinous and destructive. Scrofula. The fact that there cannot be found upon the earth a Jew, who has adhered strictly to his religious faith — embracing the total disuse of pork — who ever had so much as even a scrofulous taint, while a vast majority of the rest of the civilized world which uses pork is more or less scrofulous, seems pretty conclusive evidence that the flesh of the swine is at least mainly the cause of this disease. The Heart. The heart is truly a most wonderful organ; for it con- tracts about seventy-five times a minute, and receives and sends out to every part of the body three gallons of blood every three or four minutes, during eighty to one hundred years, and never tires. Delicate Subjects. There is in every community a declining class who, doubtless honestly, hold that anything relating strictly and exclusively to the sexes, should never be made a subject of public lectures or instruction ; but with all due respect to the opinions of this class, the writer is unable Our manners frame our fortunes. 32 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A rich mouthful, a heavy groan. to see how ignorance in this case is to promote purity and virtue any more than upon any other subject. There are now several thousand physicians, and several hun- dred females practising medicine — and they are not surely the worse for this class of knowledge; and if the masses had a correct understanding of the important relations of the sexes, one of the most fruitful sources of crime would be removed. We say, then, when daughters arrive at or near puberty, let mothers instruct them, either by books, orally, or both, in all that in this way pertains to the future woman, and let fathers do the same by the sons; for both will have this information in some way or form ; and if they do not receive it at home, they will be very likely to obtain it in a bad way, and from bad sources. Women and Sunlight. The very important effects of sunlight upon organic matter, whether animal or vegetable, though generally admitted, seems nevertheless to be but very imperfectly appreciated or understood, especially its effects upon the higher classes of animals. We all know that vegeta- bles grown in the shade, with every other condition of development present, rarely or never come to maturity, or furnish seed adequate to reproduction ; and the effects are no less marked upon animals, though less observed and understood. It is doubtless safe to say that none of the vertebrata, or animals having a backbone — man, of course, included — can possibly exhibit as high qualities, physical or mental, if kept in shaded sunlight, as they would if allowed full freedom and exjiosure to the direct rays of the sun. Dogs raised and kept in the woods Eat to live, and not live to eat. 33 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A pin a day is a groat a year. soon degenerate; and a wolf raised in the open field, shows evident signs of improvement and incipient dog qualities; and the same is equally true as we rise in the scale of beings all the way to man. Woman now lives a pent-up life in a sun-shaded light, while man roams at large in the full rays of the sun; and if woman lived in the open air and direct sunlight as much as man does, she would have capacities as much greater than she now has, as man now has greater than he would have if he were pent up and shaded as woman is. The vast im- portance of direct sunlight to women can only be fully appreciated by a practical test of it, which will surprise all who witness it. The Teeth. The teeth were evidently intended to endure as long as any other part of the body; and they are even more needed in advanced life, when debility and impaired functional action are coming upon the whole organism, than in the vigor of youth and middle age, when diges- tion is more active and energetic. The most common causes of impairment to the teeth are these: First, the use of calomel and mercurials; secondly, neglect of cleanliness after meals; thirdly, the extremes of tem- perature, heat and cold, in our food and drinks; fourthly, tobacco, which paralyzes or kills the nerves, and causes them to loosen and fall out; fifthly, the use of acids, or much sweet which generates acids; sixthly, gritty quack nostrum dentifrices; seventhly, biting or chewing very hard substances; and, eighthly, unnecessarily harsh and stiff teeth-brushes. A rolling stone gathers no moss. 34 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A small leak sinks a skip. Flesh and Ferocity. Carnivorous animals are well known to be more fierce, rapacious, combative, and destructive than graminivo- rous and herbivorous ones, as exhibited in the feline and canine races, compared with the ox, horse, and sheep; and the use of flesh meats upon man has the same effect as upon the brute; for a moment’s reflection wall fur- nish ample evidence that the most barbarous and savage nations are those who subsist most upon the carcasses of dead animals. The English, as a nation, are noted for their choleric, pugnacious, or fighting propensity, and Dr. Buchan says, “ It is due to the excessive use of animal food, which produces a cruelty and ferocity of temper unknown to men who subsist mainly or wholly upon vegetable food.” Alcohol and the Stomach. “ The habitual use of alcoholic liquors (and all the weaker drinks — cider, beer, ale, wine, lager, etc. — contain it,) in any form or degree, causes a slow but certain inflammation of the stomach and liver, which is often unperceived by the sufferer until relief is too late.” — London Med. & Surg. Jour. Refuse in Food. No substance should ever be received into the stomach as food which does not contain nutriment, and which is not digestible; hence all refuse in food, as skins, seeds, stones, cores, etc., should always be rejected. As the seeds of currants, whortleberries, gooseberries, raspber- ries, and blackberries are small, and not liable to become impacted in the bowels, they may generally be eaten with impunity. A small spark makes a great fire. 35 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Ignorance is the enemy of art and science. To assert that our bodily sickness and suffering are the dispensations of Providence, which we cannot avoid by vigilance and forethought, is both absurd and ridic- ulous, and but a miserable apology for our own ignor- ance and stupidity. How often does the wretched dyspeptic and gormand cram his stomach to the most painful repletion, and then attempt to console his con- science with the fatal error that it is the will of Heaven, and therefore he should not complain, thus making the Creator the scapegoat of all his ignorance and sins. Providence. Size of the Sexes. The average height of the male in the United States is five feet and eight inches, and his weight is one hun- dred and forty-five pounds; that of the female, five feet and two inches, and her weight one hundred and twenty- five pounds. The male has broad shoulders and narrow hips, and the female narrow shoulders and broad hips; the width of shoulders in the former being to impart strength and power, and of hips, in the latter, to adapt the subject to reproduction. Suggestions. Has not every living creature which God has made been created with a view to the accomplishment of some specific end or object? Has He not so constituted each creature, from the lowest upward, as to enable it to ful- fil the end for which it was made ? To this end, has He not endowed each with the necessary instinct or knowledge to enable it to protect its organism intact, until the object of its existence shall have been accom- plished? Would not the guarantees and securities of Pomposity and arrogance are the fruits of ignorance. 36 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Do one thing at. a time, and do that well. safety bestowed upon the creature by the Creator, to protect the integrity of its organism, be just in propor- tion to the importance of the creature and the station which it occupied in the scale of beings ? Would He not so adapt the guarantees and securities that the creature could of itself apply them to the preservation of its or- ganism without aid; that is, would they not be intrin- sical and present, and not extrinsical and foreign ? And is not this precisely the condition of the whole range of the brute creation, from the lowest and smallest to the highest and largest ? .There are millions of sheep, hogs, horses, and cattle, and billions of living creatures lower in the scale; and in a state of nature do they not all in- stinctively apply the guarantees and securities of life which God has furnished them, and live out the ftdl time allotted to their organizations, and that, too, with- out any extrinsic aid whatever? And is not man as much more important than they as he is higher in the scale of creation? and has not God thrown around him, for the protection of his organism, guarantees and secu- rities commensurate with his rank, importance, and the ends for which he was created ? And if this be correct — and we can see no way to evade it, if man apply the guarantees and securities of life which the Creator has placed in his hands as faithfully as the brute does — what more need would he have for extrinsic aid than they ? Puberty. By this is meant that period in human life at which the individual is capable of procreation, or the perpetuity of the race, and takes place at about the same age in both sexes, and varies much with climate, and some A fool applauds himself; a wise man, others. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 37 A soft word turns away wrath. with temperament or constitution. In hot or tropical countries, it occurs from nine to twelve years; in the temperate regions, from fourteen to fifteen; and in high northern latitudes, as Norway, Lapland, and Siberia, from eighteen to twenty years of age. Among females, Jewesses, colored girls, and those of the creole descent, mature earlier than others; the brunette sooner than the blonde; the girl of dark hair and dark eyes earlier than the light - haired and blue eyes; and the lean, slender, nervous girl earlier than the fat, dull, sluggish one. Prematurely early puberty in the female indi- cates “ early ripe and early rotten,” and when late, if healthy, “late ripe and late rotten.” Cases are on record in which females have matured at three or four years, and grown up to be healthy women; and one case is given in which an infant from birth had the full menstrual development of the adult female. In the female, the interruption of the regular recurrence of the catamenial purgations, from unnatural causes, often proves a most serious affair, and should receive the most prompt attention. Growth of Nails. The average time required for a finger-nail to attain its full length, from the root to the free end, is about four months; and for a toe-nail, about eight months. The average number of persons living in a single house in London is 18, in Berlin, 32, in Paris, 35, St. Petersburg, 51, and in Vienna, 54. For every 1,000 inhabitants, the average annual mortality is, in London, 24, in Berlin, 25, in Paris, 28, in St. Petersburg, 41, Crowded Tenements. A stitch in time saves nine. 38 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Forgive often, and censure seldom. and in Vienna, 47; showing a fearfully increasing mortality with the increasing number crowded into one tenement. Tobacco Slavery. We live in an age which calls loudly for the full exercise of all our intellectual powers in the most active, cultivated, and healthy state; for ignorance, corruption, error, and sin already abound to a fearful extent, and are rapidly on the increase, and they must be met and conquered by knowledge, light, and love. The eyes of God and the whole civilized world are fixed upon this nation ; and shall we stultify and degrade ourselves, and our intel- lectual powers, merely for the sake of a little morbid gratification obtained by indulging in the use of the most nauseous and disgusting weed which Heaven ever allowed to grow upon earth ? Shall we not rather arise in native human greatness, in all the magnanimity of God-descended beings, shake off that most odious practice, and go forth in all our intellectual potency, greatness, and liberty, fully freed from the degradation and thraldom of the pipe, cigar, quid, and snuff-box ? And ere this generation shall have been laid in the grave, our labors will not only cause the millions now enslaved by tobacco to emerge from their filth and deg- radation, and again assert those rights and that liberty which the God of heaven has most obviously made their natural inheritance, but it will prove an untold blessing to millions yet unborn. Drugs and Liquor. “ If the use of alcoholic liquors has poisoned thous- ands, and sent them to a disgraceful and untimely Be slow to choose, and slower to change. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 39 Virtue is indispensable to real beauty. grave, drug-medication in the past three centuries has killed more men and women than the sword, famine, pestilence, and drunkenness combined. It is, beyond doubt, the hugest, the most crying and devastating evil of the whole list, and nothing can put it to flight but reverence and law, and the awakening of a conscious- ness in the minds of good men and women to live bodily, so as to glorify God in their persons, which are his.” — J. C. Jackson, A.M., M.D. Cleansing the Teeth. They should always be cleansed by rinsing with tepid water immediately after the first and second meals, and with a soft brush and tepid water after the third meal, and all beyond is useless, and often injuri- ous. As to teeth-picks, nothing equals a quill properly prepared for the purpose, — pins, needles, sticks, ivory, whalebone, etc., all being more or less objectionable. In picking the teeth, great care should be had not to cut, lacerate, or irritate the gums, so as to cause them to bleed. Precocious puberty, in either sex, is an ill omen both for health and longevity, and should be sedulously guarded against by parents and guardians of youth. The more common causes which induce it are twofold — physical and mental. The physical are indolence, idle- ness, high-seasoned and rich food; stimulants, as beer, wine, alcoholic liquors, tea, coffee, gross animal food, etc. Of the mental class, are exciting and sensational novels, “ flashy ” or obscene books and papers, love stories, the ball-room, theatre, love, beaux, and marriage Premature Puberty. A wild goose laid a tame egg. 40 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Abundance ruins more than want. talk, and recently the early cultivation of music has been declared to exert an unfavorable influence upon youth, by awakening the dormant sensibilities to pas- sion. The influences of these causes are but too plain when we compare the average period of puberty in our large cities with that of the rural districts, and the sturdy, ruddy-cheeked girl or woman with the pale, languid, shrivelled, and faded city girl or woman of the same age. Fashionable Cookery. The modern practice of mashing up everything, and making it as soft and fine as possible, to save as it were the labor of the teeth, is, to say the least of it, one of the great modern dietetic errors in the preparation of food. First, the health of the teeth require that they should be used as nature has ordained—in the mastica- tion of the food, whether hard or soft; secondly, the time required for the faithful mastication affords time also for thorough insalivation, without which there can be no healthy digestion; and this mashing the food, and doing artificially what should be done by the teeth, induces a careless, rapid, and defective mastication; and this not only injures the teeth, by depriving them of their normal exercise, but also enfeebles digestion; for so far as mashing, mixing, and compounding our food is concerned, the closer we adhere to nature, the easier the stomach will dispose of the article. Alcohol and Mature. As all alcoholic liquors are artificial products, nowhere to he found in nature, the healthy human stomach can naturally have no more desire or relish for them than Buffoonery and knavery are the dregs of wisdom. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 41 Bury not your talents in indolence. for nitric or sulphuric acid; hence, whenever a desire for these drinks does exist, it has been artificially pro- duced by errors in diet of some sort, and in nearly, if not every, case, the origin, the starting-point, is tea, coffee, tobacco, or excessive alimentation, by which a morbid condition of the stomach is induced that calls for stimulants; and these beverages being common in use, and always at hand, are ready and easy of applica- tion. Our temperance reformers, therefore, have com- menced at the wrorfg end of the work, or, in cant phrase, “ have put the cart before the horse ; ” and if they wish to succeed permanently, must first reform man dieteti- cally, and remove the use of those articles, and those erroneous practices in diet which induce a love of alcohol. A Morbid Appetite. An excessive fondness for any particular article of food or drinks is no evidence of its fitness or adaptation to the wants of the body, as an appetite for all unnatural articles of food or drinks is artificial and acquired. The cow, horse, or sheep, when compelled to feed for a long time on flesh, ultimately refuses its natural food; and we all know that the poisonous drugs, tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcoholic liquors, are at first offensive to us, and that our love for them is acquired by use. Food in Childhood. During childhood and youth, while the physical sys- tem is being developed, there is more life, activity, and vivacity than in more advanced age; and consequently a greater waste or expenditure, relatively, than in the adult, as the child requires food for a twofold purpose, Better suffer without than with guilt. 42 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Affectation is a substitute for real merit. growth and repair, or waste, while the adult only needs is to supply the waste of the system consequent upon its own action. Early Rising. Nearly all truly great men of every age and country have been noted for early rising, especially those who have reached the greatest longevity and eminence, and have left behind them their evidence in favor of this custom; yet millions in towns and cities invert the order of nature, and turn day into night and night into day. But as “ we cannot sin without suffering,” these violations of nature’s laws are visited upon the offenders with a fearful retribution, as exhibited in their feverish, morose, and unkind dispositions, impaired digestion, and an early departure of that freshness and brightness of countenance, vivacity of mind, and elasticity and vigor of body, which are so characteristic of those who indulge in the anti-vital practice of late hours. Hermaphrodites. We often hear mention made of hermaphrodites, or “ morpliadites,” as the vulgar term is; yet we never find any one who ever saw such a being, and thousands doubt their reality; yet they do exist, but are exceed- ingly rare. The distinguished professor of anatomy at Vienna, Prof. Rokitansky, asserts that there is now one living in Germany, who was brought up as a female, but was really as much a male as a female. Her name is Catherine Holimann. When she reached marriage- able age, she loved a man who desired to marry and emigrate with her to America ; but when she disclosed to him her deformity, he abandoned her. She subse- Learning to obey is learning how to command. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 43 All truths are not proper at all times. quently became attached to a young girl, but found herself incapable of making her suit to one apparently of her own sex. There are also very rare cases of per- sons who are sexless, so to speak, and have neither organs nor passions; so that there may be individuals of either sex, both sexes, and no sex at all. Fresh and Salt Water. Many have fallen into the error that salt water is a better curative agent than fresh, and therefore that it is preferable for bathing; but there is no evidence that such is the case. The specific gravity of salt water is greater than fresh, and consequently denser and more buoyant; and whether skilled or not, one can swim easier in the former than in the latter; and beyond this it has no advantage, but some disadvantages. Diet and Morality. There is a world-wide difference in the organs called into exercise in procuring for the use of man the two great classes of food — flesh and vegetables; for while the former cannot be procured by any means short of the exercise of the very worst part of man’s nature— cruelty, and the taking of the life of innocent and unoffending animals, the latter is secured by the exercise of the best part of his nature, and without a single violation of any of our moral organs or feelings. The destruction of harmless and helpless animals is obviously cruel and hardening, and sears and blunts the finer feelings of our nature; while the pursuit of agriculture is a real ennob- ling avocation, calculated to cultivate and strengthen our moral natures, and make us more docile, amiable, and kindly disposed; and the difference in the moral Almost and very near save many a lie. 44 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Forget not the past, and profit by it in future. and religious influences of these two classes of food upon man, is no less marked than the means employed in procuring them. Man and Sunlight. Dr. J. C. Jackson holds that the effects of direct sun- light upon the human organism is one of the most active and efficient therapeutical agents in existence; and, among others, has the following specific effects upon the system: 1. It has the effect to energize and strengthen the nervous system, and subsequently to induce a comatose or natural healthy sleep, which is a very powerful re- cuperative agent in all morbid conditions of the system. 2. It increases the metamorphosis and elimination of the tissues of the body, but mainly of the muscles, while it increases the size and strength of the nerves. 3. Those who live out mostly in open sunlight will diminish in size of muscle, but increase in the bulk of their nerves; and the increased action of the latter upon the former renders the individual much stronger than he would be under opposite circumstances. 4. That in judging of the muscular powers of men living much in open sunlight, unless we bear in mind its great energizing effects, we are apt to greatly under- rate them from the lean or spare condition of their muscles. 5. Owing to the greatly increased innervation, and consequent invigoration, of the muscles during the long but bright, sunny days of summer, though the muscles seem smaller and softer than in winter, our working-men are always able to perform more labor in a given time All are not saints who sit in the sanctuary. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 45 The approval of evil is the assumption of guilt. than they can possibly do in winter, with less light, larger muscles, and smaller nerves. 6. That direct sunlight has a very active and power- ful energizing and invigorating effect upon the brain ; and, other things being equal, the man who is much exposed to open sunlight will perform more intellectual labor, and endure longer, than under any other influence. Fat, by the million, is taken at once as proof positive of health and physical power, and leanness as the ab- sence of these qualities; whereas the converse of this is the fact. Fat human beings in this respect are like fat animals—wanting in activity, elasticity, and wire or en- durance ; for it is well known that a lean horse, other things being equal, is greatly superior in speed and en- durance to a fat one; and the contrast between a field- swine and a sty- or pen-fed one is still greater. The difference in point of physical and mental activity, vivacity, endurance, and efficiency between a chuckle- headed, bull-necked, fat-bellied man and a straight lean one, is so obvious as not to need explanation; for it is muscle, and not fat, that imparts strength, and the former is always lean. Fat and Muscle. Amalgamation. The mixture of the Caucasian and African races is well known to be positively injurious to the progeny; for the mulatto, on an average, is neither as large, vig- orous, well-formed, healthy, enduring, nor long-lived as liis purely black or white parent. All prejudices of color aside, therefore, amalgamation is a great sin and evil, because it deteriorates the progeny. Count well the cost before you begin. 46 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Beauty without virtue is like gold in the mine — useless. Season and Appetite. In summer, the digestion is usually feeble, the appe- tite not very keen, and care is needed as to the quantity and quality of the food. In autumn, the appetite and digestion are average; in winter, active and vigorous; and in spring, rather indifferent; and these variations are mainly produced by difference in the temperature of the seasons, causing a variation in the demands of the system for food. Ice-Water. The use of ice-water, ice-cream, and all other very cold substances, produce a sudden inflammation of the stomach, and are therefore not only highly injurious, but positively dangerous ; and if taken at all, should be received very slowly, that the temperature may be some- what raised before they enter the stomach. When well boiled or roasted, this vegetable is both easy of digestion and very nutritive, and seems to exert a salutary influence in cases of common colds and chronic constipation of the bowels ; but when sliced, and fried in grease, or eaten raw with vinegar, it is almost wholly indigestible, and totally unfit for food. The Onion. American Women. The notorious bad health and early decay of American women is mainly due to errors in food, dress, and ex- ercise; but as they prefer thin slippers, corset-lacing, naked arms and necks, with tea, coffee, pastry, late hours, and a house-poisoned atmosphere, to health and longev- ity, there is no longer any hope for them. Empty heads of wheat, like those of men, stand erect. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 47 Anger and haste make wrecks of thousands. Cutting the Hair. In a state of nature, where the hair hangs loosely and has free access to the air, and the scalp is kept in a healthy condition, so as to support a long growth of hair, cutting is unnecessary; but in civic life, where the scalp is carefully excluded from the fresh air by tight- fitting hats, caps, and bonnets, and tied up against the roots, the scalp soon becomes diseased and debilitated, and no longer able to support so long a growth of hair; and then a frequent slight cutting, say once a month, will prevent it from falling out, and prolong the period of blanching. It causes the gums to cleave from the teeth and the latter to prematurely loosen and fall out. It relieves toothache by paralyzing or killing the nerve of the tooth so it can no longer ache. It always impairs the voice, and not unfrequently completely destroys it. It blunts and impairs the sense of taste, and greatly dimin- ishes our gustatory pleasure. It always impairs diges- tion, and ultimately induces dyspepsia. It excites in the system a morbid thirst, which leads directly to the use of alcoholic liquors, and drunkenness. It engenders, perpetuates, and renders incurable many of the very worst forms of disease. It enfeebles the brain and stultifies the intellect. It enslaves the human mind and lowers man in the scale of organic beings. It ex- cites an immoral tendency upon the community, and a most blighting and withering influence upon the youth of our land. Its use is most loathsome and repulsive to all undepraved senses; and last, but not least, it is a dead and total pecuniary loss, to the people of this country, annually, of not less than $150,000,000. Blessings of Tobacco. Applause and preference are things of barter. 48 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Ask the purse what you shall buy. The Foolery of Fashion. “So long as American women continue to deform them- selves, and sacrifice their health to false ideas of beauty, it is useless to urge upon them any higher life than they now enjoy. The true model of female beauty is familiar to every sculptor and painter; yet no fashiona- ble American woman is content until she departs as far from this standard as she possibly can. Beauty implies health, and ugliness of form is attained at the expense of beauty, health, and comfort. The custom of fasten- ing growing girls in tight corsets, of flattening their breasts with pads, of distorting their feet with small high-heeled shoes, and of teaching them to stoop and mince in gait, is well calculated to disgust every one of good sense and taste, and, what is still worse, to render these girls, when they become women, much more liable to every species of suffering connected with child-bear- ing.” — Geo. H. Napheys, A.3L, 3LD. Carbon. It is estimated that a healthy adult consumes daily, in his food, nearly 14 ounces of carbon (charcoal), which, combined with 37 ounces of oxygen, produces a volume of carbonic acid gas equal to that of the oxygen inhaled. Alcohol and Tobacco. Dr. Beaumont, of the American army, in his experi- ments upon the stomach of St. Martin, found that the use of both wine and all alcoholic drinks invariably in- terfered with the complete digestion of the food, and produced a high state of inflammation of the stomach, and other morbid changes in the mucous membrane of that organ. The reports of the Vermont, Maine, New An open door will tempt a saint. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 49 As is the bell, so is the clapper. Plampshire, and New York state prisons, where no liquor or tobacco is allowed, show that of several thou- sand convicts confined in those prisons, who were in the habitual use of liquor and tobacco, none of them suffered materially from a total and immediate abstinence from the use of these poisons, but that all of them improved; and the greater portion of them who were thin in flesh, with impaired digestion, soon became plump, full in flesh, and sound in health. Effects of Gluttony. “ There never wTas a man who had a sunstroke, who was not a glutton. There never was a man who had a stroke of apoplexy, who was not a debauchee in his dietetic habits. There never was a case of gout not directly or indirectly caused by gluttony, inebriation, or both. Sore eyes, deafness, neuralgia of the face, decayed teeth, catarrh of the nostrils and back passages of the nose, nine times in ten, are caused by inflammation of the stomach, induced by gluttony.” — J. C. Jackson, A.If., M.D. Water versus Alcohol. On this point, Dr. Bell, of Philadelphia, says, “The recorded experience of men in all situations and climates, and under all sorts of labor and exposure, has abun- dantly proved that the entire abstinence from all sorts of alcoholic liquors gives increased ability to endure the labors and fatigues of the farm or workshop, enables them to resist heat and cold, and to encounter and over- come hardships by sea and land, far beyond what has ever been known under the influence of any form of alcoholic liquors, followed as they always are, to a As you salute, so will you be saluted. 50 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. greater or less extent, by depression and debility, if not actual disease.” American Gormandizing. “ As a people, we eat far too much hearty food ; we take in more concentrated nutriment than we require; and the consequences are, the system becomes overloaded and oppressed; the organs are clogged and impeded in the performance of their functions; the blood and fluids become too thick and stimulating, and the tendency to derangement and disease is very greatly increased.” — Dr. Avery. Iron. All sorts of vague ideas prevail among the masses as to iron in the human body; and it may not be amiss to state that this metal is found in the system only in the red globules of the blood. Doctors and the Potato. Dr. Humphrey says, “ I am fully convinced that the people of Ireland, who subsist almost wholly upon potatoes, are even more healthy than the people of the United States.” Dr. Buchan says, “ The stoutest and finest men that I have ever seen were brought up, and lived almost wholly upon, milk and potatoes.” Dr. Hooper says, “ The potato is a very nutritious and exceedingly wholesome article of food.” Dr. Pearson says, “ Potatoes and water alone, with a little salt, are ample to sustain protracted life.” Dr. Paris says, “ The mealy potato readily yields to the action of the stomach, and affords a very healthy and nutritious food.” And Dr. Andrew, of Bemsin, Oneida County, N. Y., lived one entire year upon potatoes, salt, and water, laboring Avoid a slanderer as you would a scorpion. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 51 Bacchus has drowned more than Neptune. intensely in the field during haying and harvesting, and his health was not in the least impaired at the end of the year. Hard Water. We either wholly ruin or greatly injure most of our food by using a solution of lime, called water, instead of water itself. It matters not what the article is to be cooked, it will always be more or less deteriorated in its qualities by the continued action of hard water and heat, excepting, perhaps, a few articles which are cooked whole, as potatoes, green corn, onions, beets, etc. Precocity. Physical precocity produces the bully, pugilist, and rowdy ; physical and mental combined, a Napoleon and Alexander; and moral precocity, the religious fanatic, as Paschal. Precocity in any form is always a mis- fortune to the subject, and may be checked in time by absence of the stimuli which produce it. Labor in Youth. While reasonably active light exercise in youth is decidedly beneficial, heavy labor, which taxes the muscles and vital powers much, is highly injurious at this particular season of life, especially at or about puberty, and seldom fails to check the development of the body, stint the growth, and permanently reduce the bulk and stature of the individual. Nubility of the Female. It does not follow as a matter of course that, because a youth has arrived at puberty, therefore she is fit to marry; for in most such cases Nature has valid objec- Bad books are fountains of vice. 52 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Avoid that which you hate in others. tions at this early age. In the first place, no individual is really marriageable until the physical system is mature and complete, and this is seldom found in the female younger than twenty to twenty-four years; hence this, so far as age is concerned, is the earliest safe period for marriage. Secondly, until the system becomes mature and consolidated, the individual is not capable of imparting full life-powers to the offspring; and hence the children of young and immature parents are almost always feeble, sickly, and short-lived. Thirdly, at the early age of puberty few have the necessary self-knowledge, or knowledge of human nature, to enable them to make a safe choice of a life- companion ; and, as to the female, if she place any value upon her health, beauty, life, or happiness, and desires sound, healthy children, she should refrain from early nuptials, for most who marry young in these days find early graves. Fourthly, the dangers of first labors to wives under twenty are much more than to those between twenty and twenty-five, and to those thirty or over twice what it is from twenty to twenty-five. Malt and Alcoholic Liquors. “ The general opinion in this country is that malt liquors have a more injurious effect upon the human organism than ardent spirits, and in the correctness of this opinion we are inclined to concur. They certainly stupefy and stultify the brain, render the blood thick and viscid, load the cellular tissue with morbid fat, render wounds very difficult to heal, and accidents, which in water drinkers would require very little attention, in the beer drinker are much more likely to prove fatal. Cherish your friend, and admonish your enemy. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 53 A rough sea makes a skilful mariner. Nux vomica and cocculus indicus, two very poisonous drugs, are imported into this country in large quantities, and chiefly purchased by brewers for the manufacture of beer; while in England their use for this purpose, as well as all other poisonous substances, is strictly pro- hibited by law, under the most severe penalties.” — C. A. Lee, AJL, ALB. Hardening Ourselves. If this cant phrase means anything, it means a per- manent increase of our ability to endure labor or fatigue and exposure; and this can only be secured by a perma- nent increase in the vital powers or stamina of the in- dividual ; and wTe can attain this only by a strict obedi- ence to all the laws of life; for sound and vigorous bodily health depends not upon our obedience to any one law, but to all of them; always avoiding all extremes or excesses and deficiencies in all things; hence “harden- ing ourselves,” or “ toughening the constitution,” in the ordinary use of the terms, is both absurd and ridiculous. The present custom of placing so many different dishes of food upon the table at one meal is a most fruitful source of over-eating, dyspepsia, and disease ; for usually we eat of each dish as much as the system demands, and thus tax the stomach with as much food at one meal as it should have at several. One leading dish at a meal is the only security against gluttony and disease. One Dish at a Meal. Patching Up. What a pity, what a misfortune to the civilized world, that the lives of so many learned physicians should be Bear your misfortunes with fortitude. 54 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Be always at leisure to do good. spent in merely patching up broken constitutions, when a general diffusion of the laws of life and health would save the necessity of it, and a world of pain and suffer- ing besides! Alcohol and the Absorbents. This poison, in every form and degree, violates the absorbent system, passes into the circulation unchanged, and has been found pure in the brain ; and whether used in pie, cake, confectionery, or in wine, cider, beer, or any other fashionable way, it is still the same deadly poison. Waste of Life. We drudge and toil too much, and think and study too little; the muscles of most of us are over-taxed, while the brain is neglected, and grows dull. Our im- aginary wants cost us twice what our real ones do, and we make slaves of ourselves, and forego the genuine pleasure of our existence, to toil and supply the former. If we were content with the supply of our real wants, eight hours’ labor daily would be ample for all, and leave an accumulating store for age and infirmity, and give us the remaining sixteen hours for recreation and repose. Moderation. In the use of improper and injurious articles of food and drinks, many attempt to console themselves, and paliate the wrong they are doing, by saying that they use them only in “ moderation,” and cannot therefore be injured by them; but such should remember that any agent which is injurious to man in any degree, is injurious to him just in proportion to its use; and as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcoholic and malt liquors, and opiates, Censure is the tax of great men. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 55 Beggars should not be choosers. are all active narcotic poisons, contain no perceptible nutriment, expend their action upon the nervous system, prematurely exhausting and wearing out that important vital apparatus, they cannot be used, in any form or degree,, without inflicting injury upon the organism, sooner or later, just in proportion to their use, be that much or little. Cost of Tobacco. According to statistical investigations made in the year 1836, by the Rev. Mr. Fowler, of Fall River, Mass., the cost of cigars alone, in the city of New York, amounted to $200,000 per annum; and add to this at least as much more for the pipe and quid, and we have the round sum of $400,000 as the annual tobacco bill of a single city. But at that time New York contained but 250,000 inhabitants, whereas now, 1871, it has at least 1,000,000, which would swell the bill to $1,600,000, without taking into the account the increase of the use of tobacco beyond the increase of the population, which is said to be thirty per cent, during the past twenty years; and add to this at least as much more for the time wasted in its consumption, and we have the truly frightful sum of $6,400,000 as the present,annual to- bacco tax of the great commercial emporium of America. But this is only a local item, and merely a fraction of the great national tobacco tax. We now have a popu- lation of at least 40,000,000 of inhabitants, of which about one-fourth, or 10,000,000, are adult males; and omitting all the tobacco used by children, youth, and females, let us take the 10,000,000 of adult males as the number upon which to base a calculation as to the an- A new broom sweeps clean. 56 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Look before you leap. nual cost of tobacco in this country. Now, if each one of these 10,000,000 of adult males spends only two cents daily, (and thousands are daily spending fifty cents,) it will amount to $200,000 per day, to $6,000,000 per month, and $72,000,000 per annum ; and doubling this sum for the time wasted in its use, we have the as- tounding sum of $144,000,000 as the annual tobacco tax of this great and boasted republican land of light, lib- erty, and Christianity, which, in all rational probability, is not more than half the real sum annually ten times worse than thrown away on this most nauseous and per- nicious poison. Yeast Bread. “We spoil our bread by putting yeast in it, for yeast is a decaying or putrefying substance, and partakes of the nature of the toad-stool on the dunghill. Micro- scopic investigations show, beyond all doubt, that bread, when in the process of ‘rising,’ is undergoing fermen- tation or rotting; that is, a chemical change in which infinitesimal fungi start up, whose presence in the bread really cause the lightness so much admired by some. Now these fungi are not killed by the process of baking, and are often so extremely minute as to pass into the blood, and cause the most intense suffering; and are the main cause why ‘ raised bread ’ cannot be eaten by those whose ‘nerves are deranged,’ ‘whose blood is out of order,’ ‘whose food sets badly,’ who are ‘dyspeptic,’ and who ‘can’t find anything which they can relish.’” —J. C. Jackson, A.M., 31.D. Quality of Vegetables. It costs no more soil or labor to grow a first-class ar- ticle of vegetables than one of inferior quality; and Be always vigilant, but never suspicious. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 57 A baker’s head should not be of butter. viewed only in the light of pecuniary interest, the former will always command at least one-third more in the market than the latter, saying nothing of the extra gustatory pleasure to be derived from a superior article over an inferior one. Farmers should not lose sight of the fact that seventy pounds of “ Mercers,” “ Pink-eyes,” or “Neshanics,” as a single article, are worth more for human food than a hundred pounds of coarse-grained, watery, lumpy, strong, “ cow-horns,” or marinoes; and so of all other vegetables. Fasting. The instinct of the brute leads him to fast whenever he is sick. The philanthropist Howard fasted one day in each week, and Franklin had a similar custom; and whenever Napoleon felt his system unstrung, instead of swallowing drugs, he suspended his wonted repast, and took to exercise on horseback. And in this fast age of gluttony, intemperance, and constitutional abuse, fasting, with quiet and fresh air, would, in the incipient stages of disease, cure nearly every curable case. A Compound. As man is a compound of brain and muscle, neither of which can be perfect without the due exercise of the other, he should never consider the duties of a day com- plete unless he has employed the latter in labor and the former in study or some intellectual pursuit. The Cravat. The Romans left the neck wholly uncovered, knew nothing of the cravat, and in very inclement weather only threw the toga around the neck with the left hand. Betray no truth, divulge no secret. 58 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Promise slowly, fulfil promptly. As to the grace and beauty of the cravat, all the great masters in painting and sculpture aimed to free the neck from it in all their busts and portraits. That the use of the cravat, or anything else applied around the neck, is positively injurious, by impeding the circulation to and from the head, is self-evident; and that it in- duces heat and inflammation about the neck and throat, and produces disease, is shown by the fact that males, who poultice their necks with cravats, stocks, etc., are greatly afflicted with bronchitis; while females, who leave this part of the body naked and exposed to the air, very rarely have any disease of the throat. Dis- carding all protection around the neck, and allowing the hair to grow upon it, will prevent and cure more bron- chitis than all the drugs of the shops. Debility. Thousands live in constant fear of debility and its many consequences, and on the slightest unfavorable change in their feelings at once resort to drugs, each one having a favorite nostrum of his own; and if no real debility does exist in the case, he is almost certain so to derange the bodily functions by his blind and random drugging as to produce it. Debility is always the effect of some error in the habits of the individual, usually in diet, air, or exercise; and a permanent cure cannot be effected by drug-medication, but by removing the cause or causes which produced it. Longevity of Quakers. The obituary records of the Society of Friends, for the year 1834, show that out of two hundred deaths recorded, the average age of over two-thirds of them was eighty-five Comply rather than quarrel. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 59 Better do well late than never. years; and this very extraordinary longevity, for this age, is doubtless due to their cleanliness, simplicity of habits, and freedom from the cares and excitements in- cidental to the follies and fooleries of fashionable life, and to their exemption from the corroding fears of want and penury, from which their general temperance, in- dustry, and frugality render them secure. If a small quantity of poison prove highly pernicious in a state of health, as all well know and admit, how can large quantities of it, given as a medicine, prove salu- tary when the system is prostrated with disease, and less able to resist its action ? A Query. Labor and Age. The aged, and even those who are somewhat infirm, if brought up and accustomed to labor, will endure it ordinarily better, and with less fatigue and exhaustion, than the young and vigorous, who are unaccustomed to it. Need of Temperance. It is stated on good authority that the criminals of the United States, almost wholly produced by alcoholic and malt liquors, annually cost $40,000,000; the liquor that they consume, $700,000,000, and the lawyers to litigate their cases, $80,000,000; making an aggregate outlay for drunkards, or liquor, of $800,000,000. Food in Age. Those who are advanced in life and have long since reached their physical maximum, and only need food to compensate for the waste of the body and not for the growth and development of the system, consume less, relatively, than in youth. Better alone than in bad company. 60 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Cunning and treachery show want of capacity. Age and Temperature. The calorific powers of all young are at their lowest at birth, increase to adult age, and decline in old age; hence the young and those far advanced in life require especial attention to their clothing during the cold and variable seasons of the year. Tea and Prussic Acid. “ We have recently been informed,” says Dr. Con die, of Philadelphia, “that prussic acid — the most deadly of all poisons — has been detected by chemists in green tea; and so active and virulent is this poison, that a single drop of it, in its concentrated form, applied to the tongue of a dog, produces almost instant death.” “ Love,” said Madame de Stael, “is one thing to a man, and another to a woman. To the former, it is merely an episode; to the latter, the whole history of her life. With man a thousand distractions —as fame, riches, power, pleasure, etc. — struggle to displace the sentiment of love from his bosom; but woman knows no such influence — one passion only sits enthroned in her bosom ; one ideal only occupies her heart, and this ideal — love — knows no rival, no successor.” Love. Nature and Economy. The rapid increase of the population of our globe, during the past three thousand years, is conclu- sive proof that it is soon to be crowded with a dense population; and since a given amount of land will sustain fifteen times as many human beings when the product is directly consumed by man, as when it is con- Birds of a feather flock together. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 61 Conveniences have inconveniences; comforts, discomforts. verted into flesh, and then eaten, it surely could not have been the economy of Nature to submit to this loss of fifteen hundred per cent., unless one flesh-eater can enjoy as much as fifteen vegetarians, which no one will pretend. Sex. A man is a man for a much longer period than a woman is a woman: with him it is an affair of most of his life, with her only a score or so of years. A. com- plete development of those parts which respectively constitute the sexes is a matter of much importance, whether viewed in a social or connubial point of view; and any defect here, either in completeness or perfection, may prove serious to the social and connubial happiness of the parties for life. That love anticipates marriage, and marriage, offspring, can be denied only by mock modesty; and where parties are disappointed in the anticipations of offspring, asocial jar, with criminations and recriminations will ordinarily be the result. But, aside from offspring, the moral and social effects of any sexual defect is most obvious and marked indeed. Those unfortunate males in oriental countries, who are selected to preside over the harems of Eastern princes, are subjected to an artificial mutilation which incapacitates them from becoming parents, and they soon lose all traces of love and pas- sion, and no more recognized a female, sexually, than a male. And in cases of disease, where females have been deprived of the ovaries by a surgical operation, the effect upon them is the same as upon the male. And these facts therefore show conclusively that whatever may be said of intellectual or “ Platonic love,” physical love is based upon the capacity of producing offspring, Reckless of health and character, reckless of all. 62 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Brevity is the soul of wit. and was doubtless placed there by Nature for that pur- pose, to ensure the perpetuity of the race. Tea versus Flesh. Dr. Charles A. Lee, A.M., M.D., of New York, speaking of tea says, “ Tea undoubtedly possesses very active medicinal properties; for a very strong decoction of it speedily destroys life in the lower animals, even when given in very small quantities. This has been repeatedly proved in this city by actual experiment, and may therefore be taken as a settled fact. The strongly marked effects of tea upon persons of highly nervous temperament, in causing wakefulness, tremors, palpitation, vertigo, sick-headache, sinking sensations at the pit of the stomach, and other distressing symptoms, show it to be an agent of very great power; and it should at least be used only by persons of very vigorous constitutions. Tea is also adverse to a rapid or active nutrition, (flesh and fat making,) and on this account should never be used by persons of lean or meagre habit” Danger of Drugs. “ Next to hanging a man, or sending him to the State prison, you cannot put him to so bad a use as, when he is sick, to drug-medicate him. I should just as soon think of shoeing a human foot with iron plates, by driving nails through shoe and foot, to fasten them together, to enable him the better to walk, as to give to a sick man the drug-medicaments administered by the doctors of any of the drug schools. It is idle, worse than idle, because it is not only wholly useless and unnecessary, but actively and incredibly perilous to the patient in a Business is the salt of life. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 63 Virtue is more commended than practised. vast majority of cases, to give him poisonous drugs, by greatly lessening his chances of recovery. Is it not wonderfully strange that a people so intelligent, and so shrewd in the use of their intelligence as ours are, when sick, should know no better way to recover than to take poisonous drugs, which would produce death upon a well person ?” — J. C. Jackson, A.M., M.D. Dr. Bush versus Alcohol. “ There cannot be a greater error than to suppose that the use of alcoholic liquors lessens the effects of cold upon the human body. On the contrary, they always render the system more liable to be affected and injured by the cold; for the stimulation and warmth which they pro- duce are always rapidly succeeded by lassitude, debility, and chilliness.” It is a familiar fact in natural science, that dark sur- faces, as common sheet-iron stove-pipes, radiate heat very rapidly, while light-colored and bright surfaces are slow radiators; and the same seems to hold true in the human complexion. The dark skin of the negro, in the low latitudes or tropical regions, radiates the heat of his body so readily that he feels little oppressed by the high temperature, while in a cold climate, he parts with his caloric so readily as to suffer with the cold under quite a mild temperature. The white man, on the con- trary, especially of the sanguine temperament, with a light and florid complexion, endures the boreal blasts of the highest latitudes with little inconvenience, but is greatly oppressed and overcome by a high temperature, whether in midsummer, in the north, or in a low lati- Complexion and Climate. Civility and suavity attract all men. 64 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Change of fortune is the lot of men. tude; and this also accounts for the fact that the skin of many animals inhabiting tropical countries, as the dog, hog, elephant, etc., are like the negro — dark or black, and without hair — Nature adapting them to the particular location in which she has placed them. To be of much use, exercise must be productive of active muscular motion, and extend to every part of the body susceptible of it. The chest must be expanded; the muscles extended and contracted, and actual strength expanded; and such exercise sends the blood and nervous energy to the remotest parts of the body, im- parting to every tissue renewed life and energy. Exercise. Adaptation of Meals. As the principal labors of the day follow breakfast and dinner, these meals should be the fullest and most nourishing; and, as we rarely labor much after the third meal, that should be very light and simple, or, what is much better, wholly omitted. Temperance and Longevity. Bichard Lloyd, born two miles from Montgomery, England, at the age of 133 years, was a strong, straight, erect man, had all his teeth, no gray hairs, could hear well, see without glasses, was plump, full-cheeked, and conversed freely; and his only food was bread, butter, cheese, and vegetables, and his drink whey and water. In 1795, before vaccination was introduced into the British isles, in a population of 15,000,000, the annual mortality from small-pox was 36,000, or nearly eleven Introduction of Vaccination. Care not for that which you need not. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 65 Business both makes and tries a man. per cent.; while in 1798, after the introduction of it by Jenner, its discoverer, it was reduced to two per cent. Drugging. A great fondness for drugging, on every slight occa- sion, betrays great ignorance of the laws of life, and little confidence in the recuperative powers of Nature; for it is a matter of common knowledge that the most eminent physicians very rarely apply their drugs to themselves or families. Feather Beds. The most intelligent — both in and out of the profes- sion— now generally concur in the opinion that feather beds are not favorable to health, and should be aban- doned as behind the age in which we live. Their use produces around the body an undue, feverish heat, which robs the system of its vigor and elasticity. In youth especially, like every other species of luxury, they cause a premature development of the body without strength proportionate to the growth, and thus lay the foundation for many of those diseases by which thou- sands are consigned to an untimely grave. Cosmetics. The vulgar popular error of preserving or improving the complexion by the use of external applications of any sort is simply senseless, silly, and ridiculous, as every half-read medical well knows. The complexion or color of the skin, aside from filth and the effects of in- and out-door life, depends almost wholly upon the dietetic and hygienic habits of the individual; and he who lives in the habitual use of tea, coffee, tobacco, flesh- Doing nothing is doing evil. 66 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Converse to please others, not yourself. meat, pastry, and gross, greasy food, and takes little ac- tive exercise in the open air, may as well expect to live on faith without food, as to preserve a really healthy and fair complexion. Voluntary Murder. Let the lovers of tight and fashionable shoes, who are hobbling through the world with pains, grimaces, corns, inverted nails, and deformed toes, place the naked foot upon a sheet of white paper, and with a pencil trace its form upon it, and then compare the diagram with the sole of the shoe which they are wearing, and they will be enabled to see the slow but certain murder which they are willingly and constantly inflicting upon themselves. Prolific Births. The average of twins is about one in 75; triplets, or three at a birth, one in about 600; quadruplets, or four at a birth, one in 200,000. There are eleven cases on record of five children at a birth, and one case of eleven children at three births. The average weight of chil- dren at birth is six and a half pounds. One in fourteen is stillborn; and one-lialf of all that are born alive die before they are five years old. Water Drinkers. The original inhabitants of New Zealand were strictly water drinkers; and Captain Cook states that when he first visited that island, they all enjoyed perfect health, and that he was unable to discover even so much as a symptom of disease among them. The Cucumber. This is worse than a useless and worthless article of food—indigestible, crude, wholly destitute of nutriment— Profanity bespeaks a low mind. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 67 Chide mildly, punish deliberately. and, when used, one of the most active causes of serious stomachic derangement and disease of the bowels. Immature Food. Very young potatoes, peas, beans, currants, gooseber- ries, beets, onions, apples, with greens, salad, radishes, etc., etc., contain at that period of growth very little nutriment, are difficult of digestion, irritating to the stomach and bowels, and a source of great suffering, es- pecially to the young, who seldom masticate their food sufficiently, even when of the proper sort and well pre- pared. Nursing Children. The natural mother, all arguments to the contra not- withstanding, is, by every law of Nature, the only fit nurse of her child, provided the condition of her gen- eral health does not forbid; and she who can deliver over her tender infant to the care of a hireling nurse, whose only object is large pay and little work, is, to say the least, a cold, unfeeling, and unnatural mother. Menstruation. In the anatomy of the female, upon each side of the upper end of the womb, and connected with that organ by two tubes about four inches long, are two solid bodies, in size and form resembling a large almond, called ovaries or ' egg - sacks. These bodies contain a great number of very minute vesicles or eggs, which are de- veloped with age, and at puberty the first one is mature, separates from the mass, leaves the ovary, passes through the tube, and is deposited in the womb; and subse- quently one ovum or egg is matured and deposited in the same way, once in twenty-eight to thirty days, dur- Goodness and cheerfulness are twin sisters. 68 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. An industrious man finds no time to sin. ing about thirty years of woman’s life. This ovum remains in the womb a certain time — varying in dif- ferent females from five to fifteen days — and if not impregnated by contact with the other sex, is then ex- pelled and lost. This monthly process of depositing the ovum in the womb, or “ egg-laying” — for that is what it really is — is often attended with considerable disturb- ance of the whole system, shown by languor, lassitude, wandering pains, etc.; and the blood rushes to the part with increased force, a portion of which escapes from the vessels, causing that discharge which is termed “ menstruation.” Thus it will be seen that viviparous animals, or those brought forth alive by the female, are really produced from an ovum or egg no less than the oviparous; the difference being that in the former case the egg has no shell, and is developed in the body; and in the latter it has a shell, and is developed out of the body. Extermination. Simplicity and abstemiousness in our dietetic habits will exterminate a growing disease, but to exterminate both the disease and the doctor, we must first extermi- nate the purveyor and cook. — Dr. Abernethy, London. Temperature of the Body. There are two means by which the temperature of the body is preserved, viz.: first, by active exercise, which increases the temperature, or actually produces caloric in the system; and, secondly, the proper use of clothing which does not generate caloric, but simply prevents the radiation or escape of what is generated; and the proper use or balance of the two agents is a matter of Feed the body sparingly, the mind sumptuously. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 69 The impetuous sin hastily and repent leisurely. great importance in the preservation and restoration of health. An excess or deficiency of either or both will debilitate and derange the system, and defeat the object in view, while a proper adjustment of them will never fail to maintain the natural temperature of the body, and thus prove highly promotive of health. Gelatin, albumen, and fibrin, whether animal or vege- table, taken separately, nourish animals only for a short time, and in a very incomplete manner. Muscular flesh suffices for complete and prolonged nutrition. Fat alone sustains life but a short time, and in a very imperfect way. Gluten, from wheat or maize, alone satisfies com- plete and prolonged nutrition. Milk alone contains all the elements necessary for the development of the young mammalia, and most that is needed in the mature state. The time required for the digestion of an ordi- nary meal varies from two to four hours, depending upon the sort of food and the vigor of the digestion. Hunger, in a healthy stomach, is not experienced until sometime after the contents of that organ have been disposed of; and if fresh food be taken before the pre- vious meal has been digested, the function of digestion will be seriously disturbed. Carnivorous animals, as the cat, dog, lion, tiger, hyena, etc., thrive better on a given quantity of food taken once a day than when given more frequently. Food Items. Effects of Tobacco. In relation to the different ways in which tobacco is employed, there is not, all things considered, much choice, so far as its effects upon the system and health The captious make trouble for themselves by troubling others. 70 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Custom and habit often surpass nature. are concerned. Chewing affects the nutritive appa- ratus, stomach, bowels, etc., most producing a thin, hag- gard, wrinkled, sallow, and cadaverous condition of the body; while smoking and snuffing have a more direct effect upon the brain, cranial cavities, and sense of smell. On the whole, the use of this poison in any and every form and degree is anti-vital, disease engendering, de- moralizing, wasteful, and an immense national evil; and thousands, yes, millions, are daily suffering untold mis- eries and wretchedness solely from its use, and live and die in its stench and filth, and never for once suspect that tobacco is the main cause of all their sleepless nights and miserable days. Bodily Exercise. A fixed aversion to muscular effort or exercise is in- dicative of physical debility, corruption, and a rapid approach to dissolution; and an eminent man has said, “ I hardly know which is most important to the human frame, food or bodily exercise.” And as complete bodily and mental health cannot be long secured with- out it, he who habitually neglects it is at best but half the human being he might be with it. Rapidity of the Pulse. Few facts in relation to the animal economy are better established than that there exists a very intimate relation between the rapidity of the pulse and the longevity of the individual. The doctrine seems to be that the viability, or life-powers, of the individual enable the heart to expand and contract a definite number of times, peculiar to the subject; and when this number is reached, death ensues. Clemency is a brilliant jewel. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 71 Industry and frugality secure a competence. A Greedy Appetite. “ An avaricious, greedy appetite habitually is a very strong indication of disease; for great eaters seldom or never live long, being usually more or less dyspeptic, and less benefited by it than small eaters, who have good digestion, and receive full benefit from their food.” — Prof. Hitchcock. Stature. The following is said to be the heights of the male members of the Prussian royal family, and Bismarck, in English measure. King William, six feet and one inch; the crown prince, six feet one inch and a half; Prince Carl, five feet and eleven inches; Prince Fred. Carl, five feet nine inches and a half; Prince Albrecht, six feet one inch and a half; Prince Albrecht, Jun., six feet seven inches; and Count Bismarck, six feet one inch and a half. And the file-leader of the first regi- ment of foot-guards, at Potsdam, measures six feet seven inches and three-fourths. Insanity and Suicide. Dr. Hufeland, in his “ Art of Prolonging Human Life,” lays it clown that happy marriage is almost indis- pensable to a long life; and statistical facts seem to cor- roborate the opinion, for of those who commit suicide, especially females, over three - fourths are unmarried; and of that unfortunate class who are dead but still alive — the insane — there are everywhere throughout the civilized world, so far as known, from three to four single persons, in insane institutions, to one married, in proportion to the whole number of the two classes over twenty-one years of age. Economy is a virtue even in a king. 72 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Common sense is often the most uncommon sense. Curious Facts. Close observers of nature state that the children of a woman by her second husband generally resemble her first husband more or less; and a negress, who has borne her first child to a white man, will always after have children of a lighter color than her own; and if a native woman of Australia once has offspring by a white man, she can never more have children by a male of her own race. This is a compound of water, alcohol, sugar, coloring matter, tannin, tartar, and aromatic oils, upon the pre- sence of which the flavor chiefly depends; and the quality or sort of the wine also depends upon the ab- sence or presence, and the proportion, of these ingre- dients in the article. Wine. Narcotics. All narcotics, whether tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, or alcohol, afford the supposed ease, comfort, and freedom from pain and suffering, so far as these effects are pro- duced at all, by temporarily stultifying or paralyzing the nervous system, so that for a time the body is incapable of reporting the tortures inflicted upon it by abuse; or, in other words, narcotics partially and temporarily kill us, and, while thus stupefied or half dead, we are free from pain and suffering. How much better is a coquette than a rake or a liber- tine? They both waste their natures in useless dalli- ance with passion — the one in false pretensions to love, and the other in criminal sensuality. They both suffer physically, mentally, and morally, and by every addi- Coquetry. Common fame is often a common liar. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 73 A clear conscience gives a tranquil mind. tional indulgence in their cause of treachery and dis- honesty, render themselves more and more disqualified for a future happy marriage. What is the coquette of thirty? If married, a discontented, nervous, trifling, unstable, and unhappy creature; and, if single, a cross, morose, faded, and neglected spinster. Strong Beer. “ Fermented liquors are poisons ; and strong beer is a very unwholesome compound, more fit to be poured into the gutter than into the human stomach. It contains about six per cent, of pure alcohol; and one pint of it contains about a wineglassful of this poison.” — Dr. Alcott, Boston. Nature’s Remedy. Dr. George Cheyne, a very distinguished physician, who lived in the early part of the seventeenth century, by gross and improper living came to weigh 480 pounds; and seeing death staring him fully in the face, at once changed his whole dietetic habits to milk, water, and vegetables, and soon regained his usual weight of 140 pounds, and lived to be seventy years of age. Temperature and Food. The temperature of the human body is about ninety- eight degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer; and the temperature of our food and drinks should never vary more than ten or fifteen degrees from that of the body; and as to the temperature of our apartments, from sixty- five to seventy is most conducive to health. Longevity. Ephraim Pratt, of Shaftsbury, Vermont, lived to the age of 117 years; his diet being almost exclusively Concession to right and confession of wrong are commendable. 74 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Concealing our faults adds to their number. bread, corn meal pudding, milk, and fruit. During the last sixty years of his life, he drank only water, and during the last forty years ate no animal food; and his son, Michael Pratt, lived to the age of 103 years by the same dietetic means. Soap. A popular notion prevails to some extent that soap is injurious to the skin, excepting, perhaps, the visible parts of the body; but this is wholly a mistake; for the surface of the skin, (scarf skin,) which is constantly be- ing formed all over the body, is of an albuminous nature, and very slowly removed by water alone, whether hard or soft, warm or cold; but by the action of the alkali of the soap is readily dissolved and removed, and the sur- face left soft and smooth. All therefore who desire a clear complexion, and to preserve the skin in a soft and healthy condition, should make a free use of pure white soap without any f avoring. Fine Flour. I know of no greater departure from nature, and the true method of preparing bread, than the present very general custom of using fine wheaten flour. If there is any one article of food served up in a great variety of ways, calculated to do more harm than another — hardly excepting flesh meats — it is the multitudinous com- pounds of fine flour. I care not how careful people may be in their observance of the laws of hygiene; it is lit- erally impossible, in the very nature of things, for them to long enjoy good bodily health, if fine wheaten flour bread be a staple article of food. For nature cannot protect the organism of those who habitually use it, for Conciliatory manners adds to our friends. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 75 Study and reflection strengthen the intellect. any considerable time, against derangement and disease, unless the subject be very robust and engaged in active out-door exercise; and even then, they will fail and break down sooner than they would have done on brown wheaten bread. Life, Disease, and Death. Animal life, from first to last, is simply a struggle between the inherent powers of the organism and the chemical elements or laws which govern all matter; and the stronger the former, the longer they will be enabled to resist the action of the latter, although chemistry is ultimately sure of victory in the final dissolution of the organism. Every living thing possesses, to a greater or less extent, vital force, life-powers, viability, or capacity, to exist in its natural sphere; and this power not only varies in different species of animals, but also in the same animal at different periods of its existence; and, although we know not the essence or substance of life, yet we know the main conditions upon which it de- pends, and the circumstances which vary its cessation or continuance. Food is introduced into the body through the stomach and lacteals, and oxygen, in atmos- pheric air, through the lungs; and these uniting in the blood develop animal heat, and build up or renew the tissues of the body; and as fast as this compound has served its purpose in the system, metamorphosis, or a change in the tissues, takes place, and the refuse matter, no longer of use to the organism, is removed from it by the natural outlets, the skin, lungs, bowels, and kidneys. In this way, from birth until death, there is one inces- sant supply and waste going on in the animal economy, Concession to vice is moral cowardice. 76 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Conscience is the chamber of justice. and a perfect balance of the two processes, so far as quantity of food is concerned, constitutes natural health, and any deviation from this balance is a cause of disease. If the food and oxygen be introduced into the system in due quantities, to unite evenly and leave no surplus of either, the whole organism moves on harmoniously, and there is present no refuse to obstruct and impede the life-powers; whereas, if either is in excess or deficiency, the balance or equilibrium in the process of waste and decay will be lost, and this will sooner or later result in disease. If the oxygen be in excess, or, what is equiva- lent in effect, the food be deficient, the former, in the absence of the latter, will seize upon the tissues of the body as a substitute, and emaciation, debility, and ulti- mate death will be the result; and, on the contra, if the oxygen be deficient, or, what is the same in effect, the food be in excess (the usual condition in this country), the system becomes overcharged with carbon or char- coal, or a deposit of fat, and a full plethoric condition ensues, indicative of great functional derangement, and greatly endangering health and life. Oxygen, there- fore, which, when the system is properly supplied with food, is the great life-sustaining agent, in the absence of food becomes the direct and active destroyer of it; and, hence, the balance or equilibrium of waste and supply in the food and oxygen is really the balancing pivot between health and life on the one hand, and disease and death on the other. From this it will be seen that in case of death from starvation, the food being absent, the oxygen of respiration seizes upon the tissues of the body, which continue to be burned up by their union with the oxygen, until the body finally becomes so much Conscience is faithful in her warnings. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 77 Confide not in one who has deceived you. exhausted, that the life-powers are no longer able to contend against the chemical action of the oxygen, and death ensues; so that death from starvation is really a slow or gradual burning up alive. Annual Mortality. In England, the average mortality is one in sixty; in France, one in forty; in Holland and Sweden, one in forty-eight; in Russia, one in forty-six; and in the United States, one in seventy-five. The average lon- gevity in most countries is lowest with the poor, in- creases with opulence, and is greatest with middle classes, who are exempt from the pinching want of the poor and the baneful effects of the luxury of the rich. Dosing versus Nursing. If a law were passed and strictly enforced, utterly forbidding the administration of drugs to small children, it would prove an immense blessing, and annually save the lives of thousands now little better than murdered by useless and unnecessary and blind domestic drug- ging. Many mothers seem to substitute the drugs of the apothecary for judicious nursing and attention ; and this false dependence upon drugs for what they cannot do, and consequent neglect of the proper care of the child, paves the way to an early grave, and greatly ac- celerates the progress to it. Second Marriages. If the health and longevity of the sexes were, on an average, equal, and some little attention were given to the proper adaptation of the temperaments in marriage, instead of allowing fancy to rule in such matters, there Contentment is cheap at any price. 78 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Constant occupation prevents temptation. would — unavoidable accidents excepted — rarely be any occasion for second marriages; as, in that event, the parties would generally live to an age so nearly equal, that there would be no desire for a second marriage; but in this country, and especially at this age, the health and physical stamina of the male is so much superior to that of the female, that when the latter is subjected to the wear, tear, and cares of domestic life, it often re- quires the short and feeble existence of two or three of them to equal that of one male; hence the necessity of second marriages growing out of woman’s self-made ruined health. As to the morality of the matter, there can be no valid reason why the survivor, male or female, should not be as free to marry again as though he or she had never been married. And both necessity and expediency often seem to even demand a second mar- riage ; for a man left in the prime of life, with a large household, and no one to depend upon but hirelings, is as much entitled to a companion to care for him and his as his more fortunate neighbor who is still blessed with his first love; and the condition of the widow, especially if she have much or no property, is still more urgent. Butter. The best quality of newly-made butter, spread upon stale bread in reasonable quantities, may be eaten by those in good health without serious injury; but all in- valids, and especially all dyspeptics, are much better without than with it. Rancid, or “ boarding-house ” butter, is actually poisonous, arid wholly unfit for food, and should always be discarded, as its absence is far preferable to its use, even when furnished gratuitously; Glance but stare not at the imperfections of friends. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 79 Contradict with respect, he complaisant without servility. and as for melted butter, as well as lard, it is believed to be utterly indigestible. Food and Mind. Dr. Cullen says, “Vegetable food never distends the vessels, loads the system, or intercepts the activity or vivacity of the mind; while the heat, fulness, weight, and oppression produced by flesh meats are enemies to vigorous intellectual effort.” Thousands are annually sent to an untimely grave by the habitual use of “ physic,” or cathartic drugs, under the fatal delusion that they “ cleanse the blood.” Physic. Insanity and Tobacco. It is stated upon the very best of authority, that of those who become insane from the effects of liquor, eighty-seven per cent, also use tobacco. Weight of the Brain. Darcy McGee’s brain weighed 59 ounces; O’Connell’s, 54; Dupuytren’s, 58 ; and Cuvier’s, 59.5 — the average weight of a brain being forty-three ounces. “ Those who confine themselves exclusively to water as a drink, other things being equal, will, in physical strength, powers of endurance, and clearness of intellect, greatly surpass those who adopt the use of alcoholic or fermented liquors.” — Dr. Condie, Philadelphia. Water as a Drink. A milk diet, with good unbolted wheat flour bread, or corn-meal pudding, with fruits and vegetables, is un- doubtedly the best food for mankind in general; and that Milk. Virtue costs less than vice. 80 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. Drive your business, or it. will drive you. stomach which cannot receive such a diet, ordinarily, is a diseased one, whether or not the subject is aware of his condition. Divorce and Polygamy. That those who cannot live together in peace and harmony are better separated seems self-evident; and although contrary to the direct teachings of the New Testament, yet nearly every Christian country upon the earth has enacted laws divorcing from bed and board; and the extent to which these laws now prevail is ample proof of their justice and necessity when judi- ciously applied. But when carried to the extent that they now are in this country, they become dangerous and destructive to the best social, moral, and connubial wel- fare of the community, because they lead to hasty, reck- less, unprincipled, and ill-made matches, and encouraged stubborn disinclination on the part of the married to yield or conform to each other; all of which tends to degrade matrimony and reduce it to a mere formal farce or ordinary business transaction, which can be violated or shuffled off at the pleasure of the parties. And as for polygamy, although sanctioned by the Old Testament, it is a frightful monster, and not only a great moral scourge, but a great physical curse to any people. For the woman who has more than one husband at once will usually be sterile; and the man of more than one wife, if a father, will have a feeble, delicate, short-lived race, mostly males— both conditions looking directly to the extinction of the race as a physical retribution for so heinous a sin. Flesh as Food. It is rapidly becoming a matter of common knowledge throughout the land, that nearly all the animals now Contempt is the best return for scurrility. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 81 Courage should have eyes as well as arms. slaughtered, especially hogs, are more or less diseased, and consequently wholly unfit for human food ; for to subject any animal to a continued and long repeated violation of all the most important conditions upon which health depends, in order to “ fatten it,” needs no proof to show that the creature must become diseased, and just in pro- portion as this condition obtains, the flesh of the animal is unfit for food. The flesh of the deer, buffalo, bear, elk, etc., may not be the best food for man, but that it is greatly superior to that of domesticated animals needs no proof, for whoever heard of scrofula from the use of wild meat ? But the sty, stall, and pen-fed animals, especially if so treated as to take on a high degree of fat, are diseased throughout their entire organism,—the cellular tissue being loaded with waste matter, fat, which the animal has not been allowed to expel from the body, for want of active motion or exercise in the open air, and which is the only natural means of purifi- cation. This waste material, fat, once constituted a por- tion of the living organism of the animal, but having served its natural purpose in the system, and undergone important chemical changes, has become effete, useless, and poisonous in its effects, and every cell of the animal which contains it is highly objectionable as human food; and that such a condition of the animal (fat) is a mor- bid or diseased one, is conclusively shown from the fact that had the creature been naturally fed, and allowed his full freedom of exercise, no such condition would have existed. False Exercise. Many suppose that if they have been busily occupied, they have of course taken adequate exercise; but this is Conversation teaches more than meditation. 82 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Drunkenness places man below the brute. often a great mistake, for one may be most assiduously occupied from morning till evening in knitting, sewing, reading, playing the piano, etc., and yet take no exer- cise at all. By exercise is meant such a rapid succes- sion of natural motions of the limbs and body as will excite in the system a healthy action of all the parts, which cannot be done by any such or similar means as those mentioned. The Passions. The proper regulation and government of the pas- sions is most intimately connected with health, and a matter of much importance. The reasonable exercise of the animatory passions—joy, hope, love, etc. — gently excite the nervous system, equalize the circulation of the blood, and are highly conducive to health; while the exercise of the violent passions — anger, hatred, fear, jealousy, ambition, despair, etc.—exert a most pernicious effect upon health, and not unfrequently lay the founda- tion of some of the most formidable diseases. The Emperor Valentinian the First, Wenceslaus, Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, and some others, lost their lives by indulging in a fit of anger. Governing Children. If you consult the real interest of your children, you will, as far as consistent with circumstances, always grant them everything which is compatible with their real welfare, but nothing on account of their whims or demands. If you wish to make them miserable, and cause yourself much trouble and. perplexity, gratify every desire; for then the number of them will rapidly increase. At first they will demand your cane, then The credulous are the prey of the crafty. 83 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Defile not the mouth with impurities. your watch, then the flying bird, and then the twinkling star, and, unless you are a deity, you must sooner or later refuse, and that will make the child unhappy; and hence the sooner its whims and desires are checked and properly regulated, the better for both parents and child. Bread. The one great secret of making good bread — if the term good can be applied to fermented or raised bread — next to good yeast and flour, is to place it in the oven at precisely the right stage of the rising process. If al- lowed to stand a sufficient length of time, dough will pass through the following stages of fermentation, known as the saccharine (sweet), vinous (alcoholic), acetous (sour), and putrefactive (decomposing or rotting). If the dough be placed in the oven before the saccharine fer- mentation has taken place, the bread will be heavy, or, in effect, unleavened bread; if it be allowed to stand out of the oven until the vinous fermentation is reached, the bread will be wholly tasteless, and insipid as sand, as seen in most baker’s bread ; for then the saccharine mat- ter, by a chemical process, has been converted into alcohol, and the nutriment of the bread very greatly reduced. And if it be allowed to reach the acetous stage, it will possess still less nutriment, and be worse than either heavy or tasteless bread, and really unfit for food ; yet this is the condition of a vast majority of the home-made bread used in this country, owing to the ignorance, negligence, and stupidity of those who pre- pare it. All flour and meal should invariably be sifted immediately before it is made into dough. Reflect upon the past, improve upon the future. 84 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Diligence and success are inseparable companions. The Pulse. The pulse, which shows the rapidity and strength of the heart’s action, and is therefore to some extent indic- ative of the condition of the system, may be most con- veniently felt about one inch above the root of the thumb, and half an inch from the outside of the arm. The number of pulsations varies much at different periods of life, and also in the sexes. In the new-born infant, it is 130 per minute; during the first year, 115; during the second year, 100; during the third, 95; from the third to the fourteenth, 80; from the four- teenth to the twenty-first, 75; from the twenty-first to the sixtieth, 70; and in extreme old age a slight in- crease again to 75 per minute. The pulse of the female usually exceeds that of the male by ten to twelve beats per minute. Effects of Climate. Prof. Liebig says: “In a climate like ours (Ger- many), liver complaint in summer is due to an excess of carbon in the blood, and consumption in winter, to a deficiency of that element in the body.” According to this the remedy is obvious; in the summer we should live upon light food, as milk, fruits, vegetables, etc., which contain less carbon; and in winter upon rice, beans, eggs, butter, cheese, sugar, and, if in a cold cli- mate, a moderate use of flesh meats. Men and Horses. If one-half the attention and labor now bestowed upon horses, in rubbing, currying, and washing their hides, was applied to the human species, and a little attention given to the diet, one-half at least of all the sickness Union is strength, discord is weakness. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 85 Dissimulation in youth is perfidy in old age. and suffering which now afflict the world would disap- pear at once. Nubility of Males. It has been remarked that females should not marry younger than twenty to twenty-five years; and, although the male reaches puberty at about the same time as the female, yet, for obvious reasons, he should not marry younger than twenty-five to thirty. An old proverb says, “ Give a boy a wife and a child, and death will soon knock at his door; ” and even Aristotle, in his early day, 350 years before Christ, warned young men against the dangers of early marriage. Few males, comparatively, are physically perfect younger than thirty years; and fewer still are capable of producing healthy children much under twenty-five; and every parent should consult the welfare of his prospective off- spring rather than his own desire to marry. As the most vigorous part of man’s life is usually from thirty to forty-five, while he yet feels no weight of years, that is the most favorable period in life for the production of offspring; and children sired much later in life than this have usually less prospect for vigorous health and longevity. Although a man is a man longer than a woman is a woman, yet nature has by no means granted him unbridled liberty to the last; for late nuptials have shortened the days of thousands, and accounts are on record of several far advanced who have died on the very night of their marriage. Posture. An erect position of the chest, or trunk of the body, is indispensable to the health of the stomach, liver, and Deep streams run silently; shallow brooks, noisily. 86 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Despair ruins many, presumption many more. lungs, and especially the last; and that portion of the body should always be preserved straight, whether we sit, lie, or stand. The greater the age, skill, and ability of the physi- cian, the less drugs he uses. The longer he practises, the more he becomes convinced of the uncertainty of all remedial agents. The more he relies upon nature, the less confidence he has in drugs; and he who can cure disease without any drugs, and save the constitution, is most obviously a much more skilful man than he who would have applied them in the case, and ruined for life the foundations of health. Skill versus Drugs. Soft, pulpy, or semi-fluid food needs careful mastica- tion, as well as hard or solid food, to give time for the secretion of the saliva and its due admixture with the mass, without which there can be no healthy digestion. Mastication. Wheat. In the growing of wheat, there is danger of adulter- ation from the presence of chess, cockle, etc., while corn grows free from all adulteration. Cockle is an active astringent, and when ground with the wheat, and mixed with bread, as is often the case, it has a powerfully constipating effect upon the bowels, and also exerts a bad influence upon animals, if long fed to them in their food, even in very small quantities. Pastry. If you wish to eat pastries, rich cake, pies, puddings, and knicknacks in general, see that they are made of fine Discretion is superior to eloquence. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 87 Millions annually dig their graves with their own teeth. wheaten flour, for then they will assist in making your bowels costive, your stomach dyspeptic, your liver torpid, your head painful, your heart palpitate, your nerves neuralgic, your kidneys morbidly active, your skin rough and rasliy, your complexion sallow, your mind cloudy, your moral sensibilities blunt, and, what is worse than all, soon subject you to drug-medication. A neglect of exercise with advancing years is among the most active causes of rapid decline, and is sure to derange the bodily health, induce debility, and more or less shorten life; and especially is this true of those who were raised to active habits of industry in youth, and continued it on to middle age or past. Nearly all of every age and country, who have seen the longest lives and enjoyed the most vigorous health, have been noted for the regularity and continuance of their exercise in the open air, and the extreme simplicity of their food and drinks. Exercise and Old Age. Sheep and Babies. Tlie farmer who keeps a hundred sheep or cows never thinks of keeping a sheep or cow doctor; yet it is very seldom that one of them sickens, still more rare that one of them dies; but if he have half a dozen children, he is almost sure to have one or more of them sick most of the time, even with what he deems the “best of medical attentionand if we take any fixed period from which to form an opinion, say ten years, we shall find that the farmer does not lose one-fourth as many sheep, calves, or pigs, according to the whole number kept without a doctor, as he does children with one; More commit suicide with the knife and fork than the pistol. 88 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Misery follows rasli actions. still the brute has all the disadvantages of domestication against him. And how is this in the light of nature ? is the organism of the brute so much superior to that of man, and has the Creator thrown around the former more natural safeguards and protections against sickness and disease than around the latter ? By no means ; for the physical organization of man is as much better adapted to resist disease and morbid influences than that of the brute as a man is superior to an ox or a horse; and the natural means of protection with which God has sur- rounded him are as much more efficient for his protec- tion as he is above the brute; and yet the brute lives, while man dies. And is there not something wrong here? and where shall we look for it — in nature or art ? Adulteration in Cookery. When at our tables, we have confidence in those who prepare our food, and are safe to partake of any dish we may choose, hut when absent, and specially when a guest at a fashionable hotel, where food is put up to sell, mostly by ignorant and unprincipled hirelings, whose moral honesty in too many cases extends only to their pay, we seldom know what we eat, and in such cases, therefore, we should get as near to nature as possible, and select the simplest articles upon the table, and those which have been least changed from their original forms by the hand of the cook, as boiled or baked potatoes, boiled eggs, baked apples, roasted meats, etc. Indolence. An idle person, male or female, high or low, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, can never long be well Feigned holiness is double iniquity. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 89 Do good, if you expect to receive any. either in mind or body, and consequently never happy. Loathing, sighing, weeping, grieving, and worried with doing nothing, they are always displeased with the world at large, and especially that part of it which immedi- ately surrounds them. Their lives are painful to them- selves, and annoying to all who come in contact with them; and they are doomed to suffer not only all the horrors of ill-health, but also a long catalogue of foolish, unfounded whims and fears. Gravel. “ Gravel and calculus occur in persons who use very little animal food, for concretions of uric acid have never yet been found in carnivorous mammalia living in a state of nature; and among nations which subsist wholly upon flesh, deposits of uric acid concretions, either in the limbs or bladder, are wholly unknown.” — Liebig. Nor would uric acid concretions he found in the vege- tarian or graminivora in a “state of nature” but are doubtless due to dietetic abuses growing out of the habits and practices of civic life. Paint, etc. Recently painted rooms, especially when benzine or green paint is used, should not be occupied, particularly for sleeping apartments, until the paint is thoroughly dry ; and care is also necessary in newly plastered rooms, that they are well dried before they are occupied. Many well-meaning people honestly believe that the habitual use of alcoholic liquors is beneficial to the working - classes during excessive labor and fatigue, A Popular Error. Do justice, love mercy, practise humility. 90 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Drunkenness is an egg which hatches many evils. especially in hot weather; but this can readily be shown to be all a mistake. Both the heat of the sun and ac- tive labor stimulate the body, produce perspiration, and increase muscular and mental energy; but if continued, they exhaust the excitability of the system, and induce languor, debility, and sleep. Alcoholic liquors also, as all well know, produce perspiration, increase muscular and mental energy, with a feverish condition of the system, which is speedily followed by languor, lassitude, debility, and a disposition to sleep. Now, if active mus- cular labor produces debility, exhaustion, etc., and the use of alcoholic liquors produces the same effect, will not the system become exhausted sooner with the use of the alcohol than without it ? and is it not therefore obvi- ously a positive injury to the organism, rather than a benefit to it? The Cucumber. Of this worse than worthless article, the noted Dr. Abernethy, of London, says: “ Select fine ones; peel them ; slice them up; put vinegar, pepper, and salt on them, and then throw them away.” And this is obvi- ously much better than to hazard health and life by eating them. Oxygen and Digestion. Oxygen, which constitutes twenty-one per cent, of atmospheric air, is contained, to a greater or less extent, in nearly every article of food in use, and in some very largely, and is also taken into the stomach separately and independently of that which is chemically combined with the food. In the action of the gastric juice on the food in the stomach, no element, it is believed, takes any Do right and take the consequences. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 91 Vanity is the measure of deficient understanding. part excepting the oxygen of the atmosphere and water; and the presence of the oxygen from the air, introduced directly into the food in the process of mastication, and thence into the stomach, has recently been found to be a most important feature in the digestive process. Dur- ing mastication, the saliva is largely secreted and poured into the mouth by the salivary glands, and being of a viscid nature, as the mass is agitated in the mouth, this fluid possesses the remarkable quality of inclosing atmospheric air, in the form of froth, in the same man- ner as soap-suds, only in a much greater degree; and this oxygen of the air, thus combined with the food by means of the saliva, reaches the stomach, and becomes an important auxiliary in digestion, — the nitrogen con- stituting the other seventy-nine per cent, of the air passing into the circulation, and is eliminated through the skin and lungs. It has long been known that the quantity of saliva combined with the food, in the process of mastication, exerted a very potent influence on diges- tion, and that its absence or deficiency in quantity greatly retarded and interfered with that function; but until recently it was not known that this influence was due to the oxygen of the air carried into the stomach in the food by means of the saliva. Inasmuch, then, as the saliva is the instrument by which atmospheric air containing oxygen is introduced into the stomach, the slower the process of mastication, and the longer the food remains in the mouth before passing into the stomach, the greater will be the quantity of air or oxy- gen combined with the food, and vice versa; and its effects upon digestion will he correspondingly favorable Double dealing indicates baseness. 92 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. The eye is the mirror of the soul. or unfavorable. If, during the meal, slops of any sort are taken with the food, the latter is not only removed from the mouth so rapidly as not to afford time for the combination of the air with the food, but the saliva is also so much thinned or diluted by the action of the fluids upon it as to be incapable of retaining the air and combining it with the food; so that this very im- portant process is either lost or greatly impaired, and digestion suffers seriously as a consequence. Rumina- tion in the ox, sheep, and some of the graminivora, undoubtedly has for its object the renewed and repeated introduction of air or oxygen into their food, and shows conclusively the injury and absurdity of rapid eating and the use of slops at meals, especially hot narcotic slops, as tea, coffee, etc. The difference in the health and activity of the digestion, between a slow and faith- ful mastication, without any fluids at the meal, and the usual gulping, bolting, and washing down the food with hot slops, is almost incredible; and all who doubt the advantages of the former and the evils of the latter — especially if dyspeptics — will do well to test the matter practically for one month. Air and Food. We should exercise even more care as to what we breathe than what we eat, because we breathe incessantly, but only eat occasionally; yet nine-tenths of mankind shut out fresh air as though it were poisonous, and breathe that which is foul and house-poisoned as though it were healthy and necessary to life. Modern Longevity. The following are the greatest specimens of modern longevity on record. England. Henry Jenkins, 169; Dissipation leads to crime; crime, to infamy. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 93 Ease and honor are seldom bedfellows. James Bowles, 152; William Evans, 148 ; Countess of Desmont, 140; John Effingham, 147; Dr. Bichard Mead, 148; old Parr, 152; Bichard Lloyd, 133. Norway. Joseph Surrington, 160. Denmark. Peter Drakenburg, 147. Hungary. Peter Fertin, 185 ; John Bovin, 172; and his wife, 164 — they having been married 147 years. Nibbling. The common practice of eating various little things, as nuts, cakes, candies, etc., between meals, is a very pernicious custom, as it tends to injure the appetite and derange the natural zest for food at the regular meal, and is a sure stepping-stone to dyspepsia, and other seri- ous stomachic derangements. Pure Water. None of the water in common use is strictly pure, much of it very impure, and a very large portion of it in use by millions is wholly unfit for domestic use; and when we take into consideration the fact, that water con- stitutes seventy-five per cent, of the human body, by weight, and that not a single function of a single organ can be performed without it, the apathy, stupidity, and indifference of mankind on this subject, in its conse- quences upon their health and welfare, surpass that of all other dietetic errors. Salt and Digestion. The presence of hydrochloric acid, or compound of the gases chlorine and hydrogen, is found to be indis- pensable to a proper digestion of the food for the nour- ishment of the body. The hydrogen of this acid is believed to be derived from the water of our food, and Do your own work, and you will know when it is done. 94 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Enough is as good as more. the chlorine from the salt: the oxygen of the water uniting with the sodium of the salt to form soda. Common salt, therefore, (chloride of sodium,) is in- dispensable in the human system to the formation of hydrochloric acid, as it yields chlorine to combine with the hydrogen of the wTater in its formation. But as salt is always present in the system, whether taken in separately or not, many physiologists contend that natural proper food always contains this article in sufficient quantity without any extra addition of it at our ordi- nary meals ; and the fact that the blood is said to always contain a uniform proportion of it, whether any extra is taken or not, seems at least to favor this view of the subject very strongly; for as the salt contains sixty per cent, of chlorine and forty of sodium, it is argued that a small quantity of salt would be adequate to the de- mands of the system. Health of Americans. “ There is no fact more patent or better demonstrated than the absence of good health in this country, as compared with the hardy, well-developed bodies and ruddy faces of the thousands of Europeans who are constantly flocking to this country. A vast majority of our people are either ill, ailing, or sick, and so common is this condition in this country at this time, that we have, to a very great extent, come to look upon it as an unavoidable state of things. But this is a very great mistake, for those who are ill, are so mostly from slight congenital causes, which can either be wholly overcome, or very greatly mitigated, by very simple hygienic means. Those who are ailing have generally brought Empty pans make the greatest noise. HUMAX LIFE PROLONGED. 95 Envy racks the body and tortures the soul. it upon themselves by errors in diet, clothing, exercise, venery, or all of them combined; and they can escape this condition only by correcting these habits. While those who are really sick, are so from a union of those causes, in connection with a poisonous drug-medication, which is worse than both the others, and like them must cease to insure health.” — J. C. Jackson, A.M., M.D. Snuff and Brains. A very quizzical old lady once asked Dr. Abernethy, “ Doctor, does snuff injure the brains,” and received, in reply, “ No, madam ; for no one who has any brains ever uses snuff.” Bulk and Ability. It is stated that nearly every prominent man con- nected with the American Revolution weighed 200 pounds or more, and enjoyed vigorous bodily health; and, further, that since the war a vast majority of our eminent statesmen have been of the same stamp; and, if we are not greatly mistaken, the same is equally true of the great men of every age and country. It is not denied hut that small and medium-sized men may possess the very highest grade of intellect, and shine forth in the most magnificent splendor for a time, but will generally lack the necessary vitality to endure; so that bulk and stature seem to be indispensable to permanent greatness. The Extremes. A fox-hunter may get drunk every night in the year, and still live to good age, because he is all exercise and no thought, while a sedentary scholar could not get drunk once a year with impunity; but he is all thought and no exercise. Now the great secret of health is neither Envy, like a vulture, devours itself. 96 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Envy cannot see nor ignorance discriminate. to be all exercise, all thought, nor to get drunk, but to use and enjoy everything with reason and moderation. Effects of Grief. Caroline Matilda, sister of George III., of Eng- land; Agnes, wife of Philip II., of France; Aldra, a bishop of Worcester ; Pope Clement XIV.; Chitterdon, the African traveller, and a host of others who might be mentioned, have died from grief, or diseases caused by it. And it is stated of Sir Isaac Newton, by his biog- rapher, Biot, that he never fully recovered from the grief and disappointment caused by the accidental burn- ing of his papers, the labors of the best of his days, by his little dog Diamond. Rough Sense. . Thomas Parr, an English peasant of Shropshire, who lived to the age of 152, when asked for his advice on health, said: “ Keep the head cool by temperance, the feet warm by exercise; retire and rise early ; and, if you are inclined to grow fat, keep the mouth shut and the eyes open.” Narcotic Slops. “As guardians of the public health, we are in duty bound to warn the feeble, the nervous, the dyspeptic, the hypochondriacal, the gouty, the capricious, and the student, and man of letters, that tea and coffee are highly injurious, and cannot be tolerated by them in any form or degree, excepting at the expense of bodily health and mental tranquillity.”—Drs. Bell & Condie, Philadelphia. An Absurdity. We Americans, of all other people, are notorious for our rhetorical harangues to beauty, and always ready to Favor not sin, lest you come to love its reward. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 97 Equity is the strongest bond of human society. join in the train of its eulogy; and yet, strange to say, we are equally ready to sanction and admire, at least by tacit consent, any and all the murderous malpractices of education, and the heinous absurdities of fashion, by which the natural beauty and symmetry of our females, not only in form, but in motion — and especially the latter — is made to resemble more the stiffness and pre- cision of the drill-sergeant or automatic chess-player than female grace of action. Without entire freedom of limb and body, there can be neither grace nor beauty of person; and yet, exaggeration aside, there is not one female in a hundred, who claims to be genteel, who, when dressed, can put the hand to the floor or extend it a foot above the head, without assuming attitudes which are both ridiculous and ludicrous. The subjoined are a few of the more common and obvious physical indications of longevity : 1. Well proportioned in stature, but not too tall. 2. Full middling in size, and tolerably thick set. 3. Simply a healthy complexion, but not too florid. 4. Hair dark, straight, thickly set, but not black. 5. Skin firm, elastic, smooth, and well supplied with pores. 6. Head good size, not too large, with a good balance of animal and intellectual organs. 7. Veins upon the surface, especially upon the backs of the hands, full and prominent, showing a good action of the heart. 8. Shoulders broad, and rather round than flat upon the back. Signs of Longevity. Everybody’s business is nobody’s business. 98 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Example is a better teacher than precept. 9. Neck not long, of good size, and broad behind. 10. Stomach, or front of the chest, full, but not pro- jecting. 11. Chest capacious and deep, but not too broad be- tween the arms. 12. Feet and hands large and plump, and fingers and toes only average in length. 13. Voice neither grurn nor shrill, but strong and clear. 14. Can retain the breath, when the lungs are in- flated, a long time without inconvenience. 15. Pulse rather slow, but strong and regular. 16. Has hard, firm, symmetrically set teeth, not too white. 17. Stomach and digestion good, but is no glutton. 18. Has an equanimity of temper, and is not easily elated or depressed. 19. Eats and works with moderation, but is steady and untiring in what he attempts. 20. Is an optimist, a friend of domestic happiness, and banishes all useless thoughts of the morrow. Subsisting on Water. The transactions of the Albany Institute, for the year 1830, give an account of a Dr. McNauton, who lived on water alone during forty-three days, while we are told that the longest abstinence from food is nineteen days. Maturity and Longevity. There exists an obvious relation between the time re- quired for any creature to arrive at maturity and the period of its life or existence. The elephant, which Emulation arouses ambition. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 99 Envy is a censure on the liberality of Providence. requires from fifteen to twenty years to mature, often lives to seventy or eighty years, while the horse, which matures in four or five years, seldom exceeds fifteen or twenty; and the same law holds equally of animals gene- rally. If the ages of 1000 persons who reach maturity at eighteen were compared with the ages of another 1000 who mature at twenty-five, we should find the average age of the latter to greatly exceed that of the former; hence the old adage, “ late ripe, late rotten,” and the consummate folly of encouraging precocity in children. Wine and Water. The water-drinker passes quietly and smoothly through life, without either extreme of depression or excitement; and, as he is always in full possession of all his faculties, he will be much more likely to escape serious disease and casualties than he otherwise would be; but the wine-drinker experiences short and vivid periods of rapture and excitement, followed by long intervals of gloom, depression, and despondency, and is much more exposed to disease and accidents, and pre- maturely exhausts and wears out his organism. Nature therefore points to pure water as man’s best and only natural drink, to which nothing ever was, or ever will be, added that did not or will not deteriorate it for his use and purpose. Apoplexy and Paralysis. Tobacco is a very active narcotic poison or depressant, and, by deranging the nervous apparatus, steadily re- duces the vigor of the vital forees according to its use; while alcoholic liquors stimulate the organism by over- doing the circulatory system, and deranging the heart’s Envy is a turnkey by birth, and an executioner by profession. 100 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Every condition in life has its troubles. action; and the diseases induced by the two vary in ac- cordance with the parts especially acted upon by these two agents. Tobacco, being a narcotic and depressant, acts especially upon the brain and nerves, induces a general torpidity and insensibility of those structures, and not unfrequently, when freely and habitually used, a com- plete paralysis of a limb, or one-half of the body ; while alcoholic drinks, by over-stimulating the circulatory system and engorging the brain, produce apoplexy; each deranging and causing serious and hopeless disease in the part upon which its poisonous influences are expended. The Human Temperaments. By these are meant certain types, forms or conforma- tions of the human body, each known and distinguished from the other by certain characteristics, which enable those who are familiar with these peculiarities to readily distinguish one temperament from the other. The existence of the temperaments is believed to depend upon the development of certain parts or systems in the body, and each is accompanied by different degrees of activity of the brain, and corresponding difference in the talents and manifestations of the individual. They are four in number, viz.: nervous, sanguine, bilious, and lymphatic. When the brain and nerves are predomi- nant, it is termed the nervous temperament: if the lungs and bloodvessels constitutionally predominate, the sanguine ; if the muscular and fibrous systems are in the ascendency, the bilious; and when the glands and assimilating organs are in the ascendency, it is termed the lymphatic or phlegmatic. 1. The nervous is indicated by fine, thin hair, small Every cook lauds his own soup. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 101 Every man is the artificer of his own fate and fortune. muscles, thin skin, pale countenance/brilliant eyes, with great quickness and sensitiveness to impressions, and is really the mental or intellectual temperament. 2. The sanguine is known by a stout, well-defined form, a full face, florid complexion, moderate plumpness, firm flesh, chestnut or sandy hair, and blue eyes. This is the tough, hardy, working temperament, excessively fond of exercise and activity, and a great aversion to muscular quiescence and inactivity, and consequently averse to books and close literary pursuits. 3. The bilious is indicated by a thin, spare face, dark skin, black hair, firm flesh, moderate stoutness, with rough, harsh, and strongly marked features. This temperament gives great will, elasticity, and powers of endurance, and, when combined with the nervous, is the great, efficient, moving temperament in the great events of the world. 4. The lymphatic is indicated by paleness, roundness of the form, softness of muscle, fair hair, sleepy, half- closed eyes, and a dull, sluggish, inexpressive face. In this temperament the brain and all the other parts of the body appear to be slow, dull, and languid, and the whole body little else than one great manufactory of fat. These temperaments, however, are rarely found pure, but mixed or blended in an almost endless variety of ways, producing the ever-varying peculiarities of human character and intellect. Nature’s Pointings. In the choice of matrimonial companions, as a general rule, observation will show that whether male or female, physically, each prefers its opposite in make, build, or Experience is a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. 102 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. An excess of grief and laughter are absurd. temperament — the tall man preferring a short woman, and the broad-shouldered, fat, large man a thin, delicate woman, and vice versa; and this is strictly in accordance with the laws of our being, and should be heeded by all who regard the well-being of the progeny. Nature implants in the nervous a love of its opposite—the lym- phatic, and in the sanguine a preference for the bilious, and vice versa, so that the offspring may combine the excellences of both temperaments, and avoid the evil effects arising from a union of like or similar tempera- ments; for, almost without exception, those marriages are the most fortunate, both as to prolificacy and happy organization of offspring, which combine opposite tem- peraments. A union of lymphatics would produce an extreme of this temperament, which would be too dull, sluggish, fat, and inert to effect anything, or even gain a subsistence, while a union of the nervous would so far intensify this temperament, that the progeny would be all head and nerves, and no body, and little better than the product of a union of lymphatics. Teeth and Food. The teeth of all animals are adapted to the food which nature intended for them ; and so marked is this adapta- tion, that Prof. Hitchcock says: “ That from a single bone or tooth of an animal all the other peculiarities of character of food, habits, and conditions of its exist- ence can be correctly described; and it is well known that comparative anatomists, from a single tooth, have made drawings of extinct animals which have proved correct when the skeletons of such animals have subse- quently been found. If the teeth of an animal are in- Every man is a good pilot in a smooth sea. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 103 Every vice wars against nature. tended for flesh eating, they will strongly resemble the teeth of carnivorous animals, as the lion, tiger, wolf, cat, dog, etc.; the front teeth will be small and pointed, the eye teeth hooked and large, and the grinding sur- faces of the back teeth will have points or ridges in them, for tearing, instead of being broad and flat, for grinding or crushing. But if the animal live upon vegetables and farinaceous food, his back or large teeth will be flat, for grinding, instead of sharp and ridgy, for tearing, and his eye teeth no longer than those adjoining them; and from this simple comparison any one can readily determine the natural food of any animal. The presence of clawrs, also, are never-failing indications of a flesh-eating animal, for all the carnivora have them, while they are wanting in all the gram- inivora. But the teeth of the monkey race settle the question, beyond all possible doubt, that man by nature is in no sense of the term carnivorous, for the teeth of the former approximate much nearer the carnivora than those of the latter, yet, as all know, the monkey never eats flesh. A comparison of the teeth of man, and the ox, horse, sheep, with those of the lion, tiger, wolf, cat, dog, etc., will convince any one, willing to be convinced, that man was not made to devour the carcasses of dead animals. Prof. Lawrence, a very eminent English phys- iologist, says, “ The teeth of man have not the slightest resemblance to those of carnivorous animals; he does indeed possess teeth called ‘ canine,’ but they do not ex- ceed in height the level of the others, and are obviously unsuited for the purpose which the canine execute in the carnivora.” Dr. Thomas Bell, another eminent scientific medical man, says, “ Every fact connected with Evil companions corrupt good morals. 104 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Every man is the best judge of his own palate. man’s organization goes to show that he was originally formed a frugivorous animal; ” and the testimony of Cullen, Lambe, and Cuvier are to the same end. Diet and Religion. “Free mankind from the curses of alcoholic and fer- mented liquors, tobacco, opium, tea, coffee, flesh meats, peppers, stimulating condiments, and some other useless and highly injurious articles in common use, and the gospel of Christ will then do more to reform mankind in a single year than it now can or has in fifty years.” — J. C. Jackson, A.M., Ml). Soap and Refinement. An extensive traveller, and good judge of human na- ture, has said: “ The quantity of soap consumed by any people is a good criterion by which to judge of their civilization and refinement; ” a second, that “ Cleanli- ness is next to godliness ; ” a third, that “ The moral worth of a man can, in main, be determined by the atten- tion which he gives to his person and apparel; ” and a fourth, that “ The general character of a man can he divined from the condition of his teeth.” These quota- tions may seem to savor some of exaggeration; still there can be no doubt but that he who neglects his person, apparel, and teeth, other things being equal, will be found lower in the scale of intellectuality, morality, and refinement than he who pays due attention to personal cleanliness. A Vujgar Whim. A strange idea lias obtained among a certain class that the smell of the earth is beneficial in certain dis- eases, especially in cases of consumption; but this cannot Boasting ignorance and cowardice go in company. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 105 Rashness, error, and repentance are common companions. be so; for if the effluvia arising from fresh earth has any effect upon health, it would certainly be unfavorable rather than favorable to it. The earth, or ground, is composed of certain chemical elements, as silex, alumina, lime, etc., which rarely have any odor at all; and it is the decayed and decaying vegetable matter combined with these inodorous elements that produces the supposed healthy smell of fresh earth; and who in his senses does not know that the effluvia arising from the decom- position of vegetable matter must be positively detri- mental to the invalid, instead of beneficial? Sunday Stuffing. If the first day of the week is really any better or holier than any other, we are certainly under moral ob- ligation to keep it better, not only by abstaining from all ordinary labor of the week, but in every other way which will add to the purpose for which it was set apart. Professed Christians tell us that the preaching of the gospel is the means of grace and salvation; and if so, anything which tends to unfit us for exercising the means of grace, if our own fault, is a sin for which we shall be held to a strict account. Now it is a matter of common knowledge almost throughout the entire land, that Sunday, among professed Christians and church- going people, is a sort of secondary day of feasting and good dinners, by which the whole powers of the body are directed to the stomach, to free that organ from its epicurean load and oppression, and the intellectual and moral faculties thereby temporarily, at least, blunted and stultified. And one might as well preach to a maniac, or a somnambulist in a paroxysm, as to one who Example is a better teacher than precept. 106 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Exalt -wisdom, and she will exalt you. has just dined upon rich, heavy, concentrated food; for if there is any piety or religion in pork and beans, stuffed turkeys, and rich puddings and minced pies, we have not yet been able to discover it. Half a century ago, flannels, fur caps, and mittens were comparatively unknown, and umbrellas to protect the head from sun, rain, and snow were very little used, and gum shoes unknown. Travelling was mostly per- formed on foot or on horseback ; muffling and tying up were scarcely known ; houses were more open and better ventilated, and the mode of living plain, coarse, and simple. But times have greatly changed. Now even the sturdy beggar must have his umbrella; walking has become quite vulgar and unfashionable; the traveller, even in cool weather, is closely wrapped in several en- velopes of flannel or fur, or boxed up in his close car- riage, from a fear of fresh air. If you see a genteel man on foot, he appears more like a mummy than a man; and the atmosphere of his house like an oven heated, but not ventilated; and his floors covered with beautiful Brussels carpeting, and all about him corres- pondingly luxurious. Now, with all this array of so- called improvements and refinement, are we, as a people, any more healthy, happy, or long-lived than we were in the generation which preceded it? Have bodily health, mental vigor, and moral progress kept pace with the introduction of stoves, carpets, flannels, gum shoes, umbrellas, tight-covered carriages, and rich, concentrated food? or have we any less consumption, gout, liver complaint, rheumatism, scrofula, dyspepsia, or fevers? Then and Now. Experience is the mother of true science. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 107 Friendship destroys envy; love, coquetry. Dogs and Horses. It is said that the annual expense of keeping dogs, in this country, is over $10,000,000, and that of useless horses about the same; and what a folly, sin, and shame, when thousands are suffering for the comforts of life, and millions putrefying in ignorance and sin! Children’s Beds. Beds for young children should be hard — quilts or hard mattresses being greatly superior to feathers; for hard bedding strengthens the body, while the use of feathers debilitates, and often paves the way for future disease and suffering. The Skin. The skin, one of the great sewers of the human body, is little else than a network, or fabric of nerves and bloodvessels, perforated with millions of exceedingly minute holes (pores), and the point of the finest needle cannot be applied to it without puncturing some of the nerves and bloodvessels, there being hundreds of thou- sands of them on a square inch. These innumerable little holes (pores), from birth till death, constantly throw out a vapor, or perceptible sweat, which is impreg- nated with impurities, or useless matter of the body ; and Sanctorious, a distinguished Italian scholar and physi- ologist, tells us that over one-half of all taken into the body—solids and fluids — escapes from the body through these pores. Now, if we neglect to wash the whole sur- face of the body, at least once a week, these innumera- ble little outlets become closed up, and this large amount of waste or useless matter is retained in the body, to taint and derange it, or else it must be removed by some Fame is like a magnifying-glass. 108 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A false friend is worse than an open enemy. other organ, as the lungs, bowels, or kidneys, which will be very likely to become diseased by being overtasked to perform the labor of another organ. Sacrifice of Life. Four-fifths of all who die at this day, do so, not because they must die then, but because they are ignorant of the laws of life, and know not how to economize their life- powers so as to live out their allotted viability, and therefore die prematurely; and is not, therefore, the study of the means of prolonging human existence a matter of first importance to all ? Consumption Contagious. It is now an established fact, beyond all doubt, that tubercular disease, or consumption, is directly contagious; and that inhaling the effluvia of the bed, the room, or the consumptive himself, especially if continued any length of time, is liable to impart the disease. Tuber- cular disease has recently been transferred from man to the brute by inoculation; and cases are on record in which perfectly healthy young girls, from hale and vig- orous parents, have married consumptive men, and by sleeping in the same bed or room have soon contracted the disease, and died before the husband. In all cases, therefore, where either wife or husband is known to have consumption, especially if the disease be advanced, they should not occupy the same bed or room during the long hours of night, and exercise great care as to ventilation, as far as possible, both night and day. Constituents of the Blood. The nitrogenized constituents of our blood —albumen, fibrin, and casein — are themselves compounds, each Fair and softly travel far in day. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 109 Feeble praise is no commendation. composed of the elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, all identical with each other and with the constituents of the blood; and no nitrogenized compound of food which differs from these can long support the vital process in animals. The vital functions of the animal doubtless possess the power of forming from the constituents of the blood the various tissues of the body, as bone, muscle, skin, tendon, cellular tissue, etc.; but the chemical elements must first be supplied to the blood in these nitrogenized com- pounds ; for if this is not done, a period is speedily put to the blood-making process, and consequently to life itself. And this probably accounts for the fact that gelatine, which enters so largely into soups, and is so extensively employed as an important article of food, especially in many public institutions, will not, alone, long sustain life. For, although it does not contain nitrogen, the sulphur and phosphorus are wanting in it; and this difference in composition from albumen, fibrin, and casein, renders it incapable of sustaining animal life long, without the presence of one or more of these com- pounds. But this proves nothing against gelatine as food, any more than it does against gum, starch, sugar, fat, etc., which alone cannot sustain life, nor can life be sustained without them. It simply shows that the or- ganism is wholly dependent upon the chemical elements supplied to it in food for the formation of blood, and that if any one or more of the elements of that fluid is wanting in the food, blood proper is no longer formed. The value and importance of gelatine as an article of food has been thoroughly tested in the public institu- tions of Europe and America, and its merits well settled; Fear no man, and be just to all. 110 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The reverence of God is the beginning of wisdom. and, although it does not possess all the chemical ele- ments of .albumen, fibrin, and casein, which are neces- sary to the formation of the tissues of the body, it is a highly valuable auxiliary article of food, and probably goes to the formation of the gelatinous tissues of the body — membrane, cartilage, and cellular tissue. Strange Ideas. The notions entertained by others of those who ab- stain from flesh meats are, to say the least, very singular, if not ludicrous; and perhaps no class of persons is more misrepresented and outraged than are vegetarians. They are supposed, by the devourers of the carcasses of dead animals, to be eccentric, crack-brained, odd, ill-bred, ill- tempered, austere, skeptical, radical, revolutionary, bare- faced intruders and innovators upon the rules and estab- lished regulations of society, whereas, exactly the con- verse of all this is the fact. For both in Europe and America, those who reject the flesh of animals as food do so from moral principle, and are almost without ex- ception temperate, sober, moral, and industrious people; and a great majority of them professors of Christianity, who believe in first making the tree holy, and the fruit will be so also. Confectionery. The use of this article in this country has really become a source of alarm to every one who has the least idea of the laws of health, for, as now used among us, it has become a very fruitful source of disease and suffering, especially among children, who use it most. Pure sugar, used in moderation, is highly nutritive and quite an active alterative, but when freely taken and Forsake not good till you find better. 111 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Fatigue follows laziness, and listlessness, stupidity. long continued, excepting in connection with mucli other coarse and less nutritious food, and with free exercise in the open air, as its leading solid constituent is carbon, its tendency is to surcharge the blood with this element, derange the liver and biliary apparatus, producing jaundice, and constipation of the bowels, in connection with a sickly, puny, and sallow and cadaverous counte- nance. But the confectionery of this day is anything but pure sugar, even that portion of it which resembles sugar, but a mere medley-mess gotten up in the cheapest possible manner expressly to sell, regardless of all con- sequences, much of it being well known to contain highly deleterious articles, and most if not all the color- ing matter being more or less poisonous. Parents and guardians therefore, who tolerate the use of confectionery in those committed to their charge, must either be ex- ceedingly ignorant of the first rudiments of hygiene or else wdiolly reckless of the best interests of their chil- dren ; for the inevitable effect of the habitual use of this vile trash is sooner or later to ruin their health and constitutions. Minor Evils. While the minds of the thoughtful and moral portion of the community have been much exercised in relation to the evils of intoxicating drinks, and while thousands of this class have been led to abandon their use, from a deep and full conviction of the growing evils of their use, little attention has been given to sundry intoxicating poisons of another class, which tend directly to force the way to the use of alcoholic drinks, and many, if not most, who abandon the latter, resort to the former to Finesse unbecomes a liberal mind. 112 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Follow the sensible few, not the vulgar many. keep up their accustomed stimulus. Among these are opium, tobacco, tea, coffee, and the extracts of hemp and wormwood, which, taken in strong potations several times a day, in connection with a stimulating, heating flesh diet, and strong pungent condiments, serve to a very great extent as a substitute for alcoholic liquors, and in their ultimate tendency upon the system are but little if any better. Opium, as a single article of this class of “ minor evils,” outside of its medical use, has increased in sale in this country, beyond the advance in population, at least three hundred per cent, within the last quarter of a century, and tobacco has fully kept pace with it. In this class of supposed minor evils, tobacco leads the van; for although often resorted to as a sub- stitute for strong drink, its direct tendency is to induce the use of that article ; for a pure water drinker, who is a tobacco chewer, will be found almost an anomaly in creation. And the only way in which one can ever be radically and permanently cured of tobacco, or indeed of alcoholic drinks, is first to take away all other nar- cotics, so that when the morbid craving for the tobacco and alcohol is removed, there will be nothing left behind to keep alive the hankering for narcotics in the system. By first completely removing from the subject all stimulating table drinks and rich, high-seasoned food and condiments, he soon comes to disrelish them, then to dislike them, and finally to disgust and hate tobacco and alcohol, and nature then voluntarily rejects them with but little effort on the part of the subject. The Poor and Taxes. In a well-regulated state of society, poverty ought' to be unknown, mendicity not tolerated, and every citizen Wisdom shows what knowledge only knows. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 113 Flattery is fulsome to the wise. made to ply some useful avocation, and the beggar made to labor in the public works; for charity is misapplied and idleness rewarded, when the sober and industrious are made to support the lazy profligate and dissipated poor. The law which compels the rich to support the poor, when, by a proper arrangement, the poor could much better support themselves, is obviously an infringe- ment upon personal liberty, and holds out to the pro- fligate and worthless an invitation to act without any regard to the consequences of their actions. It says to them, if they are overtaken by the calamities which nature has inevitably attached to heedless conduct, the virtuous and prudent shall be made to bear the burden of their support. If the poor, on account of their per- sonal liberty, cannot be restrained from marrying, mul- tiplying, and assuming what they cannot support, surely, for the same reason, the rich ought not to be compelled to support them; for to compel an industrious, prudent citizen to support a lazy, thoughtless drone, is an obvi- ous violation of personal liberty. Let him who marries and begets children provide for their support under the penalties of the law; and let him who labors reap the full reward of his industry. As society is now organ- ized, the best and most considerate of the race, whose progeny would be most advantageous to the public wel- fare, are the very ones who are the most restrained in multiplying, because they see the evils of it, and en- deavor to control the number of their progeny; while the worthless, reckless, and thoughtless indulge their passions regardless of consequences, and fill the world with poverty and wretchedness, to burden the virtuous Fire is not quenched with tow. 114 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Friendship is a stronger tie than consanguinity. and industrious. In some countries, as in Germany, for the public good, soldiers and sailors are not allowed to marry unless able to support a family; and why not extend such a law to all‘l for this wrould beget temper- ance, industry, and economy among the poor in antici- pation of matrimony, and immensely lessen the amount of poverty, destitution, and suffering among the common people. As to public charitable institutions, though they temporarily lessen human suffering, they never reach or reduce the cause of it, and obviously often in- crease it by educating the profligate and worthless to rely upon such institutions when calamities overtake them ; and there seem to be only two ways ever to per- manently ameliorate the condition of the poor — either to check excessive prolificacy, or prohibit marriage in the absence of ability to support a family. Some are over-anxious for boys, while others most ardently desire female children; and to be able to con- trol the sex is surely a very important matter, long desired, but never with any degree of certainty effected until quite recently. It has long been known that queen bees lay female eggs first and male last; and the same is known to be true of the hen, and is probably the case with all fowls. Mares, too, shown the male late in heat, have male colts, and vice versa. M. Thury, Professor in the Academy of Science, at* Geneva, Switzerland, taking advantage of these known facts, has shown how the sexes, either in man or brute, may be produced at pleasure; and his plan has been so extensively tested in Europe, especially in the growing of stock, as no longer Producing the Sexes at Will. Make your head help your hands and feet. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 115 Fortune can take nothing she cannot give. to admit of the least doubt as to its correctness. His experiments have established the following cause for the production of the sexes at will: In all viviparous females, both human and brute, there is a period of “ heat,” recurring more or less frequently, according to the nature of the creature; and if the female be exposed during the early part of this period, the product, if any, will be females; but if in the latter or last part of it, it will be males. In the brute, this period of heat, or time of fecundation is short, not usually lasting more than three or four days; but in the human species it usually occupies nearly one-half of each menstrual month — that is, not only the actual period of purgation, but about ten days subsequent to the close of that event; and to pro- duce the sexes at will, it is only necessary that the female should be exposed early or late, as the parties may desire the sex. Importance of Oxygen. Of all the simple elementary substances, none perhaps presents so much interest as this element, being a con- stituent of water, air, and the solid crust of the earth. It constitutes twenty-one per cent, of atmospheric air, and eight-ninths of water; and silica, (flint,) carbonate of lime, (marble and granite,) and alumina, (clay,) the three most abundant constituents of the solid crust of the earth, are nearly one-half oxygen, by weight, on an average. It is estimated that three-fourths of the earth’s surface is covered with water at an average depth of three miles, and of this immense mass eight-ninths are oxygen; and silica alone is believed to compose forty- five per cent, of the mineral crust of the globe, and this Genuine modesty protects female honor. 116 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Envy praises that which she can surpass. is one-half oxygen. Most of our food contains some oxygen, and some of it much, and the quantity of this element which is combined with our food is believed to affect the activity of the function of respiration. Mr. Spaulding, a noted scientific Scotchman, found that he consumed more atmosphere in his diving-bell when he used a flesh diet or drank alcoholic liquors, and experi- ence therefore taught him that a vegetable diet, with water, was best adapted to the support of life; and the same facts were also verified by Dr. Fyfe, in his experi- ments upon the same subject. And a knowledge of these facts, in all situations where persons are compelled to breathe a vitiated atmosphere deprived of a portion of its oxygen, is of great practical value. A Physiological Fact. Bostack, in his “ Elements of Physiology,” states that 45,000 cubic inches of oxygen gas are consumed by one man, under ordinary circumstances, in twenty-four hours — 40,000 of which combines with the carbon of the food, producing carbonic acid gas, and 5000 with the hydrogen of the food, producing water; both the gas and water being discharged through the lungs. The formation of fat in the animal body is an ab- normal condition of the creature, as this substance in a healthy condition is only found in very small quantities in the brain and nerves, for, when allowed full and free exercise in the open air, this condition is never present in any animal. Fat contains about eighty per cent, of carbon, and is caused by a disproportion between the Formation of Fat. Envy censures that which surpasses her. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 117 Gluttony destroys more than the sword. carbon of the food and the oxygen received through the lungs and skin. In a strictly natural or healthy condition of the body, the quantity of carbon given out through the skin and lungs, in the form of carbonic acid, is just equal to that taken into the body in the food; so that the system receives no addition, either in bulk or weight, from a deposit of fat. But if we in- crease the quantity of highly - carbonized food, the normal condition of the body can then only be main- tained by a proportionate increase in the quantity of oxygen received by respiration; and this can be done only in nature’s own way -—by active muscular motion in the open air, which increases respiration and, conse- quently, the quantity of oxygen received into the system in a given time. The presence of fat, therefore, in the animal body is always caused by a deficient supply of oxygen, or, what is the same in effect, an excess of carbon in the food; for the former is absolutely indispensable to the consumption of the excess of the latter to prevent the formation of fat in the animal. If the habits of an animal be active in the open air, so that he breathes much, and takes in large quantities of oxygen, there will seldom be much deposit of fat in his body, even though his food be highly carbonaceous; and hence the way to grow fat is to use freely of highly-carbonized food, as fat, sugar, etc., and remain quiet, as in the fattening of swine, and other pen- and stall-fed animals, and to prevent this morbid condition reverse the course. It is by no means always the most hardy and robust who see the greatest longevity, for the most of those The Hardy and Feeble. The wicked flee when no one pursues. 118 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Vulgar minds respect wealth more than talent. who have seen the greatest age were constitutionally feeble, and in youth had little prospects of long life. The vigorous and athletic, while they have health, pre- sume upon and abuse it, and are usually thoughtless and reckless in their habits of diet, labor, and exposure, and too often ruin their health in early life; while the deli- cate and slender, conscious of their feeble hold upon life, are wary, vigilant, and thoughtful in all things which might affect their health, and thus generally prolong life to a good and often a great age. It is a fatal mistake to suppose that health and longevity are providential, accidental, or the result of fate or destiny; for they are, congenital defects excepted, wholly the results of causa- tion, by the use or neglect of which we may greatly prolong or shorten our existence; and our duty to our- selves demands that we should understand this causation. Nature’s Guidance. So far as we can understand the operations of Nature, she is undoubtedly the best guide in all things; for there exists a harmony in all her parts and doings which can never lead us astray, provided she has not been vitiated by man’s abuse. The natural demands of the human stomach, for instance, or what is called appetite, were doubtless originally intended to be our guide in the sort and quantity of our food and drinks—and in a perfectly healthy state is so still; but with our artificial husbandry, our artificial food, artificial cookery, artificial dress, and almost everything else, to deprave and vitiate our nature and habits, a really healthy stomach and appetite at this day is very rarely to be found. Animals, in a state of nature, rarely or never injure themselves by excessive We often feign to despise what we really fear. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 119 God helps those who help themselves. feeding, but when domesticated, if left to their own in- clinations, would soon destroy themselves. And if it be necessary to exercise restraint over the brute, who never strays from simple nature, how much more neces- sary is it upon ourselves, who are constantly inverting and violating Nature’s ordinances from the least to the greatest? If there is any one thing connected with man’s physical existence which is of more importance to him than any other, it is the most rigid care and vigilance to the quantity and quality of his food and drinks, never for once confiding in the demands of a morbid and vitiated appetite. The Choice. Sir William Temple says, “ We must either exercise, live simply, and be temperate, or take physic, and be sick.” Dr. Condie says, “ Health depends upon early rising, exercise, cleanliness, and an unoppressed stom- ach.” And Dr. Johnson says, “Make Nature your cook, hunger your purveyor, sun and air your physician, temperance and exercise your medicine, and you are sure of health and longevity.” The best receipt for raising children is, a plenty of play, a plenty of soap and water, a plenty of sleep, a plenty of flannel, and a plenty of brown bread or corn- meal pudding and milk. Raising Children. Cheese. Though highly nutritious, cheese is very difficult of digestion, producing constipation of the bowels, and often deranging the whole alimentary course, and none Gathering riches is a pleasant torment. 120 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Study is to the mind what tillage is to the earth. but those of the most vigorous digestion should attempt to grapple with it. Recently-made cheese, not very rich or strong, is much less injurious; but even then, for weak stomachs, especially if taken as a condiment in the usual way, with pie, cake, or other highly-concentrated food, it is almost suicidal. “ In my opinion, a more pernicious practice does not exist, than that of drugging children on every slight occasion of bodily derangement; and I hold that mother or nurse who does it, to be wholly unfit for the duties imposed upon her.” — Dr. King. Drugging Infants. Causes of Disease. “ The complicated maladies of the human family are mainly produced by gormandizing, stuffing, and over- stimulating the digestive organs, thus vitiating and thickening the fluids, and stultifying the brain; and by fretting, worrying, and discontenting themselves about things which they cannot help, they prematurely exhaust and wear out the nervous system, the immediate vital apparatus of the body.” — Dr. Johnson. “No permission was ever given to Adam in para- dise, or to any other antediluvian, to take life, and feast upon the carcasses of dead animals; and this was a grant only suited to the degenerate state of man after the flood.” — Dr. Dick. Flesh Meats. Liquor as a Medicine. “ The erroneous idea, that alcoholic liquors are some- times necessary as medicinal agents in the treatment of disease, has slain its thousands and tens of thousands Good counsel is above price. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 121 The perfections of an enemy are better than the faults of a friend. who would otherwise never have imbibed a love for them; for there is no case of disease in which there are not good and equally efficient substitutes for them.” — Prof. Sewell. Health and Causation. Every man is the maker and preserver of his own health equally with that of his fortune or moral char- acter, hereditary influences excepted; and even these, in most cases, may be very greatly counteracted and miti- gated by a proper dietetic and hygienic course, and in very many instances almost wholly eradicated in a single generation by these means alone. Every medical man is familiar with the fact, that when the stomach is empty in the morning the system is much more susceptible to morbific agents, as infection, marsh- miasmata, etc., than at any other time; hence this meal should always be taken early, before exposure to morn- ing dews and noxious influences. Early Breakfast. A Good Hint. Dr. Adair, of Bath, England, where evening parties were very prevalent, being asked his opinion of them, replied: “ Let them alone; for how can twenty-six physicians he supported in this small town without them and other similar violations of the laws of life.” High-Pressure Life. A flesh diet is a powerful and immediate stimulant, and, like alcohol, excites and inflames only to prema- turely exhaust and wear out — this being its uniform and inevitable, not its accidental, effects, urging and hurry- Firmness, reason, and suavity will insure success. 122 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Frothy wit and fulsome words are the product of fools. ing its devotees through and out of life in true hot-house style. All the physical and mental functions of the vegetarian proceed on slowly, and with little friction, which subjects the life-powers to the least wear and tear, while flesh eating renders them hot and grating, as though the axles of life run on sand, and prematurely exhausts and wears them out. Animal food (flesh meats) irritates the stomach, fevers the blood, and in this way lashes up the brain, and goads on the passions to exces- sive and turbulent acts of avarice, violence, and blood- shed; for what but this and its coworkers, alcoholic and fermented liquors, could produce that restless, dissatisfied, longing, high-pressure, grasping, rapacious, envious, selfish, and care-for-notliing cast of mind now every- where so rife in this country ? The habitual use of flesh meats, therefore, kindles and arouses those propensities which shorten life, blunts those moral faculties and vir- tues which prolong it, engenders many forms of disease, and aggravates and renders many more incurable. As to longevity, the case is clear; for nearly if not all who have reached the greatest age, in all countries, have been either mainly or exclusively vegetarians; and the herb- eating elephant lives nearly twice as long as the flesh- eating lion — the longest lived animal of the carnivora — and so of other animals of the two classes. The condition of the breath, excepting in case of carious teeth, is quite as good a criterion by which to judge of the health of the body as a thermometer is of the temperature, or a barometer of the density of the Bad Breath. Good intentions will not justify evil deeds. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 123 Good manners pare the way to suceess. atmosphere; for a diseased body cannot send forth in- offensive odors, nor a healthy one disagreeable ones. Eggs. There can hardly be a greater error in regard to any one article of food, than the common notion that eggs are easy of digestion, and well adapted to the diet of in- valids. The truth is, they never digest or assimilate with the contents of a debilitated stomach at all, but form indigestible crudities, and develop in the stomach a nauseous gas — sulphureted hydrogen — which often escapes from the stomach into the mouth. Conjugal Hints. To maintain that the sexual instinct, either in male or female, is a derogation, is both false and unnatural; for its dignity, importance, and necessity are self-evident to all; and, in fact, a male is not a man, nor a female a woman, without a normal development of it: the point not being the propriety of the passion, but the proper regulation and control of it. There are females who pride themselves upon their indifference, distaste, and even repugnance to the fulfilment of their conjugal obligations as though it were really creditable, and enhanced them in the scale of morality and virtue; but such should remember that the simple existence of their sex places them under natural obligations to receive and pay the tribute of love; and she who can deliber- ately abstain from the fulfilment of so important a law of her nature without inconvenience, and with full sat- isfaction, shows conclusively that she is defective in her organization and deficient in a very important element of her nature. The normal exercise of the reproductive A good education opens the way to honor and preferment. 124 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Genuine goodness of heart adds to every other virtue. faculty is highly beneficial upon both sexes, while its abnormal use is most disastrous to both, especially to the female; nor is a too rigid continence in either party safe or advisable, for the victory over passion may be purchased at too great a price. The condition of the parties at the time of becoming parents exerts a most potent influence upon the offspring; hence, the feeble, sickly, unsound in mind or body, or the dis- sipated, should never become parents while in this con- dition ; for if either parent is a habitual drunkard, or is intoxicated at the time, the progeny is almost certain to become a drunkard, and very likely to be idiotic. As to the frequency of the reproductive act, a variety of opinions have and still do exist; yet nearly all the danger in the case is obviously on the side of excessive indulgence. Solon, the Grecian lawgiver, prescribed three times a month ; Zoroaster, an ancient philosopher, once a week; Mohammed ordained that if any wife was neglected more than a week, it should be cause for a divorce; while an eminent American health-writer has fixed once a week as the maximum, without serious con- stitutional impairment. The most important season of the year for procreation is not a matter of minor im- portance ; and this is clearly indicated by Nature, for both the vegetable and animal world are w’armed into renewed activity and reproduction by the genial rays of a vernal sun; and man is no exception to the great law of nature, for late calves, cats, lambs, pigs, and chick- ens are seldom or never as large, well developed, and vigorous as early, and children born in autumn or win- ter will be found to follow the same law. Fame is the meed of virtuous labor and perseverance. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 125 Industry produces; frugality insures. The Twin Harpies. The two greatest agents of death and destruction in this country at this day, arid which are doing more to destroy the health, stultify the brain, blunt the moral sensibilities, empty the pockets, and make wreck and ruin of the American people, physically, mentally, mor- ally, and financially, than all others combined, are tobacco and alcohol; and so completely do they co-operate and harmonize in their work of death and ruin, that they well deserve the appellation of the caption of this article. These two great national scourges act upon the human organism principally in opposite directions, but alter- nately play a very active part in the service of each other, in the delusion and ruin of their victims. The immediate effects of tobacco are, first, to depress or lessen the intensity of the vital forces, to be ultimately followed by a corresponding excitement; while those of alcohol are, first, to stimulate or increase the intensity of the vital functions, to be followed by a corresponding de- pression—the former being a narcotic stimulant, and the latter a stimulant narcotic. Now, in their practical effects upon the system, the tobacco first depresses the functions of life, and produces a hollow, languid, sink- ing, “ gone sensation; ” and at this stage the alcohol steps in and affords a temporary relief for this condition — the former beginning the work of ruin and death, and the latter completing it; and by this alternate choking by the one and strangulation by the other, as it were, the victim is wheedled out of his health, and ultimately out of his life, without even a suspicion as to the real cause. Good deeds cost less than evil ones, and are worth much more. 126 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Gossiping and lying go hand in hand. The Best Doctors. Doctors diet, quiet, contentment, cheerfulness, clean- liness, temperance, and exercise are unquestionably the best in the profession; and there are no drugs to swal- low nor bills to pay The Apple. Considering the great extent of territory in which it thrives and is perfected, the certainty and abundance of the crop, the long period through which it can be pre- served for use, the great variety of ways in which it can be converted into food, and its ease of digestion and nutritive qualities, the apple is unquestionably the most valuable of all the fruits, if not more so than all the rest combined; and is to other fruits wliat the po- tato is to other vegetables. Sterility. Woman is naturally sterile, or incapable of fecunda- tion, before puberty, during most of the last half of her menstrual month, after the cessation of the menstrual flux from age, and also during lactation and pregnancy, and often unnaturally so between puberty and the final cessation of the catamenia, although there are occasional exceptions to all but the last. Cases are on record of conception before menstruation. Some females will conceive any time between their monthly fluxes. Cases are known in which women have borne children many years after the complete cessation of the monthly flux from age. Conception during lactation is not uncom- mon ; and it is said there are well authenticated cases of superfoetation, or of conception wdiile already pregnant. As to sterility proper — that is, between puberty and Reason and good sense should decide all things. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 127 Great designs require great considerations. the natural cessation of the catamenia — very little is positively known of a practical or useful nature, although a few simple facts may aid those suffering from this misfortune. If a woman have no children during the first three years of her married life, there is but one chance in thirteen that she will ever have any. The age of a woman at the time of her marriage has much to do with her prolificacy ; for those married between twenty and twenty-four not only bear more children in the aggregate, but sooner begin to bear, than either those married earlier or later in life. Marriages under twen- ty-one are usually more prolific than those over twenty- five ; and from fifteen to twenty, one in every eight is sterile; while from twenty to twenty-four nearly all are fruitful; and after twenty-five the chances for offspring diminish with the age. A woman who has had children, and ceases for three years, will not be likely to bear any more, and the prospect diminishes with the lapse of time. After the first child, in cases where females con- tinue to be fertile, births will occur, on an average, once in about twenty months. More children are born in warm than in cold climates; and, in the latter, more in spring and summer than in autumn and winter. The rich and fashionable are less fruitful than the hardy and industrious poor and middling classes; and the former would often gladly change their ease and pleasure for the honor of a mother. In cases of sterility, the female is nearly always supposed to be in fault; hut this is not so; for many husbands, though vigorous and enjoying good health, are absolutely sterile. Among the direct causes of sterility may be mentioned, first, frigidity, or coldness and indifference between the parties; secondly, Great events give great scope for great virtues. 128 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Income is often uncertain; outgoes, certain. excessive indulgence, inducing debility in the parties; thirdly, a displacement of the womb, from corset-lacing or other silly practices; and, fourthly, a too intense or ardent passion, or a too great indifference, on the part of the female. The Guardians of Health. Why is it that we so very seldom hear a word from medical men as to diet, bathing, and the laws of health, when we are well ? Have they nothing to do with dis- ease but to give drugs ? Why are they not endeavoring to stay the swelling torrent of disease and death by the diffusion of knowledge among the masses ? Is it wise or just, for those who claim to be the guardians of the public health, to limit their labors to drugs alone, and sit with folded arms on easy chairs and sofas, while a world around them is dropping into eternity for want of knowledge to save themselves ? To hope for great phys- ical reform from the mass of the medical profession seems as futile as to attempt to annihilate the Mississippi by baling at the waters of its mouth. An eminent medical professor once said to his class, in a lecture, “ our busi- ness is to give drugs ; health is a matter which concerns the people;” and can the general prevalence of this sentiment in the profession account for their obvious in- difference to the subjects of the health and hygiene, and their dogged adhesion to drugs and drugging ? Keep the Head Cool. Dr. McNish, of Edinburg, says, “ On retiring, the stock or cravat should be removed, and the collar of the shirt or night-dress unbuttoned, to give free circulation to and from the head, and every part of the body freed Great gifts make bold beggars. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 129 Grudge not another what you cannot attain. from all restraint; and as keeping the head cool is one of the great fundamental rules of health, nothing should be worn upon it at night.” Dr. Willich says, “ A cover- ing for the head at night is a very unnatural dress, and prepares the head for frequent colds at every change of temperature; produces weakness of the head, pains, erup- tions, local plethora, fulness of the bloodvessels, prema- ture loss of hair, lethargy, stupor, and, in extreme cases, even insanity itself.” And the practice of putting caps upon infants, and placing the head thus muffled on feath- er pillows in a crib or cradle, is but little better than outright infanticide, and has sent millions of innocents to an untimely grave. Dangers of Tobacco. Investigations upon a very extensive scale, into the habits of men who have become drunkards, have settled the point, beyond all earthly doubt, that their appetites for strong drink were created and made clamorous and ungovernable by the use of tobacco, the depressing in- fluences of which upon the nervous system being such as to call loudly for some stimulant as an offset for this depression. And statistics by the chaplain of the Au- burn State Prison, in the year 1854, developed the startling fact, that out of six hundred male convicts in that prison, convicted of crimes committed while par- tially or ravingly drunk, five hundred, by their own confession, had the desire for strong drink awakened in them so powerfully as to be ungovernable by the previ- ous use of tobacco. And Dr. J. C. Jackson, an eminent medical practitioner and writer, says, “ I have never known, in all my inquiries and researches, a single man, Great plans and small means ruin thousands. 130 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The base envy merit; the noble emulate it. who was an habitual user of alcoholic liquors, who was not a tobacco user also; and I have never heard of but one habitual drunkard who had never used tobacco.” Marrying Cousins. Few points connected with human existence have been more thoroughly canvassed than this, and so strong has been the popular feeling against the custom, in some localities, that laws have been enacted prohibiting mar- riage within certain degrees of consanguinity. The objections have been, that the wife of such unions is more apt to be sterile; the children more likely to be born defective, either in mind or body; that deformities or idiocy are more likely to occur; and that the progeny is more exposed to attacks of serious disease which may have existed in their ancestors, and to premature deaths, than in cases where no consanguinity existed between the parties. It has long been known, and is nothing new, that in localities where the population is stationary, and which have very little influx of new settlers, and where the inhabitants have continued to intermarry for several generations in succession, — as in many back and secluded localities in New England,—the progeny become deteriorated both in mind and body, dwindle down in bulk and stature, and are much more subject to attacks of fatal chronic disease, as cancer, consumption, and scrofula, than in a rapidly changing population, where the blood is often crossed by marriage with strangers from distant parts; and this fact fully covers all the ob- jections, and all that is claimed, against the marriage of cousins and other degrees of consanguinity. And this deterioration has nothing to do with the consanguinity Abundance brings trouble ; competence, delight. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 131 A chaste eye repels licentious looks. of the parties, but is caused by an ill adaptation of tem- peraments and the presence of disease, which, by repe- tition in marriage, in connection with gross dietetic and hygienic abuses persevered in through several genera- tions, ultimately produces these effects, which are erro- neously attributed to the consanguinity of the parties. For we hold it to be an incontrovertible fact, amply sustained by practical observation and statistical reports, that in every instance where the temperaments of the parties are congenial, and no disease is present in them, the offspring will be hale, vigorous, and long lived, regardless of the consanguinity of the parents; and further, that there are thousands of first cousins who are infinitely better adapted to a matrimonial union than are thousands of others who marry out of consan- guinity. The whole matter at issue, therefore, is the temperament and health of the parties, and when these are right, cousins need have no misgivings in marrying, so far as progeny is concerned; and even when these conditions are not right, they are no worse off' than those out of consanguinity with the same conditions present. It is said that such unions produce sterility ; but statistics show that, while out of consanguinity, one woman in every eight is sterile; in it but one in every ten is thus affected; and as to deaths in children, while fifteen on an average die under seven years of age, out of consan- guinity only twelve die within that age, in nearly-related families. As to consanguinity being productive of con- sumption, idiocy, etc., of a thousand idiots examined in Paris, not one was from healthy consanguinity, and of a thousand cases of consumption investigated by Dr. A voluntary burden weighs not heavily. 132 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He toils in vain who aims to please all. Edward Smith, of London, but six only were the pro- duct of consanguinity of parents. Boils. These are simply one of Nature’s means of curing or preventing disease; and when several of them spring up together, or near each other, they are called carbuncles, and are much more dangerous than ordinary boils, espe- cially in those of feeble constitutions. The presence of boils is by no means indicative of good health, but shows an impure state of the blood, usually an excess of bile in it, and that nature, as in all other cases of dis- ease, is battling for the integrity of the organism, and proposes to remove the offending cause in this way. The most that can be done for boils is to keep the sur- face moist by some soft, wet poultice, often changed, and confine the diet to brown wheaten bread, ripe raw fruit, berries, and simple vegetables, avoiding all meats, grease, sweets, and alcoholic and fermented liquors. Adulterated Wines. Wines that become sour, and consequently not mer- chantable, if sweetened with any ordinary saccharine matter, soon turn sour again; and to obviate this, sugar of lead (acetate of lead), an active poison, is added, which imparts to the liquor a permanent sweetish metallic taste. The “ Moral Reformer” states that an ingenious chem- ist has detected sugar of lead enough in one bottle of wine, if taken at once in a concentrated form, to produce death ; and yet this is the popular and fashionable drink the world over, in aristocratic life. Hasty conclusions often speed ruin. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 133 Great sins demand great repentance. A Caution. Red sealing-wax, as well as red wafers, contains red oxide of lead, an active poison, and should not, there- fore, ever be placed in the mouth. Exhaustion and Recuperation. The common idea, that an active man of nervous and highly-wrought temperament, needs less sleep and rest than one of a more phlegmatic make, is wholly an error; for it is plain that the former will expend more life- power in a given time than the latter; and there is no evidence that he will recuperate from the exhaustion of a given period of labor any sooner than the latter from an equal one. The nervous man, when exhausted, from whatever cause, often finds it difficult to induce sleep, and even when he has, sleeps unsoundly, wakes easily, and, after his usual allotted time of repose, frequently feels jaded and indisposed to action, and is much more likely, than any other make of man, to resort to the use of alcoholic liquor as a temporary relief or substitute for defective recuperation ; while the more dull and phleg- matic man falls asleep readily, sleeps soundly and un- interruptedly, and awakes refreshed and renewed, and needs no artificial stimulus or sedative to put his organ- ism in working condition. Observation will abundantly prove that but very rarely, comparatively, does a slug- gish, lymphatic man resort to alcoholic drinks or nar- cotics of any sort from exhaustion, or as a substitute for a loss of vital power produced by over-action. Fully three-fourths of all our drunkards, nearly all of the im- mense army of opium-eaters, nine-tenths of the insane, and most of those who become victims to narcotic drug- The arrogant and conceited are unworthy of good counsel. 134 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Hearts may agree, though hands differ. medication, are either of the nervous or nervous-san- guine temperament. And why should these classes be generally of the nervous temperament, if, as usually supposed, it recuperates sooner, and requires less sleep and rest than the grosser temperaments? The cause seems to be plain: they are more active, expend more vitality in a given time, and recover more slowly than the lymphatic; and the wear and tear to which they subject their systems, in connection with errors in diet and other violations of the laws of health, cannot be compensated for in the time usually allotted to sleep; and hence a resort is had to stimulants and narcotics to compensate for the deficient sleep and rest. The nerv- ous and highly organized, therefore, should be espec- ially vigilant, in the first place, not to overdo — their greatest danger; and, in the next place, they should make it a point to retire early, and sleep much and soundly, and give themselves full opportunity to recover from fatigue, without resort to such transitory and un- reliable substitutes as artificial stimulants and narcotics. Active, nervous children, also, with large heads and slender bodies, should by all means retire at nightfall, regularly, and rise with the rising of the sun at latest, or they cannot be fully developed. The Pores. The skin of an average-sized adult contains about sixteen and a half superficial feet, or 2500 square inches; arid we are told by physiologists that every square inch contains 2800 pores, making in the aggregate 7,000,000 of pores. Now the office of each one of these little out- lets is to remove impurities from the body by either Give the tongue more holidays than the eyes or hands. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 135 He gives twice that gives in a trice. insensible or sensible perspiration, which they will always do, unless they become closed up by a cold or filth; hence the immense importance that they should be kept clean by frequent ablutions, and promptly opened by perspiration in case of a cold, as the latter in this country, especially in the colder and more variable portions, is believed to be the first or proximate cause of seven-eighths of all the disease which afflicts the land. Narcotics. These are agents which have the power of stupefying and diminishing the activity and sensibility of the ner- vous system; most of them having a more or less stim- ulating power at first, especially when given in small doses, but when given in full doses the narcotic effect is produced at once. All narcotics are more or less actively poisonous, contain no perceptible nutriment, and expend their power exclusively upon the nervous system, which, when they are habitually used, they 'prematurely exhaust and wear out. To this class belong, hemlock (cicuta), opium, henbane, belladonna, aconite, stramonium, cam- phor, tobacco, digitalis, alcohol, ether, nux-vomica, leop- ard’s-bane, hops, lettuce, tea, coffee, hyoscyamus, etc. Posture in Bed. The position of the body while in bed is a matter of no small importance, first, on account of preserving the temperature of the body; and, secondly, in order to secure the best position of the internal organs; and few com- paratively seem to have any correct ideas in relation to it. As to preserving the temperature of the body, we all know that the only natural source of heat is the circula- tion of the blood, and the more freely this goes on, the To give in time doubles the gift. 136 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He is idle who might be better employed. higher and more uniform will be the temperature of the body; and as every crook or flexure of a limb or part does more or less impede the course of the blood, the nearer straight we lie while in bed, other things being equal, the warmer we shall be. One lies more naturally, breathes more freely, fully, and easily, sleeps less dream- ingly, and more soundly, and is less liable to be awa- kened by accidental causes while lying upon the back,' than in any other position ; and as to this position giv- ing rise to “ nightmare,” that is only a popular whim, for this affection is not due to this or any other position, but to the condition of the organs caused by previous bad habits. As regards the influence of position on the internal organs of the body, first, the spinal cord, ex- tending the whole length of the back, is inclosed in the backbone, and gives off large branches of nerves upon each side of it, which are distributed over a very great portion of the body; and by habitually lying upon the back this whole region is kept warm, the circulation free, and consequently the distribution of blood, warmth, and nervous energy to the body from this great centre, is more active and energetic than it otherwise could be. Secondly, a person will sleep much warmer, with less clothing, upon the back than in any other position ; and, thirdly, the various organs of the body, stomach, liver, lungs, bowels, etc., while in a dorsal position, are held in a more natural and healthy condition than in any other recumbent posture. In this position there is no undue pressure upon any organ or part, no displacement of any muscle, tegument, or tendon, and all the organs being just where and as nature intended them. But in lying upon the side the subjacent organs must support the Indolence and indigence are brothers. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 137 He who sows brambles must not go barefooted. weight of those above, which in some cases of disease, if not in health, may prove fatal. Favoring Prolificacy. Although very little of a real practical and useful nature is known in cases of unnatural sterility, yet the little which is known upon this point may be of use to some. 1. Lying upon a bed made of sponge has been de- clared to be of decided benefit in such cases, both by ancient and modern authorities. 2. Sleeping upon a bed made of hemlock boughs, in- cluding the small green leaves, has long had a well- known reputation for the same purpose; and the effluvia arising from pine-trees is said to exert a very positive influence upon the prolificacy of females, as those resid- ing in or near pine forests are always blessed with large families. 3. The novelty arising from the separation of the parties for a time, with strict continence on the part of the husband, and chastity on the part of the- wife, is well known to be very favorable to conception. 4. Quiescence and repose in bed after the reproductive act is decidedly favorable, and strongly recommended by good authorities. 5. As to the most favorable time for conception, in view of the menstrual flux, it is now a well established fact that immediately before or after that event, say two or three days before and after, the female is more ex- posed than at any other time. 6. The breasts and the womb are bound together by very close and strong sympathies, so much so that what- Those who live in glass houses must not throw stones. 138 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A hasty man fishes in an empty pond. ever excites one does the other; and the application of a strong infant, the breast-pump, or warm fomentations to the breasts, during three or four days before menstrua- tion, has the sanction of the best authorities. 7. Agitation of the body, as in a hard wagon, or horseback-riding carried to the point of fatigue, has fre- quently eventuated in concej)tion. One great objection to the use of malt liquors is the large per cent, of alcohol which they contain; but we are told that in Great Britain the brewers remove the alcohol from the beer, and supply the narcotic, which it afforded to the beer, with opium, henbane, nux-vomica, cocculus indicus, Bohemian rosemary, tobacco, and other very powerful and intoxicating agents infinitely worse than alcohol itself. Whatever motives may prevail in England to induce such a murderous course, may we not justly inquire are not the same motives present in this country ? and have we any guarantee that they are not constantly in active operation here as well as in Great Britain ? Dangerous Adulterations. Woman Physically. Women sometimes charge men with dwarfing her body, and stinting and starving her intellect, as a sort of apology for her present bodily feebleness and physical degradation; but is not this entirely a gratuitous charge ? Whoever knew or heard of a man who did not admire physical development in a woman, and rejoice to see her taking bodily exercise of any graceful and becoming nature? Skating, swimming, horseback-riding, climb- ing hills and mountains, driving horses, scampering over He who is warm thinks all others so. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 139 Greatness builds the tomb, goodness inscribes the epitaph. fields, croquet-playing, light gymnastic exercises, etc., are all innocent and proper pastimes, when household duties are not neglected; and, next to the moral and kindly qualities, they are the very exercises which please man most. So far from man’s desire to dwarf woman’s bodily development, his admiration of the physical graces in her is notorious, often even to the point of the ridiculous; for a rosy-cheeked girl, mounted on horse- back, will be followed by thousands of admiring eyes, through lane, street, and park; while the pale-faced, tied-up, house-poisoned, parlor exquisite, with her piano, would be a very commonplace affair. And a comely, well-developed female skater, cutting up her spread- eagle pranks, excites a thousand times more attention and admiration than a male of the same skill; and rarely will man lavish his encomiums upon woman un- less she has a well-developed body and a graceful, at- tractive physique. And if we cast about for ocular proof on the subject, and take an equal number of mar- ried and single ladies, of equal age, we shall find the former, on an average, to be much the better developed and attractive, physically, even though the latter may excel in intellectual and scholastic attainments; showing conclusively that men fully appreciate the physical graces, and are mainly controlled by them in the choice of a wife; for whoever knew a well-developed, large, and healthy girl to live to be an old maid, except from choice? The great misfortune with our girls of this age, matrimonially, is, that they are dwindled down and dwarfed to children’s stature, with next to no vigor or powers of endurance, and men discover nothing Acquire honestly and disburse frugally. 140 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. The habitual swearer distrusts his own word. in them really attractive, interesting, or valuable; and hence the frightfully rapid increase of celibacy in this country during the past quarter of a century. If, in- stead of painting, lacing, padding, etc., our females would expend the same time and means in improving their health, bulk, stature, muscles, vigor, and bodily endur- ance, they would readily be sought for and solicited as wives by the thousands of worthy men who are now living a life of unwilling single blessedness (?) through fear of marrying a slender, delicate, feeble, complaining female, who is sure to make his condition worse rather than better. Albumen. “Albumen,” says Liebig, “is the starting-point of all the tissues of the body; and all unorganized articles of food, whether derived from the animal or vegetable kingdom, must first be converted into it before they can take part in nutrition, which is proved from the phe- nomenon of incubation, where the entire animal tissues are derived from the albumen of the white and yolk of the egg, with the addition only of air and a very small quantity of oily matter. Out of this albumen, therefore, must be formed muscle, blood, cellular tissue, membrane, blood-vessels, claws, feathers, etc.” An Underrated Evil. Whether viewed physically, mentally, morally, financially, or religiously, the use of tea and coffee in this country is a huge national evil, and their entire disuse would prove an immense national blessing. It would Tree the devotees of these long-loved and long- worshipped poisons from the galling servitude to which Avoiding temptation is avoiding sin. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 141 If you swim in sin, you will sink in sorrow. they haye so long submitted, and give to them that unrestrained moral freedom which they inherited by nature. It would greatly improve the tone, vigor, elasticity, and life-powers, and give the declining health of thousands an upward tendency. It would save a vast amount of anxiety and perplexity to the user on many occasions, when these articles cannot be had ready prepared. It would greatly diminish the labor and solicitude of the housewife in the prepa- ration of the ordinary meal. It would prove a great source of domestic economy, by reducing the usual family expenditure; and, what is infinitely more im- portant than all else, it would prove an inestimable blessing, not only to parents and heads of families and their children, but also to future generations, by giving them more life, more bodily vigor, more stamina, and greater longevity, and thereby add to the sum total of human existence. And he who has the firmness of mind, decision of character, and moral independence to abandon their use, and face the popular current of cor- ruption, will have the lieart-felt satisfaction of knowing that he has contributed his mite to dry up one of the great and destructive tributaries to that boundless ocean of intemperance, disease, and death which is annually swallowing up millions of the human family. Artificial Lights. Many scientific men have entertained serious doubts as to the use of artificial lights at all; so far as their effects upon the eye are concerned, the light of the sun being the only really natural light. When artificial lights are used, they should be neither too faint and If you would reap well, you must sow well. 142 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. God is always with the true reformer. feeble, nor too strong and brilliant, but simply give ease to the vision without any unpleasant sensation, and always be shaded. If the American people continue the use of powerful coal-oil burners without shades, as at present, they will soon become a nation of diseased eyes from that cause, as the Germans now are from their ex- cessive use of lager and tobacco. Taking Life. The destruction of innocent animals for food involves great cruelty, and always instinctively causes the sensi- tive and cultivated mind to recoil, and has a more or less hardening and stultifying effect upon all, especially upon the young. For the same child, who at first would have shuddered and revolted with horror at the very thought of taking the life of any animal, by becoming familiar with such acts, soon not only loses all aversion to them, but appears to enjoy them, and even exhibits a desire to participate in them. And it is to the destruction of in- nocent and inoffensive domestic animals for food, and the consequent callous and blunting influences which follow upon the sensibilities of the young, that we are to attribute that rough, unfeeling, inhuman, and cruel cast of mind so common in the middling and lower classes of society; and the English law which excludes butchers front serving as jurors in criminal cases is grounded in the influence which the killing of animals produces upon their minds and sensibilities. Economy in Food. Scientific men tell us that the product of one acre of land, as wheat, corn, potatoes, etc., when consumed in the vegetable form, will sustain human life sixteen times The commendation of a knave is little better than knavery. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 143 Hope makes a good breakfast, but a poor supper. longer than when converted into flesh by the fattening process, and used in the form of meat. But if, instead of sixteen to one, only eight to one can be supported upon the same acre of ground, when vegetables are used, and that too in a much better state of health, is it not an enormous sin to continue the use of flesh meats simply as a matter of economy, saying nothing of the wrong and cruelty of taking the lives of innocent animals ? Health versus Delicacy. Many females desire to be thin in flesh, sharp-faced, small, pale, delicate, and nervous, and assign as a reason, not that this condition is really their own choice, but that men prefer such women, and that their interest is to make themselves attractive and agreeable to the other sex. Now a greater mistake than this could hardly be entertained; for in all our life, we have never heard a man express a taste or preference for such a woman ; nor do we believe there is a man of average good sense in the land, who, if left to his own choice, would not pre- fer a plump, stout, ruddy-cheeked, well-developed female to one of the opposite cast; and thousands of single females, who now pine in loneliness, had they never in- terfered with Nature, but aided her, and encouraged a full and natural development of their persons, would now be cheerful wives surrounded by happy families. Why are men, by the score, sending costly presents to Miss Ada Lewis, of Newport, Rhode Island, if not on account of her being a young lady of physical strength, force, daring, and bodily grace? And had she not pos- sessed these qualities, could she have performed the The human blood is all of one color. 144 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Surety for another makes one unsure. daring and almost superhuman feat which she did in saving life ? Again, a young woman went into Iowa, took a farm under the homestead law, and at once went about cultivating it herself with her own hands, and has been persecuted with a rush of matrimonial pro- posals ever since, until at last, in self-defence, she has been obliged to take a husband. And Miss Anna Dickinson also complains grievously that, since she began to earn her own living by lecturing, she has been inundated with offers of marriage. We therefore an- nounce to the girls, one and all, if the attention and lasting esteem of sound and sensible men is what they desire, it is high time they turned dame Fashion, wTith all her silly tuggery, out doors, and invited simple mother Nature to take her place; for pale-faced, delicate women will soon be matrimonially out of fashion, and their places supplied with ruddy faces and plump mus- cles. Pampering and Hardening. These injurious extremes should be carefully avoided by all, especially in the management of children. To over-burden children with clothes causes an unnatural heat and premature development of the body, without corresponding strength and vitality; and to allow their limbs to go naked in spring or cold autumn weathqr, while they are chilled and livid, checks all the vital powers, stints the growth and natural development of the body, and permanently injures the constitution. In cold and variable climates too much attention cannot be had to preserving the normal temperature of the bodies of children; for it is stated by Adam Smith, that in the A fortunate memory forgets wrongs first. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 145 Happy is he who limits his wants to his necessities. highlands of Scotland, where the climate is very severe, mothers, who have borne from ten to fifteen children, often have but one or two living. Short Skirts. “ I take it upon me to say, without fear of successful contradiction, that no woman can habitually wear a long skirted dress and have a healthy, symmetrical body and natural style of walking. When ladies come to me for medical treatment, broken down with ill health and suffering from local disease, as hundreds of them do every year, their own voluntary testimony is, that when the short skirt is substituted for the long one, they do not know what to do with their legs. Some say they feel as if they should fly, or as though their specific gravity had suddenly become less than the air, so that they Avould float. Others say they do not know how to walk; that their support has been taken away; and that they feel like a man brought before a large audience, upon a broad, open rostrum, who had been in the habit of speaking behind a breastwork called a pulpit—he would not know wliat to do with his legs, as their entire exposure would wholly disconcert him.” — J. C. Jack- son, A.M., M.D. Fat and Disease. In speaking of non-nitrogenizecl foods — gnm, sugar, starch, etc. — which do not enter into the formation of the tissues of the body, but go to sustain animal heat, Liebig says, “All the remainder” (not thus consumed in the production of heat,) “ is employed in the formation of a substance which, in the normal (natural) state of the animal, is only found in very small quantities in the' The flattered soon learn to flatter themselves. 146 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Idleness is the sepulchre of the living. brain and nervous system. This substance is fat.” If, then, fat, in the healthy or “ normal ” condition of the animal is only found in very small quantities in the brain and nerves, of course its presence in any other part of the body, even in small quantities, much more in large, is unmistakable evidence of disease; and that too in proportion to the extent of its deposition in the body. What then shall we say of the condition of the body of a “ full-fatted ” swine, at least three-fourths of which is pure (?) lard or fat? According to the great German chemist, th'e very best authority, all the fat formed in the body, excepting that found in the brain and nerves, is abnormal, or the result of diseased action. Minor Vices. A New York paper states that there are in that city 100,000 men who take at least one drink a day, at ten cents each, amounting in the aggregate to $10,000, and for cigars and tobacco ten cents more each, making a total of $20,000 a day, $140,000 a week, $560,000 a month, and $6,720,000 a year—all for drinking, smoking, and chewing, which, so far from doing any good, debili- tate the body, stultify the brain, diminish the moral sensibilities, ruin the health, shorten existence, and lessen the aggregate amount of real enjoyment in life. Shades and Curtains. The very common practice of shading windows with blinds or curtains, whether occupied or not, excepting for a very short time at once, when especially needed, is to say the least a very useless and injurious custom. The light of the sun has a very actively purifying in- fluence upon the air of the room, and should not, ordi- Indolence is the parent of want and shame. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 147 Superstition and ignorance go hand in hand. narily, be excluded from our dwellings. It is a matter of common knowledge, that both plants and animals, with everything else in their favor, deprived of sunlight, grow pale, long, slender, and never come to maturity, and seldom are capable of perpetuating their species; and the light of the sun is just as necessary within our dwellings as in the open air without. Complexion, Teeth, etc. The habitual use of flesh meats, especially fat meats, has a very unfavorable effect upon the complexion, rendering the skin coarse, rough, pimply, and gives to it a greasy, shining appearance. The cheek may be plump and ruddy; but it is not the genuine red of health, and resembles more that of the dram-drinker, and arises from the same cause—over-stimulation. Ex- cessive flesh eaters nearly always have a very bad breath, arising from the morbid condition of the fluids of the body ; and the perspiration also, especially if copious, has a very depressing and most offensive odor. The English, Irish, Scotch, Germans, and most other for- eigners, from the middling classes of Europe, who use very little meat at home, almost always have good teeth when they land upon our shores, but in a few years after adopting our flesh diet they become as bad as ours. Probably no one will pretend that these are in any sense of the term articles of food, but only stimulants or excitants, intended to give a keen relish to the meal. The articles of which they are usually made are crude, immature, or unripe substances, containing no nutriment, are wholly indigestible, and more or less injurious to all Pickles. If you swell in prosperity, you will shrink in adversity. 148 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. A profligate youth insures a wretched old age. stomachs, and highly so to most of them ; and, to add to their other deleterious qualities, the vessels in which they and the vinegar are kept are usually earthen, the glazing of which is composed of preparations from lead or arsenic, which is readily acted upon by the vinegar, and both in time become impregnated with the poison. These facts, in connection with the usual practice of “ greening pickles,” by scalding them in brass kettles, and imbibing therefrom verdigris — an active poison — ought to be sufficient to deter every thinking person from the use of such crude, poisonous, and worthless articles of food. Ancient Longevity. Lucian, the Greek writer, says, “ Those who are tem- perate in all things, and take the best care of their minds and bodies, have the best health, are the most happy, and live the longest; and gives the following as samples of extreme temperance and abstinence in connection with extreme longevity. Hippocrates, 109 years ; Empadocles, 109; Georgius, 107; Xenopliilus, 105; Pythagoras, 100; Xeno, 98; Laertius, 90; Diogenes and Phyro, 90. And in contrast with these may be mentioned the names Apicius, Claudius, Nero, Yitellius, and Heliogabalus, wThose awful lives and horrible deaths furnish frightful examples of intemperance, gluttony, and rioting. Water. The legitimate use of water as a beverage is to allay thirst and dilute the fluids of the body, to afford a free and easy circulation, and enable them to permeate every part of it; and there is no evidence in nature that the Creator intended it for any other purpose in the animal He who lays up nothing is on the way to beggary. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 149 If you say wh&t you please, you will hear what will displease. economy. And all the medical and scientific world will readily admit that water is far better adapted to these two purposes than any other fluid in existence; and if so, it follows, as an inevitable consequence, that its quali- ties must be deteriorated, for the use of man, by any additions to or mixtures with it. Hence all alcoholic and fermented liquors, with all tea and coffee slops, and every other compound of water, as a beverage, are only adulterations of water, rendering it less fit for man than when in its pure state. Food and Habits of Animals. The flesh of wild animals, as the deer, is devoid of fat, because they are free to roam the forests, breathe ex- tensively, and take in large quantities of oxygen by respiration, which consumes materials that would other- wise go to the formation of fat, all of which is perfectly natural; while the flesh of the pent - up or stall - fed animal is covered with fat, for want of this very activity, rapid consumption of air, and free use of oxygen. A pig fed freely on highly nitrogenized food — as pease, beans, lentils, the flesh of animals, etc. — becomes full of flesh, or muscle, and has little fat; but when fed on non-nitrogenized food — potatoes, cabbage, turnips, etc.— he becomes grossly fat, with small muscles or little flesh proper. The milk of stall-fed cows is rich in butter, a species of fat, because they are deprived of the activity necessary to consume it by active respiration, but has little cheese, while the milk of those fed upon fresh grass contains more cheese and less butter. In the hu- man female, also, a farinaceous diet containing freely of gum, starch, sugar, fat, etc., increases the proportion of Let not riches elate, nor poverty depress. 150 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. It is easier to study when young, than to be igndrant when old. butter in milk, while a diet of animal food diminishes the quantity of milk and butter in it, but increases the proportion of casein or cheese. Limiting Progeny. That there is such a thing as over-production, or hav- ing too many children for one’s bodily health and con- dition in life, seems not only obvious but self-evident to all; for the great bane and curse of all civilized nations at this day is the production of progeny beyond the means of education and support; and every intelligent physician, in active practice, can bear daily and ample testimony to its manifold evils both upon mothers and children. In the first place, excessive child-bearing de- bilitates and prematurely breaks down the health of females, and almost always entails upon them a series of the most distressing complaints, from which they very seldom wholly recover in after-life, even after the period of child-bearing ceases. Secondly, children born in too rapid succession are very subject to rickets and idiocy, and are nearly always small, puny, sickly, very suscept- ible to morbific agents, and usually die young. If man were reasonable and considerate in his idea of the sexual relations, and would regulate his dietetic habits to the disuse of all alcoholic and fermented liquors, tea, coffee, tobacco, and flesh meats, so that he could control his animal passions, and then place the reproductive func- tion under the dominion of the judgment and will, this enormous crying sin would cease from a cessation of the cause; but no ideas of any removal of the cause have ever yet appeared; and drugs, preventives, and abortions — remedies, if possible, worse than the evil — seem to be the Youth is the seed-time; middle and old age, the harvest. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 151 If counsel is good, no matter who gave it. extent of intellectual vision in this dilution. It is use- less for moralists and theologians to declaim against the present disastrous means in use to prevent excessive pro- lificacy; for when a physical neglect eventuates in a moral evil, the only way to remedy the evil is to remove the neglect; and in this instance, excessive indulgence and over-prolificacy are the neglect, and drugs, preven- tives, and abortion the evil. It is true that Nature has, to some extent, and doubtless in her wise economy amply, provided against over-production, for during lac- tation and pregnancy, and also during most of the last half of each menstrual month, woman is naturally sterile ; but this is not adequate to morbid passions goaded on by stimulating drinks and a heating flesh diet, with rich, exciting condiments which fire up the whole organism; and hence this mammoth national curse prevails every- where. As to the one thousand and one different means now in use, all claiming to be “ infallible,” with one exception they are all inefficient, unreliable, and worth- less, most of them more or less injurious, and many of them positively dangerous ; and the annual mortality of females in this country from this cause alone is truly horrifying. Important Functions. Aerification. — That function of the body, chiefly of the lungs, by which the blood is purified by the due admixture of the oxygen of the air received into the body through the lungs. Circulation. — The distribution of the blood to all parts of the body, by means of the heart, arteries, and veins, for the support of the system. There is not an ounce of love in a ton of law. 152 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Ignorance is the parent of vice and misery. Innervation. — The supply of nervous energy from the brain and spinal chord to all parts of the body, imparting to it life, motion, and sensibility. Digestion. — The conversion of food, by the process of digestion, into the various parts of the human body; as blood, flesh, bone, membrane, hair, nerves, nails, etc. Secretion. — The separation from the blood, by each part of the body, of such materials as are necessary for its own support, by which means the body is constantly renewed and sustained. Elimination. — Including urination, defoecation, and perspiration, is that process in the animal economy by which effete, worn-out, useless, and poisonous matters are constantly being removed from the system, or death would speedily ensue. Decarbonization. — That process in the human system by which the surplus or useless carbon of the body is thrown off, mostly by the lungs, liver, and skin. Calorification. — The development of heat in the capillaries of the human body by the union of the oxygen of the blood with the carbon and hydrogen of the same fluid. Insalivation. — The due admixture of the saliva of the mouth with the food during mastication, without which there can be no healthy digestion. Wealth. Two important ideas in relation to wealth are obvious to all; first, that great riches are neither necessary nor adequate to human happiness; and, secondly, that they do not secure the prosperity of nations any more than they do individuals or families; for more know how to Ingratitude dries up the fountain of goodness. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 153 Ignorance is a voluntary misfortune. accumulate property than know how to enjoy it; and we are always happier while accumulating a fortune than we are after we retire to spend it and enjoy it. Personal happiness depends not upon wealth, but upon health and temperance; and the naked fact, that rich families left to themselves soon degenerate, and ulti- mately come to naught, shows how great a physical viola- tion of nature the accumulation of great wealth is. And a great and good man once, in a public lecture, before an immense audience, in enumerating the misfortunes and afflictions of his life, closed by thanking God that amid all of them He had not seen fit to afflict him with the curses of being a rich man’s son. Period of Development. The old adage of “ Late ripe, late rotten,” and the reverse, is sustained by the naturalist Buffon, who states that those who are slow in arriving at maturity or per- fection have a much better prospect for longevity than those who are physically precocious; which is also true in the vegetable kingdom, as seen in the apple and pear compared with the peach. An individual may reach his maximum stature at sixteen or eighteen years of age, and yet his bodily organism may not be perfected and consolidated until thirty; and such are much more likely to live to ninety or a hundred than those who reach maturity at twenty or twenty-five; for a prema- ture growth and development are very likely to be fol- lowed by a premature decay and dissolution. An aug- mentation of size or growth after middle age is not a natural development, but an unnatural accumulation of fat, a useless and cumbersome addition of material, with- If you desire a thing done, do it yourself; if not, employ some one to do it. 154 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Bad examples are like a contagious disease. out proportionate strength and vigor, which is in no way favorable to health or longevity. The presence of sound teeth in middle age is good evidence of a healthy osse- ous structure throughout the system, and is partly due to hereditary influences and partly to correct hygienic habits in childhood and youth. Producing Beautiful Children. The influence of external objects upon the mind of the female in time of utero-gestation, has long been known, even as far back as the scripture days of Jacob and Laban, when the former so shrewdly increased his flocks, at the expense of the latter, by placing spotted sticks before the pregnant animals while they were feeding and drinking. And the ancient Greeks also, a people noted for their beauty and symmetry of person, were well aware of the value and importance of mental influence upon the female during pregnancy; for they were lavish of beautiful statuary and paintings in their apartments, and guarded as to any unfavorable impres- sions made upon the mind of the female at this time. And even the tyrant Dionysius, of Sicily, as early as 366 before Christ, was not ignorant of the maternal in- fluence upon the unborn infant; for he caused a portrait of the beautiful Jason to be suspended before his bridal bed, that he might secure a beautiful offspring; and it is a well-known fact, that children born in cities, even of the same parents, although not usually as hardy and healthy, are more beautiful, comely, and finer made than those born in the country. The very marked difference in the appearance of different children of the same parents, is accounted for from the varying condition of Bad weeds grow rapidly. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 155 Ill-will never speaks well of any one. the parents at the time of conception,— each physical, mental, or sensational change in the parents producing corresponding changes in the offspring; for twins always closely resemble each other. Building-Sites. The sanitary influences of a residence and its sur- roundings is a matter of much more importance to health and longevity than has usually been supposed; and this is equally as true of it internally as externally. A dwelling may be favorably situated as to all of its external conditions of air, light, shade, sun, malarious influences, etc., and still be very defective in most of its internal arrangements of light, ventilation, drainage, decaying matter, etc. To be healthy, a residence should not only stand upon an eminence, but the ground-floor should be at least three feet above the surface of the surrounding soil, and the bottom of the cellar-windows never below the ground, so as to afford free ventilation through from opposite sides. A thoroughly sanitary residence is a matter of immense importance to the pro- gress of health and longevity, and a subject yet to receive due attention. Effects of Marriage, etc. The history of past generations has proved that the social relations are decidedly favorable to health, lon- gevity, and morality. It has been found in all countries, that a vast majority of those who have attained the greatest age have been married; and that single men and women, on an average, do not live as long as the married, nor are they as free from disease. The pros- pects for longevity, on the whole, are better — the bad Where there is a will there is a way. 156 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Imitate, but never counterfeit, a good man. effects of fashion excepted — for young ladies than for young men ; because the former are temperate, so far as smoking and drinking are concerned, while a vast ma- jority of the latter at this day are steeped in whiskey and tobacco. Professional politicians are usually short- lived, because their habits are irregular and bad, and they prematurely exhaust and wear themselves out by over-exertion to carry both men and measures. Specu- lators and rabid reformers, like politicians, abridge their lives by over-anxiety and excitement, and exces- sive demands upon their vital powers. Systematic, regular habits in both sexes, old or young, and in every situation and department of life, are among the most reliable and important elements of health and longevity. Alternation. Long life cannot be attained by working wholly and uninterruptedly any one class of organs; for alternate labor and rest to every part is a fundamental law of our being; and where life is either all work or all play, the indications of good health and long life will seldom be present. Business and Health. The business or avocation which one follows doubt- less has much to do with health, but, excepting a few trades which are known to be injurious, not as much as is usually supposed. Inhaling fine and almost impal- pable dust from grindstones, flouring-mills, and marble cutting, fumes of sulphur or burning charcoal, with all fetid and noxious gases, etc., are highly injurious to the lungs, and shorten life as well as glass-blowing and playing upon wind instruments. Inconstancy accompanies a weak mind. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED 157 Immodest words have no excuse. The Abdomen. A very large and protruding abdomen is adverse to health, for, if not loaded with fat, it is apt to be distended either with flatus or an undue quantity of fluids. And in most such cases, a slight exertion is attended with great fatigue, rapid respiration, and quickened pulse, which speedily diminish vital force, and tend to a sud- den loss of consciousness, terminating as apoplexy. In some cases of very large abdomen, the individual dies in his chair, or falls down dead without any apparent indisposition whatever — the arteries, in such cases, car- rying blood to the brain faster than it is removed by the veins ; and in nearly all cases of over-grown abdo- men, congestion of the brain may be anticipated, if the individual over-stimulate or suddenly contract intem- perate habits. Life Items. A full, strong, and regular pulse is an excellent indi- cation of a strong hold on life. The habitual use of the narcotics — tea, coffee, tobacco, liquors, opium, etc. — de- range the action of the heart, and are among the most frequent causes of heart disease, which has steadily kept pace with the use of these agents. Young women may have irregular pulse, and even intermitting pulse, and still not be diseased. Childbirth temporarily deranges the pulse; but this is no disease, nor indication of it. On an average of extremes, those women who have borne the greatest number of children live longer than those who were never mothers; for more females who have reached adult age die from not having been mothers than were ever sacrificed to maternity; and on an average there are Rejected reason raps your knuckles. 158 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Industry is fortune’s right hand ; frugality, her left. more indications of longevity in those who have borne children, than in those who have not. Females with very long necks have shorter chests, and smaller at the base, than those of ordinary length of neck, and are not usually as vigorous and long lived. Disease of the lungs, and a hereditary tendency to consumption, are more common in the tall than in the short. Rather short persons of sound health and good habits, male or female, have better prospects for longevity than tall ones. Fe- males usually have more fat deposited in the areolar tissue, between the skin and muscles, than males, which gives them a plump, rounded, and beautiful contour; but this is by no means a sure indication either of health, longevity, or powers of endurance ; foi* not unfrequently a skinny, muscular woman will far surpass such in all these qualities.' Cradles are nuisances, and should never be used, as their motion deranges the action of the stomach, and is believed to injure the brain. The spine of the infant is nearly all a soft, yielding substance, and when held or carried in the arms, the back should be well supported. When held in the lap or arms, or laid on the bed, infants should be placed alternately upon each side, to prevent distortions and deformities of the head and limbs. Tossing infants up and down, and whirling them around, as is often done by thoughtless mothers and nurses, is a very bad practice; for they are not able to sustain such motions, and accidents may happen. No attempt should ever be made to teach children to walk younger than ten months, and later is better than earlier, Management of Infants. A closed mouth keeps out flies. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 159 Look before you leap. for their limbs are not sufficiently developed to bear their own weight. After they have begun to walk, and for some time after, they should not be allowed to stand but a very short time at once, lest the legs become crooked and deformed from the effort. Digesting Compounds. The gastric juice does not possess the power to act upon mixtures or compounds with the same energy and facility that it does upon simples, though each ingre- dient of the compound may of itself be harmless and easy of digestion. Thus the ingredients of mince pie — flour, sugar, butter, lean meat, and raisins—taken sepa- rately, digest with comparative ease; but when they are united into the compound just mentioned, it becomes next to indigestible; and there is not one stomach in a thou- sand that can grapple with them without more or less in- convenience; and the same is true to a greater or less ex- tent of all other compounds. Plurality of dishes at the same meal, and rich compounds at that, are the death- knells to digestion; for by stimulating and exciting the stomach, they are almost sure to induce repletion, and cause us to eat as much of each dish as we ought to have eaten in the aggregate. These are objectionable on many accounts; first, to- ward evening the bodily powers are more or less jaded with the labors of the day, and consequently less able to digest a full meal of rich food; secondly, by waiting so long between meals, the appetite becomes very keen, and the temptation to over-eat is greatly increased; Late Dinners. Think before you speak. 160 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Better do well than say well. thirdly, as a sort of compensation for so long a fast, we are inclined to over-eat at breakfast, and to nibble dur- ing the interim, both of which are injurious practices; and, fourthly, late dinners are followed by late suppers, late retiring, late rising, and late breakfast, and thus the whole dietetic order of Nature is inverted, and ulti- mately the health and constitution ruined. Many are wont to regard a florid face, plump muscles, and full habit as sure indications of vigorous bodily health, as they sometimes are; but in a great majority of cases, in this age, these conditions are due to an ex- cessive accumulation of fat, or adipose matter, and is itself a diseased condition of the system, caused by re- pletion; for such persons are not as active, energetic, or wiry and enduring as those of a leaner, thinner habit, and apparently in a much more feeble state of health. As any accumulation of fat beyond simple plumpness of the muscles is of itself a diseased condition of the system, such persons are much more liable to attacks of disease; their cases are always more obstinate and difficult to treat, and more likely to terminate fatally than those of a spare habit, whose systems are in a better condition. A Mistake. The Extremes. Difference in temperament doubtless has much to do with longevity; for, as each temperament is connected with a different degree of activity, we find one exces- sively active and excitable, so much so as to be an an- noyance to all around him, while another is provokingly slow, deliberate, and as dull as an oyster. Those, It is never too late to learn. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 161 If you govern yourself, you can govern others. therefore, who take the world in moderation, being neither too sluggish nor too active, have the best chance for longevity ; for while the dull, sluggish, and lazy rust out, the mercurial and mettlesome prematurely wear out. Diet versus Drugs. “ By the most rigid system of diet, I have fully con- quered the most obstinate case of dyspepsia, in my own person, which has ever fallen under my observation; and those only who have experienced the horrors of this disease, can fully appreciate the luxury of an im- munity from it.” — Dr. Johnson, England. When pulmonary disease is hereditary in a family, children are often born with tubercles in the tissues of their lungs, which may not be developed in years, unless subjected to some exciting cause. In those descended from parents whose ancestors died of consumption, no means are yet known of detecting the seeds of it in the progeny until it develops itself—a hacking cough, habitually, indicating unmistakably a new condition always destructive in its tendency. Many such, how- ever, by rigid temperance and vigilance to the laws of life and health, may live to see good age, hut are con- stantly in danger from any accidental exciting cause which may arise to develop the seeds into active dis- ease. Female costume wars against health, and conse- quently against longevity ; and statistics show that more females die of consumption than males, notwithstanding the extra risk of life in the latter. The Lungs. It is not wisdom to wake a sleeping lion. 162 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. It is not the cowl that makes the monk. Waste of Life. The bills of mortality show that in ci vilized life, gen- erally, one-half of mankind die under twenty years of age, and fully three-fourths under fifty; and it is with- in the truth to say that three-fourths of the human family lose from twenty to thirty years of their exist- ence by intemperance in eating and drinking. And in a moral point of view, how much better is the stupid, swinish insensibility of the glutton than the frantic ravings and brawlings of the drunkard? And consid- ering the immense excess in numbers of gluttons over drunkards, there exists not a doubt but that the moral injury and waste of life and property are much greater in the former than in the latter class. A Husband’s Love. What, next to life, is more prized by a woman than the love of her husband ? and yet this priceless jewel, in her estimation, is too often treated as lightly, loosely, and carelessly as though it were a mere bubble, toy, or trifle. Woman seems to think that once married she is secure for all time, and that the husband is bound to love her fondly for life, regardless of all subsequent conduct and qualities. But let us see. Is love a whim, a freak, a mere matter of fancy, that can be possessed or parted with at pleasure? or is it the result of causation and stern compulsion, which we cannot resist? Were there not certain admired qualities of mind or body, or both, which first attracted and brought the parties together? and had these attractions not been present, would they have come together at all ? and if, after marriage, these ad- mired qualities are neglected, or prematurely and un- Jests, like sweetmeats, often have sour sauce. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 163 It is a bad wind that blows no good to any one. necessarily lost, can the original love based upon them remain intact? Love, in every sense of the term, and in all its ever-varying forms, is the result of causation and stern compulsion ; and we instinctively love that which possesses qualities that we admire, and we cannot avoid it, and vice versa; for it is not an affair to be acquired and parted with at pleasure, and the idea of loving in the absence, or hating in the presence, of the necessary qualities is simply ridiculous. The tender greenhouse plant requires constant care and attention, that it may live, thrive, and develop its beautiful blos- soms ; and the infinitely more tender and delicate plant of love, which woman has purchased at the price of her own heart, must have daily care and vigilance, lest it may wither and die. Some women seem to think be- cause they are married, and no one but their husbands will see them, that it is no matter how they appear, especially at home, and go about in a very careless and slatternly manner; but should not a woman regard her husband above all other men, and should she not be most punctilious in her dress in the presence of him whom she most esteems ? Not that a lady should always be in full costume at home in her domestic duties, but if she neglect neatness, tidiness, cleanliness of person, and the avoidance of bad breath and bad bodily odors, she will be sure to excite disgust in those around her, and almost force her husband to keep aloof from her. A judicious use of all the harmless arts of the toilet, to acquire, preserve, and add to the personal charms, is not only right and proper, but the duty of every woman, married or single; and among the most effective of these In giving and taking there is easy mistaking. 164 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. It is folly to learn wisdom, and live foolishly. is the reasonably frequent change of apparel, and a well arranged variety of ornaments and trimmings. Rapid Eating. This is the great dietetic error of the age, for there can be no healthy digestion unless the food is previously well prepared for the stomach ; and this requires, on an average, twice the time now appropriated to it by our people. Any defect in the mastication, or in salivation, necessarily deranges the digestion, the chyme, the chyle, the secretions, and indeed the whole nutritive process; and the subjoined brief rule will enable all who adopt it to overcome this ruinous practice. When seated at the table, and before taking any food, place upon the plate all that is intended to be eaten at the meal; lay down the knife and fork between each mouthful, and never allow a particle of food to leave the mouth for the stomach, until it has been completely reduced to a paste so fine that the tongue can feel no small particles in it. He who adheres faithfully to this simple rule will be sure to accomplish several very important ends. First, he will never over-eat; secondly, he will not, on an average, eat more than three-fourths as much food as he will in the usual way, and be much better satisfied with it; thirdly, he will never have the dyspepsia; and, fourthly, if he already has that terrible disease, this is the only 'permanent and sure cure. Woman Anatomically. The shoulders of women are set farther back than those of men, giving her the appearance in front of having more breadth of chest than she really has, and Ignorance and self-conceit make us obstinate. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 165 Neither keep nor covet what is not your own. the distance behind to appear small and narrow, the extra width in front being intended by Nature to give space for the breast and capacity for holding and carrying the child in the arms; and owing to these peculiarities in the female, she will often carry a heavy child, without apparent exhaustion, a distance which would completely exhaust a male of much more vigorous strength. Women also are considerably broader across the hips than men, and as a consequence the thigh-bones set farther apart, causing her in walking to carry the feet farther separated than men, this extra width of pelvis being a wise pro- vision of Nature to adapt her to the function of child- bearing. The clavicle or collar-bone in the female is longer than in the male, and this accounts for her ina- bility to throw anything directly forward with force and precision, her awkwardness in this particular being pro- verbial and ludicrous, though she executes other motions with her arms as dexterously as man. Her awkward- ness also in running, which is quite as noted as in throwing, is due to the extra distance of the feet asunder, causing her to swing them round in a large circle, as she steps in order to bring them to the point necessary to support the centre of gravity, and prevent falling. For these reasons, the extra distance between the shoul- ders in front and between the feet, women are much less expert in throwing and running than men—two very important means of self-defence and protection. Cookery. As a general thing, the people of this country eat badly prepared food, for not one woman in a hundred knows how to prepare food adapted to the functions of Kindness is lost upon an ungrateful man. 166 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Judge not of men and things at first sight. the human stomach. And to clothe her with the dignity of cook, or affirm that she is familiar with its mysteries, is a burlesque on the art. Its secrets she has never mis- tressed, and she is as blind to them as an owl is to a chicken-roost in mid-day. She supposes that the whole science and secret consist in the combination of a multi- tude of heterogeneous articles so arranged in the com- pound that no trace of any one of them can be detected by the palate, and the more completely this quality is secured, the greater will be the skill of the cook. Think, for a moment, of the rancid butter, the mouldy cream, stale lard, spices, sugar, soda, cream of tartar, tartaric acid, fine barrel flour, milk, water, etc., all stirred up together, and said to be cooked, which daily finds its way into the mouths of the hygienic thoughtless, and from thence by violent jumps into the stomach, and is it pos- sible for the palate, in such a hodge-podge mess as this, to discern either the particles or articles of its compound? Good cookery, that is food prepared so as to be adapted to health and life, consists in the simplicity of its pre- paration— the fewer the articles entering into a dish, and the more homogeneous they are, the more healthy the compound. Woman has yet to learn not only how to cook so that our food may be fit to eat, but also how and what to eat; for to eat badly prepared food is bad enough, but to eat it at all times when a morbid appe- tite may prompt, and throwing upon the stomach most of the labor of the jaws, is insulting and outraging Nature beyond all bounds of endurance. The stomach is not a mortar in which to triturate the food — for Heaven intended the teeth to do this work; and it may not be Keep good company or none. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 167 Lean liberty is better than fat slavery. amiss to tell the thoughtless that the teeth are not in the stomach, but in the mouth. — J. C. Jackson, A.M., M.D. Health and Industry. Industry is not only an indispensable concomitant of morality and virtue, but also of mental and bodily health; for God never made a man to be idle, and the more constantly he is employed, short of the point of fatigue, the better, as he will then have the less time to sin. It is intellectual imbecility, arising from want of intellectual employment, which gives rise to melancholy, ennui, and that whole train of enfeebling and depressing passions which render thousands wretched, and ulti- mately so prey upon the health and constitution as to bring them to an untimely grave. Idleness is one of the violations of God’s physical laws, which brings with it its own reward; for physical vigor and elasticity, with mental activity and cheerfulness, are strangers to the sluggard and the indolent, and without these great bless- ings life is an unhappy blank; and Dr. Hufeland says, “No instance can be found, in any age or country, of an idle person who ever attained great age.” Infant Mortality. In most of the countries of Europe, one child in every ten dies during the first month, two in every nine dur- ing the first year, and nearly one-half during the first five years ; and the mortality in the United States is hut little better. Cultivation. In the vegetable kingdom, as all well know, cultiva- tion shortens life; and plants and trees, as illustrated in the peach and various flowers, live longer when left Knowledge is the treasure of the mind. 168 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. If you would have the fruit, molest not the blossom. to themselves, than when subjected to cultivation. It is true that the rose, which naturally has five petals, may by cultivation be made to bear a greater number; but this increase in petals is at the expense of the stamens; for they are converted into petals, and thus the plant loses its natural power of perpetuity, or, in other words, by over-stimulating and feeding it becomes diseased. And so with man, if he choose to gorge himself with rich and highly-concentrated food, and over-stimulate his body, he may for a time, while his powers hold out, grow fat, and appear plump and healthy, but the system, thus goaded on to extra effort by extra and unnatural stimuli, will yield to decay and dissolution all the earlier. Use of Milk. The history of man, in all ages and countries, has abundantly proved a milk diet to be conducive to health and longevity; and some who have lived to extreme old age have subsisted almost wholly upon milk and simple vegetables. There are some few who have stomachs deranged from errors in diet that cannot use it; but in such cases the fault is in the subjects and not in the article, for a really healthy stomach will always receive milk. Milk should always be set in new bright tin, glass, or stoneware vessels, and never in common, soft, brown earthen, the glazing of which is poisonous and liable to scale off. Longevity and Literature. It is usually supposed that the pursuit of literature is adverse to long life; and this idea has obtained from the continued constitutional abuse practised by students and literary men, particularly in this country. Man is Be temperate in youth, just in manhood, prudent in old age. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 169 Let the shipwreck of one be the sea-mark for the rest. neither wholly a physical nor an intellectual being, but a compound of both; and the exercise of one part of his nature is just as necessary as the other, nor can either be neglected with impunity. He who works his mus- cles and neglects his brain, will be physically strong and mentally weak, and vice versa; and he who overtasks one and neglects the other, will be weak in both — one from excess and the other from neglect; and here lies the great error with the student and man of letters, for in a vast majority of cases they over-do the brain and stomach, and neglect the physical system, and thereby induce debility and disease both physically and intellectually. That the pursuit of letters is favorable to length of days, is shown by the great longevity of both ancient and modern scholars. The average age of thirty-eight of the most eminent philosophers, poets, orators, historians, physicians, and divines, was eighty- one years, among whom were the following: Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, the two Piinies, Yarro, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, Demosthenes, Cicero, Horace, Euripides, Sophocles, Virgil, Xenophon, Josephus, Thucydides, Chrysostom,Julian the martyr, and Origen ; several of whom came to sudden accidental deaths. And the longevity of learned moderns is not less favor- able, for twenty Italian mathematicians, who lived at different periods, attained the age of eighty-one; and twenty-three of the first scholars of that country reached the age of seventy-six years. In France the average of one hundred and thirty-two men of letters was sixty- nine, and fifty-six of her most distinguished scholars attained the age of seventy-seven years. Fifteen of the Cut not your throat with your own tongue. 170 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Study strengthens, elevates, and refines the mind. most eminent German scholars lived to the age of seventy-five; and twenty-five of the most distinguished English and Scotch literary men reached the age of seventy-three, among whom were Newton, Locke, John- son, Young, Warburton, Adam Smith, Blair, Bied, Black, Bobertson, Campbell, Playfair, and Stewart. Of eminent American scholars twenty-three have reached the average age of seventy-six, among whom are Mather, Channing, Styles, Johnson, Hopkins, Ballamy, Witherspoon, West, Dwight, Ewing, Franklin, Edwards, Jefferson, and Samuel and John Adams. All organic bodies, whether animal or vegetable, are mainly composed of the four elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen; the first being a solid, and greatly predominating in quantity, while the other three are gases and nitrogen, indispensable to prolonged exist- ence, as no article of food not containing this element can alone long sustain life. These elements are vari- ously combined in the different articles of food; the following showing the per cent, of carbon and nitrogen in some of the more common articles of food: carbon — sugar, 47 per cent.; alcohol, 52; vegetable oil, 77; wheat and rye, 46; oats, 50; potatoes, 12; turnips and cabbage, 3; pease, 35; beans, 38; butter, 65; fat meat, 78; lard 79; cheese, 54; lean meat, 13; fine wheat bread, 30; brown bread, 43: nitrogen — wheat, 2 per cent.; rye, 1; oats, 2; barley, 2; rice, 1; corn, 2; pease, 4; beans, 5; potatoes, turnips, and cabbage, a fraction ; eggs, 15; cheese, 15 ; meat in general, 15. Carbon and Nitrogen. A good life fears not death. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 171 Learn to lire as you would wish to die. Weaning Children. The proper time for this depends first upon the health and condition of the mother, and secondly upon the health and development of the child. If the health of the mother be sound and good, and the milk abundant, the child should not be weaned sooner than the tenth or twelfth month, when the teeth will usually indicate that a change in the food is required. If the child be deli- cate, the teeth may appear somewhat later, in which case weaning may be longer delayed. If the supply of milk be insufficient, and the health of the mother begins to suffer before the usual time of weaning, the interest of both requires that the child should be weaned. As a general rule, healthy children should not be nursed longer than a year; but very delicate ones of scrofulous tendency, when the milk is plenty, may sometimes be advantageously nursed to eighteen or twenty months. Weaning either too late or too early is alike injurious; and, as a general rule, the appearance of the front teeth, and not any particular number of months, is Nature’s guide for weaning. Sugar and the Teeth. Dr. Wright, of London, says, “ That during the sugar- making season in the West India Islands, everything, even to the dogs, eats sugar, and becomes fat and plump. And the popular idea that sugar injures the teeth is wholly without foundation ; for no people upon the earth have finer teeth than the negroes upon our American plantations; and they consume enormous quantities of this article. The fondness of children for sugar and other saccharine matter is doubtless instinctive, and If you play with a fool at home, he will play with you abroad. 172 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Jests should never intrude upon good manners. ought in reason to be encouraged, always avoiding con- fectionery, most of which is more or less poisonous and dangerous. The presence of simple sugar, or any other saccharine matter in the mouth, cannot injure the teeth while it remains such, but what adheres to the mouth and teeth after it has been eaten will, in time, if not removed, change to an acid, which may prove injurious; and hence the mouth should always be well cleansed with tepid water immediately after the use of all concentrated sweets. Beans and Pease. Next to rice and wheat, beans and pease are the most concentrated and nutritious, and contain the most nitrogen of all other vegetables or cereals. They are farinaceous, and, excepting the skins, easy of digestion; but unless they are hulled or the skins rejected when eaten, they are improper for weak stomachs, more espe- cially for dyspeptics. These are quite nutritive, possess considerable sugar, and when baked or boiled, and well masticated, are easily digested; but when raw, especially dried hard, are liable to irritate the stomach. Chestnuts. Physical Inheritance. Children most commonly resemble both parents, but sometimes only one, sometimes neither, and often some remote ancestor. The most singular hereditary peculi- arity is where the mother marries a second time — the children often resembling the first husband, owing to the ineffaceable impression left upon her organism by the deceased husband; and especially is this the case when Little and often fills the purse. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 173 Little boats must keep near the shore. she was strongly and ardently attached to him. And this peculiarity is understood by stock growers, who carefully avoid allowing their blooded mares, cows, and ewes from running with males of an inferior stock. Although there are frequent exceptions to it, the general tendency is that the male transmits the external form of the head, limbs, color of hair, complexion, muscular condition, etc., while the size of the body and general temperament are derived from the mother. Thus, the mule, the product of the ass and the mare, has the head, ears, tail, etc., of the sire, but the trunk and size of the dam; while the hinny, the product of the male horse and the ass, has the exterior of the horse, with the trunk and body of the ass, and much smaller than its sire. The transmission of the temperaments is very common and obvious, the one most active in the parents usually predominating in most or all of the children — the cross- ing of temperaments, in marriage, producing a modifi- cation of the offspring which is decidedly advantageous. An aptitude to procreation or a tendency to sterility is very often, and it may be said very generally, trans- mitted, especially when either exist in the female, as is also the production of twins. That inheritance lias much to do with longevity, and that no one can exceed the family longevity will be fully shown elsewhere. Deformities are very frequently transmitted, as in the case of club-feet, liare-lips, superfluous toes, fingers, etc. Stature. Among tall men six feet is very tall; although six feet four inches, and even seven, and occasionally, one in a million, of eight feet in height are found. Very tall Be neither a witness nor a party to a quarrel. 174 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Knavery is soon detected; honesty endures. persons Lave not as strong bones, nor are they as plump as those of medium height or short, and their bones are more easily broken. The circulation of the blood, in very tall persons, is less active and vigorous than in the shorter, causing a less perfect respiration and oxygen of the blood, and, as a consequence, a lower tone of vitality. The difference in the height of persons is due not so much to variations in the body or trunk as to differ- ence in the length of the legs and neck. If any num- ber of persons of an average size varying much in stature be placed in a sitting posture upon a horizontal seat of uniform height, comparatively little difference in the height of their shoulders will be observed, the tops of their heads varying much more, and when they rise to their feet, the difference in stature will appear very striking. If during ossification, or the bone-making process in the system, the deposit of ossific matter in the lower extremities is checked or impeded, there will be an extra deposit of this matter in the spinal column, giving width and depth to the chest; and often this extra deposit will not extend to the neck, thus giving to the individual short legs and neck, and a large, deep body. The vertebrae, or blocks of the spinal column, of a tall person are smaller both vertically and horizontally than those of short ones, giving them smaller chests in two directions, their height being chiefly due to the length of their legs, and not to length of trunk or chest, as some might suppose. In dwarfs, the deposit of ossific matter from some unknown cause suddenly ceases, some- times soon after birth, as in extreme small examples, and sometimes later, but rarely after the fifth year. In the tall, the blood has to be forced through much longer Love and lordship — dislike to fellowship. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 175 Lying is the vice of a slave. vessels in the aggregate, which makes a greater tax upon the heart, a forcing-pump, and consequently sooner ex- hausts and wears it out. Matrimonial Items. In the vegetable kingdom, we all secure the very best variety of seeds, with a view of producing the best articles; and we never select our garden seeds from young and immature plants, because we know well that the product, if any, will be puny, sickly, and imperfect; and so in the raising of stock : and as the same law holds equally true in the human family, we ought at least to exercise as much thought, care, and vigilance in the pro- duction of human beings, as we do in our garden vege- tables, or in hens, calves, and pigs; for parents usually “ live over their lives again in their children.” The sub- joined are a few of the controllable conditions in parents which are averse to a healthy long-lived progeny: 1. Natural defects or infirmities of constitution, in either of the parties, derived from their own parents. 2. Premature marriages, especially of delicate, slen- der females, who are scarcely able to sustain life without marriage. 3. Marriage between parties allied by blood, when the temperaments are similar, or when either is de- scended from an unhealthy race. 4. Great difference in the age of the parties, especially if the female is very young. 5. An unhealthy or unfavorable condition of the mind or body at the time of becoming parents. 6. The health of the mother during pregnancy; for a hale and vigorous child, of good viability, born of a Make hay while the sun shines. 176 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Strike while the iron is hot. slender, complaining, nervous mother, or of a naturally vigorous woman in a feeble and broken down state of health, would be a prodigy in creation. Spurred Rye (Ergot). This is the grain of common rye so changed by dis- ease as to become an active poison, and is most plenti- fully produced during wet seasons and upon low, damp soil. When accidentally ground and mixed with bread, as is often the case, its effects are highly poisonous and pernicious, producing heartburn, headache, trembling, convulsions, vertigo, stupor, madness, and sometimes even death. This article is often administered by phy- sicians in cases of parturition, to force or expedite labor, instead of giving Nature her own time to do her work in her own appointed way; and Dr. Thomas Hersey, a physician of forty years’ experience, says, “It nearly always kills or injures either mother, child, or both.” Night Air. Most persons are aware that night air is less whole- some than during the day, but few seem to have any idea as to the cause, or how to guard against its influ- ences, except by remaining cloistered within - doors. With the setting of the sun the temperature of the at- mosphere is reduced, and the aqueous vapors floating in it become condensed, and descend to the earth, carrying with them whatever impurities may be contained in the air ; hence, the atmosphere near the earth, at night, and especially toward morning, is much less pure than dur- ing the day, when the heat of the sun rarefies the air and dissipates the impurities. To be secure against Never ridicule another’s infirmities. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 177 Little minds, like weak liquors, are soonest soured. these morbific influences, as well as all others, the most effectual remedy is to lead a temperate and abstemious life. Wear woollen garments and flannel next the skin. Never sit, lie down, or fall asleep, upon the damp ground. Remain active when exposed to night air, if nothing more than walking to and fro. Persons living near ponds and bodies of stagnant water should sleep in the higher apartments of their houses, and remain in as much as possible after nightfall, and never expose them- selves to the out-door air in the morning upon an empty stomach. The Voice. The cultivation and preservation of the human voice is a matter of general interest to all classes, and of es- pecial interest to those who contemplate public speaking; and a few brief hints upon this subject may not be amiss. 1. Avoid all excesses in eating and drinking, as they inflame the mucous membrane of the throat and air- passages, and injure the voice. 2. Never use the voice beyond ordinary conversation for at least an hour after the meal. 3. Never urge the voice beyond its usual pitch long, without frequent intermissions. 4. At the period of puberty, when the voice is chang- ing to the full, deep tones of the adult, it should not be subjected to any severe or violent exercise, but allowed to mature without interference. 5. When the least hoarseness exists, the voice should be used as little as possible. 6. Any compression, however slight, around the neck or throat, is highly injurious to the vocal organs. Long deferred hopes wear out our joys. 178 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Provide for want in time of plenty. 7. Bising and falling the eight notes daily, and fre- quently, is an excellent vocal exercise. 8. Standing erect with shoulders thrown back, and reading aloud, or rehearsing pieces daily, greatly strengthen the lungs and improve the voice. 9. Frequently inflating the lungs to their fullest capacity, and retaining the, air as long as one can, is one of the very best practices both for the voice and lungs, as well as for the whole system. 10. The use of tobacco is especially injurious to the voice, aqd snuff is still worse. Intellectual Inheritance. That the peculiar conformation of the brain, as well as any other portion of the body, is transmissible from parent to child, needs neither argument nor proof; and this being the case, we need not be surprised that the mental attributes, which are only the result of the con- formation of the brain, should accompany it; for in fact the influence of inheritance is even more marked and definite upon the mind than upon the body. It is a matter of common and daily observation, that gifted parents of culture and refinement are very generally blessed with gifted and intelligent children, while the progeny of the ignorant and illiterate are dull and stu- pid from infancy. It is true that some of our very greatest men, as Cuvier, Buffon, Socrates, Aristotle, Milton, Shakspeare, Plato, and many others of genius, have not transmitted their great intellectual powers to their offspring; but it should be remembered that in- herited qualities are never wholly due to either parent, but mutually dependent upon both; and the highest grade Levity of manners leads to levity of principles. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 179 Malice never lacks a target. of talent cannot be expected unless both parents are thus endowed—the brilliant and desirable qualities of the father often being neutralized by the opposite qualities in the mother; for in the sexes the father mainly trans- mits the intellectual qualities to the daughter, and the mother to the son. And, moreover, the influence of the mother is believed to be much greater in the trans- mission of the intellectual qualities than the father; for rarely or never can there be found a truly great man whose mother, irrespective of scholastic attainments, did not possess native vigor of mind above mediocrity ; and in the case of eminent men who leave no gifted progeny, a defect in the other party would fully account for it “ 1 can hardly imagine a more unfortunate circum- stance for a student, lawyer, minister, merchant, specu- lator, or any one else, who is compelled to think, than, just at the time when thought is flowing at a white heat, ready to be moulded, to have his stomach crammed with rich food. The whole scene instantly changes — the brain becomes as void of elasticity as an iron helmet — ideas are submerged in fog and fugo — ratiocination cannot be had at any price — the memory is as stupid as a jackass — the judgment is as dull as a whetstone — the moral sense as dead as a mummy — reputation, business, interest, friendship, everything demands that he should think ; but he cannot. A steam-engine might as well generate its own steam, as the brain think with a crammed stomach. Poor fool! To gratify his glut- tony, he stuffed himself, lost his self-control, and gave himself up to the Philistines. But is there no remedy Stuffing and Thinking. Make no friendship with an envious man. 180 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Make the best of a bad bargain. at hand for this condition? Is there nothing to over- come this stupidity and stolidity of the brain, and make it swing round in its usual revolutions? Certainly. Lager beer, if he be a German; whiskey, if an Irish- man ; wine, if a Frenchman; gin or strong beer, if an Englishman; and all combined, if a Yankee. But these are devilish forces to depend upon for evidence that we are created in God’s own image.”—J. C. Jackson, A. 31., 311). Family Inheritance. The natural lifetime of all animals and vegetables is inherited ; and though it may he curtailed in a multi- tude of ways, yet can rarely or never be increased or extended. Different families inherit different longevi- ties ; and while some members of a family may not in- herit the full family longevity, most of them will. Longevity is the strongest inherited quality in man. When the longevity of the parents is different — one short and the other long — some members of the family will partake of one and some of the other, and some of the blended influence of both. By the blended influ- ences of different longevities, an extended longevity occasionally occurs which did not exist in either parent or any ancestor. Occasionally, but very rarely, cases occur in which an individual “ over-leaps,” or “ runs under ground,” a generation, and takes after a grand- parent, and attains an age which his own parents could not have reached, or exhibits some disease of a remote ancestor to which his own parents were not liable. However hale and vigorous the children may be while they do live, they will very rarely exceed the family Let your anger set, but not rise, with the sun. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 181 Many hands make light work. age of the parents or grand-parents. An inherited short life by no means presupposes death from consumption, or any other particular form of disease; since a short life may terminate in any way or disease which a long one would, or in old age, which means the fulfilment of the organism, whether at forty or one hundred years. The “ family longevity ” of any family is not a correct data by which to judge of the longevity of any of its mem- bers, as any member is liable to take on the extreme of either parent. To judge correctly of the probable lon- gevity of any individual requires not only a knowledge of his family longevity, but a careful inspection of his present condition or indications of longevity ; a little attention to \yhich will soon enable any one of average discrimination to determine with sufficient accuracy the probable longevity of any individual. Scurvy. Dr. George Cheyne, of London, says of this disease: “ It is mainly produced by the use of animal food and fermented liquors; and nothing less than a total absti- nence from them can ever eradicate it.” Dr. Buchan, of Scotland, says : “ The disease most prevalent here (in Great Britain) is scurvy ; and that the use of animal food is the main cause is proved by the fact that we have no other remedy for it but the entire disuse of such food, and the free use of vegetables.” Food and Temperance. “ A strict adherence to a vegetable diet induces a normal condition of all the functions of the body, and renders the use of improper articles of food or drinks Leave not to chance what foresight can make sure. 182 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Let your promises be few, sincere, and faithfully filled. not only unnecessary, but disagreeable; and I have never, in all my practice, either known or heard of a vegetarian strictly who used either tobacco or alcoholic liquors.” — Dr. J. King. Trundle-Beds. These, with the fashionable bogus low bedsteads now in use, are positively injurious and unfit for use, as they bring the occupant too near the floor, where the carbonic acid gas is much more concentrated than it is more ele- vated. Causation. Everything upon the earth, from a particle of dust floating in the air to the heaving of the volcanic moun- tain, is subject to the great and universal law of cause and effect; and the health and disease of man form no exception to this law. Every pain we feel, from birth till death, is the consequence of violated natural law either knowingly, ignorantly, by ourselves, our parents, or ancestors; and obedience to those laws would have saved us all the pain and suffering. Life Items. As a general tiling, the dissipated not only die early, hut inherit both their dissipation and short life from their short-lived ancestry. Many vocations which are usually deemed injurious, and thought to shorten life, are no more so than others; and are so considered only because short-lived individuals instinctively, but uncon- sciously, select them. Those who have inherited long life from both parents will often bear up longer under the grossest dissipations and abuses, and still maintain tolerable health, than those from a short-lived stock will Many a truth is spoken in jest. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 183 Happy marriage is this world’s paradise. with temperance and good habits; and this has given rise to the popular error that care and attention to health are useless, and that the thoughtless and reck- less live as long or longer than the temperate and vigi- lant. Climate and habits exert an important modifying, but not a controlling, influence upon longevity. The Graminivora and Carnivora. The vegetable secretes from the soil the elements of the blood of all animals, vegetable fibrin, and albumen, which are first consumed by the graminivora; and the carnivora, in consuming the flesh and blood of the latter, only use what was first served for the food of the gram- inivora ; for vegetable albumen and fibrin obtained from vegetables are to the graminivora what animal fibrin and albumen taken in flesh are to the carnivora. The development of the animal organism, therefore, in both cases is evidently dependent upon the presence of cer- tain elements; in the carnivora obtained from flesh, and in the graminivora from vegetables, though these ele- ments are chemically identical, and also identical with the blood ; and from this it will be seen that the animal organism only forms the blood, but is incapable of pro- ducing it unless the elements identical with itself are first presented to it in the right form. Two Meals Daily. “No man, no matter what his business may be, who is not occupied more than fourteen hours daily, requires more than two meals a day, either for health or busi- ness. When the change is once made and the old habit overcome, he will do more work in a given time, with Health is the rich man’s bliss, the poor man’s wealth. 184 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Mourn not for that which is irrecoverably lost. less wear and tear of body and mind, than he can do on three meals. I have seen the two classes of two and three meals engaged in the same labor, whether domestic, mechanical, agricultural, or intellectual, and in every instance those who ate but two meals a day did equal work with less fatigue, kept in better flesh, weighed fully as much, had more muscle and less fat, slept better, and were sprier and more elastic. I have known this tested for six and twelve months, writh frequent recruits from the ranks of three-meal eaters, but very rarely one from the opposite side. I have known it tested on many hundreds of invalids, and do not know of a single case in which a return was ever permanently had to the three-meal practice again.” — J. C. Jackson, A.M., M.D. In confirmation of what Dr. Jackson has here said in relation to the advantages of the two-meal system, the writer would add, that he has pursued it very thor- oughly for over two years in the absence of flesh meats, and in connection with close and assiduous literary habits, and is fully convinced that he has been very materially benefited by it, and could not be induced to return to the old tliree-meal stuffing practice under any consideration. The Human Chest. It is customary, in estimating the capacity of the hu- man chest for respiration in breathing and the consump- tion of oxygen, which gives vital power, to measure around it horizontally; and this may in some cases afford a sort of a vague estimate, yet in many cases will be wholly useless, and afford no criterion at all by which to judge of the life-powers of the chest. In the first Mercy despised turns to fury. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 185 Mental gifts hide bodily defects. place there are two classes of respiratory muscles — those of the chest and those of the abdomen ; and in some in- dividuals, one class is largely developed and active, while the other is weak and inactive; and the respiration of an individual will depend very much upon the develop- ment of these classes of muscles. Mr. A., with large and active abdomen-muscles of respiration, and small, feeble respiratory-muscles of the chest, may actually consume in the aggregate more oxygen in a given time than Mr. B., with the opposite condition; and yet the latter, by horizontal chest measurement, would greatly out-measure the former. And, again, one has a long or deep and narrow chest, while another has a short and broad one; and with an equal consumption of oxygen, the latter necessarily would have a greater expansion of the chest than the former; and moreover, the size of the chest in the same individual varies with age, cloth- ing, exercise, season, etc., which would render any routine rule of measurement by inches still more unre- liable and useless. We usually say of a man who has great width immediately under the arms, that he has a powerful and capacious chest, is a tough, wiry man, and long-lived; and of one who has a long, deep chest, that he is slender, delicate, liable to consumption, etc.; but this is wholly a mistake; other things being equal, the converse of this is the fact. Persons of short, broad trunks are not necessarily short-lived, because some of them do live to good age; but the number is compara- tively very small. On the contrary, those with long, deep chests, and average diameter, are almost always from long-lived parentage on both sides, and have the very best of prospects for long life. We have never Devils only deride virtue. 186 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Those ready to promise are not ready to fulfil. known any exception to this peculiar conformation being connected with long life, and therefore, when present, it may be considered one of the very strongest evidences of longevity. Excess of Females. In nearly all civilized countries from which we have reliable statistics, females are more numerous than males. In England, Wales, and Austria there is an excess of five females in every one hundred males; in London, thirteen ; and in Sweden, sixteen ; and most other coun- tries having a similar excess, except in the new and thinly settled Western States, where the males are greatly in excess. But this excess of females over the males is not due to an excess in births; for there are, on an average, from one hundred and five to a hundred and six male children born for every one hundred females. During the first four years of childhood, the mortality among male children is found to be consider- ably greater than among females ; and after that age the mortality of the sexes, from natural causes, is nearly equal, there being a slight balance in favor of the male; and this extra mortality in childhood, with the extra risks and exposures of the male — in war, and the usual round of life — must account for the excess of females in all civilized countries. It is said that seniority of the husband over the wife gives an excess of male children, and of the wife over the husband an excess of females; and it has long been observed that sedentary men and close students, who exhaust their nervous powers and induce debility, almost always have an excess of girls over the boys. Caution is the parent of safety. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 187 Mildness governs better than anger and severity. Summer Fruits. All the ordinary summer fruits—strawberries, currants, cherries, plums, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, whortleberries, with apples, pears, peaches, etc. — when fully ripe, are not only nutritious and easy of digestion, but positively beneficial and salutary. Excepting the seeds of the currant, gooseberry, raspberry, and whortle- berry, the seeds, cores, stones, and all tough and indi- gestible skins of fruits should be carefully rejected in the use of such articles. Our Meats. Plethora, or fatness in man, is admitted to be a dis- ease ; and if so in man, why not equally so in all pen- and stall-fed animals, as hogs, cattle, sheep, fowls, etc. ? In the fattening process by the excess of food, without an adequate opportunity on the part of the animal to work it off in the natural way, the liver — the great decarbonizing agent of the body — soon becomes dis- eased, and a superabundance of fat accumulates, which is mostly carbonaceous matter (charcoal,) — all fats con- taining about eighty per cent, of this element. And if all artificially fattened animals are diseased by a morbid accumulation of fat or carbon in their bodies, are not most of the meats placed upon our tables diseased ? or, in other words, the flesh of sick animals ? Active Emetics. In most cases of poisoning, prompt and active vomit- ing is indispensable to the salvation of the subject; and this may be effected in most cases by very simple means, often before medical aid can be procured. Misfortune develops our real friends. 188 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Modesty has more charms than beauty. 1. Take copious draughts of tepid water, often re- peated, until the stomach becomes oppressed, and vomit- ing ensues; and if this should be too tardy or scanty, pass the finger slightly down the throat, or irritate it slightly with the soft end of a feather, and repeat the drinking and vomiting until the subject is safe, as no harm can be done in this way. 2. An emetic composed of seven parts strong tincture of lobelia, and one part tincture of capsicum, given in doses varying from one to two ounces at a time for an adult, and repeated once in ten or fifteen minutes, in cases of emergency, in connection with copious draughts of tepid water, is the most active safe emetic of which the writer has any knowledge. Economy and Digestion. According to the experiments of Dr. Samuel Beau- mont upon the stomach of St. Martin, salt boiled beef and wheaten bread require three and a half hours each to digest. Now, a pound of meat, on an average, con- tains about thirty-three per cent, of nutriment, while a pound of wheat bread contains nearly ninety-five per cent.; hence, if two individuals eat simultaneously one a pound of meat and the other a pound of bread, at the end of three and a half hours, the bread-eater will have received nearly three times as much nutriment as the meat-eater, which is a good illustration of the great superiority of vegetable food over animal, although some think the former “ not strong enough.” Severe, but True. “ Our meats, drugs, and narcotic drinks keep the ranks of the dead and dying full: they constitute the army Money makes more enemies than friends. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 189 Modesty is the handmaid of virtue. of death, and reign supreme — to eat, drink, smoke, and chew is the most holy way known among men of illu- minating the human mind and elevating the character of man; to calculate, speculate, drudge, and worry for the gratification of the lower nature — a nature not a whit higher than that of a bullock — is an exercise deemed eminently worthy of those who claim to be Christians, and whose final home is expected to be a heaven. The truth is we are a nation of gluttons; our preachers are ordained gluttons; they visit their parishioners to look after their spiritual welfare and “ to take tea; ” our Christians are baptized gluttons, our doctors are profes- sional gluttons, the eloquence of the bar and the wisdom of the bench smack of roast beef and mustard, our private tables are daily evidences of domestic gluttonous rioting, and our thanksgivings to God for his goodness and mercy unto us, announced by public proclamation, are consecrated orgies but little better than the feasts of Bacchus.” — J. C. Jackson, A.31., M.D. Irregular Inheritance. In many families there is a great difference in the longevity of different members, some being strong, hardy, and long-lived, while others are puny, sickly, and die young. In some cases, but one in a large family will be short-lived, while the rest will be long-lived; but the prospects of the others for long life, if strong and healthy, will not be lessened on account of one short - lived member in the family. Sometimes all the girls of a family will be slender and weakly, while all the boys are strong and robust; and in some a portion of each sex is weakly, and the rest healthy and Many wits in jest are fools in fact. 190 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Measure life by acts of goodness, not by years. long-lived. In such families, one parent was short- lived, and the other long; and the children were long or short-lived as they inherited the temperament of the weak or strong parent, the boys usually being defective when the mother is short-lived, and the girls when the father is. Cases are not uncommon in which both parents are large, hale, vigorous, and live to a great age, and yet all the children die young; but this is not due to any defect in the parents individually, but to a same- ness or extreme similarity in the temperaments, render- ing them illy adapted to each other, and wholly unfit to be united in matrimony. All therefore contemplating matrimony should look well to the fitness of their tem- peraments to each other; for although it is comparatively nothing to them 'personally, yet to their offspring it is all and everything. Twins. The order of Nature for woman is one child at a birth, but couplets, triplets, and quadruplets occur; there are eleven cases on record 'of five children at a birth. The occurrence of twins is usually looked upon with disfavor ; and the popular impression that they are in some way defective, either in mind or body, is not without some foundation, for careful investigation has shown that, although there are occasionally good physi- cal specimens among twins, yet they are generally small, delicate, feeble, rarely long-lived, and more imbeciles and idiots are found among them than any other class of equal numbers. In families where twinning is common, bodily defects and deformities will be found frequent, and monsters born without brains have very rarely oc- Minding your manners is minding your fortune. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 191 A courtier’s dependent is a beggar’s dog. curred excepting among twins. Twins occur once in about seventy-five births, an a woman is more likely to have no children than more than one at a birth. The cause of twins is wholly unknown; in some cases it is due to the male, and in others to the female. The older a woman when she marries, the more likely she is to have twins, especially at her first confinement. The chances for a girl married from fifteen to twenty to have twins are only one in one hundred and eighty-nine; while a woman married from thirty - five to forty has one chance in forty-five to bear twins. While three-fifths of all births occur in women under thirty years of age, three-fifths of all twins are born of women over thirty years of age, the least number being from twenty to thirty, and from thirty the number gradually increases as age ad- vances. Twin-bearing women, it is believed, have more children in the aggregate than those of single births. The most remarkable case of prolificacy on record in one family, is that of a peasant presented to the Empress of Russia, in the year 1755. He had been twice mar- ried, and by the first wife had fifty-seven children in twenty-one confinements, and by the second, thirty-three children in thirteen confinements, all the confinements having been either double, triple, or quadruple. The sentiment has often been expressed by health writers, lecturers, and others, that the American-born woman of pure Anglo-Saxon origin, aside from for- eigners and the colored population, did not at this day possess sufficient physical health and strength, as a nation of females, to prepare the food and cleanse the Marrying Foreigners. A friend is never known till tested. 192 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A good maxim is never out of place. apparel of the American people; and eminent foreigners who visit this country express astonishment at the frail and feeble forms, and pale and haggard faces of the great mass of American-born males; and one thing in this country is too plain and patent to need either proof or argument, and that is, that as a people we are fear- fully on the decline, physically, our females being most rapidly in the descending scale. It is well known to physiologists, and those versed in matters of health lon- gevity, etc., that frequent crossing of blood, or inter- marriage with different nationalities of the same race, as English with Americans, or French with English, etc., will not only be more prolific, but improves the vigor, size, longevity, and intellectuality of the progeny; and it is a matter of history that the most powerful nations both of ancient and modern times, as Home, Greece, England, and the United States, have arisen from the amalgamation of a great number of nationalities of the same race. And, on the other hand, it is equally known that those nations which are opposed to change of popu- lation, and have little or no immigration or emigration, and are clanish, and averse to foreigners, as China, Russia, Japan, and some other countries, have made comparatively little national advance or progress, and what they have made has mainly arisen from their inter- course with foreigners; and the unprecedented growth and prosperity of this country, next to a free govern- ment, is doubtless due more to the compound of nation- alities of which it is composed than any other, if not to all other causes. Inasmuch, then, as a frequent cross- ing of the blood, by intermarriage with other nations of the same race, increases prolificacy and improves the Anger, like raiD, breaks itself upon what it falls. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 193 Much is expected where much is given. progeny, and promotes energy, enterprise, and national progress and greatness, it is unquestionably the true national policy of the people of this country to encour- age intermarriage with foreigners of the Caucasian race, irrespective of nationality. For this will not only soften and modify the national piques, prejudices, and asperi- ties which always exist among a mixed people, but a single century will wholly blend the heterogeneous materials into one homogeneous mass, in which the different original nationalities can no longer be recog- nized, and thus prove an immense national blessing. Family Longevity. The average age to which the members of a family- live is termed the “ family longevity ; ” thus, if all the members of a family die within a certain period, say from fifty to sixty, or sixty to seventy, etc., then the family longevity in these cases will be the means of these extremes, viz., fifty-five and sixty-five, and so on ; and the prospects of any family or individual for longevity, descended from these families, will be the period of time between it or him and the family longevity just illus- trated. But the family longevity is not always the maximum lifetime of all its members; for some, and frequently several of them, may so cherish and foster their life-powers as to reach the age of the oldest mem- ber of the family. Although these facts do not define the day, month, or hour of our decease, yet they are of great practical utility, because they enable us to arrive at a pretty accurate estimate as to the period of our so- journ upon earth, by giving us the maximum of our Much is wanting where much is desired. 194 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Try on your boot before purchasing. existence, and then leaving it in our own hands to battle for the prize of life. Animal Reproduction. Nature has bestowed upon all organic matter, animal and vegetable, the means of perpetuating its own sort or species, but in widely different ways. When the male has reached physical perfection, and his organism is all complete, his system produces nothing beyond what is needed to compensate for the waste consequent upon its own action; but the female, within certain periods of her life, has the power of producing an excess of organic materials in her system beyond the wants of the body, and this excess can be shown to possess all the elements of a new organism. It is constantly being produced, and is periodically expelled from the body, until ex- pended in the function of reproduction ; for as soon as the ovum has been impregnated, every drop of this su- perabundant material goes to the production and sup- port of an organism like that of the mother. The female in the lower animals is only capable of reproduc- tion at certain periods, or a certain number of times annually, while the human female is not restricted in this particular, and is capable of producing her species at any time. In both sexes, the exercise of the repro- ductive functions, even in moderation, is more or less enervating, and, when abnormally exercised, becomes debilitating and exhausting, and may even result seri- ously; and Nature has furnished no evidence that these functions should ever be exercised beyond the necessi- ties of reproduction. Labor causes a diminution in the quantity of this production in the female, and when it is Never buy a pig in the poke. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 195 Necessity is the mother of invention. suppressed by disease, the effect is a morbid accumula- tion of fat from the same materials; hence the old adage, “ fat women never breed.” And when, frbm any cause, the reproductive element in man is interrupted or sup- pressed, as in eunuchs, the effect is the same as in the female — an increased deposit of fat. The Kine-Pox. The cow- or kin e-pox was discovered by Dr. Edward Jenner, of England, about the year 1780, and soon spread throughout the civilized world. For a time it was supposed that the preventing qualities of the kine- pox were lost, or wore out once in a few years; but ex- perience has now amply proved that its effects are per- manent, and that the time which may have elapsed since the system was subjected to its influence has no effect, provided the virus and impregnation are genuine. In the selection of the vaccine virus, too much care cannot be exercised; for while the spurious is worthless, and dangerous in its effects upon the body, the genuine is safe and reliable. After their use, they may readily be distinguished by the appearance of the scar left upon the arm; for while the latter has several small indenta- tions, usually upon the margin of its surface, the former is smooth, like the scar produced by a burn. Formerly, it was supposed that the teeth required no care or attention, that all efforts at repairing them were useless and injurious, and all they needed was to be “well let alone;” but these antiquated ideas are now ex- ploded ; and as the teeth are known to be living organic An Old Idea. Talking too much has ruined thousands; too little, none. 196 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Never sport with pain or poverty. structures, all intelligent persons now concur in the opinion that they demand care, and even vigilance, to protect them from premature decay. The most im- portant points in the preservation of the teeth, are to avoid mercurials, acids, the extremes of temperature; rinse them thoroughly, after the first and second meals, with tepid water only, and apply the brush and warm water after the third meal. Temperature of Water. The temperature of water in wells and springs varies but little during the different seasons of the year, ranging from fifty to fifty-four degrees of Fahrenheit. A Morbid Taste. What an error, what a folly, what a want of native good sense, to suppose that there is any value, merit, or beauty in a delicate, pale, deathly, sickly, white com- plexion, or in a soft lily-white hand. So much darker, on an average, are the inhabitants of Europe than we are, that, on landing upon our shores, they are wont to look upon us as a race of walking corpses rather than living human beings; and sound and sensible minds can have no sympathy with a morbid taste and a squeamish, fastidious delicacy which requires a lady to cover her face with a veil every time she steps out of the house. The human lungs and skin were made to be exposed to the sun and air; and the body can no more attain perfect health without them than a potato can planted in a dark cellar. A lily-white skin is indicative of feeble- ness, debility, want of wire, stamina, powers of endur- ance, and physical worthlessness, and can only excite Never sound the trumpet of your own fame. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 197 Vice and misery are close companions. the admiration of those ignorant of real human worth, or possessed of a morbid and erroneous taste; and one of the first writers of the age upon health has said that a “ lily-white skin, and a soft white hand, almost always accompany a soft brain.” Away then with this solar- fobia and marble - skin mania, for there is neither science, sense, beauty, nor value in them. Old Age. We usually attach to these words the idea of long life, or having lived many years, aside from anything else; but this is not strictly correct; for as there is no particular age or number of years specified or implied by the term, it must be used relatively, and what would be old age for one would be the reverse for another. Every one is born with the elements of life or viability adequate to reach a certain age; and if that age be reached, he has fulfilled the measure of his organism, and could not have existed longer, and therefore in his case lived to old age; whereas, if by accident or consti- tutional abuse, he falls short of the years which his organism entitled him to live, ten or twenty years, as is the case with most of us in this age, he may be said to die young or fail of old age, even at a hundred years; for no one can be said to die young who has seen all the days which, by his organism, it was possible for him to have lived. As for “ family expectation,” or the pros- pects of longevity in any family, if all the members of a family for several generations, accidental deaths ex- pected, including grand-parents, parents, uncles, aunts, etc., have lived to and died at about a certain age, be it more or less, we may expect that the subsequent mem- Silence overcomes passion. 198 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Obedience to right is better than compulsion to it. bers of that family will live to that age, although they may, by constitutional abuse, curtail the viability to which by Nature they were entitled. Cases are on record in which large families, without any apparent direct cause, have all died when they reached a certain year of their age, and several of them so exact as to happen in the same month of the same year of their age, while other families have all died without apparent cause during a period of three or four years; the longer the life of the family, the greater will be the period through which its deaths will be distributed, a member very rarely exceed- ing the greatest age in the ancestry. The Vision. Of all the five special senses, the vision is obviously the most important; for in its absence, with all the others entire, we are comparatively useless; and hence a few brief hints on this subject may not be amiss. 1. Avoid excesses and debauchery in everything, especially in eating, drinking, and venery, particularly the last. 2. Long-continued darkness, or protracted exposure to an intense light, are equally injurious. 3. A bright, sunny day, with the ground covered with snow, is exceedingly trying upon the vision, and should, as much as possible, be avoided. 4. Exposure to bright fires, particularly in connection with heat, as in the case of smiths, forgers, and glass- blowers, as well as very brilliantly illuminated apart- ments, are very severe upon the organ of vision. 5. Leading, writing, sewing, or any other close appli- cation of the eye to small objects by twilight, moonlight, Men talk like philosophers and live like fools. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 199 Mean men worship money; good men, justice and virtue. or any other imperfect light, overdoes the eye and im- pairs the vision. 6. Kerosene lights are very intense and trying to the eye, and should never for once be used unless well shaded, so as to exclude all direct rays from the eye; and those who neglect this caution will rue it when too late. 7. The use of tobacco in any form, especially chewing, is among the most common and active causes of impaired vision. 8. Reading in cars, coaches, or in any other condition where the body is not completely at rest, is a very perni- cious practice, that cannot be indulged in with impunity. 9. The long-sighted should read with the book as near the eyes as possible, and the near-sighted the re- verse. 10. Gas-lights, excepting when used with a chimney and shade, like a kerosene burner, owing to the flicker- ing and instability of the flame, are wholly unfit for reading, sewing, or anything else requiring close vision. 11. Sudden transitions from darkness to a brilliant light, and the reverse, are injurious to the vision. 12. Papered walls with mild colors are preferable to white ones; and white houses, fences, etc., unless located in groves, so as to relieve the vision by the contrast, are trying and severe upon the eye. 13. Of all colors, green is the most agreeable and con- genial to the eye; and in this Nature has especially favored us in giving this color to the verdure of the ground and forest. 14. In the use of glasses, so adapt them to the eye as to give precisely the natural representation of the object, Money and manure, to do good, must be well spread. 200 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Self-love is the most dangerous flatterer. never allowing them either to magnify or minify, and at each change to a stronger glass, let the change be as slight as possible, and serve the purpose. Poisonous Metals. Copper and brass used for culinary purposes, espec- ially for cooking, are highly improper, and even danger- ous ; for the various articles, especially acid fruits, act upon their surfaces and poison the contents, and death has often occurred from the use of sauce cooked in such vessels; and the use of “ German silver ” for culinary or table implements is also highly exceptionable. Time for Sleep. “ Tired Nature’s sweet restorer ” is indispensable to man’s existence, and those who neglect the regular time or quantity of it will insure impaired health of mind and body, and diminished existence in the aggregate; for the old adage, “ Early to bed and early to rise, etc.,” is exactly to the point, But it is not sufficient that we sleep the requisite number of hours; it must be done during the early part of the night; for the experience of ages has shown that there is no compensating for a neglect of sleep during this part of the night. The experience of whole nations for centuries, espec- ially that of the Romans and Russians, has practically proved the immense value and importance of warm water bathing as a detergent, sanative, and preventive agent, especially in the higher latitudes and variable climates. Warm bathing is beneficial to nearly all ages, both sexes, and in nearly every condition of life; and Warm Baths. Of all prodigality, that of time is the most wicked. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 201 Of two evils choose the less. may be practised from once a week to two or three times a day — thirty minutes at a time — at a temperature varying from ninety to a hundred and ten degrees. It is especially beneficial to all who have passed the me- ridian of life, and are gradually on the decline, and will not only greatly improve the health of such, and retard the downward tendency of the life-powers, but make a vast difference in the appearance of the age in advanced life. Respect for Pregnancy. “ It is interesting to note the respect which, in all ages and countries, has been awarded to pregnant women. At Athens and Carthage, the murderer escaped from the sword of justice if he took refuge in the house of a pregnant woman. The Jews allowed her to eat for- bidden meats. Moses pronounced the penalty of death against all who caused a woman to abort. Lycurgus compared women who died in childbed to the brave who died on the field of battle, and accorded to them sepulchral inscriptions. In ancient Rome, where all were compelled to rise and stand during the passage of a magistrate, pregnant wives, as a token of respect, were excused. In the kingdom of Pannonia, enceinte women were in such veneration that a man meeting one in the road was obliged, under penalty of a fine, to turn back and protect her to her place of destination. The Cath- olic church has in all times exempted pregnant women from fasts. And the Egyptians decreed, and it is now the law in most Christian countries, that if a woman shall be convicted of a crime, the punishment of which is death, the sentence shall not he executed if it be Self-study is the most profitable of all studies. 202 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Meddle not with the affairs of others. proved that she is pregnant.” — George II. Napheys, A.M., M.D. Marriage. “ To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus is every- thing.” In youth, wives are our mistresses; in middle age, our companions; and in old age, our nurses; so that at all adult periods of life the argument is in favor of matrimony. Marriage, however, should never be entered into indiscriminately, and the parties ought to possess a parity of station, similarity of tastes, temper, and education, and not have too great a disparity in years; and it is the absence of one or more of these essential qualities which makes the married state of this age so often one of misery and affliction. It is the opinion of close and careful observers of men and things in our day, that, owing to the false and erroneous domestic education of most of the females of this country, and the almost entire physical inability of American-born women to perform even the simplest and most needed duties of the household, nineteen marriages out of twenty prove a positive source of matrimonial in- felicity to the parties. Butter Discarded. The Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society — by no means trifling authority — has decided against the use of butter, which they declare contains no element of food required in the human body. Nature and Sleep. Persons in full, vigorous health, the world over, espe- cially the active and laborious, often find it very diffi- cult to resist sleep after night has fully closed in; and Keep your own counsel. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 203 One ill word invites more. this instinctive desire for early repose is one of the very best evidences of sound and perfect health. And in favor of sleeping by night and laboring by day, the fact may be added, that the atmosphere is always more vitiated or impure by night than by day; and as we respire less, and consume less air while asleep, than when awake and active, we suffer less from bad air by sleeping at night and laboring by day than by an oppo- site course. Physical Education. The young of all animals instinctively delight in the free use of their limbs, and children enjoy it no less than the lower animals, and should always be encouraged to romp and play in the open air, especially girls, and not through a false delicacy or mock modesty be re- strained lest they should not be deemed delicate and genteel. The present pale, delicate,' sickly, haggard, sharp-faced condition of American women, and their noted inability to fulfil the destinies of their nature, are due more to a want of free, active, and abundant exer- cise in the open air than to any other one cause. And to hope to impart graceful forms and motions to the body and limbs, health and vigor to the constitution, and cheerfulness to the mind, by the house-poison heated air of the parlor or nursery, and the use of belts, splints, stays, ligature, and lessons in posture, is as silly and futile as to attempt to improve the beauty of a young tree by placing it in a greenhouse, and confining its branches in an artificial framework. As a general thing in family inheritance, if affected at all, children will take on the diseases of their parents — Ancestral Origin. One bad example spoils many good precepts. 204 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Much coin, much care; much meat, much malady. the sons those of the mother, and the daughters those of the father; and this being the case, will not the chil- dren be equally as likely to inherit the health of the parents as their diseases ? Abortions. Miscarriages are the source of immense affliction to females, and unborn thousands annually come to a pre- mature death in this way. Women more frequently miscarry at their first and last confinements than any other, the last half of the child-bearing period being more subject to abortions than the first. Thirty-seven women out of every hundred, on an average, miscarry before they attain the age of thirty; and ninety out of a hundred, who live in matrimony to the close of the child- bearing period, miscarry once or more during that period. Miscarriages are most likely to occur during the first three months of pregnancy, and at about the sixth month ; and those who have miscarried once seem to be more likely to do so again about the same stage of pregnancy. Infants born under six months, as a gen- eral rule, are not capable of sustaining independent life: still there are cases where they have survived birth at an earlier period than this. Many causes conduce to bring about miscarriage, among which may be mentioned piles, and habitual constipation of the bowels, producing straining at stool; excessive intercourse, especially by newly-married couples; conceptions while nursing are very apt to abort; the use of cathartic drugs, horseback or rough carriage riding, lifting heavy weights, fits of anger, excessive joy, and any sudden fright or shock to the nervous svstem. Open rebuke is better than secret hatred. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 205 Opportunity makes the thief. The Science of Medicine. “ Physicians have been tinkering at the human system for about four thousand years to cure disease, and the result is that mercury and brimstone are the only two specifics which they have discovered, and all the fatal maladies remain what they were in the days of Hippo- crates, Paracelsus, and Galen; each disease having a thousand prescriptions, but not a single cure. They pour a medley of salts and acids into a marble mortar, and expect similar results when these ingredients are poured into the human stomach; but their misfortune is that the stomach possesses life, has gastric juice, and is excluded from the air, while the mortar has no such qualities.”— C. C. Colton, A.M., D.D. Fashionable Murder. We have elsewhere hinted at the cumbersome, unnat- ural, and dangerous long dress-skirts worn by females; and the upper part of the body is in no better condition, only that it is subjected to the opposite ridiculous ex- treme, the skirt having useless and unlimited dimen- sions, while the waist, chest, and shoulders have next to no dimensions at all; for while the feet and lower extremities are encumbered and obstructed by a great quantity of wholly useless material, suspended loosely around them, the upper portion of the body is screwed, pressed, and twisted into the least possible space, wholly crippling and destroying the freedom of the arms and shoulders. In the first place, when a lady walks, her hands are almost constantly in demand to raise her cumbersome skirts, and keep them out of the way so she can use her feet; and when she goes out, if she wear Time and truth reveal all secrets. 206 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Opportunities neglected are lost forever. a shawl or some equivalent — which is usual — one hand at least is necessary to keep that properly adjusted to the body; and as her bonnet is a mere sham or mock thing of no earthly use to her, she requires one hand to carry her parasol. And in this crippled and hampered condition, toiling and struggling to keep her skirts out of the mud, and out of the way of her feet, the sun out of her face, her shawl upon her body, and with the ad- ditional encumbrance of a satchel, woman tamely sub- mits to the low drudgery and abject slavery of senseless and meaningless customs, not daring to assert her per- sonal freedom, lest she should be excommunicated from the world of fashion. Snuff. “ The use of snuff destroys the sense of smell and taste, and greatly impairs the voice; and even when it does not escape and pass into the stomach, its repeated appli- cation to the nasal surfaces affects that organ by sym- pathy, and gives rise to indigestion, tremors, palsy, epilepsy, and even death itself.” — Dr. Condie, Phila- delphia. Heating Apartments. Warming rooms by means of heated air may well be ranked among the most valuable improvements of the age, and has the following advantages over all other means now in use for this purpose: First, it is a great economy of fuel; secondly, the apartments are freed from the dirt, dust, and smoke arising from the use of wood or coal; thirdly, a more uniform temperature can be secured throughout the room than by any other pro- cess ; and, fourthly, as the air enters the apartment pure One vice costs more than a hundred virtues. HUMAN" LIFE PROLONGED. 207 Out of debt, out of danger. from without, and is not deteriorated by any combustion within, it will be much more slowly deteriorated, and remain pure longer, with the presence of the same num- ber of persons. Covering the Head. The Creator has furnished man with a natural head- dress which, if relied upon from childhood, would be found ample on nearly all occasions, even in civic life; and in few things, if any, connected with, dress, do we commit greater errors, or exhibit greater stupidity, than in our attempts to modify and improve upon this natural head-dress. “ Keep the head cool and feet warm” is an adage as old as the days of the Greeks and Romans; and yet, even in this day of boasted advancement and im- provement, no part of the body suffers more from heat, pressure, and confined impure air than the head. The present head-dress, especially that of the male, by fitting closely and pressing tightly upon the head, retains all the heat and effluvia, which should escape, closely around the head, inducing an unnatural flow of blood to the part, by which the headache is produced, the scalp in- flamed and morbidly sensitive, and the roots of the hair diseased, producing premature blanching and decidence, and frequently eruptions of the scalp, and sometimes inflammation of the brain. The lighter, looser, and the cooler the head-dress the better, and vice versa. Caps at night, and covering the heads of infants, are useless and by-gone practices, which have now nearly disap- peared before the common sense of the age. Ladies’ dresses are usually so fitted about the shoulders that not one in twenty-five can raise her arms more than Sloping Shoulders. Forgiveness is the most efficient revenge. 208 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The contemptible most fear contempt. horizontally, without great effort and the risk of tearing her dress under the arms, which almost wholly prevents the upward motion of the arms, and more or less cur- tails it in all directions excepting downward. Now this compression across the upper part of the chest, at the shoulder-joint, not only prevents the growth and devel- opment of the shoulders in width, but, by preventing the upward motion of the arms by the tightness of the gar- ment, produces falling or sloping shoulders, a positive deformity so nearly universal among American women But this is not all nor the worst; for this tight compres- sion across the upper part of the chest*, like the Chinese lady’s iron shoe upon the foot, prevents the growth of the female breasts, and thus not only deprives woman of one of her greatest personal charms—a fine bust—but renders her incapable of fulfilling one of the most ob- vious and important functions of her nature—the natural support of her offspring. The common remark, “Ameri- can women have no breasts,” is much too near the truth; for we all know that a vast majority of them lose their breasts at the weaning of the first child, and that sub- sequently they are at best but poor apologies for these personal ornaments and important organs; while it is equally as well known that our foreign females, almost without exception, retain these organs in a plump and healthy condition to the end of child-bearing, and often for many years later. The notorious defective breasts of American females may in part be due to constitu- tional causes, which prevent the full growth and devel- opment of the system and affect the breasts as a part, but is mainly to be attributed to this twisting and screwing the upper part of the chest into tightly-com- Pardon others often ; yourself, seldom. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 209 Policy often effects what force cannot. pressed waists in youth, and not allowing them space to develop, and reach their natural growth and size. Coeducation of the Sexes. The custom of separating the sexes during all the sunny years of scholastic pupilage seems to be not only unnatural, unwise, and unsociable, but stoical and cruel; for a well-regulated association of the sexes during youth, and especially during their bright and vivacious school-days, is a source of great pleasure and satisfaction to both parties, and there is no valid reason why they should be deprived of it. They are destined ultimately to come together in the social and matrimonial relations of life, and why separate and seclude them like culprits in a prison during so large a part of the most interesting portion of their days? Is the knowledge which the sexes gain of each other in youth, by a proper associa- tion, a detriment in after-life? Is not a young girl, trained up in the constant society of the other sex of her age, a better judge of his faults, failings, foibles, capacity, good and bad qualities, than if kept secluded from his society? and will she not be very much better able to judge of the merits and demerits of the sex in making a matrimonial choice? and is not the same true of the male ? The truth is, the presence of girls in a school- room throws a very strong restraining influence over the conduct of the boys, causing them to be more atten- tive to personal appearance, to neatness in dress, more refined in their manners, and guarded in their language. Boys have quite as high feelings of honor and self- respect as men; and they stand in wholesome dread of the public opinion of the girls, which frowns down Possibilities are infinite. 210 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Patience is a healing plaster for all sores. meanness, profanity, and vulgarity; and this, as it were, forces the boys to adopt finer feelings and a higher tone of manliness, for girls exert, in this respect, the same influence over boys that women do over men. In a •school of both sexes, the most debased boy dare not be guilty of an indecent act or a low and vulgar word, in the presence of a high-minded and refined girl, any more than a chaste man would in the presence of a vir- tuous woman; so that the whole influence of the girls upon the boys in a school, as elsewhere, is positively salutary, refining, and elevating. And as for girls, we fully believe that those educated with hoys will grow up to womanhood with stronger, purer, nobler, and better developed characters than if trained in seclusion and ignorance of the other sex. They will be better capable of thinking and acting for themselves, and much better judges of human nature, especially the peculiarities of the male mind; for nowhere can they find better ideas of true manhood than in our public schools, where am- bitious and manly boys are their associates, where mind is made the standard of honor and position, and where genuine merit always commands admiration. In this case the influence is mutually beneficial; for the boys are stimulated to moral and scholastic excellence by the presence of the girls, and the girls are aroused to greater mental efforts by the presence of able and ambitious boys. The surest way to produce romantically diseased imaginations, and to tarnish the purity of the female character, is to shut girls out from the society of boys, and young women from the society of young men. The young miss with the most romantic notions of love and marriage, who would readily elope with a fine coat, Of all poverty, that of the mind is the most deplorable. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 211 A denial of the truth is the climax of impudence. pretty face, gold chain, and dandy cane, is not the one who has been educated with boys and young men, and is familiar with the male character; but the sentimental, imaginary young miss, who has been brought up in some secluded seminary, where men are the myths of some fashionable and fascinating novel, is the most likely victim of such erroneous and false education. We be- lieve in throwing around boys every restraining, refin- ing, and elevating influence, and in training them to reverence virtuous womanhood, and in teaching girls to respect manliness and manhood; and we know of no way in which this can be better done than in a well- regulated school, where each sex mutually educates the other. Slavery to Fashion. Whoever knew a woman, with even one fashionable idea in her head, who dared to select a glove more than half the size of her hand, so as to require ten minutes at every time to put it on ? and, when on, so tight as to render her hand utterly useless, and cause it to have a doll-baby appearance rather than that of a woman ? or a shoe more than three-fourths the size of the foot, so as to be compelled to fit the foot to the shoe, and not the shoe to the foot? Health Maxims. The closer we adhere to Nature in all things, the bet- ter health we shall enjoy, and the longer we shall live, and vice versa. We should always rise from the table with some appetite; and he who feels the worse for his meal, either in mind or body, has exceeded his quantity. The more our food is compounded, the more difficult it One fault can never justify another. 212 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Perspicuity is the best eloquence. becomes of digestion, and the more impure will be the blood produced from it. The miserly, who deny them- selves the luxury of life, generally enjoy good health. He who is too poor to make a feast, and too obscure to be invited to one, has greatly increased prospects of health and long life. Cleanliness is next to godliness; has a powerful influence upon the preservation of health, and is always accompanied with domestic order and discip- line, which greatly conduce to happiness and prosperity. The Sluggard. He condemns his irresolution and cowardly surrender to so disgraceful an enemy, but fails to come up to the struggle of the contest, or to arouse to the honors of victory. He mourns the loss of life wasted in useless slumber, but makes no effort to redeem himself; he wishes without possessing, and regrets without reforming. ’Tis brave to wake amid lethargic tools, And rise surrounded with the dying fools. The Doctor’s Friends. A fashionable London doctor enumerates a few of his best and most profitable friends as follows: 1. Theatres, close cars, coaches, heated churches, and all other places where an impure rarefied air is breathed. 2. Wine, gluttony, late hours, and fashionable dress. 3. Tea, coffee, tobacco, because they destroy the di- gestion, ruin the nervous system, and bring on a host of chronic diseases which remain long on his list of patients. 4. Quack nostrums, because they lull and amuse the hypochondriacal, and convert slight acute diseases into serious chronic ones, which require long treatment. Pedantry is the offspring of vanity. 213 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Idleness and want are twin brothers. Importance of the Blood. The blood i the great source of materials from which all the repairs of the human body are made, and is to the human organism what the lumber, brick, and mortar are to the ed ifice; and its circulation through the body is to the system what the hands of the mechanics and laborers are to the building. So long, therefore, as the blood remain - pure, and every part of the body retains its natural flow or circulation of this fluid, it cannot be diseased, and will perform its functions in a healthy and vigorous manner, and vice versa. Real beauty, which is highly commendable and admired by all, especially that of the complexion, is nothing more or less than simple visible health—a true mirror in which the complete harmony of all the internal functions of the body can be seen externally. And the young miss or. fashionable lady, whose greatest ambition is to increase her charms, should bear in mind that it can only be done by the use of pure air, simple diet, cheerfulness, and temperance in all things, with free and abundant exercise in the open air, unin- terrupted by any species of compression or restraint to any part of the body. For Nature, left to herself to do her own wTork in her own way, is always trufe and faith- ful, and effects the greatest possible good for each in every case; and the female who attempts to substitute the artificial trash, corset-lacing, paints, powders, lotions, washes, etc., or any other artificial means to improve her personal charms, either of face or form, will find, when too late, that she has labored in vain; and instead of Natural Beauty. Our virtues woulc ill be proud, if conquered by our vices. 214 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. The wise and good only can be friends. improving upon Nature, has greatly marred and deteri- orated her, and brought on premature fading, wrinkles, and all the external indications of old age; for nothing undertaken by man or woman so completely defeats itself in every point as when attempt is made to im- prove upon the works of the Creator by the miserable trash of art. A Healthy Child. One individual estimates the health of his young child by its fatness, another by the quantity of rich food which it can devour, a third by the early appearance of its teeth, and a fourth from its ability to walk very young, etc.; still, none of these are really indications of sound health, but, on the contrary, fatness, beyond simple plumpness of muscle, is a diseased condition, and such children are much less likely to grow up than those less gross and fat. And precociousness in the development of the limbs, or the appearance of the teeth, like all other precocities, is also unfavorable to the life prospects of the child; and the ability of a young child to gor- mandize, especially rich concentrated food, betokens an early grave. The really healthy child is plump, but not fat; and all the organs and their functions make their appearance in regular order and succession, no one out- stripping the other. Quantity of Sleep. This depends upon three conditions—age, health, and habits; as a general rule, the quantity of sleep being greatest in infancy, and gradually diminishes until ex- treme old age, when it often increases again, especially near the close of life. The young and healthy child, Plain dealing is the jewel HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 215 Wash your dirty linen at home. while the body is undergoing the rapid progress of de- velopment incident to that age, sleeps most of its time; the youth of ten or fifteen sleeps much less; the adult still less, and the aged comparatively little. The labori- ous require more sleep than the sedentary, and the feeble and complaining more than the vigorous and the healthy. From ten to twelve hours for youth, from six to eight for middle age, and from four to six in advanced life in ordinary health, is about what Nature demands. By retiring at a certain hour regularly, we shall soon acquire the habit of awaking at a certain hour, and this defines Nature’s demand for sleep in each individual, and no one should ever venture to indulge in a second nap. Man a Clock. “ Respiration is the falling weight, the bent spring which keeps the human clock in motion; the inspira- tions and expirations are the strokes of the pendulum which regulate it. We know well the effects of tem- perature and a change in the length of the pendulum upon our clocks and common time-pieces, and regulate them with precision, but few have any clear conception of the wonderful influence of air and temperature upon the human body; yet the knowledge of the conditions necessary to keep the one in a normal condition is no more difficult than the other.” — Liebig. Chronic Disease. It has already been stated, that in case of starvation in the absence of food, the oxygen of respiration seizes upon the tissues of the body, and thus consumes it by a slow combustion; and in all cases of chronic disease Be mindful of the past, and provident of the future. 216 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Punctuality secures confidence. terminating in death with extreme emaciation, it is pro- duced in the same way. Whenever, from any cause, those elements are wanting in the system which go to the support of respiration or combustion; whenever those organs, whose function it is to prepare the food to enter the blood and unite with the oxygen of respira- tion, become impaired so that the food is no longer pro- perly elaborated, the oxygen will attack the of the body already formed, and always in a state of readi- ness to unite with it; hence, a continuous supply of food, properly prepared for the use of the body by the digestive and assimilative organs, is the only protection which the body has against being consumed by respira- tion at any and all times. A mere supply of food in quantity and sort, therefore, is not adequate to the pro- tection of the system from the chemical action of the oxygen of respiration; for it must be duly elaborated and fitted for the use of the body by the digestive pro- cess, and when this is impaired or in fault, the effect upon the body will be the same as in the absence of food, or in case of starvation. Hence, in most cases of chronic disease, although food is present in abundance, the body becomes thin, poor, haggard, and cadaverous, simply because it is no longer in a condition to properly prepare that food to enter the blood, and the oxygen rejects it for the tissues of the body, which are con- sumed, producing the effects just described, and when the causes are continued to a sufficient extent, death en- sues from it as in case of starvation in the absence of food. Eccentricities of Nature. In the canine race, it is no uncommon thing for the slut to bring forth, at the same birth, puppies of distinct Proud looks lose, but kinii words win. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 217 The most positive are most frequently in error. species. Mares have been known to bring forth within an hour first a horse and then a mare colt. Women have been known to give birth to twins, one of which was white and the other black. Dr. Henry relates a case of a native creole woman of Brazil, who brought forth at one birth three children of different colors — white, black, and brown — each having the peculiar distinctive features of its race. In all these cases the conceptions must have taken place in rapid succession, so that the offspring arrived at maturity simultaneously, and -were born at the same accouchment. But still more curious freaks of Nature than these are on record. Marie Anne Biguad, of France, aged thirty-seven, April 30, 1748, gave birth to a living boy at full term, and on the sixteenth of the ensuing September — over four months — to a living girl of full term, the first living two and a half months and the second a year. Benoite Franquet, of Lyons, France, on the 20th of January, 1780, was delivered of a girl, and five months and six days after of another girl, both at full term, and both lived. In these, and other similar cases which might be enumerated, conception must have taken place after pregnancy; and in the case of Marie Anne Biguad, the second child must have been conceived after the quick- ening of the first. It is known to all, that while some families are af- flicted with much sickness and frequent early deaths, others, surrounded with apparently the same train of circumstances, seldom have either ; and it is ascertained, beyond doubt, that three-fifths of the families in any Ancestry and Temperament. Poverty is the mother of all arts. 218 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Necessity is the mother of invention. ordinary community pay ninety-five hundredths of the doctor bills, the other five per cent, being paid by the long-lived families who are seldom sick. And these fortunate families are exempt from sickness because they have inherited from the parent stock, in the very cell from which they had their origin, the elements of long life and vigorous, disease-resisting constitutions. A noted quack once boasted that he “ gained his repu- tation by practising in long-lived families, and always managing to excuse himself when called upon to attend the short-lived breeds; ” and there is certainly much force in the remark. The oft-repeated and trite say- ings, “ Old age runs in the family,” “ Like begets like,” “They never die,” “He is from a long-lived stock,” “A tough race,” “Takes after his father,” “ Has his mother’s constitution,” and many other similar terms handed down from remote antiquity, all go to show that all mankind always have been, and still are, instinctively impressed with the truth of the family in- heritance of health and longevity. But the mere fact that one was born of long-lived parents is by no means infallible evidence of longevity in the offspring, unless the latter has received and retained those qualities upon which long life depend, which is not always the case. A peculiar adaptation or blending of the temperament of the parents seems to have more to do with the lon- gevity of the progeny than all else known ; for cases are not wanting in which both parents have inherited and enjoyed great longevity, and yet, by the ill adaptation of the temperaments, both being extremes of similarity or dissimilarity, they failed to impart their own life-powers to their progeny. And cases sometimes occur in which Poverty is a dangerous counsellor. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 219 Poverty makes no tyrants. neither parent had great longevity, and yet, by a har- monious blending of the temperaments, the progeny attained long life. Water versus Whiskey. So far as the works of genius are concerned, we may safely challenge competition with the works of water drinkers from those the authors of which have sought inspiration from the wine vat or still. As a modern sample, by the same author, compare the first cantos of “ Childe Harold,” written by Byron the water drinker, with “Hon Juan,” written by Byron the whiskey drinker and tobacco chewer. Let those always so ready to ridi- cule sobriety, abstemiousness, and the temperance cause, adopt this poem as their text-book, and it will furnish them wit and argument adapted to the genius and purity of their cause. Frailty and Longevity. Alexander Avery, of Johnston County, N. C., in 1830, was the only surviving member of the convention which formed the constitution of that State, in 1776; and at that time, 1830, was over ninety years of age. He never took a dose of medicine in his life, nor was ever bled, his only remedy, when a little complaining, being total abstinence from food, and a free use of pure water internally and externally. He was constitution- ally very thin, frail, feeble, and delicate in body, but by his rigid temperance and regularity of habits, secured to himself good health during his long life; and his own words were, “ I have outlived all my thoughtless and reckless companions, most of whom were much more robust than I was; and I have seen my native parish nearly all buried twice over.” The taller the oak, the heavier it comes to the ground. 220 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Poverty craves much, avarice more. Melons. Watermelons, muskmelons, cantaloupes, etc., contain considerable nutriment in the form of saccharine matter, and if eaten with due care are not especially injurious or dangerous. They should never be used until entirely ripe, and then only the soft sweet part, — the rind and outer hard portion being quite indigestible, and very likely to produce diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera in- fantum. As a general thing, especially when salted, and very oily, fish are more difficult of digestion than flesh meats, excepting, perhaps, codfish, which, when properly served up, is readily digested by most stomachs. Fresh fish in general, excepting some few that are very oily, when well served up, and not made too greasy, digest readily, and may be freely eaten. Fish. Reproductive Items. Prospective parents are often solicitous to know in ad- vance of birth the sex of the unborn, and whether single or plural birth may bedooked for; and modern science now enables the skilful medical man to deter- mine these points with a considerable degree of accuracy by what is technically called auscultation, or listening. The beats of the foetal heart of the female are more frequent than those of the male, the average of the former being one hundred and thirty per minute, and that of the latter, one hundred and sixteen ; and by counting the pulsations of the foetal heart during the last months of pregnancy, as can easily be done by a practised ear, if the number exceed one hundred and Praise is tlie natural reward of virtue. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 221 Persecution makes hypocrites, not converts. thirty per minute, it is a daughter; and if they fall short of that number, a son. And the same means are em- ployed to determine the presence of twins, for when two distinct beatings or pulsations are heard, one upon each side of the abdomen, the pregnancy cannot well be mis- taken. As to the period or duration of pregnancy, most women are ready to answer it is nine months; and although this is a vague approximation to the time, it is by far too indefinite, and really erroneous. Nine lunar months of twenty-eight days each amount to two hun- dred and fifty-two days, and nine calendar months, in- cluding February, to two hundred and seventy-three days; while the true average duration of pregnancy is two hundred and eighty days — forty weeks or ten lunar months. Nor can this period be said to be invariable, for some women will come short of it from a week to ten or fifteen days, while others will exceed it as much; and cases are on record in which women have been de- livered of healthy children at fifty, and one at sixty, weeks. Human life is usually divided into infancy, childhood, adolescence, adult, and old age. From birth until first dentition, or two years of age, is termed infancy ; from two to seven, or the second dentition, is childhood; from seven to puberty, adolescence; from adolescence to the decline of life, adult age; and from this period, old age. From birth to twenty, or adult age, is by far the most important period of all, because during that time the physical and intellectual qualities, good or bad, are mainly fixed for life, and the future is only the echo of that period. Periods of Life. Errors and follies are easier seen in others than in ourselves. 222 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Poverty is a self-instructing virtue. The Mother’s Milk. Shall a mother nurse her own child, or put it out to nurse? This question Nature can much better answer than man, for experience has shown that, other things being equal, a plant thrives best in its own native soil, and with the least possible interruption ; and so of man and the brute. If the mother be healthy, she is the only proper one to nourish her child; but if not, circum- stances make it advisable to place it in the hands of a stranger. The somewhat fashionable practice of employ- ing wet nurses, by healthy arid vigorous women, to ap- pear aristocratic and wealthy, only because they are too lazy and worthless to nurse their own offspring, is highly reprehensible, and cannot be too severely condemned. As it is now a well established fact in physiological science, that the bodily health and intellectual qualities of the mother or nurse influence those of the child, care should be had, first, that the nurse be of sound health and from long-lived stock; secondly, that the accouch- ment of the mother and nurse be as nearly as possible simultaneous; and, thirdly, that the nurse possess a good cerebral and intellectual development. Feeble, slender mothers, though apparently healthy, are often greatly injured by nursing their children; and the latter are much more likely to inherit the qualities of the mother, than if nursed by a healthy, vigorous woman, though a stranger. Use of Glasses. The presence of glasses upon the eyes is a standing advertisement of a physical defect, either natural or ac- quired, in the most important of all the five special Precept leads, but example draws. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 223 Honorable loss is better than dishonorable gain. senses; and we should naturally suppose that no one, on this account alone, if no other, would ever adopt their use excepting from sheer necessity ; yet there are many trifling, weak-minded young persons who, either from a desire to appear refined and fashionable, or to attract at- tention, put on glasses, without any need or defect in the eyes, and thus seriously injure the vision for life. It is conceded by all familiar with the structure of the eye that the use of glasses, even under the most favorable circumstances, although we secure temporary relief from them, ultimately shortens the period of our vision, and does much harm; and their use should be adopted with much care, and never worn when they can be avoided. Quantity of Food. Dr. Cheyne says, “ Twenty ounces of solid food daily is amply sufficient for any one not engaged in very laborious employment; and students and sedentary men must reduce this quantity if they expect long to pre- serve their health and spirits.” Dr. Johnson says, “ I would advise that the quantity of solid food should never exceed half a pound at a meal, for this is quite sufficient, and in many cases greatly too much.” Dr. Paris says, “ Those who eat slowly, and masticate faithfully, will not only never over-eat, but eat much less in the aggregate, and be much better satisfied.” Dr. Philip says, “ There is a moment when the relish given to food ceases, and a single mouthful after this oppresses the stomach.” Dr. Johnson (already cited) says, “Whenever our food is followed by any inaptitude, either of mind or body, for labor or exertion, we have eaten too much, and are laying the foundations for disease.” “No one is in the least Solid sense is preferable to pungent wit. 224 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Precipitation often ruins the best matured plans. danger of starvation who can eat a quart of good gruel every twenty-four hours.” — lb. “ More nourishment and strength are imparted to the body by six ounces of food eaten slowly and well digested than by double that quantity hurried down and half digested.” — lb. Cornero, an Italian nobleman, and a most remarkably abstemious man, at the age of seventy-five was induced by his friends to increase his food two ounces a day, and came near losing his life by it. Old Parr, the English- man, at the age of one hundred and fifty-two, then in good health, was over-persuaded to add one ounce to his regular daily allowance, and lost his life by it. Our Girls. The young women of this day usually learn only branches of secondary importance, which are merely ornamental accomplishments; and when they arrive at womanhood, and assume the very responsible position of wife or mother, they are too trifling, frivolous, and un- stable to secure and retain the permanent confidence and respect of their husbands, by the elevation of their minds and their practical domestic virtues. Indeed, if young women go on in the future as they have in the past, they surely cannot complain that they are curtailed in their natural rights, and have no voice or share in politi- cal affairs. Let girls cultivate practical knowledge, and aim at solidity and utility as well as polish and refinement, and above all avoid their most besetting sin— vanity and prudery. Why do men exclude ladies from their society, when they meet to discuss scientific subjects ? Is it because they are averse to the society of the other sex? Is it the fault of the gentlemen or the ladies? Politeness is midway between rudeness and formality. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 225 Over-positiveness betokens a weak judgment. The truth is, the cause is but too apparent. Woman has no taste for such subjects, and her life is all en- grossed with the very important (?) subjects of toys, trifles, and fashion ; and she has no time to attend to the noblest part of her nature — the intellect; and why should man mortify her pride by introducing to her notice such subjects as he well knows she neither com- prehends nor is willing to be troubled with ? If woman expects her condition to be bettered, civilly or politically, she must set about it, and first do something for herself, and show that she is fully resolved to be emancipated, and then man will move in her behalf. Food and Climate. The quantity of food required by any individual de- pends, first, upon the number of respirations in a given time; secondly, upon the temperature of the atmosphere respired; and, thirdly, upon the rapidity of the radiation from the body. A rapid respiration, as in running; a dense cold atmosphere, as in winter; and a poorly pro- tected surface, from inadequate clothing, require the greatest quantity of food in a given time to sustain the natural temperature of the body, and the converse of these conditions the least. No one can take into the system, in the form of food, more carbon and hydrogen than he expires, in the form of carbonic acid and water, without at least temporary injury to the body; and no one can expire more carbonic acid gas and water than he takes in of carbon and hydrogen without taxing the tissues of the body, as in sickness and cases of starvation. If a man from a cold climate go to the tropics, he will find the air rarefied and containing less oxygen. He Prevention is better than cure. 226 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Pride is a louder beggar than want. will be less active, and respire less; and the radiation of the body will go on much slower, so that the quantity of oxygen consumed in a given time is greatly dimin- ished, and the demand for food is also lessened in the same ratio; whereas, if a man from the tropics go to a cold climate, all these conditions will be reversed, and his appetite will be greatly increased in order that he may be furnished with materials or fuel (food) sufficient to keep up the temperature of the body under this change of circumstances. The northern man at 'the tropics, by the use of brandy, pepper, and other stimu- lants, may force his stomach to receive its wonted quan- tity of food when at the north ; but as the oxygen received will not be adequate to the other materials present, there will remain an accumulation of uncon- sumed carbon and hydrogen in the system, and disease of some sort must ensue. On the other hand, if the southern man at the north does not increase the quan- tity of his food, adequate to the increased consumption of oxygen consequent upon the change of temperature, he will suffer from hunger, and, in the absence of food, the surplus oxygen will seize upon the tissues of the body, and he will be slowly burned up alive, or, what is equivalent, starved to death. From this it will be seen that the northern man, who consumes a greater quantity of food and oxygen in a given time than the southerner, enjoys also a higher tone of vitality than the latter; but as the system is necessarily subjected to more wear and tear, the southerner, other things being equal, will out- live the northerner, which corresponds with statistical facts. Be slow to procure, and slower to part with, friends. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 227 The approbation of the virtuous should be highly prized. Childbed Mortality, etc. It is stated, upon good authority, that the risks and mortality of first labors exceed twice that of all the others of a woman’s life combined. From twenty to twenty-five, as a period, the mortality is least — the twenty-fifth year being less than any other — and each side of this year the dangers increase as the years in- crease or diminish. With and after the ninth labor the mortality increases with the number of children ; so that in bearing a large family, a woman assumes increased risks wTith her ninth and subsequent labors. As the period from twenty to twenty-five is both the most pro- lific and least dangerous, that would seem to be indicated by Nature as the most suitable time for women to enter upon matrimonial life. More fatal births occur with male than with female children, and more with long: than short labors. The average weight of infants at birth, regardless of sex, is about seven pounds—males weighing, on an average, two-thirds of a pound more than females. The largest children are born of mothers from twenty to twenty-nine years of age, and after the thirtieth year they gradually diminish in size, the smallest usually being the first born. Children at full term which weigh less than five pounds seldom thrive, and usually die young. The average length at birth is about twenty inches, the male usually being half an inch longer than the female. New-born children in our Western States weigh about one pound, on an average, more than in Europe; or, in our Eastern States, the largest newly- born child on record being twenty-four inches in length, and weighing seventeen pounds. The length of a natu- ral labor varies from two to eighteen hours, the labor Personal beauty fades; that of the mind endures. 228 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Proud men have no real friends. being usually longer with large and male children than with small and female children. As males, on an aver- age, are larger at birth than females, there are more still-born of the former than the latter. If two females, in every other way equally situated, be brought up, the one in the habitual use of these drugs, and the other in the total disuse of them, at thirty years of age the former will appear ten years older than the latter; and at forty, all other things being equal, the difference will be still greater. And could females know and realize the fact that the use of these poisons is fatal to personal beauty; that they ruin the complex- ion, and by relaxing and debilitating the mucous mem- brane of the mouth, seriously injure the teeth, and pro- duce that intolerably offensive breath so notorious among confirmed tea and coffee topers, they surely would pause in their destructive career, and abandon the use of those articles which directly destroy and deprive them of the very qualities they so ardently aim to secure. Tea, Coffee, and Beauty. Importance of Vaccination. Now that the virtues of the kine-pox are well known and established as a protection against the small-pox, it is the duty of every parent to see that his children are promptly vaccinated; and the first year of childhood, when the blood is more likely to be pure and the virus less likely to be neutralized by the impurities of more advanced life, is by far the most favorable time for it. And the only sure means of imparting the virus is to make a small oblique incision under the skin with the Promise little, and do much. 229 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Provoke not to rage a patient man. point of a lance or penknife, and insert into it a piece of the solid matter as large as a linseed, and cover it with a piece of court-plaster. The usual method of inserting the point of a quill, previously dipped in a solution of the virus, under the skin, is not reliable, and the main cause of so many failures in vaccination, which are at- tributed to the condition of the subject instead of the imperfect application of the virus matter. Health of Families. It is an old saying that one man is old at thirty, while another is young at sixty, and frequently the prospects of the latter for life are much better than those of the former. We have all observed that in some families all the members live to good age, while in others they are all gone by or before middle age; and the main cause of this difference is no doubt to be found in the parent stock, modified either way, as the case may be, by habits and local condition. The number of years that one has already lived is by no means the most important element in judging correctly how many he may yet live; for the prospects of many at sixty, for twenty years more, are often better than others are at thirty for the same time. Nor is present health, in general, of much ac- count in determining longevity, for many families are vigorous and healthy while they do live, but are short- lived, inheriting health with limited viability. The Welsh are the longest-lived people in Europe, the Scotch longer than the English, and the English longer than the Irish, yet, as a whole, they are all healthy people, varying in natural longevity. While some are short- lived, and enjoy good health while they do live, others Pride in a beauty is like a flaw in a diamond. 230 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Past pleasures often pave the way to future repentance. live to great age who are not robust but rather slender; and this is erroneously attributed to the care and atten- tion which they bestow upon their health. And al- though care and vigilance to health are important, yet in- vestigation will show that such have one if not both long-lived parents, from whom they inherited their lon- gevity, and that their feeble health is due to some vio- lation of physical law on their own part. Those from a long-lived ancestry not unfrequently die young owing to constitutional abuse on their own part; but it very rarely happens that any one lives more than one or two years longer than their oldest ancestor; and this forms a very correct rule in judging of the maximum age which any individual may attain. In judging of longevity, from sickness or the present health of an individual, it is mainly the character or sort of the disease which needs special attention, for, while most who sicken from incidental causes which surround them will recover, the causes which are sure to shorten life are generally in- herited ; and this accounts for the common occurrence of one family having much sickness and many deaths, while another living adjacent has very little of either. Tobacco Breath. We all know too well liow exceedingly offensive an ordinary bad breath is, arising from carious teeth, dis- ease of the lungs, or a morbid condition of the fluids of the body; and yet, bad as this is, when compared to that of the tobacco user, especially if he uses alcoholic liquors also, it becomes comparatively inoffensive. And how truly piteous must be the fate of a delicate, sensi- tive, and highly-refined female who is compelled to Pry not into the affairs of others. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 231 Adversity is the only scale in which to weigh our friends. spend her days with such a companion, even though he be a paragon of neatness in everything else! And that the morbid breath of a husband, highly charged with tobacco, liquor, or both, exerts a most pernicious influ- ence upon the health of his wife, especially if she be slender, nervous, and highly susceptible to morbific agents, is no new idea, but a fact familiar to every well- read medical man; and there exists not a doubt but thousands of such women are annually hurried to an untimely grave by this means alone. The young lady, therefore, who has any regard for her future health and happiness, should be exceedingly wary in her accept- ance of matrimonial offers, for, in wedding the slave of tobacco, she runs two most imminent risks. First, as elsewhere shown, the use of tobacco leads directly to the use of intoxicating drinks, and she may thus plunge herself into all the horrors of a drunkard’s wife; and secondly, by constantly inhaling his breath for a con- siderable portion of her time, as she necessarily must, she places her health, and even her life, in imminent danger. And sensible, reflecting females are now be- ginning to see and realize the magnitude of this evil, and the day is not very far remote when the use of tobacco will be quite as great an objection to a matrimo- nial alliance as the use of alcoholic liquors is now. Sickness Wicked. The doctrine is rapidly obtaining among the intelli- gent that sickness is culpable, and that an infraction of the physical laws incurs no less guilt than that of the moral law. The Rev. Dr. Phinney, of Oberlin, Ohio, says, “ It is wicked to be sick.” Hon. Horace Mann Prudence guides the wise, but passion governs the fool. 232 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Put no confidence in talebearers. says, “ A dyspeptic stomach is as great an abomination to the Lord as a lying tongue.” Rev. B. B. Edwards says: “ I am willing to risk my reputation upon the prediction that the time is not very remote when intel- ligent men will be as ashamed to be sick as they now are to be drunk.” And Fenelon, more than a century and a half ago, said : “ It is a shame that men have so many diseases; for good habits produce good health, and intemperance converts the food intended to nourish our bodies into a deadly poison.” And certain it is this is a world of cause and effect, and human health forms no exception to this law; and he who destroys his consti- tution and curtails his earthly existence by indolence, intemperance, gluttony, or sensuality, so far as the in- fraction of the law is concerned, is just as guilty as he who lies, steals, or defrauds his neighbor. Wet and Dry Nursing. That dry nursing, or artificial feeding of infants, is a prominent cause of mortality in early life is well under- stood and admitted, and should only be allowed when circumstances forbid natural or wet nursing. In the institutions for foundlings on the continent of Europe, where infants are wet-nursed, the mortality is only about thirty-three per cent.; while in those where they are fed, or dry-nursed, it ranges from sixty to eighty per cent.; and in New York, where several hundred foundlings were annually dry-nursed, the mortality reached nearly a hundred per cent., which lias now been greatly reduced by the employment of wet-nurses. Mothers, who expe- rience difficulty in nursing from depressed or defective nipples, can bring out the nipple by the use of the com- Quick at meat, quick at work. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 233 Pleasures flatter, and lull us to sleep. mon breast-pump, the suction of a tobacco-pipe, or by the application of a puppy or an older child. New-born infants should not be put to the breast oftener than once in two hours during the day, nor more than twice dur- ing the night; and a little attention to this, on the part of the mother, will soon establish the habit, and greatly lessen the labors and cares of the mother. Mothers should not forget that infants as often cry from over- feeding as from a want of food ; and the common practice of giving the child the breast at every cry is calculated to derange the stomach of the child, and ruin the mother’s health. Alcohol Useless. Gov. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, says, “ I stand here this hour a living witness of the utter worthlessness of all intoxicating liquors, having never tasted them in my long life; and I have endured my full share of exposure and fatigue, both in peace and war.” The Roman sol- diers, who conquered the world and bore a weight which would crush a modern soldier, drank only water and vinegar. A Dutch ship, of sixty men, well supplied with liquor and provisions, attempted to pass a winter in Hudson’s Bay, and lost fifty-eight men, while an Eng- lish ship, of twenty-two men, without liquor, passed the same winter in the same place, and lost but one man. Dr. Abbott, of England, who spent several years in the West Indies, declares that in that extreme hot climate, with a vertical sun, experience has amply proved that the slaves who wholly abstain from all alcoholic liquors are more healthy, live longer, and perform better than those who use it. From these facts, and a volume more Quick believers need broad shoulders. 234 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Quick resentments are often fatal. of similar ones which might be adduced, it is evident that alcoholic drinks are wholly useless, either in devel- oping muscular strength and vigor, or in sustaining health and strength in the extremes of temperature. Gums. These exist to a greater or less extent almost univer- sally in trees, plants, and vegetables, and seem to have the same relation to the vegetable kingdom that albu- men does to the animal. They are often so abundant, especially in some trees, as the peach, cherry, pine, etc., as to exude in masses of various size; and in this way most of the gums of commerce are procured. The fol- lowing shows the per cent, of gums in a few of the more common articles in use: Barley, 4; oats, 3; wheat, 3; wheaten bread, 18; rye flour, 11; corn meal, 2; pease, 6 ; beans, 4; potatoes, 3 ; cabbage, 2; plums, 4; pears, 3; cherries, 3; peaches, 5 ; flaxseed, 5. Bathing Infants. In this too much care cannot be had to the tempera- ture of the room and the water; for if either be too cool, the child will be chilled and injured rather than benefited: as a general rule, ninety-eight degrees, the natural tem- perature of the body, being none too high. Drugging, and exposure to cold, destroy more infants than all else, excepting stuffing, or over-feeding, which is really the bane of childhood. The practice of lifting children by one arm, and of trundling them through the streets backwards in baby-wagons, over curbstones and rough crossings, is both outrageous and highly reprehensible, and should never be tolerated by any one claiming in- telligence or civilization. Never quit a certainty for an uncertainty. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 235 Stringent landlords make careful tenants. The Law of Inheritance. It is a fundamental law in hereditary descent, that “as are parents, so are the children,”—that is, large parents, large children; small parents, small children; gifted parents, gifted children; diseased parents, diseased children; stupid parents, stupid children; long-lived parents, long-lived children, etc.; and this law is as equally applicable to the brute creation and vegetable kingdom as the human species, as shown by our great care and solicitude in the selection of choice seeds and blooded animals for reproduction. It is true there are exceptions to this great organic law, but they are too few and feeble to form any valid objections to it; for not only do the offspring take on the form, size, features, complexion, gait, color of eyes, hair, etc., of one or both parents, but also their peculiarities of appetite, propensities, likes, and dislikes, and even their modes of manifestation. Flesh Diet and Brute Force. It is said by some that a flesh diet gives force and energy, and that one of vegetables would render us as tame, passive, and pusillanimous as the Hindoo; but how are the facts ? Are meat-eating nations or people noted for energy and force of character ? How is it with the American Indian, Laplander, Esquimaux, Patagonians, and inhabitants of the South Sea islands, who subsist almost wholly upon flesh? What have any of these people, or any other extensive meat eaters, ever accom- plished, excepting with the tomahawk and scalping- knife, in the way of cruelty and barbarism ? If meat or a flesh diet imparts so much force of character, the Rewards and pr.nishments are like bridles and spurs. 236 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Commend only that which deserves commendation. red man ought to be more than a match for the white man, whereas one of the latter is a match for two of the former, on an average. The fact is there is not an extensively flesh-eating nation or people upon the earth that has ever accomplished anything in the way of the arts or sciences, or arisen to any rank among the nations of the earth; and at this day, at the lowest estimate, seven-eighths of all the food which sustains the civilized world, on an average, is derived directly from the vege- table kingdom. Grant that meat does impart physical power or force, what sort of force is it ? The answer is but too apparent in the wars and bloodshed which con- stantly ravage the earth — the force of the lion, tiger, and wolf—to kill and destroy, but not to produce and build up. Where is there a more vigorous and ener- getic nation upon the earth, bodily, than the Irish, who subsist almost wholly upon vegetables, and that too by no means of the most nutritious sort ? And where are to be found more industrious, productive, and energetic people, in all hut war and public murder, than the Chinese, Japanese, and people of India, who eat next to no flesh meat at all ? And as to strength and efficiency, does the lion accomplish any more than the horse, or is he any more powerful than the wild bull ? Do not the strongest and swiftest animals, as the elephant, rhinoc- eros, antelope, and gazelle, all subsist exclusively upon vegetable food? Are not the highland Scotch, who rarely taste meat, a greatly superior people, physically, to the people of the lower districts, who feed upon flesh ? Can the meat-eating English or Americans at all equal the potato-fed Irish in physical strength or endurance ? Excepting in war, murder, and bloodshed, the rice-fed Rashness is the fruitful parent of repentance. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 237 Rebuke with soft words and hard argument. Chinese and Japanese will out-do both John Bull and Jonathan too. That a flesh diet does impart strength and physical force is conceded; but as vegetable food im- parts much more, and much less of the animalizing, brutalizing ferocity and cruelty of the former, it cer- tainly must be preferable as a diet for man. What a sad reflection it is to the thoughtful, that even our small girls and young misses, those who are destined soon to be the mothers, and ultimately the matrons, of this great nation, following the unworthy example of their mothers, should also be found sipping at the poison- ous fountains of tea and coffee; thus early supplying themselves with abundance of materials for future sick- ness, suffering, and sorrow, and preparing to hand down the same blessings (?), greatly aggravated, as a legacy to future generations. Popular Narcotics. Interesting Items. Children born of healthy, vigorous parents, nearly always bring into the world with them good viability, and powers of resisting disease and morbific agents, while those from a delicate, sickly stock are easily overcome by the least unfavorable occurrence. When eminent men marry women of inferior cerebral development, the children will nearly always be in the descending scale of intellectuality. When parents marry young, and raise a large family, the younger children, if the parents do not fail in health, will be more gifted than the older ones, owing to the growth of intellect in the parents with the advance of years. Congenital defects are much more likely to be transmitted than accidental ones; for The higher pride climbs, the harder its fall. 238 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. At all times gladly barter off error for truth. a man horn with a crooked spine, or deformed leg or foot, would be much more likely to impart it to his off- spring than the Jew would circumcision, though the latter has been practised three thousand years. The greater number of first-born are girls; and when old and feeble men marry young and vigorous females, the majority of the children will be girls. As a general rule, more males are born annually than females; but in some years the number of girls exceeds that of the boys. Trees that bear young are weak, never grow large, decay young; and the fruit is never as perfect, lasting, or good as from those fully matured; and the same is true of men and brutes. Plants repeatedly cultivated upon the same soil deteriorate, degenerate, and ultimately go to naught. Wheat must alternate with rye, oats, flax, barley, or corn; and where firs no longer thrive, other shrubbery will. And the degeneration of men and brutes is just as certain as plants and shrubbery, by re- peated intermarriage, unless the proper adaptation of temperament is rigidly preserved. The habits, manners, and customs of one people may be fully adopted by another, without affecting the physiognomy, provided they do not intermarry, as illustrated in the Jews, who still retain their national physique, although scattered throughout the inhabited .earth during three thousand years. Honor to Mothers. Among the Romans, especial respect was paid to mothers over other females; for it was enacted that a woman who had borne three children, or, if a freed slave, four, should have special privileges in case of the inher- Be always open to conviction, and ready to learn. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 239 Passion evaporates by words, as grief does by tears. itance of property, and should be exempted from tutel- age or guardianship; and the houses of newly-made mothers were especially designated and honored by wreaths over the doors. Louis XIV. ordained, in 1666, that a certain pension should be paid to mothers who had borne ten children, with an increase to those who had borne twelve or more. Madame Sirey says that the woman who properly understands her duties and rights as a mother of a family, certainly cannot complain of her destiny ; for if there is any inequality in the means of pleasure granted to the sexes by nature, it is in favor of woman. Chemical Elements of Man. According to the present state of chemical science, the human body is said to be composed of thirteen sim- ple chemical elements — viz., carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, iron, chlorine, sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and fluorin. Of these the first four are greatly in excess; and the first, carbon, exceeds all the rest combined. Carbon (charcoal) is an essential constituent of every living organic thing, animal or vegetable — an essential ingredient in our food, and plentifully supplied to the body in that article. Human Strength. The most remarkable instance of human muscular strength on record is related by Dr. F. Hodgkin, an eminent English physician, of one Thomas Topham, an innkeeper at Islington, England, during the forepart of the eighteenth century. His first public exhibition of strength was in lying horizontally upon his back, and successfully resisting the draught of two powerful horses. Economy is a virtue even in a king. 240 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Pride minifies our own faults, and magnifies those of others. By the strength of his fingers alone, he rolled a large pewter dish into a small mass, as another person would a piece of paper. He struck an iron poker, three feet long and three-fourths of an inch in diameter, across his arm until he bent it up quite at right angles, and then with his hands alone, without any leverage, bent it back again straight as before. He lifted a rolling stone, of eight hundred pounds, with his hands alone. At Cold-Bath-Fields, on the 28th of May, 1741, he lifted, in the presence of thousands, three hogsheads of water, weighing over eighteen hundred pounds. On his way home, one night, finding a watchman asleep in his sentry-box, he picked up both watchman and box, and with the greatest ease carried the load a long distance, and passed it over a wall into a burying-ground, to the great consternation of the sentry. He would crack a cocoanut with his hands, without blows, as easily as another man could crush an egg-shell. He took a round rod of iron, three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and wound it around the neck of a man who had of- fended him, in such a way that it could only be removed with great difficulty, with as much apparent ease as another would a handkerchief. Two powerful bully guests, on a certain public occasion, becoming offended with Topham, threatened to whip him; whereupon he took each by the nape of the neck and knocked their heads together until they were fully satisfied, and begged his pardon. It is estimated by good judges, who had the best opportunity of knowing him, that he possessed the strength of twelve ordinary men. Retrieve the lost time of the past by assiduity in the future. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 241 Regal honors have regal cares. The heat of the human body is developed by a union of the carbon and hydrogen of our food with the oxygen of respiration; and physiologists tell us that an adult, taking ordinary exercise, consumes daily thirteen and a half ounces of carbon or charcoal; and Despretz says, that the union of one pound of carbon, or charcoal, with oxygen in combustion, as in the human body, evolves heat sufficient to raise the temperature of seventy-eight quarts of water from thirty-two degrees — the freezing point — to two hundred and twelve — the boiling point. And Sir John Ross, in his narrative of his expedition to the north pole, says: “ Such is the demand for carbon in the food, in order to enable one to develop sufficient heat to sustain life in that high latitude, that the Esqui- maux daily consume twenty pounds of flesh, fat, or oil, with complete impunity from any bodily suffering from it.” Animal Heat. Cranberries. Although when well prepared for use, the cranberry is a very palatable dish, yet the effect of the acid upon the teeth is so powerful and injurious, that the propriety of its use as food may well be doubted by all. Fashion and prejudice aside, it must be obvious to any one that attired as woman usually is with long pendulous skirts dangling about her feet and lower extremities, it is utterly impossible for her to move with ease or freedom, or to obtain, from any effort that she may make at locomotion, the desired end without a great and unnecessary waste of life and labor. What- Long Dresses. Past years and pleasures are like water poured through a sieve. 242 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Accept no favor from an unprincipled man. ever she attempts to do, wherever she attempts to go, her dress is always and everywhere a serious obstacle in the way of her successful accomplishment. Is she engaged in the usual round of domestic duties, there is not a single act that she performs which does not demand a much greater expenditure of life and strength, on her part, than would be needed if she were dressed accord- ing to the necessities of her condition. If she sweeps, her dress is in the way — does she make beds, her dress is in the way — does she cook about the stove, range, or fireplace, her dress is not only in the way, but liable to take fire — does she wash or iron, the dress is still in the way—has she children to attend upon, her dress interferes with every attempt she makes for them. She can neither go up or down stairs without carrying her dress in her hands, nor can she stoop without raising it, or else having it unnecessarily soiled, and thus adding to her labor. Has she occasion to go into the garden for vegetables or to pass over a grass-plot, she must wait until the sun is up and the dew off; and even then she must gather up her dress, or in some way get it so she will not step on it, and cause her trouble. If she attempts to exercise a little in the garden, at least one-lialf of the muscular effort expended is in keeping her dress out of the way so she can work. If she attempts to ride or walk, she is in danger of losing life or limb from being tripped or thrown by her dress; and even when seated in a carriage, if any accident occur, her risks and dan- gers are immensely increased, because she is fettered and deprived of the use of her limbs by her dress. Whenever she goes out, it must be only at particular times and in certain directions, so that she can avoid Religious contentions are the Devil’s feast. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 243 Rejoice not at another’s misfortune, great or small. dew, rain, snow, mud, fences, and all other obstructions in her way; and even when there is no obstruction in the way but the dress alone, she cannot walk the same dis- tance over the same road without expending more than double the muscular effort that a man would, saying noth- ing of the extra risks of life and limb to which she is constantly exposed by being deprived of the free use of her limbs by her dress. The food best adapted to Nature’s use is by no means that which is the richest or most concentrated, but such as has a due admixture of the nutritious and innutritious; hence pies, cakes, jellies, sweetmeats, and most else of the pastry kind, is too rich, too concentrated, too stimulating, and too difficult of digestion, and tends to derange the stomach, bowels, and liver, and induce disease. The poor suffer much less from sickness by a deficiency of food than the rich do from an excess of highly concentrated food, for those artificial preparations, which tempt the appetite beyond the demands of the system, poison but never nourish it. Natural Food. While most are impressed with the idea that hard or solid food does require some mastication, at least enough to enable them to choke it down, few have any idea that soft or semifluid food needs any at all, which, though seemingly a small error, results in immense injury to the health of millions. The object of mastication is two- fold — first, to break down or comminute the particles of solid food, so that the solvents of the stomach can the more readily act upon them; and, secondly, to afford time Insalivation. Pride, like a shepherd, drives men where it pleases. 244 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A quiet conscience gives a cheerful face. for-the secretion and admixture of the saliva; and the latter process cannot be well executed, even on soft food, unless it be thoroughly masticated, and time allowed for insalivation. Iron. This element is found in the ashes of most organic matter and foods, especially in mustard, cabbage, potatoes, pease, and cucumbers, and forms the coloring matter of the blood. Climate and Industry. As more food is required to sustain life in a cold than in a warm climate, owing to the increased consumption of oxygen in a cold, condensed atmosphere, man in the- former is urged on to greater efforts and industry to supply the means of life than in the latter; hence the industry, thrift, intelligence, and virtue of the inhabit- ants of temperate and cold climates, and the idleness, indolence, stupidity, and viciousness of those of hot climates. Our clothing is simply an equivalent for a certain quantity of food, by preventing the radiation of heat from the body; and the more warmly we are clad, other things being equal, the less heat radiates, and the less will be the demand for food, and vice versa. Changes in Food. Our food is mainly composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen; and it matters little what changes the elements may pass through in the digestive and assimilative processes of the body: the last change is the conversion of the carbon into carbonic acid, and the hydrogen into water, by a union of these elements with the oxygen of the blood — the unassimilated Resist temptation until you conquer it. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 245 Restraint from evil is the best of freedom. nitrogen and unburned carbon, if any, being expelled from the body in the urine or solid excrement. The human body, as to its temperature, bears the same relation to surrounding objects that any other heated mass does — receiving heat from them when they are hotter, and imparting it when they are colder than itself. There is, therefore, at all times, a tendency to the formation of an equilibrium of temperature between the body and surrounding objects; and when the latter are of a much lower temperature than the former, there is always more or less danger that a common cold may be contracted by a too rapid abstraction of caloric from the body; and safety, in this particular, can only be secured by a proper adaptation of the apparel to the temperature, and vigilance to all the surrounding cir- cumstances. Taking Cold. The Stomach and Bile. A healthy stomach, containing only proper food, never contains any bile; but Dr. Beaumont says that “ When fat or oily foods are habitually used, bile will sometimes be found in the stomach mixed with the gastric juice; ” and this is doubtless an extra effort of Nature to rid the stomach of the offending mass, as the presence of bile is known to facilitate chymification. Very few stomachs will digest fat, butter, or any other concentrated grease; for when melted, or dissolved by the heat of the body, they float upon the contents of the stomach as oil does upon water, and almost resist the action of that organ, more especially in warm weather and in a warm climate; and by being long retained without digestion, it becomes Reprove mildly and correct cautiously. 246 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Quiet and peace flourish where reason and justice reign. stale and rancid, producing acidity or heartburn, eruc- tations, nausea, and often vomiting. The action of heat upon butter and lard, in the usual frying process, pro- duces important chemical changes in these articles, which render them still more difficult of digestion ; and all food fried in grease is next to indigestible, and un- suited for use. Our Origin. That every living thing is produced from an egg is no new idea, but an old doctrine of science; the term egg here meaning the minute cell or germ from which every living thing primarily derives its origin, which of course includes the eggs of fowls and other species of lower animals; and this cell, in its productive state, is a com- pound of two distinct cells, one furnished by the male and the other by the female. Some one has said, in re- lation to the human species, that all the cells from which the forty millions of the American people had their origin, might be collectively deposited in the space of a single thumb-nail. And this cell, wonderfully minute as it is, must also be complex to an utterly incompre- hensible extent, and each one differing from all the rest; for there never was, and probably never will be, two individuals precisely alike, and different results cannot be brought about without different causation. When, therefore, we consider the bulk of the adult animal — human or brute — and reflect upon the extreme minute- ness of the germ or cell from which it originated, and the endless varying sizes, forms, powers, abilities, varie- ties, peculiarities, similarities, and dissimilarities which follow, it seems past belief and wholly incomprehensible Quarrels are easier commenced than ended. 247 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Reason is for the intelligent, and the rod for the fool’s back. that such effects can follow such causes, and that all which one generation inherits from another could be reduced to such small dimensions, and made to pass so narrow a strait, as to be wholly unseen except by the most powerful artificial means. And that each genus of animals should invariably produce only its own sort, and never transmit any variations from its known quali- ties, seems no less wonderful. For it would appear, from what is known, that while the male and female cells of different species will unite to produce hybrids, as in man, the horse, etc., yet that this union of cells does not extend to genuses. Thus, in all the numerous species of the geuns homo, (man,) this union is fully practicable, as seen in the great variety of this genus; and so in the species of the genus equus, (the horse,) sus scrofu, (the hog,) felis catus, (the cat,) canis familiaris, (the dog,) ovis ciries, (the sheep,) los taurus (the ox,) etc.; but this union of the male and female cells cannot take place between the genuses as among the species; for the dog and the cat, the sheep and the swine, the horse and the ox, never amalgamate. From this it would seem that whatever differences or characteristics do exist among animals must have been derived from the parent stock or genus, either by the union of the cells of the male and female of the same species or by different species of the same genus. Air and Food. The quantity of oxygen received into the lungs of an individual, from the air, in a given time, depends upon the temperature or density of the atmosphere, and the supply of fuel, food, or carbon necessary to unite .with Reputation should be the jewel of our affections. 248 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Just retribution for wrongs will come sooner or later. and burn it; and must, therefore, vary with the condi- tion of the air, as illustrated in the marked difference in the quantity of food consumed in winter and summer. A starving man, therefore, placed in the cold will speed- ily perish, because he lacks the fuel (food) to combine with the oxygen of the air to keep up the temperature of his body, while a well-fed man will experience very little inconvenience in the same situation. Taciturnity. The lungs require exercise as well as the brain and muscles; and persons of an unsocial and taciturn dispo- sition often induce serious chronic disease of these organs by this habit, especially the aged, who are prone to it, while singing, reading aloud, or more conversation would have prevented it. It is better to talk sense, and be edi- fying and instructive; but if one cannot do this, it is preferable, to a certain extent, to chat nonsense than to be silent. Milk. The quality of milk, as well as its healthiness, depends almost wholly upon the care bestowed upon the animal that produces it. The milk of cows fed on fresh grass or hay and pure water, and allowed'to run at large in the open air, must be healthy, and well adapted to use as food, while that of those penned up in any way, and “slopped,” as the phrase is, even domestically, is jdro- portionately vitiated and unfit for use. As milk is the only food of the young of all mammalia for a consider- able portion of their existence, and that the portion when the most rapid and important developments are going on, it must necessarily contain all the elements required for Retirement is the prison of the fool, and the paradise of the wise. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 249 Royalty consists not in pomp, but in great virtues. the nutrition and growth of the body. Out of the casein, or cheese of the milk, are formed the albumen and fibrin of the blood and tissues; the butter, composed largely of carbon and hydrogen, with the sugar, contribute to the support of animal heat, and are burned in the lungs; the earthy salts of the milk, chloride of potassium, and phosphates of lime and magnesia, enter into the osseous system; the iron is required for the blood, corpuscles, and hair; and the chloride of sodium furnishes the hy- drochloric acid of the gastric juice, which is indispensa- ble to digestion; so that all the demands of the body are met and supplied by milk while the young are re- quired to use it. Good Living. An eminent writer says : “ When I see a fashionable table, spread out in all its magnificence, I always imag- ine that I see gout, dropsy, dyspepsia, consumption, etc., lying in ambush to seize upon their victims.” And it is the opinion of the best health writers, that a very small excess in the quantity of our food, regularly followed up, will sooner ruin the constitution than an occasional debauch with general temperance. Fat, Butter, Oils, etc. Prof. Liebig asserts that such articles contain no ni- trogen, and, like all other non-nitrogenized foods, cannot be converted into living organic tissues, and are only- used for the support of respiration, or as fuel to sustain the heat of the body. Now, as these substances contain a great excess of carbon, ranging from sixty-five to eighty per cent.; and as respiration is one of the great sources by which the system rids itself of carbon, if such food be The rich and the poor are mutually dependent upon each other. 250 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Reverence your superiors. freely eaten, and the respiration be adequate to consume all the carbon of such a diet, the system will not suffer from it; but if the habits of the individual be quiet and sedentary, and his respiration slow and feeble and lim- ited, there will be a constant accumulation of carbon- aceous materials in the body, causing bilious derange- ments and serious chronic disease. The student, seden- tary man, and those whose occupations are adverse to a full, free, and frequent respiration, should be guarded in the use of such foods; while the active and laborious, and those who spend their time mostly in the open air, can make a more free use of them with comparative im- punity. Infants, and the Mother’s Milk. The food of nursing mothers exerts an active influence upon their milk, often producing colic pains, griping, bowel complaint, etc., in the child; and mothers, who regard the welfare of their offspring, should be guarded and vigilant in the selection of their food during lacta- tion, if at no other time. Pickles, radishes, cucumbers, salad, raw onions, string beans, greens, green corn, and the whole round of half-ripe, crude, and indigestible trash, which gluts the markets during a portion of the year, should be wholly eschewed by every nursing wo- man, as the use of such food, by mother or child, lias more to do in the production of mortality among infants and small children than all else. Retention of the mother’s milk in the breast changes its equalities; the longer it is retained, the weaker and more watery it be- comes, and the oftener it is drawn, within certain limits, the richer it is. If, therefore, the mother’s milk is found Old men for counsel, young men for action. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 251 Riches cannot purchase intellectual endowments. to be too rich for the child, as is often the case, the child should be given the breast less frequently, so that not only less will be taken in the aggregate, but so that the milk will be less rich and concentrated; and if the re- verse is the condition of the child, give the breast more frequently, that it may be better nourished. Nursing children after pregnancy has occurred, is highly detri- mental to both children and mother, and in nearly every case the child should be weaned. The influence of the mother’s mind over the nursing child is very powerful; and mothers cannot be too guarded in giving the breast to the child while in a high state of excitement of any sort, whether from sudden fright, fear, anger, hatred, revenge, joy, etc.; for numerous cases of almost instant death have occurred in infants from this cause. Digestion is one of the assimilating processes, and embraces all the changes which the food undergoes in the stomach before it is absorbed and carried into the blood, and is partly a chemical and partly a mechanical process. The solvents of the stomach necessary to di- gestion are pepsin, a peculiar secretion of that organ, and hydrochloric acid — the first (according to Dumas) causing the food to swell up and become soft and spongy, and the second reducing it to a semi-fluid, gray, pulpy mass. The digestion of food is effected by two classes of circumstances; first, the qualities of the food itself; and, secondly, the mutual power or ability of the indi- vidual to digest. Oleaginous food, as fat, butter, lard, tallow, marrow, oil, etc., is among the most difficult of digestion, and should be avoided by all weak stomachs. Digestibility of Food. Knowledge is the fruits of labor and assiduity. 252 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Confessed ignorance is better than feigned knowledge. Farinaceous substances, as potatoes, pease, beans, etc., when well cooked, are much easier of digestion than other vegetables. Adhesiveness, or stickiness in food, is very adverse to digestion; and this quality is usually more or less overcome by the application of heat in the process of cookery, and the digestibility of the food thereby greatly increased. Tenderness of fibre and minuteness of division — the former secured by boiling or steaming, and the latter by mastication — greatly aid and expedite digestion. Dry food digests more readily than moist or wet food, although in cases of starvation, or extreme hunger, fluid allays the hunger sooner than dry or solid. A thorough admixture of the food in the mouth with the saliva, by mastication, is indispensable to a healthy digestion, and nothing else can compensate for a neglect of it. A happy, contented, and serene state of the mind, with moderate exercise in the open air, greatly facilitate digestion, and vice versa. The time required for the digestion of an ordinary meal is about three hours; and as the stomach is a working organ as much as the head, eye, or brain, it should always have from one to two hours between the end of digestion and the next meal as rest or repose. Motes in the Eye. When foreign bodies are found under the eyelids, if the lower lid, draw it down and remove the mote by carefully touching it with a small piece of wet tissue- paper; but if the upper lid, draw it out, or with a coarse knitting-needle or piece of wire placed on the outer and upper part of the lid, throw the head back, invert the lid, and remove the mote as before. Ribaldry is the badge of baseness. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 253 Rome was not built in a day. Insects in the Ear. With a small ear-syringe, or in any other way, inject a little water into the ear, and the insect will instantly leave, to prevent suffocation or drowning. Nature and Art. Magendie, the distinguished French physiologist, says that gelatine, albumen, and fibrin alone, whether animal or vegetable, will not sustain prolonged life or nutrition ; while the simple gluten of wheat and corn is fully ade- quate to this end. Cold Water. To drink cold water or other very cold fluids, or to eat large quantities of ice-cream rapidly, especially after fatigue and abstinence, and with the heat of summer at eighty or more, is a most hazardous practice, which no one who prizes life or health should ever venture upon. Obesity and Leanness. These conditions of the system depend upon the presence of an excess or deficiency of the oleaginous or fatty matter of the body; and those afflicted with either extreme should increase or diminish this class of foods, as the case may demand. A diet consisting of a free use of greasy food and saccharine matter, with leisure and much sleep, promote the accumulation of fat or plumpness, while a diet of vegetables, with activity and labor, induces a leaner but more healthy and vigorous condition. Summer Mortality. With the season of crude fruits and green and half- ripe vegetables comes the usual increased mortality of He is safe who serves a clear conscience. 254 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Scorn to do a mean action. small children; many sicken and suffer much, and many die, hut the fault is not in the children, but the parents or guardians. The great error in the manage- ment of the health of children is one extreme or the other — either excessive care and solicitude, or no care at all; and one extreme in its effects is nearly as bad as the other. The great and fundamental agents of hygiene are air, food, exercise, and cleanliness; and when these four are well attended to, Nature will usually secure the rest. Give children well ventilated apartments, see that they are kept clean, let them alone for exercise, and give them no known bad article of food, and you will very rarely have occasion for drugs or doctors, and when you do, it will be limited in duration. They need not be plunged and drenched in a bath-tub until the color is all scrubbed out of them like a faded garment, but simply washed or sponged every night in hot weather, and no garment left on them at night which has done duty during the day. The poor, crowded into small and ill-ventilated apartments, cannot always do all that is necessary, but could do immensely more than is usually done for the preservation of health, if they only know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. If parents generally would forego many luxuries which are positively useless and injurious, they would have more leisure and means to devote to the real comforts and health of their families; and if common sense did but attend upon common humanity, the bills of mor- tality, as well as the bills of the doctors, would be im- mensely reduced, especially among the common people of large towns and cities. Say well is good, but do well is better. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 255 Riches are hard to gain, and harder to keep. Temperature of Organic Bodies. All living organic things which absorb oxygen possess within themselves the means of generating heat to a greater or less extent, independent of that supplied to them from surrounding objects; and this fact extends to all animals, the germination of seeds, the flowering of plants, and the ripening of fruits. It is only in those parts of the body which receive arterial blood that heat is evolved; hence, hair, wool, the nails, and feathers have no heat. The temperature of the body, above that of the surrounding objects and the air, is always due to the union of the combustible materials of the blood — carbon and hydrogen — with oxygen, received into it mainly through the lungs. Whenever oxygen unites with either carbon or hydrogen, whether slowly or rapidly, in or out of the body, heat is evolved in degree accord- ing to the rapidity of the union of these elements. The quantity of heat evolved in the body of any living creature in a given time depends upon the quantity of oxygen taken into the body during that time; hence animals that respire rapidly, and consume much oxygen, have a higher temperature than others which, with a body of equal size, take in less oxygen in a given time. Thus, the temperature of man is 98; that of the bird, 104; while that of the amphibia is but two or three degrees above that of the medium in which they live. The temperature of the human body, and all warm- blooded animals, is nearly the same at the equator and at the poles. Malt Liquors. Owing to the exorbitant prices demanded for alcoholic liquors — since the commencement of the great rebellion Scandal, like dirt when dry, rubs out easily. 256 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Be cautious in believing ill; more cautious in repeating it. in this country, fermented liquors, especially lager beer, have already grown into extensive and fearful use; and from present indications the Americans will soon be as thoroughly steeped in, stultified by, and bloated up with, this nauseous vulgar slop as our adopted German fellow-citizens already are. As to the effects of malt liquors upon health and longevity, every well-read medical man knows too well the extent and enormity of the evil; and the bloated, stupid, stultified appearance of those who have used it freely for any considerable time would seem alone to be ample testimony against its use; but as this bewitching and treacherous beverage lulls and lures millions into the perfidious belief that it is highly salutary, an excellent tonic promotive of health, etc., and by these means wheedle them out of their ex- istence, a little testimony from high authority upon this point may not be wholly amiss in this place. Prof. Macnish, member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, of Glasgow, Scotland, in an essay on drunken- ness from alcoholic liquors, wines, fermented liquors, opium, tobacco, etc., under the head of drunkenness from malt liquors, holds the following language! “ Malt liquors, which include all sorts of porter and ales, produce the very worst species of drunkenness; for in addition to the usual intoxicating principle, other noxious ingredients are added for the purpose of pre- serving them, and giving them their bitter. The hop used in it is highly narcotic; and brewers add other still more active poisons to heighten its effects, as hen- bane, opium, deadly night-shade, coceulus indicus, laurel, etc. Malt liquors therefore act in two ways upon the system — first, by the alcohol which they contain; Beauty without honesty is like poison in a box of gold. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 257 Candor and frankness ensure confidence. and, secondly, by tlie narcotic principle. And in addition to these, the fermentation which these liquors undergo before use is very imperfect, and after they are swal- lowed, this process still goes on in the stomach, by which bad gases are copiously liberated and the diges- tion materially injured. Persons addicted to malt liquors increase enormously in bulk, and become loaded with fat; the chin becomes double or triple, the eyes promi- nent, and the whole face bloated and stupid. The cir- culation is clogged, the pulse wiry, full, and laborious, but not quick, and the sleep stertorous, everything indi- cating plethora and an excess of blood. The blood of the habitual beer drinker is thick, sizy, and dark; and in seven cases out of every ten, the malt liquor drunk- ards die of apoplexy or palsy, and if they escape this hazard, swelled liver or dropsy carries them off. The abdomen seldom loses its prominence, but the lower ex- tremities ultimately become emaciated, profuse bleedings from the nose frequently occur, which temporarily save life. The effects of malt liquors upon the body, if not so rapid as those of alcoholic liquors, are more stupefy- ing, stultifying, and more lasting, and less easily re- moved. Alcoholic liquors are prone to produce levity and mirth, while fermented liquors have a stunning in- fluence upon the brain, and in a short time render the gayest dispositions dull and sluggish. The most direful effects, on the whole, are produced by alcoholic drinks, but drunkenness from malt liquors is the most speedy and fatal.” To this testimony of Prof. Macnish, Dr. Johnson, editor of the Medico-Chirurgical l\eview, and author of several popular medical works, adds the Avoid that which in others is offensive to you. 258 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Secrecy is the soul of great affairs. following: “The beer-bibber has no reason to exult over the dram drinker, for if he escape dropsy of the abdomen, he runs the risk of dropsy of the chest — a much worse disease; if he is not affected with enlarged liver, he is likely to have derangement of the heart; if he escape emaciation and tremors, he becomes over- loaded with fat, and dies apoplectic; if he have not maniacal paroxysms of fury from the fire of alcohol, his intellect becomes sodden, and stupidity ensues.” The Stomach and Nerves. The good old lady in the comedy, who thanked her Maker that she had no nerves, having been born before nerves came into fashion, if she were now living, might express the same gratitude that she had no stomach; for once it was all the nerves that were in fault, and now it is the stomach and digestion. An eminent physician has said, that “ When a man once begins to dissect him- self, he will never again see good health.” That is, that overcare and solicitude about one’s self and health, with a smattering of medical knowledge, has doomed thou- sands to real or imaginary disease all their days. The right way is to adhere closely to the great fundamental laws of hygiene — simple food, regular sleep and exer- cise, with cleanliness and fresh air — and think nothing about the stomach, nerves, or digestion. When nursing an infant, the mother should always either sit up erect in a chair or lie in a recumbent posi- tion, a half-reclining posture being injurious to both mother and child. The quantity of milk furnished by a healthy woman is about a quart and a half daily; and Nursing Items. Seek not a good man’s pedigree. 259 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Follow not errors because they are fashionable. as the quality of the milk varies with the age of the child, this is ample for it until it reaches the period when solid food can be gradually given, to compensate for the defi- ciency in the quantity of the mother’s milk, to meet the advanced age of the child. The quality of a woman’s milk varies some with age, being the richest and most abundant from fifteen to thirty, the most prolific period, less so from thirty to forty, and past forty is apt to be small in quantity and poor in quality. There is also a marked difference in the quality of the milk of different women ; in some, being rich and highly nutritious, while in others it is abundant, but thin, poor, and watery. Preserving Meats. All the different processes in use for preserving flesh meats, such as salting, smoking, pickling, etc., tend to harden and toughen the fibre, and render them more difficult of digestion ; and even the much-lauded sugar- cured meats sometimes acquire highly deleterious quali- ties by being kept long. Oysters, although they possess but twelve per cent, of nutriment, and, like cabbage and turnips, are next to worthless as food, are found to digest easier in their natural raw state than when cooked. Alcohol and Endurance. Sir John Ross, in his “ Arctic Explorations,” says : “When men, under heavy and strong labor, are given their usual allowance of grog, they soon become languid and faint, and attribute this to the severity of the exer- cise ; but if the experiment be made on two equal boats’ crews rowing in the same direction, it will soon be ap- parent that the water-drinkers will greatly surpass the liquor-drinkers.” That the use of alcoholic liquors Govern your fancy, or it will empty your pockets. 260 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Economy pays as she goes, while Extravagance begs credit. temporarily stimulates the system to action is conceded; but the injury done to the organism by the liquor, and the debility induced by it, vastly more than counterbal- ance the little extra energy or physical force gained by it; so that, on the whole, the user is always greatly the loser by the use of alcoholic liquors. Inverted Nails. Cut the nail straight across, leaving the corners entire; saturate a little cotton in sweet oil, and pass it under the corners of the nail as compactly as practicable without causing much pain; and cleanse the part and renew the cotton daily, wearing a loose shoe, and in every case the difficulty will soon disappear. Freaks of Nature. The law of the sexes in all the mammalia, brute and human, is that milk is secreted only by the female, and that only during a short period after each confinement; but Nature seems sometimes to diverge widely from this law, for numerous cases are on record in which young girls, old women, and even old men, have had a secretion of milk. Dr. Livingstone, the noted traveller, says that in Africa he has often seen a child suckled by an aged grandmother. Dr. William A. Gillespie, of Virginia, mentions a case, in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, of a widow, sixty years of age, who nursed her grandchild at the death of her daughter, and it became strong and healthy ; and the distinguished French phy- sician, Baudelocque, mentions a case of a young girl eight years of age who had sufficient milk to nurse her mother’s infant during a month, while the mother was unable to do so. And several cases are known in which Self-deceit is the easiest of all deceit. 261 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Self-exaltatioD is the fool’s paradise. girls and young women, who had never been pregnant, by repeatedly applying an infant to the breast, to quiet it, had secured a flow of milk. It is stated that in the Cape Yerd Islands, virgins, old women, and even old men, are frequently employed as wet-nurses. Humboldt speaks of a man, thirty-two years of age, who nursed his child for five months; and Captain Franklin saw a simi- lar case in the Arctic regions. Prof. Hall presented to his medical class in Baltimore, a negro, fifty-five years of age, who had been the wet-nurse of all the children of his mistress. Hunger and Thirst. These are not, as usually supposed, located in the stomach, but are a spontaneous demand of the whole system for a resupply of solids and fluids to compen- sate for the loss consequent upon the action of the whole system, and the stomach is merely the organ through which the demand is made known. Now that the demands of the stomach in a state of health are a correct guide as to the quantity of our food and drinks, cannot be denied ; but if that organ be diseased, as is the case to a greater or less degree in a vast majority of cases in civil life at this day, it will not be in a proper condition to render a correct report of the wants of the body, and may call either for an excess or deficiency of food or drinks, or for sorts which are wholly improper and incompatible with the health and welfare of the body, as exemplified in the ordinary morbid cravings for such poisonous drugs as tea and coffee. Demand for Fluids. Experiment has abundantly proved that with a sim- ple, plain diet, mostly vegetable, good health can be Ignorance and self-conceit are close companions. 262 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Reason, like polished steel, must be kept bright by use. maintained without any extra fluids or drinking at all; and Dr. Alcott, of Boston, passed a whole year without any fluids as drink, and experienced no inconvenience from it. The average quantity of food taken into the system daily by an ordinary adult, solid and fluid, is about six pounds; and as vegetables, on an average, con- tain about five-sixths water, the vegetarian would take daily, in his ordinary food, about five pounds of water — a quantity ample for all the ordinary demands of the system. Indian Corn. This is the richest of all the cereals in oleaginous or oily matter, containing ten per cent, of a heavy yellow oil, while hay, as ordinarily fed to cattle, only contains two per cent. “ The idea that the use of alcoholic liquors is a protec- tion against cold, heat, fatigue, and disease, is a popular error, and contrary to well known facts and experience.” — Pereira. Alcohol and Temperature. The Two Systems. Two dietetic systems prevail in most all countries — the one composed of flesh meats, and the other of vegetables; and to these some add a third, a mixed diet. One species of animal relishes one sort, and another the other; and each instinctively and instantly recognizes his own natural food, and will take no other excepting from compulsion. The shark, lion, tiger, dog, cat, wolf, hyena, etc., are carnivorous, and will only eat flesh; while the horse, sheep, cow, deer, monkey, and goat are herbivorous, and will not taste flesh. Each, if com- Self-love is the mother of vanity. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 263 Self-preservation is the first law of Nature. pelled, can subsist upon the food of the other; but its nature becomes deteriorated, and is not as well nourished and sustained as upon its own natural food: man, the bear, swine, fowls, and some other animals, being om- nivorous, subsist upon a mixed diet; but it is the belief of those most competent to judge, that in a simple state of nature, with unperverted faculties, all the last mentioned animals, if both classes of food were presented, would choose the vegetable. The natural food of each animal is calculated to develop and nourish in the animal its peculiar nature, qualities, characteristics, and instincts, and will always effect this end better than any other. The sort of food upon which an animal subsists exerts a marked and controlling influence over its physical, mental, and moral character. The use of a flesh diet excites and stimulates the animal propensities, causing the creature to be fierce, savage, cruel, relentless, and combative, as seen in all the carnivora; while a vegetable regimen develops kindness, gentleness, and docility; and a mixed diet modifies the character of the animal, as the food varies from the exclusive use of either. A lion, tiger, or wolf, early trained to a vege- table diet, becomes as kind and docile as a cat or dog; while a horse or cow, long fed upon flesh, is said to so change their natures as to become really savage and dangerous. And the same dietetic law is equally true when applied to man, as illustrated in the character of the flesh-eating French, English, and Americans, compared with the rice- and vegetable-fed Chinese, Japanese, and other oriental nations. Sell not your conscience with your goods. 264 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Trifle not in virtue, for wealth or gold. The Tomato. No evidence has ever yet been presented of the in- trinsical value of this article, although it has been pro- claimed a substitute for calomel, and an invaluable culinary article. It was first brought into notice by arrant quacks for mercenary purposes, (tomato pills;) and having been by them proclaimed a cure-all for dys- pepsia and liver complaint, all the morbid stomachs and torpid livers in the land at once seized upon it, solely upon the ipse dixit of quackery, and thus the humbug and delusion were fully established. To give it all its dues, it is a simple, innoxious article, possessing, if any, next to no nutriment, and no perceptible medical quali- ties beyond a slight aperient influence upon the bowels, due to the irritation of its numerous seeds; and on the whole, taken upon ils real merits, as an article of food or medicine, it is nearly or quite worthless, and over- rated at least ninety-nine per cent. Domestic Drugging and Stuffing. As soon as the new-born infant opens its eyes to the light, the stuffing and drugging process begin. The head must be bathed with some alcoholic liquor, divers opiates, cathartics, and other poisonous drugs are given, and a medley of improper food is crammed down the throat of the little innocent, all well calculated to work its ruin. And as soon as it can hold anything, its hands are filled with cakes and poisonous candies, and by the time it can walk, by this unnatural stuffing, it has formed a morbid or diseased appetite, refuses such food as is best adapted to its wants, and sickens and dies; for how could it survive such abominable and murderous Reform yourself, where you censure others. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 265 Rise early, live temperately, and be assiduous. treatment ? And the weeping mother, who has just seen the grave close over her own dear infant, prescribes the same death-nostrums to her neighbor’s child which killed her own; and thus the curse goes on, and few ever suspect the cause of death; and the great wonder is that so many, or indeed any at all, escape this fashionable in- fanticide. Impure Water. That impure water, holding in solution either mineral substances or decaying animal or vegetable matter, is highly injurious to health, and among the most active causes of disease, is now a fully conceded fact both in the medical and scientific world. The popular idea that the solvents of the stomach possess the power to change impurities, and render those which were previously noxious to that which is bland and harmless, is wholly erroneous; for the body possesses no such powers; and that which is deleterious when it enters the body, so far as any change is concerned, remains so, and exerts its full influence upon the organism. Dr. Paris says, “ It would be dangerous to deny the morbid and deleterious effects of water that contains decaying animal or vege- table matter, or that abounds in mineral impregnations;” and we all know that calculus affections are more prev- alent in localities where lime or hard water abounds than in those sections where the water is soft. Dr. Paris adds, “ Hard water tends to produce disease of the spleen and kidneys ; ” and Galen attributes the disease call “ elephantiasis,” a sort of leprosy prevalent in hot climates, especially in Egypt, to the impurities of the water of the Nile. Set not too high an estimate upon your own abilities. 266 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Sharp stomachs make early graces. Young children are exceedingly tender and delicate creatures, whose organisms cannot endure to be tampered or trifled with, and to whose bodies most drugs are foreign and injurious substances; and if we expect them to live, good nursing, warmth, cleanliness, simple food, quietness, and pure air are all they need, and all the rest are useless and generally injurious. And that mother who gives to her child a single dose of any of the popular quack nostrums of the day, “ Godfrey’s Cordial,” Paregoric, “Winslow’s Soothing Syrup,” etc., goes far and does much toward placing the knife at the throat of her own child, for often the consequences are serious, and worse than death itself, as the poor little innocent lingers, and suffers the pains of natural death many times over. Infants. Statistics of Inebriation. Statistical investigation in this country upon this subject has recently developed some very interest- ing facts. Of 300 men taken from the community at random, it has been found that 122 drink no alco- holic liquors, 100 are occasional drinkers, 25 are periodical drinkers, or “ spreers,” and 3 are con- firmed drunkards or sots; which is one drunkard to every 59 men who drink liquor at all, and one to every 100 of the entire male population. Taking this as a basis, and admitting that we now have 40,000,000 of people in the United States, one-lialf of which — 20,000,000 — are males, the figures on the male side for the whole country will stand as follows: steady, but moderate drinkers, 6,600,000; occasional drinkers, 3,300,000; periodical drinkers,or “spreers,” 1,600,000; Short settlements make long friends. 267 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Show me a habitual liar, and I will show you a thief. and confirmed sots, 200,000. Of 700 women, 97 drink wine, beer, or alcoholic liquors, and 3 are confirmed drunkards. According to this, our entire female population of 20,000,000 will show that 2,771,000 women are drinkers, to some extent, of alcoholic or fer- mented liquors, and that 85,000 are habitual inebri- ates. Tea. Of this article there are two known varieties, the thea bohea, or black tea, and the thea viridis, or green tea, both natives of China and Japan, in which countries they are extensively cultivated. And according to ex- periments made by the celebrated analytical chemist, Mr. Brand, of England, there is, contra to popular opinion, no perceptible difference in the qualities of the two sorts; and it is a well-known fact that they are the product of the same shrub, differing only in locality of growth, season of gathering, and mode of curing. The tea-plant is raised from the seed with the greatest care, and grows to be a shrub from five to eight feet in height. Several crops are usually gathered from the same tree during the year, each leaf being separately picked by the hand, and carefully assorted according to its age; and hence the numerous commercial varieties found in our markets. An Appeal. Dr. J. C. Jackson, a distinguished writer and health reformer, after dwelling at some length upon woman’s present alarmingly declining bodily health, and the im- perious necessity for an immediate and thorough reform, holds the following language: “ I call upon every man, He who is careless of himself will be reckless of others. 268 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Silent waters are seldom shallow. who would have his girls grow up to be strong, healthy, refined, and high-minded women, to break away from custom, fashion, and etiquette, and the follies of his time, and turn to Nature; for she will lead him in the high- ways of truth, and make his success a certainty. I call on every woman in this republic, out of whom true wo- manhood has not been totally driven by fashion, and in whose breast there still throbs a heart big with noble aspirations, and anxious to work for degraded humanity, to gather up her strength, and pass over to the side of the health reform movement. For if she, and all others of like aims and sympathies, will but do so, twenty more years will not pass before death’s flood-tide shall be so much checked that the health of the daughters of this people shall be recovered, and boys and girls shall in general grow to maturity, and die only of old age.” Science and Alcohol. “ Alcohol excites the system temporarily, but this condition is quickly succeeded by lassitude and depres- sion.” — Pereira. “ Spirituous liquors are decidedly in- jurious in cold climates; and those who have been assisted by such means are the first to be unfitted for duty.” — lb. “ There cannot be a greater error than to suppose that spirituous liquors lessen the effect of cold upon the body ; for, on the contra, they always render it more susceptible to cold, as the temporary warmth which they excite is speedily succeeded by chills.” — Dr. Paris. “Ardent spirits can be regarded in no other light than as a medicine and a poison.” — Dr. A. T. Thomson. Dr. Carson, President of the Medical Asso- ciation of the State of Pennsylvania, says: “ Neither Short pleasure, long lament. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 269 Perseverance conquers all things. wine, malt liquors, nor alcohol are necessary for medical purposes; for there are more harmless agents in the laboratory which have all the virtues attributed to alco- hol.” Prof. Yeomans says: “Alcohol is not food, does not give nourishment, and is not a supporter of life.” Maternal Items. After each confinement, the wife and husband should occupy separate beds for at least one month, and some writers extend this time to the entire period of nursing; but as a general thing, with due moderation on the part of the husband in the exercise of his marital rights, this is unnecessary. But as pregnancy during lactation always effects important changes in the milk, always injurious to the nursing child, if during this period the monthly purgations appear, the child should either be taken from the breast, or abstinence continued to the end of nursing. And as any excitement of the passions, especially the sexual passion, alters more or less the qualities of the milk, and to the moral detriment of the nursing child, parents should exercise great forbearance during the whole period of lactation. Many women over-nurse their children, that is, nurse them beyond their own strength and ability, inducing a long train of the most distressing symptoms, as pain in the back, headache, dizziness, debility, paleness, loss of flesh, broken sleep, depression of spirits, impaired vision, etc., and when these symptoms appear, the breast should be less frequently given and, if need be, the child weaned. Extremes in Food. Food is improper, and liable to induce disease, either when crude, tough, hard, and difficult of digestion, so Constant dropping wears away stone. 270 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Silence is a cheap virtue. that it jades the stomach without affording sufficient nutriment; or when it is too rich, concentrated, and stimulating, so as to produce a morbid excitement in the stomach and alimentary canal. Of the first class may be named all indigestible trash, as squashes, radishes, cucumbers, pickles, cabbage, string-beans, raw onions, green field corn, salad, sour bread, etc.; and of the second, flesh meats, fish, pastry, and the whole round of fashionable, concentrated, and stimulating medleys, with all high-seasoned sauces, pastry, and compounds. Coffee. There is hut one known variety of this article, the cajfia Arabica, notwithstanding the multiplicity of names, prices, and pretended qualities in our markets. The coffee-tree is a native of Arabia and Abyssinia, from which countries it has been introduced into various other tropical regions. Coffee has been much longer known as an article of beverage than tea, and is said to have been first used in Arabia as a substitute for wine, when that article was forbidden by the Koran; and the first account which we have of its use in Europe was the establishment of a coffee-house in Paris in the year 1672. Wet Feet. Many express surprise that we so readily and so often contract common colds from wet feet; but the reasons seem obvious. In the first place, the feet are most re- mote from the centre of action and circulation — the heart; and, consequently, the circulation through them is less active and less vigorous, and more likely to be checked than in any other part of the body. Secondly, the feet Kindness neglected makes friendship suspected. 271 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Simple diet, healthy children and longevity. are always held down firmly by the weight of the body to the surface upon which we stand, and the wet leather being a ready conductor, the heat escapes through them very rapidly, and the temperature of the body soon becomes reduced below the natural standard, producing a common cold. Wet feet and wet clothes, on account of the rapidity with which they radiate the caloric from the body, are among the most active and prevalent causes of colds, which, when not promptly removed, lead directly to colds, coughs, hoarseness, sore throat, bron- chitis, and even consumption. The Jews, wherever found throughout the earth, af- ford a very striking and interesting illustration of na- tional inheritance of long life, and have at this day the greatest average national longevity of any other people. In them, too, is illustrated in the most forcible manner the effects or products of longevity, intelligence, sobriety, industry, temperance, and general good health, all of which are enjoyed by them in a very remarkable degree; and to these qualities may also be added the still further products of longevity, economy, thrift, and accumulation so proverbial of this people. And nearly the same is generally true of the Friends, or Quakers; for their ex- cellent good health, thrift, sobriety, temperance, intelli- gence, and accumulation, so conspicuous as to become proverbial, all speak in the strongest terms the products of longevity. The thrift and consequent accumulation, so generally attributed to the people of New England, are mainly due to their hardy health and former remark- able longevity ; for all their known cardinal qualities National Longevity. Sin and sorrow go hand in hand. 272 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. If the heart is right, the head will lie easy. of ingenuity, perseverance, and intelligence would not suffice to produce such marked results without longevity. For it costs no more to raise a man with a viability of eighty years than one of forty ; and while the latter, on an average, will not more than pay expenses, the former will prove accumulative and remunerative. Longevity, therefore, is an essential element of personal, family, and national greatness and prosperity; and when inherited without interruption through several generations, its effects become greatly augmented and intensified, and, were it not for wars, would be truly astonishing. Wars are the bane, and longevity the blessing of mankind: the former breed disease, destroy life, sink the masses, produce and sustain aristocracy, cut up and waste the product of longevity, and curse the earth ; while longev- ity, peace, and liberty would bless all the world with abundance; but no such results can flow from short- lived individuals, families, or nations. The First Teeth. The time at which the teeth of children first appear is not very definitely fixed; for while some have them at three or four months, in others they do not appear until the tenth or twelfth month ; but as a general rule, the first teeth will appear from the fifth to the seventh month. And while some few are born with teeth already cut, as in the cases of King Richard, Mirabeau, and Louis XIV., others never have any; and cases are on record in which dentition has occurred at very ad- vanced age. Late or early dentition is no indication of late or early development in the child, but only an ir- regularity of the appearance of the teeth. Making some Some by wit get wealth, but none by wealth get wit. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 273 Speak well of your friend; of your enemy say nothing. allowance for irregularities, the following will be found the order of development in the first teeth, in a very great majority of cases, the appearance of the under teeth usually preceding that of the upper by several months: First. Between the fourth and eighth months, the two lower front teeth make their appearance. Secondly. Between the eighth and tenth months, the five upper front teeth appear. Thirdly. Between the twelfth and sixteenth months, six teeth appear nearly simultaneously, as follows: first, the two front grinders in the upper jaw; next, the two lower front teeth, one on each side of the two that first appeared; and, thirdly, the two front grinders of the lower jaw. Fourthly. Between the eighteenth and twenty-fourth months, the canine teeth, four in number — two above (eye teeth) and two below — make their appearance. Fifthly. Between the thirtieth and thirty-sixth months, the second four grinders, two above and two below, make their appearance, completing the twenty milk teeth and first dentition. As to the permanent teeth, the front grinders make their appearance between the fifth and sixth years. Between the sixth and tenth years, all the front teeth appear, followed by the canines before the twelfth year. About the thirteenth year the second grinders cut through, and by the twenty-fourth year the wisdom teeth appear, and complete the dental outfit. Cost of Coffee. In the year 1821, the importation of coffee into this country was twenty millions of pounds; in the year Sloth is the prolific mother of poverty. 274 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The sluggard causes his own misfortune. 1836, fifteen years after, it amounted to ninety-four millions; and at the same rate of increase, saying noth- ing of the great increase of its use beyond the increase of population, the quantity which will be demanded for the year 1871 will amount to about two hundred and sixty millions of pounds, which, at the present rates of twenty-five cents per pound on an average to the con- sumer, will amount to about $65,000,000; and add to this the annual tea bill of $40,000,000, and we have the modest little sum of only $105,000,000 as the annual national tax for the tea and coffee slops of this great and boasted land of light, liberty, and Christianity; and that too without taking into account any of the incidental expenses attending their use, as fuel, crockery, time wasted in their preparation, etc., which of themselves would amount to an enormous sum. And is not this a truly frightful sum to be annually worse than thrown away upon these highly deleterious and useless luxuries, especially when thousands of our fellow creatures are suffering for the necessaries of life, and putrefying in filth and ignorance, and when intellectuality and mo- rality are bleeding at every pore, and dissipation, sin, and sensuality overspread the land ! Rum and Water. The necessity of using liquor mixed with had water, as a protection against disease, is often pleaded as an excuse for the use of alcoholic liquors; but there surely can be no reason in this; for alcoholic liquors are well known and admitted to be active poisons, and combining them with the bad water would only be introducing into the system two poisons instead of one, which would only Sneer not. at what you cannot rival. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 275 Speak what you think, but not always all you know. make the case worse instead of better; the only efficient way being to purify the water by boiling, filtering, strain- ing, or distillation. Hot Weather. Solar heat, when intense, as in midsummer, has a very prejudicial effect upon the human body, especially in connection with a foul and stagnant atmosphere. In extreme hot weather the air is rarefied; there is less oxygen in a given space, and less of it consumed in a given time; so that all the bodily functions are dimin- ished and enfeebled; and unless the habits are regular and abstemious, and the individual wary of his health, he will be constantly exposed to fearful attacks of sun- stroke, yellow fever, and other fatal maladies prevalent in hot climates, and in our own country during the ex- treme heat of summer. A moist, damp atmosphere also, when associated with excessive heat during the day, becomes highly deleterious and oppressive, by retarding transpiration from the skin and lungs, causing dulness of the senses, with languor and debility of the whole body. And a moist atmosphere during the night is still more injurious, as it presents itself in the form of a dew, attended with a sudden reduction of temperature, which contributes powerfully to chill the whole system, and depress all the vital functions. Aeration. By this is meant the change of dark veinous blood and chyle into red or arterial blood in the lungs by the due admixture of oxygen from the air with the former, during its passage through those organs, prepar- atory to being sent the rounds of the circulation to Set not every one’s time by your own watch. 276 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Solitude is tbe parent of reflection. nourish the body. A due admixture of oxygen with the blood is well known to be one of the most important conditions of health, and indeed a condition in the absence of which good sound health cannot be secured, even temporarily. And this process depends upon three things — viz., first, the purity of the air breathed; secondly, the size or capacity of the lungs; and, thirdly, the health or vigor of the lungs. With capacious, healthy lungs and a pure atmosphere, the blood will be the best aerated, and prepared to nourish the body, and impart to it the highest degree of life- power; and in proportion as either or all of these condi- tions are wanting, will it become more or less deteriorated, diseased, and unfit for the uses of the body. An im- perfectly aerated or oxygenated condition of the blood is a very extensive, active, and common cause of disease; and those forms of disease due to this cause can rarely be benefited short of the removal of the cause which produced them. Pure air, therefore, must not only be viewed as a prophylactic agent, but as an important and very active curative agent, for which, in its extensive range of cases, there is no substitute. But it will be a long time before even the medical world, and still longer before the masses, can learn practically that in all forms of disease due to inadequate aeration, pure atmospheric air rightly applied, without any drug-medication, is the only safe and sure remedy. Judgment. In every community there are some who are known and noted as “ sound men,” “ substantial men,” “ think- ing men,” “sensible men,” “ men of good judgment,” So long as you are ignorant be not ashamed to learn. 277 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Solid sense is always preferable to flashy wit. etc., while others are noted for opposite qualities; and this difference must be due to difference in cerebral or- ganization. Each organ of the brain is a judge of such things as come within its cognizance; thus, one with large time will be a good judge of music; one with large language, with education, a good judge of conversation, composition, and public speaking; and one with most or all of the organs large, and good intellectual develop- ment, constitutes the “ sound man,” and the “ man of good judgment.” Good taste also arises from a proper balance, or equable development of all the cerebral or- gans, with the intellect in the ascendency. Physical Degeneracy. An idea prevails very generally that the civilized world is degenerating physically, and that each succes- sive generation is “ weaker, wiser, and shorter-lived; ” hut there are good reasons for believing that this im- pression is erroneous, and that the converse is the fact. The suits of old metallic armor still preserved in Europe show that, on the whole, the moderns have gained a trifle in stature, bulk, and weight over the ancients; and statistical investigations, as well as the reports of life insurance companies, show that human longevity at this age, on an average, is greater than at any former period. It is true, that owing to the accumulation of hereditary diseases, with the incessant strain upon the nervous system of the moderns, and the excessive use of narcotics and stimulants, we now have more diseases than formerly; but to compensate for that, we now know more, and have learned to detect and check disease much more rapidly and efficiently than formerly, as il- Solitude is sometimes the best society. 278 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Seize upon truth, wherever found, on Christian or heathen ground. lustrated in small-pox, where not more than one case now proves fatal, where twenty did formerly. That the females of this country have greatly degenerated, physically, within the past century, cannot be denied; but this is accounted for from known, obvious, and wil- ful causes on their part, and does not affect the general question of degeneracy. As a general rule, art and culture shorten vegetable life, and plants and vegetables left to themselves live longer than those subjected to artificial culture. But all culture does not tend to curtail vegetable life; for, in the first place, by often pruning the branches, we guard against a too rapid consumption of vital power, and re- tain and concentrate the life-elements, and prolong its existence. Secondly, by pruning, we check or retard the flowering, which in the plant is the reproductive process, and, as in the animal kingdom, is a rapid source of vital expenditure, and thus contribute to the longevity of the plant in two ways: first, by preventing the loss of the life-power which would be spent in flowering ; and, secondly, by causing it to return and further support the tree. And, thirdly, if we protect the tree or plant from the destructive influences of frost and want of pro- per nutriment, though we thereby somewhat intensify its existence, we increase its sources of regeneration, and prolong its life. As a general rule, the great age of a plant or vegetable depends upon these conditions : First, it must grow and develop itself slowly ; secondly, it must propagate itself late and slowly ; thirdly, it must possess a certain degree of solidity or duration in its organs, and Vegetable Longevity. Some are always very busy, and yet never do anything. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 279 If you wish a thing done to suit you, do it. yourself. the sap or juice must not be too thin and watery; fourthly, it must have considerable size or extension ; and, fifthly, it must rise into the atmosphere; and a con- verse of the conditions will be found to shorten the life of a plant or tree. Preaching versus Practice. Much has been said and written of late, in thig coun- try, about physiology — its great use, value, and practical importance; and in most of the best schools of the coun- try it is now taught as a regular branch of a liberal course of study, and in the diffusion of a knowledge of the laws of life we feel a just national pride of superi- ority. But, granting all this, of what use is the mere acquisition of any branch of study, art, trade, or handi- craft, when it is to be abandoned as soon as acquired, through want of moral independence in the practical use and application of it ? And, with the prevailing cus- toms and fashions of society, of what earthly use is a knowledge of physiology to our females, who constitute fully one-half of our population ? So far from being of any real practical utility to them, physiology is an entire nullity; for not one in a thousand, who is familiar with this great science of sciences, possesses sufficient moral stamina to put in actual practice, in opposition to the putrid current of fashion, a single principle of it? And what is to be gained by teaching our women at school how to preserve health and prolong life, and then en- acting laws of fashion at home which we well know they dare not violate, forbidding them to make any practical use of it? Physiology teaches our girls that they must breathe pure air, and a plenty of it; and then we pen Sands form the mountains, moments make the year. 280 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Words sometimes cut sharper than swords. them up in the house-poisoned air of close apartments. She is taught that a large chest and full waist are indis- pensable to life and longevity, and then artificial, ful- some Fashion issues her mandate to lace and corset her- self, so that she could not inhale a full breath, if by so doing she could secure endless bliss. She is also taught that to maintain a full and free circulation of the blood throughout the system is another indispensable condition of bodily health; but here again that popular scourge, Fashion, compels her to tie up her limbs, bandage her waist, and screw her feet and hands into things called shoes and gloves (misnomers) one-half their real size, all of which defeat this great law of life; and so of all other teachings. What advantage is to be gained by such a course as this ? Is a mere knowledge of facts, without any practical application of them, adequate to the accomplishment of ends ? Is it sufficient to merely understand the laws of life without yielding obedience to them ? What sense is there in this wild-goose chase after the means of life and health, which are to be aban- doned as soon as acquired, as though they were infectious, and contained the elements of death ? Is woman any the better for being clothed in intellectual power, and then forbidden, in the most emphatic manner, by the customs of society, from making any practical use of such power? What are the fathers and husbands of this age thinking of, to thus trifle with woman, and frit- ter away her existence, as though she were a toy or a gewgaw of insignificant value? Man’s want of moral stamina in not opposing vile and vicious customs has placed woman where she now is; and we are this day reaping the bitter fruits of this folly and neglect, for Active employment is the best remedy for sorrow. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 281 Speak not, rather than speak evil. God is cursing us throughout the land, and visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, in woman’s present enfeebled bodily health and physical degradation; and a general rally and radical reform is the only way in which we can bring forth works meet for repentance. Tobacco. This long-loved scourge of the race—physically, men- tally, morally, and financially — is a native of North America, and is said to have been first discovered in the province of Tobago, in Mexico, by John Nicot, a French- man ; and hence its botanical name Nicotiana Tobica, from the name of its discoverer and the place of its na- tivity. It was introduced into Spain by Ferdinand Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, about the year 1519; into England about the year 1560, by Sir Francis Drake; and into France, about the same time, by Nicot, its- discoverer; and from these countries its use has spread throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; for the same word, tobacco, is applied to it, with slight modifications, wherever it has been introduced. The first account which we have of it as an article of com- merce was in the year 1620, when, owing to the scarcity of women in the colony of Jamestown, Va., ninety females, of respectable character but humble fortunes, were shipped to the colony, and sold to the planters as wives at the rate of 120 pounds of tobacco per head, the article being then valued at fifty cents per pound; thus estimating women at $60 each, payable in tobacco. The Imagination. Predictions of death, or hints, or suggestions, either direct or indirect, unfavorable to the condition of the Speak the truth and shame the devil. 282 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. All can speak; few can think. sick, or the final issue of any case, always exert a very injurious influence upon the invalid, and should be studiously avoided, not only by the medical practitioner, but by all prudent and thoughtful attendants. The effect of any unfavorable remark or impression, made upon the mind of the invalid, depresses the vital powers when they are at the lowest ebb, and are liable to result in a punctual fulfilment of the hint, suggestion, or pre- diction. The licentious Lord Littleton expired at the very stroke of the clock, which, in a dream, he had been fore- warned would be the signal of his departure. And a man who had been sentenced to be bled to death, being blindfolded, and water made to trickle down his arm in imitation of the blood, died in a few minutes without opening a vein. And a case is related of a very robust man who was sentenced to be beheaded, and at the very moment his neck was placed upon the block, and the death-blow was expected, a reprieve arrived, but on in- spection he was found to be quite dead. Nearly all the deaths which take place upon the battle-field, in which no wounds can be found, are doubtless the effects of in- tense fear, producing so great a shock upon the nervous system as to extinguish life; and the too frequent prac- tice of frightening or scaring “for sport,” is highly reprehensible, and should never be tolerated. Health of Sons and Daughters. In a large family of boys and girls, it is no uncom- mon thing to see the former all well-formed, straight, healthy, and vigorous, while the latter are feeble, puny, pale-faced, and more or less deformed; and this is ac- counted for from the fact that the customs of society Many cooks spoil the broth. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 283 Neither trifle with life nor fear death. allow full freedom to the male to romp and exercise at pleasure, while the female is bound hand and foot by the arbitrary enactments of the tyrant Fashion, and de- prived of that bodily freedom of limbs which alone can develop and perfect her system. As a practical illus- tration of this freedom on the one hand, and confine- ment on the other, compare the fine, plump, bright-eyed, ruddy-cheeked boys brought up in the country, to run, jump, romp, and rove the fields at pleasure, with the pale, puny, sharp-faced, long-necked, stoop-shouldered, waspen-waisted, tottering city penned-up girl, who fairly trembles at the thought of a single motion of a limb not in exact accordance with the mandates of the god of fashion, and who appears more like one who had deserted a cemetery, than like a blooming youth. The popular opinion that men live longer, on an average, than women is wholly a mistake; for notwith- standing there are more males than females born, yet, in nearly all civilized countries, there is always a small surplus of females, showing in the aggregate less mor- tality in the latter than the former. In Holland, the average longevity of the female over the male is nine per cent.; in England, eleven per cent.; in France, seven per cent.; in Sweden, five per cent.; in Belgium, twelve per cent.; and in the United States, seven per cent. Longevity of the Sexes. Water as a Drink. That pure water is man’s only natural drink is proved, first, from the well-known fact, that after using tea, coffee, cocoa, wine, alcoholic and fermented liquors, Speech is the image of action. 284 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Many a dolt is promoted to high places. and every other imaginable slop as a drink, our thirst is not allayed, and we are finally compelled to have resort to water to quench it. And, secondly, from the testi- mony of thousands who have used water only as a drink, and attained either the greatest longevity or notoriety, or both, among whom the following illustrious names are but a fraction. Hippocrates, Samson, Pliny, Boerhaave, Hoffman, Sir John Floyer, Dr. Bayard, Dr. Willis, Dr. Arbuthnot, Dr. Cullen, Dr. Gregory, Dr. Cheyne, Dr. Zimmerman, Dr. Parrish, Dr. Kirk, Dr. Londe, Dr. Garnet, Dr. Bostan, Dr. Moseley, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Willich, Dr. Thedan, Dr. J. C. Jackson, Dr. Franklin, Dr. Bush, Dr. Mussey, Dr. Warren, Dr. Whitlaw, Dr. Lambe, G. E. Stahl, Albert Haller, John Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, Pres. Edwards, John Wesley, John Fletcher, Sir William Jones, Demosthenes, Mo- hammed, Fuller, Boyle, La Place, Howard, Fowler, Mott, Mann, and -a host of others. The Contrast. In the selection of our blooded stock and seeds for culture, we exercise the greatest care and attention, and spare no pains or outlay to secure the very best; and we bestow upon the rearing of our stock, and the culture of our cereals and vegetables, the utmost attention and solicitude; but the choice of a wife, who is to become the mother of our children, as well as the physical training of those children, is usually almost wholly a matter of chance or accident. A female is chosen as a wife because she has a pretty face, hand, foot, or ankle, on account of family connections, or, as is very often the case, because she has a little money present or prospec- Many a genius is doomed to drudgery. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 285 Stars are not seen when the sun shines. tive, and who does not possess perhaps a single quality which contributes physically to make of the genuine woman wife or mother; and the duty of most parents to their children ends with food, clothing, schooling, and sending to church ; while the physical health and train- ing are almost wholly neglected, and they are allowed to grow up in the grossest ignorance of those great and important laws of life and health, upon which their future success, happiness, health, and even existence depend. If we ever learn to exercise as much judg- ment and thought in the selection of a wife, as we now do in the choice of our horses, cattle, and seeds for planting, and bestow as much labor and attention upon the rearing and physical training of our children, as we now do upon our pigs, horses, and calves, the race will be immensely improved, and human misery and prema- ture death vastly diminished. In an ordinary state of health, every one has more or less fat deposited in the cellular tissue immediately under the skin, and also around most of the internal organs, and, when not in excess, is of utility to the system, and an indication of health. It lubricates the solids, facilitates their action, prevents undue sen- sibility upon the surface, protects the body from the too great influence of heat and cold, and, by a full dis- tention of the skin, gives plumpness and roundness to the figure, and adds materially to personal beauty. But when in excess, it becomes a source of great incon- venience, and often one of much danger, rendering the body clumsy and unwieldy, retarding the free play of Corpulency. Study mankind as well as books. 286 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Speak what you mean; practise what you preach. the organs, and sometimes wholly incapacitating the in- dividual for action of any sort. In average health, and under ordinary circumstances, the fat of the body constitutes about one-twelfth of its weight; hut in some cases it becomes increased to an enormous extent. Bright, of Malden, England, weighed 728 pounds; Daniel Lambert, an American, weighed 739; and a case is recorded, in the Philadelphia Transactions, of a female child which, at four years of age, weighed 256 pounds. In a few and very rare cases, there seems to be a natural tendency to the accumulation of fat, or adipose matter, in the human body, which no known means can check or control; but in a vast majority of cases it is due to causation which can be controlled, and may he obviated. The bodily conditions which most favor obesity, or fatness, are an indolent, easy mode of life, free from all care and anxiety of mind, an excessive indulgence in sleep, especially during the day, with a full, free diet of animal food, including considerable fatty matter. The excessive indulgence in fermented liquors is an active cause of obesity, which however is, in this case, due more to an excess of fluids than fat. The active and laborious, even with a full and generous diet, are rarely or never affected with an excess of fat; hence activity and a plain diet are remedies both for the cure and prevention of corpulency. The popular idea that leanness is neces- sarily associated with vileness and stupidity, and that “ the lean are only fit for treasons, strategies, and spoils,” is simply a total error; for few fat men have ever been noted for much mental power, physical force, or effi- ciency ; and most of the great works of the world, whether of mind or matter, have been the products of lean men. Subterfuge is the coward’s defense. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 287 Prize not your own abilities too highly. Religion and Tobacco. Bishop Ames, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at a conference held at Alexandria, Va., declared that to- bacco, by its stultifying, besotting, and paralyzing effects upon the body, was doing more injury to the church than alcoholic liquors. Bulk and Longevity. It has elsewhere been simply stated that there existed a relation between bulk and talent, and that most of our permanently great men were also men of more than ordinary bulk and stature; and the same relation seems to hold equally true in hulk and longevity, both in the vegetable and animal worlds. The “ mammoth pines ” of California, twenty-seven feet in diameter at the base, and nearly four hundred feet in height, are known to be at least five thousand years old ; the elephant, the largest of dumb animals, often reaches a hundred years ; and most men who have seen the greatest longevity will be found to have possessed a bulk and stature consider- ably above medium. And the reasons in the case seem to be these; first, bulk gives greater space or provision for the plastic power; secondly, bulk affords more sur- face, more extended access, and more vital capacity ; and, thirdly, the greater the mass, the greater will be the time required for its waste by its own internal and ex- ternal consumptive and destructive powers. Punishment. We are all held amenable both to the moral and physical law, and punished according to our transgres- sions of them, whether or not we recognize the fact; and Aim to be useful rather than amusing. 288 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A great boaster is a great failure. although good men, on an average, suffer much less than bad ones, yet neither good nor bad are or can be exempt from the pains and penalties consequent upon violated law, whether physical or moral. Mr. A., for instance, is a very exemplary and strict Christian man, and lives as nearly up to the requirements of religion as can be expected of erring man, and, as a consequence of this obedience to moral law, enjoys the peace and consolations which flow from it; but at the same time lives, to a greater or less extent, in open violation of the laws of health, in diet, labor, clothing, ventilation, etc., and suffers the pains and penalties attached to violated phy- sical law ; and the converse of this is equally true. And this simple fact solves the popular mystery why many excellent, good, moral, and pious men suffer much bodily pain and affliction, while many other rough, immoral, and irreligious men have sound and vigorous bodily health, and scarcely know, practically, what pain is, because they live in obedience to the physical laws of their being. All animate beings sleep; and this is Nature’s wise provision to replenish the exhausted functions of life, and prepare the creature for renewed existence; and the demand will always be found proportionate to the out- lay or expenditure. The healthy youth of ten or fifteen, who is intensely active, and whose system is in a rapid progress of development, requires double the sleep to compensate for his losses that the staid adult does, whose outlay is only for his moderate action ; and if one indi- vidual be laboriously occupied during ten or twelve hours, while another, in all respects his equal, be at Sleep. As is the tree, so will be the fruit. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 289 Superstition makes a man a fool; skepticism makes him mad. leisure during the same period, the former will, on an average, require twice the sleep of the latter to recuper- ate and prepare him for future service. Old people sleep less than young because they are less active, less exhaustive, and expend less life-power in a given time, and require less time to recuperate. And the vegetable world also sleeps as well as the animal. The leaves of plants at evening are contracted, or droop, and the flowers close up, showing every indication of quiescence or repose. Some have attributed this to the night in- fluence of the air, or to darkness; but it occurs the same in the greenhouse, where the temperature is uniform; and some plants close up their blossoms early, while the sun is yet up and the light of day undiminished; so that these causes cannot account for it. Light and Life. A very forcible illustration of the effects of light upon animal life is given in Dr. Edwards’s experiments upon the tadpole, which, as most know, ultimately changes from that condition to the frog. He took a number of tadpoles, and placed them in exactly the same situation, excepting that the light was excluded from one portion of them, while it was allowed to the other part; and the effect was, that while those enjoying the light soon passed from this state to that of the frog, those which were de- prived of it grew to be very large in the tadpole form, and were much longer before symptoms of change ap- peared ; and even when they had arrived at the frog state, they appeared to be less active and healthy than those which had been treated naturally. If, then, the absence of light does check animal development, and Sudden trust brings sudden repentance. 290 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Suspect a gossip, and trust him not. impair the tone of the organs in the lower animals, is it not a fair conclusion that the same cause will produce the same or similar effects upon man ? and hence the silly folly of shading our apartments to prevent the fading of carpets, and the tanning of the complexion of our children. Inherited Influences. A lifetime is set to every living tiling, animal and vegetable, and, like every other life quality, this is in- herited, though subjected to great modifications by the habits and practices of the individual. Whatever may be the soil that surrounds the roots of a plant, or the nature of the atmosphere into which it rises, if it grow at all, whether large or small, it must grow to be a plant of the species to which it belongs; for its absorbents and assimilating organs can only extract from the contigu- ous soil those elements which contribute to its own form- ation. It will preserve its own color, form, size, and fragrance, and elaborate sweets, acids, bitters, poisons, etc., in accordance with its own nature; and when art has succeeded in disguising its form or appearance, it will again lean back to Nature. Its seed is in itself; its growth, shape, and products are fixed ; and it cannot de- viate from its prescribed existence without incurring the danger of final extinction. The peach is a short- lived tree, and the oak a long-lived one, both by inher- itance, the cause being in the seed which produced them. An apple-seed can, with great difficulty, be distinguished from that of a pear; yet the latter inherits a viability of a century, while the former can only abide a few years. The robin is gray and mute at a dozen years, Suspicion is the bane of true friendship. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 291 An innocent heart makes a soft pillow. while the rook caws as lustily as ever at a hundred. The horse and ass originate from a cell that cannot be distinguished ; yet the latter lives, on an average, more than twdce as long as the former; and in the production of the mule, the weaker the ass (as sire), the larger, stronger, shorter-lived, and more horse-like the mule. Tobacco relaxes the mucous membrane of the mouth, softens the gums, causes them to separate from the teeth, and the latter to prematurely loosen and fall out; and cases are not uncommon in which individuals, long ac- customed to its use, have lost all their teeth, when they were perfectly sound, in the space of a few months from this cause alone. That tobacco does sometimes relieve toothache is not denied; and it does so by paralyzing or killing the nerve, so that they cease to have sensibility, and of course pain must cease with the death of the nerves. Tobacco also possesses grit or silex, which can be detected in the ashes; and it has a softening or moli- fying effect upon the substance of the teeth, and by this action of the grit, in connection with this softening pro- cess, the grinding surfaces of the teeth are prematurely worn away, especially wdiere the quid rests, and this renders them useless in mastication. Prof. Mussey, of Cincinnati, says, “ I have amply verified this fact, not only upon scores of our own countrymen, but also upon many of the various tribes of Indians, who are so much devoted to the use of this article.” Tobacco and the Teeth. Modern Use of Butter. The employment of butter as food is wholly a modern custom, unknown even to the Greeks and Romans, wdio A moment of time is a moment of mercy. 292 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The ass carries wine, but drinks water. used it only as a medicine, and for anointing. Like most other animal food, butter is very liable to become rancid when exposed to the air, by imbibing oxygen from it, especially during warm or hot weather; and the more completely it is freed from the other ingredients of milk (caseous, saccharine, and watery,) by the churn- ing process, the less likely will it be to become stale or rancid. The wholesomeness of butter depends wholly upon its freedom from rancidity ; for when stale, it is one of the very worst articles of food which can be eaten. When simply softened by the action of heat, it is not materially deteriorated as food; but when it has been reduced to a fluid by a high temperature, and combined with flour and other pastry substances, as in frying, it becomes almost wholly indigestible, and should be ban- ished from the table of every thoughtful and prudent person. When fresh, and used upon good bread a day old, butter usually digests readily, and is not very excep- tionable as an article of diet, and becomes injurious only when rancid or spoiled by bad cookery. Growth of Man. The entire growth, development, and perfection of the human body is seldom attained younger than twenty- five, and often several years later. The inhabitants of cities, at twenty, are usually taller than those in the country, but not so heavy. Severe labor from ten to fifteen, especially such as requires much muscular effort, greatly retards growth, and is apt to stint or dwarf the subject for life, and in a great majority of cases diminu- tive stature is due to this error in youth. From ten to fifteen therefore, during which time puberty intervenes, Abstinence is the best physic. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 293 Whatever opposes right must be wrong. children and youth should never be made to labor severely at any employment demanding much strength, but be favored, well cared for in diet and clothing, have much light exercise in the open air, and made as cheer- ful and happy as possible. Poison Confectionery. A distinguished English physician of London, Dr. O. Shaughnessy, and an eminent French chemist of Paris, M. Chevallier, have each repeatedly called the attention of their countrymen to the frightful use and prevalence of poison confectionery in those countries. These gentlemen state that they have repeatedly detected in confectionery, in very common use, litmus, gamboge, arsenic, red precipitate of mercury, vermilion, chromate of lead, chromate of potash, verdigris, and many other less active poisons, as well as many other substances wholly unfit to be taken into the stomach in connection with food; and that the colored paper also in which confectionery is usually wrapped is more or less impregnated with poison used in coloring it, and therefore dangerous, because liable to be chewed by the children. And if this be the case in Europe, should we not profit by the hints of our transatlantic neighbors? for we have no reason to believe that the consciences or moral sensibilities of American confectioners are any better than those of the French and English. Confectionery, in point of health, is a great national curse at best, resulting in positive injury to all concerned excepting the manufacturer and vendor; but if people will be so thoughtless and imprudent as to allow their children to use such poisonous trash, let the use be confined to the colorless or white, and even then Every crow thinks her young the fairest. 294 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Poverty is the best cure for the evils of luxury. we are not wholly safe, for there are many colorless sub- stances combined with confectionery which are highly exceptional when combined with food. Isolated Facts. In 1610, King James of England had a falcon, to the neck of which he attached a golden collar, upon which was inscribed, “ His Majesty King James of England, 1610,” and this bird subsequently escaped. In the year 1792, this bird was caught at the Cape of Good Hope, and sent back to England, having upon its neck the same collar as when it escaped, having been absent from England 182 years, saying nothing of its age when it es- caped : and crows have been known to live one hundred years. The tortoise and crocodile often exceed a hundred years, and the lamprey has been known to live to sixty years. In the year 1733, a toad was found in Sweden, nearly twenty feet deep in a quarry, in the middle of a block of the hardest stone; it was still alive, but very weak. The most reasonable explanation in this case was, that when very young the toad had fallen into a cleft or crack in the rock, where it had subsisted upon the moisture and insects which crept in ; that the cleft had subsequently been closed up by the deposit of sparry matter, and thus he was completely enclosed, and there being no vital consumption either internally or exter- nally, was enabled to live on indefinitely, but in a very feeble state. The longer an animal requires to perfect it in utero-gestation or incubation, the longer it will live, and vice versa. The elephant carries her young three years, and lives to a hundred, while most of the other smaller quadrupeds go but a few months, and live from The covetous man is his own tormentor. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 295 Conscience is the best court of equity. ten to twenty years. The sooner a creature attains to ma- turity, the sooner it propagates ; and the sooner it propa- gates, the shorter will be its life; and we know of no exception to this law either in the vegetable or animal world. Horned animals are usually shorter-lived than those without horns, and animals with black or dark- colored flesh are more enduring than those with white flesh. The natural covering of an animal seems to have something to do with its longevity, for those which have the best and most durable covering are very long-lived, as is also the elephant, crocodile, and rhinoceros, which have the hardest and toughest skin. Breathing. All organic matter, even plants and vegetables, breathe, and their leaves are the organs with which respiration is performed; and from the vegetable kingdom we pro- ceed on gradually rising in the function until we arrive at man, the highest and most perfect. The polype, of which we have an example in the jelly-fish, and the zoophyte, of which the sponge affords a sample, consti- tute the lowest orders in the chain of animals that have no lungs, and breathe from their entire outer surfaces; and all other animals higher than these are provided with an especial apparatus more or less complete for this purpose. Of those which live in the water, we find a great modi- fication of gills for this purpose. In the crab and lobster, which belong to the class Crustacea, there are spongy bodies, but not lungs; the oyster, which belongs to the class mollusca, breathes by means of a part which resembles a sponge, called the beard; while the true fish, as the shark, trout, herring, etc., breathe by proper The devil secretes himself in the miser’s chest. 296 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When dinner is over away go the guests. gills. The lowest animals living in the air, of which the snail is a sample, breathe by means of a sort of very imperfect lungs; while the caterpillar, and other animals of the insect class, are furnished with two tubes, one on each side of the body for the reception of air, which finds its way out of them by two corresponding rows of very small tubes or pipes called stigmata. Toads, frogs, turtles, and other animals of the reptile kind, have regular lungs, but a very coarse and inferior structure; while birds, which consume more air, and consequently oxygen, relatively than any other animal, have large and finely formed lungs, with large accessory cavities which receive air from the lungs. Man, the quadrupeds, and all animals which belong to the class with him, breathe by means of the most perfect lungs, which are large, and occupy the upper part of the chest. The lungs or breathing apparatus of an animal, whatever the structure may be, are the instruments by means of which air, containing oxygen, the immediate life-agent, is received into the body; and they are always adapted in structure to the element in which the animal is intended to exist, and hence a change of element in which he lives involves death. A man suffers death from drown- ing because his lungs, being adapted to atmospheric air, cannot take up oxygen from the little air which water contains fast enough to support life; and the fish removed from the water dies either because his gills collapse, and he is incapable of taking up oxygen fast enough to sus- tain life, or else because the air proves too stimulating, and over-acts his vital powers, probably the latter. Think before you speak, and not speak before you think. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 297 Honesty is the first step toward true greatness. Life a Lamp. The human organism may, in the exercise of its life- powers, be fitly compared to an artificial light or lamp; if the whole apparatus, burner, wick, and chimney, be well made and in good order, and the supply of oil or combustible material constant and ample, it burns on with a steady, uniform, and brilliant light, so long as all these conditions remain ; but if the structure become impaired, or the supply of oxygen from the air lessened in quantity or vitiated in quality, the light gradually goes down, grows dim, and fails just in proportion as the oxygen is withheld ; and when the latter ceases to be supplied, the light is extinguished. And so with the lamp of life. It will burn brilliantly so long as the or- ganism remains entire, and all the parts in good repair, with due supply of life material, oxygen; but like the artificial lamp, it wanes and steadily becomes more and more feeble, as the oxygen of the air becomes adulter- ated by admixture with other elements, or is supplied in insufficient quantities. As the ten virgins in the para- ble merited the appellation of wise or foolish, according as they made preparation for the burning of their lamps, so, in the preservation of life and health, we may be wise or foolish in the use of the means which God has placed in our hands for the promotion of our physical existence, and greatly curtail our lives. Vegetable Food. The distinguished physiologist, Dr. William B. Car- penter, of England, in his work on that subject, speak- ing of the two great systems of diet, flesh and vegetable, says: “ It may be freely conceded to the advocates of An honest man is the noblest work of God. 298 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. She who banishes modesty has opened the door to vice. vegetarianism that a well-selected vegetable diet is fully capable of producing, in the greater number of individ- uals, the highest physical development of which they are capable.” Patriarchal Longevity. Many believe that during the early ages of the world, the lives of the inhabitants were much longer than in modern times; that they were of gigantic size and in- credible strength ; but modern science and philosophy have shown all this to be erroneous, and that the chro- nology of the primeval ages was very different from that of modern times. Hensler, as well as others, has satis- factorily shown that the year of the ancients, previous to the time of Abraham, consisted of only three months; that it was afterwards extended to eight months; and that it did not consist of twelve months until the time of Joseph; and it is known that some Eastern nations still reckon three months to the year. For it would be wholly inexplicable that the life of man should be re- duced one-half or three-fourths immediately after the flood; and equally so that the patriarchs should not have married until their seventieth, eightieth, or one hun- dredth year. But the whole mystery vanishes when we reckon the year at three, instead of twelve months, which would give the twentieth or thirtieth year as the time at which the patriarchs married, corresponding with the period of marriage in modern times. By this calculation the sixteen hundred years before the flood will be reduced to four hundred, and the age of Methu- selah, the greatest on record, to a little over two hundred, which is not impossible, and has been nearly attained Tlie fairest rose must fade at last. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 299 Thinking and knowing are two things. by the moderns. We learn from Jewish history that Abraham lived to be 175 years of age; Isaac, 180; Jacob, 147; Ishmael, 137; Sarah, 127; Joseph, 110; Moses, 120; Joshua, 110; Elisha, 100; Eli, the high- priest, 90; and Simeon, 90 : these ages not exceeding the maximum longevity of modern times. And if we take a survey of the longevity of the Greeks and Romans, it will be found not to vary materially from that of the Jewish patriarchs; showing that on the whole the ancients had very little, if any, advantage in point of longevity over the moderns, and that it is fully prac- ticable for the latter to equal the former in length of days. Wheat and the Potato. It has been fully ascertained, by carefully conducted experiments in the hands of scientific men, that consult- ing national health and economy in food, so far as the use of any one article of food is concerned, the potato far surpasses all others. It has been shown that an equal area of land cultivated in potatoes will produce nearly three times the amount of actual nutriment, or life-sustaining material, that it will if cultivated in wheat; and that consequently a potato-growing country will sustain a population nearly three times larger than a wheat-growing one will. Wine. Prof. Pereira, the distinguished writer upon food and diet, says of wine: “ To persons in health, the dietetic employment of wine is not only useless, but pernicious.” And Dr. Bell says : “ Wines bring on gout, rheuma- tism, disorders of the stomach, kidneys, and skin ; and a Security begets danger, as prosperity does pride. 300 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The lean dog is covered with fleas. change from one sort of wine to another is only a change from one morbid agent to another.” The Skin and Bowels. The distinguished chemists, Frank and Brande, state that tea contains forty per cent, of tannin; and Dr. Bell says: “ This accounts for its ruinous effects upon the skin and bowels; the former becoming tanned by its habitual use, as the hide does in the tanner’s vat by the action of oak or hemlock bark ; and the latter becoming constipated from its astringent qualities, as they would from an infusion of the same barks.” Dreaming. Dreaming is caused by the involuntary action of some of the organs of the brain while others are asleep. When any of the organs have been brought into great activity, or overtasked during the day, the extra flow of blood to them necessary to sustain such action does not cease at once; and such excited organs continue to act after those less tasked and excited have become dormant and quiet. On the other hand, when certain organs have been neglected and not brought into action for a considerable time, they often take on spontaneous action and produce dreaming, as in the case of being over- tasked. Dreaming is therefore generally the result either of the continued action of those organs which have been overtasked and overexcited, or the spontane- ous action of those which have been neglected or unem- ployed. For when all the organs have been equally and sufficiently exercised, but not overtasked, an undis- turbed and simultaneous repose will be the effect, except- ing in case of cerebral disease. Dreams usually result The longest day must end. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 301 If you would excel in art, you must excel in industry. from the action of the largest and strongest organs ; thus, one with large combativeness will dream of feuds, quar- rels, and battles; with large tune, of hearing or being en- gaged in music; with large amativeness, will have lewd or lecherous dreams; and with large number, will often dream of and actually solve in sleep difficult arithmeti- cal or mathematical calculations. Adequate Food. That abundant food augments population and pro- motes health, and that a deficiency brings on wide-spread disease and curtails human existence, are now well- known and admitted facts. An old adage says, “ a loaf added is a man born,” which, considering the great in- fluence of an abundance of food upon the increase of the population of a country, can hardly be said to be an exaggeration. The use of the potato as an article of common diet is believed, by some writers, to especially promote an increase of population; for since the intro- duction of this article into France, there has been a much more rapid increase in population than ever be- fore ; and Ireland is no less renowned for her prolificacy than for her large consumption of this vegetable. And as the potato is well known to be one of the most simple and healthy of all the vegetables, if it does also possess specific qualities favorable to prolificacy, it must be due not only to its particular medicinal and alimentary qualities, but to its general salutary influence upon the whole human organism. Physiological Items. The quantity of food which any animal requires for bodily support depends upon the frequency and extent Excellence in anything is acquired by long application. 302 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The loquacity of fools is a lecture to the wise. of his respiration; because the oxygen taken in at each inhalation combines with and consumes, as it were, a portion of the food; and the more frequent the former, the greater will be the demand for the latter. A child in whom the organs of respiration are very active re- quires oftener and more in the aggregate, according to bulk, than the adult, and suffers more and sooner from hunger. A bird that is very active and breathes very rapidly, and consequently consumes large quantities of oxygen, and needs much food to combine with it in the body, dies on the third day if deprived of food; while a serpent, that is slow and sluggish, breathes comparatively slowly, consumes little oxygen, and needs but little food, will live months without it, and, as a consequence, dis- charges so little carbonic acid in an hour as to scarcely make it perceptible even in a glass. Respiration is less frequent and deep in a recumbent and quiescent state than in opposite conditions; and the quantity of food must vary with the rapidity and extent of this function. An excess of food is incompatible with a deficiency of respired air and oxygen; the excess, not being disposed of in the natural way, becomes a tax and a clog on the system and vital powers ; while an excess of respired air and oxygen are incompatible with a deficiency of food, producing thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and emaciation; both conditions indicating functional derangement, im- paired health, and, if long continued, even death. By these are meant such agents, whether food, medi- cine, or drinks, as directly and especially excite the sexual passions, among which are oysters, eggs, wine, Aphrodisiacs. A mad dog bites bis master. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 303 Time, patience, and industry rule the world. alcohol in general, fish, phosphorus, a gross diet of ani- mal food, with all the heating and stimulating prepara- tions, as pepper, ginger, rich condiments, etc. That such and many other agents do exert a positive and specific effect upon the sexual organs is a fact as well established as that mercury has a specific action upon the liver, or spirits of turpentine upon the kidneys. And the means, therefore, by which the animal passions may be subdued and held in check, and the moral sentiments placed in the ascendency, become obvious to all; and chastity or lechery becomes a mere matter of choice with each, the one being as easily secured as the other by an appropri- ate use of the means. Yeast or Leaven. “ Bread prepared without leaven or yeast agrees bet- ter with the stomach than when raised or fermented, especially if the latter be at all acid ; and it is on this ac- count that crackers are so much preferable for dyspep- tics. Butter or lard is often added to biscuit, with a view of making them less tough and hard; but this ad- dition only renders them much more indigestible; and all sweet cake, and most other pastry, especially when they contain sugar and eggs, both of which are difficult of digestion, are objectionable on this account.” — Prof. Dunglison. Buttermilk. When buttermilk is produced from fresh, sweet cream, it does not differ materially from other milk; but when from cream long kept and rancid, it is less palata- ble and healthy. The main difference between butter- milk and sweet milk is that the former has mostly lost As are your associates, so are you. 304 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. There is no joy without alloy. its oleaginous or oily qualities, the butter, and thereby become more easy of digestion, but less nutritious; and on this account is often employed in fevers and other diseases where a light, refrigerating drink is demanded. When buttermilk becomes strongly acid, its refrigerat- ing qualities are increased ; but it is not then as healthy, and more likely to disagree with the stomach and bowels. Classification of Disease. To such diseases as affect large classes or portions of a community, and are manifestly due to locality, condi- tions of the atmosphere, or dependent upon imbibition from one individual to another, medical men have ap- plied three terms to express their ideas of their causes. Those causes which seem to be exclusively confined to the atmosphere, and affect a large extent of country re- gardless of locality, are called epidemic ; those that are known to arise from local causes, endemic ; and such as are known to arise from some emanation imbibed by one individual from another are termed contagious. Whey. The serum or whey produced in the process of cheese making is the least nutritious part of the milk ; but as it still contains a small portion of sugar, butter, and cheese, it is somewhat nutritious, quite harmless, and easy of digestion, but apt to become acid in the stomach, and does not agree with all subjects. Local Influences. The whole moral and physical condition of man is so much and so plainly affected and modified by locality, climate, food, and bodily habits, that we are enabled to The offended seldom pardons. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 305 The rotten apple taints its companions. distinguish the people of different nations belonging to the same race by the peculiar conformation of the face: the Esquimaux is readily known from the more southern Indian; the Asiatic from the European; the German from the French; the Irish of the south of Ireland from those of the north ; and the inhabitants of low and unhealthy districts from the ruddy inhabitants of the mountainous regions — the physiognomy being the most striking means of distinguishing the people of different countries and localities. Lunar Influences. The idea of the influence of the moon upon the human organism and the vegetable world has now nearly expired with its kindred imaginary science of astrology. There are, however, yet to be found a few superstitious individuals of limited information who still believe in sowing, planting, and harvesting in a particular phase of the moon; that the flesh of animals killed in a certain condition of this planet will be better and keep longer than if killed at any other time; that children must be weaned in a particular phase of that planet; and some few even go so far as to believe that the position of the new moon is indicative of the quantity of rain which will fall during the moon. Some women also are of the impression that because menstruation occurs in the healthy female once in about twenty-eight days, a lunar month, therefore the moon exerts some influence, favorable or unfavorable, upon this natural function of the body. But this cannot be so; for there is no day in the month or hour in the day when numerous females do not commence this function, The truth of reproach causes the sting. 306 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. To tell our own secrets is folly; to tell those of others is treachery. and when also some are not at its height, decline, and termination ; and it would be impossible for this influ- ence to be exerted upon all of them. The truth is, so far as known to science, the moon exerts no more influ- ence upon the human body or vegetation than the tick- ing of a clock or the beating of a drum, and all such ideas arise from a want of correct information of the operations of Nature. Use of the Broom. In nothing connected with domestic duties do men and women exhibit so little thought and sense, and so much stupidity, as in the mode of holding and using that important instrument—the broom. The sole object of sweeping is to remove the dirt and dust from the apartment, with the least possible disturbance or distri- bution of it through the air of the apartment, and any process or way of using the broom which fails of this is a total failure, and would be better omitted ; and yet ninety-five women in every hundred, who attempt to sweep, use the broom as though they were endeavoring not to remove the dirt, but to transfer it from the floor to the furniture or air of the room, or, in other words, as though they were stirring it up for the sake of seeing how much of it they could change from the floor to the air of the room, and then allow it to settle, and repeat the operation. It requires no little skill and good sense to sweep or use a broom so as to remove the dust and dirt from the room, and not fill the apartment with it, which defeats the object aimed at in the attempt; and the following method of holding and using a broom, it is believed, will accomplish the end desired nearer per- Theft never enriches, alms never impoverish. 307 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Think to-day and speak to-morrow. fection than any other. First, learn to sweep alternately right and left handed, as the case may require, which can very easily be done by a few practical attempts. Secondly, whichever hand is placed upon the end of the handle, the end should be considerably thrown for- ward of that part of the broom which rests upon the floor, so as to give it a drawing motion, but never a pushing out, as the former slides the dust along quietly to the point of deposit, while the latter puts it in active motion in the air of the apartment, preparatory to being settled and stirred up again. When sweeping is done in the usual stupid, sluttish, filthy way, with a push-flirt motion of the broom, the carpet, oil-cloth, or paint, is much more rapidly worn out, and the broom itself will not wear more than half as long as when it is done in a decent, sensible, and rational way, with a drawing motion of the broom, saying nothing of the great injury to health by inhaling the dust of a slatternly-swept room. No one trait of character connected with house- wifery is more positively indicative of defective domestic education than the vulgar, rabble up-jlirt of the broom in sweeping ; and in almost every case, we shall be safe in pronouncing those who practise it fully, if not sluttish and filthy, at best but very inferior housekeepers. The almost universal practise of wholly wearing away one side of a broom, while the other remains entire, for lack of sufficient thought and sense to turn and use the edges alternately, is in good keeping with the usual style of sweeping, and a disgrace to any one claiming the least common sense; for in the first place the broom will wear but half as long, and in the second place, will do its work but very imperfectly while it is used. Those who are willing are sure to be deceived. 308 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. The barking dog seldom bites. Interesting Items. The age of the world in which one lives has no in- fluence upon the age or longevity of man, and people may still attain as great longevity as in the days of Abraham and the patriarchs. Man can attain to great age in almost any climate, torrid or frigid; but as a general rule mild and warm climates are more favorable to length of days than cold ones. In warm countries, where the temperature is mild and uniform, mortality, upon the whole, is very small, and the population be- comes immense, as in China and Japan ; and although there are to be found immense numbers of old people in such countries, yet extreme age is less frequent than in colder countries. Uniformity in the state of the atmos- phere, in regard to heat, cold, gravity, dryness, damp- ness, etc., exert an active influence upon the duration of life. A moderately moist atmosphere keeps the organs longer plump, pliable, and youthful; while too dry an air brings on premature aridity of the vessels, and all the characteristics of old age. From the uniform tem- perature and moderate moisture of islands and penin- sulas, the inhabitants of such localities always live longer than upon continents lying in the same latitude ; hence islands and peninsulas have long been called the “ cradles of longevity.’’ According to experience, England, Swe- den, Denmark, and Norway are the countries of Europe in which men attain the greatest age; and although they are far north, being islands either in fact or effect, they will be found to possess all these properties neces- sary to long life. It is a fundamental law of our exist- ence, connected with health and longevity, that the Threatened folks are seldom harmed. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 309 To a sated stomach, the best food is unsavory. closer we adhere to Nature, and the more obedient we are to her laws and requisitions, the longer we shall live; and the further we deviate from these, the shorter will be our existence. All those who have lived to the greatest age have been married late in life, and gener- ally more than once ; and there is no instance of extreme age, that is, one hundred or more, in a bachelor. Hufe- land, in his “Art of Prolonging Life,” states that Sir Isaac Newton lived to be ninety years of age, and never knew a woman; which, if true, is the only voluntary case of a whole life of celibacy and strict continence of which we have any knowledge. There is no instance known, in the annals of man, of an idle, indolent, lazy person having attained remarkable age. A good degree of intellectual culture has been proved to be advanta- geous to longevity; for the savage tribes of the earth are not as long lived as man in a state of civilization. More women than men live to be old; but men only attain the extreme of human existence; for while there are more old women than men to be found, there are more very old men than women. Will-o’-the-Wisp. This is the vulgar name of the ignis fatuus, a simple chemical operation with which every educated person is familiar, having no more of the wonderful or mysterious in or about it than there is in the boiling of water, or the ordinary combustion of fuel. In low, marshy dis- tricts of country, where large quantities of vegetable matter are undergoing decay or decomposition; and also in burying-grounds, where human bodies are more or less frequently subject to the same process, phosphoretted The wise say little and perform much. 310 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Truth is at the bottom of all excellence. hydrogen gas, a very inflammable substance, is slowly set free from the decaying mass, and, gradually making its way to the surface, unites with the oxygen of the atmosphere, producing a very slow and feeble combus- tion and light; and if there exists at the time any wind or motion in the air, the light will be moved about, pro- ducing the phenomenon referred to; all being a very simple and perfectly natural chemical process. Medical Facts. Dr. James Gregory, a very distinguished professor in the Medical Department of the University of Edinburg, says: “Ninety-nine in every one hundred of the so- called medical facts are medical lies; and all medical theories are stark, staring nonsense.” Prof. Dunglison says: “If the philosophic inquirer after truth will cast his eyes over the multitude of facts, as they are called, which have descended from one generation lo another without any examination, he will be astonished to find how few of them rest upon any foundation.” Winds. Wind is air put in motion, and is caused by various degrees of heat in different parts of the earth at the same time. When epidemic or endemic diseases have prevailed, and generally, even when this is not the case, a high or active wind continuing some time is decidedly favorable to health, as the immediate effect is to remove the stagnant and vitiated air, and replace it with that which is more pure; but in case the morbific agents which vitiate the air arise from the soil, as is frequently the case, the advantage gained from the effects of winds will only be temporary, as the same emanations will Two of a trade will never agree. 311 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Truth may languish but can never die. recur as soon as the wind ceases. Aside from its effects in purifying the air, the impressions made upon the hu- man body will depend very much upon the qualities of the air as to heat, cold, moisture, electricity, and the presence of noxious vapors. If it be cold, bleak, and unbroken, it penetrates every portion of the apparel, and robs the system of its caloric with great rapidity, by fresh portions of cold air coming in contact with the body in rapid succession, and removing the caloric as fast as it is developed; and if in any instance the radi- ation or escapement exceed the production, as is often the case, the temperature of the body is speedily re- duced below a natural standard, and then a common cold is the inevitable consequence. Some idea may be had of the extra danger in contracting common colds when exposed to a high and active wind, from the fact, that in Parry’s voyages to the Arctic regions, no more danger or inconvenience was experienced in a calm day, with the thermometer fifty degrees below zero, than when it was at zero, with a high and searching wind, the latter making a difference in effect of fifty degrees. And experience and observation will prove that colds are very rarely contracted during a calm state of the atmosphere, however cold it may be, but nearly always when exposed to a rough, keen, searching wind, by un- derrating its influence in radiating the caloric from the body. Cold Feet and Hands. Habitual cold extremities, hands and feet, are a sure indication of impaired digestion, feeble circulation, and the presence of more or less debility throughout the Prefer an empty purse to one filled with another’s money. 312 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Truth scorns all prevarications. system, and to attempt its cure by warm applications to the parts is sheer folly and nonsense. Every part of the body depends upon the circulation of the blood for its natural warmth; and as those parts are more remote from the centre of action, the heart, and at the same time more exposed to cold than the rest of the body, they would very naturally become cold sooner than other parts, and should therefore have more care and attention bestowed upon them, to prevent the too rapid radiation of caloric. The best, and indeed the only permanent means of cure, is to restore the digestion and circulation, by light exer- cise in the open air, simple diet, bathing, friction, etc., with special local applications of cold water to the feet, followed with a crash towel, and keeping them well pro- tected with woollen stockings and good thick shoes, always avoiding toasting them by the fire. Life Statistics. The question is often asked how long can man live, that is, what is the utmost extent to which life can be carried in the human species ? To this question there is of course no wholly fixed or definite answer, yet there are many very strongly concurring facts all going to show that man’s physical existence is now very much below its maximum, and that it may be increased to two hundred years. In the first place, Thomas Parr, the Englishman, who died at the age of one hundred and fifty-two, after his death was subjected to a post-mortem examination by the celebrated Dr. Harvey, and every part of the body was found to be in a sound and healthy condition, especially the stomach, bowels, and alimentary apparatus; and he had every appearance of being able to Truth never fears the microscope. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 313 The thoughtless live to eat, the wise eat to live. endure at least another half century. A short time before his death, he was a hale, vigorous man, with very little indications of age, but having been taken to London, as a curiosity in the way of longevity, he was induced by his friends to change his simple rural diet for a more generous or concentrated one, and soon became plethoric and died, leaving behind the impres- sion upon the minds of those who knew that he did not live out more than three-fourths of his days. Draaken- berg, the Dane, lived to be 146 ; Epimenides, of Crete, 157; Abraham, 175; and Isaac, 180. But the best proof of man’s natural great longevity is based upon a general law of the animal kingdom, which is seldom or never known to fail. Experience and observation have shown that nearly if not all creatures are capable of sus- taining life during a period equal to about eight times that required for their growth and perfection; and on an average it is well known that man does not arrive at full growth and maturity younger than twenty-five, which would make his average age two hundred years. The following tables, the first from Hufeland, and the second from Haller—the latter of whom bestowed more attention upon the subject of life statistics than any other man — may serve to show the relative duration of human life in modern times. Of one hundred men born, fifty die before the tenth year; twenty between the tenth and twentieth; ten between the twentieth and thirtieth ; six between the thirtieth and fortieth; five between the fortieth and fiftieth; and three between the fiftieth and sixtieth : so that six only live to exceed sixty years. The following is Haller’s table of modern longevity, showing the actual number, according to the best infor- Undaunted minds defy fortune. 314 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Respectable low life is better than disgraceful high life. mation upon the subject, who have lived between certain ages. The number of men who have lived to be from 100 to 110, is 1000; from 110 to 120, 60; from 120 to 130, 29; 130 to 140, 15; 140 to 150, 6; and one 169. Tobacco and the Taste. The tongue is the immediate organ of taste, and this quality is imparted to it by an almost endless distribu- tion of the gustatory nerve; and in order that we may enjoy the pleasures of the palate in the highest degree, the nerves of the tongue must be in a healthy condition. But the application of such an acid and irritating sub- stance as tobacco to the tongue, for years in succession, gradually paralyzes and blunts the sensibility of these nerves, injures the sense of taste, diminishes the gusta- tory pleasure, and greatly injures oiir relish for simple, healthy articles of food and drinks; for such articles have little effect upon those nerves after the action of such a powerful and pungent agent as tobacco. And the dull and impaired taste of the confirmed tobacco-user is a matter of common remark; for plain and simple food and drinks are to him quite insipid, and he must have everything seasoned in the highest manner, or he has no relish for it; and even then often wonders that his food affords him so little gustatory pleasure. Simple water, man’s only natural drink, and the rich and juicy fruits so delicious to the undepraved appetite, are to him quite flat and tasteless ; and to afford him much gusta- tory pleasure, his food must be rich, savory, and concen- trated, and his drinks active, strong, pungent; and thus the devotee of tobacco, by paralyzing the nerves of taste, loses, unconsciously, a vast amount of gustatory pleasure which might otherwise be fully enjoyed. Undertake no more than you can perform. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 315 Treachery, trickery, and prevarication will out. Privies. Sulphuretted hydrogen is a transparent gas composed of one equivalent each of sulphur and hydrogen, and is readily distinguished from all other gases by its offen- sive taste and smell; the latter of which resembles putrefying eggs. This gas is a very active and virulent poison, the presence of one fifteen-hundredth of it in the air breathed producing instant death in birds, a one- thousandth part destroying a dog, and a two hundred and fiftieth part a horse. It is often found in the water of springs, and instantly recognized by its fetid taste and smell, which is unlike anything else known except- ing stale eggs, that generate it in the process of decom- position. The contents of privy-vaults also generate this gas very freely; and the offensive, sickening, and almost suffocating effluvia which is encountered on en- tering them, especially in very hot weather, is due to the presence of this gas. And so virulent and poison- ous is it, that even after the use of the most active and efficient disinfecting means — as chlorine and nitric acid — persons employed in large cities in cleaning the vaults of privies have been known to fall instantly dead on the first inhalation of this gas. Now the body of an ordin- ary adult contains about three gallons of blood, and the wThole of this passes through the lungs once in about three minutes ; and if we remain in a privy during that space of time, all the blood of the body is once brought in contact with this poisonous gas ; and if six minutes, twice, and so on. From this it will he obvious that we should always make our visits to such places as short as possible ; for although this gas, when diluted in Undutiful children make wretched parents. 316 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Unfading joys are not of this world. the atmosphere of the privy above the vault, may not be sufficiently concentrated to prove immediately fatal, yet when breathed for five or ten minutes must do more or less harm; and in feeble, delicate persons may, as has ■sometimes happened, result seriously. Congenital Influences. So far as hereditary taints, or congenital influences, are concerned, the subject of them is not in fault; but even then he can do much, by rigid temperance in all things, to ameliorate his own condition and improve that of his offspring. The fact that all who have reached very great age have descended from long-lived parents, seems pretty good evidence that inherited qualities play the largest part in length of days; yet inherited longev- ity is only the privilege to live, optional with the subject, which is of very little avail without subsequent fidelity to the laws of life on his part. Water and Vegetables. During the last forty years of his life, Dr. Johnson used only water as a drink, and subsisted almost wholly upon vegetables, and enjoyed much better health than during the forepart of his life, when he used wine and made a free use of flesh meats, although he then had youth in his favor. Demosthenes, the great Grecian orator, drank only water, and was very vigilant as to the quantity and quality of his food. Sir Isaac Newton, when composing his celebrated work on optics, confined himself exclusively to water and vegetable food; and John Locke, notwithstanding the distressing disease from which he suffered (asthma), by a rigid adherence to water and vegetables, lived to the age of seventy-one Use and practice impart skill and power. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 317 Uninvited guests occupy thrones. years. Boyle, the father of modern chemistry, though naturally very slender and frail, by the same dietetic course as Locke, lived to the age of sixty-five. Euler, the famous mathematician, by the most unwearied care and attention to his dietetic and hygienic habits, lived to be seventy-six years of age; and La Place, the most eminent natural philosopher since Newton, by the ex- clusive use of water nearly all his days, and the utmost vigilance as to his food, lived to be seventy-eight, and pursued his studies almost to the end of his days. Atmospheric Influences. The popular impression that the condition of the atmosphere exerts a very powerful influence upon our feelings and health is doubtless a correct one; for most of us are familiar with the fact that during dull, damp, gloomy weather, especially if hot and sultry, we expe- rience a depression, languor, and uneasiness almost amounting to temporary disease and prostration; and that we feel almost instantaneous relief and returning buoyancy of mind and body as soon as the sun breaks forth again, and the face of Nature becomes clear and bright. A little reflection upon the contrast in our feelings during the different seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, as well as during night and day, morning and evening, will convince any one that the human system is greatly influenced by the state of the atmosphere and its various changes. Oxygen and electricity are always present in the air, to a greater or less extent; and scientific men- tell us that the vary- ing quantity or quality, or both, of these agents in the atmosphere is the main cause of the great changes ex- Unkindness has no legal remedy. 318 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Unkind expressions wound sensitive minds. perienced in our feelings at different times. And the fact that during excessive hot weather, when the air is greatly rarefied and affords less oxygen in a given space, and when also the electricity is rapidly radiating from the earth into the air, as just before a thunder-shower, we always experience the greatest inconvenience, seems to confirm, if not fully establish, the correctness of this idea. And if, at the same time, the atmosphere is charged with aqueous vapors, or exhalations of decaying animal or vegetable matter, as is often the case near the surface, especially in the vicinity of stagnant waters, the degree of inconvenience experienced will be very greatly increased. A Valuable Fact. Howard, the English philanthropist, who visited thousands of jails and prisons in England and other countries, with a view of ameliorating the condition of the wretched convicts, on being asked what preventive means he made use of to protect himself from the infec- tions of the prisons which he visited, replied: “ With strictest temperance and cleanliness, and a small quan- tity of very simple food in my stomach, I visit the most noxious cells, and fear no evil.” What a lesson this for the habitual toper, gormand, and those who neglect per- sonal cleanliness! Female Gossip, Mucli is often sneeringly said of female gossip and the dominant propensity of the sex to tattle and Scan- dalize ; but so long as the great mass of our women are ignorant, and their ideas never soar beyond the drudg- ery of washing dishes and tending babies, how can they Unfeeling in prosperity, unpitied in adversity. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 319 Unprincipled men live knaves and die beggars. be expected to talk anything else than gossip, scandal, and nonsense? for talk they must, and what else can they talk ? If woman is ignorant of things, she must talk of persons of which she does know something ; and so long as she cannot talk intelligently, she must gossip ; and we cannot expect anything better from her while in this condition. Ignorance is the evil, and knowledge, intelligence, and refinement the remedy ; for these only can elevate her. As empty tenements are the supposed abodes of evil spirits, so vacant minds are the abodes of low passions and unworthy sentiments; and in both cases intelligence and enlarged views of things can only supply their places. The more intelli- gent a woman is, the better companion, wife, or mother will she make, and the more likely will she be to possess the higher and more lasting order of love. The Hon. Horace Mann, being once asked why the people of New England surpassed all others in intelligence and inven- tive genius, answered: “ Because they have educated the great mass of their women, which cannot be said of any other people.” Electricity. This is one of the imponderable agents which pervades not only the earth itself, but most objects and animals upon it, as well as air and clouds, and is constantly be- ing developed by the human body, modified by the con- dition of atmospheric electricity. If the air is very dry and insulating, and the clouds run high or at a great distance from the earth, all communication between the clouds and the objects uppn the earth is intercepted, and no modification or interference with the electrical con- Unmerited honors never wear long or well. 320 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Sameness of interests often unites the bitterest enemies. dition of the body will occur, because the body, like the surrounding air, is highly charged, and an equilibrium exists between them ; and at such times the individual feels charged with elasticity, energy, and life, and is elevated to the highest degree because he is 'positively electrified. But, on the contra, if the air be charged with moisture, this will constitute a good conductor be- tween the earth and clouds, and an equilibrium will take place, and the highly electrified individual will lose a portion of his electricity, in common with all other objects around him, and with it a portion of his elasticity and vivacity, and will feel a greater or less degree of languor and lassitude unconnected with any bodily de- rangement or disease. So important is a healthy elec- trical condition of the body deemed in the preservation and restoration of health, that many eminent scientific men have even declared this agent to be the life-giving and life-sustaining element of all living creatures; but whether this be so or not, one thing is obvious, and that is that electricity exerts a very potent influence upon the human organism, both physically and mentally, and in most cases of bodily disease seems temporarily, if not permanently, to add to the powers of life. Such articles as tea, coffee, liquor, etc., by exciting a morbid and unnatural influence upon the nerves of the stomach, rapidly convey that influence to the brain, and thus an unnatural and transitory energy is imparted to the whole body; and the nervous exhaustion and debility which follow this unnatural and artificial stimulation constitute all the powers and properties which such Treacherous Agents. An imperturbable mind enjoys a constant repose. 321 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Unbridled desires court destruction. agents as tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, alcoholic liquors, etc., possess to relieve pain and fatigue, induce sleep, and afford ease and quietness to the mind. Mushrooms. The celebrated chemist, Parmentier, declares the mushroom to be indigestible and wholly destitute of nutriment; and we all know that but very few of the mushroom family are edible or safe for food—some being insipid, some acrid, and others positively poisonous, while some are active narcotics, act promptly upon the brain, and are used in Russia to produce intoxication. It is said that the genuine is perfectly harmless, and yet all concur in the opinion that it is difficult to distinguish the genuine from the spurious, which at least makes the use invariably dangerous, even to those most skilled in the article. The poisonous varieties all have an astrin- gent or styptic taste, a pungent, disagreeable odor, turn blue soon after being cut, and usually have a warty cup, or fragments of membrane attached to the upper surface. The effects of the poisonous varieties upon the body are nausea, giddiness, palpitation, flush of heat, swelling of the face, shortness of breath, staring, delirium, convul- sions, etc., which can only be relieved by prompt evacu- ation of the stomach. The flesh of young animals is much softer and more viscid, but more difficult of digestion, than that of adult or aged animals, while the latter contain more fibrin, and possess a richer and more odoriferous flavor. The flesh of the two sexes is alike when young, but differ in quality as they advance in years — that of the male, in Qualities of Flesh Meats. Unskilful workmen quarrel with their tools. 322 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Unsophisticated manners accompany an honest mind. the absence of castration, becoming more rank and un- savory with age, while that of the female undergoes no change excepting that of firmness and consolidation; the flesh of the female, in a natural state, always being more tender, finer-grained, and more delicate than that of the male. There is also a marked difference in the flavor of the flesh of the carnivora and that of herbivora; for while that of the former is strong, rank, and repulsive, the latter is devoid of any such qualities. In lean animals, the fibres are dry and close, and the flesh ac- cordingly hard and tough, while in the moderately fatted, the fibres and muscles are separated by layers of fat, which render the meat more soluble and tender; and hence the lean meat of animals well fattened is always greatly superior to that of lean ones, on account of its being more tender, digestible, and nutritious. The flesh of animals subjected to much hard labor is usually dense and tough, while a freedom from labor conduces to fatness or obesity, and the flesh is more tender. Fashion- able epicures and gormands are in the habit of taking their flesh meats in a state of partial decomposition or putridity, which is not only a retrograde step toward a savage or barbarous state, but a great violation of the laws of health; and an eminent medical professor on this point has said, “ unless an individual lias been ac- customed to highly putrid food in early life, he cannot afterward have recourse to it with impunity; and when the putrid effluvia or miasmata is very concentrated, they seem, when taken into the blood, to excite great derange- ment of the bodily functions, and sometimes even pro- duce death.” Sudden love comes to a sudden end. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 323 Unlettered men are not always the most ignorant. American Women. By the use of tea, coffee, sedentary habits, corset- lacing, late hours, and divers other errors in diet, dress, and exercise, the females of this country have become almost a nation of dyspeptics and invalids; and it is the mature opinion of good judges, of both sexes, that there is not at this day sufficient vitality and physical stamina remaining in American females, on an average, aside from foreign and colored help, to cleanse the apparel and prepare the food of the nation. But this is by no means the worst feature of the case; for it is utterly im- possible for any pale, sharp-faced, feeble, care-worn woman, with stoop-shoulders, narrow chest, waspen- waist, impaired digestion, shattered nerves, and torpid bowels and liver — the condition to a greater or less extent of most American women — ever to become the mother of a permanently healthy offspring. Noxious Agents. It has already been shown that a dry, hot, or warm state of the atmosphere much more readily take up and carry off the sweat or perspirable matter from the body than a damp cool one; and hence the former condition of the atmosphere is more favorable to health than the latter, in so far as it has to do with the pulmonary and cutaneous transpirations of the body ; but in all cases of noxious agents, as well as all odoriferous substances, a moist state of the atmosphere is much more active in dissolving and volatilizing them than a dry one; hence the greatly increased fragrance of flower-gardens, and the offensive odor of putrid ditches and stagnant ponds, during a warm damp state of the air and just after a The educated are not always the wisest. 324 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Unseasonable wit is the child of folly. slight shower. For this reason all noxious agents, as contagious marsh - miasmata, and impure animal and vegetable exhalations from the earth, are far more dan- gerous and liable to take effect upon the system, during a warm moist state of the atmosphere, than under oppo- site conditions. A False Argument. It is often urged in favor of the harmless use of the narcotics, tea, coffee, alcoholic liquors, etc., that many have used them all their days, and still lived to a great age, and enjoyed good health, which is not denied ; but this proves nothing in favor of these poisons, and simply shows the great powers of endurance which the subjects possessed, for if they had viability or life-powers suffi- cient to hear up to middle or great age, in the habitual use of these noxious agents, they could obviously have lived much longer without them. The Barometer. This is an instrument for measuring the weight or density of the atmosphere, and was invented in the early part of the seventeenth century, by Torricelli, an Italian. It consists of a small glass tube about three feet long, closed at one end and filled with mercury, and the open end placed in a vessel of mercury, open so that the air can have free access to the surface of it; and the pressure of the air upon the surface of the open vessel of mercury forces the mercury up the tube from twenty-eight to thirty-one inches, depending upon the condition of the atmosphere. Now, dry air is heavier than that charged with aqueous vapor, and consequently, when the air is dry, it presses upon the vessel of mercury and forces it Unwelcome news always comes soon enough. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 325 Use not to-day what may be needed to-morrow. up the tube from twenty-eight inches, the stationary point, to thirty-one inches, the highest point, depending upon its weight; and when the air is charged with vapor, it falls again from thirty-one to twenty-eight, as the pressure may be; and in this way we are enabled to judge pretty accurately of the weather and approaching winds and storms. The barometer is an instrument of great practical value to invalids, farmers, and especially to sea- faring men. Sense of Smell and Tobacco. The olfactory or smelling nerve is spread out over a large portion of the nasal passages; and it is utterly im- possible for the mucous membrane of these passages to be subjected to the exhalations of the quid, the fumes of the pipe or cigar, or still more pernicious substance snuff, without being seriously impaired in its functions ; and numerous cases are on record in which the sense of smell has been wholly destroyed by the use of tobacco alone. Matrimonial Misfortune A feeble, frail, nervous, complaining companion, never at ease, never happy, never contented, never satisfied, and seldom able to assume her share of the responsibili- ties of life, is certainly among the greatest misfortunes which can befall a man; and thousands of worthy, active, enterprising, and industrious men, with such companions, are now struggling at the top of their strength to sus- tain a family and rise in the world, who are doomed to a disappointment solely on this account; for their best hopes and prospects will terminate on servants, doctor’s bills, a puny, sickly, short-lived progeny, if any, and a Use time as though you knew its value. 326 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Usurp not the rights of others. brief period of connubial sympathy, anxiety, and un- happiness, and early to be left a widower. And not only is matrimony with such a companion a very serious mis- fortune to the husband, but a still greater one to the wife and her offspring, both of whom are doomed either to an early grave or a life of pain and suffering. The health and bodily vigor of those who contemplate mat- rimony, especially that of the female, is a matter of para- mount importance, and no consideration of fancy, family, rank, money, or any thing else, should ever be allowed to interfere with it; for an error here is almost certain to prove fatal to the happiness of the parties for life. M. Decaisne, in a communication to the French “ Academy of Science,” states that among eighty-tliree inveterate tobacco users, from twenty-seven to forty- five years of age, he found twenty-three cases of what he termed “narcotism of the heart,” or temporary inter- mission of the' heart’s action, and a cessation of the pulsation of the radial artery at the wrist, nine of which were promptly cured by the disuse of tobacco. And in a general practice of over a quarter of a century, the writer has met thirteen cases of cancer of the lip in in- veterate smokers; and in nine of them the cancer was located precisely where the pipe had rested upon the lip, rendering it almost certain that the use of tobacco induces cancer and heart disease. Tobacco and the Heart. We learn from geology that the surface of our planet, for the depth of about ten miles, is composed of stone or Modern Facts. Utility is preferable to grandeur. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 327 Usury is the offspring of avarice. rocks. Very low down these rocks contain no trace of any organic matter; but at a less depth animal relics or remains are found in abundance, of which nearly thirty thousand have already been secured; and still higher up innumerable vegetable remains have been found; yet among all these no traces of human remains have ever been discovered. Now the bones of men and animals are composed of the same chemical elements, and have the same structure, and would be equally lasting; and as we find among the animal remains deep down no human relics, we are warranted in the conclusion that animals existed before man. After reptiles, fishes, ani- mals, and vegetables comes man, deposited in the allu- vium or filling up of the last one hundred feet of the earth’s surface, whicli of necessity must have been of comparatively recent formation. Female Beauty. Woman, regardless of consequences, will adapt herself to man’s whims and fancies, whatever they may be, right or wrong; and hence his tastes of female beauty, worth, and excellence become her standard and rule of action, and he can make her just what he desires her to be by establishing his standard of beauty and admiration. As long as man admires a small foot or ankle, or delicate white hand, a sickly, cadaverous countenance, and a slender waspen waist — all indicative of physical debil- ity, early decline, and worthlessness — so long will wo- man, as she now does, strive to secure these unnatural qualities at all hazards; and man surely ought not to complain at woman’s present physical inability and worthlessness, so long as he continues to encourage her Vice often begins in ignorance and ends in disgrace. 328 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Visionary schemes ruin the shrewdest. in it by admiring the very qualities which produce them. And if man has not yet suffered sufficiently from wo- man’s physical decline and degradation to teach him the necessity of a reform, then the evil must progress on until it is adequate to open his eyes to its enormity; for when he shall proclaim “ natural waists and sound wo- men or no wives,” then will woman awake and arouse to the present frightful condition of her bodily health, and labor with as much zeal and industry to regain and preserve it, as she formerly has, and now does, to de- stroy it. Tea and Coffee Intoxicate. That these drugs are active narcotics and stimulants, and possess intoxicating qualities, is not only admitted by many of the ablest scientific and medical men, but is proved by every-day observation in our midst. For who has not known and seen persons, who, while under the intoxicating influences of these beverages, would so far lose control over themselves as to say and do things which they afterward greatly regretted, and which they never would have said or done had they not been under the exciting influences of these exhilarating drinks? Under their influence the tongue is unloosed, the coun- tenance becomes flushed and heightened, the eyes ani- mated, and the whole deportment of the individual shows but too plainly the intoxicating effects of these articles, and in most cases just as plainly as though the same degree of intoxication had been produced by gin, brandy, or any other alcoholic liquor. Jews and Quakers. The disuse of lard, pork, alcoholic liquors, and other gross and improper articles of diet, with fasting and Vain compliments are mere subterfuges. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 329 Vanity blossoms, but never bears. abundant ablutions enjoined by their religion, has made the Jews, wherever found throughout the earth, a pro- lific, healthy, and prosperous people, and exempted them from the plagues and pestilences which have devastated and depopulated other people. Wherever they are found, they are healthy, robust, temperate, intelligent, and well-to-do; and during the past half century have furnished some of the most splendid orators, poets, scholars, and financiers of the age. And what temper- ance, cleanliness, industry, and moderation in all things have done and are still doing for the Jews, they are also doing for that most remarkable people, the admiration of all, the Quakers; for who ever knew a drunken, loaf- ing, destitute Jew or Friend; and temperance in its most extended sense must have all the credit. It is a fact, familiar to every medical man, that ordi- nary food, such as experience has abundantly proved to be the most natural and best adapted to the wants of man, does not pass through the usual process of digestion, so as to materially affect the system, on an average, in a less period than three hours; but with tea and coffee this is not the case; for their effect upon the system is almost instantaneous, showing conclusively that they are not subjected to the usual laws of digestion, contain no nu- triment, and add nothing to the sustaining powers of life; but make their impression and expend their force wholly upon the nervous apparatus, as shown by the promptness of their action, and their exciting and exhil- arating influences upon the whole system. And by prematurely exhausting and wearing out the nervous Tea, Coffee, and the Nerves. Virtue is a robe of honor ; but wickedness, a garment of shame. 330 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Vanity renders beauty contemptible. system, the immediate vital apparatus, induce the multi- tude of aches, ills, and morbid sensations which always, sooner or later, follow their use. Temperature of the Atmosphere. The ability of man to endure the extremes of temper- ature is truly astonishing; for while Arctic voyagers have sustained a temperature of fifty degrees below zero, the mercury in some parts of Africa rises to one hun- dred and twenty-five degrees, and in British India has been known to reach one hundred and thirty degrees; and cases are on record in which individuals have en- tered ovens heated to six hundred degrees, and remained during several minutes without sustaining any apparent injury. As regards the effect of temperature upon health in general, saying nothing of particular diseases and localities, statistics show that warmth favors life; and that, other things being equal, a warm climate is more conducive to health and longevity than a cold one. And so well is this point known and established, that Dr. Bedoes, of England, says: “ During the coldest months of the year, there are regularly the greatest number of deaths in those above sixty years of age, and the least number during the warm months of summer.” Air at all temperatures holds in solution more or less aqueous vapor; the hotter and dryer it is, the greater the quantity retained, and vice versa. If, therefore, one be placed in a hot, dry atmosphere, it will take up the exhalations from the skin and lungs very rapidly, and little or no sweat accumulates upon the surface, and we feel a cooling influence which 'is very agreeable; but if the surrounding air be moist, or damp and warm, or, Never venture all in one enterprise. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 331 Violence breeds hatred, and hatred dissension. what is still worse, cool and damp, the cutaneous and pulmonary exhalations go on very slowly, the sweat ac- cumulates upon the surface, causing oppression, languor, and debility, even though the actual quantity eliminated may be much less than in the former case, when we felt much less inconvenience. At the level of the sea, the air is heavier than at any other point upon the surface of the earth; and as we de- scend from the surface into mines, its weight and density increase; and as we rise in the ascent of mountains and balloons it becomes rarefied and lighter. At the level of the sea, in our climate, the average height of the barometer is about twenty-eight inches, and at an elevation of 23,000 feet the weight of the atmosphere is so much diminished that the barometer ranges at only thirteen to fourteen inches. Formerly, it was thought that elevation above the level of the sea, when considerable, had an influence upon respiration, and was more or less injurious to health, but more recent investigations show that animal and vegetable life flourish vigorously at an elevation of 13,000 feet above the sea, and that life and health are only affected at extreme heights, and then not as much by diminished density as by the diminished temperature. Density of the Atmosphere. Locality. While the inhabitants of the higher districts in our own and most other countries enjoy robust health, the dwellers upon the borders of large streams and low dis- tricts near the ocean are usually liable to diseases the causes of which are the products of such localities; and we are all familiar with the fact that the air of crowded Voluptuous pleasures bring tormenting pains. 332 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Virtuous youth brings forth flourishing middle and old age. cities is much less salubrious than that of the country. The base of mountains is favorable to the development of goitre, or swelled neck ; the plains of Italy are sub- ject to pellagra, a loathsome cutaneous disease, and those of the torrid zone to the yellow fever. The causes of this varying salubrity in different localities is doubt- less mainly due to morbific emanations from the soil; but conditions of the atmosphere, as heat, moisture, density, pressure, or the absence of electricity, may also exert some influence in the production of it. The Two Ways. When man is diseased, it is because his body is clogged or charged with old, dead, worn-out matter, which has served its purpose in the system, and should be cast out, but which, owing to some temporary derangement or ina- bility, it is not able to effect. To do this there are two ways — first, an artificial one by means of drugs, which do what can be done by them speedily, but are always more or less doubtful in their effect, and sooner or later always more or less injurious to the constitution; and, secondly, a natural one by the use of air and exer- cise, which, when judiciously applied adequate to the case, never fail to effect it in a perfect and safe manner; and the fact that Nature has provided such safe and ample means to accomplish this end is sufficient evidence of its great superiority over all artificial methods. The lungs, skin, bowels, and kidneys are Nature's dikes or sewers through which the waste matter of the body is to be dis- charged, and the system purged of impurities; and as long as these channels are kept open and in order, no morbific materials can accumulate in the system, and Virtue that parleys is near a surrender. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 333 Want of punctuality is a sort of mild falsehood. health will be the consequence. That drugs, usually acrid poisonous matter, should irritate and arouse the system to free itself from them, and in doing so remove also a portion of other foreign substances from the sys- tem with them, seems not mysterious; but, says one, How can air and exercise effect the same end? Answer, Ju- dicious exercise or labor in the open air increases the health, vigor, and activity of every organ and function of the human body, without a single exception. First, by it perspiration is excited, and a large quantity of im- purities (three-fifths of all taken into the system) sent to the surface, the carbon and hydrogen uniting with the ogygen of the air, forming carbonic acid gas and water, and the saline matters remaining upon the sur- face to be removed by ablutions. Secondly, the liver, the great veinous blood-strainer, is aroused to a healthy action, by which a large amount of carbonaceous matter — bile — is separated from the blood passing through it, and poured into the bowels, giving them too a healthy tone and action. Thirdly, active exercise increases the rapidity of respiration, by which a greater quantity of air and oxygen are taken into the lungs in a given time, and a greater quantity of impurities removed from the veinous blood during its passage through these organs, the same changes taking place in the materials as in the case of those sent to the skin; and,fourthly, exer- cise also arouses the kidneys to action, and much saline and other foreign matter is removed from the body by these organs. Now every motion of the body, slow or quick, or any portion of it, every step, every raising of the hand, bending the arm, or finger, or thought, or sensation, promotes the production of waste matter in Vows made in danger are often forgotten in safety. 334 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Wanton kittens may make sober cats. the system, and a removal of it from the body in the ways described; hut unless the food or diet be closely adapted to the labor or exercise of the individual, there will be an accumulation of morbid materials in the body which can only be safely removed by an increase of active exercise proportionate to the excess of food taken by the subject above his real wrants. This is Nature’s practice, Nature’s “ pathy,” and as much supe- rior . to drugs, or any other artificial means of purging the system from impurities, as it is possible for the human mind to conceive. The pressure of the atmosphere at the seashore is greater than at any other point, because there we have the weight or pressure of the whole column instead of a part of it, as upon the top of a mountain; and at the former place, its weight is equal to a column of water thirty-four feet high, or one of mercury thirty inches high, as illustrated in the barometer. This is equal to about fifteen pounds avoirdupois on every square inch of surface upon the human body, and as this surface is estimated by Haller to be nearly sixteen superficial feet, an ordinary adult sustains a pressure upon his whole body of about fourteen tons. But owing to the cavities of the body being filled with fluids capable of sustain- ing great pressure, or with air equally as elastic as that without, which counterbalances the outer pressure, no inconvenience is experienced from it, nor do we even recognize the presence of any such pressure. But this pressure, vast as it may appear, is small compared to that sustained by the inhabitants of the great deep. Atmospheric Pressure. Envy acknowledges the superiority of the envied. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 335 Education is to the mind what sculpture is to the block of marble. Water, when pure, is 800 times heavier than air, and the saline impregnations of the ocean make its waters of still greater specific gravity than fresh water, so that fish, ordinarily, have to sustain and force themselves through an element considerably more than 800 times heavier than the air; and those which live at a depth of 3000 feet, as some do, sustain even a much greater press- ure than this. Chemical Items. An adult man receives into his system, daily, in addi- tion to his food, over two pounds of oxygen, and yet no increase in weight is ever perceived at the end of the day; and in a year, according to Lavoisier, 746 pounds; and yet his weight at the beginning and end of the year is uniformly the same. No part of this oxygen remains in the system, but is constantly being given off from the skin and lungs, after combining with carbon and hydro- gen in the system, in the form of carbonic acid and water. An adult, taking ordinary exercise, daily takes into his system, in his food and drinks, very nearly fourteen ounces of carbon or charcoal, which is com- bined with the oxygen, and escapes from the skin and lungs after combining with the oxygen, as just stated — the fourteen ounces of carbon requiring thirty-seven ounces of oxygen to convert the carbon into carbonic acid. Importance of the Lungs. The lungs of an ordinary adult contain one hundred and seventy millions of little sacks, cells, or holes, re- sembling a sponge. The surface of the human body is estimated by Haller to equal nearly sixteen superficial We diminish our wants by lessening our desires. 336 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Where there is flattery there must be a fool. feet; and if all these millions of little cells were cut open and spread out, their aggregate surface would equal thirty times that of the body, or four hundred and fifty square feet, a surface equal to the floor of a room over twenty feet square. Upon one side of this vast surface, the blood circulates by means of innumerable and ex- ceedingly minute vessels, and to the other side the air has free access at each inspiration; and the membrane which separates them is so exceedingly thin and frail, that in effect the blood and air are in contact, and if this con- tact ceases for the space of three minutes, death will be the result. By this contact of blood and air in the lungs, the oxygen of the latter combined with the car- bon of the former, producing carbonic acid gas, which is discharged at every expiration, and by which the blood is purified and prepared to go its rounds and nourish the body, heat is generated to keep up the warmth of the body, and by these means life is sus- tained ; and other things being equal, the more perfectly and uninterruptedly this contact of air and blood is kept up in the lungs, the more complete wTill be the health, life-powers, and longevity of the subject, and vice*versa. And it is not only necessary that this union of oxygen and carbon should go on uninterruptedly, but the air breathed must be pure, in order that it may contain the due quantity of oxygen; and it is on this account that those who live out-door, or spend most of their time in the open air, live so much longer, and enjoy so much better health, than those who are cloistered up in a house- poisoned apartment; for out of 120,000 who die annu- ally in England and Wales of consumption, over three- fourths are in-door laborers. And the absence of fresh When wine goes in, the sense goes out. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 337 When sorrow sleeps, wake it not. air and abundant respiration is the main reason, too, why the rich families of cities soon die out or become extinct; they stay in the house in summer to keep out of the sun, for fear of being tanned, and in the winter to keep out of the cold, and thus deprive themselves of the very first and most important element of their existence, an abundance of pure fresh air. The first and most important of all considerations in the choice of a wife, is that she be naturally and consti- tutionally sound and healthy; for a failure here is a total and irreparable failure that will be sure to greatly mar, if not ruin, the happiness of one or both for life, saying nothing of the wretchedness entailed upon the offspring by an unhealthy mother. If a wife is igno- rant, she can be instructed; if poor, she may be enriched; if of humble birth, she may be elevated; if irreligious, she may be converted; if dirty, slatternly, lazy, or dis- orderly — which is equally as bad — these faults can usually be corrected by example and kind encourage- ment, and so of other personal habits and practices; but if a man marry a bad constitution, a radically dis- eased body, however fascinating, beautiful, or intelligent she may be, there is no hope for him : the die is cast for life, and he has voluntarily consented to make two hu- man beings — if not wretched, at least unhappy for life — and to hand down the same misfortune as a legacy to his progeny, if he should be so unfortunate as to have any. Do you ask for the leading physical indications of the genuine woman ? They are few, simple, plain, and easily distinguished. She should be five feet four Choosing a Wife. Wit is wisdom in a wise man, and folly in a fool. 338 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Where sense and reason rule, appetite obeys. to six inches in height; good, square, broad shoulders; full breasts, broad hips; full, plump, solid muscles, but not fat; full but not protruding abdomen ; sound, hard teeth ; moderately full face ; not very light complexion ; average sized head; good sized hand and foot; and, above all else, a large, fall, natural waist, without which all the other qualities are of very little use. Elastics or Garters. If a medical man in the old blue-law days of the pro- fession, when phlebotomy was fashionable, desired to bleed a patient, he passed a ligature around the arm just above the elbow, which effectually checked the return of the veinous blood from the arm below the ligature to the heart; and if this were continued for hours and days in succession, the effect upon the hand would be obvious to all — it would become paralyzed, wither and die. Now the lady who ties up her lower extremities with garters produces the same effect upon her limbs that the doctor does upon the arm — viz., checks the flow of blood from the foot to the heart, as the doctor does from the hand ; and the inevitable consequences are cold feet, varicose or enlarged veins, headache, diz- ziness, and, in connection with errors in diet, palpita- tion, hot flushes, and many other serious and very un- pleasant symptoms. But many thoughtless women, not content with inflicting this injury upon nature during the day, retire with garters and stockings on ; thus not only torturing nature all day, but all night also. If females generally could but realize the pains and suffer- ings which they are thus treasuring up for themselves in future, they would either attach their stockings to When avarice rules, humanity submits. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 339 Caution is the parent of safety. some other portion of their apparel, or else wear short socks and long drawers, and wholly dispense with so injurious an article of dress. The very pain and suffering which accompany disease and death are of themselves the very strongest possible evidence that they are wicked and unnatural; for there can be no bodily suffering without violated physical law; and all violated law, whether moral or physical, is sinful, and pain and suffering will follow as naturally as smoke ascends or rain falls. And premature death, however caused (unavoidable accidents excepted), is still more wicked and sinful, because it is a still greater vio- lation of the same law, and is indeed one of the greatest crimes against God and ourselves. Who will deny that suicide is a most heinous crime ? and still it consists only in a greater violation of the same law which produced sickness and premature death. Unless we have a divine right to commit suicide, we surely have no right to in- jure health and endure premature death; for the only difference consists in the degree of the violation of the law. Theft, fraud, robbery, etc., are crimes as much less important, Compared to reckless, thoughtless destruc- tion of health and life, as property is less important than human existence. It may be said that we shall die any- how when our time comes; but if we live in accordance with the laws of our being, that time will not come until old age gradually and almost imperceptibly deprives us of our faculties, so that we have no desire to stay longer or fear in meeting death. It is high time that sickness and premature death should be viewed in their true Sickness a Crime. It requires danger to overcome danger. 340 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. We may be as good as we please, if we please to be good. light, and seen to be just what in fact they really are — high-handed crimes against God and man, and, as far as they go, no better than premeditated suicide. It is now a generally conceded fact by the medical and scientific world, that the habitual use of tobacco is highly injurious to the voice; for the vocal apparatus in man is one of the most complicated and delicate in the whole organism, and, from its very nature and situation, is very likely to be affected either by sudden exposure to cold, or to any acrid and irritating fumes and gases. Dr. Allen says: “That tobacco injures the voice, any one can be convinced by observing the harsh, thick, husky, mumbling, and insonorous voice of the confirmed tobacco user.” Prof. Mussey says: “The habitual use of tobacco, in any of its forms, produces a harsh, squeak- ing condition of the voice.” And Dr. Woodward, of the Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, goes even fur- ther, and declares that “Nearly every case of bronchitis and loss of voice is either directly caused or greatly ag- gravated by the habitual use of tobacco.” Tobacco and the Voice. Celibacy. The rapid increase of old maids and old bachelors in this country, especially during the past quarter of a century, is becoming a matter of surprise and alarm to all friends of morality, good order, and good society, and seems to show that there is “ a lion in the way ” of matrimony; for all the instincts and real interests of man lie in the direction of marriage, and no ordinary obstacle could prevent him from entering into that state. Eagles fly alone, but sheep flock together. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 341 The hatred of kindreds is the most violent. It is stated that over 500 divorces are annually granted in the little State of Connecticut, and four daily, on an average, in the city of Chicago, or 1,200 annually in Cook County, and over 85,000 annually in the whole Union. Now we are far from claiming perfection for man, and know too well his faults and failings; but as the customs of society assign to the male the exclusive right to “ propose,” and as a large majority of applica- tions for divorces come from the male, it may not be unjust to infer that there is also something wrong on the other side of the house. As to what this wrong is, or what constitutes “ the lion in the way ” of matrimony, there may be a diversity of opinion ; yet to the writer the causes seem plain, and may be summed up under three brief heads: First. A false and erroneous domestic education that labor is disreputable and demeaning, and that girls must not be raised to practical usefulness, but to be pretty, and to be fashionable ladies. Secondly. The present notorious physical inability and sickly condition of the great mass of the native born women of this country, which almost wholly unfits them to perform even the most ordinary domestic duties. And, thirdly, the abominable and intolerable lavish- ness, extravagance, and wastefulness of the women of this age, rendering it utterly impossible for any one not already in possession of a competence or small fortune to marry and sustain a family in what is termed “ good style,” by any honest means without the greatest effort, and spending all and even more as fast as it can be pro- cured. Alert in the outset, negligent in the end. 342 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Jest with an ass, and he will slap you in the face with his tail. Chronic Drowsiness. Thousands, yes, hundreds of thousands, are sorely afflicted with a dull, drowsy, lethargic condition which constantly pursues them, weighs them down, and renders it exceedingly difficult for them to remain in a wakeful state, whether at home, abroad, or in church. The in- fant and the dotard require much sleep from well known natural causes; but those in the prime of life and in ordinary health need not be thus affected, nor do they usually require more than six or seven hours of sleep in twenty-four. This irresistible tendency to sleep is due either to an insufficiency of pure air, to excessive ali- mentation, or to over-taxing the mind and body, or to a combination of these causes, but in a vast majority of cases to over-eating or gormandizing; and the remedy in either case would seem to be sufficiently obvious. Let all such commence a gradual reduction in the quan- tity of their food, and continue until they arrive at the point where each meal will digest without any sensation of dulness or drowsiness, and then adhere to it, and they will need no drug medication or medical advice. Appetite. Our appetites are, to a very great extent, artificial or the result of habit, as practically shown both in man and brute. Thus, no one ever relished ale, tobacco, clear coffee, etc., on the first use of them, because they are all, as well as many other articles in use, nauseous and repulsive to a simple and unperverted taste; and yet practice soon so vitiates our tastes that we become exceedingly fond of them; and some so completely de- luded by their bewitching influences as to really think Ambition is torment enough for an enemy. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 343 The proof of the pudding is in the eating. they cannot exist without them, and greatly prefer them to simple, healthy articles of drink. The horse and cow, also, strictly herbivorous, by force of habit can be in- duced to live exclusively upon animal food, and finally come to prefer it to their natural food, as shown by Captain Marryat’s Diary, page fifty-five. Some one has said that costiveness will sooner con- quer a great army than the bullets and bayonets of the enemy; and if this contain some exaggeration, there is still truth enough in the remark to show the immense evil of the blocked-up condition of the bowels. Most of us know too well from practical experience what costive- ness is; but very few have any correct idea as to the causes or the extent of the evil in the derangement of general health. If asked for the three most important directions for the preservation of health, next to respi- ration, the writer would give the same answer to all three: “ keep the bowels regular and active without drugs ; ” for to do this would require the habitual practice of all the great and important dietetic and hygienic rules. Costiveness induces sick headache, piles, fistulas, cold feet, dulness and drowsiness, obstructs the free discharge of urine, and a general impression of lassitude, languor, and disinclination to act or do anything, beside a score more of less important morbid symptoms; and millions are constantly weighed down and oppressed with these symptoms to a degree which nearly prostrates them, without ever even for once suspecting the real cause. But this is not all; for when fecal matter which is on its way to be discharged is arrested in its course and retained Costiveness. Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride to ruin. 344 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A wolf never steals a sheep at home. in the bowels, as in all cases of constipation, the softer or more watery portions are reabsorbed, enter the blood, pass into the secretion, imparting to the whole body, and especially the breath, a most disgusting and intoler- able effluvia, from the presence of fecal matter which should have been deposited in the privy hours before. The cause and cure of costiveness are both very simple, and the removal of the former, and consequent security of the latter, is completely within the reach of all who eat and drink. The leading causes are, sedentary habits, insufficient bodily exercise, the use of too concentrated food, as fine wheaten bread, cakes, pies, and pastry in general, with rich, high-seasoned condiments, etc.; and the cure, free exercise in the open air, as walking, horse- back-riding, laboring, with coarse, plain, nutritive food, as brown wheaten bread, with fruit and vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, and, if any, a moderate use of lean, well cooked meat; never under any situation or condition, for once even, excepting from imminent danger of life or limb, neglecting to answer promptly the slightest calls of nature. Experiments on Narcotics. Dr. John Burdell, an eminent dentist of New York, procured from one pound of hyson tea a pint of decoc- tion, and subsequently reduced this to half a pint, and applied the preparation to such decayed teeth as he had occasion to operate upon, and found it equally as effi- cient in killing or destroying the sensibility of the nerves as arsenic, corrosive sublimate, creosote, and other active poisons in use by dentists for this purpose. He then took a young rabbit, and after depriving it of If wishes were horses, beggars might ride. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 345 To deal with a blockhead requires much brains. food for a few hours, gave it ten drops of this decoction of tea, and it soon lay down upon its side, began to moan as if in the greatest distress, and in ten minutes was dead, and its limbs stiff and distended. He then made a still stronger preparation, by reducing the decoction of a pound to a gill instead of half a pint, and gave eight drops of it to a full-grown young cat, and in less than three minutes the animal ceased to breathe, and was totally dead. Dr. B. also made numerous other experi- ments both with tea and coffee upon animal life, and sums up the result of all of them by saying that “coffee produces even more disturbance of the brain and vas- cular system than tea, but does not extinguish life quite as speedily.” Sense of Touch. Sensation is the perception of objects or their quali- ties by means of our senses, which are five in number, viz., touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. By the sense of touch, of the physical qualities of objects, as their roughness, smoothness, hardness, softness, tempera- ture, and to a considerable extent their form, size, and weight. This sense is distributed over the entire sur- face of the body, but is most acute in the ends of the fingers, where, from the nature of things, it is most needed. In point of intensity, this sense varies in different persons, and at different periods of life in the same person, being more acute in the child than in the adult or those advanced in life. In sound sleep, the brain is inactive, and in this condition slight or ordinary impressions upon the skin are not perceived by the indi- vidual. If a large nerve, as that upon the inside of the Modesty sits gracefully upon the young. 346 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. One can better steal a horse than another look over the hedge. leg or arm be compressed, as is often the case when the part rests upon some hard substance, the flow of nervous energy from the brain to the part is intercepted, and the limb becomes numb, or is said to be “ asleep.” The flow of arterial blood to a part greatly increases the sen- sibilities in it, as shown by the effect of cold upon the hand or foot, which checks the cutaneous circulation and lessens sensibility. The sense of touch is lessened in a part by hard labor or much friction, as upon the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, and increased again by the absence of the same cause. Education or practice greatly increases tactile sensibility, so much so that the cloth-dresser instantly distinguishes not only the quality of his fabrics, but also the slightest difference in different articles; and the miller, from similar educa- tion or practice, quickly detects the slightest difference in meal or flour. The nerves which supply the sense of touch proceed from the anterior half of the spinal column, while those of motion proceed from the poste- rior part; and if either half of the cord be cut or severed, its corresponding function, whether motion or sensation, will be destroyed. Unfermented Bread. It is conceded by chemists, and those best acquainted with the subject, that ten per cent, on an average is lost in nutriment by the ordinary process of bread-making by the vinous fermentation; and if, as is nowadays the general custom, it is allowed to reach the acetous fer- mentation (sourness) before it is placed in the oven, fully fifty per cent, is lost, and the natural taste of the bread wholly destroyed, and adding alkalies, as soda and Daub yourself with honey, and the flies will come. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 347 The worse thing is the abuse of the best thing. saleratus, to neutralize the acid, does not restore any portion of nutriment, but still further reduces it; and all such bread has a dead, insipid taste, and is totally desti- tute of the real natural sweet bread flavor, and nearly worthless. The vapor condensed from the oven where fermented bread has been baked produces pure alcohol, and the chemical elements of the bread, which were de- composed to produce the alcohol, would have remained in the bread as nutriment, if it had not been raised, and hence the loss by the process of fermentation, even in case it be arrested at the vinous, and not allowed to reach the acetous, which would be still worse. That unfer- mented bread, made of good wheat meal sifted through a coarse wire sieve, is much more healthy than fine wheaten bread is fully susceptible of practical demon- stration in one month in any case of dyspepsia, consti- pation, or chronic piles ; and the adoption of brown bread into general use by the people of this country for one year would reduce the sum totum of chronic disease in this country fifty per cent. Tobacco and the Vision. That the habitual use of tobacco injures the vision is evident from the fact that we so very seldom meet with an inveterate user of the weed whose vision is not more or less impaired, even in the prime of life; and every medical man of any experience is familiar with the fact, that in many cases of disease of the eye, especially amaurosis or paralysis of the optic nerve, little or no beneficial results can be obtained until the tobacco is wholly dispensed with, and its baneful effects to some extent removed from the system; and the writer has To spare the bad is to injure the good. 348 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Give place to your superiors. long been convinced that much of the present rapid in- crease in deafness is due to the use of the same poison. Physical Enjoyment. As to the actual amount of physical enjoyment which any individual is capable of, other things being equal, it depends wholly upon the degree of bodily health enjoyed; so that it is not unreasonable to suppose that the man of perfectly sound and vigorous bodily health may be the recipient of as much genuine happiness in a single year as the miserable, gloomy, suffering, hypochondriacal, invalid would in ten years. For he who is in perfect health is also perfectly alive, and capable of the fullest enjoyment of all his faculties, while he who is but half in health is but half alive, and consequently capable of receiving half the enjoyment which a full state of health would afford him. Hence he who would choose the happiest, merriest, and longest life has only to choose the healthiest one to secure all these important and highly desirable considerations. Popular Poisons. As early as the year 1769, Dr. Smith, of Edinburg, Scotland, demonstrated, by a series of carefully con- ducted chemical experiments, that a strong decoction of green tea had the same effect upon the living body as henbane, eicuta, or tobacco, first exciting, then depress- ing, and finally destroying the powers of life. Dr. Lettsome, an eminent Irish physician, made an extensive series of experiments upon the same subject, and with precisely the same results. And still later, Dr. Bedoes, of England, by a series of experiments several times Deep sorrow has no tongue. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 349 The race is not always to the swift, nor the victory to the strong. repeated, proved beyond all possible doubt and cavil that tea and coffee are not only active narcotic poisons, but as destructive of human life as opium, digitalis, or tobacco — the following being his own words : “ Indeed, it is entirely certain that a small quantity of tea or coffee, made very strong, will destroy human life as effectually as an equal quantity of laudanum.” Afraid to Marry. The women of this country, especially in towns and cities, by a series of constitutional abuses extending through the past two generations, are so dwarfed in bulk and stature, and reduced in strength and powers of en- durance, that, on an average, two of them now, for any domestic or useful employment, are not worth more than one was half a century ago; and in proportion as they have declined in physical strength, ability, and practical utility, their pride, vanity, and extravagance have steadily increased, so that now it costs from three to four times as much to support one as it did then ; and she is really worth, for all the great duties of female life, only half what she then was. And so patent, so obvious is this decline and deterioration in our females, that even our thoughtless, harebrained, fast young men are rap- idly beginning to see and realize the very serious fact that the pale-faced, slender, frail girl-women of this age, doomed to an early grave, make very poor wives, com- panions, and housekeepers, and still worse mothers and nurses; and the shyness and suspicion, and even fear with which every prudent, thoughtful man now ap- proaches matrimony, seems to be pretty good evidence that all is not right with woman. All that shines is not gold. 350 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Suspect both the praise of a friend and the censure of an enemy. Popular Errors. Ignorance, in a multitude of ways, is a fruitful source of anxiety, grief, and perturbation to the superstitious — and the ignorant only are superstitious — when a lit- tle correct information would speedily dispel their foolish fears, uncalled apprehensions, and ominous forebodings. Ignorance, the prolific mother of misery, has filled the world with distressing fears and apprehensions, from trifling and futile causes, which pass unheeded by the intelligent and educated. The superstitious are often greatly alarmed at the ignis fatuus, believing that they are sent by evil spirits to lead the unwary traveller astray, and finally guide him to destruction. Many are alarmed at the ticking noise of an insect in the stillness of night — by the screaming of a bird — by an acciden- tal noise in an unoccupied apartment — by the sudden closing of a door when no one is near — by the howling of a dog — by the accidental waving adjustment of a garment — by the singing of a boiling tea-kettle — by having seen the new moon over the left shoulder — by the falling of a chimney — by the appearance of locusts with “letters upon their wings” — by a sudden return for something forgotten — by the breaking of a mirror — the upsetting of a salt-dish — the striking of a silent clock — by having met a snake in the road — by miss- ing the mouth in taking food — by its raining in the grave of a friend before interment — by being presented with a knife, or some cutting instrument. The ignorant and erroneously educated are tortured with spectres, su- pernatural visions, and hobgoblins with monstrous horns, huge dimensions, and unearthly forms; with ghosts, Any fool can ask questions that a wise man cannot answer. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 351 Fools always run into extremes. fairies, and ever-changing nothings. They see imps, satyrs, wraiths, genii, witches, wizards, and a multitude of other imaginary nothings which peregrinate the earth and air for evil purposes, and to annoy and harass the human family, and inflict sundry penalties and divers chastisements upon its members. There are also nu- merous trite and whimsical sayings daily in the mouths of the ignorant, which all well-informed persons know to be false and senseless, of which the following is a specimen: That a man has one more rib than a woman —that Jerusalem is in the centre of the world — that some bodies of water have no bottom — that all the stars are lighted by the sun — that the tenth wave is more dangerous than any other — that if the sun set clear, the next day will be fair — that all land animals have their like in the sea — that white powder kills without a noise — that young toads rain down — that children must be weaned when the “ sign is right ” — that certain seeds must be planted and grains harvested in a certain phase of the moon — that a candle made of human fat will prevent a sleeping man from waking — that a warm winter will be followed by a cold summer — that winter is cold because the sun is more remote than in summer — that the last Friday in each month foretells the weather of the following month — that ignorance is bliss — that a little learning is a dangerous thing — that a man can be too religious — that the world owes all a liv- ing — that genius can do nothing without scholastic education — that business men have no time to study — that what is everybody’s business is no one’s business — that a man may know too much for his avocation — Nothing produces nothing. 352 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. If you buy what you do not need, you will sell what you do need. that the poor toil and the rich enjoy — that it is no mat- ter what a man believes if he is only honest — that the rich only are happy — that ignorance is a palliation for crime — that there is but a penny difference between in- dolence and industry, and the idler gets the penny. These are a few only of the horrors of ignorance; and what intelligent individual can endure with indifference such tyranny and abject slavery? or who can form any correct idea of the wretched bondage and suffering which the illiterate are doomed to suffer ? The Butcher’s Bill. The subjoined memorandum of a few of the greatest modern battles of Europe is inserted in this volume as a specimen of human folly and depravity, and to aid in keeping the horrors of such wholesale murder, for the gratification of unprincipled tyrants, before the public. At Marengo there were 28,000 French and 30,000 Aus- trians, 13,000 killed and wounded. At Austerlitz, 90,000 French and 80,000 Austrians and Russians, and 23,000 killed and wounded. At Jena, 100,000 French and 100,000 Prussians; killed and wounded, 34,000. At Wagram, 150,000 French and 130,000 Austrians; killed and wounded, 24,000. At Borodino, 125,000 French and 125,000 Russians; killed and wounded, 80,000. At Leipsic, 160,000 French and 280,000 allies; killed and wounded, 50,000. At Waterloo, 68,000 French and 67,000 English arid Prussians; killed and wounded, 14,000. At Solferino, 135,000 French and Italians and 136,000 Austrians; killed and wounded, 27,000; and at Sadowa, 200,000 Prussians and 200,000 Austrians; killed and wounded, 28,000. Experience only can make fools wise. 353 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. Distant good is better than present evil. Modern Marriage. With women, marriage is usually everything, and the first aim and object of her existence, and that to which all else is made subservient. From girlhood to gray hairs, unless this supposed one great desideratum be sooner consummated, she seldom ceases her efforts to effect an alliance with the other sex. And why should she not ? And is not this, under the present state of society, perfectly natural? for man has legally deprived her of every civil right, even to her name when married, and made her a mere appendage or hanger-on to himself; and marriage is the only resource left her for a home and support in life after she leaves the parental roof. But suppose she does marry and secure the great and much-coveted prize, — a husband or permanent friend, and what she believes to be a companion for life, — what are her chances to have gained anything by it, or to have bettered her condition for the future? In the first place, it is estimated by good judges that seven out of every eight of the young men of towns and cities, and nearly one-half in the rural districts, at this day, are steeped in whiskey or tobacco, or both ; are fast, thought- less, reckless, unprincipled, immoral, licentious, and really worthless, who at best will make bad husbands and worse fathers, and rarely provide a happy, comfortable home for a family; so that on the score of fact, all contingency aside, she has but one chance in six or eight of bettering her condition by matrimony. But grant her to be the fortunate one who hits the sixth or eighth young man who is temperate and moral, how is it with herself? Is she prepared, by habit and education, to fill the highly The horseshoe that clatters needs a nail. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 354 We are apt. to believe what we wish to be true. responsible situation of wife, mother, and head of a family? She may be moral, virtuous, kind, industrious, frugal, and affectionate; but has she health and bodily powers of endurance to meet the situation ? Can she abide the wear, tear, care, and responsibilities of bear- ing, nursing, and raising children without becoming thin, pale, feeble, nervous, complaining, fading, wither- ing, and going to a premature grave ? This is the fate of a vast majority of the young American married wo- men of this age, matrimony being to them little else than fashionable suicide, which most of them seem de- termined upon, with the death penalty staring them full in the face. Dr. J. C. Jackson, an eminent health- writer, after referring to the worthlessness of the young men of this age, and the frailty of our young women, says : “ I never see a woman married, but in the shadow which she casts I see the ghost of a sexton. I feel as though she were going to her death by making herself a sacrifice to society; for she is expected to yield up all that she has of her personality and power of character for the poor equivalent, as society is now organized, of a husband and a home.” Mind and Muscle. Two vigorous or concentrated actions cannot go on in the human body at once; for if we digest well, we shall think indifferently, and if we think well, digest indiffer- ently ; and the reason is that the nervous energy of the brain when applied to digestion cannot at the same time be occupied with mental operations, and vice versa. When, therefore, we would use our intellectual faculties advantageously, and think with strength and clearness, Wit once bought is better than twice taught. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 355 Life is a duty; its peril, a crime. the stomach should be unoppressed; and when we wish our food to digest readily and well, the brain should not he much called into action, unless the meal is nearly digested; and a violation of this very important law of health will derange both digestion and all intellectual effort. Life and Oxygen. It is a scientific fact, in the production of vegetable and animal growth, that while the growth and develop- ment of vegetables depend upon the elimination or dis- charge of oxygen, the healthy growth of animals can only be effected by the absorption and combination of oxygen with the component parts of the body. Food of Animals and Vegetables. While no organic substance can contribute to the food or support of vegetables until it has first assumed the inorganic form, by decay or decomposition, as seen in the germination and coming up of all seeds, so no substance can con tribute to the growth and support of animal life, unless it be preserved in a fully organized condition, as seen in all our food — the two conditions being directly opposites. The Sense of Smell. The olfactory or smelling nerve is distributed over the surface of the mucous membrane of the nasal pas- sages, and imparts to it the faculty of smell. In man, this membrane is extensive; and in those animals whose sense of smell is very acute, it is still more extensive. When the exhalations of different substances are brought in contact with the olfactory nerve by the passage of the air through the nasal cavities, this sense enables us to Do in the dark as you would in the light. 356 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When you meet a madman, feign yourself a fool. distinguish the odor of different substances; and it is the use of this sense, and that of taste, which enables men and animals to select their food so that it may be adapted to their natures. Like that of touch, the sense of smell varies much in different animals, and is capable of great improvement by use or practice; and in some persons the smell of certain articles, as cheese, onions, and some flowers, produces nausea, vomiting, and convulsions. In the inferior animals this faculty is usually much more acute than in man; the greyhound following his prey for hours solely by the scent of the body left behind, and tracing out his master upon the pavements of a great city from the odor of his tracks among thousands of others. Acuteness of smell requires that the brain and nerve of smell should be healthy, and the mucous mem- brane of the nose thin and moist; and whatever deteri- orates these qualities impairs this sense. The use of snuff thickens and paralyzes the mucous membrane of the nose and partially closes up the nostrils, and not only diminishes the acuteness of this sense, but, by lessening the passage for air through the nose, causes old inveter- ate snuff-takers to open their mouths when they wish to breathe freely. Poisons. We all have a great horror of being poisoned, and well we may; for hundreds, if not thousands, annually lose their lives by stupid, thoughtless blunders in the use of these agents. Prussic acid and strychnine are such virulent poisons, and act so very rapidly, that little can be done when poisoned by them; but when any other poison has been swallowed, whether animal, mineral, or Make every day do its own work. 357 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He that is content to trudge behind was never made to go before. vegetable, the most efficient remedy is to remove it from the stomach as speedily as possible, before it lias time to enter the blood; and this must be done either by the stomach-pump or an active emetic, the latter usually being the most available means. Stir a tablespoonful of good ground mustard into a glass of water—hot being preferable — and swallow it as soon as possible, which will throw up the contents of the stomach almost in- stantly, and then give freely of bland drinks, as milk, white of eggs, vegetable or animal oils, starch, slippery elm, flour and water, etc. If the mustard should fail to vomit, which is very rarely the case, try the means mentioned in another portion of this work, under the head of “ active emetics.” Nearly all the bites and stings prove poisonous from the concentrated acid de- posited by the insect; and the best remedy is the use of an alkali, as soda, saleratus, spirits of hartshorn, etc., dissolved or moistened, and promptly applied with a little rag. New Medical Platform. Dr. J. C. Jackson, the distinguished health-writer, teacher, and reformer, who has for twenty years been the proprietor of the most extensive hygienic institution in the country, if not in the world, at Dansville, Liv- ingston County, New York, states that during that period he has treated twenty thousand patients, who have come to him from Europe, South America, the West Indies, Mexico, the British Provinces, and all parts of the United States; most of whom were old, difficult far- gone cases, who had been the rounds of various drug- schools of medicine and laid on the shelf as incurable; and that of this great number he has either radically If you remain in the valley, you will never ascend the hill. 358 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. No one is so deaf as he who won’t hear. cured or materially improved ninety-five per cent., and that too without ever having given a single dose of drugs or medicine of any sort whatever. Dr. J. has adopted an entire new and original medical platform, the planks of which are very simple and well known to all, but have never before been united or combined into a system, and wholly relied upon in the cure of disease. This plat- form is summarily as follows: 1. God has so organized man that, casualties aside, in order to live free from disease and die from old age, he has only to understand and obey the laws upon which life and health depend. 2. Sickness is no more necessary than theft, murder, arson, or any other crime. 3. Obedience to the laws of health will do away with all disease. 4. The proper way to treat the sick and restore them to health, without injury, is to employ only such means as would have prevented disease had they been previ- ously employed. 5. No remedy or means should ever be employed in the cure of disease which, if administered to a well person, would have the effect to induce disease or injure the organism. 6. The leading means employed by Dr. J., in the cure of disease, are air, exercise, sleep, diet, bathing, quietness, sunlight, dress, sociability, and daily scientific lectures on the laws of health and life. Now Dr. Jackson is well known to thousands to be a gentleman of a high grade of intellect, fine parts, great honesty and moral worth, and strict integrity; and we have not the least doubt but that his statements as to The road to Babylon will never bring you to Jerusalem. 359 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When wealth is over-rated, worth is under-rated. his success are entirely correct; and if nineteen thousand patients afflicted with diseases of the very worst sort have been successfully treated by means of Nature’s simple remedies, why may not the same means be indefi- nitely extended to mankind in general; and in view of these facts, what are we compelled to think of the drug- medication of the various schools of the day ? Motion. In animals everything called motion proceeds from the nerves, stimulated to action by the presence of oxygen and the imponderable agents heat, light, and electricity; and the nervous apparatus in every animal organism is capable of self-renewal at every moment of its existence; but as plants and vegetables, so far as known, have no nerves, the same agents which in the animal act primarily upon the nerves, in the production of motion, exert their influence directly upon the plant, in produc- ing the same end, as seen in the circulation of the sap, the opening and closing of flowers, and the change of position of flowers with change of the sun. “We are surrounded by wonders on every side. The formation of a crystal, an octahedron, is not less incom- prehensible than the production of a leaf or a muscular fibre; and the production of vermilion from mercury and sulphur is as much an enigma in science as the formation of the eye from the blood.” — Liebig. Wonders. Impotence. Complete impotence in the male is oftener due to spermatorrhoea or inability to retain the male product, A fool always comes short of his reckoning. 360 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The wise know a fool, but the fool knows not the wise. arising from the abuse of the sexual organs, than any- thing else; but injuries to the brain and spinal cord may and sometimes do produce it. Partial impotence is caused by the excessive use of tobacco, alcoholic liquors, opium, excessive venery, stricture, obesity, inflammation of the seminal organs, the use of safes or condams, etc. Congenital or original impotence is due to malposition of testes and absence of the spermatozoa, coition being practicable but inefficient; to the obliteration of the ejaculatory canals near the jirostate gland and the ex- cretory ducts of the testes; and also to cerebral malfor- mations. Impotence in any form is a great misfortune to man, for his loss of manhood not only degrades him in his own estimation, but causes him to be despised by woman, and his life becomes shrouded in gloom and de- spondency, which not unfrequently ends in suicide. Curing a Cold. It is the opinion of medical men and other good judges that, in the variable climate of most parts of the temperate zone, seven-eighths of all diseases have their origin primarily in common colds; hence any means which will enable the masses to promptly throw off a cold in the outset must be invaluable; and the following very simple means, if promptly adopted on the appear- ance of the first symptoms of a cold, are just as sure to throw it off in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours as good pure water is to allay natural thirst. 1. Go to your room and remain there, and have it sufficiently warm to prevent all chilly sensations, even if you have to keep the temperature one hundred degrees. 2. Place your feet in warm water as high up the legs Where drums beat, law is silent. 361 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A nod from a lord is a feast for a fool. as you can, and get up a good, free perspiration as soon as possible, and then aim to keep the surface simply moist all the time. 3. Make a free use of hot teas, sage, pennyroyal, ginger, capsicum, etc. 4. Until you feel yourself wholly relieved from the cold, take no food or drink other than corn-meal gruel, crust coffee, or grain tea. Millions who now sleep the sleep of death, cut off in the prime of life, might have lived out the full measure of their days had they applied these simple means. Action and Change. “All vital activity arises from the mutual action of the oxygen of the atmosphere and the elements of the food; and ordinary experience shows that at each and every moment of life a continual change of matter more or less accelerated is going on in the system; that a part of the structure is transformed into inorganic matter, loses its life condition, and must be removed again; that every motion and every manifestation of force is the re- sult of a transformation of structure or of its substance; that every conception, every mental affection, is followed by change in the chemical nature of the fluids secreted; and that every thought and every sensation is accom- panied by a change in the composition of the substance of the brain ; and to keep up this phenomena of life, we require certain matters which we term food.” — Liebig. Sterility. Barrenness in the female arises from absence, malfor- mation, or smallness of the vagina; uterine or vaginal Make not your tail broader than your wings. 362 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. If one foot is in a brothel, the other is in the hospital. tumors; displacement of the womb; ovarian dropsy; occlusion of the Fallopian tubes; aversion to the hus- band ; indifference to the sexual act; acrid vaginal dis- charges, which destroy the spermatozoa before they reach the ovum in the womb; want of adaptation in the temperaments of the parties; nervous or restrained orgasm, etc. A woman without children is like a tree without fruit; for the instinctive mother’s joy which off- spring brings she can never know, and the childless wife always envies every mother. We not unfrequently see men of great genius who are descended from fathers of very limited intellectual ca- pacities; and such men were the fortunate husbands of wo- men of high temperament and fine cerebral developments and combinations, who transmitted these qualities to their offspring. And the main reason why our gifted men so seldom leave gifted progeny is that they are poor judges of the other sex, and form matrimonial alliances with women of low temperaments, in whose dull and inert systems their intellectual powers and vivacity are lost or greatly neutralized. For, other things being equal, so important is maternal influence, that as a general truth it may be said, “ as is the mother, so will be the off- spring,”— a great physical fact which cannot be too strongly impressed upon the mind of every gentleman in the pursuit of a matrimonial companion. Parents and Progeny. Wife-Killing. Of all the wear, tear, and bodily tax to which Amer- ican-born women are subjected, the bearing, nursing, and The devil leaves when the door is shut. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 363 Lazy rich girls make poor husbands. rearing of children is by far the worst and most fatal; and as a matter of self-preservation, as far as possible, our women in their present unwomanly condition owe it to themselves to avoid it. If our women were natural women, and the sex fully represented in them, this would be different; but the almost wholly artificial and unnatural habits and customs of the women of this country, added to their hereditary tendencies and down- ward proclivities, remove them just about as far from Nature as they can possibly be and exist at all; and under such circumstances, in ascertaining their repro- ductive ability, we are compelled to view them as they are, and not as they should be. A great majority of our foreign-born women, who come to this country at mature age, will endure child-bearing once in three years, and not suffer materially in health or longevity, because they are mostly natural women, and able to meet the demands of Nature as Heaven assigned; but no woman of the American type can bear a child oftener than once in five years without more or less impairment of health and constitution; and every child she does bear oftener than this only tends to hurry her to her grave by ex- hausting her vital powers, and destroying her offspring by imparting to it a feeble constitution and proclivity to dis- ease and death which can rarely be checked or overcome. In this country the custom seems to be that married women shall bear children as often as the routine of utero-ges- tation and lactation will permit; and in a vast majority of families having four or five children, investigation will show that the difference in their ages does not vary materially from two years, causing the mother to bear two and a half children, on an average, when she should Industrious poor girls make rich husbands. 364 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. What is done at night will be seen by day. not have borne but one. And this cannot be done with the frail, unnatural women of this country without the most serious consequences; for to do it is to kill them outright and consign their offspring to an early grave; and for every living mother who has borne five children with an average difference of only two years, there can be found four who have borne that number with that difference who have died from over child-bearing. It is quite surprising to see how many men there are living with their second wives, whose first wives were the mothers of several children with difference of only about two years; and this rapid and ruinous prolificacy is by no means the desire of the female, but the want of for- bearance and regard on the part of the husband, a ma- jority of children born at such short intervals being unwelcome guests to their mothers. Anatomical Analogy. Temperament seems to pervade the whole body, and a fine or coarse skull or skin indicates a coarseness in the make of the whole individual, as the hair, lips, hands, feet, fingers, toes, etc.; and when this coarse- ness exists in the structure, there will be a correspond- ing coarseness in the motions, gestures, thought, and all the actions. The anatomical structure holds equally true also in the build or make of the individual; thus, a tall slim man will have long slim hands, fingers, feet, toes, arms, neck, etc., and will be all made uj)on the long and angular plan ; while a short, square-built man will reverse the whole. And some anatomists have even extended this analogy so far as to state that from the make of the hand alone the size, build, temperament, When poverty steps in at the door, love flies out at the window. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 365 Spend not when you can save; spare not when you must spend. and entire physical structure of the individual can be determined. The Sense of Taste. The upper surface of the tongue is the principal organ of taste, though the lips, palate, and inner surface of the cheeks exert an auxiliary influence to this sense. The tongue is very largely supplied with nerves, receiving filaments from the fifth, ninth, and twelfth pairs of nerves. The branch from the fifth pair, called the gus- tatory nerve, is the principal and proper nerve of taste and sensation; the twelfth, called the hypoglossal, is the nerve of voluntary motion; and the ninth, the glosso- pharyngeal, establishes a relation between the tongue, the fauces, oesophagus, and larynx. The sense of ta- is very intimately connected with that of smell; so much so that an impairment or derangement of one always more or less impairs the functions of the other. The use of this sense is first to afford pleasure while in the act of mastication; and, secondly, to enable us to make a proper selection of our food, and to warn us against the introduction of noxious agents into the stomach; and in the lower animals it still serves this last purpose to perfection; but in man, owing to the vitiation of this sense by errors in diet, it has ceased to be wholly reli- able, and been to a very great degree superseded by artificial taste. This sense is subject to a great modifica- tion by habit or education — those articles which at first were nauseous and offensive, by use and habit finally become agreeable and palatable; and by cultivation, also, it may become exceedingly acute, as in the case of professional tasters of certain articles sold in our markets. A fool can sometimes put an idea in a wise man’s head. 366 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Accusing is proving where malice and power are judges. Results of Accident. Many of the most important discoveries ever made have been purely the result of accident. Two little sons of a spectacle-maker, in Holland, while their father was at dinner, accidentally looked at a distant steeple through two eye-glasses, placed one before the other, and found the steeple brought near to the shop windows. They related the circumstance to their father, and it led to the invention of the telescope. Some shipwrecked sailors once collected some sea-weeds on the sand, and made a fire to warm their shivering limbs and cook their scanty meal; and when the fire went out, they found that the alkali of the sea-weed had combined with the sand and formed glass — a great discovery of itself, and one by means of which all of our discoveries in astron- omy have been made. In the early ages of science, when every astrologer and chemist was seeking after the imaginary philosopher’s stone, some monks, carelessly taking up their materials, accidentally invented or dis- covered gunpowder, so important in the arts, to say nothing of its value in wholesale murder called war. Sir Isaac Newton discovered the laws of light by ob- serving the soap-bubbles of a child at play, and the laws of gravitation by the falling of an apple from a tree under which he sat; and the art of lithography was first suggested to Senefelder by incidentally scratching upon a stone a memorandum of some articles brought to him by a washerwoman. At a temperance meeting held some years since in the State of Alabama, Col. Lehamowski, once a Polish A Temperance Wonder. Trust not a sword in the hands of a boy. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 367 To lick honey from thorns is to pay dearly for it. count, and who had served many years in Bonaparte’s armies, addressed the meeting. He arose before a large audience, tall, erect, and vigorous, with the glow of health on his face, and said: “You see before you a man seventy-nine years old. I have fought two hundred battles, have fourteen wounds upon my body, have lived thirty days on horse-flesh, with the bark of trees for bread, snow and ice for my drink, the canopy of heaven for my covering, without stockings or shoes on my feet, and with only a few rags to cover my body. In Egypt, I have marched for days with the burning sun upon my naked head, feet blistered in the hot sand, and with eyes, nostrils, and mouth filled with dust, and thirst so tormenting that I have torn open the veins of my arms and sucked my own blood. Do you ask how I could survive all these horrors, I answer, next to the kind providence of God, I owe my preservation, my health, vigor, my all to this fact — that I never drank a drop of spirituous liquors in all my life.” And he added, “Baron Larry, chief of the medical staff of the French Army, has stated it as a fact that the six thousand sur- vivors who safely returned from Egypt, were all men who abstained wholly from the use of ardent spirits.” The nervous system consists of the brain, which is deemed its central organ, and nine pairs of round or flattened white cords proceeding from it and branching or subdividing as they proceed, and extending to every part of the body excepting the hair and nails, which have no nerves, the spinal cord with its branches being an extension or prolongation of the brain. Besides the The Nerves. A soldier, fire, and water soon make room for themselves. 368 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Too much of one thing is good for nothing. brain, or cerebro-spinal centre as it is called, there is another arrangement of nerves, termed the “ sympathetic system,” which is distributed throughout the body, and seems to serve the important purpose of connecting the other nerves in all parts of the body so as to establish an inter-communication among them, and enable each, so to speak, to know simultaneously what all the others are about. The former (cerebro-spinal) confers motion and sensibility, the motor portion being under the con- trol of the will; while the latter (sympathetic) is not subject to the will, and exerts a controlling influence over the nutritive or life-sustaining functions of the body, digestion, absorption, secretion, nutrition, calorification, elimination, etc. The nerves are the immediate instru- ments of life, sensation, and motion throughout the body, and are distributed to different portions of it, ac- cording to the necessity for their use in the parts — some portions, as the inner surface of the ends of the fingers, being extensively supplied; while the back of the hand, the ears, etc., have a much less extensive distribution. As the nerves confer sensibility or life upon the body, the more perfect and healthy this apparatus is in any in- dividual the greater will be his real life qualities and enjoyment, and vice versa; hence, if we regard our real happiness in life, the health and vigor of the nerves should be an object of paramount importance with all; but, unfortunately, the reverse of this is the fact; for nearly all the dietetic habits of the age, especially of the American people, are directly calculated to weaken, pre- maturely exhaust, and ultimately destroy this important tissue of the body. Thus it has long been known to the scientific world that all the narcotics, tea, coffee, tobacco, If you make yourself an ass, you will be mocked by monkeys. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 369 The covetous man is always in want. alcoholic liquors, opium, etc., possess no perceptible nutriment, and add nothing to the sustaining powers of life, but act simply as nervous excitants, expend their force and action upon the nerves, and prematurely wear out and exhaust this real life apparatus; and hence those in the habitual use of these drugs are nearly always more or less “ nervous,” or have prematurely worn out and exhausted their nervous systems; for that is all that is meant by “ nervousness.” Gum Shoes. This modern appendage to the dress of the feet is the only means now known of completely protecting them from moisture, and, when judiciously used, is a very valuable article. It is, however, wholly impervious to the egress as well as the ingress of air and moisture, and when applied to the foot for any considerable time at once, the foot becomes overheated, sweaty, and op- pressed, and ultimately, from the accumulation of moist- ure, colder than it would be without their use. Gum shoes should be worn only as a protection against ivater, and as seldom as possible, and only during the shortest period, and never next the foot or stocking, but always over an old shoe or boot, as they are highly injurious to leather. With the present state of public enlightenment upon the laws of life and health, the propriety of condemning in wholesale the entire use of all drugs may be doubted, because there are rare and isolated cases in which well- selected and judiciously administered medicinal agents will effect more good than harm, and may occasionally Value of Drugs. If you would be loved, you must deserve it. 370 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Far-fetched, dear-bought, and of little value is a lady’s bargain. be instrumental in prolonging life; yet the real benefit to be derived from them, even under the most favorable circumstances, is overrated by the masses at least ninety per cent. For even in the few cases where drugs do prove more or less beneficial, as all well know, they only serve as an auxiliary to the sanitary efforts of Nature; and in most, if not all such cases, she would accomplish the same end alone with good nursing and proper die- tetic and hygienic treatment, and thus escape the wounds inflicted upon the constitution by the drugs; for an eminent physician has compared the doctor at the bed- side of his patient to a “ blind man striking in the dark with a club, who is as likely to hit the patient as the disease, in which case it will be fatal to the former.” Medical Experience. “ I never swallow drugs myself, but when sick rely wholly upon the efforts of Nature, aided by well-knowTn and very simple means; and I have rarely known a physician of five years’ active practice who would; and as the profession is now organized and pursued with drugs and drugging nearly universal, and all dietetic and hygienic means nearly obsolete or neglected, I have no doubt but that vastly more lives are annually short- ened, or lost outright by it, than are prolonged or saved ; and in this opinion I am sustained by many of the first physicians in Europe and America.” — J. S. King, M.D. Health of Cities. Celsus says the inhabitants of cities are, to a greater or less extent, all of them invalids; and a writer in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal goes even further, The best throw of dice is to throw them away. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 371 The rat that has hut one hole is soon caught. and says that in civic life every one is more or less dis- eased. These may be somewhat exaggerated statements, yet there can be no doubt but that the stench, dust, im- pure air, stale food, bad water, constant excitement, with errors in diet, dress, and labor and the sensual excesses incident to large towns, have a very active influence in deranging the physical system of all who are long ex- posed to them. And the strongly implanted desire of nearly every one to retire from the city to the country, in middle or advanced life, is of itself instinctive evidence that city life is artificial and unnatural, and the country man’s only natural dwelling place. Tobacco and the Appetite. It has already been elsewhere stated that the use of tobacco blunts the sensibilities of the gustatory nerves and greatly impairs the sense of taste; and we all know that whatever impairs the taste very naturally produces a disrelish for food and injures the appetite ; and that to- bacco users, and especially chewers, are, with rarely an exception, notorious small eaters, is a matter of common knowledge, and hence their general pale, haggard, sal- low, and meagre appearance. But this loss of appetite and diminished alimentation of the tobacco user is not due to any nutriment which the article contains, but to its paralyzing effects upon the nerves of the stomach; for so long as this organ is kept thoroughly poisoned by the tobacco, it cannot be relied upon as a correct guide in the quantity or quality of food or drinks. And it is a well-known fact that criminals confined in our prisons where no tobacco is allowed, who were previously in the use of the article, soon experience a great increase in Cut your coat according to your cloth. 372 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Men learn to shave on the chin of a fool. their appetites, rapidly improve in flesh, and soon be- come full, plump, and vigorous, many of whom, from the previous poisonous effects of the tobacco, had been in a very delicate state of health. Coffee and Digestion. Prof. Schultz, of Berlin, Prussia, in his experiments upon digestion, says: “ Of all fluids, the action of coffee upon the stomach is the worst; for the carbonization of a portion of its oil in the process of roasting not only renders it wholly indigestible, but also all other food taken in the stomach with it. The stimulating proper- ties of the coffee so far increase the peristaltic action of the stomach that its contents are expelled before diges- tion is completed, which has led many into the error that coffee aids digestion; when the fact is, it greatly re- tards and obstructs it, and causes the food to enter the bowels imperfectly digested, and is therefore very likely to produce irritation in these parts.” And this view of the effects of coffee is strongly corroborated by the ex- periments of Dr. Beaumont upon the stomach of St. Martin. Mercury. Calomel, once the “ Samson ” of the materia medica, is now greatly shorn of its glory and dwindled down in use; and there are comparatively few thinking, intelli- gent persons at this day who are willing to submit to its horrible effects. The subjoined is the opinion of a few prominent medical men as to the use and effects of this article : “ Calomel promotes scrofula and glandular diseases, and hastens decomposition.” — Prof. Harrison's Mat. Med., pp. 48 & 49. “ Mercury is not an excitant, If you trust before you try, you will repent before you die. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 373 Get a good name, and you may lie in bed. but a powerful depressor of the energies of life.” “ It irritates the heart and arteries, and invariably depresses the nervous system.” “ It excites the heart’s action or depresses the powers of life, as the case may be.” “ Cal- omel subverts Nature, and demolishes the very pillars of health.” — Prof. Harrison’s Essay. “Mercury pro- duces irritability, and makes the system more suscepti- ble to all impressions. It produces hectic fever, and sometimes operates as a poison.” — Hooper’s Med. Die. “ Mercury has been found in the brain, bones, and blood.” — Dr. Drake, Western Med. Jour. “ Ulceration of the mouth is a well-known effect of calomel; and ul- ceration of the throat is also a consequence of the use of this mineral.” — Dr. Drake’s Prac., p. 589. “ Dr. Al- ley saw forty cases of mercurial rash (eczema mercu- riale), eight of which proved fatal.” — Dr. Drake’s Prac., p. 588. “ Mercury sometimes attacks the bowels and produces violent purging, even to blood; at other times it is suddenly determined to the mouth, producing in- flammation, ulceration, and an excessive flow of saliva.” “ When mercury falls on the mouth, it produces in some constitutions violent inflammation, which ends in morti- fication.” — Cooper’s Burg. Die. “ I gave three grains of blue-mass to a patient, which caused a copious saliva- tion.” — Dr. Bell, p. 140. “ Mercury produces sore, tumid, and ultimately ulcerated gums and swollen, loaded tongue.”—Dr. Harrison, p. 139. “Mercury sometimes produces fatal effects in very small quantities.” — Ib. “ Mercury excites restlessness, anxiety, and a very distressing, irritable state of the whole body. In some it produces delirium, in others palsy and epilepsy.” — Dr. Bell. Train up a crow, and he will pick out your eyes. 374 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED It takes a thief to catch a thief. The Nails. The nails are appendages of the skin, and, like it, re- quire considerable attention to secure a healthy condi- tion of them. They should always be cut with a keen, sharp, thin blade of a pocket-knife once in ten days or two weeks, care being had not to cut them too short, nor break the corners off in cutting through the nail, and always leaving the cut edge as smooth as possible. The practice of cutting nails with scissors, or of biting them off, is a bad one, for it leaves the cut ends rough and split, which is liable to cause the nails to peel off in layers, or to develop an unnatural or morbid growth in the thickness of the end of the nail. When shoes are worn which are too short or too narrow at the toe, the forward growth of the nail is checked, and it spreads out in width and turns down, producing what are called “ inverted nails,” the only permanent cure for which is an ample shoe. Cases sometimes occur in which the nails cease to grow in length, but continue to grow in thickness, often presenting frightful masses of nails; and cases are on record in which the nails were regularly shed, and new ones as regularly appeared. In cleansing the nails, great care is necessary not to injure the flesh, the nail-brush and water being the best means for this purpose. The Scalp. Upon the top or upper part of the head, the oil-tubes instead of opening upon the skin, as in other parts of the body, open into the sacs at the roots of the hairs; so that the scalp in this part of the head often becomes dry, and the scarf-skin curls up in loose flakes, producing Easily acquired, easily spent. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 375 A snappish cur must be tied short. what is called “scurf” or dandruff, which is natural, and cannot be avoided, but may be readily removed by frequent washing with fine white soap and soft tepid water. Sometimes the secretion of the oil glands be- comes hardened or impacted around the roots of the hair, as they issue from the scalp, and this prevents the growth of the hair, and will cause itching, and may be removed by proper ablutions. The use of the hair- brush, carefully applied, removes the oil from the roots of the hair, and spreads it along the whole length of them, giving to the hair that peculiar soft and glossy appearance rarely produced by any artificial means. In the use of the comb and brush, care should be had not to irritate the scalp, for this will induce an unnatural development of dandruff. The uses of the hair are very important upon the head: it protects the brain from blows, and the extremes of temperature; under the arms, and upon those localities which are often brought in contact, it prevents friction and irritation; the eye- brows and eyelashes protect the organ of vision, and the hairs in the nostrils and ears prevent the entrance of insects into those cavities. Woman. The great error of this nation, as regards our females, is that they are regarded more as an inferior, a beautiful piece of workmanship, it is true, but weak and alto- gether dependent. Our modes of education, and the manner in which she is treated by the husband and lover, are all in harmony with this erroneous idea of the sex. Hence she is taught to sing a little, paint a little, dance a little; a little smattering of French, and just When the sea is crossed, the saint is forgotten. 376 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The last drop overflows the cup. enough of history, grammar, and geography to keep up the appearances of an education. No efficient method of training and developing her higher faculties, as a whole, is steadily pursued: she grows up aimless, and at fifteen or sixteen leaves a school of superficial ideas, for society, without any ideas herself, when she becomes the subject of brainless gallantry, until she marries a husband, who, when the fervor of first love has passed off, simply regards her in future as the mother of his children. This is no fiction, but everyday, everywhere fact, and it is the treatment which the women of this republic deserve at our hands. The true idea is that woman was made to be a help meet for man, a co-worker with him, and her education should be conducted in accordance with this idea; her judgment, reasoning powers, and all those faculties which qualify her for ac- tion and business, should be cultivated in her equally as in the boy, and the false idea that she acts from passion, impulse, or instinct forever banished. She should be thrown upon her own resources, and educated to rely upon herself, and her entrance into society postponed until the basis of a solid education has been securely laid. Such a woman would put to shame the senseless fop and coxcomb who thinks woman made only as a toy to be played and trifled with. She would infuse ideas where she found none; she would elevate society; and she would expel from it the man who thinks the shortest road to a woman’s heart is to rival the peacock in finery and the magpie in chatter. Children’s Voracity. Children eat for three purposes, viz., first, to furnish fuel for combustion to keep them warm; secondly, to If you help yourself, Heaven will help you also. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 377 The eyes of the master do more than his hands. provide materials to replenish the waste of the body; and, thirdly, to supply materials for the growth and in- crease of the body; and hence there need be no mys- tery that they are always hungry, always eating, and rarely or never satisfied, especially if active and healthy. But when arrived at mature age, one demand for food, growth, ceases, and how changed this greedy craving for food! and this is a wise hint from nature; for if this gormandizing of children was continued in adult age, mankind on an average would not live out half their days. The adult eats only for two objects — to keep up the heat of the body and supply the waste—and every mouthful taken beyond this is just as sure to engender disease in any one, every one, anywhere and everywhere, as the flow of time continues; and the great secret in the matter of diet is to adapt the food in sort and quantity to the age and condition of the subject; for that dietetic course ■which would be indispensable to the condition of one, would, owing to a difference in circumstances, prove ruin- ous to another. In summer, the radiation of heat from the body is slow, and we are less active than in winter, and less food is required; and to attempt to force the appetite up to the winter standard of activity is only making a forced march toward the grave; for this extra material is not needed, cannot long be worked off by the system, and must stagnate, or collect, and produce over- fulness or congestion of various parts or organs. Con- gestion of the brain causes us to feel dull, drowsy, and inactive; congestion of the stomach, oppression, and loss of apjietite, and congestion or overtaxing the liver, induce nausea, sick-headache, diarrhoeas, dysenteries, and fevers. The brute, true to his instincts, is not trou- Where there is a will there is a way. 378 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Beauty is potent; money, omnipotent. bled with congestions, fevers, etc., caused by over-ali- mentation, but man overpowers his instincts, makes a slave of himself to his appetite, and perishes by millions. Wonders of the Potato. Dr. Jolin M. Andrews, of Remsen,- Oneida County, New York, who subsisted several years on the potato alone, with salt and water, says, “ My friends have often said my potato and water diet would not stand the test of hard labor; but I have silenced all their clamor by actual demonstration, and cannot find a man to vie with me in the field, either with the axe, scythe, or fork, for on potatoes, water, and salt alone, I am able to cut four cords of wood daily, without any extra effort.” We would not of course recommend a diet exclusively of potatoes and salt, yet we have no objection that the world should know that this simple root alone is ample to sustain life unimpaired, and probably better without than with the salt. The potato contains about twenty- five per cent, of nutriment, and when of a good quality, and well prepared, is unquestionably one of the very best articles of food in use. That the Irish peasantry live almost exclusively upon potatoes and buttermilk is well known, and their wire, or elasticity, and powers of endurance, are proverbial. And if the potato alone, the simplest and cheapest of all the vegetables, is fully ade- quate to sustain the highest degree of health and life in man, even under the most severe physical effort, what a lesson, what a living commentary is this upon the folly and stupidity of the millions who are stultifying their brains, besotting their bodies, wasting their means, and curtailing their lives by the habitual use of flesh meats, Where there is much smoke, there must be some fire. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 379 Ready money is a ready remedy. pastry, rich condiments, and the poison drug slops tea and coffee! Diseased Livers. Any one who will spend fifteen minutes in examining the livers of our stall-fed beeves and pen-fed swine will find ample evidence that nearly all of them are more or less diseased, and therefore the flesh of the animals in the same condition. A healthy liver is soft, uniform in color, and homogeneous in texture; whereas the livers of nearly all stall-fed animals, from the beef down to the dung-hill fowl, will be found to have white or yellowish spots upon the surface or imbedded in the substance, par- tially hardened or scirrhous spots interspersed through them, with tough, fibrous, and more or less stringy structures all through them. And a Western medical professor says that the livers of nearly all animals fat- tened in that part of the country are found to contain a species of very small living creature, greatly resem- bling a leech or bloodsucker. Nor can this diseased condition be expected to be otherwise so long as the animal is wrested from his natural state, and all the laws of his existence perverted; and this unavoidable morbid condition of the bodies of all domesticated stall- or pen- fed animals should be an all-sufficient reason for totally rejecting their flesh as the food of man. Sourees of Disease. The sources of disease or physical abuses which tend to impair health, curtail existence, and render man wretched, are, in detail, very numerous, but for the sake of convenience may he arranged under six general heads, viz., errors in food, drinks, clothing, exercise, cleanli- Between two brothers, have two witnesses and a notary. 380 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When flatterers meet, Satan goes to dinner. ness, and excessive venery — the first two being far more destructive of life and health than all the others; for it is unquestionably true that “ more commit suicide with the knife and fork than by all other means combined.” Excess of Food. It is a generally conceded fact among physiologists and health writers, that a very small excess of food habitually or daily taken, beyond the wants of the body, will sooner or later prove highly detrimental to the or- ganism, because it cannot be appropriated to the use of the system, and must be eliminated or cast out at the expense of the vital powers; and hence is a direct tax upon the system just in proportion to the excess. And when we call to mind the admitted fact, that mankind on an average consumes one-third more food than nature demands, need we be surprised that our days are dwindled down to thirty-three years, on an average, instead of threescore years and ten ? So far as the quantity of food is concerned, we should never know that we have a stomach from the presence of food in it, nor should we, unless we eat too much or improper food. Warming the Feet. The usual practice of heating and toasting the feet by the fire is a very injurious one, and ultimately lias the effect to defeat the very object intended. The warmth of the feet, like all other parts of the body, can only be maintained by a healthy and vigorous circulation of the blood to the part; and frequent heating of the feet has the effect to produce an extra flow of blood for a time, which is speedily followed by a corresponding diminu- A wrinkled purse makes a wrinkled face. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 381 An ass that carries is better than a horse that throws. tion in the circulation to the feet, and consequent cold- ness ; so that, on the whole, nothing is gained, but rather lost by the heating. Simple food, early hours, exercise in the open air, freedom from all bandages and compression, loose shoes, abstinence from narcotics, and the thorough application of cold water and crash towels, will be found the only 'permanent remedy for cold feet. Money and Health. Pecuniary prosperity in life has a marked effect upon the health and social feeling of an individual, which can be readily detected in almost any case. Of any two men of equal mind and muscle, the one prosperous in business and growing in means, and the other followed up by a series of reverses and straitened for means, the former will be active, buoyant, cheerful, and all his intellectual and social faculties on the qui vive; while the reverse of these qualities will easily be discovered in the other. Nor does the effect of prosperity in busi- ness cease here, but tells also upon the health of the in- dividual ; for while success proves a general elixir or stimulant to every faculty of man, and greatly favors health and longevity, a life of reverses and disappoint- ments has the opposite effect, and, in a vast majority of cases, especially in persons of naturally high spirits and ambition, shortens life; and this is strikingly illustrated by statistical reports in France, which show that those who are successful in business and accumulate a compe- tence, live, on an average, twelve years longer than those who are unsuccessful. The acquisition of property, there- fore, by honorable means, is not only just and proper, but a high and imperious duty which devolves upon all, Before you make a friend, eat a peck of salt with him. 382 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. The more men, the more minds. involving, to a greater or less extent, health and lon- gevity. Consumption. “ Gently, most gently on the victim’s head, Consumption, lay thy hand — let me decay, Like the expiring lamp, unseen away, And softly go to slumber with the dead. And if ’tis true what holy men have said, That strains angelic oft foretell the day Of death to those good men who fall thy prey, 0 let the aerial music round my bed, Dissolving sad, in dying symphony, Whisper the solemn warning in my ear, That I may bid my weeping friends good-by Ere I depart upon my journey drear, And smiling faintly on the painful past, Compose my decent head and breathe my last.” Kirke White. Spontaneous Combustion of a Drunkard. It will be nothing new to state that old, confirmed sots, whose systems are saturated with alcohol, some- times take fire spontaneously, from a union of the oxy- gen of the air with exhalations from the body, which are mostly carbonaceous and hydrogenous ; and such cases usually prove fatal. The celebrated Dr. Trotter, of Scotland, gives the following account of a case of this sort which occurred in his own practice. He says: “It was the case of a young man, twenty-five years of age, who had for many years been a hard drinker. I saw him about nine o’clock in the evening on which it hap- pened, and he was not then drunk, but, as usual, full of liquor. About eleven on the same evening, I was called to see him, and found him literally roasting from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head. He was found in a blacksmith shop, just across the wray, where he had A cow must lose her tail before she knows its value. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 383 The better the day the better the deed. been, as afterward ascertained, for over an hour. The owner of the shop all at once discovered a great light in the building, as though it were in one general flame, and ran with great haste, and, on throwing open the door, discovered a man standing erect in the midst of a widely extended silver-colored flame. He seized him by the shoulders and jerked him to the door, when the flame was instantly extinguished. There was no fire in the shop, nor any possible means by which fire could have been communicated to him from any external source, and everything showed plainly that it wTas a case of spontaneous combustion. A general sloughing came on, and his flesh was removed in the dressing, leaving the bones and some of the larger blood-vessels standing naked and exposed. The blood, however, rallied around the heart, and maintained the vital spark until the thirteenth day, when he died, not only the most noisome and horrible picture ever presented to human eyes, but the cries, shrieks, and doleful lamentations were enough to rend the heart of adamant. He complained of no pain of body, for his flesh was all gone, but said he was suffering the torments of hell — was just upon its thresh- old, and should soon enter its gloomy environs; and in this form gave up the ghost.” Youthful Training. The way in which many, if not the majority, of the youth of this country at this day, especially females, are trained up, is utterly ruinous to every prospect of health, longevity, or success in life. A well developed intellect is highly promotive of health and vigor of mind and body, while few things are more deadly hostile to it than Every man can tame a shrew but he who has her. 384 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Before you marry, have a house wherein to tarry. that superficial, romantic, imaginative training which now prevails to such an alarming extent in the so-called fashionable world. Put a novel into the hands of a girl of fifteen, and, unless she possess a mind more than ordinarily sound and analyzing, you will in all proba- bility follow her to the lunatic asylum or the grave be- fore she is thirty. Let her neglect household duties and thorough scholastic training — let her learn to look upon mental effort as a task and domestic duties as de- grading drudgery — let her evenings be spent in novel reading, theatres, and parties — her mornings in bed — her precious noonday hours in sauntering about the streets, visiting confectionery shops, admiring the latest fashions in the windows and upon the counters — let her have a little French, and an apology for a few pieces upon the piano, one or two pencil-sketched pretensions, a polished, fashionable curtesy, a graceful dance, with vanity and imagination enormously developed — let her feel the inglorious wear and tear of love, rivalry, jeal- ousy and envy — let her heart and all her thoughts be absorbed in parties, dress, beaux, and marriage — in fine, let her possess much that might be useful if rightly used, and be totally destitute of all and everything which constitutes the genuine woman and fits her for a useful life, and one of three things is quite certain: first, and most likely, an early grave; secondly, a miserable, faded, dried-up thing without beauty, wit, or soul to wTin a husband at thirty; or, what is worse than either, an ut- terly useless existence prolonged to punish some simple, unfortunate man for having so far violated his own common sense as to have married such a noodle of a thing for a wife. A hypocrite pays tribute to God that he may impose on men HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 385 Naked walls make gadding housewives. Order or System. Somebody has said, “Order is heaven’s first law;” and somebody else, that the “Man of order has made half his way to virtue,” and nothing can be plainer or nearer the truth; for system in anything and every- thing saves time, money, temper, and patience, and ena- bles one to accomplish the most in the best manner and least time. To the unsystematic and careless, this care and attention necessary to insure order may at first seem troublesome and annoying, but a little practice will soon convince such that right is better than wrong, and that acting by rules is better than living by guess or at ran- dom. And one should not be content with order ap- plied to the important things of life,, but extend it to everything, even the most minute trifles; for that which is not worth keeping in the best of order, is not worth having at all, and should be discarded. Systematic men are the reliable men — the men who accomplish the most — the men who rule and leave their impress upon the world, and produce the great works of mankind. And not only be orderly yourself, but enforce it with all vigi- lance upon your children from five years upward; give to each a drawer, a trunk, or a room in which to keep their things, and see that they are all arranged in the very neatest order, as an example, and often examine and encourage them to imitate it; for in this way you will cultivate in the child a love of order and method which will bless the child, doubly bless it when a parent, extend the blessings to the end of life, and hand it down as a rich legacy to the next generation. A single dis- orderly individual in any family is not only a nuisance, Crooked wood makes an even fire. 386 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Sweet in the mouth is often bitter in the stomach. but an actual curse to all the rest, and will often do more to disarrange and put out of place than all the other members can do in putting in order. And a wife who always has a place for everything and keeps everything in its place, is the choicest treasure of a man’s life; while one who never knows where anything is, and when found is more or less soiled, rumpled, crumpled, disar- ranged, broken, or out of order, such a wife is a misno- mer, and a reproach to the one she calls her mother. Washing the Hair. Many seem to doubt the propriety of cleansing the hair like any other part of the body, but these doubts are wholly groundless; for all parts of the body which become soiled should be regularly cleansed; and the scalp and hair are almost constantly exposed to soilure, and cannot long retain health without regular ablutions. In civic life, as the free access of pure air is excluded from the head by the close-fitting hat of the gentleman, and the twisting and tying up of the hair by ladies, the pores of the scalp soon become obstructed, the nerves debilitated, and premature blanching and falling out will be the consequence; and a thorough application of soap and water once a week, followed by free rubbing with a towel and rapid drying has, to a very great de- gree, the effect to counteract these evils, and preserve the scalp and hair in a healthy condition. Grecian Women. During the early years of Athens, the Greek women were noted for health, beauty, bravery, and devotion to domestic duties and the rearing of their children; but in the progressive advancement of Athens in manners, A good man is worth more than a golden girdle. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 387 A spur in the head is worth two in the heel. wealth, and refinement, greater indulgences were allowed to the females; and then they spent much time at the toilet, with the use of paints and cosmetics, in the vain hope of adding to their personal charms; and an emi- nent writer, familiar with Greek history, states that “ from the moment the Grecian females abandoned their primitive simplicity of diet and domestic duties, they rapidly declined in innocence, virtue, health, and beauty; ” and we think the same remark will apply with equal force to the women of the American republic. The Curses of Rum. It is estimated that 150,000 individuals i the United States, above the age of twenty, annually die wematurely from the effects of alcoholic liquors alone ', and if this number were temperate, and only lived ten years longer, on an average, and could only earn $1,000 each in the ten years, there would then be a total national loss in dollars and cents of $150,000,000, saying nothing of the loss of life and existence, to which all have an equal right. But this is not all the loss; for the drunkard is often a nuisance and a public burden years before he dies, and is not only dead to society, but clings to it like a gangrenous excrescence, poisoning and eating away the morals and life of the community. Fully three-fourths of all the crime and pauperism of the land are due pri- marily to the use of alcoholic liquors ; and the annual expense imposed upon the people of the United States for strong drinks, as elsewhere stated, is estimated to equal $480,000,000. And yet the great mass of the American people who are temperate, tamely submit to this enormous loss in money, life, and morals for lack A faithful friend is medicine for life. 388 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. The crime, not the scaffold, constitutes the shame. of fortitude to rise up and assign to alcoholic liquors their proper sphere — the arts and sciences. The Great Book. A famous German doctor, as the story runs, who had become so from his real or imaginary cures, gave out notice, some years before his death, that he would leave a manuscript volume at his decease, which should con- tain all his practice, knowledge, experiments, and learned research, and that the same should be sold at public auction, for the benefit of his wife and children. In due course of time the doctor died, and notice was pub- licly given of the time, place, and sale of the wondrous volume. The auction went on rapidly, and the precious treasure, finely wrapped, and the bandages on the en- velope duly sealed with bright red sealing-wax, was fairly and finally bought by a wealthy nobleman, who was de- termined that so valuable a book should not go out of the country which produced it. The nobleman then retired to the innermost recesses of his private cabinet, to read with dear-bought delight the contents of this wonderful product of medical wisdom. He broke the seals, and removed many fine-tinted wrappers, until he came to the book itself, in appearance very much like that of a young lady’s album, those pretty repositories of love and nonsense. He opened the delicate lily- white pages with gilt edges, beautifully bound in beau- tiful Turkey morocco, but found them not written on, and the blank, like the heads of most young men, yet to be filled up. Still, as he had paid his money, he hoped for wisdom, and continued to turn over the blank pages until he came to the following words, which ought to A smiling face is not always a proof of a happy heart. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 389 The largest horse is not always the best traveller. be indelibly written upon the heart and mind of every human being capable of comprehending them. “Keep the feet dry, the shin clean, the head cool, the stomach unoppressed, and a fig for the doctors.” Here, then, was the quintessence of medical science, skill, and wisdom, rectified and refined from the grosser particles of dross and learned dust, and reduced and simplified to its lowest possible terms, like the library of the Chinese Emperor, from fifteen thousand volumes of manuscript to one plain palm-leaf of wisdom and learning. Marrying Young. A precocious desire to marry, although sometimes caused by physical and moral training, is more fre- quently the result of inherited influences ; for the mother who marries young from desire, is almost certain to have daughters of like proclivities; and this propensity will grow and strengthen with each generation, until ulti- mately they will, as in some hot climates, marry at ten or twelve years of age. And as to the effect of early mar- riage upon health and longevity, it is no longer a matter of doubt or question, but a well established fact, that, other things being equal, those who marry the youngest are the shortest-lived. And what a sorrowful sight to see a young blooming girl of eighteen, of ample means and a happy home, entering into matrimony as though in haste to escape the dear parental roof of her childhood and youth — in haste to cut short her mental culture, and nip all improvement in the bud — in haste to cut off all prospect of ever rising in the scale of being higher than she then is — in haste to escape the dreadful peril and odium of being an “old maid,” for the ten times greater One plough is better than two cradles. 390 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Where the carcass is, there will the crows be gathered. peril of becoming an old wife when young, or a victim to an early grave. For marriage, to a vast majority of young American women, is little else than legal sui- cide, and our native-born girls ought to know and re- alize this fearful fact. Decision of Character. What is humanity without this quality? A mere good-natured nobody, nothing — always ready to assent to anything, as soon to wrong as right, like the judge who always decided the case by the closing speech, for want of decision to canvass and analyze all the facts and evidence presented. Such a man, wherever found, is a mere blank, and neither respects himself nor is respected by any one else. Whatever other qualities one may possess, this one is indispensable to success in business transactions of life, and imparts to the individual who possesses it a confidence from all who know him which he can never secure without it. First know that you are right, then plant the foot firmly upon the rock of justice, and in spite of money, favor, beauty, love, storm, tempest, the mob, or the devil, never move it, and both you and all who know you will esteem you the higher for it. And this decision of character is also one of the greatest safe- guards against misfortunes; for thousands of business men and beautiful virtuous females have been ruined for life, from an inability to pronounce at the right moment the little monosyllable no. And still more: this is a great time-saving quality; for your children, servants, wife, employes, and even the street and door beggar, and all others, have instinctively learned to read the meaning of the “ thin compressed lip,” and know well that it is use- The hermit thinks the sun shines only in his cell. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 391 Pleasing ware is half sold. less to knock at the door after refusal; and all prize you for it, as it saves not only your time but that of others, repeated importunity being known to be use- less with such a man. We say, then, secure this quality at all hazards, and if you are now deficient in it, begin at once and cultivate it, for your all for life not unfre- quently depends wholly upon this one quality. Consumption of Coffee. The “ Library of Health,” published in Boston, states that during the seventeen years ending with the year 1838, the consumption of coffee in the United States had increased one hundred per cent., while the population had increased only about thirty-three per cent. Origin of Genius. Columbus was the son of a weaver, and a weaver him- self. Rabelais, the famed French physician and wit, was the son of an apothecary. Claude Lorraine was brought up a pastry cook. Moliere, the great French comic writer, was the son of a tapestry maker. Cer- ventes served as a common soldier. Homer was a beg- gar. Hesiod was the son of a small farmer. Demos- thenes, of a cutler. Torence, the Latin comic writer, was a slave. Oliver Cromwell was the son of a brewer. Howard, the philanthropist, was an apprentice to a grocer. Benjamin Franklin, the son of a tallow chand- ler. Dr. Bishop, of Worcester, son of a linen draper. De Foe, the great English political writer, was the son of a butcher. Whitefield was the son of an innkeeper at Gloucester. Cardinal Wolsey, the son of a butcher. Ferguson was a shepherd. Virgil was the son of a por- ter. Bhakspeare, of a wool dealer. Horace, of a shop- Kindness will creep in where it cannot run in. 392 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Imprison your tongue, and you will go free. keeper. Lucian, of a stationer. Hogarth, an apprentice to an engraver. Dean Tucker, of a small farmer, and came to Oxford on foot. Bishop Prideaux worked in a kitchen at Exeter College. Edmund Halley was the son of a soap-boiler. Life Miscellanies. Cold water is generally used in diseases or debility of the eyes; but warm, tepid, or quite as hot as can be borne, will be found to be greatly superior. — It is stated that something over $480,000,000 are annually paid out in the United States for drinks; that one in every one hundred of the male population is a confirmed drunk- ard; and that one-third of the male population is mod- erate drinkers. — A pleasant, cheerful wife is a rainbow set in the sky, when her husband’s mind is tossed with the storms and tempests of life; but a dissatisfied, peev- ish, querulous wife in the hour of trouble, care, and per- plexity is like one of those fiends who delight in tor- turing lost spirits. — Sir Walter Raleigh once being insulted by a witless young man whom he did not heed, the fellow spit in his face, and that, too, in public; whereupon the knight, taking out his handkerchief, with great calmness said: “ Young man, if I could as easily wipe your blood from my conscience as I can this insult from my face, I would this minute take your life.” — There is a singular vigor of mind as well as of body in those men who have been placed out of the reach of luxury and corruption by their poor or obscure condi- tion in life. — It is worthy of all remembrance, that in cases of poisoning from an overdose of laudanum, vine- gar has been found a very prompt and efficient antidote; If you attempt to please everybody, you will fail to please anybody. 393 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. and it is the more valuable on account of its simplicity, safety, and nearly always being at hand. — Dr. W. A. Alcott, of Boston, subsisted one entire year without tak- ing any drinks of any sort whatever, excepting what was taken combined with his ordinary food ; and not- withstanding he labored severely in the hay and harvest fields, he suffered no permanent inconvenience from it, and at the end of the year was in his usual state of health. — A learned doctor has given it as his opinion mat corset-lacing is a great public benefit; for it speed- ily kills off all the foolish girls, and leaves those who have common sense to grow up and become women. — St. Pierre, in his “ Studies of Nature,” says : “ The na- tions that subsist on vegetable food are, of all men, the handsomest, the most robust, the least exposed to disease and violent passions, and attain the greatest longevity.” — Opposite marriage is the great point in physical cul- ture: the city should wed the country—the north, the south —the sea-coast, the interior — the plains, the high- lands — the tall, the short — the lymphatic, the nervous, &c.; for the culture of the physical man is the only rational ground for moral and intellectual culture.— Old Dr. Hunt, of England, used to say, when he was in doubt as to the disease of a patient, “We will try this, or we will try that; we will shoot into the tree, and see what falls.” “ Aye,” said a wag ; “ I fear that is too commonly the case with physicians, and in your random shooting into the tree, the patient is the first being that falls.” In extreme hot weather the air is more or less loaded with moisture and impurities, and the exhalations are Light and Air. New circumstances, new counsel. 394 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Going out of a tavern is the best part of a journey. not removed from the body as rapidly as in a dry, pure air; and this is the main reason why so much languor and depression are experienced during the mornings in the months of July and August. Bat as soon as the solar rays have dissipated the fog, moisture, and impu- rities of the air, we are at once relieved from these un- pleasant sensations; and hence the necessity that all apartments used during the night should be thoroughly ventilated during the day by opening opposite windows, and allowing a free circulation through them during the best portion of each day. And an abundance of light also is of equal importance as air; for it has been found that blood will be purer and of a brighter scarlet color when the body is exposed to constant sunlight than when it is enshrouded in darkness. Dark and damp apartments, therefore, especially cellars and cellar- kitchens, should, as far as possible, be avoided, as excit- ing a baneful influence upon the health of both mind and body. Resisting Disease. Some medical writer has said that if man had not been the toughest animal upon the earth, the race would long since have become extinct; and, to say the least of it, the power of the human body to resist disease, and the effects of morbific agents, is really wonderful. How very few there are who in the course of life do not abuse their health in a thousand ways in a most shameful manner, and yet with apparent impunity! Who can form any correct idea what his health would now be, if he had steadily promoted it, instead of abusing it? There is scarcely a day or an hour in which we do not commit some bold and wicked depredation upon our On a long journey and in a small inn, one knows his companions. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 395 Proud and self-conceited ignorance is intolerable. health and constitution, and yet, after years of such abuses, some of us appear to still enjoy a tolerably com- fortable state of health. We neglect to exercise — ex- ercise too much and too violently — breathe close, pent- up, poisonous atmosphere — sleep in close, small rooms on feather beds — eat too much or too little, or improper food — overtask or neglect the mind — sit or stand in improper positions — neglect personal cleanliness — dress too lightly, too heavily, or too tightly — poison ourselves with alcohol, opium, tea, coffee, or tobacco — take poisonous drugs under the pretext of curing dis- ease — turn day into night, and night into day, and a score or two of similar abuses, and still some of us hold out to great age. And if, under all the most aggra- vated and constantly repeated abuses, we still live to the age we do, what might have been the extent of our ex- istence had our habits all been in obedience to the laws of life? It is said that every living thing, excepting man and the tobacco-worm, loathes the Indian weed; and the following from Dr. John Burdell, of New York, seems to corroborate that idea. The doctor mentions a case in which two cot-bedsteads stood contiguously, the one occupied by a tobacco user, and the other by an anti- tobacconist. On retiring, the latter complained that he was being devoured by fleas and bedbugs, while the other sneeringly laughed at him, and replied that he was “ never troubled with any such company.” The next night they mutually agreed to exchange cots, which being done, the condition of each was found to Bedbugs and Tobacco. A good pie needs no condiments. 396 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. We are easier hurt than healed. be the same as before; and this exchange being made several times with the same result, and an examination being had, it was found that the cot occupied by the tobacco user was always free from vermin, while the other was uniformly infested with fleas and bedbugs. And in addition to the evidence of the universal loath- someness of this article to all the brute creation, it is stated by the American officers engaged in the Mexican War, that of the slain who were not buried, but left upon the battle-field, the bodies of those who had never used tobacco would first be completely devoured before those who had used it would be touched. Cooling Water. If, on the hottest days of summer, an ordinary pitcher be closely surrounded with three or four thicknesses of coarse cotton cloth, and the cloth be kept constantly wet, the evaporation of the water from the cloth will carry off with it the caloric from the pitcher so rapidly as to reduce the temperature almost to the freezing point. The most convenient method is, for practical use, to have two pitchers — one for a cooler, and one for use. Rum and Gluttony. The celebrated Prof. Caldwell says, “For every reel- ing drunkard that disgraces our streets, there are one hundred gluttons : I mean persons who eat to excess, and suffer by the practice.” Now it has been elsewhere shown that, estimating the population of the United States at forty millions, which is believed to be very nearly cor- rect, we now have two hundred thousand sots or con- firmed drunkards; and one hundred times this, according to Prof. Caldwell, gives us twenty millions of gluttons, One story is good till another is told. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 397 He who would catch fish must wet his feet. or one-half the entire population, “ who eat to excess, and suffer from the practice; ” which is doubtless greatly below the fact, for, in the opinion of the writer, there is not one individual in twenty, on an average, who does not come within the description of Prof. Caldwell. Valuable Advice. Never prostrate the system by over-exercise — never wear much clothing while engaged in active labor — never wear so much clothing as to keep up a perspira- tion when not exercising — never cease active exercise suddenly, when in a high state of perspiration, but con- tinue it gradually until cooled off—never sit down in a cool current of air when in a perspiration — never attempt to dry wet clothes upon the body, but change them at once for dry ones, and heat up and restore the circulation — in the ordinary practice of bathing or “ going in swimming,” if you are in a perspiration when you reach the water, never wait to “ cool off,” but plunge in at once, while you are full of heat; but be sure not to remain in too long, until you become chilly or the surface livid. Nose-Bleed. M. Negrier, of Paris, states that bleeding from the nose may be checked by simply raising the arm perpen- dicularly on the same side as that of the nostril from which the blood flows; and as the remedy can easily be tested, it is worth trying. Dignity. What can be more disagreeable or repulsive than what the world calls a dignified man—one whose intense vanity, interminable egotism, makes him almost inacces- Plough or not, the rent must be paid. 398 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. An ass in a lion’s skin can be detected without glasses. sible. Such a precious piece of mortality is very much like a hedge-hog ; approach him in the best way you can, and the bristling quills of self-conceit stand out in such bold relief that you are sure to get your fingers pricked, even if you offer him food. Hereditary Taints Counteracted. It lias more than once been intimated in this work, that there was no necessity for sickness and suffering among mankind, excepting from unavoidable accidents, and hereditary taints or congenital defects; and that in case of hereditary taints the individual could do much to mitigate and lessen his own sufferings, and almost wholly remove such taints from his progeny; and we have the strongest practical proof of the truth of this doctrine in the person of the present Queen of England. It is generally known to the intelligent that by repeated intermarriages with blood relations for several genera- tions, without due regard to temperament or physical adaptation of the parties, the Guelph family, of which Queen Victoria is a member, had become very seriously impregnated with scrofula; so much so that the present queen, fully conscious of her condition, refused to nurse her own children; yet she is now past fifty, apparently quite a healthy woman, and the mother of a large family of robust, healthy children. This, to say the least, is highly creditable to the queen, and exhibits much forethought and sagacity on her part, and has been effected by very simple means well, timely, and steadily applied. On the part of her children, it has been accomplished by a rigid course of early rising, simple diet, dancing, fencing, gymnastics, riding, walk- A goose-quill may do more harm than a lion’s claw. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 399 A wise man may be silly in a fool’s company. mg, laboring in laboratory, carpenter shop, and garden; all of course well arranged, guided, and supervised by skill and science. And the same means adopted among the masses, even in the most simple form, wholly within their power, would prevent an untold amount of suffer- ing arising from hereditary disease, and greatly prolong the lives of millions. Feet Dress. Dr. Hall says: “ Shoes are better than boots for all ordinary or everyday use, as they allow the bad odors of the foot to escape, while they strengthen the ankles by accustoming them to depend upon themselves; for a very slight accident is sufficient to cause the dislocation or sprain of an ankle if boots or high shoes are worn. Besides, a shoe compresses the foot less, and allows a more vigorous circulation of the blood.” And it may further be added on this point, that since the present most clumsy, unnatural and unsightly custom of high shoes has prevailed among females, there have been more weak, sprained, and dislocated ankles than for half a century before; but fools must patronize fool Fashion. Baths. Warm water baths are designated according to the temperature of the water when used. When the tem- perature does not exceed 75 degrees, it is denominated a cold bath ; from 75 to 85, a temperate bath; from 85 to 95, a tepid bath; 95 to 98, a warm bath; and 98 to 105, a hot bath. The length of time during which a cold bath may be applied varies from two to ten min- utes ; a temperate bath, five to fifteen minutes; and a A thousand probabilities make not one fact. 400 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A poor man’s debt makes a great noise. tepid or warm bath, fifteen to thirty minutes, or at the pleasure of the bather. So important was the use of the bath deemed by the ancients, that it was dedicated by them to the gods of medicine, strength, wisdom, and health — viz., iEsculapius, Hercules, Minerva, and Hygeia. Action of Soap. Soap is composed of an alkali, as soda, potash, etc., and some sort of oil, fat, or grease, the alkali being in excess; and when applied to the skin in ordinary ablu- tions, one portion of the excess of the alkali combines with the oleaginous matter upon the skin, by which the latter is removed, and another portion softens and com- bines with the superficial, useless layer of the cuticle, (the scarf-skin), and when this is removed, the skin is left free, clean, and unobstructed. Saying nothing of comfort, a clean skin contributes directly to health in several ways. First, it gives the oxygen of the air a free access to permeate it and combine with the carbon of the veinous blood, which circulates all over the sur- face of the body, by which the blood is not only puri- fied, but heat evolved, which aids in keeping up the temperature of the body; secondly, a film or coating of filth upon the surface affords a ready lodgment for mi- asmatic or infectious matters, and thus endangers health ; and, thirdly, the exhaled matter upon the surface, if allowed to remain long, is liable to be absorbed into the system, producing irritations and cutaneous diseases. If soap be applied too frequently or too strongly to the skin, as is sometimes the case with squeamish and over- nice individuals, the outer layer of the scarf-skin will be A bad word costs as much as a good one. 401 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Evil is to him who evil thinks. removed too rapidly, causing the surface to become un- necessarily sensitive by exposing the cutaneous nerves to friction from the apparel. Sorts of Cheese. New milk cheese, in case it has escaped decomposition and vermification — the fate of most old, rich cheese — is easier of digestion and much more nutritious than skim milk cheese; but if either has reached the rotting or putrescent point, or has become infested with vermin, it is no more fit for food than putrid meat, or any other food in an advanced state of putrefaction. Sorts of Meat. The flesh of a healthy swine, moderately fattened on clean, healthy food, in a dry field, with running water through it, and a clean place to eat and sleep, is doubt- less just as healthy food as that of any other domesti- cated creature; but as the animal is now generally treated, especially in this country, its flesh is dangerous, and wholly unfit for the food of man; and this fact is rapidly becoming patent all over the land. The beef or ox, although not yet as much deteriorated by domestica- tion as the swine, is very rapidly becoming so ; and at best its flesh is tough and difficult of digestion, and only fit for the food of the most hardy and laborious. As the sheep is by nature and practice a very cleanly and exceedingly fastidious animal in the selection of its food, and more difficult to deteriorate by domestication than any other animal — and as its flesh is highly nutritious, tender, and easy of digestion, as is also that of the deer— mutton and venison are undoubtedly, all things can- Wise men correct their faults by those of others. 402 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Fortune knocks once, at least, at every man’s door. vassed, the best and most wholesome flesh in use. As for fowls in general, their flesh is naturally very hard and tough, and the fibre compact and difficult of diges- tion, and, when pen-fed, are just as likely to become diseased as quadrupeds; and, therefore, their flesh'is highly objectionable as food, excepting for the most hardy and vigorous stomachs. Timber. The most enduring sorts of timber are chestnut, cedar, and locust; and they decay in the order here mentioned, chestnut first, cedar next, and locust last. The best time for cutting timber, with a view to its durability, is in August or February; because in August the summer growth is mature and firm, and the fibre perfect, and in February the circulation has been suspended for months, and all the elements are still present. Prof. J. P. Harrison, in his treatise on Therapeutics, page 182, has the following on the use of opiates and anodynes on children. “ They stupefy for a time, and force the child into an unconscious sleep.” “They enhance nervousness.” “ If the brain is affected, they increase the disease.” “ Inflammation of the stomach and bowels will be made worse by an opiate, perhaps incurably worse.” “ They are hurtful, because contrary to nature.” “ Paregoric, Bateman’s Drops, laudanum, etc., lay the foundation for head complaints, such as in- flammations, convulsions, dropsy of the brain, etc.” “ A small dose of paregoric will often produce fits in small children.” “ The intellect of the child will always be impaired by the use of opiates, although years may Opiates. Few, comparatively, live long; fewer still, well. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 403 Humble wedlock is more honorable than proud virginity. elapse after the use is abandoned.” “ A permanent ill- condition of the nervous system is produced in children by the use of opiates, which is never wholly got rid of in after life; and we doubt not a tendency to insanity is thus inaugurated.” “ Such children pass through the process of teething badly.” “ The stamina of the con- stitution is broken by opiates, the stomach and bowels lose their tone, and cholera infantum or summer com- plaint fastens upon them.” What a warning this to thoughtless mothers and ignorant nurses, from an eminent medical author, against the use of opiates and anodynes in the management of children! Improving the Race. “ How can it be expected that our children should have a strong hold on life when their mothers have so feeble a hold on it? A stream cannot rise above its fountain, and weak mothers must and will bring forth weak chil- dren with feeble constitutions; and when we add to this downward tendency the artificial, unnatural training and education which they get, what can be expected but the early death of the children as well as the mothers them- selves? The idea seems to be very general, that though the mother be weak and frail, and in declining health, from her parents, if the father be hale and vigorous, the progeny will be strong, sound, and healthy. But this is wholly a mistake — a great fallacy — and one that is fraught with the saddest and most ruinous consequences to millions; for the truth is the law of improvement works not through the father, but uniformly through the mother, whatever may be the improvement sought, whether physical, moral, intellectual, or all combined; It is a good horse that never stumbles. 404 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. If others fear you, you have reason to fear yourself. and this not only in man, but in all animals having back-bones and lungs. And he who would make phys- ical improvement with animals or with the animal part of man, whatever change may be desired, must first work through the female to male, and from the male back again to the female of the next generation, and so on. To attempt physical improvement through the male, is to deteriorate the progeny, and ultimately bring the race, man or brute, to destruction. And just this pro- cess improvement through the male line has been at work among the Anglo-Americans of New England for two hundred years, operating directly through the male, but indirectly and, for the most part, inefficiently through the female. As a general thing, the men of New England, in the choice of wives, have consulted their fancies instead of the laws of life; and their women thus wedded have had no choice but to consent, or run the risk of living single. And out of this has grown a very vicious taste, as well as a very bad habit on the part of the men, that of preferring delicate, slim, slender, loosely-made women for wives, who either never had any health, or, if they did, very little powers of endurance; and who in bearing children have steadily, generation after genera- tion, deteriorated them, until at last the New Eng- lander of pure blood, who still makes his native place his residence, is noted for his sharpness or angularity of make rather than for his roundness or plumpness; for his thinness and spareness rather than for his fulness of habit; for his nerves more than for his muscles ; for his intellectual acumen more than his bodily vigor; and for being the representative of a race, a whole genera- tion of which dies in 28'5 years; whose women, when He can never speak well who can never hold his tongue. 405 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. To dishonor your wife is to disgrace yourself. married, do not average more than three children, one- half of which die before they reach the age of five years. It therefore requires no prophet to foretell that at no very distant day, no interference being had, such a course will end in the extinction of the original New England race.” — J. C. Jackson, A.31., M.D. The “ Cincinnati Times ” lias recently collected some very curious and interesting facts in relation to the health of American women between the ages of twenty and forty years. These facts were gathered from the burial returns of forty-five cemeteries located in the States of Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan, the object being to arrive at the comparative mortality of the sexes between the years of twenty and forty; and the figures stand — males, eight hundred and six; females, twelve hundred and eighty-nine; showing that in the West at least fifty per cent, more females than males die between the ages of twenty and forty. The same series of in- vestigations further set forth first, that in the oldest cemeteries of the West, in which the first settlers buried their dead, the number of the sexes between twenty and forty is nearly equal, and in some few cases the males outnumber the females; while in the more recent yards, at the same places, the females greatly outnumber the males. Secondly, that in those yards where foreigners mostly bury their dead, the males greatly exceed the females between these ages; proving what has so often been elsewhere stated in these pages, that the females of foreign birth possess a much higher degree of life-power than American women. Dr. Allen, of Lowell, Massachu- Mortuary Statistics. To rise late is to be always behind. 406 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Home is home, be it ever so homely. setts, says, “ That formerly there was one birth in th’at State annually to every thirty-five inhabitants ; but that this birth-rate has latterly been frightfully changed. In 1865, Boston had, in round numbers, one hundred and twenty-six thousand American population, and sixty-six thousand foreign; and the Americans that year pro- duced, in round numbers, sixteen hundred children; and the foreigners thirty-five hundred, making one-half the population produce twice the number of children, or four to one by actual population. And in Lowell, the same year, (1865,) the foreign population had four times as many children as the Americans of equal numbers. And in many of the rural districts of Massachusetts, where the population is purely American, the deaths exceed the births; and this is believed to be the case all over the New England States where the population is exclusively American.” The Third Meal. Excepting such persons as labor intensely at some employment requiring great muscular power for many hours daily, we are all better off in every resj>ect on two meals, taken about six hours apart, than on three; but if a third meal be taken at all, it should be done never less than three hours before retiring, in order that diges- tion may nearly or quite be completed before we retire; and this is especially necessary with children, millions of whom suffer immensely, and are injured for life, by being allowed to literally stuff themselves, and then at once forced to retire. Digestion progresses much more slowly in a recumbent posture, and while the brain is dormant, than under the opposite conditions; and hence To show passion is to show your enemy where to strike. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 407 He who would thrive must rise at five. we*should never presume to retire with much undigested food present in the stomach. If a mechanic were to so construct a machine that one important part of it completely gave out long before any other, we should at least deem him very clumsy and unskilful in the application of his craft; and we surely cannot expect less of an all-wise Being than of finite man. And the fact that in the lower animals, in many persons in civilized life, and in most savages, the teeth do last to the end of life, as well as the excruciating pain which attends their extraction, all go to show most con- clusively that they were originally intended to serve as long as any other part of the body; and their present frightful decay is partly due to errors in diet, but mainly to the use of mercury, or calomel, at the hands of the profession. For if the past and present effects of mercury upon the teeth were removed, and all the other causes of injury to those instruments left in full opera- tion, the profession of dentistry could not be sustained a single year, and would speedily die a natural death. Mercury and the Teeth. Light and Vegetation. We have elsewhere hinted at the great importance of sunlight in the restoration and preservation of the health of man; and its importance is no less in the vegetable than in the animal world, for without it we should have neither timber nor vegetables, even though every other element and condition were present and perfect. Dur- ing the night-time plants and vegetables, by means of their leaves, absorb carbonic acid gas from the air; and during the day the light of the sun has the chemical He who has thriven may lie.till seven. 408 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He who would thrive must hold or drive. effect to separate this gas into its constituents of oxygen and carbon, or charcoal — the former (oxygen) being lib- erated or thrown out and breathed by animals, while the latter is retained and becomes a part of the tree, or forms what is called wood. And in this way the immense forests of the earth, from which all our wood and timber are derived, as well as the world of coal from which we derive our fuel, have been formed. Study and Health. It has now come to be pretty generally believed throughout most civilized countries that hard study or close and continued application to books injures the health, and that thousands of students and literary men die from this cause alone. Now we are not prepared to wholly denounce an opinion so generally received as this to be wholly erroneous; for it is possible, perhaps pro- bable, that some few have done themselves harm by what is called “ hard study ; ” yet for every one who has been thus injured, one hundred have immensely more injured themselves by “hard eating ; ” for at worst the former is the exception and the latter the general rule. Statistics show, beyond all possible doubt, that study or literature is highly favorable to health and longevity ; and multitudes of cases are on record of tem- perate abstemious men, like Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Nott, John Quincy Adams, Thomas H. Benton, President Edwards, Dr. Charles Caldwell, and scores of eminent German scholars who have studied closely ten, twelve, fourteen, and some of the last-mentioned as high as six- teen hours daily, for a large portion of their days, and lived to be sixty, seventy, or eighty years of age. The He who squints abroad looks awry at home. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 409 If pride were a profession, it would be glutted with professors. fundamental error with our modern students and men of letters is not that, as a whole, they study too much — for they do not apply as many hours to books daily as did the same class of men a century ago — but that they eat too much for their habits or condition; and when the effects of gormandizing come upon them, it is usually attributed to “ hard study,” and not “ hard eat- ing,” the true cause. We say, therefore, to this, of all others the most honored and important class, the intel- lectual lights of the world, study no less but eat less, and exercise much more; and instead of denouncing us for these hints, you will then be satisfied that we are right and you are wrong in overtaxing your stomachs and charging it to the brain. Proportion of Nutriment. Few comparatively in this country are ignorant of the fact that food, to be healthy, must contain a due pro- portion both of nutritious and innutritious matter; and the right proportion of the former is estimated at sixty per cent., and that of the latter at forty ; and much vari- ation from these proportions in these qualities of food, for any considerable length of time, is sure to derange the bodily functions. If the food be too concentrated — that is, possesses a much greater proportion of nutriment than sixty per cent., as is the case with fine wheaten bread, fat meat, rice, cheese, butter, eggs, pies, cakes, jellies, and all pastry—there will be very little refuse or innutritious matter left, after digestion, to pass into the bowels, distend them, and form natural faeces, and constipation, piles, etc., will follow; and, on the other hand, if the diet consist of articles which contain a much Bread eaten is soon forgotten. 410 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Error is always in haste. less proportion of nutriment than sixty — as cabbage, turnips, lean meat, codfish, the poorer qualities of bread, etc. —r the system will languish and suffer for nutriment, become thin, meagre, and feeble, and ultimately dis- eased from want of nutriment to sustain the life-powers. The great point therefore in the use of food is to make such a selection of articles as in the aggregate will come the nearest to the correct standard of nutriment re- quired; some articles, as bread, possessing an excess, while others, as potatoes and the fruits, possessing less, and in this way one extreme will cancel the other; and to do this it will be necessary to have some knowledge of the quantity of nutriment possessed by all the more common articles of diet in use, an account of which will be found in another part of this work. The whole routine of pastry cooking tends directly to violate the law of nutriment in food, by excluding from it nearly all the innutritious portion of the food, and causing it to be too concentrated and stimulating, and on this ac- count is highly objectionable. The Preservation of Fruits. If a process could be devised by which fruits could be canned and still retain their natural flavor, it would be a most desirable invention, and meet with universal favor; and although several such canning processes are already in use, and claimed to be successes, and greatly lauded by some, yet it has not been the good fortune of the writer to meet any canned fruit or vegetables which had anything near the qualities possessed by the fresh or green article, or what was claimed for them by the ad- vocates of the canning process. The changes which He who lays up well will lay out well. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 411 He who hath no conscience hath no shame. nearly always take place in the articles after they are “ put up,” not only greatly deteriorate the natural flavor, but often render them actually unhealthy, and in not a few instances wholly unfit for food ; and on account of the general deterioration, and the uncertainty and risks connected with the processes of canning now in use, they cannot, when scanned down to their real merits, be deemed of much if any practical use. As to dried fruits, whatever the sort may be, they undergo little change in the process of drying beyond the mere evaporation of the aqueous portion, lose next to none of their natural flavor, may be indefinitely preserved with a little care, and cost only the labor of drying; and for these reasons seem to the writer greatly superior to the present canned fruits. Dr. Lambe, an eminent French physician, says, “Tea and coffee should never be used excepting where the use of alcoholic liquors are indicated; for they injure the system by stimulating it to a very high degree, without affording it any nourishment, and then leaving it to sink into corresponding depression and debility.” More Evidence. The Peach and Pear. The peach is moderately nutritious, easy of digestion, and may be eaten very freely, almost without impunity ; while the pear is much more nutritious, and much more difficult of digestion. Nuts. Most of the nuts indigenous to the United States, as the hickory-nut, hazel-nut, chestnut, etc., although rather oily The silly talk much and say little. 412 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Spare when you are young, spend when you are old. when fresh, well cured, and thoroughly masticated, are readily acted upon by the solvents of the stomach, and very nutritious; but being very concentrated when freely used, are apt to induce constipation. The black walnut, however, is very oily and difficult of digestion, and none but the most vigorous stomachs should ever attempt its use. Children’s Bones. In the construction of a wooden edifice, the size is limited to the size of the frame, and all the rest con- forms to this part; and so with the human body; the frame dr osseous system defines the stature of the being, and it cannot be exceeded, that is enlarged, by any hu- man means; hence the necessity that every possible known means should be afforded for the development of the bones of the human body, that full bulk and stature may be attained, and the race improved. The bones of all animals are very largely composed of the phosphate and carbonate of lime, (sixty-two per cent.;) and these elements of bone, like all the others which enter the human body, are derived from our food; and if we habitually subsist upon such articles as are defi- cient in these osseous elements, or possess but a very small portion of them, the human frame cannot be de- veloped for want of materials to form it, and a diminu- tive stature will be the inevitable consequence. Now, chemists tell us that the bran of wheat contains these elements in a much greater proportion, according to the quantity consumed, than any other article of food in common use; and as bread is an article always upon our tables, and childhood and youth are the seasons of Time the tongue by the dial of good sense. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 413 Marry only for love, and love only for a good reason. growth and development, in which the framework or foundations of the future adult are laid, the use of the unbolted wheat-meal bread at this particular period of life is of the utmost importance, to furnish the elements for the full development of the bones of the body. And it is the opinion of chemists and scientific men, that the present almost universal use of fine wheaten bread for children is among the most active causes of the present fearful decline in the bulk and stature of the American people. Climate and Flesh Meats. If the use of flesh meats is ever necessary at all, it de- pends entirely upon the climate or temperature in which we live; and it would be a very natural question where and to what extent its use is required, and to answer this cor- rectly might be a somewhat difficult task; but from what is known upon the subject, the following is a near approach to the truth. Within a belt of thirty-five degrees each side of the equator, the entire disuse of flesh meats would contribute to health and longevity. From thirty-five to forty-five each side of the equator, a moderate use of such food, during the colder portions of the year, would not prove detrimental to man; and beyond the parallel of forty-five north and south, ex- cepting perhaps during the hottest portion of the short summers incidental to that latitude, man would not be likely to sustain any injury from a free use of animal food or flesh meats. But in this country, between the parallels of thirty-five and forty-five, we use on an average at least three times as much animal food as the climate requires; and this is one of the main causes of Search others for virtues, yourself for vices. 414 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED Our own opinions are always right. prevalent bilious and inflammatory complaints, espe- cially during the summer months. Modern Cookery. The evils of modern cookery are numerous, of which the following are a few of the leading ones. First, the food is taken at too high a temperature, which destroys the teeth and greatly impairs the digestion ; secondly, combining so many articles into one dish produces a rich and highly concentrated compound, the appetite is over-stimulated, and we are almost sure to over-eat; thirdly, compound dishes, although every article may of itself be simple and harmless, are very much more difficult of digestion than simple ones. The reason why this is so is not well understood ; but the supposition is that by mixing many ingredients, and then subjecting the compound to the action of heat, as in cooking, new chemical compounds are formed, differing materially from the simples; and as they are of course unnatural compounds, nowhere to be found in nature, and not adapted to the human stomach, the labor of solution or digestion would be, as it really is, very greatly increased. Hot Breadstuffs. From some cause not yet well understood, warm bread- stuffs in any form, whether cakes, pies, puddings, biscuit, pancakes, or loaf-bread, have been found very difficult of digestion, and will derange the stomach, and induce dyspepsia as readily as almost any other article of food in use. And an eminent medical professor of Cincin- nati, being once asked what article of food in common use would soonest derange the stomach, and produce the worst form of dyspepsia, replied, “ My test prescription Never wade in unknown waters. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 415 Evil to your own is evil to yourself. would be hot breadstuffs, hot coffee, and fat pen-fed pork,” the very articles upon which the Western people mainly subsist, and the main cause of the almost uni- versal prevalence of this disease in the West. A Great Truth. “ Our experience and observation convince us that nine men out of ten will pay in experiments for regain- ing health one thousand dollars more cheerfully than they would pay one dollar for information which, if acted upon, would certainly preserve it; and fortunate it is for us doctors that the masses are such numskulls, else we should find our occupation gone, and would have to go to cracking rock, or picking oakum.” — Dr. Hall, Hew York. The statistics of lunatic asylums force upon us the surprising fact that, of all other classes, farmers are most largely represented in those institutions, notwithstanding the universal opinion of the great health-giving influ- ences of country or farming life. Such a result is by no means easy of solution, but is supposed to arise partly from a oneness or sameness of thought, action, and pur- suit, and partly from excessive labor or over-doing the bodily powers, as thousands of farmers are known to do. And another fact no less surprising is, that of an equal number of New England men and slaves on Southern plantations, the number of lunatics among the whites is five times greater than among the blacks. Insanity. Long Dresses. “ Confound these bogus women which have been turned loose into our streets! where do they all come Never attempt to wade in deep waters. 416 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Leave a jest when it pleases you best. from ? not out of Boston parlors, I hope ? Why there is not a beast or bird that would drag its tail through the dirt and filth as these creatures do their dresses. Because a queen or a duchess wears long dresses on great occasions, a work-girl or a factory-girl thinks she has full license to make a fool of herself, and commit a nuisance by trailing through the streets, picking up and carrying with her — bah! that is what I call getting vulgarity into your very bones and marrow. If any man can walk behind one of these fashionably insane creatures, and see what she rakes up as she goes, and not feel qualmish, he must have a tough stomach. As for me, I would not let one of them into my room without doing as David did to Saul at the cave in the wilderness — cutting off their skirts. Don’t tell me that any true lady ever sacrifices the duty of keeping everything about her sweet and clean, for the sake of making a vulgar show of fashion; for I don’t believe any such thing of any genuine lady. There are some things that no fashion has any right to touch, and cleanliness is one of these things; for it is an insult to any decent laun- dress to take such horrible, filthy things into her house for her to deal with.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Boston. Health and Locality. A greater error in the treatment of disease cannot well be committed, than to advise consumptives far advanced to migrate to the tropics; for they almost always become the graves of those who resort there for relief, and thou- sands of hopeless cases have been sent abroad, to die among strangers in a strange land, who would have lived longer at home. It has been practically proved, Speak well of the bridge that carries you safely over 417 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A rogue’s thought smells of hemp. and is now well understood, that tubercular diseases are less affected by mere temperature than by other condi- tions of the atmosphere not well understood. For in- stance, in Vienna, and other parts of Austria, the mor- tality from this disease ranges annually from forty-eight to fifty in every one thousand inhabitants; and in Rus- sia, Poland, Turkey, France, Italy, and Spain, diseases of the lungs are very prevalent and fatal; while on the other hand, in Australia, Central Europe, North and South America, mortality from this disease only amounts to from twelve to twenty annually in every one thousand inhabitants. Latitude or climate alone, therefore, should not decide the location best adapted to the consumptive, but the country which is least subject to the complaint. The climate of Africa generally, excepting a few local- ities, as Egypt, Algiers, Tripoli, Fezzan, and a small territory around the Cape of Good Hope, is the most fatally unhealthy country for the white man upon the earth. Among the healthy divisions of Asia are China, Japan, Georgia, and Persia; while Hindostan, Arabia, Siam, Malaya, etc., are very unhealthy. In North America — California, British America, and the North- ern and North-western States are generally healthy; while Mexico, the West Indies, and the Southern States, with an occasional exception, are unhealthy and pros- trating. Strictures of American Physicians. “ Of all sciences, medicine is the most uncertain.” — Prof. W Parker. “We know no agent that will cure consumption.” — Prof. A. Clark. “ Cod-liver oil has no curative power in tubercular consumption.” — Prof. Familiarity breeds contempt. 418 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Pay what you owe, and you will know what you are worth. H. Green. “ The administration of our powerful reme- dies is the most fearful cause of deranged digestion.” — Prof. E. R. Peaslie. “ Of the essence of disease, very little is known.” — Prof. /S. A. Gross. “ Mercury has made more cripples than all the wars combined.” — Dr. McClintoch. Solitary Vice. The subjoined shows the per cent, of victims to this odious vice in the various nations of the earth from which reports have been received. In England, males, 80 per cent.; females, 60. Ireland, males, 70; females, 40. France, males, 88; females, 85. United States, males, 90; females, 80. Spain, males, 90; females, 75. Germany, males, 70; females, 48. China, males, 98; females, 97. Turkey, males, 96 ; females, 87. Hindos- tan, males, 97; females, 94. Malaya, males, 84 ; females, 80. North American Indians, males, 70; females, 40. The horrors arising to the slaves of this practice are already too well known to require any further comments in this place. Solids and Fluids. That prolonged existence cannot be secured without both solids and fluids is self-evident to all; and some have even gone so far as to declare that fluids are even more important than solids. And the fact that not a sin- gle function of the body, from the time the food enters the stomach until it leaves the body through the evacuat- ing channels—skin, lungs, bowels, and kidneys—can be carried on without fluids is, to say the least, ample proof of their immense importance in the economy of man; and the further fact that pure water alone, without solid Too many cooks spoil the soup. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 419 Many hands make light work. food, will sustain life longer than dry, solid food with- out fluids, is still further evidence of the importance of fluids to the animal organism. Elevated Sites. The idea has long prevailed that elevated situations are more healthy than low ones; and recent investiga- tions into the cause of intermittent fever (fever and ague), have pretty clearly developed the important fact that it is produced by vegetable spuma, or infusoria — a species of animalcula which never rise higher than sixty feet; hence all localities above this elevation may enjoy entire exemption from this disease; and hence, also, the gen- eral prevalence of it in low, wet sections, where vegeta- ble decomposition is rapidly going on. No physiologist or scientific man even pretends that less than seven cubic feet of air are necessary for an ordinary adult to breathe per minute; and Dr. Reed’s minimum is ten feet. This, it is true, is several times more than the actual quantity consumed by the lungs in a minute; but if the quantity were less, it would be- come so much vitiated by mixing with the expired air as to be wholly unfit for use before we had made the twenty respirations, the usual number per minute. Now if a bed-room be ten feet by twelve square, and eight feet high, which is about the average size, especially in most hotels, it will contain less than one thousand cubic feet; and if the occupant require seven feet per minute, the room will only contain a sufficient quantity of air to sustain a healthy respiration a trifle over two hours, un- Breathing and Bed-rooms. None are so deaf as those who won’t hear. 420 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Pen and ink are wit’s ploughs. less, as is usually the case, there is some influx from without by which it is replenished. Is it then a matter of surprise, on opening the door of a bed-room in the morning, after it has been occupied during the night, that we meet such an intolerable and suffocating effluvia, which has been gradually accumulated and deteriorated during the night by repeated breathings over and over of the same air ? Health requires that these apartments should be larger, higher, well ventilated during the day, and the windows left up at night, more or less, at all seasons of the year, depending upon the weather, ex- cepting during storms. Filth of Tobacco. Horses, cows, sheep, cats, dogs, and even that most filthy and all-devouring creature, the swine, will not deign to touch it. Its effluvia drives fleas, bugs, moths, and mosquitoes from our dwellings, and insects from our plants; and, so far as is known, no living thing will deign to taste or touch it, excepting man and the filthy tobacco-worm which feeds upon it; surely not a very enviable companion in the dirty work. And so strong is the tendency of this article to render the user filthy, that rarely an individual can resist its potent influence; and even the most tidy and delicate female, who adopts its use in the form of snuff, soon becomes smeared with it both in her person and apparel to an extent which surprises her friends and acquaintance, while she her- self has no idea of her own condition. And the same is equally true of the male; for he who was previously a paragon of neatness, taste, and order in his person and apparel, now that he has bent the knee at the shrine of Hunger breaks through stone and iron. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 421 The positive man is most always wrong. the god tobacco, will appear greatly changed in all his exterior. His nostrils will appear dark and sooty ; his lips will be stained and smeared with the weed; his collar and bosom will be dingy and spotted; and the same man who, in the disuse of tobacco, would have walked the length of a fifty-foot hall to free his mouth from a surplus of ordinary saliva, now, that his sensibili- ties are blunted and stultified with tobacco, lets fly at random, regardless of time, place, or company. And the most of those who are so offensive and disgusting in public, by covering the floors and aisles of churches, cars, and lecture-rooms with the product of their private distilleries, once could not have been induced to commit so great an outrage against common decency and good breeding, nor even made to believe that he ever could do it. But by the besotting and debasing influences of this vile poison, he is not only prepared for such depredations upon common decency, but even much worse ones, if his ease and comfort demand it. “The practice of medicine is founded in conjecture and improved by murder.” — Sir Astley Cooper. “I have no confidence whatever in our remedies.” — Dr. Bailey, London. “Thousands are annually slaughtered in the quiet sick-room.” — Dr. Frank. “ Every dose of medicine is a blind experiment.” — Dr. Bostwick. “ The medical practice of the day is neither philo- sophical nor common sense.” — Dr. Evans, Edinburg. “ So gross is our ignorance of the physiological character of disease, that it would be better, absolutely, to do nothing.” — Magendie, Paris. Strictures of European Physicians. A fault denied is twice committed. 422 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Simple diet makes healthy children. Public Halls. A hall or public lecture-room, sixty feet by forty and fifteen feet high, will contain thirty-six thousand cubic feet of air, and seat four thousand persons ; and allowing ten cubic feet per minute to each individual, which, ac- cording to the best physiologists, is the required quantity, the entire air of the hall will be rendered unfit for use in nine minutes; and if breathed over and over again, as is usually the case, must be done at the risk of health. Absurdities. The Chinese belle compresses her foot so that it is no larger than the foot of an American girl five years of age, while the American belle compresses her waist so that it is no larger than a Chinese girl of the same age: now which exhibits the most intelligence? the enlightened American, or the half-civilized Chinese? If obscene books and vulgar pictures are prohibited by law, is it not equally necessary that those absurd, ridiculous, and murderous fashion-books and dress-plates which be- witch the silly and weak-minded, and lead them to adopt modes of dress destructive to health and life, should also be prohibited by law? For while the former lower the tone of morals and corrupt the mind, the latter are sure death and destruction to the body, and may be so to the soul also; and surely existence, even though associated with immorality, is preferable to suicide from silly habits of dress. Dr. McClintock, a distinguished American physi- cian, has boldly declared that mercury, or calomel, “ has made more cripples than all the wars of the world ; ” and Fever Sores. Benefits die out, while injuries live long. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 423 A word before is worth two behind. this is no exaggeration, but a most serious fact; for most of the old, obstinate, and ill-conditioned sores, especially that class usually called “ fever sores,” are primarily due to the previous free exhibition of mercurials in the system ; and the “ fever sore,” etc., is only a dodge to evade the curses of mercury on the part of the practi- tioner. And to the fever sores, etc., may be added nearly every case of enlarged, stiff*, or deformed joints, where no other known cause exists; and the writer has long been accustomed, when he sees an unfortunate being with withered hands or arms, or a dangling, deformed, and useless leg, hobbling through life on crutches, to exclaim to himself, Oh, the curses of that accursed mercury! Wealth. “ We never could see any advantage in poverty which intelligent wealth could not compass. Poverty, per se, is disreputable to any man, just as wealth of itself is credible to its possessor, being, as it is, prima facie evidence of long years of industrious economy and courageous self-denials. That worthy people may be poor, and that unworthy people may be rich, is not de- nied ; but we are speaking of generalities, not exceptions. In our opinion, those who reprobate the rich so glibly, are a set of poor, lazy, good-for-nothings, whose idolatry is their ease, whose god is their belly, and who glory in their own shame. If therefore you desire to live long in ease and comfort, free from grunts and groans, aches and pains; if you would have a countenance of genial sunshine, instead one of vinegar; if you would be over- flowing with risibilities, instead of being racked with rheumatics, get rich, by spending your youth in tem- Beware of a silent dog and still water. 424 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A wilful man should be very wise. perate, industrious, and prudent economy; having in view the wise and kindly expenditure of your wealth in a healthful old age.” —Dr. Ilall, New York. Checked Perspiration. Millions annually die as directly from this cause as does the soldier on the battle-field from the bullet or bayonet, all of whom could be saved by a little care and thought; and yet few, very few seem, to he properly im- pressed with the immense dangers which follow it. As elsewhere stated, three-fifths of all taken into the system escapes from the body through the skin ; and when the perspiration is checked, all this great quantity of matter, with its impurities, is retained to poison the system, and, unless the perspiration is speedily restored, disease and death follow. Most animals, as man and the horse, sweat by means of the skin ; while others, as the ox and dog, sweat only by the tongue: and the terrible effects of checked perspiration may be seen in the last-named animal, which becomes mad or rabid as soon as the tongue ceases to sweat; for hydrophobia is only checked perspiration in the dog, by which the poisoned humors of the body are retained, producing these most frightful effects. And a French physician has openly declared that if any person suffering from hydrophobia can be made to sweat freely, he will at once be cured. And most of us know from experience or observation that in a vast majority of diseases, the patient begins to recover the moment he begins to perspire, simply because the pores are then open, and the waste or poisonous matter is rapidly passing off. The most common way in which perspiration is checked is by exposure to currents or “Every one to his trade,” quoth the boy to the bishop. 425 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A liar is a hector toward God, and a coward toward man. draughts of cold air, by which the heat of the body escapes faster than it is produced, so that the temperature is soon reduced below its natural standard, and this is often effected by so slight an exposure as to wholly elude our observation. Those therefore who prize health and life cannot be too vigilant, when in a perspiration, not to allow it to be suddenly checked, but prevent it by active exercise, by additional clothing, or by getting near a good fire, and allowing themselves to cool off gradually. Nerves and Muscles. The power of excitability lies in the nervous system, and that of action and endurance in the muscular sys- tem ; and hence one of large and powerful muscles, but of moderate excitability of nerves, is the one to endure long and much, while the one with a high degree of nervous excitability, and moderate muscular develop- ment, although he may put forth paroxysms of much more brilliant feats, will wear out and fail long before the other. It is true that the same law of increase of vigor and activity by use applies to the nerves as to the muscles, with this difference, that this law when applied to the muscles is much more extensive than when applied to the nerves; for while the latter gain much strength by active use, they also gain as much, if not more, by abun- dant rest in connection with their use, and this difference is greater than in the muscles. Health and Mental Culture. It lias been fally proved by national statistics, that a high degree of intellectual culture is decidedly favor- able to a protracted youthfulness, beauty, and longevity; A wise man begins in the end; a fool ends in the beginning. 426 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Borrowed garments never fit well. for highly educated men and women live longer on an average, and enjoy a more even and uniform state of health, than those of little or no intellectual culture. The mind is life, and the very essence of life; hence, where there is most mind, other things being equal, there is most life, and most that imparts life and vigor to the body and all its functions. If we would preserve whatever is mortal to the latest possible period, and make the best of it, we must be more intellectual and less sensual; must have more of that which dies not, and less of that which dies ; for it is believed that thousands in this country annually die from ten to twenty years sooner than they would, had they bestowed upon their intellect a much higher degree of cultivation. The old adage, “ better to wear out than rust out,” is a true one; but very few comparatively in this country can claim the honor of wearing out intellectually, while millions are daily sickening and dying of mental rust and in- activity. The active business man, who retires to enjoy his gains in idleness, soon fails in health, because the life-power, the mind, ceases to act, and rust, stagnation, gloomy spirits, disease, and death must follow. Although it is the lot of both sexes in this world to grow old in appearance, yet they do so much faster than they need, and much earlier than Nature has ordained; and our females in this respect are greatly in advance of our males, on an average from ten to fifteen years. This difference cannot arise from climate, for here the sexes are placed upon the same level; nor from labor, for America is the paradise of women, and no country Growing Old. Hasty men never want woe. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 427 A willing mind makes a light foot. upon the earth places her so high, treats her so well, or exempts her from so much servile, exhausting labor and drudgery, as does the United States. And so far from labor being the cause of this premature decay, vastly more American women fade and grow old from want of healthy manual labor than are injured by it. Nor does this premature old age in our women come of too much study ; for in this respect they are greatly behind those of England, France, and Germany; for in these coun- tries, especially in Germany, it is quite common among educated ladies to find those who can read and speak three or four languages, and who are also well versed in mathematics and philosophy ; while such cases are very rare in this country. The causes, therefore, of prema- ture old age in this country, especially among females, are not due to climate, to excessive labor, or to intellectual pursuits, but mainly to abuses of the nervous system, arising from sedentary habits, impure air, errors in dress and diet, and especially the free use of tea and coffee by our females; and the same by males, with the additions of tobacco and alcoholic liquors. Carbonic Acid Gas. This is a transparent and invisible gas, composed of one equivalent of carbon, or charcoal, and two of oxy- gen ; is an active poison, will not support life or com- bustion ; is heavier than atmospheric air, descends and occupies the space near the ground or floor of buildings, and is present in atmospheric air to the extent of about four per cent, on an average. Now it has been shown by the experiments of Allen and Pepys, that when air has once been breathed, it contains 8’5 per cent, of car- Better do it, than wish it to be done. 428 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A mired hog is never easy till he has mired others. bonic acid gas, and that no amount of subsequent res- piration can make it take more than ten per cent, in the aggregate, that being the point of saturation of the air; hence if a person be placed in a close room where no in- flux of air is admitted, as soon as he shall have breathed the air in the room a trifle more than once over, pure carbonic acid gas begins to accumulate, and death is sure to be the result. A man may enter a mine or a cave with a dog, and while he walks erect and breathes the higher strata of air in the place, he experiences no in- convenience ; while the dog, which breathes the concen- trated carbonic acid gas next the ground, soon falls ap- parently lifeless; and unless speedily removed to fresh air, dies of suffocation — a warning hint to all against sleeping upon the floor or ground, unless there is a free circulation of fresh air. Climates Compared. Much has been said by travellers of the climate of England compared with that of the United States; and because the people of the former country* as a whole, are generally of a fuller habit or temperament and a more ruddy complexion, and usually bear external signs of better health than the Americans, it has been attrib- uted to the superiority of their climate over ours; but the truth is, the climate of Great Britain is obviously inferior to ours in many respects, and we know of none in which it is superior, excepting perhaps in uniformity of temperature. That a damp, foggy, obscured atmos- phere, heavily charged with nitrogen, is more relaxing and debilitating, and worse for the pulmonary and di- gestive organs than a dry, clear, and oxygenous one, Lying and gossiping are twin sisters. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 429 He who blows dust fills his own eyes. seems self-evident to all; and whatever tends to pro- mote health must of course contribute to longevity. And facts are in favor of the salubrity of our climate; for what people since the flood have lived longer, or enjoyed more vigorous or prolonged health and youthfulness, than our New England forefathers? True, a corrupt, fast age of luxury, evil, and extravagance has fallen upon us, which is deteriorating the national health and stam- ina at a most fearful rate ; while our English neighbors, by adhering to a more simple and primitive mode of life, have proportionally retained their national health and vigor; and this, and not climate, solves the mystery of English health and American frailty. Intellect and Instinct. To man only is conceded the first-named faculty, while to the brute is awarded only instinct; still it may be difficult to define where the latter ends and the former begins. Man, in all his performances, arrives at skill and excellence only by repeated experiment, often fail- ing by the way in many of his attempts before reaching ultimate success; while the brute and insect, in all their efforts to accomplish, succeed in every attempt with un- erring certainty. The building of a house, the struct- ure of a steam-engine or a watch, exhibits the accumu- lated experiments and skill of thousands for a long series of years before arriving at this degree of perfection; while the bird builds its nest, the beaver its house and dam, the ant its hill, the bee its comb, etc., with entire satisfaction the first time, and at every succeeding at- tempt. And the instinct of the brute in the selection of its food seems also to greatly surpass the intellect of An obedient wife rules her husband. 430 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Vanity makes ridiculous ; pride, odious. man in the same act; for while the latter can only dis- tinguish the edible from the poisonous by practice and experience, the brute and insect do so instantly and unerringly, guided only by the dim taper of animal in- stinct. For of two hundred thousand plants, the cow will eat but three hundred, the horse but two hundred and sixty, the hog but seventy-two, and the caterpillar but three in a hundred, on an average, of the leaves of- ferred to it; alls the rest, however beautiful and odorif- erous, being respectively and positively rejected by them, which, in this instance, greatly surpasses the powers of man. An Experiment. Fill a clean, well-washed bladder with dark or veinous blood ; tie it closely, and suspend it in the air, and in a few hours the blood next the bladder will become of a bright red color. This is owing to the oxygen of the air having penetrated the bladder and united with the blood, while the carbonic acid gas formed by the union has escaped through the same into the air — a good il- lustration of the change which is constantly going on in the lungs in the conversion of veinous into arterial blood. Trichinae. From a series of abuses in the rearing and manage- ment of tlie swine, extending through the past half century, the flesh of that animal has been steadily dete- riorating in purity, until it has now reached a condition which is exciting general alarm throughout the country, causing thousands of the most cautious and intelligent to wholly abstain from the use of pork. Contra to re- ceived opinion, the hog is by nature a very clean animal Weigh justly, if you sell high. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 431 A lie has quick legs, and scandal swift wings. and very select in its food; but by the most stupid and shameful practices in raising and fattening, it has grad- ually been deteriorated and brought to its present dis- eased condition; and, unless speedily arrested in its downward course, its flesh is doomed to soon pass out of use in this country as an article of food; at least among all who lay any claim to intelligence. The one great error in the management of the animal is the shameful neglect of cleanliness in all that pertains to its growth and fattening; for hundreds of them are often crowded together in a narrow space, with mud and filth to their bodies for bed and floor, fed upon still-slops and other offal which they could not be induced to taste in a state of nature, and compelled to breathe a putrid atmosphere without any relief; and when an animal is poulticed in filth outside, and a current of poison food and air con- stantly poured into it, what but disease can reasonably be expected from it? The first symptom of disease in the swine which excited any attention was the general diseased condition of the liver, and subsequently the detection of a very minute living creature in the flesh called trichinx; and this condition has gradually grown worse for the past ten years; and recently quite a num- ber of deaths have occurred from the use of pork con- taining these parasites; and at this time the subject is really assuming a very serious and alarming aspect; and deaths from this cause are constantly becoming more and more frequent, as may be seen by the subjoined from the “ Philadelphia Public Ledger.” “ Trichiniasis. Sections of the deltoid muscle of an individual who died recently at Elgin, Illinois, of trichiniasis, have been ex- amined under a powerful glass or microscope, and thirty A clear conscience sleeps in a thunder-storm. 432 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A jealous head soon explodes. thousand parasites discovered in a cubic inch of human flesh.” Modus of Aeration. The human lungs may fitly be compared to a fine sponge, the holes of which represent the numerous open- ings in the lungs, into which air is constantly received and expelled; and the substance of the sponge that of the lungs, the innumerable cavities of which are sur- rounded on all sides by very numerous and exceed- ingly minute blood-vessels, separated from the openings only by a very thin and delicate membrane. Now atmospheric air seems to be a simple homogeneous sub- stance, but is in fact a compound of two gases, oxygen and nitrogen, in the proportion of twenty-one parts of the former and seventy-nine of the latter; and at every inhalation, oxygen and nitrogen are received into the blood, and go the round of the circulation; and at every exhalation carbonic acid, -water, and nitrogen are dis- charged ; and these operations are effected in the follow- ing manner. Yeinous blood only circulates through the lungs ; and the water and carbonic acid gas of this blood, having a stronger affinity for air than for the other elements of the blood, permeate or pass through the walls of the blood-vessels and cells, and mix with the air in the latter, and are thrown out at eacli expiration ; while the oxygen of the air, on the other hand, having a greater affinity for the blood in the lungs than for the nitrogen with which it is combined, penetrates the coats of the cells and blood-vessels and unites with the blood, a portion of the nitrogen also entering the blood at the same time; and by this constant discharge of carbonic acid gas water, and the absorption of oxygen, the dark, A fool’s bolt is soon shot. 433 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. There is no smoke without some fire. veinous blood of the lungs is changed to a bright red color, purified, and sent back to the heart arterial blood, and again prepared to pass the rounds of the circulation. As to the nitrogen taken into the lungs as a constituent of air, the quantity expired is about equal to that in- spired; and the quantity of carbonic acid gas discharged from the lungs in a given time is nearly equal to the quantity of oxygen inspired during the same time. Water on the Stove. Atmospheric air at all temperatures is capable of tak- ing up or absorbing moisture — the warmer, the more it contains, and vice versa. For instance, the air of a room fourteen feet square by eight feet high, which con- tains about sixteen hundred cubic feet of air, at the freezing point, (32° Fall.,) will contain or take up only about half a pint of water; but if the air in the room be heated to 50° Fah., it will then have taken up fully a pint; heat it to 70° Fah., or barely to a comfortable summer heat, and it will contain nearly a quart; heat the same to 100°, or just above blood heat, and it will then contain two and a half quarts of water, which in each case must be taken up from the objects or persons then present in the room. The air in a cold room feels damp, because the moisture present is not chemically combined with the air, but floats loosely, as it were, in the air; but when the room or air is heated, the moisture becomes combined with and hidden in the air, and the room feels dry and unpleasant. We see then that, as the air of a room becomes heated, the moisture is absorbed in rapidity according to the temperature; and that for this reason there should always be an open flat vessel of One scabby sheep infects the whole flock. 434 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The first chapter in a fool’s book is to think himself wise. water upon the stove, to compensate for that which is taken up by the air of the room, or else there will be a dry, hot, suffocating state of the air in the room, which is exceedingly disagreeable, and more or less unhealthy. In open grates, or old-fashioned open fire-places, where so large a portion of the air passes off up the chimney, and is supplied to the room fresh through the openings of the apartment, the presence of water is not of so much importance; but in all cases where rooms are heated by means of stoves or furnaces it should never be neglected. Diagnosis. By this is meant the right understanding of the cause, nature, location, and extent of a disease, which is ad- mitted, by the most erudite physicians who have ever lived, to he the most difficult part of the profession ; for if the physician fail here, he fails in all; commences in the dark, and is liable to grope and blunder on to the destruction and death of his patient. And yet nearly every one thinks he or she “ can doctor; ” and we once heard an old washerwoman, who could neither read nor write, confidently declare that she could “ beat all the world a doctoring.” Apelles, the renowned painter, once said to Crispin, a shoemaker, who criticized his painting, “ ne sutor ultra crepidam,” let not the shoe- maker go beyond his last; and so in medicine, if we must be dosed and drugged with poisonous and dangerous agents, let us have it done secundum artem by those educated to the business, who will do us the least possi- ble harm under the circumstances, for Dean Swift says, “ He who doctors himself has a fool for a patient.” Discreet wives sometimes have neither eyes nor ears. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 435 No pot is so ugly as not to find a cover. Bodily Changes. The human system is from twenty to twenty-five years in being developed and reaching its perfection, and should therefore never be subjected to any great or sud- den changes, either in food, labor, exercise, wearing ap- parel, or anything else ; but all changes of whatever nature should be steadily and gradually made, whenever changes become necessary. Even bad habits, such as the use of the poisonous narcotics tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, alcoholic liquors, etc., if the individual possess sufficient firmness and decision of character to do so, would always be better gradually than suddenly aban- doned. The gross and thoughtless liver therefore, who has long been accustomed to highly concentrated and stimulating diet, as flesh meats, tea, coffee, pastry, wine, etc., who suddenly abandons all these articles for a simple vegetable regimen, will be sure to suffer in bodily health, at least for a time, from so great and sudden a change in his dietetic habits; whereas, had he made the same change gradually, and given the system time to adapt itself to the conditions imposed upon it, he would have experi- enced little or no inconvenience from it. Quackery. Dr. Adam Smith, author of the “ Wealth of Nations,” says, “ The great success of quacks, all over the civilized world, is mainly due to the real quackery of the regular physicians themselves.” Comparison of Women. The females of France, Germany, England, and most other European countries, even in the populous cities, are vigorous, blooming, and youthful quite to middle Much would have more, and lost all. 436 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Renard is still Renard, even with the surplice on. age; while ours, though not excelled for beauty in youth, scarcely reach womanhood before they exhibit evident signs of decay; and in fact it is’ quite rare to find an adult female among us who really enjoys sound bodily health. And at middle age rarely can one be found without some decided marks of old age, as defective teeth, gray hair, wrinkles, a feeble step, faltering voice, lustreless eyes,—one and all of them obviously indicative of advancing age. And this is all wrong, ought not to be so; and it is wicked for us to tolerate the causes which produce so great a national calamity. The unhappy victim is not always guilty, for she has often done as well as she knew how and could do; but such are the undeviating laws of health, that violations done to the constitution, whether knowingly or ignorantly, must in- variably meet their just and appropriate retribution. Our women need physical light, and knowledge of them- selves, and to have their minds and attention turned from the trifling toys, trinkets, and gewgaws of dress and fashion, to the improvement of their own bodily health, as the first great step toward elevating them from their present almost infantile dependence upon the other sex. Early Marriage. Dr. Hall says, “ That a marriage with a female under twenty-three, or with a male under twenty-eight, is a mis- fortune to those who contract them.” And he adds, “ The constitution of the woman is prematurely taxed by early child-bearing, and is broken before she is thirty-five, the very age in which she ought to be in all the glory of matronly beauty, of social and domestic Beware of an ox before, an ass behind, and a monk all round. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 437 Saving is the greatest art of living. influence, power, and enjoyment.” But instead of this, in what condition does “thirty-five” find the great majority of American women? Thin, pale, wasted, hollow cheeks, sunken, dark-circled eyes, no strength, no powers of endurance, and with a complication of diseases which, while they baffle medical skill, irritate the body, and leave the mind habitually fretful and complaining, or, what is still worse, throw it into a state of passivity, weariness, and destructive indifference to family, chil- dren, household, and everything else. A woman who begins to have children under eighteen cannot retain that vigor of body and mind which is indispensable to a well regulated household; and we therefore say to every young man, do not marry for yourself under twenty- eight, nor a woman under twenty-three; and remember, too, that the best dower a woman can bring you is a sound constitution, — immensely more valuable than a “fortune; ” while its moral and physical effects upon the future health and happiness of your children cannot be measured by dollars and cents. Season and Food. As different articles of food contain different propor- tions of nutritious and innutritious matter, this fact may be turned to account for health during the different sea- sons of the year. If, for instance, during any particular season of the year, there exists a special tendency to re- lax of the bowels or diarrhoea, we should use such arti- cles of food as contain but little innutritious matter, as rice, eggs, fine wheaten bread, cheese, boiled milk, etc.; and, in the opposite condition, when there is a predispo- sition to constipation, such articles as brown bread, po- Losers are always in the wrong. 438 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Many are better known than trusted. tatoes, corn-meal pudding, prunes, figs, rye and Indian bread, and stewed acidulous fruits in general. And another consideration in the proper adaptation of food is that the sort should vary with the temperature ; that is, strong and stimulating food, as flesh meats, is better adapted to winter use and to cold climates, and simple vegetable diet to the opposite conditions; and much evil may be prevented by an observance of this rule. A National Misfortune. What a sad reflection, that the fell destroyer tobacco, not content with its promiscuous ravages upon the com- munity at large, should single out and especially invest our schools and colleges as its choicest fields of depreda- tion, devastation, and destruction; for it is now a well- known fact that there are more victims of this scourge in our literary institutions, according to the numbers in them, than can be found in any other class of equal numbers in the land. It is a sad reflection, because these very youth, who are soon destined to become the leading individuals in every community, and to fill the important places of honor and responsibility now occu- pied by their seniors, and who ought to be contracting habits of temperance, sobriety, industry, and integrity, with fixed principles of virtue and morality, by the habitual use of this disease-engendering and demoraliz- ing poison, are undermining their constitutions, stulti- fying their intellectual faculties, curtailing their exist- ence, and fastening upon themselves innumerable suf- ferings even while they do live. Thousands of the most estimable youth in the land annually enter our institu- Fools go to law for the wagging of a straw. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 439 Lookers-on often see more than players. tions of learning with hale and vigorous constitutions, and high hopes and prospects of professional fame and literary excellence; but by contracting a fondness for the pipe, cigar, or quid, and by this means for their active co-workers, alcoholic liquors, their health soon be- comes impaired, their constitutions broken; and they either die or leave college before they complete their course of studies, or else struggle through with the greatest difficulty, and go forth into the world with ruined health of mind and body, wholly incapable of accomplishing anything great or good in after-life, thus making complete shipwrecks of themselves, and sadly disappointing the hopes and expectations of friends; and all for the exquisite pleasure of tasting the most nau- seous and disgusting weed which Heaven has permitted to grow upon the earth. Health Hints. If health and vigor thou would’st win, Shun weighty cares, deem anger sin; Sup lightly, and of wine take none; Nor deem it, after sumptuous fare, Vain thing to rise and take the air. Avoid with dread the noonday sleep, Unchecked the renal current keep; Nor forcibly repress at all The slightest fundamental call. If thou wilt follow well this plan, Thy life shall have a lengthened span. Should doctors ever needed be, Let these instead suffice for thee: A cheerful mind, unbroken quiet, United to a moderate diet. “ Felix quern faciunt aliena pericula cautum,” was an ancient Roman saying, that is, “ Happy is he who learns A Maxim. Your looking-glass will tell you what none of your friends will. 440 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Hunger can bear no contradiction. prudence from the dangers of others; ” and what an un- told blessing it would be to mankind generally, if this maxim could be practically acted upon by the masses in the matter of health, so that all would take warning to themselves from the aches, ills, sufferings, and premature deaths of those around them, and profit by the same! Position of the Body. Whether we sit, stand, or lie, the trunk or upper part of the body should, as far as possible, always be main- tained in an erect or straight position, both on account of health and comfort; for whenever we assume the stooping posture, the back-muscles, from the position of the body, become tense or stretched, and are soon tired and overdone, while the front ones remain slack and unoccupied; so that while one set is injured by over- doing, the other is debilitated and injured for want of proper use; and in this way much serious and perma- nent injury is often done almost unconsciously. A stooping posture habitually, not only permanently in- jures the muscles which should hold the body in an erect position, but ultimately renders it quite difficult for us to stand erect at all; and by cramping down the stomach and lungs induces indigestion, torpidity of the liver, and frequently disease of the lungs. Those who are predisposed to a stooping posture, either from care- less habit or unfavorable employment, can do much to counteract this condition by frequently straightening up the chest, throwing back the shoulders, and inflating the lungs, retaining the air as long as it can be done without too much inconvenience. He who lacks health lacks everything. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 441 A wise man is a great wonder. The Great Scourge. The subjoined, from the pen of that distinguished health writer and lecturer, Dr. J. C. Jackson, is espec- ially recommended to the notice of all users of the poi- sonous Indian plant: “ This weed id the deadliest poison known which human beings habitually use; and its effects upon the human system are varied and deleterious in proportion to the organs affected; and the derange- ments which the habitual use of tobacco produces are as follows: 1. Headache over the eyes; 2. Nervous head- ache without sickness; 3. Nervous headache with sick- ness of the stomach; 4. Deafness; 5. Partial blindness or amaurosis; 6. Punning at the eyes; 7. Cancer of the lip ; 8. Consumption, preceded for years by a cough; 9. Asthma; 10. Dyspepsia; 11. Palpitation of the heart; 12. Paralysis of the upper part of the body ; 13. Neuralgia, especially of the face and neck ; 14. Swelling of the gums, and rotting, loosening, and falling out of the teeth; 15. Enfeeblement of the lymphatics; 16. Enlargement of the glands of the face and neck, making the chewer thick about the cheeks and lips; 17. Leth- argy ; 18. Morbid appetite for spirituous liquors; 19. Morbid appetite for high-seasoned food; 20. Imperfect taste; 21. Imperfect smell; 22. Imperfect sense of touch; 23. Obtuseness of the moral senses; 24. Un- cleanness in the person and habits; 25. Stertorian, or snoring sleep ; 26. A sense of deafness or great debility on first waking from sleep, until one has had a chew or a smoke; 27. Confirmed and incurable disease, and pre- mature death.” With the exception of five or six forms of disease here attributed to the use of tobacco, which When judgment dictates real danger, temerity is stupidity. 442 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When the candle is out, all cats are gray. have never fallen under his observation, the writer can bear ample testimony to the truth of all Dr. J. lias here said of this article. Use of Apples. An eminent French physician says that the decrease of dyspepsia and bilious complaints in Paris is owing to the increased consumption of apples in that city, which he affirms is an admirable prophylactic and tonic, as well as a very nourishing and easily-digested article of food. The Parisians devour one hundred millions of apples every year. We know nothing of mind excepting as we see it ex- hibited through its appropriate instrument—matter; and upon the condition of this matter depends wholly the sort or quality of the mental manifestations; hence the old Latin apothegm, “ Mens sana in corpore sano,”— “ a sound mind in a sound body,”—is full of significance. If our hones are brittle and porous instead of being tough and compact — if our muscles are small, flabby, and soft instead of being large, plump, and solid — if our ligaments and sinews stretch out but will not con- tract, or if the same contract but will not stretch out — if our nerves are habitually morbidly sensitive, or if the same are half-dead or numb — if the back brain is neuralgic, and the front brain congested — if the expenditure of vitality exceeds the daily supply — if the stomach is unable to furnish the needed supply of nutri- ment to the body, what can we expect but an unsound body, and accompanying it, as a natural consequence, a weak, unreliable, and incompetent mind ? And al- Mind and Matter. The eyes serve as ears to the deaf. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 443 A remedy for to-morrow is too late for to-day. though a man of a weak body is greatly to be pitied, yet one of a weak mind is still more an object of pity; for to be unable to work is a great misfortune, but to be unable to think soundly and closely is immensely worse. Woman’s Endurance. Men often boast their superior powers of endurance over the “ weaker sex,” as woman is called, and have much to say of her feebleness, frailty, and want of wire and physical endurance; but there is doubt at least, whether, by nature, in all things within her muscular powers, woman is not fully equal if not superior to man in actual wire and ability to endure wear, tear, and fatigue. Suppose a man were to be laced up in steel-ribbed corsets, with steel-ribbed hoops, heavy skirts, long vulgar trails, high-stilt heels, satchels, chignons, a dozen hair- pins sticking into his scalp, cooped up in the house year after year, with no exhilarating exercise, hopes, aims, pros- pects, or ambition in life, and then see if he would en- dure it as well as woman does. The truth is, nothing but the fact that women, like cats, have a plurality of lives to live, could enable them to survive the long catalogue of murderous abuses to which the tyrant Fashion now dooms them. Much of the food intended for future use, both cooked and uncooked, is usually kept in the cellar; and the health of the family requires that this apartment should be kept in the neatest order, otherwise the food, and whatever else may be stored in it, will become more or less stale, mouldy, and impregnated with the impurities of the place, and unfit for food. To be used as a re- pository for food, a cellar should be lathed and plastered, The Cellar. To lather an ass’s head is only a waste of soap. 444 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. It is folly to fret when grief is no comfort. ha ve a water-proof cement floor, and often be thoroughly brushed down, and all the corners and lodgments for dust and dirt well cleaned out; and, so far as filth is con- cerned, kept just as neat as the kitchen or any apartment in the house. Many families are exceedingly slack and negligent in this particular, and allow large quantities of old decayed vegetables, and other refuse matter, to accumulate in the cellar, causing a very offensive effluvia not only in this apartment, but throughout the whole house whenever the cellar-door is opened ; and a filthy, rancid cellar is not only a very disagreeable affair, but actually dangerous, and liable to induce serious forms of disease in the whole family, as has often been the case. To be right, a cellar should be well lighted and ventilated, with opposite windows all above the ground, with sash on the inside and wire gauze on the outside — the former to protect from the cold in winter, and the latter to ventilate and protect from vermin in the sum- mer. And if to this we add good broad planed shelves upon the sides of the cellar, as low down as the top of a barrel, and remove all in it spring and fall, and have it neatly whitewashed, it will be suitable to receive and preserve the food of the family in a fresh and healthy condition. Starvation. Although Liebig proclaims fat to be an abnormal ac- cumulation in the animal body, in cases of accidental deprivation of food it is turned to a good account in sustaining life. And a collection of fat in the human body, though admitted to be adverse to health, may be considered as a reservoir of life materials, against any accident or emergency which may occur in the aliment- Bitter pills may have a happy effect. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 445 Make not mountains out of mole-liills. ary apparatus, as in case of sickness or injury, when the stomach would be temporarily unable to perform its functions. For as soon as the body ceases to be nour- ished in the usual way, by the regular process of diges- tion, the fat, as a substitute, is absorbed into the blood for combustion, to keep up the heat of the body; and it is this absorption and consumption of the fat that causes the sunken cheek, the hollow eye, and the thinness and prominence of the bones after severe sickness. Hence, if a lean and fat man be placed under exactly the same circumstances in all else, the latter will survive just as much longer than the former as his fat exceeds the other, and both will live until all the combustible materials in the body are consumed in the lungs, for the production of animal heat; so that in fact starvation is only being gradually burned up alive by the fire in the lungs. This is the familiar name for the enlargement of the ends of the cylindrical bones, producing large joints, enlargement of the cranium, and sometimes deformity of the spinal column ; and is caused by insufficient food, living in damp, dark cellars, and breathing a vitiated atmosphere. Rickets. Minerals in Grain. These are silica, phosphate of lime, magnesia, and the salts of soda and potash; the phosphate of lime being the most important, because it constitutes more than one- half of the bones of the human body, by weight, and gives to them mainly their strength and solidity. This mineral is supplied to us more or less in all the grains used as food, but to a much greater extent in wheat than We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. 446 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Prize a good conscience above all else. any other, more than one-half of the ashes of this grain being phosphate of lime and magnesia. The grains themselves contain the following per cent, of mineral constituents: wheat, 2-75 per cent.; rye, 2*60; oats, 3’25; corn, 1*25; rice, *90. Use of Salt. The use of salt in connection with our food has re- cently elicited considerable attention in the physiological and scientific world; one party contending that as the quantity of salt found in the different parts of the hu- man body was very small, and most of our food, as we get it from the hand of Nature, contains more or less salt, there is no necessity for any extra addition of it in our food; while the advocates of the free use of salt at- tempt to maintain the converse. One physiological fact, however, seems to settle the salt question in favor of Nature’s supply being adequate to the wants of the sys- tem, without any artificial additions; and that is that the per cent, of salt in the blood of any individual is said to be always the same ; and that an increase or di- minution of that article in the food does not affect the quantity in the blood. The following figures show the per cent, of salt in one thousand parts of the different portions of the body: in muscle, 2 per cent.; bones, 2‘5 ; bile, 3'5 ; blood, 4‘5. That salt is needed for the healthy development of the body and support of life, admits of no doubt or argument, the only question being whether natural, healthy food contains it in sufficient quantity, or whether it must be artificially added to our food; and the fact already mentioned, if chemically sustained, in connection with the known very small Keep the feast till feast day. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 447 Patience is bitter, but the fruits are sweet. quantity found in the body, seems to quite settle the question. That much more salt is used by the masses than the system requires, is a generally conceded fact; and that this surplus is highly injurious to the system, and taxes it severely to free itself from it, is shown in cases of scurvy arising from the use of salt provisions, when the system becomes surcharged with the article. As to the alkalies, soda, saleratus, etc., used in our food, they too are found in the blood and tissues of the body, and are necessary to health and life; but, like salt, are furnished by Nature in our food, and all artificial addi- tions are only a positive detriment to the system. Desserts and Disease. “ An incalculable amount of sickness and suffering would annually be prevented if the whole class of desserts were swept from our tables, and fresh, ripe, perfect fruits and berries substituted; while the amount of money which would thereby be saved every year in many fam- ilies, would educate an orphan child, or support a col- porteur a whole year in some regions of country.” — Dr. Hall, New Yorlc. The Bones. Regular but moderate labor in youth, with the free and habitual use of unbolted wheat bread, the bran of which contains largely of the elements of the bones, tends greatly to develop the osseous system ; and the same child, now delicate and slender without these means, other things being the same, might have been much larger and more vigorous with them. The bones of the child and youth are soft and flexible, while those of the aged are hard and brittle, and more liable to fracture; If you cannot bite, don’t show your teeth. 448 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. He is poor indeed that can promise nothing. and it is only in middle age that the proportions of earthy and animal matters are such as to give the greatest degree of firmness, strength, and flexibility which best adapts them to labor and general use. In early life the lower extremities contain but a small portion of earthy matter; hence the great liability of “ bow legs,” by in- ducing children to walk or stand too young. To pre- vent deformities in children while growing up, they should be taught to sit and stand erect, and have seats or chairs made in height adapted to their age and size, so that the feet may always rest fully upon the floor. Eminent physicians, both in Europe and in this country, state that not more than one female in ten, who has been “ fashionably educated,” is free from deformities of the shoulders and spinal column. First wash the hands clean with as little soap as pos- sible, and of the finest hard white unflavored sort; rinse off well with clean water, having in it a little good vinegar, say about two teaspoonfuls to a pint; wipe dry, and bold them to the fire a few minutes; after which apply a little good sweet oil and rub them well together. In cold weather, if the hands are much exposed to dirt, dust, and frequent washing, protect them as much as consistent with a j>air of old leather gloves. Chapped Hands. Hydrophobia. When bitten by a rabid animal, instantly press the finger or hand upon the part so hard as to completely arrest all circulation and absorption from it, until a red- hot iron can be pushed into the wound or puncture; and this well done is the only immediately reliable preven- Never carry two faces under one hood. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 449 Every may be has also a may not be. tion against the most dreadful of all maladies, and the most fearful of all deaths. But this is only the remedy to be instantly applied at the time of the bite; and in case symptoms of hydrophobia should at any future time be developed, the French physicians have shown most conclusively that the hot vapor bath, immediately applied, and perseveringly followed up, until the subject falls into a deep sleep, is the only sure remedy at this stage; and an eminent medical man has said of this remedy, “ Such is my confidence in the vapor hath, in such cases, that I am no longer afraid of rabid animals.” A Fashionable School. “ I went out the other day professionally, by invitation, to visit a very fashionable young ladies’ boarding-school, and found them all in splendid attire, and in every way up to the top of the style. But, oh, what a sad sight! what a sad set! round-shouldered, hollow-chested, pale faced, languid eyes, hollow-cheeked, and feeble, drawling voices — the whole institution having more the aspect of a hospital than a fashionable school for young ladies; and the inmates seemed more like exhausted, worn-out old people, than like girls of twenty. I found them breath- ing a furnace heat of eighty degrees, and was told that they slept in the same temperature. And now just think soberly of this as a place where our wives are to come from; for while they are learning a little French and music simply for ornament, they are being literally killed for life; and therefore I called this school, like all others of the same sort, a humbug.”— Dr. Dio Lewis, Boston. He was short of news who told his father was hung. 450 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Better be the head of the yeomanry than the tail of the gentry. The Eyes. One should never read or write earlier than sunrise, nor later than sunset, nor by moonlight or any other imperfect light whether natural or artificial; for though we may not feel the worse for it at the time, the vision is sure to be injured by it, and fail the sooner for it. Nor should we ever read while lying down ; and when the eyes are weak and sensitive, they should never be used to read or sew by candle, lamp, or gas-light, and only moderately, with frequent intermission of rest, even by the best daylight. Reading in cars, coaches, steam- boats, on horseback, while walking, or in any other situation where the body is not perfectly tranquil, is very injurious to the eyes, and should never be practised. As to remedies when the eyes are inflamed or sore, complete rest, with the frequent application of water as warm as it can be borne, are worth more than all the rest the world knows; for in the language of Prof. Dudley, “ Never let anything touch the eye or the ear stronger than warm water,” for we have but one sight and one hearing to lose ; and they are of too much im- portance to be trifled or tampered with. Life Expenditure. The deadliest foe of man’s health, life, and longevity, is an unnatural, unreasonable, and unnecessary worri- ment, anxiety, and excitement. Every one is born with a definite stock of viability or life-power, which he cannot increase, but which he may husband and econo- mize or expend rapidly and lavishly, as he may choose. To a certain extent, man has the free choice to live slow or fast, abstemiously or extravagantly, to draw or extend A light purse is a heavy curse. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 451 Don’t spare at the spigot and waste at the bung. his little quantum of life-power over a long series of years, or condense it into a limited few; but when his stock is out, is exhausted, he has no more; nor can he replenish it. The man who lives abstemiously and avoids all stimulants, narcotics, and drugs, takes light exercise regularly, never overtasks himself, has no ex- hausting passions, no debilitating pleasures, lets nothing perturb his temper, and keeps out of debt, is almost certain, accidents aside, to spin out his life to the longest possible limit consistent with his organization ; while he who lives fast, intensively, and extravagantly, who sub- sists on stimulants and high-seasoned food, either men- tally or physically, or both, fatigues his body and brain, exposes himself to unnecessary cares and fatigues, seeks continual excitement, gives loose reins to his pas- sions, frets and chafes at every little annoyance, and habitually has little real repose, is burning the light of life at both ends, and is sure to come short of the days allotted to him. Damp Walls. Among the active causes of much suffering, disease, and premature death are damp walls, and their effects upon the air and temperature of our dwellings; and al- though most people seem to have some vague idea of the injury sustained from this cause, yet few know the real extent of it, or take adequate means to protect themselves against the evil. In brick houses, unless the outer sur- face of the walls is well coated with some water-proof compound, the moisture penetrates through, and affects the inner surface; and the only remedy for this is to “ fur the walls,” that is, place thin strips of wood be- The higher the tree the riper the plum. 452 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them. tween the walls and the lathing, so as to allow the pre- sence of a layer of air between the brick and plastering. Wooden houses, unless the walls are “ filled in,” that is, have a layer of brick between the plastering and the outboarding, are much more healthy than brick; as there will always be a layer of air between the outer and in- ner coverings, which protects the walls from any moist- ure from without. But all walls, regardless of the structure of the house, if not used for a time, will accu- mulate moisture, more or less, in the same way as a pitcher or a pane of glass; because they are colder than the surrounding air, and take up or condense the moist- ure from it; and in this event the only remedy is to place a fire in the room, and open the doors and win- dows to admit a free influx of fresh air, which takes up the moisture of the room; and, if need be, open up daily and dry the walls. Morning Hints. At early dawn, when first from bed you rise, In coldest water wash both hands and eyes. This calmly done, your limbs in turn outstretch, And teeth and hair with brush and comb refresh. Such things restore the weary, o’ertasked brain, And all the limbs secure a MTholesome gain. Bathe while still warm, rest after food. But in whate’er engaged, or sport or feat, Cool not too soon the body when in heat, Brief be thy noontide sleep or none, Great harm is-often thereby done. For rheums and headaches, sloth and fever, Visit the lazy noonday sleeper. Animal Temperature. So far as the temperature of the body is concerned, animals are divided into two classes: warm-blooded, as Nothing ventured, nothing have. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 453 A fool’s sheep makes the wolf his confessor. man, all the mammalia, fowls, etc.; and the cold-blooded, as toads, snakes, turtles, reptiles, bugs, worms, and most fishes. The warm-blooded are capable of maintaining the temperature of the body at nearly the same point, ninety-eight degrees, in all conditions, regardless of the temperature of the surrounding air, while that of the cold-blooded seldom rises much above the air or medium in which they live. Thus the temperature of the human body at the tropics is uniformly very nearly ninety-eight degrees Fah.; and Captain Parry, who wintered in the Arctic regions, where the thermometer ranged from forty to seventy below zero, found the temperature about the same as at the tropics. And Captain Scoresby found the temperature of the whale (a warm-blooded fish), in the Arctic Ocean, to be a hundred and four degrees above zero, nearly the same as the same animal at the equator; while the temperature of the ice around the animal was only thirty-two degrees above, and the water in which he lived nearly as cold. But the power of the human body to maintain a uniform temperature against the extremes of cold is no more surprising than its ability to sustain life in a high temperature; for in 1774, Sir Charles Blagden entered a room in which the thermometer was raised to two hundred and sixty, and remained in it eight minutes; and Chaubert, the fire king, is said to have entered ovens heated to six hun- dred degrees. These facts show the astonishing adapta- tion of man’s organization to abide the extremes of tem- perature unharmed; for were it not so, the most serious consequences might follow. In the extreme high lati- tude the blood would be converted into a solid mass; while in the extreme low latitude or tropics the soft and A credulous man needs broad shoulders. 454 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Old foxes need no tutors. fatty portions of the body would be changed into fluids, and death would follow as an inevitable consequence. Prof. J. F. Lobstein says: “ So far from blood-letting being beneficial, it is productive of the most serious and fatal consequences. He who takes blood from his pa- tient, takes not only an organ of life, but life itself.” — Essay on Blood-letting. I)r. Hunter says: “ Blood-let- ting is one of the greatest weakeners; as we can easily kill thereby.” Dr. Salmon, in his “ Synopsis of Medi- cine,” says: “ So zealous are the blood-suckers of our day, that they daily sacrifice hundreds at the shrine of its omnipotence.” Dr. Thacher, in his treatise on “Practice,” says: “ We have no infallible guide to direct us in the use of the lancet, for the state of the circula- tion in fever is no criterion; a precipitate decision is fraught with great danger, and a mistake may prove certain death.” Prof. Mackintosh says: “ Some pa- tients are bled who do not require it, and the conse- quences are highly injurious; while others are bled who cannot bear it, and the result is fatal. No physician, however wise, can tell how much blood to.draw in any given case.” Dr. Robinson says that after the practice of blood-letting was introduced by Sydenham, in 1660, during the course of one hundred years more perished from the lancet alone than all who in the same time were slain in battle.” Blood-Letting. Some one — President Edwards, we think — has said “ Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Aristotle calls it a “half virtue.” Addison, in the “Spectator,” says : “ First, Cleanliness. The needy man has a long arm. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 455 Out of sight, out of mind. it is a mark of politeness; secondly, it indicates purity of mind; and, thirdly, it instinctively produces love.” And in oriental countries, cleanliness was enforced by law as a part of religious observances. The regulations prescribed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy are very ex- plicit upon this subject; and Mohammed enjoined upon his followers to wash the face, hands, neck, and arms before each prayer; and as their prayers were repeated five times daily, their ablutions must have been per- formed as often. And an eminent authoress upon this point says: “Were I to mention the graces that ought to adorn beauty, I should instantly exclaim personal cleanliness, neatness, and order, more especially in the female; and I will venture to affirm, that when several females live in the same house, love entirely out of the question, the one who is the most cleanly, neat, and particular in her person and apparel, will invariably be most respected by the males of the family.” The most rigid cleanliness, therefore, should be among the first and most imperative teachings to children; and not merely an outward show of it, but cleanliness of the skin, garments next the body, and all that pertains to the person. What should we think of the most exquis- itely dressed lady in the street, if we knew the feet had not been washed for a week, the underclothes not changed for two weeks, or the filthy deposits upon the skin •-not removed for a month; and yet we all know there are those, not a few, who are wholly content if the exterior or visible portions of the person are bright, clean, and sound, however soiled, filthy, or rent and tat- tered that may be which is out of sight. But this and all kindred practices in person and apparel implies When gold speaks, all tongues are silent. 456 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The more haste the less speed. cheatery and deception of heart, which all, even the subjects themselves, must inwardly despise; for no such mind can be pure, but full of small dishonesty, intrigue, and trickery. Let mothers, therefore, from earliest childhood, enforce upon their children the most rigid and punctilious cleanliness, especially upon their daughters, in whom any lack of it is so readily detected, and im- press upon them that holes in their stockings are actu- ally as discreditable as a rent in a silk dress; and that a spot, stain, or splash upon an under-garment is no less excusable than the same would be upon the cloak, dress, shawl, or bonnet. Let all parents, and more especially all mothers, in whose hands the inculcation of cleanliness mainly rests, never lose sight of the important fact that personal and domestic cleanliness, temperance, and thrift are the antipodes of filth, lowness, vulgarity, bestiality, and thoughtless improvidence; and that spotless clean- liness of person and purity of mind and morals are ab- solutely inseparable. Muscular Power. On seeing a large and muscular man, we are very apt to conclude that lie is also very powerful, or, as the phrase is, “ a very stout manand although bulk or size is one indication of physical strength, yet this alone can- not be relied upon; for it often happens that a man of medium bulk and stature, properly organized, possesses more physical power than one much larger, but not as well organized. To possess the greatest bodily power requires a peculiar combination of nerves and muscle; the varying strength of men being due to the presence or absence of this peculiar combination of materials in One vice costs more than ten virtues. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 457 It is too late to spare when the bottom is bare. them. A man of large muscles, medium-sized head and moderate-sized nerves, will be strong and enduring, and good for continued hard service, but not noted for feats of strength, or able to produce any acts of agility cal- culated to excite special attention ; while a man of mod- erate or medium sized muscles, with a large head, and large nerves going to those muscles, may put forth prodigious strength for a time, but will soon fail. The organization therefore possessing the greatest and most enduring muscular power has large muscles and large active brain, and large nerves going to those muscles to sustain their action; and rope-dancers, circus - riders, harlequins, etc., are usually of this cast of man. The Kitchen. An eminent health writer has said, “ The kitchen is vastly more important than the parlor; ” and such is obviously the fact, for while the former is a matter of great practical utility, and very intimately connected with our health, comfort, and happiness, the latter is merely an affair of pride, fancy, or taste, with which we could all dispense, without any serious discomfort or in- convenience. The custom with many who would appear fashionable, and desire to make an outside show of having the halls and parlor, and perhaps the visitor’s bed-room, furnished up in the most elaborate and ex- quisite style, while all the rest of the house, and espec- ially the kitchen, is destitute of even the most necessary fixtures and furniture, is simply unwise, senseless, and ludicrous, and must excite the ridicule of all sound and sensible persons. The kitchen is the place where all of our food is prepared; where much of it, cooked and un- The sun is not less bright for shining on a dunghill. 458 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Little boats must keep near the shore ; large ones can venture more. cooked, is stored; and also where thousands, if not the majority of mankind, also take their meals; and it should be a nicely arranged and well-fitted apartment, be well ventilated and well lighted, always clean, and well sup- plied with all the appliances, not only “ so as to make it answer,” but to render it handy and convenient, facili- tate and expedite the duties of the department, and lessen woman’s labors and drudgery. Considering their great practical utility, and their intimate connection with our health and physical happiness, the cellar and the kitchen are the two really most important apartments in any well-regulated household, and no pains should be spared to keep them always in the very best possible condition. A neat, cleanly, well-furnished, and well- arranged kitchen, and a tidy, savory, well-arranged cellar, without a gorgeous parlor, are immensely prefer- able to the latter, with a dingy, rickety, dilapidated, half- furnished kitchen, and a dirty, rancid, and offensive cellar. Indigestible Trash. Very few stomachs, even when vigorous and healthy, can digest such crude rubbish as lobsters, salad, old putrid buggy cheese, hot greasy griddled cakes, pickles, nutcakes, hard-boiled eggs, fats, mince pies, apple- dumplings, unripe fruit, cucumbers, radishes, raw cabbage, raw onions, string-beans, clams, oily salt-fish, and a score more of similar valuable and interesting articles. Such crude and indigestible articles derange the stomach, causing dyspepsia, liver complaint, disease of the kidneys, heart, and spleen, with looseness or constipation of the bowels, morbid appetite, furred tongue, headache, lassitude, irritability, moroseness of In giving and taking, it is easy mistaking. 459 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Less of your courtesy and more of your coin. temper, etc.; and their effects upon children and youth are even worse than upon adults. What we Drink. Prof. J. W. Scott, speaking of tea, says, “ A cup of tea contains volatile oil, chlorophyll, wax, resin, gum, tannin, theine, extractine, apotheme, albumen, sulphur, phosphorus, chloride of potassium, oxide of iron, car- bonate of magnesia, manganese, and silica.” And if this be so, is it a matter of surprise that the American women, who are daily pouring this chemical medley into their stomachs, without stint or measure, at a temperature almost high enough to cook its mucous membrane, have become a nation of tea dyspeptics and tea invalids ? Our Mothers. As are the mothers so are the children has now almost passed into an adage; for if she be a woman of health and physical vigor, a guarantee is given for sound and healthy children. And if in addition to vigorous bodily health, the mother, in all her domestic relations, is a model woman, cleanly, orderly, prompt, punctual, perse- vering, energetic, with that dignity and womanly amia- bility of character becoming her sex, then may we expect that every son of such a woman will be a man of mark in his day, and every daughter fit to be a queen. Nor does this potent maternal influence cease with the mother, but passes down to the daughter; and upon the daughters of a people hang the destinies of the nation. And shall they in early youth be hurried from the tender regard of a loving mother to the purchased care of nurses and governesses, and to the paid tuition of fashionable boarding-schools, where much that is worse The higher the ape goes the more he shows his tail. 460 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Continued success makes a fool appear wise. than useless, little that is really useful, and nothing thoroughly, is taught? And worse than this, where their associations must inevitably be promiscuous; among whom there will be at least some, if not many, impure and corrupt minds; thus exposing the pure and innocent to the blighting influences of false impressions and baseless foolish pride. The theatre, the ball-room, the sea-shore, the spa — are these the schools in which to mould the character of the girls who are to be the mothers of the next generation ? Is the heterogeneous weekly newspaper, the frivolous trashy monthly, the “fast novel,” be it from whom it may, are these the suitable text-books to form the principles of those who are soon to become the wives, the mothers, and the matrons of our great republic? Every impression, good or bad, physical, mental, or moral, made upon our daughters, is transferable to the next generation, if not to several consecutive ones, and may spread far and through millions yet unborn; and in this sense, and on this account, the responsibility of parents, and especially of mothers, is truly great and fearful. Dews. Formerly it was supposed that dews were produced by the condensation of vapors which arose from the earth after the decline of the sun below the horizon, by the radiation of heat from its surface; but more recent in- vestigation has shown that this is not the case, only to a very limited extent, if at all; and that dew is the pro- duct of the condensation of vapor already contained in the. air during the day, and held at some distance from the earth’s surface by the effects of the heat of the sun. The worst pig often gets the best potable. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 461 Self-conceit is a closed door against improvement. During the day the surface of the earth is steadily accu- mulating heat from the solar rays, and the air nearest its surface necessarily becomes more or less rarefied; but as soon as the sun descends below the horizon, the accu- mulated heat of the day soon escapes into the air, and the earth becomes even cooler than the air immediately above it; and by this means the aqueous vapor held by the air next the earth is condensed, producing dew, which will be found most copious upon those objects which soonest part with their heat after the setting of the sun. The clearest, coolest, and brightest nights of summer will always be found the most productive of dew; while a damp, moist, sultry night will produce very little; showing that dew must be mainly, if not wholly, the product of the moisture from the air which is condensed near the earth’s surface, and not from the air which arises from the earth after the setting of the sun. The most copious dews will always be found upon the grass and foliage, while very little will be seen upon gravel walks, dry sand, rocks, or garden muck; because the former are ready conductors and rapidly part with their heat, so as to condense the moisture from the air; while the latter are slow radiators, and last to become cool enough to condense the vapors. Of all the professions, that of medicine is the most harassing, thankless, anxious, and disgusting. Forced to answer the calls of all, to go at all times, to be de- prived of regular sleep and food, to be exposed to all vicissitudes of weather day or night, compelled to humor the capricious, to soothe the irritable, persuade the head- The Physician. If you think you know little, you may yet know much. 462 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. It is not the burden, but the over-burden, that kills. strong, to keep inviolate the most delicate secrets of wives, husbands, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters, to mingle in scenes which, though familiar, are loath- some ; and, worse than all, to feel the onerous weight of responsibility pressing heavily, that the life of a patient is in one’s hands, and that your own reputation is at stake; and then, when all has been done that the arm of flesh could do, his services are often requited with a grudging hand and a thankless heart. And, on the other hand, often when the physician has really done next to nothing at all, and actually deserves no credit in the case, he is lauded to the skies for his wonderful skill, and almost idolized as the saviour of life. Such is the life of the physician. And then the mere discharge of the pecuniary obligation cancels all, as though money could repay the services of the honest, faithful, and well qualified physician. If then a young man have genius, acquirements, ambition, enterprise, pride of character, and is sensitive, let him not study medicine, lest he re- pent when repentance will avail him nothing. Test of Diets. Brindley, the celebrated English canal engineer, states that in the numerous public works in which he had been engaged, where the workmen had been employed by the piece, and each was anxious to earn all he could, the Lancashire and Yorkshire men from the north, who ad- hered strictly to their customary diet of oat-cake and hasty-pudding, with water for drink, sustained more labor, and made greater wages, than the men from the south of England, who lived on fine bread, cheese, bacon, and beer for drink; which fully coincides with all the There is many a slip between, the cup and the lip. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 463 The sweetest wine makes the sharpest vinegar. other cases in which men placed under equal circum- stances have been brought to labor antagonistically upon the two classes of food. Air and the Lungs. The quantity of air usually present in the lungs of an ordinary adult is about six quarts; the quantity received into the lungs at each inspiration is one pint; the quantity expelled from the lungs at each expiration a trifle less than a pint; every pulsation of the heart throws two ounces of blood into the lungs, which is acted upon by these organs in less than one second. And by the action of the air upon the blood in the lungs, during twenty-four hours, the air loses thirty-seven ounces of oxygen, and the blood fourteen ounces of carbon, which are converted into carbonic acid gas, and escape from the body through the skin and lungs. Vital Statistics. The yearly mortality of the whole globe is estimated, in round numbers, at 33,000,000, which is at the rate of 91,000 per day, 3000 per hour, and 62 per minute. One-fourth of the population die by the seventh year, and one-half by the seventeenth year. In 10,000 persons, one arrives at 100 years; in 500, one attains the age of 90; and in every 100, one attains the age of 60. In the city of New York, in 1810, one-half of all who died were twenty years of age or upwards; in 1820, one-half the deaths were of persons only twenty years of age; in 1830, one-half was only ten years of age; in 1840, one-half was only five years of age; in 1850, only four years; and in 1857, one-half of all the deaths were children only two years of age; showing a frightfully Business makes men and men make business. 464 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. If you gain well and spend well, you need no account book. increasing mortality among children during less than half a century. In Philadelphia, in 1807, half of all the deaths were over twenty-four years of age; in 1820, one-half was under twenty years ; in 1830, one-half was under sixteen years; in 1850, one-half was under five years; and in 1856, one-half was under four years. During the four years ending December 31st, 1869, there were reported to the Health Office in Cincinnati, in round numbers, 18,000 deaths; and of this number, 8659, or nearly one-half of. the aggregate deaths, were children under five years of age; and of this half, eighty per cent, were children under two years of age. The pores of the skin constitute one of the main scavengers of the body; and so long as these important sluiceways for the waste matter are kept open and active, one of the very greatest and most common causes of dis- ease is removed; and this can only be done in a natural and efficient manner by moderate exercise, which excites a gentle perspiration; and no human being who has the least regard for health should ever allow a single day to pass without at least once during the day producing a gentle glow of warmth and moisture over the whole sur- face. It is estimated that over a quart of water, laden with very concentrated impurities, escapes from the body through the skin every day; and if the pores were all to be completely closed for three minutes, these impu- rities would be retained and mixed with the blood, pro- ducing a very visible change in its qualities; and every minute added to their time deteriorates the blood still more, and if continued a few hours death would be the Perspiration. None but the contemptible fear contempt. 465 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Ready money is a ready remedy. result. Simply keeping the skin clean and the pores open and active, and daily exciting a gentle perspiration all over the body by some moderate exercise, would do more for human health and happiness than tons of drugs or millions of money. Small Items. On visiting the sick, never exhibit, either by actions or countenance, the least surprise, or stare at the patient as though you thought him dangerous or near his end, but be perfectly calm and composed, speak mildly but distinctly, never showing in any way that you think unfavorably of his condition. Never visit the sick while in a perspiration, or while tired and exhausted, or hungry or thirsty. Do not eat or drink, or swallow the saliva, while in the apartment of the sick. While in the presence of the sick, never place yourself between the patient and the fire, for there is always a current of air in that direction, and you are liable to inhale it. In watching with the sick, always eat an ordinary meal before going into the room, and take a little simple food once in three or four hours while you remain in the sick- room. Where one has been long exposed to the effluvia of the sick-room, common prudence would dictate to re- move the apparel, exposing the outer to the fresh air upon lines, and subjecting the inner to a thorough ablution. A Fact. It is a curious fact, that, while the specific contagious diseases which often prevail and attack men without any act, agency, or previous knowledge on their part, as mumps, measles, small-pox, whooping-cough, chicken- pox, etc., are self-limited in their action, and observe Better spare your own than beg of others. 466 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Stretch your legs according to your coverlet. certain fixed laws in their beginning, progress, and end, and can only be taken once, and end with the subject in each case, those which are generated or contracted by their own agency, and their own vicious, filthy, and infamous habits, as syphilis, gleet, gonorrhoea, itch, etc., are not self-limited, but may continue indefinitely or be cured, and reappear at any future time. Uses of the Blood. The blood, which is produced from the food by the process of digestion, is not only the one great source of materials from which every part of the body is built up and sustained, but also repaired when any part is in- jured, and hence serves several most important purposes in the human system. 1. From birth till death, the blood never ceases to circulate through every part of the body; each part or organ, bone, muscle, nerve, skin, etc., as it passes on, seizing from it, as it were, the particular materials which are needed for its own use and support. 2. There are two sorts of bloody-the arterial, of a bright red color, which nourishes the body, and is carried out from the heart by the arteries, which are deeply im- bedded in the flesh, and the veinous, of a dark livid color, which is returned to the heart by the veins that lie upon the surface of the body. 3. The arteries terminate in every part of the body, in exceedingly small branches, and the veins commence where the arteries end; the minute extremities of the two sets of vessels being connected by a third very minute and short class, the capillaries; and it is at this connect- ing point, all over the body, that the important processes Gamesters and racers never last long. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 467 He who speaks, sows; but he that is silent, gathers. of nutrition, calorification, and disintegration, or build- ing up, heating up, and casting off worn-out materials take place. 4. The blood not only carries out the nourishment of the body through the arteries to the capillaries, but after it has reached the latter, and there deposited new mate- rials for renovation and combustion, it passes through these vessels much changed into the veins, and is by them returned to the heart, there to be again renewed and sent the rounds of the body; thus making the arteries the conductors through which new materials are introduced into the system, while the veins are the dikes and sewers which carry the worn-out and useless mate- rials out of the body, or back to the heart. 5. Oxygen received from the food and through the lungs is conveyed to the capillaries in the arterial blood, and there combines with the carbon of the latter, pro- ducing carbonic acid gas, by which heat is developed and the temperature of the body kept up; and the car- bonic acid gas, the product of the combination, passing into the veinous blood, is carried out to the skin and lungs, and there set free. 6. The production of carbonic acid gas in the capil- laries, by the union of oxygen and carbon in the blood, is so great that its presence can always be readily de- tected in the veinous blood, and being an active poison, if its discharge from the skin and lungs be checked, even for a short time, the most serious consequences, even death in some cases, will follow ; hence the vast import- ance of a clean, unobstructed and active skin, and abundant respiration in the open air, to rid the body of this deleterious agent as fast as it is generated. A discontented man is his own worst enemy. 468 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. One with a waxen head must avoid the sun. 7. The quantity of blood in an average sized adult, weighing a hundred and fifty, is about twenty to twenty- five pounds, or nearly three gallons. When we Die. He who leaves progeny behind him, good or bad, never dies in effect until this progeny becomes extinct, for a man transmits himself to his offspring in almost every important sense of the term. And this remark does not simply apply to the physical qualities which distinguish one individual from another, as form, size, fea- tures, gait, hair, eyes, complexion, etc., but goes further, reaches deeper, and embraces the intellectual, moral, and religious peculiarities. What a man or generation does, dies not with him or it, but impresses itself upon his own time and all around him, as well as upon coming time, so far as his influence extends. Opinions of all sorts, whether moral, religious, political, or medical, are inherited, so that we see the old repeated in the young, and what belongs to the former becomes the pro- perty of the latter as fully as do lands and chattels. He who is content to leave a profligate, worthless, dis- eased race behind him, to curse itself and all around it, has only to nurture these qualities in himself to effect his end, and vice versa. The WiU. That the will or determination exerts a most potent influence favorable or unfavorable upon the fate of the invalid, especially in severe acute attacks of disease, as well as upon the general health and longevity, cannot be doubted. Thus A and B, in every way equally con- ditioned, excepting in mental qualities, are attacked at In a mile of contention there is not an inch of love. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 469 He who makes an ill bed should lie upon it. the same time with serious acute disease which threatens dissolution to both. A is of a resolute, determined, and unyielding disposition, and under no consideration will for a moment entertain the remotest idea of dying; fully believes he will recover, and is ready to co-operate with all the means instituted for his relief; while B is pas- sive, indifferent; thinks his case hopeless, and seems to care little which way it terminates; is quite reluctant to do anything or to make use of the most obvious means suggested for his relief, and is strongly impressed with the idea that he will die in spite of all. Now, with this indomitable will and fixed determination not to die any- how, the chances of A to recover are at least three to one better than those of B, with the opposite state of mind; and hence a fixed will not to die is the first step toward, recovery, and a passive indifference to one’s fate in sick- ness a very adverse condition to his recovery. Friends, nurses, and medical attendants, therefore, should, as far as possible, aim to keep up the hopes and courage of the sick so long as there really is any hope ; but when the hopeless point is reached, the sooner the patient is made aware of his condition the better. New Developments. Dr. Hall, of New York, says : “ Those who revel in the luxuries of tobacco are having a fine time of it. It is stated, that in order to give an almond flavor to to- bacco, manufacturers are now using prussic acid — a few drops of which, on a man’s tongue, will produce death in five minutes; and several persons are alleged to have lost the use of their lower limbs by the use of tobacco thus flavored.” “ The council of Berne, Switzerland, in Cunning and treachery show want of capacity. 470 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Physicians’ blunders are covered with earth. consequence of the deleterious effects of tobacco upon the human body, have prohibited the use of it.” “ A highly esteemed Presbyterian clergyman in Virginia recently committed suicide from a state of nervous irri- tability produced by the excessive use of tobacco.” “ An instructive and alarming fact is stated in relation to the Wall Street forger, Ketchum, recently sent to the penitentiary. It was proved on trial that he was never seen without a cigar in his mouth, and that he was never well; and on entering prison, where tobacco is strictly prohibited, he gained fifteen pounds of flesh in three months, and his general health was improved in propor- tion.” “ A large quantity of snuff was found lodged in the nasal cavities of the celebrated Dr. Cooper, of Boston, who was an inveterate snuff-taker, and died from disease of the head induced by the pernicious habit.” “ Gen- eral Sullivan, of the Revolutionary army, carried his snuff loose in his vest-pocket, and at times had violent pains in the head; the intervals grew shorter, and the paroxysms more distressing, ending in palsy, which put him in his grave before he was fifty years old.” The earlier in life, and the earlier in the day tobacco is used, the more pernicious its effects upon the health and con- stitution. In the use of solid food, the quantity, of the two, is of more consequence than the quality, because a small quantity of improper food might not do much harm, while a large quantity of proper food might be followed by serious consequences; but in the use of fluids this fact is reversed; for as water, so far as known, is not duality of Solids and Fluids. Rich men’s faults are covered with gold. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 471 Play, wine, and women ruin millions. digested, and undergoes no change in the system, but simply serves to facilitate the action of the organs upon the solids taken into the body; if pure, it may be taken in very large quantities, and will rapidly pass out of the system without any very material injury. But if it be impure, as the impurities consist mainly of solids held in solution by the water, the latter will soon pass out of the body, and leave the solids behind to clog and derange the vital functions; so that the quality of the fluids taken into the body is a matter of much moment, and of more importance than the quantity. As animal food is produced from vegetables by the vital organs of the animal, and as the chemical elements of both animal and vegetable food are nearly identical— viz., carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen — all the materials necessary for the growth and development of man can be obtained from both classes; so that the point at issue in the food question is not whether either alone will sustain life—for this is conceded—but which, under the same conditions and circumstances, will sustain life longest, best, and with the least expense. The Point at Issue. Sorts of Water. The varieties of water as commonly met with in nature, are rain, snow, spring, well, river, lake, pond, and marsh waters. Rain water exhibits the process of distillation on a large scale, and would be perfectly pure, were it not for impurities received in its descent, by passing through foreign matter near the surface of the earth, consisting of animalcula and effluvia arising from decaying animal and vegetable matter. When rain has He has no leisure who uses none. 472 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. We care more to appear happy than to be happy. not fallen for some time, the water obtained from the first shower, if allowed to stand in hot weather, will putrefy, and produce animalcula from the impurities received from the air in its descent; while that which falls after may be kept pure indefinitely; hence, when practicable, the first fall should be rejected for all domestic purposes. Physical Decline of Americans. New England may fitly be termed the homestead of the Anglo-American race — the people of which, in all that pertains to human greatness and moral worth, were never excelled, if equalled, by any other of equal num- bers in any age or country. Still, within the past half century, so much has this hardy and intelligent people declined in physical health and stamina, that Dr. J. C. Jackson, the distinguished health writer, declares the original New England stock, at the past and present rate of deterioration and decline, will become wholly extinct in forty years more, unless something is done to arrest the present downward course. It has been custom- ary in New England, for over two hundred years, to keep an exact public record of all births; and Dr. Allen, of Lowell, Mass., has recently given some very interest- ing statistics in relation to the physical decline in that state, which at least is as healthy and prosperous as any of the six. In a town w7hich had been settled over two hundred years, or during six generations, the average number of children to each family of the town, in the six generations, was as follows : —First generation, nine and five-tenths; second, seven and two-thirds; third, seven and one-third; fourth, seven and one-fourth; There is not stock enough in a fool to make a sensible man. 473 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Charity begins at home. fifth, four and seven-eighths; and, sixth, two and three- fourths. The last generation brings the history down to the present day; and the decline in the last two gen- erations, covering a period of about sixty years, is truly frightful. Dr. A. adds, that in one town, settled in 1655, may be found the record of twenty-six families having ten children each; twenty families with eleven children each; twenty-four families having twelve children each; thirteen families having thirteen each; five families having fourteen each; one having fifteen; and one of twenty-one children; and ninety families having an aggregate of ten hundred and forty-three children, or over eleven children to each of the whole ninety fami- lies on an average. And nearly all the children born in that early age lived and grew to adult age, while now only about one-half reach maturity. And from the well-known and admitted fact that New England is the most intelligent, moral, industrious, and temperate por- tion of the Union, we have no reason to expect any better state of things in any other portion of the country. Snow Water. Distilled water is really the only pure article of the sort in existence; but this is too expensive to be gener- ally used; and snow water procured by artificial heat is, in point of purity, next to it, but can only be had in the higher latitudes, — and there not all the year round, — and is not therefore generally practicable. Rapid Eating. There seems to be an inherent quality in the human stomach which demands, first, that the food be thor- oughly prepared for it; and, secondly, that it be slowly Never spur a free horse. 474 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The buyer needs a hundred eyes; the seller, none. received into it; and a habitual neg’lect of either of these conditions will inevitably produce its legitimate penalty — impaired digestion and ultimate dyspepsia. And he who is faithful in the first, will at the same time secure the second; for the time required for thorough mastica- tion and insalivation will cause the food to be so slowly received into the stomach, that the latter can fully re- cognize the presence of the former, and will be prepared to give due notice when the proper quantity has been received. But when, as is the usual custom, each mouth- ful only gets one or two grips from the teeth, and is then washed down with hot slops in genuine swine-like style, time is not given the stomach to fully recognize its condition, and take cognizance of the food as it enters it; and although that organ may be filled to its utmost capacity, and even to the point of oppression, discomfort, and pain, yet the individual is not satisfied, and the ap- petite is still good; whereas, had twice the time been spent on one-half the quantity of food, the appetite would have been fully satisfied without any of the usual unpleasant morbid sensations arising from the prevalent practice of cramming down the food as though one was fearful he would not secure his portion of the allotted meal. Bapid eating, therefore, is the great and crying sin in diet, and the great and main cause of gluttony; for he who gives himself full time at table, and never allows his food to pass from the mouth until it is reduced to a soft, pulpy, salve-like mass, in which the tongue can feel no small lumps or granules, will not, on an average, consume more than two-thirds the quantity of food that he would under the opposite circumstances, will never exceed the proper quantity, and always rise from the Vice brings its own punishment, and sometimes its own cure. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 475 Idleness is more of the mind than the body. table perfectly satisfied, and with an easy and unop- pressed stomach. Eight ounces of solid food are deemed an ample quantity at one meal for an ordinary adult, under ordinary circumstances; and if any one doubts the importance of the thorough preparation and slow reception of the food into the stomach, let him first spend forty minutes — little time enough — in taking half a pound of solid food without slops; and, on another occa- sion, ten to fifteen minutes — about the usual time — in taking a pound of solids with slops, and he will find himself immensely better satisfied, in all respects, in the former than in the latter case; saying nothing of the ultimate effects of the two courses upon the general health and longevity of the individual. Thus, by sim- ply preparing the food thoroughly for the stomach be- fore deglutition, we not only save a large portion of the dollars and cents in the outlay for quantity, but an un- told amount of sickness, suffering, loss of time, and doctor bills, and years of precious existence. This is simply rain water, which, having filtered through the earth, necessarily becomes more or less im- pregnated with the soils through which it has passed, and is therefore less pure than rain water, and holds in solution more or less soluble and earthy matter. Spring water which has passed through clay or lime will be hard, while that which has filtered through sand or gravel will be soft. Spring Water. Well Water. This is very similar to spring water, only usually less pure, owing to its being stagnant and excluded from the The study of men is more important than books. 476 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Affected simplicity is refined imposture. air, and is therefore more likely to be impregnated with foreign matter, unless the use and supply are very exten- sive. Those wells which have a “curb” and are open, and the water raised by some simple device of power, are greatly preferable to such as are covered or closed up, and the water raised with a pump. The subjoined interesting table, prepared by order of the Legislature of Massachusetts, shows the average ef- fect of occupation upon health and longevity : Occupation and Longevity. OCCUPATION. AGE. Gentlemen 68 Judges 65 Farmers Bank officers 64 Coopers 58 Public officers Clergymen 56 Shipwrights Lawyers 54 Ropemakers Blacksmiths Merchants 51 Calico printers 51 Physicians Carpenters 49 OCCUPATION. AGE. Masons 48 Traders 46 Tailors 44 Jewellers 44 Manufacturers 43 Bakers 43 Painters 43 Shoemakers 43 Mechanics 43 Editors 40 Musicians 39 Printers 38 Machinists 36 Teachers 34 Clerks 34 Operatives 32 The most striking and impressive point in these fig- ures is the surprising contrast in the ages of the gentle- man, who lives in ease of mind and body upon his income, and the day laborer, whose only dependence is the daily product of his labor, who “ lives from hand to mouth ; ” and think, reader, soberly upon the ponderous fact that one man, merely from his condition in life, shall live sixty-eight years, while another from his condition, both perhaps wholly accidental, shall live but thirty-two Prosperity is a stronger test of virtue than adversity. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 477 Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body. years, less than half the life of the other. And the same fact has been fully verified in France by the re- port of M. Villerme, which shows that while the average age of a thousand “prosperous” persons was forty-two, the average of a thousand “poor” was but twenty, as in Massachusetts, less than half. And again, contrast the longevity of the salaried officers, etc., judges, bank of- ficers, farmers, and public officers who are securely pro- vided for from their positions in life, and who retire with the quiet assurance, that whatever else may befall them, they will not wake up paupers in the morning, with that of clerks, teachers, printers, operatives, and others whose pay ends with the day, and whose bread depends upon the fluctuations in trade and business, or upon the ca- price of another. This simple column of figures, dry though it appears at the first view, develops the great and expansive fact that between poverty and compe- tence, between dependence and independence, there is half a lifetime; in despotic France a difference of twenty and forty-two, and in republican America of thirty-two and sixty-eight; and the mortuary tables of most great cities will show that of the millions who are struggling for existence, for support, for bread, one in every six dies of diseases of the brain or nervous system, produced by harassing fears of want and worldly care. Airing Bedding. The exhalations from the body are more abundant during sleep than wakefulness; and unless the entire bed is well aired every morning, by placing the parts so that the air can have free access to both sides, the excre- tions of the body will be retained in the meshes of the To know your own faults is the height of wisdom. 478 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED, Great barkers are seldom great biters. fabrics, and may be absorbed by the next occupant. And this fact cannot be too strongly impressed upon the mind of every housekeeper; for very disagreeable dis- eases are often contracted in this way. Wet Underclothes. When from active exercise and free perspiration the underclothes become saturated, we feel no inconvenience so long as the exercise is steadily continued, and the cir- culation kept up, which maintains the extra heat; but as soon as we cease to exercise, the activity of the circu- lation is diminished, the generation of heat is lessened; and as the wet garments next the body are rapid radi- ators, the heat is speedily carried off from the body and a cold is the result. It is well, therefore, in all such and similar cases to change the wet for dry clothes, and never allow them to dry upon the body ; and if the least feeling of chilliness be experienced, heat up the body thoroughly by the tire, so as to fully restore the circula- tion. Changes of apparel from thick to thin should be made in the morning, when the vital powers are in the best condition, and not in the course of the day, when we are likely to be more or less jaded from the labor, cares, and anxieties incident to the usual round of busi- ness. Elver Water. This is a compound of spring and surface water; and when the current is rapid and the bottom rocky or gravelly, it is purer than spring water, as it deposits most of the impurities which are held mechanically suspended in it; while the water of a sluggish river, with a muddy bottom, is wholly unfit for domestic use. God makes, and the tailor shapes. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 479 He who reckons without his host, will have to reckon again. Warmth and Cleanliness. As the oxygen of the air permeates the skin all over the body, and unites with the carbon and hydrogen of the arterial blood circulating in that structure, heat is generated, which aids much in keeping up the tempera- ture of the body; and in order that the air may have free access to the skin, it must be kept clean and unob- structed. If a film or layer of filth is allowed to accu- mulate upon the surface, the action of the air upon the cutaneous circulation will be checked, and less heat pro- duced all over the body, often producing a chilly sensa- tion and greatly lessening the ability of the system to resist cold; hence the fallacy of the popular error that “ dirt is warm: ” the cleaner the surface, other things being equal, the warmer it will be. Those parts of the body which are exposed to the air, as the hands and face, generate much more heat than those which are habitu- ally covered; consequently the latter are much more sensitive than the former; and experience has taught that it is better to leave the neck and throat naked, even in cold weather, than to debilitate the parts by muffling and poulticing with collars and cravats. Poison through the Lungs. Every time we inhale or take in a breath, a vast ma- jority of the air inhaled ordinarily passes through the mouth on its way to the lungs ; and if from any cause the mouth is impure, or contains any noxious or poisonous matter, the fumes or exhalations of it pass into the lungs with the air inhaled, and there comes in contact with the blood as it passes through those organs; and as the entire blood of the body, usually about three gallons, No friendship or kindred is to be known in trade. 480 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Time is a silent file that never wears out. circulates through the lungs once in from three to four minutes, any poison through these organs can be com- municated to the whole living organism in that almost incredibly short period of time. Now we ordinarily breathe or respire twenty times a minute, twelve hun- dred times an hour, and twenty-eight thousand eight hundred times a day; and from this some idea may be formed of the truly frightful exposure to which not only the lungs, but the whole system, is exposed by the hab- itual inhalation of the fumes of any poison, especially those from the use of that deadly poison, tobacco. Lake Water. This being a collection of river, snow, spring, and rain water, is necessarily more or less impregnated with the heterogeneous impurities of all of them; but when the lake is deep, the impurities are mostly precipitated to the bottom, and the water, especially of the deeper por- tions, becomes comparatively clear and pure; but is not usually as good as pure spring or good river water. Men as well as trees grow more in summer than in winter. In winter we consume more food than in summer; the system is subjected to more labor, wear, and tear to keep up the heat and vital powers, and con- sequently we need more sleep in the former than in the latter season. The hair grows faster in summer than in winter, and faster in the young than in the old. A finger-nail will be replaced or renewed in a hundred and thirty-eight days in winter, and in a hundred and six- teen in summer; and the hair, like all other organic matter, grows faster in the daytime, or light, than during the night or in darkness. Trifles. Three may keep counsel in the absence of two. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 481 Give a child his will and a whelp his fill, and both are ruined. Comparison of Nutriment. Many suppose that a diet of flesh is more nourishing, and “ stronger food/’ than one of vegetables; and this error has arisen from the fact that a diet of the former is more immediately heating and stimulating than one of the latter, and for a time arouses the system to greater effort, which is conceded; but this effort soon ceases, the system falters, and calls aloud for a resupply of the stimulus to sustain its powers, as in the casa of alcoholic liquors; while a well selected vegetable diet is less heat- ing and stimulating in the outset, and more moderate, uniform, and permanent in its effects upon the organism. And so far as the actual life-sustaining power of the two classes is concerned, pound for pound, vegetable food, reasonably selected, is more permanent and more lasting in the aggregate, and will sustain life longer than flesh meat. Nor is this any new idea or doctrine, but one which has been amply tested, proved, and settled by actual experiment in extensive army marches, sea-boat rowing, and in plying the axe and scythe, and in other situations where men fed upon the two classes of food have been antagonistically arranged against each other; and this view of the case is amply sustained by chem- istry. For, as already elsewhere stated, a pound of butcher’s meat contains but thirty-five per cent, of nutri- ment; while a pound of rice or fine wheaten bread con- tains ninety p'er cent.; pease, seventy; beans, eighty; wheat, eighty; and corn, sixty. And even the potato, the coarsest, cheapest, and poorest of all worth using, contains nearly twenty-five per cent, of nutriment; only ten per cent, less than flesh meat. A slander always leaves a slur. 482 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A merchant’s fortune hangs upon chance, fortune, and wind. Pond Water. Pond, marsh, and swamp water, owing to the great quantity of decaying and vegetable matter which they contain, are, and must necessarily be, very impure; and careful inspection of such waters will develop the pres- ence of minute worms, insects, animalcula, arid earthy and saline matter, rendering it wholly unfit for domestic or culinary use. 4 Early Fruits and Vegetables. The eagerness with which the thoughtless multitude seizes upon and devours the first fruits and vegetables of the recurring year is a matter of notoriety and astonishment to the provident and reflecting; and their life-killing effects are no less a subject of surprise and notoriety to all thinking, prudent persons; for he who pays a dollar a quart for the first strawberries of the season, and so of other articles, may calculate on laying up the next ninety-nine dollars for the physician and druggist. It is a fact, that all ought to know and realize, that the first fruits and vegetables of the season which are rushed into the market are precocious, forced, im- mature, unnatural, often diseased, seldom fully ripe, and in a majority of cases wholly unfit for food. And most of the maladies peculiar to August and September are either directly caused or greatly aggravated by the crude and unwholesome fruits and vegetables at or soon after their first appearance. We are prone to murmur against Providence, for most of our bodily ills and sufferings, when, if we would only institute a thorough search into the causes, we should readily account for most of them from our own thoughtless violations of Sugared pills contain bitter. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 483 Levity is one of the productions of vice. life’s invariable laws, and learn perhaps the obvious lesson that he who would enjoy health and length of days must obey the laws of his existence. Whoever it is, high or low, wise or ignorant, saint or sinner, that sins against the body is bound to its penalty, equally with sin against the soul; for God is the author of both codes; and if he has not written the physical code on special tablets or in volumes, he has done even more and better with it, and blended it with earth, air, water, tree, plant, vegetable, and every animal that creeps, or flies, or walks the earth; and, more than this, there is no day of repent- ance or forgiveness for violations of the physical law as for that of the moral; for as certain as one sins against it, so certain will he suffer. Hard and Soft Water. The qualities of hardness and softness in water are due to the presence or absence of the super-carbonate of lime, (chalk,) or to the sulphate of lime, (plaster of Paris,) or to both; and Mr. Dalton, an eminent chemist, states that the presence of the one-thousandth part of the sul- phate will produce the hardest water known. When the hardness is due to the presence of the sulphate, the carbonate of soda (sal soda) will render it soft, and when to the carbonate, boiling expels the carbonic acid and precipitates the lime. “ God made man to live to old age, and die a natural death when he was ripe. Untimely deaths of human beings are as deplorable as the untimely fall of the fruit we grow, and much less necessary, because with proper care the former can be guarded against with much more Premature Mortality. Misfortunes seldom come alone. 484 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He who steals an old man’s supper does him a kindness. certainty. Unavoidable casualties aside, there is no need that £>ersons should die until their time comes; and that is not till they have grown to full stature and strength, have fully matured, and by natural causes gone to decay. Vital statistics show that of all who die annually in the United States, a fraction over one-half die under five years of age; and that of this one-half, two-fifths die in- side of one year, the other three-fifths running along to the five years. In Massachusetts, one of the most healthy, because one of the most moral, intellectual, and indus- trious States in the Union, the average age of all who died in the whole State, in the year 1864, was twenty- eight and five-tenths years; and of those one-fiftli died under one year, and two-fifths under five years of age; making three-fifths who died in mere childhood. The average of life in other States is no better, while a still larger proportion of all who die do so under one year of age. For this terrible mortality, there must be and are obvious causes, which are familiar to the medical world, and ought to be known to all.” — J. C. Jackson, A.M., M.D. Evening Protection. After the usual round of the day, whether we have been occupied with labor, study, or the pursuit of plea- sure, the body becomes more or less jaded, the vital powers at a low ebb, and less heat is generated in a given time than in the morning, and add to this, the atmos- phere at night is damper and cooler than at any time during the day, and it will be obvious that for these reasons the system requires to be better protected with apparel at night, when we are exposed, than during any part of the day. The cost often spoils the relish. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 485 The city for wealth, the country for health. Domestic Order. What a world-wide difference between an orderly, well-arranged house and a disorderly, helter-skelter, hap- hazard, slip-shod one; and the difference in the quiet, comfort, and convenience of the one and the vexation and annoyance of the other is equally as great. But the good order of no house can be preserved but by the common consent and co-operation of all, for one slatternly, careless, thoughtless member of a household is sufficient to defeat the efforts of all the rest. And what a happy thought to know that every nook and corner throughout the house is free from dirt and rubbish; that every gar- ment is in its place and in good order; that the numer- ous culinary articles, so important in their various uses, are all at all times ready for the hand; that each feels the importance of giving due attention to feet and mats; to hanging up coats, vests, and hats, and putting up boots and shoes; to the closing of doors, and picking up and putting up whatever may be down or out of place, with- out invitation ; that no one should twice be called to the same meal or twice invited to rise in the morning; that no one soils a garment unnecessarily, or adds the least uncalled-for labor to the cook, chambermaid, nurse, laundress, seamstress, or any one in the house; and that each member of the family would sooner incommode himself than impose any unnecessary inconvenience upon any other member! And to have and maintain this domestic order and system throughout a house re- quires not a male merely, but a man; not merely a female, but a woman: but such women do exist, and not a few of them; and the man who appreciates them should never Wine is first a friend then an enemy. 486 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Keep your mouth and purse closed. halt at the labor of searching out such an one, for when he has her, he is rich without a dollar, and with her opposite, poor with a million. Cod-Liver Oil. After a lapse of more than a quarter of a century, during which time the cod-liver oil mania has gulled the American people out of millions of dollars, it now comes to pass that the best medical and chemical author- ities boldly declare that cod-liver oil never did possess any specific qualities in the cure of consumption, and is no better than fresh butter, lard, or any other fatty or oleaginous matter. What the consumptive needs, and the thing which he must have or die, is nutrition, or the right appropriation of the elements or material of growth and repair which give increased strength and endurance; for it matters little if the consumptive does get plump and fat; if he is no stronger or longer winded, he is really no better so far as his ultimate fate is concerned. And cod-liver oil, like all other non-nitrogenized foods, contains only the elements of heat or combustion, none of repair and growth, and simply keeps the patient warm, and nothing more; and if his digestion continues pretty good, there may be a deposition of fatty or adi- pose matter in the areolar tissue, from the use of the oil, giving him the appearance of becoming fat and much better, while his real condition as a consumptive remains unchanged. And in this respect cod-liver oil is a most delusive and bewitching agent, for while the heat of the body is pretty well sustained, and the patient grows fat, or, as the term is, “ gains flesh,” which is really no flesh at all, he deems himself warranted in the conclusion Praise not the day till night comes. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 487 If it were not for the mouth, the back might wear gold. that he is rapidly improving, and will ultimately recover; while in fact all that is being done by the oil is to aid in the support of animal heat, as any other fatty matter would, and the increase of the bulk or fat of the body, by the deposit of the unconsuined oil taken into the system; while no change for the better takes place in a single tissue, and the life-sustaining powers are at the same time slowly but surely ebbing out; and in this de- lusive dream of ultimate health and restoration, cod- liver oil has cheated its thousands out of life, who, had it not been for it, might have been saved years of happy life. Pure new milk from a cow fed in the country, upon grass and pure water, and allowed to roam at large in the fresh air, contains not only the elements of heat, like the cod-liver oil, but also those of growth and re- pair, which that oil wants; and if the thousands of sleeping victims to the latter had been fed upon the former in its stead, many, if not a majority, of them would have seen more years than they did, for the great value of pure new milk in consumption is just beginning to be appreciated. Skin Breathing. We usually limit the idea of breathing to the action of the lungs, but the skin really breathes as properly as those organs ; that is, oxygen from the air is received through the tissues of the skin, and, combined with car- bon and hydrogen of the veinous blood, produces car- bonic acid gas by its union with the former, and water by its union with the latter; and the breathing of the skin, though not as immediately connected with life as that of the lungs, is nevertheless of immense importance to the vital economy. If the arm and hand be well A bad wife is purgatory in advance. 488 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Call me cousin, but don’t cozen me. washed and wiped dry, and placed in a long glass jar, and the passage around the arm closed, in a few minutes the inner surface of the jar will be covered with moist- ure ; and if a lighted candle be introduced into the jar, it will either burn very slowly and feebly, or else go out at once, owing to the presence of the carbonic acid gas discharged from the arm. Now this breathing of the skin, or the absorption of oxygen and discharge of carbonic acid gas and water, is one of the most important means of cleansing the blood; and its extent may be seen from the fact that there are nearly sixteen superficial feet upon the surface of an ordinary adult human being. And in order that this cutaneous respiration may go on uninterruptedly, the air must have free access to the skin, and the excretions from the skin free opportunity to escape; and to this end, the apparel must be worn loosely, and composed of porous texture. If the texture of the fabric be fine and close, the air will be prevented from access to the skin, and the exhalations of the body cannot escape; and if the apparel fit the body closely, the layer of air, which always should be between the body and the apparel, will be excluded, and the process of cutaneous respiration will be greatly retarded, and at the serious risk of health. The injurious effects of close fitting and impervious garments are well illustrated in the use of the gum shoe, where the exhalations of the part being retained, the foot soon becomes cold, sweaty, unpleasant, often causing headache, etc., from the reab- sorption of the poisonous exhaled matter. Home and Hot Weather. That the extreme heat of summer is much more pro- ductive of disease, and that the vital energies are at a Trust not an inquisitive man. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 489 A man is always a lion in bis own cause. lower ebb than at any other season of the year, and con- sequently less able to resist disease and morbific agents, are common everyday facts with which most persons are familiar; hence common prudence dictates, at this season of the year, that the quiet, ordinary routine of life should, if possible, be pursued with more than ordinary care and vigilance, and no changes made in the domestic economy or habits of the family which may involve any risk — travelling, or change of home in almost every instance, at this season, being positively hazardous. For if at home, surrounded by all the comforts and many little luxuries and conveniences incident to home, this season, as all know, is more productive of disease, and more hazardous and fatal, what must it be among strangers, especially at a fashionable summer resort, where all expect to forego home, with all its sweets and comforts both great and small? A comfortable home is evidently the safest and most natural place during the extreme heat of summer, especially for children ; and those parents who travel or visit fashionable watering-places during the sultry sum- mer months with their children, do so at the peril of the lives of the latter; and a distinguished writer has said : “ I never hear a child cry at Saratoga, but I pity the mother much and the child more.” The powers of en- durance of a healthy child are much less than those of a healthy adult; and the same irritability or exposure, which would not perhaps materially affect the latter, might prove serious or fatal to the former; for home, regularity, and quietness are of paramount importance to children, and there is no compensating for their ab- sence. A stumble may prevent a fall. 490 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. To borrow on usury is to herald your own beggary. Color of Apparel. The color of wearing apparel has much to do with the warmth of the body, or the radiation and absorption of caloric; for those colors which most readily take up and convey heat to the body from without also most readily carry off the heat from the body; or, in other words, the most rapid absorbents are at the same time the most rapid radiators, and vice versa. Thus, a black surface readily takes up the calorific rays, and also allows a free radiation of heat from the body, while white reflects the rays of heat, and also retards the radiation of heat from the body; hence it must be obvious that light-colored clothes are best adapted to all seasons and all climates. If, therefore, A and B be clad in suits of the same fabric, A having his suit black and B his white, and both be placed in the hot sun of July, A will become hot, sweaty, and oppressed, because his suit, being black, absorbs the calorific rays and increases the heat around the body, while that of B, being white, reflects the solar rays and prevents the accumulation of heat. And if, with the same suits, A and B be placed in the open air in the month of January, when the solar rays are feeble, A will become cold and chilly, because his suit readily ra- diates the heat from the body, while B will be less effected with the cold, on account of his suit being a less rapid radiator of caloric from the body. And observing men, much exposed to the extreme cold of winter, are practically familiar with the fact that a light-colored overcoat of the same fabric is warmer than a dark one, excepting when exposed to the direct rays of the sun or seated by a hot fire, when the absorption of artificial heat would be so great as to make the dark one excel. Charity should begin but not end at home. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 491 One good head is better than many hands. Poultices. Some suppose that there are very peculiar and specific “ drawing,” or “ healing,” qualities in poultices, and are at great pains and expense to procure certain compounds for this purpose, because they have heard some old granny or ignoramus declare that they possessed wonder- working qualities; and not unfrequently injury is done by these ridiculous and worthless applications, and bet- ter ideas ought to prevail as to so valuable an application as a well-advised poultice. Let all understand, then, that poultices possess no “ drawing,” “ healing,” cura- tive, or specific qualities, and that there is no difference in the applications made, so far as the effect is concerned, provided they are moist, soft, and porous. Thus in cases of boils and inflamed swellings, where the surface is hot, dry, and hard, the object is to soften, open the pores, and carry off the heat, and reduce the swelling and in- flammation ; and all that is needed is warmth, and con- tinued moisture with a porous substance which will take up the heat and the impurities in cases of old ill-condi- tioned and suppurating sores; and any preparation or compound which best effects these ends is the best poul- tice. And there is perhaps nothing known which better accomplishes all the ends of a poultice than fine raised wheaten bread, made soft by the application to it of suf- ficient milk to reduce it to the poultice form; or, what is equally as valuable, one made of milk with three parts corn meal and one part fine wheaten flour. Dog Days. The dog star, Sirius, rises and sets with the sun from the twenty-fourth of July to the twenty-third of August, Study wisdom, and she will reward you. 492 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The truth is not to he spoken at all times. which period constitutes “ dog days; ” and anciently many superstitious notions prevailed as to this period, which have long since passed away with the influx and advance of light and knowledge; but many still believe it to be a time unpropitious to health, which, excepting the high temperature that prevails at that season, is all erroneous. So far as hydrophobia is concerned, it is just as frequent and prevalent outside of dog days as during that period; nor are rabid animals always afraid of water, or always furious and fierce in their manner. The most reliable indications of their being really rabid are a wavering, unsteady walk, a haggard, dejected ap- pearance, and an extraordinary fierce and wild expres- sion of the eye. And in addition to what has already been said as to hydrophobia, we would add, as another safeguard against its frightful effects, the instantaneous application to the wound, however small, regardless of season or the condition of the dog, of the spirits of hartshorn, rubbing it on freely and thoroughly, as one of the very best of remedies; for the virus of most bites and stings is poisonous acid, and the timely application of the hartshorn, being an alkali, neutralizes the acid and kills the poison. Wearing Apparel. Clothing generates no heat, but simply aids in retain- ing around the body what is produced by the latter. Atmospheric air is well known to be a very slow or poor conductor of caloric; and the difference in the warmth of different fabrics of equal weight is due to the vary- ing quantities of air held in the meshes. The fur of animals contains more than any other substance, and Many things lawful are not expedient. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 493 Humility is the highway to honor. absorbs no moisture; and for these reasons is the slowest radiator of heat known, and the best adapted to the ex- tremes of cold. Flannels, a finer grade of hair than ordinary furs, are the next slowest conductors of heat, and also well adapted to all ordinary degrees of cold. Cotton contains much less air in its meshes than either fur or flannels, and is adapted to the moderate or warmer portions of the year; while linen, which contains very little air, soon becomes saturated with sweat, and is then a very rapid conductor of heat, and only suitable for the hottest portions of the year. Silk is not as ready a conductor of heat as cotton ; absorbs but little moist- ure ; has a very smooth surface; and, when it possesses sufficient body or thickness, is a very suitable article of clothing. As both silk and flannel are non-conductors of electricity, they are liable to disturb the regular action of this fluid in the body, which is to some extent an ob- jection to their use. Poulticing the Neck. Bronchitis and laryngitis, or inflammation of the bronchial tubes and larynx, both causing injury to or loss of the voice, now so prevalent among public speakers in this country, are due more to improper dressing of the neck, and to the use of tobacco, than to all other causes combined. If the neck or throat be in any way com- pressed while speaking, the vocal organs are impeded in their action, and an extra effort is needed to effect the same end; or if high standing collars or cravats are worn, there will be an undue accumulation of heat, pro- ducing an inflamed or hot and sweaty condition of the neck; and then a change in the air or temperature will Yielding tempers heal long contentions. 494 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. An artful fellow is the devil made worse. be almost certain to produce a cold or hoarseness, which, if repeated, as it is very likely to be by such practices, will be sure to lead to disease of the throat; hence this part of the body should always be left loosely and openly clad, so as at all times to admit a free circulation of air all around it. The old “ plug style ” of wearing a standing collar extending up to the ears, and a cravat in proportion, amounting in effect to a “ big poultice,” is a most pernicious practice, well calculated to induce dis- ease of the throat; while the modern custom of a low, loose collar turned down, with a simple tie in front, leaving the whole neck open and free all round, is a very great improvement upon the past. Punishing the Innocent. The habitual tobacco user has very little idea how awfully offensive this article is to those unaccustomed to it, for his own sensibilities soon become so much para- lyzed and blunted by its use, that it ceases to be offensive to him, and he presumes that such is the case with all others; and yet we have known hale and vigorous persons to sicken and vomit from its effluvia alone, when they declared that nothing short of an active emetic was ever known to affect the stomach. And if such is the case with the healthy, what must be the effect upon slender, delicate, and highly sensitive females; and is it a matter of surprise that such should sicken and faint from the fumes of cigars and puddles of saliva deposited all around them in cars and other places where they are compelled to be exposed to their poisonous effects? And there exists not a doubt but that thousands of delicate and highly sensitive persons have been seriously injured for The less sense a man has the less he feels the want of it. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 495 He who often teaches often learns. life, and their days shortened from the stench of tobacco, under circumstances which they could not avoid. And we would like to know by what rule of justice, saying nothing of common decency, politeness, and gentility, one has a right to poison the atmosphere which another is compelled to breathe, knowing at the same time that the sufferer cannot escape from the punishment which he is inflicting upon him! But the domestic filth of tobacco caps the climax, for so utterly repulsive is the stench of this most nauseous weed to the unperverted senses, that the user cannot even enter a house where it is not in use, without impregnating the atmosphere with the stench of his person and apparel, so as to make it positively offensive to the inmates for a time, depending upon the stay of the offender; and when we add to this the promiscuous and random shots of tobacco juice upon floor, carpet, furniture, stove, fire-place, or whatever else happens to be in the way, the use and filth of tobacco really become intolerable, as most good housewives can bear ample testimony from painful practical experience. Whatever may have been the occupation of the day, whether labor, study, or the pursuit of pleasure, toward its close we all become more or less weary, and the sys- tem instinctively calls for rest and repose; and there is no part of the body which is any exception to this call, or which does not participate in this tiredness. Owing to this jaded condition of the whole body at the close of the day, the blood circulates less actively and vigorously, and less heat and nervous energy are generated in a given time than during the early and middle portions The Third Meal. When all say you are an ass, it is time to bray. 496 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED If you would eat the kernel, you must crack the nut. of the day, and consequently all the functions, as well as their organs, are less active, in anticipation of the natural repose of night. Now the stomach is just as much a laboring, working organ and composed of a series of muscles, as the hand, foot, arm, or leg; and the proper digestion of a meal is the work of several hours; and the more we eat, the more the stomach has to do; and after all the organs of the body — stomach, of course, included — have done the usual duties of the day, to again load the stomach and subject it to four or five hours of extra labor, will to some extent explain the cause of the long catalogue of dyspepsias, neuralgias, and other numerous morbid and painful sensations now so prevalent and increasing. We have said that at the close of the day all the organs are jaded, and all the bodily functions less active and vigorous than during the other parts of the day; and if we add to this fact another equally important in this case, — viz., that in a recum- bent position, and especially during sleep, while the brain is dormant, all the bodily functions are much less active and vigorous than in an erect attitude, and while awake, whether tired or not, — we shall still further see the great impropriety, absurdity, and injury from late eating, or taking a hearty meal at the close of the day. And if nine o’clock be the general hour for retiring, it would be unspeakably and a thousand times better for all adults never to allow a particle of food to pass the lips later than four o’clock in the afternoon, and, excepting in a few extreme cases, still better, if no third meal at all were taken; for, in the words of an eminent health writer, “Such a practice, habitually and thoroughly If you have too many irons in the fire, some of them must burn. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 497 Keep no more cats than will catch your mice. carried out, would annually save more lives than are now destroyed by steam, sea, and all the wars.” The Human Voice. The vocal organs consist of the vocal cords, situated in the glottis, or upper part of the wind-pipe, with the epiglottis, throat, teeth, tongue, lips, and nostrils, and upon the perfection of all these depends the perfection and exquisiteness of the human voice. Of these the vocal cords are by far the most important, all the others seeming only to modify the voice in the production of the various sounds. Formerly it was supposed that the tongue was the most important of all the vocal appa- ratus, but experiment has shown that it is not essential either to speech or vocal music; for in several cases it has been removed, and the individuals thus mutilated could sing well and speak fluently. The vocal cords therefore may be considered really as the vocal organs, and may be fitly compared to the strings of an instru- ment, as a violin or bass-viol; and upon the slackness or tenseness of these cords, like those of the instruments, depends all the endless variety of sounds uttered by the human voice, from the shrill piercing treble to the hoarse, grum bass. The natural coarseness or fineness of the voice depends also upon the natural structure of these cords ; for when they are large and slack, the voice will be coarse and grum, like the bass; and when fine and tense, it will be shrill and clear, like the treble. The vocal cords are liable to become diseased from a common cold, from exposure to dust, or noxious fumes and gases, or from being over-done by excessive talking, public speaking, hallooing, etc., as when the voice The greatest king has at last to go to bed with a shovel. 498 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. We are much easier hurt than healed. becomes hoarse, and utterance difficult and laborious. Whenever, from any cause, the vocal apparatus is found to be deranged or debilitated, as indicated by hoarseness and difficulty of utterance, we should at once, as much as possible, refrain from talking, and taxing them, in order to afford an opportunity for them to recover, for continued use at such times may prove very serious. In a great majority of cases usually called bronchitis, or loss of voice, the whole difficulty is simply debility or relaxation of the vocal cords; and hence the immense importance of giving this apparatus ample rest in all such cases. Dancing. Dancing has often been termed a gay accomplishment and a healthy exercise; but the arguments against it are ten to one, more especially when associated with fashionable balls and parties ; for that dancing, with its usual attendant dissipations, has hurried thousands to an untimely grave, admits of not a doubt; and it is well known that inveterate dancers are nearly always a short- lived race. Bad air, bad passions, bad liquors, bad hours, and bad excitement make bad work and sad havoc with health, especially that of nervous, delicate females, wrho are usually most devoted to this amuse- ment; and disease of the heart, lungs, and a motley group of neuralgic affections are the legitimate result. Consumption or heart disease usually carries off most de- votees of the ball-room in early life; and that woman is by nature illy adapted to this exercise, and made for something more dignified and refined, seems obvious both from all anatomical and moral nature. For after all No longer pipe, no longer dance. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 499 Virtue and vice have no middle way. is said, dancing is at best but a vulgar, coarse accom- plishment, and legitimately belongs to a dark and bar- barous age, to savage nations and low, vulgar life; and there, as all well know, it is seen in all its glory. That there is nothing in it calculated to cultivate the mind or elevate the intellectual powers is evident from the fact that the educated seldom engage in it, and that the best and most enthusiastic dancers are usually very inferior scholars; and further, that it is unfavorable to health and longevity is evident from the fact that the most devoted dancers usually find a premature grave. “ Having no appetite, we bethink ourselves of tonicsy — the reckless take wine, brandy, or vulgar beer; and the conscientious do worse, and take physic, calling it ‘ bitters,’ as tansy, wormwood, dogwood, quinine, — espe- cially the last, which has helped to invalid and kill more people than would make a mountain sky high.” — Dr. Hall, New York. “ The flesh of no pent-up fowl or brute ought to be eaten, because it is diseased flesh. No won- der that gormands luxuriate on wild flesh; for their meat fs not only more tender, sweet, and juicy, but it is healthy flesh.” — lb. “ What a contrast between a su- perbly dressed woman and her low, plebeian face; be- tween a ‘ splendid turnout ’ and the meaningless pug- nosed occupant; and between the band-box exquisite or the blackleg, and the impudent stare and cowering look which always accompany the low and consciously degraded the world over.” — lb. “ The greatest hu- manity we can show the sick is to secure for them the most important remedies ever known to man — viz., Titbits. Glory brings more trouble than pleasure. 500 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A poor man has few marks for fortune’s aim. quietness, cleanliness, and pur.e air; and these alone would cure three-fourths of all the diseases known to man.” — lb. “Be moderate in your indulgences; half the paralysis in this country gets its first lurch from sexual excesses.” — J. C. Jackson. We all have thought and sense enough to select the most favorable, sunny ex- posure for our house-plants, but forget that men and women need light and sun as much as plants and vege- tables. Bice browned like coffee, and then boiled, and eaten with a plenty of black pepper, without anything else, and with complete quietness of body, is an almost infallible remedy for looseness of the bowels in general, without regard to name or form. Habitual costiveness may be cured with certainty by a free use of cracked wheat boiled soft and eaten with first-class syrup mo- lasses. Common sweet cider boiled down one-half, and one ounce of tincture of lobelia added to a pint of it, surpasses all other remedies in all ordinary cases of coughs, especially in cases of children. It is pleasant; there is no difficulty in administering it; and it will keep through the summer in a cool cellar. Every man should be and is held responsible for his deeds, unless they are clearly proved to be the result of a physical, mental condition which he had no agency in producing or ex- aggerating to the criminal point. It is stated that there are 40,000 doctors in the United States, and 500 profes- sional undertakers, which gives eighty doctors to one undertaker, not counting those buried without the reg- ular routine of the hearse. Artificial Aids. This is emphatically an age not only of unlimited, worthless, quack nostrums, but of abundant worse than Ask enough, and you may lower your price. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 501 False folks should have many witnesses. worthless quack surgical instruments or “ aids,” under the form of “ abdominal supporters,” “ uterine sup- porters,” “ patent auricles,” “ patent eye-cups,” “ patent shoulder-braces,” “ back-straps,” “ respirators,” “ in- halers,” etc., to such an extent that there is scarcely a member of the human body which is not amply provided with these important (?) artificial aids, not even except- ing that poor old pack-horse the stomach, which has more aids than all the rest, including the most exception- able of all, vulgar Dutch beer, and poison, rot-gut Yankee whiskey, both, if possible, worse than putrid bilge water. Now as to the whole routine of instru- ments, any half-read medical man knows well that they are not only useless, so far as a cure is concerned, but actually injurious; because, instead of arousing the weak part to use and action, the only real means of cure, they prevent use and action, and thereby only temporarily lull the part, while they induce still greater debility and disease. The truth is those who patronize these sup- porters need light and aid of quite another sort; for the best respirator is the natural inflation of the lungs, which all can practise at pleasure, without any instru- ments except such as are free to all, — the hips; the best shoulder-brace is to straighten up, throw back the shoulders, and go on about one’s business; while for nine out of ten who are fooled with these traps, the best supporter is to go to work and be compelled to live on what one earns. Equal Radiation. Whenever the body generates more heat than is needed for its use, the surplus is carried to the surface War makes thieves, and peace hangs them. 502 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A mittened cat never makes a good mouser. by means of the perspiration, and there radiated into the surrounding air, and in this way the temperature of the body is preserved at one uniform elevation; and it is important that this radiation should go on uniformly from all parts of the body at the same time; but in order that this may take place, no one part of the body, to the exclusion of the rest, should either be obstructed so as to check radiation, or exposed so as to increase its rapidity. Thus, by the application of boots to the feet and lower extremities, the radiation from those parts is very much impeded, and in moderate or hot weather the heat greatly accumulates, producing an inflamed and oppressed condition, and an extra flow of blood to the parts, which not only weakens and injures the parts themselves, but deranges the entire circulation of the body, as shown by the severe headache which it often induces. And, per contra, if any part of the body is unduly exposed, as in case of naked arms, low dresses, or throwing off* the coat on a cool damp day, the heat then radiates from the part exposed too rapidly, causing an influx from other parts of the body to preserve an equilibrium, and the result of this unequal radiation is a common cold. The obvious conclusion from these plain facts is, that at all times radiation from the body should go on uniformly from all parts; and to this end all parts should be equally protected, no portion ob- structed by useless clothing or otherwise, and no part exposed to currents of air from doors, windows, or un- broken currents in the streets. Old Age and Exercise. So far as needed, exercise is just as necessary in ad- vanced life as at any other period of our existence, but To know when to be silent is to know when to speak. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 503 Zeno, of all virtues, made silence his choice. requires to be practised with more care and vigilance than in youth or middle age. Thousands, who have reached ripe years and, by dint of active labor and close attention to business, secured a competence for the rest of life, retire from business to enjoy the fruits of their toil and industry, and make important changes in all their personal,habits excepting their diet, which remains the same, And this great change in their activity from labor or business to a quiet, sedentary life, without a corresponding change in their dietetic habits, soon tells upon the health; the digestion becomes more or less im- paired, the bowels inactive, headache, and a dull drowsy condition of the mind ensue; and soon the general health becomes materially impaired, and the individual deems himself in a decline, and attributes all to advancing years, and the infirmities incident to that period of life. But the real cause is simply a want of change in his dietetic habits, to conform to that of his changed busi- ness habits or labor, for there must always be a relation maintained between the amount of labor performed and the quantity of food consumed by any individual,— the greater the labor, the more food, and vice versa. Those therefore who have been accustomed to a life of activity or business, on retiring, especially if quite advanced in life, must adapt the quantity of their food to their altered condition in life, or soon suffer the pains and penalties of violated law and ruined health. Young Wives. The idea that females are by nature more mature at a given age than the other sex is simply a popular error, for which not a valid argument can be adduced; for it is A king’s favor is a poor inheritance. 504 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A guilty man fears the law; an innocent one, only fortune. only because man has hurried her into matrimony at an improper and immature age, that she now develops earlier than he does. The false passion of man for a young and immature wife has been tolerated by women, through matrimonial competition, until it has now grown into a custom, and almost into a law; has proved fright- fully destructive to women, and is now annually rushing millions of them into an untimely grave. And yet, the innocent girl, schooled to this idea and fate, and taught the fatal error that early marriage, no matter how early, is highly creditable to her, and a great vic- tory over the older unmarried females of her acquaint- ance, makes the direful leap of matrimony, from which, in nineteen cases out of twenty, she never again regains an equally desirable condition as the one she left. The perspiratory apparatus of the skin has already been noticed; and besides this there is another class of vessels imbedded in the skin called the oil glands, in main greatly resembling the perspiratory glands, ,but serving a very different purpose in the economy of the system. The vessels consist of small glands or sacks, located in the lower portion of the skin, with tubes or ducts passing from them to the surface, and are variously distributed over the body, according to the demand for their use, excepting upon the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, where they are wanting. The glands secrete an oily matter, which is poured out upon the sur- face, rendering the skin soft and pliable, preventing friction or chafing, and fortifying it against the action of water and the acrid matter of the perspiration. The Oil Glands. He who would please all will have to rise early. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 505 Keep a thing seven years, and you will find use for it. Upon the face and scalp they are very numerous, and the secretion and discharge are abundant; in the ear, they furnish the substance known as “ ear-waxand in the hollow of the arm the rancid odor is due to the secretion of these glands. The bitter qualities of the “ ear-wax,” by its offensiveness, prevent the entrance of insects into that organ; and the offensive odor under the arm removes from the blood noxious qualities, which, if retained, would be highly injurious to health. In a healthy condition of the skin, the openings of the oil glands are not perceptible to the naked eye; but when from any cause the skin becomes torpid and inac- tive, the secretion accumulates in the glands, and their openings become enlarged, their contents dry and im- pacted, and not being discharged as they should be, and their mouths being open, and exposed to the dust and smoke of the air, become dirty and black, forming small black spots upon the face, which greatly mar the com- plexion, and to remove them, make a free use of a wet cloth and soap. It is the oil glands in the musk-ox and musk-rat that furnish the musk, in the beaver that furnish the castor, and in the skunk that produce the peculiar odor with which most of us are familiar. Much attention to the skin, by means of frequent ablutions, is just as necessary to the health of the oil glands as it is to that of the perspiratory apparatus; nor can the healthy functions of either be long interfered with without more or less injury to the health of the individual. Dr. W. W. Hall, of New York, a popular writer and author, draws the following conclusions, as to the ability Human Endurance. Enough is wisdom ; too much is folly. 506 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Quick returns make rich merchants. of man to endure hardships and privations, from a knowl- edge of the sufferings and exposures of the world-re- nowned explorer and traveller, Dr. Livingstone. 1. The constitution of man adapts itself to all climates. 2. The hardships which the human body can endure are wholly incredible until seen, and, when encountered without alcoholic liquors, leave the constitution as firm and capable of new endurance as it was at the be- ginning. 3. In all great undertakings requiring persistent toil, privation, and exposure, those are the most likely to succeed who discard alcoholic drinks of every descrip- tion, and are strictly temperate in the indulgence of all the appetites. 4. Systematic temperance in eating and drinking is capable of shielding the human body from the pesti- lences of all climates, and from the fatal diseases of all latitudes. 5. The hardships which great travellers are called to encounter, by their extensive exposure to out-door air, and daily bodily activity, consolidate the constitution, and make it more healthy and enduring, while the mental powers take their share of increased vigor and activity. Croakers. These long-faced, hypochondriacal, unhappy mortals, who doubtless honestly believe themselves progressing while all the rest of humanity is going back, would fain make us believe that the world is growing worse by wholesale — that the summers are hotter and the winters colder—that beef is tougher and turkeys smaller — pigs Youth is the season of improvement. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 507 A wise poor man is like a palace in a wilderness. poorer and potatoes more watery — that eggs are smaller and ears of corn shorter — that there is less color in the grass and beauty in the rose — that the sun shines less hot and the skies are less clear — that the girls are not so handsome, and the boys more rough, rude, and ugly — that the minister preaches less gospel, and the judge administers less justice; while the doctors poison and kill more than ever; and, in short, that the whole world, and all in it, is rapidly growing worse, and impending ruin is at hand. And though this world and its con- tents are bad enough, we all know, still there is yet a great deal of evidence that on the whole it is rather improving than deteriorating; and a single fact is sufficient to estab- lish this point, and that fact is this: For every dollar given a century ago for charitable purposes, as schools, colleges, lyceums, and benevolent institutions for the poor, dumb, blind, deaf, maimed, etc., one hundred are given now; and all such institutions are now in the same ratio more plentiful and accessible than then ; then pence were contributed to the poor and unfortunate, now pounds are handed over to them in place of pence. Personal Habits. Of all the multitudinous means pointed out for the preservation of health and the prolongation of life, few, if any, are more immediately important than a regular and undeviating practice of retiring and rising early. The history of all active, energetic, and long-lived men has ever been a history of early risers; and long-lived late risers, if any ever did exist, are so very rare that no account of them has been transmitted to us. A Ro- man maxim was never to eat in the morning until they When each takes care of himself, all are taken care of. 508 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A wise man learns from the ignorant. had sweat and earned their breakfast. He who must have his breakfast before he can put forth any effort of mind or body is already far on the broad highway to old age; for a short course from the bed to the table is also a short route from life to the grave. The idea of being strengthened by an early breakfast is not only wholly erroneous, but absurd and ridiculous; for we should at least begin the day upon the strength derived from the last meal; for as the breakfast will be from three to four hours in the process of digestion, we can expect little or no aid from this during the early part of the day. The Hon. J. Q. Adams always took his walk of two to three hours before breakfast; and the life and habits of this great and good man of fourscore years should give the blush to thousands of the dwarfed and degenerate house-poisoned scorelings of this day, who in the very youth or spring of life, when, if ever, they ought to be vigorous and elastic, can hardly creep from their indulgent couch without first having partaken of their breakfast. Two eminent professors in one of our American colleges, of about the same age, both in rather delicate health, had very different habits,— one retiring and rising early, and taking much light, active exercise in the open air, while the other reversed all these habits; and while the former has performed a vast amount of literary labor, and is still living in comforta- ble health, the latter has accomplished nothing, and been ten years in his grave. “ Pericula mille scevce urbis,” or, “ The thousand dan- gers of the cruel city,” was familiar to the Latins two Health of Cities. A wise man only can know his own ignorance. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 509 He who obeys a wise man commands enough. thousand years ago, and is no less true in our day than it was then ; for the frightful mortality, and almost total disregard of human health and life in great cities, has fully entitled them to the name of “ hospitals of the liv- ing,” and “ sepulchres of the dead; ” for both health and longevity, in all large and crowded cities, always falls from ten to twenty per cent, below that of the peo- ple residing in the adjacent country. A want of clean- liness in large cities is doubtless the greatest cause of their proverbial insalubrity; but in addition to this there are many other minor ones, all co-operating to produce the aggregate evil consequences,— some moral and some physical. Man’s dietetic excesses and deadly repasts, his disappointments, his extremes of indolence and overdoing, his turning day into night and night into day, his incessant high state of excitement, the in- flamed condition of his passions, the eagerness and avid- ity with which he pursues his object, good or bad; dis- appointment from badly concerted plans, unceasing anxiety in the pursuit of pleasure, fame, fortune, or wealth; remorse attendant upon crime, losses at the gaming-table, disappointed love or friendship, degrad- ing and besotting pleasures, the presence of human misery and wasted wealth, the sight of insolent and ap- parently successful vice and humiliated virtue, and a thousand other similar causes, all of which depress the nervous energies of the body, affect the heart, shock the understanding, prey upon the mind, and shorten life. The original complexion of man is due to the deposit of a pigment or coloring matter in one of the layers of Habits and Complexion. In the hands of a fool, a great fortune is a great misfortune. 510 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. To know what will be, we must know what has been. the skin; and the endless varying complexion of the human family is primarily owing to variations in the quantity and quality of this pigment, being black in the African and white in the Caucasian race; and all the hues of color are intermediate between these two ex- tremes. These original colors cannot be materially changed, nor that of the African even modified; while that of the Caucasian can be considerably modified by climate, food, and habits. Thus, if the skin of the white man be subjected to the solar rays of a hot sun for any considerable time, the pigment of the skin, which consti- tutes the color or complexion, is gradually changed to a darker hue, and we are said to be “tanned;” while if the same individual had been closely cloistered up in the house, and deprived of the full light and heat of the sun and the fresh air, he would have become lighter rather than darker; that is, the pigment wmuld have been se- creted of a color lighter than the original color : so that light and heat seem to be the two great controlling agents in the modification of the complexion. But food also exerts no inconsiderable influence upon the com- plexion ; for a gross diet of greasy animal food, or of concentrated sweets, as candies, sweetmeats, pastry, etc., which contain much carbon, unless the habits are very active in the out-door air, greatly deteriorate not only the color, but the fineness, smoothness, or texture of the skin, giving it a rough, pimply, dark, dingy, and dull, florid appearance; while a free use of simple vegetables, with bread and the succulent fruits in general, especially the sub-acid varieties, always exerts a favorable influence upon the complexion. The quality of air habitually inhaled has also much influence in modifying the color Good harvests make men prodigal; bad ones, provident. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 511 He who hath no money needs no purse. of the skin. For if we breathe a close, pent-up, contam- inated air containing little oxygen, the veinous blood during its passage through the lungs is not properly aerated, and the system becomes charged with carbon, imparting to the skin a dark, livid, dingy cast. And the use of tea, by its active astringent and tannin qual- ities, exerts a still worse effect upon the complexion than either bad food or vitiated air; and hence the skin of all old tea - topers has a dead, dull, dried, shrivelled, leather-like appearance, so readily detected in the com- plexion. Again, much depends upon cleanliness ; for if the face be not often cleansed with soft water and fine, hard, white soap, it soon assumes a dingy, tawny hue; and when this condition has long existed, the skin will never again exhibit its former life, clearness, and beauty. The only genuine beautifiers, therefore, which we can conscientiously recommend to the ladies, are a simple diet, mainly vegetable, — no narcotics, rigid personal cleanliness, regular bodily exercise, pure air, regular sleep, and a cheerful temper; and if any of these be neglected, the skin and complexion will invariably suffer. As to the one thousand and one trashy catch-penny pre- parations which glut the market under the name of “ cosmetics,” every intelligent lady knows full well that they are only reliable in two respects, — viz., to empty the pockets and ruin the complexion. An Easy Death. He suffered a thousand deaths in his last illness is a very common remark of death-bed scenes, and often too true; but why ? Simply because the vital apparatus did not wear out uniformly and simultaneously. The tem- Dead dogs never bite. 512 The taller the oak, the heavier it comes to the ground. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. perate and abstemious, those of regular and systematic habits, are those who live long, and die easily without a pain, whose lamp of life goes out like an expiring taper, — almost unconsciously. But if the stomach has been ruined by gluttony, the nervous system by poisonous narcotics, the eyes by persistent night study, the brain by excessive taxation and excitement, the feet and hands by improper labor, etc., while other parts of the organ- ism remain comparatively sound and vigorous, though the former may be comparatively dead, and the whole fabric suffers more or less from this cause, yet the latter will struggle on, and battle for life and the integrity of the system, until completely exhausted and compelled to yield; and in this battle of live organs against those which are either torpid, dead, or rapidly dying, consist the pains, the stings, and the throes of death. A strictly temperate life, therefore, in all things, holds out to man the priceless object of a long, quiet, happy, healthy life, and an easy, painless, and almost unconscious death; and what greater inducements could the Creator offer ? A Mother’s Duty. Mothers should early begin to teach their children to do good and to do right, for the sake of right, and be- cause it is right, aside from all other motives; for this is laying a foundation for life which is immovable, and practice will soon make it so plain, simple, and easy a rule of action, that it will be much less likely to be for- saken in after-life than all other motives combined. To do right for the sake of right is a motive which will develop their best and noblest faculties, reason, affection, and conscience, and do much to suppress roughness, sel- He who waits for a dead man’s shoes may long go barefoot. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 513 He who has feathered his nest may flee when he pleases. fishness, and injustice, and smooth over the coarseness and harshness of animal instinct. Every mother has the key to the hearts of her children, whether or not she knows or uses it; and her duty is to open them to sweet impressions of kindness, love, and benevolence, and never hire them to do right with money or any other material consideration; for this would be practi- cally admitting a motive to action superior to right. If you have taught them this greatest of lessons from the outset, and otherwise managed them rightly, they will do your pleasure from a sense of justice and because they love you, without any other motive to action. Make them presents of valuable things as you may deem proper, but never of toys and gewgaws, and never hire them to do right; but let a consciousness that they have done right, and your smiles and approval, be their con- stant and only reward. Consistency. Many are exceedingly punctilious and fastidious in all that pertains to the person, apparel, food, drinks, furniture, and all else of the household, from the minu- tiae upward, but will sit for hours in succession and inhale an atmosphere which has been breathed over and over again by others in the same apartment, and which is actually poisonous and offensive, and never seem to sus- pect that anything is wrong. If it be asked how this can be avoided, the answer is obvious; ventilate, give influx to fresh air, and allow that which has been once breathed to escape, so that at all times the supply of fresh air shall be equal to the demand, which will de- pend upon the number present in the room; for the A clear conscience is the best of all laws. 514 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. An empty bag can’t stand erect. simple physiological fact, already elsewhere stated, that the entire blood of the body — about three gallons in quantity— passes through the lungs in the almost incred- ibly short period of three minutes, shows with what fear- ful rapidity the whole body can be poisoned or contam- inated by inhaling impure air or any other noxious gas. Quack Nostrums. It is often said of the Americans that they are the most gullible people in the world; but whether this be so or not, one thing is too patent to be denied, and that is this generation greatly outstrips all the rest of the world in the consumption of quack nostrums; and had our forefathers, who were a hardy race of simple livers, seen a modern newspaper, teeming with the extravagant and ridiculous lies and puffs of patent cure-all nostrums, they would have been filled with horror and amazement. And the worst feature of the case is, these monstrous pretensions, these abominable falsehoods, are really be- lieved and acted upon by probably three-fourths of the American people, and millions of dollars and thousands of lives are annually sacrificed at the altar of quackery and humbug. Few perhaps have any correct idea of the aggregate of quack nostrums annually palmed off upon the people of this country; for if all the elixirs, cordials, syrups, panaceas, etc., annually poured down American throats, were collected in one body, they would form a pond large enough to float a ship; and if all the pills, powders, and lozenges were gathered into one heap, they would rival in height the Bunker Hill monument. When then we literally make drug shops of our bodies, mere repositories of the vile trash gotten He is or soon will be wise, who keeps wise company. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 515 A crow is none the whiter for washing. up to sell, and jumbled together at random by illiterate and ignorant persons, whose only object is to filch our pockets, is it a matter of surprise that we become old, enfeebled, and decrepit in effect, while yet young in years and in the prime of life ? And how could it be otherwise, for by the use of these guessed-up nostrums, more likely to kill than cure, the stomach becomes jaded, and loses its tone; the nervous system is pros- trated, and the bright flush of youth departs forever, often before we reach the meridian of life. It is true that wonderful cures are heralded over the land, said to be made by these nostrums, but in most, if not all, such cases, the sufferer would have recovered sooner without than with the drug; and for every such pretended cure, there are tens of thousands of failures, and cases where it is obvious the sufferer was hurried to the grave by the use of the nostrum. The Hair. Diseases of the hair are primarily due to debility of the scalp, blanching to its inability to furnish the necessary pigment or coloring matter, and decidence, or falling out, to the hair being so long that the root cannot support it; and the only remedy is to keep the scalp clean and healthy, and cut the hair a little and often. Medicinal Agents. “How slow the world is to see the great but simple and important truth that the tendency of all medicines is not to life but to death; for the medicine never was found, and from the nature of the case never can be, which, so far as it has any effect upon the system, does not weaken the vital forces, and precipitates its victim down the hill A fool only will bray against an ass. 516 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Facts, like roses, are accompanied by thorns. of life. Every pill you swallow, every elixir you sip, detracts from your constitutional vigor, and slyly draws the perfidious wrinkle of old age over your face. Every property which makes any agent a medicine, a killer, or exterminator of disease, makes it at the same time, and at the same rate, a killer and an exterminator of the vital powers of the system. In precisely the degree that calomel, jalap, ipecac, etc., make war upon the disease in your system, do they make war upon the system itself. If you are possessed of a good natural constitu- tion, which is able to hold out under the assault or attack of the drugs, you recover; but even in this event it is always at the expense of your constitution and future health, and always at the price of an early old age, with all its concomitant ills and infirmities.”—Prof. Winslow. Effects of Confectionery. Such is the adulterated, poisonous, and dangerous nature of American confectionery at this day, that not one youth in a hundred can indulge freely in them for any considerable length of time without greatly curtail- ing the period of his youthfulness, if not that of his life; and as for girls who habitually indulge freely in candies, they may calculate to deal still more freely with the dentists and neuralgic pains, and have the mortification of early faded and withered beauty. For no person, however vigorous, whether old or young, can long make a free use of candies, sweetmeats, and the like, as now found in our markets, especially between meals, the very time when they are generally used, without sooner or later inducing serious disease, and shortening the period of their existence. And as for the effects of such things Pretty is that pretty does. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 517 Envy aims at others, and shoots itself. upon small children, it would be difficult to devise or imagine anything better calculated to derange the stomach and ruin the nervous system, and render them puny, delicate, feeble, sickly, and short-lived, than the free and common use of confectionery and this whole class of articles. And what an immense loss and mis- fortune it is to the whole country, in money, beauty, health, and life, that so many of these gaudily fitted up shops should be located in every street, and almost at every corner, to allure and mislead our wives and daughters, every time they walk the streets, to poison their stomachs, enfeeble their nerves, and prematurely mar and spoil their beauty! Immediately beneath the skin, all over the body, embedded in the fat which always lies subjacent to the skin, are almost innumerable little sacks or follicles called perspiratory glands, each having a tubular duct, leading from it to the surface, and each of these openings, called “ pores,” has a tube about one-fourth of an inch in length leading from the gland to the surface. These glands, tubes, and pores, or openings, are very numerous, and diffused in different proportions over the entire sur- face ; the average number, according to the distinguished anatomist, Erasmus Wilson, is about 2800 upon the square inch all over the body. Now if every square inch of surface contains 2800 of these little ducts, or tubes, and each is one-fourth of an inch in length, every square inch of surface will contain, in the aggre- gate, 700 inches, or over fifty-eight feet of drainage. And as the number of square inches upon the surface of an adult of ordinary size and stature is about 2500, The Bodily Sewers. Without conscience, without shame. 518 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Folly is never long pleased with itself. the aggregate length of the perspiratory tubing upon the whole body will be 1,705,000 inches, 145,833 feet, 48,611 yards, or nearly 28 miles; and as the number of pores upon the square inch is 2800, and the number of square inches upon the whole surface 2500, the ag- gregate number of pores upon the whole body will be 7,000,000. Bo extensive an apparatus as this, twenty- eight miles of perspiratory drainage, and 7,000,000 of openings ujion the surface for discharge, surely must be intended by nature for some most important purpose in the economy of the system, and this is abundantly shown from a temporary derangement or susjDension of their functions. The two most important functions of this very extensive apparatus, are, first, to remove from the body the sweat or perspiration, which holds in solution certain solid matters that if retained in the system would prove highly injurious; and, secondly, the perspi- ration which passes out through them is the means by which the surplus heat is discharged into the air, and the temperature of the body regulated. The entire quantity of fluid thrown off from the body by insensible perspiration, through these 7,000,000 of pores, is eleven grains per minute, 660 grains per hour, and 15,840 grains in twenty-four hours, or a trifle short of three pounds; and in case of active sensible perspiration, or ordinary sweating, many times as much more. The im- mense importance therefore of keeping this wonderful apparatus in an active, healthy, and working condition, must be obvious to all; and the long catalogue of ills which follow a check, obstruction, or interference witli its functions, as colds, coughs, hoarseness, sore throat, fevers, consumption, etc., cannot be a matter of A bad life gives death its terrors. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 519 Wolves may lose their teeth, but never their nature. surprise to any one who is familiar with their functions and operations. Means of Longevity. The first and most important condition of long life is a long-lived ancestry; for in this, as in nearly every other physical quality, as shown by the history of the world in all ages and countries, much is inherited, and that rarely or never do those born of feeble, short-lived parents attain great age. But this fact is no argument against the use of means and efforts to prolong life, as few comparatively reach the maximum of their inher- ited longevity for want of due care and attention to the laws of life, while with this care and vigilance all might realize it, and millions of years of precious human ex- istence thus be saved. A good physical education is a very necessary condition to secure longevity; and the opportunities for this are much better for those raised in the country, where habits of manual labor in the open air are the great thing needed, than in towns and cities, where sedentary habits prevail; and a vast majority of our long-lived great men have been raised, during their youth at least, to habits of manual labor in the country. Great physical strength, whether natural or acquired, is not necessary, if even favorable to great age; for very few if any, who have seen great longevity, have been noted for Herculean frames or great bodily powers. A full sized and active brain of at least average culture is decidedly favorable to length of days; and we have no knowledge or recollection of a single instance in which a simpleton, fool, or idiot ever arrived at great age. Devotion to books and study, with simultaneous atten- tion to the laws of hygiene, is well known to be pro- Many sift all their lives and get nothing but bran. 520 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Judgment is the child of observation. motive of long life; for the annals of literature abound in examples of extreme longevity. The rough and con- tending passions of ambition, hatred, jealousy, envy, etc., are positive enemies to life; while a calm, serene, and contented state of mind contribute to length of days; and early hours, with great regularity in the times of taking meals, are highly promotive of the same end. Deprivation of regular sleep taken during the early part of the night is especially wearing and exhausting to the constitution, and no efforts at substitution or renovation by any other means can ever atone for it; feebleness, premature decay, paralysis, insanity, etc., being some of the legitimate effects of protracted vigilance. Simplicity of diet is indispensable to continued life; and the food and drinks of all long livers have been plain, coarse, simply served up, and mainly vegetable, with water or milk for drinks. Apology for Dissipation. It is quite customary in these days of dissipation and fast living, when persons of some note depart suddenly, to attempt to smooth over the cause which produced the death by the mildest terms possible; and this the politic coroner and sympathetic physician well under- stand and take advantage of. If an old opium-eater steps out suddenly, as most of them do when the life- powers have been destroyed by the poison, he is usually let off into the grave by the very mild and fashionable phrase, “ He died of disease of the heart,” and this at once covers his folly, his shame, and his crime ; and the same is true in thousands of cases of gluttony, brandy drinking, and other species of abuse and dissipation. Most secrets are short-lived. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 521 Where virtue prospers, envy lies in ambush. At the recent scientific congress held at Strasbourg, France, out of sixty-six cases of sudden deaths reported, two only had symptoms of disease of the heart, which is only one case of heart disease in thirty-three cases of sudden death ; and we have every reason to believe that a careful post-mortem in this country, in such cases, would develop similar facts, for “ heart disease,” “ apo- plexy,” etc., in a vast majority of sudden deaths, are merely mantles of charity cast over the faults, failings, and disreputable habits of the so-called “ genteel people.” Chilliness. The heat of all warm-blooded animals is chemically produced by the union of carbon and hydrogen with oxygen; the first two being received into the system in the food, and the last through the lungs in the air. The blood then contains all these elements; and the point where the union takes place and the heat is developed in the human body is the capillaries, or connecting link between the arteries and veins. Now these elements of combustion are brought to the capillaries, the fire-places of the body, by the blood; and the more rapidly the blood circulates, the more rapidly the caloric is gene- rated throughout the system, and the higher will be the temperature of the body, and the warmer we shall be, and vice versa. Thus, if we run rapidly, or labor at something requiring active, muscular effort, the circula- tion of the blood is rapidly increased, the materials of combustion or fuel will be* more rapidly brought to the points of combustion, the heat will be greatly increased, and we soon find ourselves in a profuse perspiration and very warm, even on a cold, winter day; whereas, had Envious men grow lean at the success of their neighbors. 522 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Be not a significant figure among naughts. we remained quiet under the same circumstances, we might have been chilly and uncomfortable. Again, any compression or confinement of any part of the body, by checking the circulation, diminishes the development of heat in the part, and to some extent throughout the en- tire system; hence the cold feet from tight shoes, and cold hands from tight gloves; and the pallid cheek, diminished vitality, and general sensation of chilliness experienced from corset-lacing. If we desire health and length of days, we must be willing, in the first place, to furnish Nature the fuel or material to form the blood ; and, in the next place, give her an opportunity to de- posit the fuel at the point necessary to keep up the fires of life. A languid, feeble circulation from want of ex- ercise, or caused by artificial obstructions to the free cir- culation of the blood, are the banes of health and life, and the main sources of bodily feebleness, languor, gen- eral debility, chilliness, etc., etc. Quietness. No one condition is of so much immediate import- ance to the sick, not even fresh air, as profound silence and freedom from all excitement and tumult; and if all else be right and this be wanting, it may prove fatal to the patient; for every sharp noise, every jar, every rattle, and every sound low or loud, pleasant or un- pleasant, arouses the nervous system, exhausts the vitality, and accelerates the progress of the patient to the grave. And especially is this true of infants and small children, who are more sensitive and less enduring than adults; and we are fully convinced that thousands of infants are annually sent to the grave by the noise Speak what is well, and do what is better. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 523 Make not your sail too large for your ship. and tumult of the room in which they are placed, who would have recovered without any medical treatment, had silence prevailed around them. Temperature of Infants. An idea prevails to some extent that the temperature of the infant body is higher than that of the adult, and that they ought to be hardened or “ toughened,” as the term is; and hence the very reprehensible practice of ex- posing their arms, necks, and legs in cold, damp, bleak weather,— a custom which has sent millions of infants to an early grave; for the experiments of Dr. Milne Ed- wards have shown conclusively that the temperature of the human body is at its minimum in infancy, and gradually increases until adult age, when, with the de- cline of all the physical powers, the heat diminishes also. Children therefore and those far advanced in life, and more especially the former, require to be better clothed and protected than in adult age, and parents who practise the “ hardening ” custom upon their children in rearing them will be sure to kill all but the most hardy and vigorous, who alone can endure this cruel and unnatural treatment. On the other hand, care should be had not to muffle up and over-clothe children, for this, although not quite as imminently dangerous and injurious as the “toughening” processes, nevertheless, highly detrimental to the growth, health, and develop- ment of the child, and should be very carefully guarded against. The true medium point in the case is at all times to have the child so clad as to perfectly preserve the natural temperature of all parts of the body, and all more or less than this is at the expense of future health. He who talks much talks much nonsense. 524 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. If you buy magistracy, you must sell justice. The Friends and Foes of Digestion. As digestion is the process by which the living body converts the food and drinks into bone, flesh, nerves, skin, etc., and sustains its own temperature at nearly a uniform state in all latitudes, the great practical condi- tions which facilitate or retard it should be familiar to all. 1. A thorough mastication and insalivation of the food are the most important conditions to a rapid and healthy digestion. 2. No severe exercise, either of mind or body, should be taken for half an hour before, nor for one hour after, each meal. 3. Digestion progresses more rapidly in a standing or erect sitting posture than in a recumbent one. 4. Light pleasant exercises of mind or body facilitate digestion, while the opposites retard it. 5. Mirthfulness and the indulgence in fun and glee favor digestion, while gravity, sadness, and especially moroseness, are adverse to it. 6. A pure, cool, bracing atmosphere greatly aids diges- tion, while a close, pent-up, warm, and impure air very greatly retards the whole digestive and alimentive pro- cess. 7. Moderate joy, good news, and a happy, quiet frame of mind are favorable to alimentation in general, while grief, sadness, great care, worriment, and excitement will not only retard, but in some cases nearly suspend, temporarily, the whole alimentary process. 8. The use of fluids of any sort, even water, and espe- cially hot narcotic tea and coffee slops, retards digestion Preserve a mean, and a mean will preserve you. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 525 Great works are accomplished by repeated littles. in several ways, as do also the extremes of temperature, heat and cold. 9. During sleep, while the brain is quiescent, and in- nervation to a very great extent suspended, digestion progresses very slowly; hence late suppers, or taking food soon before retiring, is a shameful violation of a most important law of health. 10. Over-eating greatly retards digestion, first, by over-distending and debilitating the stomach; and, secondly, by a deficiency of the solvents of that organ to dissolve an unnecessary quantity of food. 11. Punctuality and regularity in the time of taking the meals greatly facilitate digestion; while those who take their meals at random, and practise “ nibbling ” between meals, will very seldom long enjoy a healthy digestion. 12. A free and unobstructed condition of the body, from the apparel, especially around the chest and waist, is very important to a rapid and vigorous digestion; and hence those thoughtless beings who compress their bodies with corsets, for fool fashion’s sake, always suffer more or less with indigestion and dyspepsia. 13. When the warmth of the body is sustained by active exercise, digestion is increased in rapidity; but when by artificial means, as clothing, fire, etc., it is en- feebled and retarded. Surfeit. A fool eats at random, regardless of consequences; while a thoughtful, provident man applies the knife and fork with the greatest care, knowing full well the sequel of a surfeit; yet the best and most wary will sometimes exceed the quantity, known by a peculiar sensation of ful- A true jest tingles the guilty ear. 526 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Never weary in well-doing. ness, uneasiness, and discomfort, and under such circum- stances we all desire to do something to obtain relief. Pills, brandy, pepper, pickles, and a multitude of the like trash, are resorted to by the sufferer, but all to no purpose; because there is no adaptation of means to ends, and the remedy is often only an addition to the load and op- pression already present, increasing the discomfort of the subject rather than relieving him; nor is there any re- liable medicinal agent known in such cases. The very best and quickest thing to relieve surfeit, and that which is least hurtful, is active light exercise in the open air, or a brisk walk until a gentle perspiration is produced, and then maintain the perspiration at this stage, and continue the exercise until entire relief is secured, and then wholly omit the next meal; this would prevent many a sick hour, cramp, colic, fatal diarrhoea, etc. Age dims the lustre of the eye, pales the roses on beauty’s cheek, while crow’s-feet furrows and wrinkles, lost teeth, gray hairs, bald head, tottering limbs, limp- ing feet, and bowed down posture sadly mar the human form.— One had better lose a meal, or sacrifice the earn- ings of a day, than suppress or defer a single call of na- ture ; for constipation, the attendant and aggravator of almost every disease, is sure to follow.— Thousands of bright and beautiful children are annually destroyed, or made partially or wholly idiotic for life, by the use of opium, paregoric, laudanum, or some narcotic anodyne.— Parents should know, and not forget, the fact that many a bright-eyed child has been sent to an early grave by being taught self-abuse by unprincipled servants, in Variety. He who will steal a pin, will steal a pound. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 527 Haste makes waste, and waste makes want. order that the exhaustion produced by it might promote sleep, and lessen the labor of the attendant; for medical books abound in cases of this awful character.—“ To all mothers we say, you cannot safely trust your child out of sight to one servant in a million, especially to that class who always have a ready, ‘Oh! yes, ma’am,’ to every question or request which you have to make.”—Dr. Hall. —Bring up your daughters to have their own way right or wrong — let every wish be gratified, and every ob- stacle removed from their path without an effort of theirs—give them no practical opportunity of self-denial —teach them that the comfort and convenience of father, mother, brothers, and everybody else must be sacrificed to them, and you will educate them to be selfish, impa- tient, impudent, thankless, ungrateful, unreasonable, and uncontrollable, and to ruin both themselves and their husbands.—The average of human life is shorter by several years in the eastern hemisphere than in the western, as shown by most recent statistics. Of three hundred people in the United States, only four die annually, while six die in England, eight in France; and the annual mortality increases as we go east. The United States, from recent statistics, is the most healthy country upon the globe; old Virginia is the healthiest of all the States, and North Carolina, with pine-knots, pitch, tar, and coal-dust, is the second in the Union.—Always make it an especial point to wear upon the person at night, and sleep under, the least possible quantity of clothing which will maintain the temperature of the body; for those who wear or sleep under more than is necessary, will be compelled to wear that much more in the day, or feel chilly all the time.—To prevent white Get a name for early rising, and you may lie in bed all day. 528 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When necessity pinches, boldness is prudence. flannel under-garments from shrinking, wash them in soap-suds as hot as the hand can bear, rinse well in warm water, and dry soon in a warm room, never allowing any cold application to them, nor any soap to be rubbed upon them. Medical Criticism. Dr. Rush compares the science of medicine to “ A temple unroofed, and cracked at its foundation.” The following apologue, says D’Alembert, made by a physi- cian of wit and philosophy, represents well the present state of medical practice. “ Nature is fighting with the disease, a blind man armed with a club, the physician, comes to settle the contest. He first tries to make peace, but failing to effect this, he lifts his club and strikes at random ; if he hajDpen to hit the disease, he kills it; but if he hit nature, he kills her.” Bicat, the French phys- iologist, says, “ Medicine is an incoherent mass of in- coherent ideas, and of all the sciences best shows the caprice of the human mind.” Prof. Chapman says, “ Consulting the records of the practice of physic, we cannot help being disgusted with the multitudes of hypotheses obstructed upon us at different times. To harmonize the contradictions of medical science is indeed a task as impracticable as to arrange the fleeting vapors around us.” Dr. Bush says, “ I am insensibly led to make an apology for the instability of the theory and practice of medicine, for those physicians generally become the most eminent and successful who soonest emancipate themselves from the schools of physic.” The Doctor adds, “ Dissections daily convince us of our igno- rance of the seats of disease, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. What mischief have we done under the When the heart is full of lust, the mouth is full of lies. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 529 A little rain allays much dust. belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases: we have done more, — we have increased their mortality.” Fine taste in dress will always be found to accompany pure morals, while a licentious style of dress, with gaudy, flaunting extras, will almost always be found in connection with a laxness and disregard of manners, morals, and conduct; and to correct in dress whatever is unbecoming, ungenteel, injurious, or useless should be the study and object of every thoughtful, pure-minded woman. All who still have sense and judgment left sufficient to desire the preservation of woman’s native beauty of form against a host of stay- and corset-makers, who, armed with whalebone, steel, and buckram, are peregrinating the land to the utter destruction of every natural and beautiful form which falls in their way, should rally to the rescue of our mothers, sisters, and daughters; for to suggest an improvement upon the human form is a high-handed sin, and to attempt it is an open blasphemy. Elegant dressing is not necessarily based upon large expenditures; for money, without stint or judgment, in the absence of good taste, may load down and burden the subject, but can never ornament or improve the personal appearance; for the whole secret of dress, so far as personal ornament is concerned, lies in simplicity and a judicious adaptation of all to age, figure, rank, and condition or circumstances. And to dress well upon this basis — the only true one — needs not that extravagant care and solicitude to such minute and trivial objects as is usually exhibited by those who Dress. The world is a great workshop, and the wise only know how to use the tools. 530 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A revengeful man keeps his own wounds open. seem to live for no other or higher object than to arti- ficially ornament the person. The extremes of tasteless and useless extravagance and slatternly indifference are alike to be avoided, for few can afford to supply indis- criminate profusion; while comparatively few in this country will be found inadequate to provide comely and appropriate attire, especially when managed with judg- ment and economy. In female dress more especially, the one great end to be sought and ever kept in view — the one great secret of all her charms — is modesty, con- scientious, innate modesty; and this alone can perma- nently bind man’s heart to woman; for in it is com- prised not only the beauties of the body, but also those of the mind; and fortunate and happy is she who pos- sesses the genuine article. And in the words of Moore: “Let that which charms all other eyes, Seem nothing in her own.” Care of Health. It is not the most hale and vigorous who are always the most efficient or accomplish the most in life, but those who most highly prize health and life, and best care for what constitutional vigor they may have. Sir Isaac Newton suffered most of his days from a painful dis- ease ; William the Conqueror was a wretched, wheezing asthmatic all his days; John Calvin for twenty years never experienced a well day; Bishop Hall was a mar- tyr to ceaseless pain ; Baxter had a serious constitutional infirmity, and labored under wearing pains most of his days; and so of hundreds of other great and good men; and yet by care, vigilance, and abstemiousness, what wonders were accomplished by these suffering men? An honest word is better than a careless oath. 531 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Hasty climbers get sudden falls. while millions of others, stalwart and vigorous, have lived and died, with no other record of their existence left behind than that they breathed, ate, slept, and died, as does the brute. In general, it may be stated that careful, thoughtful, wary men of rather slender consti- tutions, who are fully alive to every cause and agent which promotes health, and on the alert for whatever is adverse to length of days, usually live longer and suffer less bodily pain in life than those who are large, stout, and hardy, and rely upon their wire of constitution for health and longevity. Liquor at Meals. There are few popular ideas more completely destitute of fact, or more injurious in practice, than the one which supposes that the use of brandy and other alcoholic liquors aids digestion, and helps the glutton or gormand to work off the shameful burden which he has imposed upon his thrice-jaded stomach; for it is now a conceded physiological fact that ardent spirits, in every shape and form, from small beer to alcohol at one hundred per impede and impair digestion, and are adverse to the whole alimentary process. That a drink of pure brandy, after a meal consisting of much fat, may aid the system in appropriating the fatty matter to its immediate use is highly probable; but fat gives no strength, makes no part of the real body; for fat people are never tough, strong, or enduring; while at the same time the action of the brandy upon the albumen, from which bone, muscle, blood, and tissues are made, is to coagulate, harden, and render it much more difficult to be acted upon by the natural solvents of the stomach. The prize- The worst mother desires good children. 532 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When wine enters, wisdom steps out. fighter, wdiose object is to secure the greatest possible amount of strength, wants no fat, and labors to rid him- self of this useless burden and to supply its place with actual muscle or flesh; hence, while in training, he never takes liquor. A man may have a full, ruddy face, and plump, well-filled skin with fat, and yet have little strength ; for fat is a disease of itself, a mere puff, which imparts no agility of limb, no activity of body, no power of arm, no courage of heart, and nothing else but dul- ness, stupidity, and laziness. The idea, therefore, that “ liquor aids digestion,” is both erroneous and absurd; for, so far from that, it weakens the nerves, stultifies the brain, cowers the heart, and materially injures the whole human organism. Growth in Stature. The most rapid growth in man is during the first year of his existence, which is about eight inches, and the second year about half as much. During the third year the increase in height is about two and two-tliird inches, and from the third to the fourteenth year the stature progresses with considerable uniformity, at the rate of about two and one-fifth inches annually. From four- teen to twenty it increases very slowly, not usually ex- ceeding one inch per annum, and often the whole sys- tem is not complete at twenty-five. The mouth hasheen aptly styled the throne of smiles; and though all smiles are said to be near akin, there seems to be little resemblance between them. There is the smile of simplicity, ingenuousness, modesty, inno- cence, tenderness, voluptuousness, winning, gayety, wit- Smiles. Base manners soil the finest clothes. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 533 A living dog is better than a dead lion. tiness, mischievousness, contempt, satirical, scornful- ness, etc. A Merry Life. But, say the thoughtless and reckless, suppose all the hard sayings about the bad effects of tea, coffee, and wine upon health to be true, what do I care for that; for I prefer a short life and a merry one; and I shall not deprive myself of these great luxuries, which con- tribute so much to the glee of the festive board, and the flow of spirits in the social circle, for the paltry consid- eration of five or ten years added to this miserable ex- istence. But let such remember that the additional existence which we receive as the reward for our obedi- ence to the laws of our being, is by no means all added to the end of life; for the man of temperance in all things receives real additions to the sum total of his physical existence every day of his life, besides that added at the end, which are unknown to the habitual violator of the laws of health, and which he can never know by any other means than obedience and fidelity to those laws; for it must be a self-evident fact, even to the most ordinary capacity, that the healthiest life is at the same time the happiest, merriest, and longest life, in whatever light it may be viewed. Bread, in some form, is always upon our tables at every meal, and always partaken of by all, which can- not be said of any other article in use; and this fact alone should insure its uniform excellence in quality; but unfortunately such is far from being the case. The deleterious effects of sour bread upon the general health Bread. The sleeping fox catches no poultry. 534 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A ploughman on his feet is better than a king on his knees. of the community is fully conceded by all who have any knowledge of hygiene; and yet a vast majority of that in daily use, all over the country, is sour, hard, heavy, half-baked or half-burned stuff, a disgrace to the term bread, and an insult to the human stomach ; and is among the active agents which tell for evil upon the health of the American people, and instead of being the staff of life is in effect really a cudgel of death. None, however vigorous and healthy, can long maintain that condition upon the hard, tough, doughy, or half burned- up, leathery, obstinate misnomer called bread, which nowadays so often comes upon the domestic table smo- king and reeking with the acrid poison of saleratus, nor upon the still worse chaffy, tasteless, innutritious, drugged trash from the baker’s cart, which deserves the same name. If fermented be used, all that is needed to pro- duce the very best of the sort is good flour, water, and hop yeast, and a very little common sense or natural mother wit; and the good sense of any one who has had the experience of half a dozen “ batches,” and fails to make good bread every time, may well be doubted. The art of making good, light, easily-digested bread seems to be rapidly falling into disrepute, and at the present rate of deterioration will soon be wholly lost; for the present generation seems to be much better acquainted with the use of quack nostrums, as Bran- dreth’s Pills, Swaim’s Panacea, and such worthless drugs, than with domestic bread-making. Condiments. These constitute no part of our food, but are simply artificial excitants to increase the demand for food beyond Love alights where suspicion enters. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 535 Limited desires make a poor man rick. that required by nature, and hence oil, catchup, pepper, vinegar, allspice, ginger, cinnamon, nutmegs, cloves, etc. are not needed by any healthy human being any more than they are by our domestic animals; and it is very doubtful whether any diseased stomach was ever im- proved by any such stimuli. Brevities. Good health is everything to beauty: it moulds the features into smiles, warms up the affections, softens the heart, rouses the generous sympathies, and main- tains a full and gushing flow of all the goodness pos- sessed by the individual; while illness saddens the countenance, corrugates the cheek, depresses the brow, chills the fountains of natural love and kindness, and veils the mind in despondency. Three-fourths of all our ailments are produced or continued by preventing the refuse (fseces) of our food from passing out of the body, after the nutriment has been extracted by the vital machinery, for the growth and renovation of the body. A canary-bird hung up in a fashionably cur- tained bedstead, where two slept, died before morning, from the vitiation of the air by the occupants; but because the poisoned air was not sufficiently virulent to kill the sleepers at once, as it did the bird, the former of course would conclude that curtains were highly use- ful appendages to a bed, and continue the use. The morbid emanations from the bodies of those under the bed-cover, by gradually collecting and becoming concen- trated, are really more contaminating and destructive to health than vitiated air breathed in common in an open room ; and it is especially dangerous at night, while in An inquisitive man is a spy in ambush. 536 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Buy the truth, and sell it not. bed, because more likely to be absorbed in a recumbent and quiescent condition than in an erect and active one. Surfeit in man is called founder in a horse, and consists in eating more than the stomach is able to dispose of and convert into healthy blood. Intemperance, or rum and company, lias sent to the prisons of Philadelphia during twenty-one years, ending January 1st, 1869,182,449 per- sons, or 8688 per annum, and 23 daily. Where are the consciences and souls, if they ever bad any, of the men who have been actively engaged in this infernal work of selling the lives and souls of their fellows for money? Are they now living in “ brown-stone mansions,” and riding in splendid “ turn-outs,” in the vicinity of Phila- delphia, upon the proceeds obtained from the sale of blood and souls ? As all intelligent persons must know that eating heartily late in the day is most destructive to health, it need not be proved here; for it is contrary to nature, physiological law, and common sense, to eat much later than sundown, or less than two hours before re- tiring. When a vegetable begins to wilt, it is no longer the same vegetable, because a change of particles has taken place, and it has become unnatural — is dead — and to eat it has a death tendency. It is a well estab- lished physiological and hygienic fact that half-putrid or rotten flesh, as eaten by tlieN would-be fashionable world, although more tender, and requiring less chewing, requires even more effort of the stomach in the process of digestion than tough, solid, fresh meat. Whoever saw a bald woman unless from actual sick- ness, and whoever saw a bald man below the point Baldness. Better know everything of something than something of everything. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 537 Common consent is the only just basis of government. where the hat touched the head, even if he had been bald half a century ? The fact is, the close-fitting, un- ventilated hat or cap takes the hair off just as clean as one could shave it off, down to the precise line around the head where it touches, but no further. There are many times more roots in the scalp than there are hairs growing upon the head, and when one becomes bald, in most cases, by judicious hygienic treatment, the hair may be restored; but when, from long abuse by the ex- clusion of fresh air from the head, the naked scalp shines, the roots are usually dead, and the hair cannot be restored. The tight - fitting hats and caps usually worn are, in point of health, little less than curses, for fresh air should always have free access to the scalp, which, with present customs, is rarely the case. Hats should be light, rest loosely upon the head; the more holes in them the better, and never worn when they can consistently be dispensed with. Chairs. Chairs, almost without exception, are too high either for health or comfort, being usually seventeen inches, when fourteen for the average of women, and fifteen for men, are amply sufficient in front, and two inches lower in the back, to prevent the sliding forward which pro- duces most of the inconvenience in sitting. Those who observe this simple suggestion in their chairs will add much to their health and comfort, and greatly lessen the fatigue of the sitting posture. Married at Last. “ She was born of fashionable parents—had a fashion- able ‘ child-killing ’ education at a fashionable board- He lives well who lives in peace. 538 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The folly of one is the fortune of another. ing-school — caught a fashionable beau — for the last year has been making preparations for a fashionable wed- ding ; hut with even her fashionably blinded mother, it was thought she could not stand up long enough to have the ceremony performed. But at last, after much anxiety, and the free use of stimulants and tonics, she was finally brought up to the scratch, and last evening there was a magnificent fashionable wedding at her father’s fashionable mansion. Now I honestly think that all who took any part in this ridiculous and dis- graceful farce ought to be publicly castigated, and the clergyman who sanctioned it, and was accessory to so infamous a crime, ought to be expelled from the pulpit. Constant change of air and society, and the most tender care and nursing, may perhaps keep this poor dying fashionably killed thing alive until she has borne one, probably two puny dying children, who are doomed soon to follow their mother to an early grave; hut who, should they be so unfortunate as to live, will be guilty of the same wicked fashionable folly as their mother.”—Dio Lewis. This relic of paganism, barbarism, and by-gone ages still prevails to a considerable extent in most civilized countries, although most sound-thinking persons seem ready to disprove it, and even to condemn it in no mild or measured terms. In the first place, the gloom and depression which this black advertisement of death pro- duces, especially upon the sensitive and nervous, tells powerfully upon the health, without even the least pre- text or possibility of any good to be anticipated from it, either to the dead or living. Secondly, the apparel Mourning Apparel. Appetite runs while reason lags behind. 539 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Elevated regions are never without storms. usually worn for mourning is black, and too heavy and warm for summer, and too light and thin for winter, and is often the direct cause of much serious disease. Thirdly, to make one’s self a walking advertisement of his own affliction seems at least unwise, if not ridiculous, for the death of a dear friend is too near a grief to be thus lightly bandied about in public. Fourthly, it is a matter familiar to all, that in a vast majority of cases the whole routine of outside mourning by apparel is a cold, formal, meaningless affair of custom or fashion, in fact a mere farce; and that those who are most precise and punctilious in the observation and etiquette of mourning are often those who really least lament the absence of the departed. And, fifthly, to follow up the usual fashionable routine of mourning apparel involves a large outlay in almost every instance, which thousands are unable to meet without inconvenience and sacrifice, and the apparel thus procured, when abandoned for this purpose, being neither adapted to summer nor winter use, is nearly a dead loss to the owner. Dandruff. This is a scaly, bran-like formation upon the scalp, and seems to consist of rapid formation and falling off of the epidermis or scarf-skin, and in some cases becomes exceedingly annoying: some persons are much more prone to it than others, and the cure is both cheap and simple. 1. Wear the hair as short as consistent to give the air full and free access to the scalp and roots. 2. Avoid irritating the scalp by the use of sharp-toothed combs and brushes. You cannot fly like the eagle with the wings of a wren. 540 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. If you creep in the bushes, you must expect to find briers. 3. Let tlie head remain uncovered and open to the action of the air as much as possible. 4. Wash the hair and scalp thoroughly at least once a week with soap and warm, soft water, and wipe dry immediately; and avoid all the quack hair preparations in use. Expanding the Chest. Attach a strong rope overhead, and to the lower end fasten a stick in the center about four feet long, so that the stick will be one foot above the head, having it of suffi- cient size in diameter to be conveniently grasped by the hand, and strong enough to sustain the weight of an ordinary man. Now seize the stick with both hands, equal distance from the rope, and as far asunder as con- venient, and swing upon it for a few minutes at a time, several times daily, gradually extending the hands far- ther apart as you become familiar with the exercise. The effect of this is to elevate the ribs and expand the chest, and as Nature never allows any vacuum, the air rushes in; and thus the lungs, and through them the whole chest, by a gradual and habitual repetition of the exercise, will become very much expanded and strength- ened. Almost from the hour of their existence, children are stuffed with improper food, choked with drugs and ano- dynes, sloshed in water, suffocated in a hot, house-poi- soned air, and sweated and steamed in quilts and com- fortables. And still worse, on the other hand, if once or twice a month in warm weather they are permitted to escape from the domestic prison, the nose only is allowed Domestic Infanticide. If you live upon hope, you will die fasting. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 541 Though the wound be healed, the scar still remains. the blessing of fresh air, while in the cool, bleak days of autumn and spring, they are seen in scores in all our towns and large cities, with naked arms, legs, and necks, the very parts which most need protection, while the rest of the body is literally burdened with useless and ill-adapted apparel. A vigorous, stalwart man, on a rough March day, goes out with heavy overcoat, boots, woollen socks, and gloves, while the tender child of four or five years is taken out on the same day with cotton socks, thin-soled shoes, and with naked legs, neck, and arms; and why ? Simply to “ harden ” or “ toughen him,” when the same exposure would kill the mother or nurse, and at least lay the father up for a month. And the worst feature of this domestic slaughter of children is that after parents have thus tampered with the health of their offspring, and frittered away their lives from ignorance and fashionable folly, they attempt to palm it off on the Lord, and take to themselves comfort and consolation that He had some agency in the melancholy afiair, which they alone must atone for. In cases of common colds, and also when any foreign substance is present in the nasal passages or upper part of the windpipe, the larynx, there will usually be an accumulation of phlegm or thickened mucus in those parts, of which we instinctively desire to be relieved, and which the health of the parts require should be re- moved. Now the natural way to rid those parts of this morbid secretion is from the larynx by “ hawking,” and from the nose by direct “ blowing,” in the usual way; but instead of this, a great majority of mankind, Sniffing. Soldiers in peace are like chimneys in summer. 542 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A diligent man always has leisure; a lazy one, never. when they perceive phlegm in these passages, attempt to remove it by sniffing, or first drawing the air forcibly up the nose and carrying the offensive matter down back to the larynx, and then forcing it up into the mouth by hawking, and subsequently discharging it; which is not only obviously unnatural, but believed to be highly in- jurious to the health of those parts. In the first place, any foreign matter present in the larynx, or in contact with the vocal organs located in the larynx, is highly irritating, tends to induce bronchitis, and ultimately consumption, and should, as far as possible, always be avoided. And it so is that often when the larynx and vocal organs are not directly affected, but in a compara- tively healthy condition, there will be more or less ac- cumulation of the phlegmy matter in the nasal passages, which, instead of being directly discharged from the nose by blowing, is sniffed and thrown back upon the larynx, and then discharged by hawking in the usual way. And this, by keeping up a slow irritation and inflammation of those parts (the larynx and vocal or- gans), ultimately induces serious disease of those parts; and one writer has publicly expressed the opinion that this prevalent practice of sniffing is the primary cause of as much bronchitis and ultimate consumption as any other known cause. But whether this be so or not, the practice of sniffing is evidently an unnatural and a more or less injurious one; for all accumulations in the nasal cavities should be directly discharged from the nose, and not thrown upon other parts, to induce debility and disease. He who would enjoy the fruit must not molest the flower. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 543 Be faithful, for honor is the meed of fidelity. Old Virginia and Tobacco. “We are very well acquainted with tobacco. Look at the Virginian, for example. He talks of tobacco, he dreams about it, he eats it, he smells it; the dollar in his pocket is redolent with its fumes; it is wedged in under his finger nails, it spots his shirt bosom, it stains his vest, its juice is scattered over his pants, it cakes on the corners of his mouth, it stains his lips and soils his cheeks; and as he continues to use it, the necessity for it increases, and he finally goes to sleep with a lump of it in his mouth. But look at the consequences. Next he begins to dry up, his flesh shrinks away, his face is gaunt and deathly, his body thin and slab-like, his legs are like spindles, his gait is tottering and unsteady, his head, arms, and fingers shake like the palsied or the agued; next comes the wasting of the life-powers, diges- tion ceases, appetite fails, the nerves are exhausted, and dulness, stupor, and the sleep of death come on and close the scene.” — Dr. Hall. The Mouth and Nose. There seems to be quite a difference of opinion as to the functions of these organs in the act of respiration; some contending that the latter only is the appropriate organ of inhalation and exhalation, while others think the former equally as much intended for this purpose as the latter ; but to us the case seems not a difficult one to solve, if we attend to the pointings of Nature. First, a vast majority of persons of all ages and both sexes, while in health, do actually and habitually breathe through the nose without the aid of the mouth. Secondly, there is always a corresponding relation in size between the The death of the wolf is the life of the lamb. 544 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A clear conscience is a wall of defence. lungs and nostrils; large nostrils accompanying large lungs, and vice versa, which shows an obvious adaptation of one to the other in size, and consequently in use. Thirdly, the numerous stiff hairs at the entrance of the nostrils are obviously intended by Nature, as in the ear, as a protection against the introduction of small parti- cles of matter into the lungs; showing still further the special adaptation of the nose as an organ of inhalation. Inasmuch as the nasal passages are liable to become ob- structed by colds and other causes, and sometimes even completely closed for a time, the mouth seems to have been intended as an auxiliary or substitute in case the functions of the nose should become temporarily sus- pended ; for breathing through the mouth in a state of health is always deemed an unfavorable symptom. And when we add to this the obvious fact, that if the mouth were habitually used as an organ of inhalation during winter and in all the higher latitudes, the teeth and lungs would constantly suffer from the sudden influx of extremely cold, dense air, we think the case is clear that the nose is naturally intended as the external organ through which respiration is to be carried on, and that the mouth is only a wise provision to secure that end in cases of emergency. The idea of giving infants and small children an occa- sional airing, by taking them out in small hand-wagons, is a good one; but the way in which it is usually done is often a fruitful source of injury to the children. In the first place, in crossing streets, thoughtless servants and ignorant nurses often pass the curbstone with such Baby-Wagons. Assiduous labor produces success, fame, and glory. HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. 545 Deliberate long upon that which you can do but once. rapidity as to give to the wagon a very sudden jolt, which is almost sure to injure the child by producing curvature of the spine, deformities of the limbs, or con- cussion of the brain; and thousands are annually either destroyed or injured for life in this way. Secondly, the custom now seems to be to push the hand-wagon in front, instead of drawing it behind, as formerly, thus making the child ride backward,—a thing which few adults can do without great inconvenience, and many not at all, and a custom almost certain to affect the child unfavor- ably. And it will be nothing new to state that infants have often died very suddenly from these joltings in crossing streets; and those having the care of young children cannot be too guarded in this particular. To the Girls. Young ladies,—caged-up birds of beautiful plumage, but of sickly looks, pale-faced, feeble pets of the parlor, who vegetate in an unhealthy atmosphere like potatoes germinating in a dark cellar,—why not go into the open air and warm sunshine, and add strength to your steps and vigor to your limbs? Take early morning exercise, let loose your corset-strings, run up hill on a wager, and down again for fun, roam the fields, climb the fences, leap the ditches, wade the brooks, and after a day of fun, merriment, and exercise, return home with a keen appetite, and prepared for a sound and refreshing night of sleep. The fine, blooming young lady, rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed, who can knit and darn stockings, mend her own dress, make a loaf of good bread, command a pile of dishes and a dozen pots and kettles, feed pigs, milk cows, be a lady in the parlor and Competency is the reward of frugality. 546 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Be not overjoyed at anything. a work-maid in the kitchen, this is the girl that sensible young men are now everywhere in quest of for wives. But your pining, complaining, screwed-up, laced-to- death, waspen-waisted, doll-baby-dressed, tea- and coffee- steeped, consumption-mortgaged, music-murdered, and novel-devoured daughters of folly, fashion, and idleness, are no more fit for matrimony than a three months’ pullet is to look after a brood of fifteen chickens. The simple truth is, you need less fashionable restraint and more freedom and liberality of action — more kitchen and less parlor — more leg exercise and less sofa lounging — more frankness and honesty of mind and less mock modesty and dissimulation. Loosen therefore your waist- strings, and breathe the pure air of heaven ; live up to the standard of your nature, and be as healthy, beautiful, wise, and good as the Creator intended you should be. Alkalies in Bread. “ Cream of tartar and carbonate of soda are greatly in- ferior to good hop yeast for any purpose of bread or cake making; and more of the former articles are used in one day in this city (Boston) than in all Europe in a year; and it is these alkalies mainly that so early de- stroy the teeth of our young men and women. In the large towns and cities of France, home-made bread is unknown, and the Government is very stringent in regu- lating the laws for the production of bread by the bakeries. Officers are appointed to keep a strict watch over them, and if detected in using or having in their bakeries, ammonia, saleratus, soda, or any other alkali applicable to food, they are subjected to a heavy fine; and are not such regulations just as necessary for the Have confidence, but know where you place it. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 547 Let not the tongue forerun the thought. protection of the people of this country as for those of Europe ? ” — Boston Transcript. Maffeus, who wrote a history of the East Indies, men- tions a case of a native of Bengal, named Mumas de Cugna, who lived to the age of 370 years, and died in 1856. He was a living history; his memory retaining a minute record of his entire life. He had four succes- sive sets of teeth, his hair changed several times from black to gray, and he had over one hundred wives dur- ing the course of his long life. Another case is also mentioned of a mulatto man, in Fredericton, New Bruns- wick, who lived to the age of a hundred and eighty years. Great Longevity. Eminent Men. A glance at the record of a vast majority of our most distinguished and successful men, whether in business, the arts, or literature, will show them to have once been poor boys, who have made their way in the world solely by their own unaided efforts and real merit; who when young were compelled to labor hard and long, either to help themselves or their parents ; and by this means the foundations of bodily health were secured, and that self- confidence and self-reliance gained which, in after-life, sharpened their wits, and led them on to great success in business. The boyhood and youth of thousands of our now most prominent and wealthy men throughout the land were spent in constant toil, early and late, upon farms, in workshops, or in stores, and usually un- der the most unfavorable and trying circumstances, and often subjected to great privations and self-denials in A wise man keeps his own counsel. 548 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Virtue, not lineage, only constitutes true rank. food, clothing, rest, sleep, and recreation. They worked hard, sat np late, rose early, did the work of one man by day and of another by night, in order to meet the demands of imperative duties. Said one of our most popular modern authors and lecturers to us a few years since: “Young men nowadays generally know nothing of the cost and value of an education. I went four hun- dred miles on foot, in midwinter, with the snow two feet deep and my pack upon my back, and only four dollars in my pocket, to go to college. I worked my way to college, and worked my way through college ; I thought it hard then, but a life of prosperity and success have amply rewarded me for all my toil. I rang the college- bell to pay my tuition ; I sawed the wood for the students and carried it up-stairs, to procure my clothes; I took up and sold their ashes to buy my books, and did chores nights and mornings to pay my board; and in this way went through college: and while not one student’s name in ten was ever known beyond the college-roll, thank God I am what I am ! and it was these hardships which have made me.” Let not then any young man be dis- heartened because he is poor, or has to make his way alone in the world; for this, the road which has been travelled by many a proud and envied name, and with honesty, industry, and perseverance, is sure to end in success, prosperity, glory, and renown, whatever bent or direction the mind may take. Our Women. “ How comes it that our married women dwindle, fade, and grow thin, that their noses incline to sharpness and their elbows to angularity, just at the time of life Speech is but the image of thought. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 549 Silence often exhibits more sense than speech. when our English sisters round out into comfortable and becoming plumpness? If it is the fog and smoke of coal, why then I fear we shall never come up to them ; but perhaps there are other causes why a country which starts so many of the most beautiful girls in the world should produce so very few comely and beautiful women. Have not close, heated, stove-rooms, hot biscuit, hot corn-cakes, hot tea and coffee, with fat pork, and divers other compounds gotten up with acrid, poisonous salera- tus and soda, something to do with it? ” — Mrs. H. B. Stowe. Light. The popular custom of shading our apartments to prevent the carpets from being faded, or our complex- ions from being tanned, is, in the mildest terms, unwise and pernicious; for we all know the effect of the absence of light upon plants; and it is no less injurious upon men and animals. M. Dupuytren, a very distinguished French physician, had a lady patient of rank who per- severed in a strange determination to remain in a shaded or partially darkened room ; and all efforts to improve her condition proved unavailing until she was induced to change her apartment for one that was well lighted, when she rapidly recovered without medication; and Lavoisier, the distinguished French chemist, places light before air as an agent in the recovery of health. Life Gems. M Whenever a man dies short of eighty to one hun- dred, it is the result of violated physical law, and almost always on his own part.” — Dr. Hall. “ The reason why children die is because they are not properly taken care Pride usually accompanies promotion. 550 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED, Three moves are equal to a fire. of.” — lb. It is now a well established fact that the free use of the natural acids of fruits and vegetables aid much in the separation of the bile from the blood, which is supposed to be the great exciting cause in most if not all fevers; and that such acids may have their full effect upon the system, their action should not be neutralized by too much sweetening; and they should be eaten fresh, and as little mixed or compounded as possible. At the bot- tom of all wells and springs there is always a gradual accumulation of sediment and debris which render the water more or less impure; and all such sources of water, however excellent or pure, should be thoroughly cleansed out and washed at least twice a year, — spring and fall. “We believe that no medicine ever yet cured scrofula, or kept it under any longer than while it was being taken.” — Dr. Hall. The longest livers are the dwellers in poor-houses a*nd palaces; because, though antipodes in worldly condition, both classes are provided for, and the galling, chafing, life-exhausting cares for sustenance and the wants of the morrow are removed from them, and the mind, otherwise harassed with anx- iety, is at rest. A tight-fitting glove or shoe will keep the hand or foot as cold as ice, while a loose, free one will allow a free circulation of the blood and produce a glow of warmth. The very best possible life insurance which one can have is to be temperate, industrious, and frugal, and secure at the earliest possible day a moderate, uni- form, and certain income on which to rely for the re- mainder of life. Pain in its ultimate effects is a positive blessing to man; for it is the great sleepless, vigilant, faithful, life-preserver, which gives prompt warning when harm is being done to the system that we may ward it Covetous people are always in want. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 551 The faults and errors of others should be a warning to us. off and protect the body from it. Meats and animal food, especially fat meats, contain from fifty to eighty per cent, of carbon, the main fuel that keeps up the fires of life in the body; while vegetables have much less, potatoes twelve, berries five to ten, and turnips only three per cent.; hence the former class is best adapted to winter or cold weather, when the body requires more fuel and heat, and the latter to summer or hot weather, when a surplus of fuel not consumed would clog the system and induce fevers and other serious diseases. In cities generally there are more deaths under five years of age than there are between five and sixty, owing to their being less able to endure constitutional abuse and neglect during the former than the latter period, the great vital points under five being pure air, suitable food, and proper warmth. Natural Longevity. M. De Lapasse, of Paris, the most eminent writer upon longevity, says that the average length of life in France, in the middle of this century, was thirty-seven years; but if the French people lived in accordance with the great laws of health and life, their average longevity would range from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years. His opinion is based upon the fact that the life of all warm-blooded animals in a state of nature is sub- ject to one invariable law ; viz., the period of their existence is ten times the period of their growth or ma- turity, as seen in the elephant, cat, dog, ox, fowls, and most other animals; and as man seldom matures younger than twenty, and often not until twenty-five or twenty- eight, the inference based upon this law of Nature is Beauty and chastity are not always in fellowship. 552 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A poor man changes masters, but never his condition. that, at the lowest estimate, he could live two hundred years. Necessity for Sleep. The brain naturally expends its energies during wake- fulness arid labor, as the muscles do their muscular power, and these energies must be renewed during sleep; and if the exhaustion or expenditure exceed the recuperation, insanity will follow; for those who die for want cf sleep always die raving maniacs: and the same is generally true of those who die from starvation; for the brain not being nourished, sleep is impossible, and mania ensues as a natural consequence. The practical conclusions from these facts are as follows; viz., first, those who do the most brain-work need the most sleep; secondly, that a deficiency in the quantity of sleep, or a neglect to take it at the right time in the night, is fatal to both mind and body; and, thirdly, that all, from the youngest upward, should at all times have an abundance of sleep, retiring early and regularly, and rising at the first moment of consciousness in the morning, and Na- ture will then mete out the precise quantity of sleep which each individual requires. Extreme Developments. A prodigious development of tlie muscles, the result of much bodily effort and training, although it may pro- duce a splendid animal, destroys the balance between the muscular and nervous systems, and leaves the brain with less than its normal power; and Plato, more than two thousand years ago, said, “ An excess of bodily ex- ercise may make us wild, powerful, and ungovernable, while an excess of arts, science, and refinement will He i ich who is content with his lot in life. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 553 Attempt not that which you cannot accomplish. make us faddled and effeminate; and only the right com- bination of the two can make us truly wise and manly.” Pride and Sin. “We recently attended the funeral of a young child where the minister dwelt upon sin as the cause of death, which was true; but in this case not sin against the moral but the physical law of God, for the child was clad for the grave in the same garments she had worn while living, and the bare neck and arms exposed while in health, to gratify the erroneous pride and vanity of the parents, had induced the disease which proved fatal to the child. This fashionable sin and pride killed the child, and is making fearful havoc with thousands of others whose parents prefer fashion and the exhibi- tion of erroneous pride and vanity to the health and lives of their children. It is positively wicked, and a most heinous sin, to subject tender children to such ex- posures as would prove fatal to healthy adults under the same circumstances. They need not be kept muffled up with clothing, but should always have sufficient to protect all parts of the body from any exposure to which they may be subjected.” — Am. Agriculturist. Broadcloth. Although American gentlemen have adopted broad- cloth as a national costume, the propriety of its use may well be doubted, for with the single exception of its appearance, which many even do not admire, it has not a single quality to recommend it to favor, and many valid objections to its use. In the drawing-room, pulpit, or as a state suit for extra occasions, a neat attire of fine black broadcloth is very appropriate, but on most Be mindful of favors received. 554 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. To spare the rod is to spoil the child. other occasions it is, to say the least, in very bad taste. Broadcloth, and especially fine black broadcloth, is too light and thin for the north, and not much better adapted to the south; is too black to be cool in summer, and too thin to be worn in winter, and gives to the wearer the aspect of being always in mourning. It is frail and very easily torn, and still more easily soiled and injured in appearance; it is very expensive and does but little service; its strength is wholly inadequate to any pursuit requiring active and muscular exertion or rapid, free motions; the young will not engage in any sports or manly exercises, through fear of their broadcloth; they will not venture in the rain, for fear the lustre of their broadcloth may disappear; they dare not ride a horse, for want of faith in their broadcloth; they dare not run, or leap a fence or ditch, for fear of parting their broad- cloth ; and, in fine, this fabric is an obvious enemy to active exercise, and of course to health and longevity. Effects of Air on Water. If a vessel of ice-water be placed in a room which is occupied, it will in a few hours absorb most of the im- pure gases present in the room, the water becoming de- teriorated, and the air of the room improved by the pro- cess ; and the colder the water, the greater will be its capacity to absorb and retain these gases. At an ordi- nary temperature, a pint of water will take up a pint of carbonic acid gas and ammonia, and by reducing the tem- perature to the freezing point, its capacity to take up will be greatly increased. On this account, water, which has stood a while in an occupied room, becomes unfit for use, whether or not it has become warm. The better the day the better the deed. 555 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. There can be no miracles to the unbeliever. Killing Children Fashionably. Let them eat and drink when they please, what they please, and as much as they please; give them freely of hot tea and coffee slops; let them sleep on feather beds, in close, heated rooms; let them go to bed and get up when they please; dress them fashionably, with arms, legs, and neck naked, and then expose them to a cold, damp atmosphere; keep them closely harnessed up in fashionable tights, and hived up in a house-poisoned atmosphere, excepting an occasional ride; and when the day of retribution comes, and they sicken from such kind treatment (?), as they are sure to sooner or later, administer to them such active, poisonous drugs as would kill a hardy adult, and complete the work of infanticide; and then console yourselves with the wicked idea that the “ Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away,” etc., when your own pride, folly, and ignorance caused the death. Bed Covering. Heavy, impervious cotton counterpanes are very im- proper coverings for beds, for the very obvious reason that they retain all the exhalations from the body, while lighter bedding, as blankets, allows them to pass through. We are all of us, and especially the sick and debilitated, invariably distressed by heavy bedding, which often greatly interrupts our sleep; and the lighter bed-cover- ings are, so that they render us comfortable, the better and the more healthy they are. Prevention and Cure. There is no truer saying than the old adage that an “ ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure; ” Vice is nourished by concealment. 556 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Better spare at the brim than at the bottom. and if one-fiftieth of the attention was given to prophy- lactics or prevention that is now devoted to drugs and drug medication, the amount of disease in the nation, in the aggregate, would be diminished fifty per cent, in a single year; and while prevention really costs nothing, sickness and cure, even if the latter be secured, cost pain, suffering, anxiety, loss of time, injury of constitution, and last, but not least, usually large doctor bills. The three great things in the prevention of disease are sim- ple food, regular habits, and free exercise in the open air; but with all these, and due attention to minutiae and details of prevention, one may sometimes, either from ignorance or inadvertency, find a “ screw loose ” in the vital machinery, or some slight disorder or jar in the running, which, if not promptly attended to, will soon prove serious, and require much effort to obviate it. The skilful engineer, the moment he perceives anything wrong in the working of his engine, cuts off the steam until the cause is fully known, and, if need be, at once works off what is already generated : and precisely so in the human system ; the moment we perceive any unnat- ural sensation or pain in any part of the body worthy of notice, that very moment the supply of food should be entirely cut off, and not an atom taken, at least until the cause of the derangement is fully known and pro- vided for. And if simple abstinence from food is not adequate to rectify the derangement, the system should be emptied of a portion of the fluids already present, made from the food previously taken. This is usually done by purgatives or blood-letting; but Nature’s way is by sweating; and to meet this end, she has provided 7,000,000 of little boles upon the surface, called “ pores,” Vigilance and forethought would prevent most calamities. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 557 An evil mind always has an evil meaning. which are incessantly active from birth till death in the work of emptying the system ; and in case of any attack of disease they may be made to do many times their usual work in a given time by the use of hot teas, hot applications, baths, etc. And it is entirely safe to state that in at least nine cases out of every ten of acute at- tacks of disease, if the food be wholly stopped for a day or two, and subsequently very little given until recuper- ative symptoms appear, and a gentle moisture be main- tained, with proper attention to cleanliness, the subjects will recover sooner than by any system of drug medica- tion now known. Boys and Tobacco. “ The use of tobacco has spoiled and utterly ruined thousands of boys, by inducing a dangerous precocity, softening and weakening the bones, injuring the spinal cord, brain, and whole nervous system. A boy who early and habitually smokes, chews, or uses tobacco in any of its forms, was never known to make a man of much force or energy of character, and will generally lack both physical and mental force and energy; and all boys who have any desire to rise or be anything in the world should shun tobacco as a baneful poison and a deadly enemy.” — Dio Lewis, Boston. Fashionable Suicide. Wear thin cotton stockings and light cloth shoes, with insufficient clothing, in cool, raw, damp weather; lead a lazy, indolent, sluggish, listless, aimless, excited, theatre-going life; keep late hours and diet fashionably ; sleep on feather beds in seven-by-nine rooms without any ventilation, lest you might “ take cold; ” eat hot, Hidden virtue is little better than obvious sloth. 558 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Air, exercise, and hunger make the best sauce. stimulating food, with hot tea and coffee slops, at all times when a morbid appetite calls for them, and gulp them down without either mastication or insalivation, because “ it is too much trouble to chew so much ; ” turn day into night and night into day; begin early the use of tea and coffee, and in due time add to them spirits, wine, and tobacco; nibble constantly between meals of cakes, nuts, fruit, and poison confectionery; give way to passion, and always be sure to be in a hurry and excite- ment ; follow some unhealthy and life-destroying occu- pation to “ make money ; ” marry in haste, from an in- sane passion, some fashionable noodle, and always after live in a continual feud and jar, with ceaseless crimina- tions and recriminations. Dr. Abernethy and the Yankee. An American residing in England once called on Dr. Abernethy, of London, for advice in what lie called dyspepsia; and after a little conversation, the Doctor broke out upon his American friend as follows: — “I never knew a Yankee who did not bolt his food like a boa-constrictor. How can you expect to digest food which you neither take the trouble to dissect nor time to mas- ticate? It is no wonder you lose your teeth, for you never use them; nor that your stomach fails, for you overload it habitually; and as for your saliva, you spit it upon the carpet instead of combining it with your food, as Nature intended. It is disgusting, it is beastly. You Yankees load your stomachs as a Devonshire man does bis cart,—as full as it will hold, and as fast as it can be pitched in with a hayfork, — and then you complain that such a load of compost is too heavy for your A contented mind is a private fortune. 559 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Ill-gotten gain soon departs. stomach. Dyspepsia! pooh ! It is beastly gormandiz- ing and guzzling you mean; and I tell you what, sir, take only half the time and pains to chew your food that you now do to chew your tobacco, and you will be well in a month without drugs or prescriptions.” — Exit Yankee. Buckwheat Cakes. The common idea that the use of buckwheat pro- duces eruptions seems to be sustained by practical ob- servation ; for the writer has seen numerous cases, in which its use was freely exhibited, that were followed by very disagreeable eruptions upon the body in every member of the family who had used it, while such of the familv as did not use it were not thus affected. We •/ are however of the opinion that all the harm done is not chargeable to the buckwheat, but to the “ trimmings,” or butter, sugar, and syrup used with them; yet, all things canvassed and considered, we think buckwheat less healthy than the other grains in common use, and for this reason we never use or recommend it. Domestic Sports. “ Don’t be afraid of a little fun at home, nor shut up your house lest the sun should fade your carpets or tan your skin, or lest a hearty laugh should shake down some of the musty old cobwebs from the corners of the wall. If you want to ruin your children, let them think that all mirth and social enjoyment must be left on the threshold when they enter the house; for when once a home is regarded as only a place to eat, drink, and sleep, the work is begun which may end in gam- bling-houses and reckless degradation. Young people A friend in need is a friend indeed. 560 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The deferential regard rank and station. must have fun and relaxation somewhere; and if they do not find it at home, they will be very likely to seek it in other places less favorable to virtue and morals. Let, then, the domestic fires burn brightly at night, and make home ever delightful with all the little arts and attractions which all parents ought to understand. Never repress the reasonably buoyant spirits of young children, for an hour spent in social merriment around the firelight of a pleasant home often blots out the re- membrance of many a care and perplexity during the day, and is the best safeguard which a youth can take with him into the world of business, care, and torment.” — Dio Lewis. The nerves are the immediate instruments of sensation or feeling throughout the whole body, and every im- pression made upon them is first telegraphed to the brain, and then we are conscious of the impression. Accompanying each nerve, in close proximity, is a blood- vessel corresponding with it in size; and the presence of arterial blood in the vessel seems to be necessary to sensibility of the nerve. Now, so long as the circulation of the blood in a part remains healthy, there will be full life and sensibility in the part, and neither extreme of pain nor insensibility will exist; but if, from any cause, the circulation in a part is materially, and for any con- siderable time, at once obstructed or interfered with, in- sensibility or numbness will occur; and if the cause be con- tinued to a sufficient extent, paralysis will be the result, but not usually accompanied with much pain. On the contrary, as the blood is the one great source of renova- tion and repair in the body,—that is, is to the body what Pain. The greatest barkers are not always the greatest biters. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 561 Love and a cough will make themselves known. the timber, brick, and mortar are to the building, — if a part of the body be directly injured by force, violence, or by any disorganizing agent applied to it, an extra quantity of blood will be temporarily sent to the part to make the necessary repairs in the case, and this pro- duces an overfulness, or congestion of the blood-vessels in the injured part, called “ inflammation,” and by press- ing upon the nerves produces pain while the repair is going on. This explanation is local, but the law applies to any and all parts of the body; so that it will be seen that pain is simply an increased sensibility attendant upon the repair or healing process of a part, and that inflammation is the friend and not the enemy of life, as without it there can be no healing, no recovery in any bodily injury. Effects of Neglect. It is estimated by good judges that in the temperate and northern portions of North America seven-eighths of all diseases have their origin, primarily, in common colds; and yet there never was, and never will be, a case of common cold which may not be thrown off by very simple means in twenty-four or forty-eight hours, if 'promptly and thoroughly attended to, and no additions allowed to be made to the first impression. The case of the Czar Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, affords a most striking example of a neglected cold, deteriorated by subsequent additions to the first impression. While re- viewing his troops in the month of January, he took a severe cold, which alarmed his physicians, who advised him not to repeat his review. “ Would you make as much of my illness if I were a common soldier,” asked One robin does not make summer. 562 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Once a knave, never an honest man. the emperor, in a tone of good-natured pleasantry. “ Certainly, please your majesty ; we would not allow a common soldier to leave the hospital, if he were in the same condition that your majesty is,” was the reply. “Well,” said the czar, “you would do your duty, and I will do mine;” and the exposure was repeated, with the result of greatly increasing the bad effects of the first impression, and he died a week afterward. The great secret of throwing off a cold is, cease at once to take an atom of food ; make a free use of hot teas and hot applications; keep up a gentle moisture all over the body, and keep perfectly quiet. Time and Quantity of Sleep. The immediate necessity for sleep is well understood by all; but the absolute necessity for the requisite quan- tity of it, and that it be taken at the proper time, is less understood and appreciated by the masses than anything else of the same importance. For it is not sufficient that we devote the required number of hours to sleep; they must be taken at the proper time, and regularly taken every night. The simple fact that we spend nearly one- third of our entire li ves in sleep is alone ample to pro- claim the overwhelming influence and importance of sound sleep to the health, happiness, and longevity of man. A habitual deficiency or irregularity in the time of taking sleep will sooner or later disorder the whole animal machinery, and bring upon us numerous and very serious chronic forms of disease. The appetite will become impaired, the digestion weakened, the secretions diminished or changed in quality, the mind dejected, the nervous system exhausted, waking dreams and Few people are secure from slander. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 563 We are disposed to believe what we desire to be true. strange phantoms appear, which ultimately become per- manent, and mania and death ensue. To secure ade- quate sleep, therefore, taken during the early part of the night, should be a paramount consideration with all, for its absence is sure to prove ruinous to health, and can- not possibly be compensated for by any other means known to man. Early Rising. What is there that gives such a glow to the counte- nance, such clearness and precision to the ideas, such expansiveness to the mind, and health to the whole sys- tem, as early rising and a walk before breakfast? And most who enjoy habitual good health, especially to ad- vanced age, are as much indebted to early retiring and rising for it as to any other one cause; for if the sluggard be not already a dronish dolt, he is surely far on the way, and will soon become one. An Erroneous Plea. The devotees of narcotic slops, alcoholic liquors, and tobacco are often heard to say, by way of palliation for the use of these drugs, that what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison ; and although these articles may be deleterious to most persons, they deem themselves an exception to the general rule, and think they are not injured by the use of them. Now the ability of any and every individual to abide the habitual use of poisons and morbific agents depends upon two things — viz., first, the actual vital power possessed by him ; and, secondly, his habits or mode of life. The farmer or laborer, with an ample chest and well developed lungs, whose habits are active in the open air, may sometimes endure the A continued bad practice grows rapidly upon us. 564 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Mischief always lurks behind dissimulation. effects of such poisons for years, and apparently suffer little from them; while the sedentary or literary man, or the cloistered and delicate female, would be literally ruined by a much less use of them; and it is only in this sense, and to this extent, that it can be said that what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison ; for the great fundamental laws of health and life are the same throughout the world wherever man is found, like agents under like circumstances always producing like effects. Cravats, Collars, etc. The quantity of blood sent to the head in proportion to its bulk is many times more than that to any other part of equal size; and as the returning vessels — the jugular veins — lie upon the surface, any confinement, even the slightest, around the neck, prevents the free return of the veinous blood to the heart, and proves not only highly injurious but positively dangerous. And that stocks, collars, cravats, and everything of the sort, do more or less compress the neck and check the full and free movement of the blood to and from the head, must be obvious to all; and by acting as a sort of poul- tice to the neck induce too much heat, and render it very susceptible to the slightest changes of atmosphere, which, with the very stupid, unnatural, and injurious practice of cutting the beard, often induces bronchitis among males ; while females, who leave the neck wholly exposed and never shave, are very rarely affected with throat disease of any sort. If the masses would spend one-tenth of the time in investigating the rudiments of the laws of health, which Cheap Health. Time and tide wait for no man. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 565 Nature makes the cure and the doctor gets the fee. are simple and wholly within their capacity, that they now do in earning money to pay doctor’s bills, physicians would be comparatively few and far between, and only an occasional surgeon really be needed. Let them dis- pense with their tea- and coffee-pots; order their servants to make no more desserts; sell their castor for a coal- grate, and all the stoves for old iron; retire and rise early; sleep on a straw bed in a large, airy room; settle up the tobacco bill and take a perpetual receipt; bathe daily; labor in the open air; and don’t forget that the teeth are in the mouth and not in the stomach. Do these very simple things, and such others of minor im- portance as your own good sense will suggest, and you can safely notify your “ family doctor” that he need not hitch his horse at your door any more professionally. High Heels. The barbarous custom of wearing high heels upon our boots and shoes is based about equally upon folly, fashion, and ignorance of the laws of health ; for had any extra material under the heel been necessary, the Creator would doubtless have indicated it in the struct- ure of that part of the foot; and nothing connected with the dress of the foot can appear more ludicrous, unnat- ural, and grotesque to a sound and unperverted taste than a stilt-heeled boot or shoe, especially if at the same time the tread is narrowed down to the size of a silver quarter, as is often the case. In the first place, such shoes do not stand level upon the ground, but pitch for- ward, causing the foot to press heavily upon the toes, producing corns, inflammation, tenderness, deformities, and greatly lessening the circulation through them, so Hold to the means and avoid the extremes. 566 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Fidelity and justice go band in band. that the least exposure produces coldness and numbness. Secondly, as a high-heeled shoe naturally pitches for- ward, the wearer cannot stand erect, but inclines for- ward to favor the shoe, and in this way soon acquires a stooping gait and posture in connection with an irregu- lar, shambling mode of walking. Thirdly, a high heel is much more likely to catch upon small objects in the way and upon the steps of stairs in descending, and throw one from his feet, than low ones. Fourthly, a high heel, especially with a tapered, diminutive tread when we step upon any small body, is very likely to turn one side and dislocate the ankle, an occurrence very fre- quent since the introduction of such misnomers as are now worn called shoes. And, fifthly, a high-heeled shoe with a small tread will not, on an average, wear more than half as long as one with a good, full heel and a proper tread; saying nothing of the injury done to the health by thus checking the circulation and tor- turing the foot. Dr. Ostrander, an eminent physician, says: “ In early life I was addressing a young lady of great moral worth, of unusual personal attractions, and the heiress of a large fortune. She had not reached her twentieth year: in a state of repose her face was perfectly beautiful; but when she smiled, a set of teeth was presented so discol- ored, so uneven, so defective and decayed, and the breath was so offensive, that I could not possibly recon- cile myself to be linked for life to such repulsive cir- cumstances. The very thought of it was abhorrent to me; so I gradually withdrew my attentions and wedded poverty with a sweet mouth.” With the vulgar, unedu- Bad Teeth. Voluptuousness blinds the eyes of the mind. 567 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. In prosperity, we never know wbo are our friends. cated, and unrefined, a pretty face and prospective for- tune may veil a multitude of personal defects; but no man of true culture and refinement could ever be in- duced to wed a woman with badly defective teeth and a fetid, repulsive breath; for with such men nothing can compensate for the absence of beautiful teeth and a sweet breath. Parents, therefore, will perform an important service for their children by doing all in their power to preserve their teeth sound and perfect; first, because such teeth are indispensable to good health; and, sec- ondly, because they aid much in forming desirable mat- rimonial alliances, for, in the matter of lovability, what can be more repulsive to the refined than dingy, in- crusted, and dilapidated teeth? An Obvious Fact. “ All who start in life with good health have the ele- ments of longevity already in them, and if they do not attain it, may censure themselves and not Providence. If you thrust your hand into the lire, you cannot blame Providence for the suffering; and if you burn out and ruin your stomach with hot narcotic slops, if you eat every crude, indigestible thing which a morbid appetite may crave, if you sleep on feather beds, if you keep late hours, toast yourselves by hot stoves, neglect cleanliness and exercise, when the day of reckoning comes, which is sure sooner or later, and a fever seizes you, I beg you do not insult your Creator by asking why he should thus afflict you.” — Dr. Dio Lewis. Some suffer much from cold, sweaty, and offensive feet; and often the mischief is not confined to these parts Offensive Feet. Never defame the dead or absent. 568 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED A kind heart is a fountain of joy. alone, but extends to the head, throat, lungs, and some- times affects the whole system. This difficulty arises from a want of a free circulation of blood in the part, and may be removed by first bathing the feet in quite warm water for a few minutes; then plunge them into cold water for half a minute or so, and follow with rapid friction with a crash towel until a sensation of warmth is experienced in them, and repeat this every day or every other day, as the case may demand. Change the socks every other day, or in very bad cases every day, until a better circulation is established, so that they will maintain a healthy condition without any artificial aid. Fermented Bread. “ A departure from the right way of making wheat into flour for bread not being sufficiently injurious, our people almost universally add to this ill way of making flour the still worse practice of fermenting or rotting the bread before baking it. What infernal spirit ever fixed the idea in the human mind that the process of decay or fermentation in the dough before baking im- proved its qualities, I am wholly unable to say; but if I could find him out, and have charge of his punishment, I would lash him naked round the world.”—J. C. Jackson, A.M., M.D. Boots. Of all the articles of dress worn by the male, there is the least sense, science, utility, necessity, and practical value in boots, and, next to the heavy, tight, close- fitting, impervious, and cumbersome felt or silk hat, they are. the most injurious to health, and for many reasons. First, the boot, being nearly impervious, retains all the Immodesty destroys the majesty of beauty. 569 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Fashion is the most despotic of all tyrants. carbonic acid, saline matters, and other impurities which should escape, closely around the foot and leg, until both sock and boot become fully saturated with them, pro- ducing a very offensive and almost intolerable effluvia. Secondly, confining the foot and leg so closely in the boot induces heat, moisture, inflammation, and general debility in the limb, especially in the ankle-joint, often causing dislocations of this joint, which would never have occurred with the use of a shoe. Thirdly, a boot at best is a heavy, clumsy, uncouth article of foot-dress, which always more or less injures the gait, and im- pedes the locomotion by depriving the ankle of its full and free motion. Fourthly, a pair of boots, on an average, will cost twice as much as a pair of shoes, and last no longer, saying nothing of the superiority of the latter over the former in every particular. And, fifthly, it is the opinion of those most competent to judge, that, all else being equal, one can walk one-fourth farther, with one-fourth less muscular effort in a given time, with shoes than with boots; and the same remark applies with little less force to those wretched, clumsy, cumbersome, and next to useless and worthless apologies for foot-dress, called “ gaiters.” It is not denied but that there are times and circumstances when a boot may be both pro- per and necessary, as in case of mud, deep snows, etc., but to see a man booted up to his knees, and lugging about four or five pounds of useless leather, in ordinary weather, upon a dry road or pavement, is certainly one of the most stupid and senseless customs imaginable; and the real occasions in the aggregate, in which the use of boots is really necessary, are so few, that they form no valid argument in favor of their use. Revenge is a luxury to a base mind. 570 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. What sobriety conceals, drunkenness reveals. Optional Health. “ If men would observe moderation in their appetites and passions ; if they would study the rudiments of the laws of their being, in relation to their bodies; if they would obey the economy of nature in eating, drinking, sleeping, exercising, and in the alternation of labor and amusement, and in the use of God’s bounties of air and water, then might they live long and be healthy.”—H. W Beecher. Laconic Hints. “ Tell a vain, fashionable woman that she has a pretty- foot, and to show it, she will wear a small, tight, thin shoe, go out in bleak, wet weather, take cold, and a cold will induce a fever, and she will die in a month.”— Dr. Dio Lewis. “ When children are allowed to be harsh and cruel toward animals and insects, they will become the same toward men, if they have the power to exercise it over them.”—St. Pierre. “ By the use of salt, pepper, and high-seasoned, stimulating condiments, we over-do the appetite, and cause the wheels of life to turn round so rapidly that we wear out the machine long before its proper time.” — Dr. Abernethy. “ Many diseases which afflict the human family are communicated to them by eating the flesh of animals supposed to be healthy.” — Dr. A. Lercy, Paris. “The moral effect of food is plainly exhibited in the difference of disposition in the carnivorous and frugivorous animals, and also in the peaceful disposition of the Asiatic compared with the ferocious and carnivorous European.”—Rousseau. “What is the use of eating like a pig, and then being compelled to work like an ass to get rid of it, or explode? The Virtue gains friends and keeps friendship. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 571 Proud men have no friends. best gymnasium is a wood-yard, corn-field, or clearing.” — Dr. Hall. “ Almost all the tooth powders contain strong acids, and this cleanses the teeth, but destroys them at the same time; and charcoal, even when made of the bark of wood, is one of the most destructive of all tooth powders, as it finds its way between the teeth and gums and destroys both: eminent dentists all agree in this.” — lb. “ Bad teeth induce dyspepsia from defec- tive chewing, corrupt the breath, and are frequently the cause of serious and distressing disease; while good teeth not only beautify the face, but promote health and lon- gevity.” — lb. Artificial Stimuli. The advocates of narcotic stimuli—liquor, opium, wine, tea, coffee, etc.—will often be heard to exclaim that these articles are stimulating and invigorating, and that they need something of the sort to enable them to endure the fatigue and exhaustion of their labor; and that the sys- tem needs stimulus to sustain it in its various opera- tions is freely conceded; but the natural stimuli of man are water, air, simple food, and the imponderable agents, heat, light, and electricity, all of which exert a 'perma- nently stimulating effect upon the system, without any of the morbid and depressing influences arising from the use of the narcotics already mentioned. For not one of these agents adds anything to the sustaining powers of life, but spends its force upon what vitality may already be present, and that too in such a manner as rapidly to diminish it, and ultimately to exhaust it; and hence the consummate folly of relying upon such treacherous and transitory stimuli. Time proves all things. 572 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Seek the mean and avoid all extremes. Keeping Warm. Loose, free garments, especially underclothes, well shaped to the body, are greatly superior to tight ones, for many reasons. First, they allow a free action of all the limbs and a free circulation of the blood, both of which aid greatly in keeping up the temperature of the body. Secondly, a loose garment always allows a layer of warm air between it and the body, which checks the radiation of the heat from the latter, and adds to the warmth; while a close, tight-fitting one is always in contact with the skin, and affords a ready means of conducting off the heat. And, thirdly, loose garments afford the necessary access of fresh air to the surface to remove the carbonic acid and other impurities always present be- tween the body and the apparel. Secret Vice. It is known to most intelligent persons that solitary vice is among the most active causes of insanity; and in one of the annual reports of the Massachusetts Lunatic Asylum, Dr. Woodward, its Superintendent, states that the success in curing various diseases is as follows: — drunkenness, 30 per cent.; domestic affliction, 59 per cent.; general ill health, 63; religious excitement, 60; and secret vice, only 27 per cent., or about half that of other forms of disease. To see groups of small boys from five to twelve years of age, often shoeless and hatless, and in rags and tatters, boldly puffing away at cigars in our streets,—a matter of everyday occurrence,—not only betokens an early grave and a physical deterioration and degradation, but a Promising Youth. Hope in adversity, fear in prosperity. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 573 The mind, like gold, is polished by use. moral degeneration which cannot be viewed, even in the distance, without feelings of the deepest horror and re- gret, for the younger its use is adopted, the worse and the more destructive its effects; and, in general, an adult may better use it a year than a growing youth a week: and parents who allow their children the use of to- bacco during their minority, commit a sin against Heaven and earth, for which they will one day be called to account. Personal Safety. When I see a man rough, overbearing, and tyrannical to his own household, and disposed to beat, bruise, and maltreat the dumb beasts which God has committed to his care, I am very naturally led to think that were I in his power my fate would be not better than theirs. Life, health, and happiness are unquestionably the greatest blessings which Heaven has bestowed upon man, and a careless, listless, reckless disregard of these, and a willingness to take useless and uncalled-for risks of life and safety, is a never-failing evidence of a base and unprincipled mind; for he who places so low an estimate upon his own life and safety as to be at all times ready to voluntarily barter them off for naught, or a trifle,, will be very sure to place a still lower price upon the lives and safety of his fellows. There are ample risks and dan- gers to encounter in the usual round of life without vol- untarily coveting any which can be avoided ; and a vig- ilant and solicitous regard for the life and personal safety not for ourselves alone, but for all others, is an unmis- takable evidence of native goodness of heart, and gener- ally an accompaniment of education and refinement; Money makes the mare go. 574 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A hired horse never tires. and the slightest symptoms of disregard for the safety of life or limb on the part of any one are ample grounds for suspicion that his moral fabric is baseless. Underclothes. Materials for underclothes should be selected accord- ing to the season in which they are intended to be worn, for usually, in the variable climate of the United States, that which is well adapted to one season will not be so to another. As flannel is a very slow conductor of heat, and moderately exciting and stimulating to the skin, it is best adapted to all the colder and most varying weather of the year; while unbleached muslin, being a more ready radiator of heat, is better used during the cooler portions of the year; and linen, being the most rapid conductor of caloric of all the fabrics, is only adapted to the hottest weather of summer. No colored fabric should ever be worn next the skin, for the per- spiration disengages the coloring matter from the goods ; and as most colors are more or less poisonous, when al- lowed to remain long in contact with the skin, they may become absorbed, and prove injurious to health. During the colder portions of the year, persons very much ex- posed to the out-door weather may sometimes require both a cotton and a flannel shirt at the same time; but during the moderate portions of the year, and especially during the heat of summer, flannel worn next the skin is too exciting, stimulating, and debilitating, and is posi- tively injurious. A Difference. Many construe the terms flesh meats and animal food to mean one and the same thing, when in fact there is Great wishes are doomed to great failures. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 575 A good beginning is a thing half done. a broad difference; for while the former only means the flesh of animals, the latter not only includes the former, but also milk, eggs, butter, cheese, and cream, the latter class being as much animal food as pork, oil, or beef. As to the effects of flesh meats upon the human organ- ism, in reference to health, longevity, intellectuality, and morality, fifty years of observation, one-half of which has been spent in his profession, have created in the mind of the writer very strong convictions against their use; while all the other articles mentioned as animal food, judiciously used, especially milk and eggs, may be used in moderation with decided advantage. The whole of them, however, may be entirely dispensed with in the presence of a good selection of fruits and vegetables, without danger or detriment either to health, or longevity, or intellectuality. “ A man’s intellectuality does not depend upon the amount of brute force which he may possess; for it does not require a giant’s power to write a sermon, make a book, or feel a pulse. Of an assembly of French savans on a certain occasion, Humboldt being present, it was found by actual measurement that he had the least mus- cular strength of any in the party; and he was also the oldest member present. Small, fragile men, of little muscular strength, may enjoy good health; and in all ages a vast majority of the world’s brightest stars has been found among this class. As a general rule, it holds good that the bigger the man the bigger the fool; for whoever saw a giant remarkable for anything but the size of his body; while the smallness of his head and the Intellectuality and Muscularity. Avarice, with millions, is always in want. 576 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Frippery in dress is a silly woman’s badge of honor. little that was in it were the only notable things about him. Both body and brain need vital force; and the mind is great in proportion as that force is expended in developing the brain ; but when it is expended in devel- oping the body, the brain of course must suffer.” — Dr. Hall. Objects of Clothing. The real design of wearing apparel is twofold: first, to cover the person ; and, secondly, to protect the body from the extremes of temperature. For in the absence of it the solar rays of summer would blister the skin, and in winter the extreme cold would soon reduce the temperature so low as to produce death; hence the quantity, quality, and proper adaptation of our clothing become a matter of paramount importance. Owing to the endless varying conditions of the human body, aris- ing from natural difference in vigor of constitution and degrees of health, it is impossible to lay down any spe- cific rule as to clothing other than this — viz., that at all times sufficient clothing be applied to the body to preserve the balance between calorification and radiation, or so that the heat of the body shall not escape into the surrounding air faster than it is produced by the sys- tem ; and this done, no injury can ever befall us so far as the quantity of wearing apparel is concerned. This being the real object of clothing, it will readily be per- ceived that the nearer we adhere to the actual necessities of the body, the better for health and longevity; for if we apply too much apparel for the conditions at the time, we become over-heated, sweaty, and debilitated; and if an insufficiency, we rapidly become chilly, lose our heat, and a common cold, with its too often life- Run not into ruin in mid-day with the eyes open. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 577 To think a thing impossible is akin to making it so. time of suffering, is the inevitable consequence. And that thousands materially injure their health and shorten their days by wearing heavy woollen, with boots, and heavy, tight-fitting black felt or silk hats during the hot months of summer, and thousands more by being inad- equately clothed during the colder portions of the year, are facts familiar to most medical men. The greatest danger from the improper adaptation of clothing is dur- ing the transition from summer to winter and from win- ter to summer, by prolonging the application of heavy clothing too late in the former case, and throwing it off too soon in the latter case. And we are safe in saying that at least three-fourths of all the colds contracted during the year are taken at these periods; and from some unknown cause, such colds usually prove the most obstinate, dangerous, and fatal. Desserts. What an immense blessing it would be to this nation in money, health, and life, if the entire list of desserts were at once and permanently wiped from our tables! for their only effect is to bribe Nature and stimulate the appetite to unlawful acts, for which we must ultimately suffer. In nearly every instance we have eaten amply, and in many to excess, before the dessert appears; and if we went no farther would feel a bodily ease and com- fort until the next meal; but the tempter is brought on, the already sated palate is stimulated and spurred up, and we eat on; and during the rest of the time feel like a boa constrictor that has swallowed an ox*. If instead of the usual crude, indigestible medleys—puddings, pies, cakes, jellies, etc.—seen upon our tables called desserts, simple A wise man profits by the experience of others. 578 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Delivery in sale makes the deed valid. fruits and nuts only were used, it would immensely add to the comfort of every family, and at the same time prevent an untold amount of sickness and suffering in the future. Loss of Time by Sickness. Few ever estimate, or seemingly care to know, the frightful loss of time and money caused by sickness; for if each individual in the course of his lifetime lose but one year by ill health, in the aggregate, which is believed to be below the fact, on an average, this, in a single generation in the United States, will amount to 40,000,- 000 of years of ill health ; and as the average of human life is now estimated at less than thirty years, in a cent- ury, or a trifle over three generations, it will amount to about 120,000,000 years of sickness or ill health. And this is equal to the lives of 4,000,000 of human beings at thirty years each ; and if the year of ill health lost to each during his life be estimated at $100, it will amount in a single century to a dead national loss of $400,000,- 000. Bully Lifting. Many a thoughtless, reckless youth has injured his health for life, or brought himself to a premature grave, through a vain and silly pride to exhibit his muscular powers, and gain the applause of the ignorant, by feats of muscular strength in lifting, pulling, carrying, jump- ing, etc.; and on this point Dr. Hall, of New York, makes the subjoined strictures: “ What if one can jump sky-high, turn a dozen somersaults without stopping, lift a calf bigger than himself, climb a greased pole fifty feet in height, hold at arm’s length, for five minutes, a A crown will not cure a headache, nor a golden slipper the gout. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 579 Cut your garment according to your cloth. weight heavier than his own soggy head ? what does he get, or who is the better for the operation? We hear of some doctor going about the country lifting enormous weights, and exhibiting feats of strength which would cause a practical man to regret that he was not employed in felling trees, mauling rails, or grubbing potatoes. He claims to have lifted with his hands over one thou- sand pounds, and was sanguine that in twenty days more he would be able to lift twelve hundred pounds. And the truth is, the more he can lift, the bigger fool he is, and the more fit for the lunatic asylum. For the next thing will be that he has ruptured a blood-vessel, and then for the remainder of his life he will not be able to earn his salt, arid somebody will have to support him.” Lightning Rods. In its descent from the clouds to the earth, lightning or electricity always selects the best conductors; and as iron and copper furnish the best, these metals are placed upon buildings, because they more readily convey the lightning or electricity to the ground than the materials of which the buildings are composed, copper being pref- erable to iron, and a flat rod to a round one. The in- fluence of a lightning rod extends to a distance all round it equal to four times the height of the rod above the house, and when properly constructed and well applied, they afford entire safety within the sphere of their in- fluence. American Gluttony. Prof. Caldwell, a distinguished American physician, says, “ For every reeling drunkard who disgraces our country, we have one hundred gluttons, that is, those A weak foundation destroys the superstructure. 580 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Visible actions indicate secret designs. who eat to excess and suffer from it. Intemperance in eating is the greatest error we commit against health and life, for nearly all are guilty of it, not occasionally, but habitually and almost universally, from the cradle to the grave. It is the bane of our existence from youth to old age, and much more common than intemperance in drinking, and much worse in its consequences in the aggregate. We Americans, on an average, consume nearly twice as much food as a Swiss or Highland Scotchman, although the latter are among the most hardy, robust, enduring, and long-lived of the race.” Immature Parents. The children of young and immature parents, almost without an exception, will be feeble, delicate, and short- lived; and even when they do reach mature age, will be easily broken down in health, and lack that stamina, wire, and endurance which are necessary to bodily com- fort and success in the general business pursuits of life. And as such parents themselves are usually short-lived also, such marriages nearly always prove an irreparable misfortune to both parents and progeny. And still further, every one born into the world has an equal and undoubted right to existence, and to the enjoyments of life; and such parents therefore are guilty of a deep crime against God and man, for thus knowingly and prematurely depriving both themselves and their off- spring of Heaven’s greatest blessing to man—existence. Lightning Shocks. The agent or substance of lightning is accumulated electricity in the clouds, and its passage from one cloud Practice and example are the best teachers. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 581 Every man ought to be the best judge of his own avocation. to another, in the production of an equilibrium of this agent between the clouds in near proximity, produces the phenomenon called lightning. In fine, clear, weather, clouds often run five miles high; but their average height is from one to two miles high; and when they are very heavy, and run very low, sometimes actually touch the earth with their edges, but the electricity seldom descends from them to the earth when they are seven hundred yards above its surface. In its descent from the clouds to the earth, lightning always selects the best conductors; and when a man or beast is standing near a house, tree, or other tall object, which conducts the fluid from the clouds to the earth, it follows the object until it reaches the man or beast, and his body being a better conductor than the object, it leaves the latter, and passes down the body of the former; and the intensity of the shock is often so great upon the nervous system as to produce instantaneous death. And although a cloud does not discharge its electricity at a less distance from the earth than seven hundred yards, yet if a man were standing against a tree, or other tall object, twenty-five feet high, this being a conductor, would in effect bring the cloud containing the electricity within six hundred and seventy- five yards of the earth, and the lightning might be dis- charged through it, killing the man, when, had he been forty feet from it, he would have remained unharmed; and hence the danger near tall objects. The most se- cure place from lightning, out-doors, is in the open field, forty to fifty feet from any object or running water, without an umbrella, and if the apparel be wet, the security is increased by it; and within doors, is in the centre of the room, upon a bed-mattress, or hearth-rug; Actions speak louder than words. 582 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. To destroy an abuse is to confirm a use. and a second-story floor is usually deemed more secure than either a higher or lower story. Individual Longevity. James Woodbury, of Beverly, Mass., who died in 1842, at the age of eighty-nine, belonged to a family remarkable for general temperance, abstemiousness, in- dustry, sobriety, and longevity, the united ages of ten of the family being eight hundred and sixty-six years, or over eighty-six years each; and so far as known there was never a drunkard in the family. And it is highly probable that not a single family can be found in the whole United States, whose average ages were eighty-six years, whose progenitors, parents, and grandparents were intemperate or much diseased; for such a condition of ancestry would be certain to deteriorate the progeny and shorten the days of some, if not all of them. That persons have lived to extreme age in the habitual use of alcoholic liquors, and even with tobacco, tea, and coffee added, is not denied, but such are extreme and very rare cases, and furnish no proof of the value or harmlessness Of these agents, but simply evince the native vigor and endurance of the individuals; for if they possessed a viability to endure such abuses, what would have been their ages had they been temperate and sober men, and otherwise lived in accordance with the laws of life ? Coffee and Precocity. Dr. Hahnemann, the author of homoeopathy, in an essay on the effects of coffee, states that it prematurely stimulates and develops the sexual passion in both sexes, and brings the human body to its full or maxi- mum maturity ten to fifteen years sooner than we should Beauty and folly are frequent companions. 583 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Every bird thinks its own nest beautiful. reach this period without it, which, if true, is really a frightful fact; for if we hasten or force human life ten years in the first stages, we of course shorten it that much in the latter stages, and this amounts to a total loss of so much human life, from the action of coffee upon the organism. False Experience. Thousands are ready to plead “experience” in all things pertaining to diet and health, and will state with great confidence that they have used tea, coffee, tobacco, malt, and alcoholic liquors all their days, and are not the worse for it yet; and that experience is the safest guide and surest teacher. But such should remember that there is a false as well as a true experience, and we should first know that we are guided by the latter, before we consent to pursue any dietetic or hygienic course, the propriety of which is at best doubtful and suspicious. In the case of Dr. Beaumont’s experiments upon the stomach of St. Martin, for instance, it was found that by eating rapidly, by swallowing his food im- perfectly masticated, by eating to excess, by the use of alcoholic liquors, and by the extremes of temperature, heat and cold, in his food and drinks, the coats of the stomach would become very much irritated and inflamed, and in some cases would actually break out in small pustules and bleed; and all this without the least suspicion on the part of the subject that any such condition existed at the time. And had St. Martin been questioned upon the subject, while his stomach was in this morbid condi- tion, he no doubt, relying upon his own “ experience,” would have declared that rapid eating, half-masticated grasping all, one often loses all. 584 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him. food, alcoholic liquors, and the extremes of temperature agreed perfectly well with him, and that he experienced no inconvenience from their use; and, still, who in his senses does not know that such causes, continued to a sufficient extent, would jHoduce serious stomachic de- rangement, and ultimately death itself? And how are those who rely upon their own blind experience in the use of admitted deleterious articles of food and drink to know that they are not producing the same, and even worse effects upon their stomachs, by the habitual use of such agents ? It is therefore evident that the system may sustain very serious injury from our erroneous die- tetic habits without our being conscious of the fact at the time, nor often until we begin to feel their accumu- lated morbid effects; and on this account we should not be too confident in our own “ experience,” but avail our- selves of all the experience of those who have gone before us, in connection with our own. Gleanings. “ The chief food of the Chinese and Japanese is rice, pulse, fruit, roots, and herbs.” — Mod. United His. “ The philosophers of India eat nothing but rice, fruit, and herbs.” — Bartholomew''s Voyages. “ The throat has destroyed more than the sword.” — Dr. Parmly. “ We are made gluttons from the cradle by the igno- rance and officiousness of our nurses ; for the health of a child is always deranged by over-feeding.” — Dr. Saun- ders. “ The breath which comes from the lungs is so loaded with the debris of the system, that if inhaled in the state in which it leaves them, it would produce in- stantaneous death; so poisonous, that if kept a single A hungry stomach has no ears. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 585 As you sow, so shall you reap. minute longer in the lungs than ordinary, we begin to gasp for breath.” — Dr. Hall. “ Those nations which subsist mainly or wholly upon vegetable food are, of all men, the handsomest, most robust, least subject to dis- ease and violent passions, and attain the greatest lon- gevity.” — St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature. “ The saliva, the tear-drop, and the perspiration lubricate the mouth, eye, and skin, and at the same time carry out of the body a large quantity of impurities and waste matter.” — Dr. Hall. “ The man who forsakes not the law of right, and eats not the flesh of dead animals, like the bloodthirsty brute, shall attain good-will and days in the world, and shall not be afflicted with disease.” — Sir William Jones. “ It has been well known in every period of history that fruit and vegetables alone are ample for the development and support of human life; and it is a fact that the great bulk of mankind always has, and to this hour still does subsist upon vegetable food; hence an adherence to the use of flesh meats, is no less than a persistence in the gross customs of barbarous, bygone, savage life, and evinces an insensibility to the progress of reason and the operations of intellectual im- provement.” — Dr. Lambe on Regimen. “ To sedentary persons all violent, impulsive, and sudden exercise is always injurious, and hence the impropriety of gym- nastic exercises for this class; for the exercise of such persons should always be gentle, steady, regular, and deliberate, never reaching the point of fatigue.” — Dr. Hall. “The man who sheds the blood of an ox or a sheep will, by that means, be the more ready to witness the effusion of that of his fellow-man.” — Encyclopedia Methodique. “ It is not, I think, going too far to say A hint to the wise is as good as a hook. 586 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Things intended are not things done. that every fact connected with the human organization goes to prove that man was originally formed a frugiv- orous animal.” — Dr. Bell on the Teeth. The great secrets of health are early hours, judicious exercise, per- sonal cleanliness, and an unoppressed stomach; and though we can stay a while without them, we can only live with them. American Youth. One of the most eminent divines in the country has declared publicly that four-fifths of the young men of this age are rank infidels; another distinguished scholar and author, that three-fourths of our youth are steeped in whiskey or tobacco ; and a third, that not one in ten of the young men of this age will ever provide a home for himself and family: and if infidelity, dissipation, and shiftlessness can effect anything, our young men are in a sure way to be amply done for. The good old times of half a century ago, when young men were staid, sober, industrious, frugal, and satisfied to apply themselves assiduously to business and study, seem to have totally passed away, and the antipodes of all these have fallen upon them in this age with a recklessness, want of moral principle, and speed to ruin unprecedented in the history of the human family ; and well may one of the greatest of men have exclaimed : “ What will become of the youth of this age ? ” An English nobleman, who made the tour of the United States, declared that “ The young men of America were all going to perdition as fast as time could carry them.” All classes, the rich and the poor alike, have an ambition to secure situations which will honor their sons, but neglect to make them fit to No one should judge in his own case. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 587 As you brew, so you must drink. honor the situations they fill. The true inquiry for parents is not, is the place large enough for my son, but is he large enough for the place; not, will the situa- tion honor him, but will he honor the situation; for it is infinitely preferable to fill a low station with honor, than a high one with disgrace; to be a skilful, accom- plished mechanic rather than a contemptible and de- graded prince. Success of Vaccination. Out of one hundred persons who have been vaccinated for kine-pox, and subsequently had the small-pox, six only die; while of one hundred never vaccinated, who take the small-pox, thirty-six die, making the chances of the vaccinated man six to one of the other to live. In Prussia every soldier is vaccinated on entering the army ; and in the year 1859, in an army of 60,000, there were but two deaths from small-pox; and out of one hundred who have had the kine-pox in infancy, seventy, on an average, retake, if vaccinated at adult age. Slavery. We have just emerged from a war of five years, which has cost the nation near a million of lives and several billions of dollars, all for the emancipation of about 4,000,000 of slaves; and the slavery of man to man is doubtless both odious and abominable in the sight of God and every good man, yet what is this slavery, com- pared with man’s slavery to himself or to his own lusts and appetites? And of what value is political freedom, dear as it is, to those who are willing to be bound hand and foot, and led captive by their own depraved phys- ical habits, and who are willing to lower their necks The intention demonstrates the deed. 588 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. To be poor is no disgrace, but often very inconvenient. to the servile yoke of folly, passion, fashion, and appe- tite, and who glory in their own bondage and degrada- tion ? The greatest work which man has to perform is his own emancipation from the thraldom of a morbid appetite and vitiated carnal passions, for physical re- form is the first step toward moral reform; and were the writer a minister of the gospel, he would preach three sermons to the physical man and one to the spirit- ual man, with the expectation of accomplishing im- mensely more good morally than by any other disposi- tion of his labors. Lightning. Electricity is an imponderable and invisible agent, which pervades to some extent not only most substances upon the earth’s surface, but also the earth and air themselves; and whenever this agent, from any cause, is in excess in any substance, like water and caloric, there is a tendency to the formation of an equilibrium of it with surrounding objects. The earth is the great source of electricity; and this agent, in hot weather, ascends with the vapors which go up from its surface and accu- mulates in the clouds; and when two of these approach each other within a certain distance, if there is any difference in the quantity of electricity which they con- tain, it leaps from the one containing the excess to the other, producing an equilibrium which constitutes light- ning. The flash is the combustion of gases floating in the air which come in contact with the electricity in its passage from one cloud to another, and the report, or “ thunder,” is the concussion of the air which has been separated by the passage of the electricity from one Bad grammar is excusable in legal papers. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 589 The final resolve should always be well considered. cloud to the other. There exists the same tendency between the clouds and the earth, to form an equilibrium of their electricity, that there is between the clouds themselves; and when a cloud heavily charged with this fluid approaches sufficiently near the surface of the earth, the tallest objects, as mountains, trees, steeples, houses, etc., form conductors for it, and it leaps from the clouds to these high objects and descends to the earth, produc- ing an equilibrium between the clouds and the latter, and the objects upon which the lightning descends are said “ to be struck with lightning.” Wine and the Scriptures. As an apology for the practice, wine-bibbers often quote the Scriptures as sanctioning the free use of the article; but this really affords them no favor or excuse in the matter. The word “ wine,” as used in the Bible, simply means the juice of the grape. The process of fermentation in Bible terms being accidental and not general, the product of the grape being then almost ex- clusively taken in the unfermented state. And it is, moreover, even denied that the Saviour ever made, used, or recommended what is now called wine — viz., the fermented juice of the grape. As the term “corn” in the Scriptures meant all the grains or cereals, the term oil all the oleaginous products, so wine was a general term for all the wholesome acidulous and saccharine juices of fruits; and as the grape stood at the head of this class, it seems to have a more specific reference to that article than to any other. The wine of the Scrip- tures, therefore, in nearly every instance, simply means the juice of the unfermented grape, while that of modern Hope is the dream of the vigilant. 590 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Obedience is the foundation of all law. times means that article both drugged and fermented; the two being as different as the pure juice of the apple at the cider-press and the sour, rank, strong, and nau- seous stuff called “ hard cider.” To argue, therefore, the use of wine, because that term is often used in the Bible, is simply an absurdity; for when grape juice has been subjected to the chemical process of fermentation, so as to become wine, it is no more the product of the grape than vinegar; for, although the latter is a step further on the road to putrefaction, yet neither of them is any longer grape juice, and to call them so, in the face of modern chemistry, is a misnomer. Stale Eggs. Prof. Dunglison, in his “ Elements of Hygiene,” has amply warned the public against the use of stale eggs; and yet nothing is more common, both simple and com- pounded with other food. The Professor even goes so far as to disprove in very strong terms the use of any dish into which eggs enter as a compound ; and as it is well known that sulphuretted hydrogen, a very poisonous gas, is gen- erated in the egg in the incipient stages of decomposi- tion, all thoughtful persons will readily see the safe side of the question. A really fresh and healthy egg has a peculiar smell, with which every one is familiar; and the least deviation from this is sufficient ground for con- demnation, for death has been known to occur from the use of stale eggs alone. Culinary Alkalies. The use of soda, saleratus, pearlash, aqua ammonia, etc., in food, has long been known to be injurious to the stomach and bowels; and thousands of the most intelli- Fair words and fine promises butter no bread. 591 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A lying tongue is an abomination to God and man. gent in the land, who prize health above the mere grati- fication of the palate, have discarded these articles from all culinary use; yet but few comparatively seem fully to realize the fact that they are metallic compounds, and poisons at that, and still thoughtlessly continue their use. Prof. Ives, of New Haven, and several other lec- turers upon Materia Medica, have long taught that these alkalies are active poisons; and Orfila, in his work on poisons, confirms these opinions. Dog’s Flesh. The “Encyclopedia Americana” says the flesh of these animals forms an important article of food among many eastern nations. In China, Japan, the Society Islands, and some other eastern countries, a young puppy is deemed a great luxury and delicacy; and Euro- peans who have overcome their prejudices state that they are very sweet and palatable. And this taste for dog’s flesh is of very early origin, for the ancients regarded a young and fat dog as a very excellent article of food; even Hippocrates (460 B. C.,) placed it on a footing with mutton and pork, and says “ the flesh of a full-grown young dog is wholesome and nourishing.” The Animal Passions. That different medical agents, and articles of food and drinks, act especially upon different organs of the body is a matter familiar to most intelligent persons, both professional and non-professional. Thus, mercurials act most directly upon the liver and salivary glands ; strych- nine upon the brain and spinal cord; and spirits of turpentine upon the urinary organs: and alcoholic A dyspeptic stomach is as great an abomination to the Lord as a lying tongue. 592 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Laughter indicates self-superiority in the case. liquors, wine, oysters, and high-seasoned flesh meats and condiments are well known to exert a direct and specific effect upon the sexual organs; and the reckless and frightfully prevalent licentiousness of the present day is due more to the excessive use of such articles than to all other causes combined. For it is a remarkable fact, that however rich a milk and vegetable diet may be, it has never even been charged with producing any specific effect upon the seminal secretions, and therefore cannot occasion any premature development of the sexual pas- sion ; and yet a distinguished physician has declared that corn-meal pudding and new milk will produce blood more rapidly, and of a purer quality, and develop a more rapid and healthy growth of the body than any other known article of diet. If any one doubts the effects of the two classes of food upon the sexual organs, a trial of each for one month will remove all doubts, and point out the unmistakable duty of all parents and guardians to youth in the matter of diet. Alcohol and the Bible. “ The case is now clear that alcoholic liquors are no- where favorably spoken of in the Bible; and the Saviour never made, gave, or offered intoxicating wine to any one in his life.” — Dr. W. A. Alcott, Boston. Surfeiting. “ In every class of society, down to the very lowest, the quantity and quality of the food are constantly offend- ing the stomach and bowels, and nine-tenths of mankind in civilized life daily commit intemperance in their food or drinks. The over-distention of the stomach weakens There are none so stupid as those who won’t learn. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 593 A wise son listens to the advice of his parents. the organs, impairs digestion, and more or less injures the whole animal machine.” — Dr. J. Johnson, London. Baby Men and Women. The truly frightful decline of our youth in bulk, stature, and physical powers, especially our females, is a subject of sorrowful reflection to every thinking mind; and were it not for the hardy foreigners so rapidly flocking to our shores, by which the national stamina is somewhat renovated, at the past and present rate of de- cline, we should soon be reduced to a nation of dwarfs and pigmies. Our children are rushed from the cradle or maternal lap to the schoolroom, and from the school- room to mature business life, at one short and rapid leap. The beardless, inexperienced boy, wholly unac- customed to cares and responsibilities, becomes the head of an extensive business house; and the romping school- girl of to-day, as it were, to-morrow becomes the mis- tress of a family, as though time and nature could be defrauded out of their just dues. And the inevitable consequence of thus rushing children into the shoes of adults at once is but too obvious everywhere in our midst; for the boy suddenly transformed into the busi- ness man is likely to become spendthrift and dissipated; more likely to fail in health and die early; and almost sure to fail in business and become a bankrupt, for want of age and experience; while the tender, delicate female, yet in her teens, immature, and unaccustomed to cares and responsibilities, and wholly unfit to endure the wear and tear of married life, soon fails in health, and sinks to an untimely grave, leaving behind perhaps one or more pale, puny, feeble, sharp-faced, short-lived children, A wise man only knows the extent of his ignorance. 594 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. When pride struts in front, shame lurks behind. destined soon to follow their imprudent and unfortunate mother. For marriage, to a vast majority of American young women of this day, is an irreparable misfortune, and almost synonymous with suicide. Let parents then not be in such hot haste to jump their children from mere boys and girls to men and women, from babies to adults, but give them full time to grow, and develop mind and body, before placing upon their shoulders the onerous cares and burdens of active life; for one staunch, well- matured, well-consolidated young man or woman,— the former twenty-five to thirty, and the latter twenty to twenty-five,—for life and business purposes is worth half a dozen young, tender, immature, and unripe youth. Diet of Children. Nothing in the wide world can be more absurd and ridiculous than the common practice of giving children highly-seasoned food, with tea, coffee, and fermented liquors; for such a diet invariably produces an unnatural heat in the blood, and such a feverish condition of the whole system, as never fails to prematurely develop the sexual system, and lead the subject on to impure thoughts and acts long before any such sensations would otherwise make their appearance. Tissot says, “ Idle- ness, inactivity, too long in bed, too soft a bed, a rich, aromatic, salt, or vinous diet, with tea, coffee, or malt liquors, cannot be too studiously avoided in the rearing of children.” And Jerome says, “ The forges of Vulcan, the crater of Vesuvius, or Mount Olympus, do not burn with fiercer flames, than do youth pampered with high- seasoned flesh meats, rich concentrated food, and drenched with wine and fermented liquors.” He who soweth in spring shall gather in autumn. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 595 There is but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous. Flatulency. If a quantity of ordinary prepared food, consisting of meat and vegetables, be reduced to a fine state, and well mixed together with a little water, and placed in the sun on a warm day, the mass soon sours, ferments, putre- fies, and evolves very offensive gases; and if the same mass had been eaten as a meal, nearly the same pro- cess would take place, and very similar gases be evolved; but if the stomach be active and healthy, and the func- tion of digestion goes on rapidly, it will speedily be appro- priated to the nourishment of the system, and no such gases would be generated or evolved. Habitual flatu- lence, therefore, is always indicative of more or less stomachic derangement; for in a perfect state of health, and with an active and vigorous digestion, there will very rarely be any discharge of wind from the bowels. The presence of bile in the stomach is the result of diseased action, since none is naturally supplied to that organ; and its presence causes nausea, faintness, shiver- ing, cold sweats, etc. The bile may be regarded as Na- ture’s purgative and antiseptic of the intestinal canal, and the color which it imparts to the faeces is a pretty good criterion of its quality and efficiency. Healthy bile, duly supplied, mixes intimately with the ejected mass, and imparts to it a deep brown color; and what- ever coloring matter may have been imparted to it by the use of food or other means, if the bile be healthy and well supplied, they will still retain their natural color, slightly modified. When the faeces are pale, the bile is insufficient; when green, it contains an excess of The Bile. A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. 596 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Poverty is the mother of all arts. acid; when dark or black, it is greatly vitiated; and when bile passes the bowels without being mixed with the excrement, it is of a bright yellow color. Tartar. This is a dingy brown accumulation upon the teeth, and is a combination of animal gluten and earthy de- posit from the saliva, and should be removed several times a year, especially when the accumulation is rapid, care being had not to injure the gums in the act. Calculi. The formation of calculi or stone in the human body is especially promoted by such habits of body and life as favor a morbid formation in the stomach, especially the acidifying influences of malt liquors and acescent foods. Calculi, especially in the ureters and bladder, are due almost wholly to deranged or imperfect diges- tion ; for when the latter is prompt and vigorous, there will very seldom or never be any opportunity presented for such formations. The Stomach. This organ is the great regulator of the animal ma- chine, — the laboratory in which the sustaining elements of the body are received and prepared for its use; and no mind can have a proper healthy action while this organ is materially deranged. This is the nitrate of potash, an active poison; and why it was ever added to common salt, in the preserva- tion of meat, seems an entire mystery; for it never has any beneficial action in this way, and often causes the meats to sour and spoil, and always makes them acid Saltpetre. Honey, not vinegar, catches flies. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 597 A wise son makes a glad father. and hard. And it seems not a little strange that we should feed upon and deal in a staple article containing so active a poison as the nitrate of potash ; for by its use our preserved meats have ceased to be such, and become poisonous substances, produced by the action of salts upon the flesh of animals. Meats, when fresh, consist mainly of fibrin and gelatine, the latter being soluble in water, forming broth or soup; while the former is the tough, insoluble part of the meat which remains after boiling. Now it has been fully ascertained, beyond all possible doubt, that when meat has been subjected to the action of saltpetre, it will no longer yield broth, and therefore that its gelatine has been destroyed, or changed to some insoluble substance by the action of the nitrate of pot- ash ; and this substance, when thus changed, is as differ- ent from gelatine as leather is from the original hide. And to this chemical change, produced by the nitrate in the curative process, is ascribed all the diseases to which those who feed upon it are liable, as sea and land scurvy, sore gums, carious teeth, boils, ulcers, etc. The habitual use of flesh meats, by keeping the sys- tem constantly stimulated to its maximum ability, pre- maturely exhausts and wears it out; while a vegetable diet, being much less heating and exciting, and more moderate and uniform in its action upon the body, taxes the vital powers less, and gives them a much more pro- tracted period of action. Or, in other words, running a man on flesh meats is like running a locomotive, as nearly as possible at the bursting point, with pitch, tar, oil, etc.; for although the engine may be a good one, and High-Pressure Diet. Never stand surety for any one but yourself. 598 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He who does his own business, knows when it is done. capable of great endurance when rightly used, yet, when over-taxed, it must give out sooner than when treated with ordinary fuel, and only subjected to proper pressure. Small Eaters. It is sometimes argued, in palliation for the use of the drugs tea and coffee, that they conduce to economy, because those who use them are generally small eaters, which to a considerable extent is true; and the same is equally true of alcoholic liquors, opium, and tobacco; but this is not on account of any nutriment which these poisons possess, but because they paralyze and destroy the nerves of the stomach, and derange the digestion; and for our own part, we envy not the squeamish, delicate appetite which is satisfied with a single slice of bread and butter, and a bowl of hot tea or coffee slops; and as much as we abominate gluttony in all its forms, we vastly prefer the greedy appetite of the water drinker, with his unrestrained moral freedom, to the slavery of the tea and coffee drinker. Value of the Teeth. The most important use of the teeth is as instruments of mastication, and their loss or absence may well be considered among the greatest physical misfortunes in life. Hard, sound, well-set teeth are generally indica- tive of good health, a wiry constitution, and great powers of endurance; while soft teeth, early prone to decay, will usually be found in connection with a slender organiza- tion, feeble vital powers, and a great susceptibility to morbific agents: and if compelled to judge of the phys- ical qualities of any individual, from a single structure, Self-conceit always accompanies a narrow mind. 599 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Always wash your dirty linen at home. we would prefer the teeth to any other part. On the value and importance of these instruments, one eminent medical man says, “ Every vacant tooth is a year clipped from the end of life; ” a second, “ That every tooth lost is a nail driven in the coffin; ” and a third, that “ Those who early lose their teeth take hold on another w'orld in advance:” and certain it is that we cannot long main- tain sound bodily health in the absence of these im- portant instruments. Age and the Bones. The human bones consist mainly of gelatine, a semi- solid, and phosphate of lime; and in early infancy, if healthy, they are almost wholly composed of the former substance, and therefore soft, and easily bent out of shape; but as age advances, the proportion of lime in- creases, and in old age they are mostly composed of the latter substance. This is the condition of the bones, at different periods of life, in a state of health; but if we violate the laws of life, by diet, exercise, and other phys- ical errors, the natural condition is liable to be changed, and the balance between the solids and fluids lost, so that they become either too hard or too soft; and it is impossible for us to know in advance what will be the effect of our violation of the laws of health upon the osseous system. For not unfrequently a continued in- fraction of the laws of hygiene will end in the soften- ing of all the bones, and then the ultimate consequences are inevitably fatal. The use of tobacco is exclusively confined to the mouth and nasal passages, the nerves of which are all direct Tobacco and the Brain. Live fish run up, but dead ones down, the stream. 600 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He who is content to trudge behind was never made to go before. branches of or proceed from the brain; and the use of tobacco habitually applied to these cavities keeps up a constant irritation and inflammation, and slowly, but surely and permanently, debilitates and exhausts that organ; and every discriminating individual must have observed the dull, sluggish, and tardy operations of the mental faculties of most old and confirmed tobacco users, especially if used in connection with strong drink. Dr. Bush says, “ The father of Dr. Massilla lost his memory before he was forty, by the use of tobacco; ” and Sir John Pringle’s memory was nearly ruined by the same means, and subsequently restored by the disuse of tobacco, at the suggestion of Dr. Franklin, then resident in England. Dr. Stevenson says, “ It impairs the func- tions of the brain, beclouds the understanding, and greatly injures the memory.” Governor Sullivan says, “ It never fails to intercept the usual alertness of thought, and weakens the mental powers in analyzing subjects and defining ideas.” Prof. Hitchcock says, “It produces a most pernicious effect upon the intellect, un- fixes the attention, confuses the mental operations, and beclouds the understanding.” Wild and Domesticated Animals. It is a matter of common knowledge that domesticated animals are far less healthy than wild ones of the same species; and many think that, from the great care be- stowed upon the former by man, the reverse of this ought to be the case. But the Creator has adapted every animal to a particular sphere or condition, viz., to sub- sist upon certain sorts of food, to enjoy its full liberty, and to breathe the pure air; and just in proportion as To give to the public is to give to nobody. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 601 Never wake a sleeping lion. man deprives him of these natural conditions will the animal necessarily become diseased; and the entire existence of most domesticated animals is anything but natural. The swine, for instance, is by nature a very clean and neat animal, and exceedingly select and fastid- ious in its food, but by domestic deterioration has become one of the most filthy and diseased of all animals; and how could it be otherwise ? Man places him in a pent-up sty, six or eight feet square, compels him to wallow in filth, to breathe a putrid atmosphere, and to subsist upon food which in a state of nature he could not be induced to partake of; and although he may fatten, or his body become the receptacle for surplus car- bon, (fat,) yet he is little else than a mass of disease and corruption, wholly unfit for the food of man; and the same is true to a greater or less extent of all artifi- cially fattened animals. Personal Odor. Every individual, from the cradle to the grave, has an odor or effluvia escaping from the person peculiar to himself; and no two probably ever had precisely the same, which is shown from the fact that a dog will ferret out his master in a crowd of thousands, and follow him for miles, simply by the scent of his shoe left upon the ground or pavement. There are cases in which this peculiar odor is constitutional, inherited, or arises from the presence of some chronic disease, or morbid condi- tion of the body ; but in most instances, especially when very offensive, the cause is a want of proper cleanliness on the part of the individual himself, the immediate cause being old, fetid, long-retained, decaying perspira- When danger is past, the doctor is neglected. 602 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. It is folly to play with edged tools. tion on the body and in the apparel. There is never any offensive odor from the hand or face, because they are often washed and always exposed to the fresh air; and if the whole person were kept as clean as these parts, there would never be any odor from any portion of it. But when the feet are tightly encased in high, close boots, and the arm-pits, groins, etc., closely poul- ticed in tight and almost impervious apparel, and little attention given to cleanliness, and all the putrid and de- caying matter thrown out from the body closely retained around it, what can we expect from it but nauseous odors and sickening effluvias. If low shoes, obviously the most healthy and comfortable foot-dress, were generally worn at all times, excepting in deep snows and mud, the impurities of the foot would escape, and there would be no offensive feet; but when a boot is used, all the exhala- tions are retained, and the boot itself in a short time becomes fully saturated with the poison gases of the foot; and the latter, with the stocking and boot, are little else than a mass of rancid, virulent poison applied to the feet, causing an amount of bodily derangement which none but the medical man can fully comprehend. Necessity for Suffering. It is an old saying, that “we can neither come in or go out of the world without suffering,” both of which may well be doubted, for that there is no necessity of suffering in going out of the world is a fully established fact, capable of ample practical evidence; nor is there sufficient proof that our entrance into the world is neces- sarily connected with pain or suffering, and indeed the weight of evidence is against this idea. It is not denied Fools and asses fill the lawyers’ pockets. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 603 An open door tempts a saint. but that a great majority of births in civilized life are attended with much pain and suffering, and some even with death; yet there are many cases in which very little suffering is experienced, and in some next to none at all. And our native Indian women, while travelling in company with their male and female friends, often halt by the wayside, fulfil the demands of nature, remount their animals, and soon overtake their companions as though nothing had happened. And who is prepared to say that the number of painless births may not be in- definitely increased, or that the day may not come when every well-formed woman, who is true to the laws of nature, shall not fulfil her natural destiny without pain or suffering. For we cannot imagine any possible good to arise to woman by the necessary association of pain with so important a function of her nature as this; and the well-known fact, that the normal exercise of every other faculty of our bodies is productive only of pleas- ure, seems good evidence that suffering in childbirth is unnecessary and unnatural, and due only to woman’s own physical errors and abuses; and so long as she prides herself in those fashionable follies and abuses which produce her childbed dangers and sufferings, so long surely she ought not to complain at the conse- quences. And as to suffering in our exit from the world, God has obviously made each organ of the body to cor- respond in endurance with all the rest; and if no one is overtasked or injured, they will all wear out simultane- ously, and the whole organism cease its action at the same moment, and, as it were, almost unconsciously. But if, as is usually the case in civilized life, we over- task, injure, or destroy one or more organs, as the Every sweet has its bitter; every rose, its thorn. 604 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Fools are privileged to say what they please. stomach by gluttony, the lungs by corset-lacing, the nerves by tea, coffee, and tobacco, the heart’s action by alcoholic liquors or over-excitement, so that one or more parts die prematurely, while the rest remain compara- tively healthy, the latter must also die before the whole vital machinery will cease its action, and the final struggle of the living sound organs to preserve the in- tegrity of the system constitutes the pains, penalties, and anguish of the body in death. Solitary Vice. This exhausting drain upon the life-powers should only be made at full mature age, and then but very sparingly; for even at this most favorable period, full manhood, in all its prime and strength, soon loses its vigor and bends beneath the too frequent indulgence; and no degree of vigor, health, or constitution will protect either sex from the awful consequences arising from unlimited indulgence, exercised either naturally or unnaturally. And as to frequency, an eminent medical author has said, “It were better not to exceed the number of months in the year, and no one can exceed the number of weeks with- out sooner or later suffering in health and constitution.” The bodily ills arising from excessive venery, whether natural or unnatural, are almost endless; a few of them, as Avell defined by the profession, will be found sub- joined, and ought to be amply sufficient to deter any reflecting mind from so odious and frightful a practice. The immediate effects are a prostration of the whole nervous system, and a general debility of the whole body, with emaciation and a pale, cadaverous counte- nance, and great depression of spirits, and then comes Health and mirth contribute to beauty. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 605 No man is ever a prophet in his own country. the local derangement of parts or organs. In both, loss of appetite, indigestion, costiveness or diarrhoea, reten- tion or involuntary flow of urine, irregular sleep, fright- ful dreams, sadness, sighing, weeping, palpitation, pains in the head, fainting fits, impaired sight and hearing, soft, feeble, and flaccid muscles, weak knees, tottering, irregular gait, epilepsy, heart disease, bleeding from the lungs, spinal disease, dull eyes, sunken cheeks, with dull, sluggish, listless, peevish, morose, and reckless condition of the mental faculties, and a very obtuse state of the moral faculties. This means insanity, or craziness upon a single subject, as love, religion, etc., and is produced by the intense and too long protracted action of one or more organs of the brain. It has long been a well-established fact that a continued plodding upon one point, with little to divert the mind from it, is unfavorable to intellectual health : and monomania, or partial insanity, is most prevalent among those classes of men whose business affords the least range and variety of thought, and where the mind is closely concentrated and held upon one or a very few subjects for a long time. Farmers and day laborers, from the nature of their business, abundant exercise in the open air, would naturally be supposed to be the most healthy of all classes of men,— and they certainly do enjoy a very good degree of bodily health; still, the statistics of our asylums show a larger proportion of their inmates from these classes than any other, and this can only be accounted for from the sameness and monotonous nature of their business. Agriculture, if intelligently and scientifically pursued, would afford an immense field Monomania. Suspicion is the mother of safety. 606 HUMAN RIFE PROLONGED. Boast not of your generosity or favors bestowed. for intellectual expansion and operation as well as mus- cular effort; but at present the crops, the weather, and the markets engross almost the entire intellectual range, and become the idol trinity of most farmers*; and if, from some casual or incidental novelty, the mind is diverted from the few limited themes of thought, it soon relapses into the wonted routine, and pursues the beaten track of ages. And this sameness, this oneness of idea, and want of change and variety or novelty, and constant tendency to concentration of ideas in one direction, necessarily brings into action one class of organs, keeps them always active, and overdoes and debilitates them, while the others remain permanently inactive, and are enfeebled from opposite causes; and thus, by the opposite extremes of over-activity and sluggishness, the whole brain be- comes diseased, and monomania or partial insanity fol- lows. Life Hints. To “ feed a cold and starve a fever ” is a tremendous lie, and the very way to kill the patient. Starve them both to death, as you would a garrison by cutting off all supplies, and the fortress will surrender in twenty-four to thirty-six hours. Let it be remembered, then, that every mouthful of food swallowed, even of the simplest kind, after a cold is contracted, only increases the fulness and oppression of the system, aggravates the every mor- bid symptom, and makes the more phlegm to be coughed up and sneezed out. Dr. Tissot says the shortness of man’s life is due more to the use of yeast, salt, alkalies in food, and liquors than to all else; and that, as a gen- eral rule, that which is offensive to the sense of smell is more or less unfavorable to health. Eating a full meal Relations take the most liberties and bestow the least favors. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 607 Ignorance of the law is no excuse for crime. at the close of the day is like giving a laboring man a full day’s work to do just as night sets in, when he has already been toiling all the day. Fat in excess, both in man and beast, is of itself a diseased condition, and the progenitor of many serious maladies; for it communi- cates a morbid acidity to the fluid secretions of the body.” — Dr. Hall, London. “ Any one of ordinary activity, who will for one week adopt the practice of eating abso- lutely nothing after a two-o’clock dinner, will be amply paid in more sound sleep, vigorous appetite for breakfast and dinner, and a freedom from a sense of weight, ful- ness, oppression, and acidity, which always follow over- eating or late suppers.” — Dr. Hall, New York. “ One out of every nine of the entire population of the United States annually dies of consumption. Over-eating three times a day is the primary or radical cause of a great majority of consumptive diseases ; and each reader is advised to take the matter in hand for himself.” — lb. “ It is useless to talk about love in a cottage : the little rascal always runs away when there is no bread and butter on the table; for there is more love in a barrel full of flour than in all the roses, poses, and woodbines in the world.” — lb. In nearly every case the first bias in love is determined by some physical quality, — the face, the foot, the hand, the ankle, the twinkle of the eye, the dimple in the chin or cheek, the lisp of the tongue, the port of the head, the color or curl of the hair, the keenness of the eye, or the general carriage and contour of the person. For kindling up, then, the real old-fashioned, flaming, world-defying, heart-breaking, never-ending love, the physical qualities have the ini- tiating and predominant agency and influence.—Type- Ignorance of the fact exempts from guilt. 608 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. The practice of mischief is sport to a fool. metal is well known to be an active poison ; and printers should never allow it to touch the tongue or mouth. They should stand erect while at work, put on an abun- dance of clothing when they go out in cool or cold weather, and always breathe through the nose, not the mouth, that the cold air may be partially warmed before entering the lungs. Devouring Flesh. It has long been a matter of astonishment to me that refined housekeepers and female cooks are not disgusted and horror-stricken when they have to handle and pre- pare the flesh of dead animals as food. Poetic fiction might well exclaim: “ The hide still crawling, and the mangled breast Half raw, half roasted, bellowing its complaint.” Dr. Alcott, Boston. Power of Tobacco. Of all the agents ever yet applied to the human body, either as food, drink, or medicine, there is none which makes its advances so insidiously, seizes upon its vic- tims so unconsciously, and binds them so securely, as does the tyrant tobacco; and he who has once consented to become its willing worshipper, to extricate himself from its iron grasp will require a degree of fortitude, firmness, decision of character, and perseverance which rarely fall to the lot of any one man; hence the extreme rarity of a reformed tobacco user. The slave of tea, coffee, or alcoholic drinks, by friendly medical advice, or from a self-conviction of his own errors, will be often aroused to a sense of his own danger and degradation, and at once reform, and persevere to the end of life, even in the A wise man treasures up knowledge; a fool, vice and corruption. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 609 The most elevated positions are open to risks, fears, and dangers midst of old temptations and associates; but with the old tobacco user, this is seldom or never the case. He may be fully aware of the enormity of the evil, and anx- ious to reform; may resolve and re-resolve, and even make the attempt, yet so omnipotent is this narcotic in its grasp upon the system, that after a few days, or weeks at most, of fruitless attempts at reform, in a vast major- ity of cases he abandons his design in despair, and re- turns to wallow in the filth and stench of the nauseous Indian weed. But tell the victim of this poison that he is a slave to it, bound hand and foot, and that he can- not extricate himself from the tyrant’s grasp without putting forth all his powers both of mind and body, and he is unwilling to believe you, and usually passes it off as a very trifling affair; showing conclusively that he has no correct idea of his real condition. But only let him make the attempt at reform, and then, and not till then, like a bird bound with a silken thread, will he know his bondage, feel his chains and fetters, and fully realize the slavery and degradation into which his folly and imprudence have led him. And it sometimes seems that if the centre of this globe were one grand, burning pandemonium, and its all-devouring crater reached the surface, men of vitiated and depraved appetites, goaded on by this potent poison, would rush headlong into it, even while its fiery streams of lava stared them full in the face. Still, as bad as the condition of the tobacco eater is, his case is not a hopeless one; for that which has been done can be done again, and his only hope of redemption is in a total abstinence from the article; for he who attempts a reform by “ weaning off,” or “ taper- Courage and fear of death are wholly incompatible. 610 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Hope mitigates the worst form of grief. ing off,” will ultimately find that he has been fanning a fire which will burn as long as a particle of fuel is sup- plied, be it much or little. Rapidity of Digestion. According to the experiments of Dr. Beaumont upon the stomach of St. Martin, flesh meats have no advan- tage in speed of digestion over vegetables; for fine wheaten bread, one of the most difficult articles of di- gestion in the whole vegetable class, so far as time is concerned, is sooner digested than the favorite dish of “ corned beef; ” while all the succulent fruits and fari- naceous vegetables are well known to digest much more rapidly than the most favored flesh meats. After every healthy meal, whatever the sort of food, there is always an increased temporary action of the whole system, to digest the food and appropriate it to the use of the sys- tem, called the “ fever of digestion; ” and observation has abundantly shown that when flesh meats are eaten, this temporary effort of the system runs higher and lasts longer than when vegetables are eaten; hence the con- clusion of physiologists is, that the digestion and assim- ilation of flesh meats require a greater effort of the stomach and assimilating apparatus, and taxes the sys- tem more, on the whole, than vegetable food; so that, on the whole, vegetable food has the advantage of flesh meats in the ease and rapidity of digestion. Mementos. It is folly for parents to struggle, toil, and prema- turely wear out poor human nature to leave their chil- dren perishable thousands, often to squander, dissipate, and ruin them ; but by judicious training and teaching, Love covers many faults, and kindness makes friends. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 611 Act well your part. To be wise is to be happy. from early infancy, instruct them how to take care of their own health, and make a living for themselves by honest industry in some honorable avocation. — A regu- lar and instantaneous compliance with the first indica- tions of nature for defecation and urination would annually save the lives of thousands. — When a man lies stretched out supinely, with his arms at right angles with the body, the distance from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot is the same as from the end of one of the longest fingers to that of the other.—Remain- ing at stool too long, that is more than five to eight minutes, by allowing the anus or fundament to be too long in a loose and relaxed condition, especially if strain- ing be practised at the same time, is among the most ac- tive causes of “ falling piles.” — The breath as it leaves the lungs is so poisonous that, if immediately rebreathed, it would speedily produce death by suffocation ; but to pre- vent such a calamity, the Creator has wisely made it so much lighter than the surrounding air, that, like a balloon filled with a light gas, it instantly ascends, as it escapes from the mouth and nostrils, into the higher re- gions above the breathing point. — The gastric juice, a mild, bland fluid produced by the stomach, has the power to dissolve the hardest substances which can be swallowed, but has no effect upon the delicate living fibres of that organ, yet from the moment of death begins to corrode away the stomach like a strong acid.— If we would spend as much care and take as much pains in saving human existence as we now do in saving a dollar, thousands of us would live many years longer than we do, and suffer immensely less too. — “We turn with disgust from eating anything rotten or in a state Men of great attainments do not always succeed in life. 612 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Mutual love is the strongest bond of union on earth. of decay, and yet in the middle of the nineteenth cen- tury, the loaf upon our tables is rotten, and the product of rottenness and whiskey.” — Dr. Hall. The length of the body is just six times that of the foot; and the distance from the edge of the hair on the fore- head to the end of the chin is one-tenth the length of the whole stature. — Of the sixty-two primary chemical elements found in nature, only eighteen are present in the human body, and of these seven are metallic. Iron is found in the blood, phosphorus in the brain, lime- stone in the bile, lime in the bones, dust and ashes in all.— “In health, no one ought ever to drink ice-water, for it lias occasioned fatal inflammation of the stomach and bowels, and sometimes sudden death; and still the temptation to use it is very great in summer.” — lb. When away from home, put your watch and purse in your vest-pocket, and all under your pillow at night, and you will never leave them. The Special Senses. Every impression made upon the mind, whether pain- ful or pleasurable, is received through one or more of the special senses,— taste, smell, sight, hearing, or touch ; and upon the health and exquisiteness of these senses depend the amount of enjoyment which is received from their exercise; and he who in any way injures any or all of them, or even neglects to preserve their health and activity, directly curtails his own enjoyment and happiness in life. The nerves of special sense are branches of the general nervous system, with special functions, and whatever impairs the latter affects the former more or less, and in many cases very seriously; Great men, like comets, are usually eccentric. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 613 No one can lose his honor but he who has it. and in addition to the injury done the nerves of special sense, through the general nervous system, they are also subject to injury by the use of deleterious agents locally applied to them. Thus, the habitual use of tea, coffee, tobacco, alcoholic liquors, opium, snuff, etc., im- pairs the nervous system generally, as a whole ; and the special nerves must of course suffer more or less in common with the whole, but still more from the direct application of these agents, and other highly injurious substances. The use of snuff, for instance, always im- pairs, and sometimes ruins, the sense of smell; the use of tobacco, with all other pungent food or drinks, as liquors, peppers, strong condiments, etc., impairs the sense of taste; the incessant application of loud and harsh sounds to the ear, as those of cotton-mills, boiler- factories, foundries, etc., impairs the auditory nerve and sense of hearing; and excessive friction upon any por- tion of the surface, as well as saline depositions upon the skin, injures the acuteness of the sense of feeling; and a multitude of causes tend to impair the organ of vision. Defecation. All food is composed of both nutritious and innutri- tious matter: the former after digestion being carried in the blood to every part of the body for its support; while the latter passes into the bowels, and is discharged as refuse or useless materials; and the presence of the one class is just as necessary to the safety and health of the body as the other. The proportion of these classes in the food best adapted to secure health is believed to be sixty per cent, of nutritious and forty of innutritious ; and too great a deviation from this, especially if the in- Vice stings us even in our pleasures. 614 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED Honor and shame from no condition rise. nutritious be diminished, is, in nine cases out of every ten, the cause of all the ailments of the bowels, and a world of suffering which always follows those ailments. But this is not all; for even if the necessary innutritious matter is present in the food, this alone will not secure an easy and regular exercise of the bowels ; for a prompt compliance with the first symptoms of nature for defeca- tion is indispensable to insure an habitually active and easy faecal discharge ; and no one can habitually neglect these calls, even for five minutes, without sooner or later suffering permanently in health and constitution. For cases not a few are on record in which death has fol- lowed by resisting the impulse of defecation even for ten or fifteen minutes; and no one who thus violates this simple but important law of his nature, even for once, can be secure against the most serious consequences. Two conditions, therefore, are imperiously necessary to insure an active, easy, and habitually healthy condition of the alimentary track — viz., first, a due proportion of refuse matter in the food to form the feces in the bowels ; and, secondly, an instantaneous compliance with the first indications of nature for defecation ; and these two points well attended to, few will experience any in- convenience from costiveness or inactivity of the bowels, one of the most common and afflicting causes of human suffering. These are strong, dense instruments firmly set in the cavities of the jaws, each having a distinct nerve and blood-vessel, constituting them living organic structures, equally with any other part of the system, and as Structure of the Teeth. Avarice ruins more than prodigality. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 615 A sensible man may be in haste, but never in a hurry. such requiring constant care and attention to pre- vent disease and premature decay. As to their im- portance in the living economy, in the first place, they constitute a very essential part of the vocal organs; secondly, they contribute in a very high degree to per- sonal beauty, both by themselves and by preserving the natural form of the face; and, thirdly, they are indis- pensable to health as instruments of mastication. As contributing to personal beauty, the teeth far surpass all other attractions of the face; for they diffuse amiability over the countenance, soften the features, and afford an almost infallible criterion by which to distinguish the genteel, refined, and polished from the careless, neglect- ful, and slovenly. For what can add more to personal appearance than clean, white, and well-conditioned teeth ? and, on the contra, what is there connected with the countenance more repulsive, or more directly calcu- lated to excite disgust, than black, neglected, incrusted, and dilapidated teeth ? The principal baths in use are the cold, tepid, warm, and vapor, each being valuable in its place when judi- ciously used; and this use is easily learned and prac- tised. In the application of baths, there seem to be three distinct objects—viz., first, for cleanliness; sec- ondly, for the prevention of disease; and, thirdly, as a remedial agent. In the first place, no person making the least pretension to decency or civilization, unless unavoidably prevented, should ever pass longer than one week without washing the entire person thoroughly, scalp and all, with warm water and soap; rinsing down Baths and Bathing. Dignified humility accompanies great minds. 616 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Pride and ostentation accompany small and vicious minds. well with tepid water, and rubbing down with a crash towel; and this is bathing for cleanliness. Secondly, while in ordinary health, in order to fortify the system against colds and sudden changes in the temperature, on rising, a cool shower-bath, or a towel wet in cool water, and rapidly passed over the surface (in a warm room in cold weather), followed by active friction with a coarse towel, until reaction or a glow of warmth is jiroduced, is doubtless an excellent practice, and productive of much good; and this is bathing for the prevention of disease. But as cold baths add nothing to the sum totum of the vital powers, and only act in arousing what vitality may already be present in the system, unless they are care- fully and judiciously applied, and followed by an imme- diate reaction, the liabilities to harm are much greater than to good. Thirdly, the use of the warm water or vapor bath from twice a day, morning and evening, to once a week, depending upon the case, and carried to the extent of a gentle perspiration each time, in connec- tion with a simple vegetable diet and a plenty of active light exercise in the open air, will effect more in the cure of chronic disease than all the drugs of the shops can without it. And further, the use of the warm water bath alone, taken two or three times a week, has a very powerful influence in sustaining the declining energies of life and preserving personal beauty in those who have passed the meridian of their days; and this is the use of the bath as a remedial agent. An ordinary, large- sized washtub, with a sheet or light quilt thrown around the shoulders, falling to the floor around the tub, leaving the head out, serves a good purpose in taking a warm bath in the absence of the regular apparatus. A very Discretion is the handmaid of virtue. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 617 He who plants trees thinks of others. good vapor bath may be constructed at a cost of about two dollars. And if the masses, especially the laboring community, could know and realize the suffering, loss of time, and waste of money which could be saved by their use, these simple means of health would soon be as common in our houses as stoves are now. Cause of Bad Breath. The breath of the nursing infant, as well as that of the cow and sheep fed upon fresh grass, are perfectly sweet, while that of the great mass of adult men and women is almost intolerable, especially if flesh meats be used; and the difference is wholly in the difference in the food of the two classes; for while the former live upon natural food, breast milk and grass, the latter sub- sist upon a hodge-podge, medley mess, most of which is wholly unfit for human food. All improper food is difficult of digestion, and when it remains in the stomach a long time without being digested, by the chemical ac- tion of the solvents of the stomach and the warmth of the body, a sort of decomposition or rotting takes place in the stomach, the same as it would out of' the stomach if exposed to a hot sun ; and the blood produced from such a half-digested and putrid mass is necessarily diseased, taints the whole system, and imparts to the body and breath an offensive odor. The breath of the same individ- ual varies much in purity at different times, owing to the varying condition of the digestion ; for a single meal of badly digested food will vitiate or taint the whole mass of the fluids of the body; and as the blood all passes through the lungs once in three or four minutes, the breath will be more or less tainted and bad as long as )Ve often ask advice, but really mean approbation. 618 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. If you will not be counselled, you cannot be helped. any j)art of the “ bad batch of blood ” remains in the system. But bad blood is but one cause of bad breath; for diseased lungs and decayed teeth, one or both, come in for a share in most cases. A good digestion and sim- ple food, therefore, are indispensable to a pure breath; and where these are wanting, this important personal quality is out of the question, even if all else be right. Taking Cold. From birth till death, the human body is capable of producing a certain quantity of caloric, varying with age, health, habits, etc., which is constantly radiated from the body into the surrounding air; and as long as we are so situated, as to apparel and temperature, that the production of heat equals radiation, no cold can possibly be contracted ; but as soon as radiation exceeds calorification, the temperature of the body becomes re- duced, and a cold is the consequence; and all that is necessary to remove it is to restore the lost heat of the body, and equalize the circulation of the blood, and this can readily be done by the application of heavy cloth- ing, sitting about a hot fire, taking warm teas, warm baths, etc., and getting up at first a free perspiration, and then keeping up a gentle moisture until all is right. Poison in Food. The popular idea that all our food contains more or less poison, and that this quality is necessary to health, is wholly erroneous; for in the first place it is not true, nor can it be proved, that poison in any form or degree is necessary to health or longevity; and in the next place it is not true that our food generally contains any poison; and so far from that, nearly every article in common use, A man’s language tells what his education is. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 619 Home is home, though ever so homely. which is known and admitted to be the best adapted to the wants of man, does not, so far as known, contain a par- ticle of poison. It is true that the potato is botanically classed among poisons; and the meat of the peach-stone is said to contain a very small quantity of prussic acid: but the bulbous root of the potato, and the pulp of the peach, are wholly destitute of any poisonous qualities whatever; and the same is equally true of all the fari- naceous grains, as well as apples, pears, currants, cherries, raspberries, beans, pumpkins, turnips, beets, carrots, onions, and most other vegetables in common use. Use of Carpets. Next to combustion, respiration, and a defective ven- tilation, the use of carpets is the most active agent in vitiating the air of our apartments, and also has a direct influence in provoking and perpetuating diseases of the lungs. First, much of the coloring matter used in them is very poisonous; and as the carpet becomes worn, the small particles detached from it penetrate through and rest upon the floor; and as there is always more or less air between the floor and the carpet, at every step upon the latter the air is forced up through, carrying with it this impalpable dust, and filling the air of the room with it, just according to the use of the carpet. Secondly, there must always be, at least once a day, a thorough stirring up of the dust, called “ sweeping,” which fills the room, and allows the dust to settle upon everything which affords a lodgment for it, still further deteriorating the air of the room. And if these facts are not sufficient for the lovers of carpets, let them on a clear day observe the rays of the sun as they enter the room obliquely He who lives on hope has a meagre fare. 620 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Discretion in speech is more powerful than eloquence. through a window, and they can have ocular evidence of the purity of the air which they are habitually breathing. Urination. In the economy of the human organism, Nature has so arranged that a large portion of the fluids taken into the system is separated from the blood by the kidneys, passed from them to the bladder, and thence is dis- charged by urination; and this fluid contains a quantity of worn-out and useless materials held in solution in it, in the form of salts, alkalies, and acids, which cannot long be retained in the blood without great injury to the vital functions. A healthy and free secretion of the kidneys, and a prompt discharge of urine therefore, be- come a matter of quite as much importance to health as an active condition of the bowels, for neither can long be neglected without serious and not unfrequently fatal consequences. By retaining the urine too long, the bladder has been known to become so much distended as to burst, and cause immediate death; and even when these lamentable effects do not occur, the bladder be- comes so much debilitated and injured by habitual neglect and over-distention, that it often loses its tone and action, and will subsequently be unable to discharge its contents at all, and eventuate in a most painful death. Nor is this all; for when the urine is long retained in the bladder, it is liable to be reabsorbed into the circu- lation again, and is also much more likely to form cal- culi or stone in the bladder than when promptly dis- charged. Medical records abound in cases in which death has occurred by neglecting to urinate at the first call of nature; and, regardless of circumstances or corn- Bashfulness is a great obstacle to success iu life. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 621 Ignorance is always pleased and satisfied with itself. pany, no one should ever, through false delicacy or mock modesty, procrastinate a call to urinate or defecate longer than to walk to the nearest convenient place, for this seemingly very common and trifling neglect may cost him his life. Parents therefore should early impress upon the minds of their children the immense importance of prompt and instantaneous compliance with the first in- dications of nature, whether urination or defecation; nor should flatus be neglected or suppressed, for a little pro- crastination in either case may, in any case, result most seriously. Cabbage and Turnips. These vegetables possess but very little nutriment, (six to seven per cent.,) are rather difficult of digestion; and on the whole, considering their real practical value as articles of human food, are scarcely worth cooking, even if furnished gratis ; and the same is nearly true of the carrot and parsnip. The Onion. This vegetable is highly nutritious and quite an alterative, exerting a salutary influence upon the lungs in cases of common colds, and upon the bowels in cos- tiveness. When eaten raw, it is quite indigestible, but when boiled it becomes tender, and is readily acted upon by the solvents of the stomach. In cases of colds, hoarseness, sore throat, etc., the free use of boiled onions and onion syrup, are among the very best simple means known. When sliced, and eaten raw in vinegar, with cucumbers, the onion is one of the very worst, crudest, and most indigestible of all articles in use as food, and should never be ventured upon. Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. 622 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Study to be useful, and listen not to talebearers. Scraps and Crumbs. When at a hotel table or in a public hall, never con- verse so as to be heard two or three seats from you, for this indicates the boor, if a man, and the absence of lady-like delicacy, if a woman; for true gentlemen are never noisy, and real ladies are always calm. — When ice is placed in milk or on butter, these articles should be promptly used at the time, or they become stale and very much deteriorated, for both are essentially changed in quality by being frozen and thawed. — A sixpenny sandwich eaten leisurely in the cars, while travelling, is better than to bolt a dollar dinner at a “ station,” or to be swindled out of it for want of time to eat it. — Cold water, or other very cold fluids taken at meals, chills the stomach, retards digestion, and often induces serious consequences.—When about to travel, take with you at least one-fourth more money than you expect to use, have a good supply of small change, so as to exhibit no large notes or quantity of funds to excite the attention of rascals, and make yourself well acquainted with the geography of your route. — A piece of ice laid on the wrist, it is stated, will often arrest a violent bleeding of the nose.—“Boots and tight-ankled gaiters keep the feet damp, cold, and unclean, by preventing the escape of the insensible perspiration always going off from the feet, and collecting and condensing it; hence the old- fashioned low walking shoe is the best for health.”—Dr. Hall. In a great number of chronic diseases, especially dyspepsia, in all its protean phases, an important condi- tion favorable to a cure is that the subject divert the mind as much as possible from the disease, think as little Memory is the great storehouse of knowledge. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 623 True courage is the highest order of generosity. and as lightly as possible of it and about it, and be con- stantly occupied about something interesting and useful. Charcoal and Respiration. The carbonic acid gas thrown off from the lungs of an ordinary adult in twenty-four hours, contains one pound of solid carbon or charcoal, and that from the lungs of an audience of twelve hundred persons, during a sermon of two hours, to seventy-five pounds ; and yet so indifferent are the masses to the quality of the air which they breathe, that very little pains are taken to re- move this vast quantity of poisonous gas, and supply its place with fresh air. Physiologists have proved by actual experiment that life cannot long be sustained in an atmosphere which has lost six per cent, of its oxygen, that is, which contains fifteen per cent, instead of twenty- one ; and when this loss is caused by respiration in a close room, one-half of this loss will speedily prove fatal, owing partly to the addition of the carbonic acid gas evolved by respiration; and the only reason why thousands are not poisoned to death at once, by breath- ing vitiated close air in densely occupied apartments, is the gradual renovation of the air of the rooms from without, through the cracks and crevices of the apart- ments. Size of Rooms. It is a generally conceded fact in the scientific world that six hundred cubic feet is the very least space, with the ordinary means of ventilation by doors and win- dows, and average cleanliness, which any adult can long occupy without direct, and in most cases speedy, impair- ment of health and constitution, even in the absence of He who finds the day too long, will find his life too short. 624 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Never forget a kindness, or insult the poor. all foreign and injurious matter floating in the air, which greatly augments and expedites the injury. And yet there are thousands of schoolhouses in the land, twenty- five feet square by seven or eight feet high, containing only about five thousand cubic feet, into which are crowded together from fifty to seventy-five human beings daily, for six hours in succession, giving to each but one hundred and twenty-five cubic feet, not even one-fourtli the required quantity; and the same is true to a greater or less extent of churches, hotels, railroad- cars, court-rooms, steamboats, work-shops, factories, and most other places where great numbers are wont to con- gregate. And the effect of this general and systematic liouse-poisoning is but too visible in the pale and haggard faces, emaciated forms, and feeble, tottering locomotion of the thousands we meet in the daily round of life. Dried Beans and Pease. Good ripe, well-cured pease and beans, when well cooked, are farinaceous, very nutritious, and easily di- gested, excepting the skins, which are quite indigestible, and should always be rejected or else very finely masti- cated before they are allowed to enter the stomach. For the benefit of vegetarians, we would state that beans cooked and seasoned in the usual way, and a small piece of good butter added, instead of the ordinary treatment with fat pork, are believed to be even better than when the latter is used. The use of this article, when of moderate and be- coming dimensions, is obviously a great improvement upon the former custom of wearing a multitude of heavy Hoop Skirts. Live up to your nature, and perform well your duty. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 625 Health is a duty to God and ourselves; its loss, a sin, a crime skirts of various fabrics, which in the aggregate were onerous, cumbersome, and had the effect to burden and weigh down the wearer, and inflame and injure the hips upon which they rested. They are light, cool, flexible, easily adjusted to the space assigned to them, and, on the whole, so meritorious and comfortable, that it seems quite doubtful whether the ladies will ever wholly dis- pense with them, however much they may vary the style or form; and the only objection which can be urged against their use is that they render the user somewhat more obnoxious to strokes of lightning than they would be without them. Since feathers have now fallen into disuse as beds by most intelligent persons, hair mattresses have been sub- stituted in their place; but are subject to a great extent to the same objections as feathers, being composed of animal matter, liable to decay by age and use, and emit- ting an unpleasant and unhealthy odor, but less dust than feathers ; for all animal matter as bedding is highly objectionable on this account, especially when used for pillows. Hair Mattresses. Tight Shoes. Nature has intended that every part of the body should have full space and free play for action and movement; and we can in no instance cramp or confine a part within less space than was ordained without seri- ous injury not only to the part, but sooner or later to the whole body. If we place the foot upon a piece of white paper, bear the weight of the body upon it, and trace around the foot with a pencil, and then by'the side Haste, passion, and impetuosity prove the puppy. 626 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A fool thinks all wrong not done by himself. of it mark out a diagram of the sole of the shoe which we are wearing, we shall be enabled to see the extent of the suicide, or fashionable murder, which we are con- stantly inflicting upon nature and our own bodies. The use of tight shoes is a faithful co-worker with tight- or corset-lacing; and although the effects are not quite as obvious and immediate, they are nearly as bad in the sequel and aggregate. They force the toes out of their natural position, pile them up one upon another, deform the foot, produce corns, inverted nails, and the most in- tense suffering; give to the individual a tottering, feeble, and unnatural walk; prevent a free circulation of blood through them; force the blood to the brain, causing headache, dizziness, palpitation, and often inflammation of the brain; and were we to make the best possible fashionable prescription to commit suicide, it would be tight shoes and corset-lacing. Fashion-Mongers. The extent to which any article of apparel is used at this day, so far as style of making it is concerned, is no evidence of its value, fitness, utility, or adaptation to fulfil the ends for which clothing is used, but rather the reverse; for so utterly unnatural and absurd are most articles of wearing apparel, especially female apparel, that the mere admission that an article is fashionable is quite equivalent to admitting it to be costly, extravagant, inconvenient, uncomfortable, ridiculous, and really next to useless. The omnipotent tyrant Fashion rules the unreflecting masses supremely and with an iron rod ; and the aping multitude eagerly pursue and seize upon his grotesque and ludicrous customs as if they were Money is the great stimulant to both good and evil. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 627 A man is known by his company. really meritorious and valuable; and the more hideous, unnatural, useless, and ridiculous they are,- the more zealously they are sought after and prized; for not one in a hundred of the “ fashion chasers ” ever gives the subject of wearing apparel a single thought beyond the fullest assurance that the article “ is the very latest style,” and at once adopts it; and with winces, gri- maces, and lamentations patiently endure the sad penalty of their thoughtless folly for the all-satisfying remu- neration that “ it is fashionable,” and that they are “ fully up to the times.” The inevitable effects of this uncon- trollable fashion mania are, first, a general neglect of intel- lectual culture among our females; secondly, thousands of them are annually led to a life of infamy to keep up fashionable appearances; and, thirdly, thousands of good-natured, indulgent, well-to-do men are annually ruined for life, financially, by thoughtless, extravagant wives and daughters. Food Items, etc. The difference in disposition between carnivorous and graminivorous animals, and also between the peaceful disposition of the frugivorous Asiatic and the ferocious and carnivorous European, is too patent, even at the first glance, to be mistaken by the most ordinary capacity.— “ I no longer use strong drink nor eat the flesh of dead animals ; for we have no other right but might to sacri- fice the lives of animals to our monstrous appetites.” — J. Tweedwell. “ The use of swine’s flesh and alcoholic liquors is the grand cause of scurvy in the British Islands, which probably would assume the form of leprosy, if our climate were as hot as that of India.” — Dr. Adam We must stand or fall upon our own merits. 628 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Be not angry and contend about trifles. Clarke. Sir Edward Barry induced a man to live on flesh meat, without vegetables, for eight days, when the symptoms of putrefaction were so strongly manifest in his body that he was obliged to desist. — The moderate use of raisins, rejecting the seeds, chewed very fine, skins and all, is a highly valuable remedy in chronic consti- pation;. and a small quantity of pure, finely pulverized capsicum mixed in a little molasses, and taken daily for a time, has the same effect.—In all cases of bruises, cuts, or small flesh wounds, the immediate application of spirits of turpentine has no equal as a remedy. In all cases of burns, when not very large, instantly apply cold water, and keep the part wet by changing cloths until the pain and inflammation subside. Labor during Pregnancy. Formerly, it was thought that the father stamped his personal peculiarities upon the offspring more decidedly than the mother, and that the physical and mental qualities and condition of the latter, so far as the child was concerned, were of minor importance, provided the sire was all right; but now it is generally conceded that the influence of the mother is even more direct and posi- tive than that of the father; and hence the care of the female during gestation is now coming to be looked upon as a matter of as much importance as that of the male at the time of procreation; that is, the doctrine that “ as is the mother so is the offspring ” is now very generally admitted to be correct. For if he beget the child in his own likeness, the mother subsequently develops it into her own form and likeness, and stamps it so for life; and hence the labor, health, habits, and all that Truth and fidelity are the brightest ornaments of youth. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 629 Idleness is a crime, and revenge, a mean pleasure. pertain to the mother during pregnancy, become a sub- ject of vast moment to the development and life wel- fare of the child. If during gestation the mother use any part of her body habitually to excess or unduly, as the head, hands, arms, etc., the child will be very likely to take on a large abnormal development in the parts most used by the mother ; and in consequence of this excessive growth in one or more parts, other parts or organs are liable to be imperfectly developed and feeble; and this law applies equally to the domesticated brute as to the human species. If a pregnant woman labor ex- cessively to the point of great fatigue, exhaustion, or disgust, it will beget in the child a loathing, hatred, or disgust for the sort of labor in which the mother was engaged, whether physical or intellectual; and as the child grows up it will be either bodily lazy, or have an natural aversion to intellectual effort, as the case may be ; for nearly all really lazy persons will be found to be the offspring of over-worked mothers, and lazy horses the foals of over-worked dams. It is obviously a great misfortune to be lazily organized; and mothers who are aware of the cause, and then apply it, are guilty of a crime for which they can never atone. But this law of transmission from mother to child by no means ends with physical and mental labor, but extends to every function of the body, as digestion, assimilation, respira- tion, calorification, defecation, urination, disintegration, etc.; and these functions will be active and strong, or sluggish and feeble in the child, as they were in the mother. Hence the health, habits, and condition of the mother during gestation, from the least to the greatest, become a matter of paramount importance to the well The truthful and honest are seldom friendless. 630 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A shallow head makes a noisy mouth. being of the child ; and it must be obvious to all that no pregnant woman should ever labor beyond the point of reasonable exercise while in that condition, as excessive labor, physical or mental, is sure to do more or less harm, and may prove fatal to the life interests of the child. Kitchen Slavery. A modern kitchen is a modern slave-pen, where the housewife, if she work at all in it, works for food, lodg- ing, and clothing, and the hired woman is a slave for wages. There are different sorts of slavery, as the fac- tory slave, the apprenticed slave, the school-teacher slave, the clerical slave, the student slave, etc., all of whom, as regards the great ends of life, are but little better off' than the slave of a modern kitchen. A young man marries a wife; neither has much property ; economy must be consulted ; both must work, he out- doors and she within, and necessarily the kitchen work and cookery fall upon her. And now can any one offer any valid reason why these two persons, say with one or two more, constituting a small family, should be so re- lated to their food department that three-fourths of the wife’s time should be spent in hard labor to gratify the single propensity of alimentiveness f What else but degradation can be the result of such a gratification of any one propensity, be it what it may? Has woman no other powers or faculties to exercise, but to serve this one propensity of alimentiveness? Must she from dawn of day until nightfall, during all her life, spend her thought and skill of hand in cooking, setting tables, clearing them off' and washing dishes ? But as long as the present ideas of eating, or rather stuffing, prevail, so Necessity is a sharp weapon, but fools will use it. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 631 Be slow to take, when strangers are in haste to give. long will woman be doomed to this slavery to a single propensity. And the first step toward her redemption from the thraldom of gluttony is to dispense with the heathenish custom of three meals a day; for no living man, however hard he labors, will ever be the better for a third meal, as elsewhere amply shown in this work; and this advance alone will reduce the kitchen drudgery one-third. Next abandon the use of narcotic slops,— tea and coffee, — which the scientific and best part of the medical world have long since decreed to be not only useless, but positively injurious to health; and another burden is taken from woman’s shoulders, which she will fully appreciate. And, in the third place, discard all rich, concentrated pastry, and the use of most flesh meats; and when woman’s daily round consists of two simple but wholesome, nourishing meals, taken about six or seven hours apart, without hot slops, pastry, or much flesh meats, she may deem herself, to a very great extent, emancipated from the degrading slavery of glut- tony. But this is not the best feature of the case; for there is not an intelligent family in the Union, who will adopt this course for three months, that will not be fully convinced of the great advantages arising from its adop- tion, especially in health, economy, and reduction of labor, saying nothing of the sickness, suffering, loss of time, and doctor bills thereby avoided. Climate for Consumptives. The town of Nassau, on the island of New Providence, one of the Bahama group, in the West Indies, is said to be, all things considered, one of the most favorable loca- tions for consumptives upon the globe. The average Poverty, shame, and want await the indolent. 632 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Trickery and deceit discover a little mind. temperature of the winter in that island is seventy de- grees, and of the spring seventy-seven degrees. The coldest day in twenty years, in Nassau, was sixty-four degrees, and the warmest, from November to May, was eighty-two degrees. During the months of April and May, there are often not more than half a dozen rains, and these of short duration ; so that invalids can spend nearly all the time in the open air during the daytime: and without an abundance of out-door air, little or noth- ing can be done for the radical improvement of the con- sumptive. The Brain and Stimulants. The brain is a material and working organ equally with the hand, foot, or eye; and at every thought or intellectual effort solid materials are consumed, used up, or burned up, just as fuel is consumed in the production of caloric,—the more rapidly and vigorously we think, the greater the consumption of these materials, and vice versa. While the supply of new materials to the brain equals the consumption produced by thinking, the brain is duly nourished and sustained, and we think on indefi- nitely ; but a deficiency in the nutrient particles sent to that organ soon induces debility, intercepts or retards the flow of thought, and, if long continued, ultimately ren- ders us incapable of thinking at all, and induces idiocy or insanity. Now the nutrient particles of matter, to replace those which have been previously consumed by thinking, are furnished to the brain by the blood, and supplied to that fluid by the food previously eaten and digested ; and the brain, like all other parts of the body, can best receive and appropriate these nutrient materials He who weeps for everybody, will soon lose his eyesight. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 633 To live without censure, one should be blind, deaf, and dumb. from the blood during a state of rest, or the quiet still- ness of sound sleep. Hence, whenever, from continued hard thinking and close mental application, the brain becomes tired, jaded, exhausted, or temporarily used up, and refuses to go on and go through the desired task, the only true, safe, efficient, and natural means of recu- peration is to go to bed and sleep soundly as long as one can, (if twenty-four hours,) and give the brain an oppor- tunity to renovate and recruit its stock of brain force, or materials. The use of mere stimulants, so often resorted to by all classes to allay temporary exhaustion, such as tea, coffee, ginger, capsicum, alcoholic and fermented liquors, supply nothing, furnish no materials to the blood or brain, but simply lash up and goad on the system to increased action, causing the blood to circulate more rapidly; so that what nutriment it does contain is more speedily carried to the brain, until the blood be- comes so far exhausted of its nutrient matter as no longer to be able to sustain the action of that organ, and then often in an instant the subject falls into convulsions, becomes insane, or is an idiot for life. By the free use of such agents, therefore, we force the blood through the body more speedily than it would go its rounds by its own unaided action, and thus bolster up and urge on the action of the brain to the very point and moment when apoplexy, paralysis, or death demonstrate to us the extent to which the body has been outraged by these treacherous agents. It is true that stimulants tempo- rarily and very speedily allay hunger, simply by quick- ening the circulation of the blood, and causing the nutrient materials of that fluid to be more rapidly de- posited throughout the body; but as stimulants contain To take a wolf by the ears, or a bull by the horns, is a difficult task. 634 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Many talk incessantly, but say nothing. no nutriment to sustain the blood, the time comes when this fluid will have yielded up all it had, and then the body fails from utter exhaustion of its life elements. Stimulants, therefore, let all remember, add nothing to the life-sustaining powers of the system, and give no strength to the body, but only appear to do so by mak- ing all the life-powers available, and causing the organ- ism to hold out until the last particle is consumed, or, “ they bring the last reserve to the front, but add noth- ing to the sum totum of the army; and when the last reserve is used up, the battle of life is over, and death is victorious.” Hence, strength kept up by the mere use of stimulants is always done at the risk of reason and life, while real strength and genuine recuperation come only from repose or sleep and the digestion of nutritious food; and it can come from no other source. Tobacco and Drunkenness. The habitual use of tobacco, by over-tasking the salivary glands and causing a constant drain upon the fluids of the body by spitting, produces thirst, excites a dry, husky state of the mouth and fauces, and develops in the system a strong demand and a keen relish for fluids ; and it is mainly due to this unnatural drain upon the fluids of the body that the slaves of tobacco are so uniformly characterized by a wasted, meagre condition of the body, and a dry, sallow, wrinkled, and cadaver- ous state of the skin. And, unfortunately, the thirst produced by the use of tobacco, unlike natural healthy thirst, cannot be allayed to the satisfaction of the sub- ject by simple healthy fluids, for the mouth, being con- stantly accustomed to the acrid and pungent effects of When you have nothing to say, say nothing. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 635 Folly is never long content with itself. the tobacco, soon loses its relish for simple healthy drinks like water. And at first resort is had to the milder drinks, cider, beer, and wine, to allay it; but with the growing torpidity of the sense of taste, from the use of the tobacco, these milder liquors soon lose their power to produce the desired effect, and then resort is had to gin, rum, brandy, etc. as a substitute for them. And in this way the habit of tippling is fully and firmly estab- lished, having very gradually, and to the subject almost imperceptibly, grown out of the use of tobacco. Thou- sands of sober and temperate men in this way are lured into the paths of intoxication, and suspecting that no danger awaits them, progress on step by step, until finally, having advanced too far to retrace their course, the melancholy scene is closed amid all the gloom and horror of the drunkard’s grave. Beds, Bedding, etc. The sole object of bed-coverings is to preserve the natural temperature of the body during the night by preventing the too rapid radiation of heat; and the less of it we use, so that this end is effected, the better for health, for weighty bed-coverings press heavily upon the body, and are highly burdensome and injurious, while those made of light materials, as cotton, which is a slow conductor of heat, are greatly superior to heavy spreads or quilts, which are loose, and readily allow the heat to escape. All “ valances,” “ bed-curtains,” nightcaps or coverings for the head, are useless and injurious, and “ trundle-beds ” are a positive nuisance, which should never be tolerated by any one making the least preten- sions to intelligence. The practice of sleeping upon the Flattery is an open door to the heart. 636 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Ignorance, whims, and fancy constitute fashion. floor is a bad one, because the air is much less pure than higher up; and the present fashion of low bedsteads is very objectionable on the same account. The use of high pillows is both useless and injurious, because they tend to distort the spine and produce round shoulders; for when lying upon the back, we need no pillow, and when upon the side, only sufficient to hold the head in a horizontal position. Longevity of Physicians. Doctors on an average live from, ten to fifteen years less than lawyers, clergymen, or professors in literary institutions, notwithstanding they enjoy the great phys- ical blessing of spending most of their time in the open fresh air; and this is mainly due to the following causes : First, they are usually very irregular in their sleep and meals, which alone, if habitual and long continued, will ruin the health of the most hardy. Secondly, while nearly every other avocation admits of aids or assistants, in the way of clerks, deputies, etc., that of the physician can have no such auxiliaries, for as the medical man grows in years, he is also supposed to grow in skill and experience, and no one can act as deputy for the old physician in the estimation of his patient; so that the labors of the doctor increase with years, and the older he becomes, the harder he has to work, and the less opportunity he has for ease and repose, while protracted longevity demands the opposite conditions. And, thirdly, many, by far too many medical men, from the irregular- ities of their habits, incidental to the profession, in order to brace themselves up against the want of regular sleep and food, fall into the habitual use of liquor, Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 637 Discretion is the perfection of wisdom. tobacco, opium, or all of them, and by this means greatly deteriorate their health, and bring themselves down to a premature grave; for of all other callings, that of the physician requires the most rigid and punctilious tem- perance, abstemiousness, and fidelity to the laws of life. The Twin Brothers. Between the use of tobacco and alcoholic liquors there exists a very close and intimate relation, a great majority of liquor drinkers being also tobacco users, and in most cases the use of the tobacco preceded that of the liquor. And hence the harmony which exists between the two in the place of sale, time, and place of using, and the company in which they are the most popular; for we all know that the grog-shop and bar-room are the most favorite places of resort for smoking and drinking. I)r. Stevenson says, “ The habitual use of tobacco is the most common stepping-stone to the use of intoxicating drinks.” Prof. Mussey says, “ In the use of tobacco there is great danger, for it excites a dry, husky state of the mouth and throat, which calls loudly for some strong drink.” Dr. Agnes says, “ The use of tobacco paves the wray to the use of intoxicating drinks.” And Dr. Adam Clarke, in his admirable work against the use of tobacco, says, “ Such inseparable companions are liquor and tobacco, that in many of the Oriental languages the same word means both to smoke and drink.” The fact that all mankind, as well as all the genus mammalia, is destined to subsist upon milk during the early part of their existence, is ample evidence that it Milk as Food. If you want a dog to follow you, feed him. 638 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Every one’s faults are not written upon his forehead. contains all the chemical elements of their bodies at that period; and the additional fact, that thousands have reached the greatest age in the enjoyment of the very best of health, who have subsisted mainly upon this article most of their days, is good evidence that its effects upon the human system are favorable to health and lon- gevity. The only valid objection to the extensive use of milk as food, if in fact it is an objection, is its fluidity, which it is thought by some dilutes the solvents of the stomach and retards digestion; but this point is by no means as yet well settled, and hence the evidence in favor of the use of milk, at this time, greatly pre- ponderates. Milk is composed of caseine, 4*48 per cent.; butter, 3*13; sugar of milk, 4*77; various salts, 6*60; water, 87*02; aggregate solids, 12*98. Work naturally falls to t e lot of man, and there is no real worth in him or her who does not work. Work is worth, and worth is the passport of character, for the lazy man or woman is not only worthless, but a drone and a drug in the community. To the indolent no elements of value adhere; and it is only as our powers are put into practical use that value accrues, and in the absence of value there is no worth. — A two-quart or gallon “ stone jug ” filled with boiling water, and placed in a flannel sack which fits it, will retain the heat from eight to ten hours, and, when needed, is the best thing known to place at the feet in bed or when riding in cold weather. — Lying with the arms thrown up around the head, while in bed, is a very injurious practice, as it greatly obstructs the circulation of the blood to the arms, and causes them Miscellanies. The eye is the mirror of the soul. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 639 The path of duty is always the path of safety. to become weak, and is also liable to induce derangement of the heart’s action.—“ That man is a maniac or delib- erate suicide who drinks tea, coffee, or ardent spirits of any sort to enable him to perform a work in hand be- cause he feels too weak to do it without such aid.”—Dr. Ball. Persons who are starved to death, die idiotic, because there is a lack of nourishment to keep up the action of the brain, and its functions of thought and intellectuality cease.—“ Heartburn,” as it is popularly termed, is caused by a sour stomach, and can only be permanently cured by eating a moderate quantity, chew- ing it well and finely, and taking no fluids at the meal, and for one hour after the meal.—Always unbutton the shirt-collar and wristbands on getting into bed at night, in order to give full and free circulation to the blood during the night.—Never spit, blow the nose, or throw any fruit peel upon the sidewalk, for many a man has suffered serious injury from this apparent slight cause.—See that the feet are always warm on retiring, so as to favor a free circulation of the blood during the night, to compensate for the abuses of the day.—When hoarse, from whatever cause, use the voice the least pos- sible until relief is obtained, for many a public speaker has lost his voice for life by a violation of this advice.— A loose fitting boot or shoe will keep the feet warmer without any stockings at all, than a tight one will with the best stockings that can be procured ; and this fact in substance applies to tight and loose clothes.—When one is so foolish as to over-eat, never take any drug or liquor to “ work it off,” which only adds to the already burdened stomach, but go out into the open air, and walk or exercise to the point of gentle perspiration, We know the effects of many, but the causes of few things. 640 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED Be slow to believe that you are wiser than another. for an hour or so, and then cool off gradually.—Putting pins, needles, or any other hard, small instruments in the mouth or between the teeth, even for once or an instant, is a very stupid and hazardous act, and every time it is done it may cost the subject his life. Summary of Flesh Meats. That flesh meats may be needed in the higher polar regions, where vegetables cease to grow, and where a highly carbonized food is necessary to support the ani- mal heat, is not denied; but as now generally and pro- miscuously used, regardless of age, sex, habits, climate, temperature, or anything else excepting a morbid and depraved appetite, the following is believed to be a pretty accurate summary of its comparative merits: First, it possesses no advantage over vegetable food in time or facility of digestion; second, it is only needed in the extreme high latitude, where vegetables cease to grow; third, it contains much less nutriment, pound for pound, than those vegetables in general use which are mainly relied upon for the food of man; fourth, it will not sustain severe muscular effort as long as a good selection of vegetable food; fifth, it is too heating, excit- ing, and stimulating, and prematurely exhausts and wears out the organism; sixth, it is several times more expensive than vegetable food; seventh, it requires at least ten times as much land to support a man upon flesh meats as it does upon vegetables; eighth,the great mass of mankind, probably seven-eighths, always have and still do, subsist mainly upon vegetable food ; ninth, it is less favorable to health and longevity ; tenth, it induces in man a captious, irritable, combative, and warlike state A man is known by the company he keeps. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 641 Drive your business, lest it drive you. of mind, and is decidedly unfavorable to kindness, gen- tleness, and morality ; eleventh, the flesh of domesticated animals at this day, especially that of the swine, is nearly all of it, more or less, diseased; and, twelfth, it exerts a very injurious effect upon children, and induces generally, upon young and old, male and female, a putrid and offensive condition of the blood and system generally. Cheese. Recently-made cheese from good, healthy milk, al- though rather difficult of digestion, when eaten as a condiment with stale bread, is not a very bad article of food ; but it is so very likely to undergo changes by age, which deteriorates its qualities, that, as usually found in our markets, it is decidedly objectionable, and can only be ventured upon by the most vigorous stomachs; and the popular idea that a portion of old, stale cheese taken with the dessert aids digestion is simply erroneous and absurd. As cheese advances in age, especially new milk cheese, when all the cream is combined with it, a spon- taneous decomposition takes place, by which ammonia and other salts are developed in it, which impart to it that peculiar sharpness of taste and smell characteristic of rich, old cheese; and as these qualities increase, it be- comes less nutritious and more difficult of digestion. And when from age and chemical changes, as is very commonly the case, it has become so rancid and putrid as to generate vermin, and become impregnated with them, it is almost wholly indigestible, destitute of nour- ishment, and disgusting in the extreme, at least to all whose sensibilities have not been destroyed by gross dietetic abuse. A rich fool is a wise man’s treasure. 642 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. A wayward youth is a candidate for ruin Inverted Nails. These are always produced by wearing tight shoes, especially those which are too narrow at the toe, so as to crowd the toes together, or pile them up one upon the other; and death has often resulted from lockjaw, or mortification caused by such nails; and there can be no permanent cure short of wearing a shoe as long as the foot, in connection with which the following will soon effect a cure: First, cut a nail straight across the end, leaving the corners as long as the centre; next, saturate a small piece of fine, clean cotton (as much as can be used) in sweet oil, and press it under the corners of the nail as closely and fully as you can well bear, and change it once or twice a day, wearing an ample shoe which will, not in any way compress the foot; and in from two days to a week the nail will be all right. Results of Respiration. In breathing, we inhale atmospheric air composed of oxygen and nitrogen ; and while in the body the oxygen is changed to carbonic acid gas, and the nitrogen remains unchanged, so that we exhale carbonic acid gas and ni- trogen. Now, as the nitrogen when exhaled is lighter than the carbonic acid gas, the former rises to the ceil- ing as it escapes from the lungs, while the latter descends to the floor, each accumulating in its respective locality as respiration goes on, unless fresh air is admitted into the apartment so as to renovate the air of the room and displace the accumulations. An ordinary adult receives into his lungs about forty cubic inches of air at each in- spiration ; and as about one-fiftli of this, or eight cubic inches is oxygen, and as the quantity of carbonic acid A youthful spendthrift is on the way to the almshouse. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 643 Marriage with love and peace is a worldly paradise. gas exhaled is very nearly the same as the oxygen in- haled, there will be about eight cubic inches of carbonic acid gas and thirty-two of nitrogen discharged from the lungs at each respiration. And as we ordinarily respire twenty times a minute, we shall in that time discharge 160 cubic inches of carbonic acid gas and 640 inches of nitrogen ; in an hour, 960 of the former and 88,400 of the latter ; and in twenty-four hours, 280,400 of the former and 921,000 of the latter. It is conceded that one individual, in a close room of ordinary size, poisons the air at the rate of one gallon per minute, so as to render it wholly unfit for use ; and if several be present the deterioration will of course be much more rapid. And where many are assembled together for any consid- erable time, as in school-houses, churches, court-rooms, factories, cars, work-shops, etc., the carbonic acid becomes piled up below, while the nitrogen is packed away above, until but a very small stratum of badly vitiated air is often left between them, which the audience is compelled to breathe over and over again, producing dulness, drowsiness, coughing, fainting, vertigo, etc., which usu- ally seize upon the audience; and if carried to a sufficient extent death will ensue, as in the case of the English soldiers shut up in the “ black hole ” of Calcutta. Of all the cereals, rice is the most concentrated or nu- tritive (ninety-five per cent.) ; and on this account is less adapted to general use as an article of food than the other grains, which contain a less proportion of nutri- tious matter and more of the innutritions. Like Indian corn, it possesses but little gluten (three per cent.), and Rice. Hackneyed phrases indicate low birth and life. 644 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Listen when spoken to, and give not your advice unasked. cannot be made into fermented bread, but when boiled soft and eaten with other less nutritious food, it is easy of digestion, and a very valuable article for the sick; but if habitually and freely used alone, will be very likely to produce constipation of the bowels. The Potato. This vegetable is of a mealy or farinaceous nature, easily digested, contains a moderate quantity of nutri- ment, is cheap, easily produced, and, all things consid- ered, is by far the most valuable of all the vegetables in common use. Varieties. Quiet, unmolested sleep is the greatest recuperative agent in Nature, and in all cases of disease or debility it should be promoted by all possible natural means.—It is estimated that twenty-five per cent, of all the fatal cases of consumption are hereditary or of parental ori- gin.—One of the great and ruling causes of disease and death, especially in great cities, is the ceaseless strain and exhausting struggle of mind and body for subsist- ence,—the death race for bread and food.—On rising to address an audience for any considerable time, the first few sentences should be uttered in a low, moderate tone, gradually raised and increased in quickness as the sub- ject intensifies, else the voice will be liable to break down with coughing or hoarseness.—“ Every woman should be so constructed in her higher nature as instinctively to feel strongly inclined to matrimony. If she does not, she may well question the soundness of her higher na- ture.”— Dr. Jackson. The most severe thirst can be slaked by wading in the water, or keeping the apparel Tight strings, with little and often, fill the purse. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 645 A wise man keeps his tongue in his heart. saturated in water, even if the water be taken from the sea. — Inflammations of all sort, whether local or general, especially of the eyes, are much more promptly and agreeably subdued by warm than by cold water. — No disease ever yet came without a cause or a warning; and that cause is nearly always due to the sufferer himself.— “ Alcohol is not food; it gives no nourishment; it is not a supporter of vitality.” — Prof. Yeomans. White glazed visiting cards contain sugar of lead, and green glazed concert tickets contain arsenic, each enough to poison a child, and neither should ever be used or allowed in the hands of youth. Rooms, the walls of which are covered with green paper, which is generally poisonous, are not safe to occupy.— To eat when you have no appetite is worse than beastly, and a slander on the brute; for he never thus violates his nature. — Two thin garments of any sort will keep a part warmer than one thick one of equal material, owing to the layer of atmosphere which intervenes, and prevents a rapid radi- ation of heat. — “He who drinks tea or coffee in order the better to perform his work is a fool; because it is using up power in advance, which can never for once be done with impunity.”— Dr. Hall. “ Drinking at meals, even of simple water, is a mere habit, and always hurt- ful, for it retards, impairs, and interferes with diges- tion.” — lb. Sick headache is caused by the presence of too much bile in the system, accompanied by cold extremities and constipation ; and such should eat less, and exercise more in the open air, and keep the bowels active. — Sleeping during the day is a bad practice, for it always interferes with the sleep at night; still, a short nap of fifteen or twenty minutes may be necessary to some. A fool keeps his heart on his tongue. 646 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Envy is both blind and impolite. Rye. This grain is less nutritious than wheat, and has less gluten (ten per cent.), but is a much more hardy grain, and easier of digestion, and seems, when habit- ually used ground rather coarse, to exert a very salu- tary influence upon the liver and bowels. Temperature and Urination. The skin, lungs, and kidneys, as most know, are out- lets or waste ways of most of the fluids taken into the system, and the relative activity of the skin and kidneys depends greatly upon the temperature and condition of the surrounding atmosphere. With the thermometer from seventy to seventy-five, and a clear dry air, an ordinary healthy adult passes nearly three pints of urine; but if it be somewhat colder, and the day raw and damp, he will pass quite six quarts, because the skin in the latter case will be less active, and the fluids more actively sent to the kidneys. If, on the other hand, the day be clear and warm, so as to excite active perspira- tion, six pints of fluids will escape from the skin and four from the kidneys. And from this we see that on a fine, clear, warm day there will escape from the body, in the aggregate, through the skin and kidneys, one pint or a pound more waste matter than on a dull, damp, raw, and overcast day; and the retention of this pound of useless, worn-out matter in the body is one of the main causes of that gloom, depression, and despondency which is almost always experienced during such weather. Now there are two ways in which this obstruction to Na- ture’s operations can be obviated, both of which are sim- ple and easily effected; first, to take more exercise during He who best knows himself can best know others. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 647 Every man has his hobby-horse, and many ride him to ruin. damp, raw weather, so as to excite a free perspiration; and, secondly, by eating less, so as to prevent the accu- mulation of it. Air and the Lungs. Atmospheric air is composed of the gases oxygen and nitrogen in the proportion of twenty-one parts of the former and seventy-nine parts of the latter, and in this proportion is admirably adapted to be received into the lungs and to support life; but any change in the pro- portion of these ingredients proves highly injurious to health, and any material change may prove speedily fatal. If, for instance, the oxygen be slightly increased, as in the “ laughing gas,” it becomes too stimulating, and overdoes the system, and if its use were continued, would soon wear out the body and destroy life; and on the contrary, if the oxygen be diminished, as in cases where many persons are confined in close, small apart- ments for hours in succession, the air is not sufficiently stimulating, the system languishes, and we become dull, drowsy, feeble, and ultimately diseased. In the open air, this compound of oxygen and nitrogen remains nearly the same all over the globe, but in our dwellings it is not only subject to adulterations from the gases of the house, but also from combustion and respiration going on in the house, and unless the apartment is suffi- ciently open to admit an influx of fresh air, soon be- comes highly vitiated and wholly unfit for respiration. The scientific and best class of the medical world have long since decided that tea and coffee are drugs or medicines, and active narcotic poisons at that, and there- Food and Medicine. Courage and magnanimity are inseparable. 648 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Doubt him who is always ready to swear to what he says. fore unfit for use as table beverages; while the advocates of these articles tell us that their medicinal qualities are no argument against their use, as the onion, tomato, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, mustard, and many other articles in common use as food, also possess medi- cinal properties, and are often even recommended on this account; and this is not denied. But that these articles are the better as food on this account cannot be proved; and the fact that all the very best and most approved articles of diet in common use do not possess a particle of medicine, is good evidence that those which do are the worse for it rather than the better. For food and medicine, both in their action and effects upon the human system, are wholly incompatible with each other; and medicine is to the human organism a foreign sub- stance and a foe to the powers of life, and has no affinity to the stomach, or any healthy article of food, and con- sequently, when combined with it, can have no other effect than to deteriorate its properties rather than to improve them; and if every article of food containing any medicinal properties was wholly discarded, we should be immensely the better for it. Indian Corn. This grain possesses less nutriment than rye, (sixty-five per cent.,) but has more oily matter, is more heating and stimulating, and is better for food in cold weather, espe- cially for those of active out-door habits; but as it con- tains very little gluten, (three per cent.,) it is not sus- ceptible of much fermentation, and for this reason is much less used for bread than wheat or rye. The volume of nature is the greatest book of knowledge. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 649 A fool thinks all wrong but what he does himself. Tobacco Spitting. The copious secretion and discharge of saliva from the mouth of the tobacco user shows unmistakably how abominably odious this article is to nature, and also what a desperate effort she makes to rid herself of its poison- ous effects, and rescue the thoughtless, reckless violator of the laws of life from speedy death. The secretion and discharge of the saliva are the only salvation of the tobacco user from a most fearful retribution, for by it three very important ends are accomplished, all of which tend to ward off or counteract the poisonous consequences which must otherwise inevitably follow. First, the mu- cous membrane of the mouth is kept constantly well smeared over with the saliva, so that absorption into the blood, from the mouth, goes on very slowly; secondly, as fast as the poison is extracted from the quid, it be- comes so rapidly diluted by the flow of saliva, that its strength and virulence are greatly diluted ; and, thirdly, the mouth soon becomes filled with the saliva, and the subject is compelled to discharge it, and thus rids him- self of the poison. Whereas, if the saliva were secreted in small quantities, so that the subject would not be obliged to discharge it, the saliva would soon become highly concentrated, and the absorbents of the mouth being less protected, the poison would be rapidly taken up by them and carried into the general circulation, and death would be the inevitable consequence. And this is but one out of many of the wonderful efforts of nature to preserve the integrity of the human organism against the outrageous insults and abuses which man is hourly heaping upon the laws of his existence. The love of money is the great stimulant to both good and evil. 650 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. He who begins many things finishes few. All students, lawyers, ministers, editors, teachers, and dyspeptics, with all professional men and women, and all others who pursue a sedentary life, with those suffering from derangement of the liver, and those predisposed to consumption, will do more for the preservation and res- toration of their health by adopting two meals a day, instead of three, than by all which can be done by all the schools of drug-medication in existence. Of all re- cuperative agents, quiet, sound refreshing sleep, taken during the early part of the night, is by far the most powerful and invigorating; and this can only be secured upon an empty stomach, and a fasting stomach cannot be had upon three meals taken in the usual way. Those who eat within two or three hours of retiring, go to bed with undigested food in the stomach; and as that organ, like all the rest of the body, is already jaded from the previous labors of the day, and as digestion is less vigor- ous during a recumbent and quiescent state than in the opposite condition, they are very likely to suffer from broken sleep, nightmare, hideous dreams, etc.; whereas, had the last meal been taken at two or three o’clock, it would have been thoroughly digested and the stomach clear at eight, so that the individual could at once pass into sound and refreshing sleep, and awake with strong, restored muscles and clear, recuperated brain. To any one over ten years of age, and not engaged in extra hard and exhausting labor, two meals a day are ample to sup- port the body, and a third meal is to all such a source of debility and disease rather than of health and vigor. And when we consider the economy in food, the gain in health, the time and drudgery saved to woman, with the Twice a Day. Though a cat may wink, she is not always asleep. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 651 A wise man knows his own ignorance. time saved from sickness and the exemption from doctor bills, by the two-meal system, it becomes truly a most important dietetic reform. The Beard. Nature never works in vain; and the simple fact that the beard grows upon man’s face is proof conclusive that it is of use in the human organism, and that its removal is an obvious infraction of a plain law of Nature. The early Christian fathers denounced shaving as a violation of the law of God; but be this as it may, it is a violation of physical law, and Nature cannot be interfered with with impunity. The orientals, who shave the head and wear the beard, suffer from inflammation of the eyes, but have good teeth; while Europeans, who shave the beard but wear the hair, have bad teeth, but suffer little from sore eyes; showing that shaving and cutting the hair closely have a direct local influence. And the writer is fully convinced, from his own observation, that shav- ing the face and throat are injurious to the vision and bronchial tubes; besides, habitual frequent shaving is a most intolerable nuisance and a wicked waste of time. The beard of John Mayo, of Germany, touched the ground when he stood erect; and all classes of men who are exposed to heat, dust, steam, or bad gases, as stone- cutters, firemen, engineers, factory-men, metal-grinders, etc., should wear long whiskers as a protection. Regular Sleep. With few exceptions, all animated nature retires to rest at the approach of night, and arouses to activity at the dawn of light; and there is no reason why man should be an exception to this law of Nature and the Most persons know what they hate; few, what they love. 652 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED, Virtue that hesitates is sure to be conquered. rest of creation. Few violations of the laws of our being produce such sudden and destructive effects upon the health and constitution as irregular or defective sleep; and the diseases induced by such irregularities and abuses are among the most obstinate and unmanageable known to the profession, as they mostly affect the ner- vous system. Children and Flesh Meats. The effect of flesh meats upon children is the same as that of a hothouse upon plants — viz., to excite and stimulate the system to a rapid growth and development without adequate time for consolidation and perfection of the parts; and although children thus dieted may appear plump, ruddy, and healthy, as gross flesh-eaters often do, under the high-pressure stimulus of a flesh diet, yet they will have much less power of endurance, and be more susceptible to the action of morbific agents than the more meagre vegetable eater; and when dis- ease does seize upon them, they are much less likely to recover than children fed upon vegetable food with a free use of milk. Doctors and Narcotics. It is often said, in palliation of the use of tea, coffee, tobacco, and liquors, that doctors, who claim to know all about the human system, health, disease, etc., are no more temperate and abstemious than others, and gener- ally make a free use of the first three, and by far too common a use of the fourth ; and to this we are sorry to be compelled to plead guilty for the profession, yet we must claim at the same time a word in vindication of a portion of the profession at least. In the first place, A wager is a fool’s argument. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 653 A foolish friend is worse than a wise enemy. doctors, in spite of all the knowledge of themselves, are but frail, erring mortals at best, like all the rest of man- kind ; and as the labors of the physician necessarily break up all his habits of sleep and diet, and derange and debilitate his nervous system, he would be more likely to resort to these treacherous narcotics for tem- porary relief than almost any other man. Secondly, there is a very large class of the medical profession whose literary attainments are very limited, and who have acquired barely sufficient knowledge of the various branches of medical science to enable them “ to pass,” or secure a diploma, and who have no surplus ideas upon any subject, know very little of physiology, dietetics, and hygiene, and care still less for them, and whose vi- sion extends no farther than “ drugs and doctor bills; ” and this class, with occasionally one of a high grade, will generally be found in the habitual use of these nar- cotics ; and some few of this class are so ignorant, and so far stultified and besotted, as even to recommend the use of these poisons to others. But, in opposition to this stigma upon the profession, we are proud to be able to state that the very first medical men which the world has produced, dead and living, both in Europe and America, those noted for eminent literary attainments, authorship, and successful practice, have not only gen- erally abstained from the use of such agents during most or all of their lives, but have left on record their un- qualified disapprobation and condemnation of these agents, many of whose illustrious names may be else- where found in this volume. The most valuable knowledge is to know your own failings. 654 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Make no definite reply to a quizzical person. Unhealthy Bread. Bread is always upon our tables and partaken of fey the whole family at every meal, and its healthiness, therefore, and adaptation as food, becomes a matter of more importance than any other article in use. In pro- ducing disease, superfine flour bread ranks next to pork, and is made much more unhealthy than it would fee fey the fermentation or rotting process, which is destructive of the cell structure. Yeast, when combined with dough, changes a portion of the starch of the dough into sugar, and this sugar is then decomposed and changed into alcohol and carbonic acid gas (both poisons); and as this gas cannot escape through the gluten of the dough, it collects in small bodies throughout the mass, and causes the loaf to greatly enlarge, until the fermenting pro- cess is checked by the application of heat in baking; but if allowed to remain a little too long before feeing placed in the oven, it becomes a sour, putrid mass, wholly un- fit for food. By the chemical changes which take place in the production of sugar, alcohol, and carbonic acid gas, from ten to fifteen per cent, of the nutriment of the bread is lost, and also rendered unhealthy by the devel- opment and presence of the gas and alcohol. Those elements of the grain which go to make bone, teeth, and brain are largely removed by bolting, and the lime and phosphorus which Nature has placed next the inner surface of the bran are mostly removed with the latter fey bolting; and these elements are, therefore, nearly absent in fine flour, and the consequence is the starvation of the teeth and bony structures. So long, therefore, as people continue to use fine bolted flour, with nearly all the elements of bone carefully sifted out, they must ex- Prize your reputation next to your existence. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 655 Truth and oil will finally rise to the top. pect to have defective and decayed teeth and feeble, slender bones ; and if there is no reform in this direc- tion, in a few generations more our osseous systems will have dwindled down to dwarfs, and natural teeth in the young will be found very much inferior to what they are in this generation; for it is folly to look for the full and natural growth of any part which is mainly de- prived of the materials in the food which enter into it. Rest after Meals. When any part of the body is in active operation, whether arms, legs, brain, stomach, or any other part, the nervous energies of the body are directed to the part to sustain it in its action, while the parts at rest only receive the quantity of innervation necessary to a quiescent state. Now, if immediately before or after a meal we apply ourselves to any active, muscular, or mental exercise, the nervous force which should be sent to the stomach to aid that organ in the digestion of the meal is diverted to the part in action, and thus digestion is checked, and languishes for want of the proper stim- ulus to the stomach; and the dulness and drowsiness which we experience after a full meal are due to the ab- straction of the nerve-power from the brain to the stomach to carry on digestion; hence the old New England custom of “ an hour’s nooning ” after dinner is in strict accordance with the laws of physiology. He who eats moderately of proper food, masticates well, takes no slops at his meal, nor exercise for half an hour before, nor an hour after, will never know, from any sensation in the organ, that he has a stomach at all; and this im- portant law of digestion was practically illustrated by Merit and fortune seldom meet in the same person. 656 HUMAN LIFE PKOLONGED. He who listens to slander is worse than the slanderer. an eminent physiologist as follows: Two hound-dogs, of the same litter, were fed on equal quantities of fresh meat at the same time; and one of them was instantly put upon the chase, while the other remained quiet. At the expiration of two hours both were killed ; and while the process of digestion in the former was scarcely com- menced, in the latter it was entirely completed. The process of fattening animals for food is plainly an unhealthy one; because the waste or effete matter which should be cast out of the system, if the animal had its liberty, is retained, and accumulates, and forms fat, which is nearly one hundred per cent, carbon or charcoal, and which, when in excess in the system, as in most flesh eaters, clogs and deranges the vital functions. The great objection to flesh as food are its stimulating and heating properties, which tend to inflame the blood, oppress the intellectual faculties, strengthen the grosser animal passions, vitiate the fluids, and engender disease. If in the use of flesh we only ate the muscle, which is comparatively healthy, the case would be materially better; but we eat the fat also, which is an accumula- tion of waste, worn-out, or diseased matter in the animal, as well as the fluids or juices, which pass into our blood, and become a portion of our fluids, our blood, and our flesh, producing inflammation, bad humors, boils, fevers, etc. Flesh Eating. Americans, the world over, are noted for “ bolting,” or throwing down their food, regardless of the laws of health and digestion; for while an Englishman spends Time at Meals. Be not elated by riches nor dejected by poverty. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 657 There is never much smoke without some fire. an hour at the table in taking the usual meal, telling mirthful stories and anecdotes, and laughing, which greatly promote circulation and digestion, the American sits down to his meal and stoically plies his knife and fork for ten or fifteen minutes at the top of his speed, regardless of mastication or insalivation, any further than is necessary to choke down the food; and then, without thinking or apparently caring how many wounds he has inflicted upon Nature at his own future expense, rises and leaves the table as though he had not sinned against himself and his Creator. Now, if the teeth be good and the meal be taken without any slop, as it always should be, and full time be given for mastication and insalivation, half an hour is the least time which should be devoted to the meal consistent with health, and without sooner or later suffering from dyspepsia or indigestion; and if the teeth be defective, it will require a much longer time. Brief Hints. Owing to the compression of the gristly cushions between the joints of the backbone, by the erect posi- tion during the day, a man is usually half an inch shorter at night than in the morning; and as the fluids and soft parts diminish in old age, a man at seventy years of age or upwards will not usually be quite as tall as when in his prime.—Never allow a child to eat any- thing within two hours of bedtime, nor to sit up latei than dark in summer, nor past eight o’clock in winter, nor to lie in bed after sunrise any season of the year.— Cayenne pepper, for all culinary or table purposes, is much more healthy than black pepper.—Fluids of any True politeness reflects a polished and refined mind. 658 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Never sign a paper without first reading it. sort at the meal, even water, dilute and weaken the solvents of the stomach and impede digestion, and cold drinks at the meal directly arrest digestion.—Rice and dry white beans are the two most concentrated articles of food in (eighty-eight per cent, nutriment,) use, and contain fully twice and a half as much nutriment, pound for pound, as butcher’s meat, and a pound of the latter, on an average, will cost twice as much as one of the former.— He who takes food when he has no desire or relish for it, commits a sin against himself and the laws of health, to say nothing of the wicked waste of food.—The most nutritious part of a potato is next the skin ; hence, peel- ing them before boiling, instead of afterward, is both unwise and wasteful.—The average of human life in this and most other enlightened nations is from twenty-eight and a half to thirty years; but the average of all nations, at this age, of the world is only twenty-eight; yet, ac- cording to the census of Great Britain, in 1860, the average longevity of the Friends or Quakers, in that country, was fifty-six years, nearly double that of other people. What an argument this for temperance, in- dustry, and frugality!—A dog grows for two years, and lives ten ; an ox for four years, and lives twenty; a horse for five years, and lives twenty-five; a camel for eight years, and lives to forty; a man for twenty, and should live to be one hundred, but, unfortunately, only one in a thousand reaches one hundred years. Still, it is encour- aging to know that, from the most recent and reliable scientific investigations, the average longevity of man is said to be slowly on the increase, with the general ad- vance of knowledge and science.—Let it not be forgotten in all cases of fire, whether in- or out-door, that there is When you pay over money always take a receipt. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 659 A mob has many heads, but no brains. always next the floor or ground about one foot of pure air, and that by taking advantage of this fact life may often be saved; and, also, that a wetted silk handker- chief, or a piece of flannel drawn over the face, admits sufficient air through to breathe, and still excludes the smoke. If a person’s clothes take fire, instantly wrap the individual tightly in something most convenient, until the fire is extinguished, and then speedily immerse the burned part in cold water until the pain and inflam- mation cease. Quantity of Nutriment in Food. In order to arrive at a correct estimate of the quantity of nutriment contained in different articles of food, it is necessary to reject the water, coloring matter, and woody fibre, and, this done, the following is the per cent, in the subjoined articles: Vegetables, Fruit, and Grains. Apples, 10 per cent.; apricots, 26; beans, 87; cab- bage, 7 ; carrots, 10; cherries, 25 ; cucumbers, 2 ; goose- berries, 19 ; grapes, 27 ; melons, 3 ; oats, 74; pease, 93 ; peaches, 25 ; pears, 10; plums, 29; potatoes, 25; rice, 88; strawberries, 12; turnips, 4; wheat bread, 95; beets, 16; buckwheat, 35; starch, 85; arrow-root, 81; wheat, 85 ; rye, 83 ; barley, 80; figs, 84; cranberries, 2. Animal Substances. Fixed oils, butter, lard, suet, 100 per cent.; cow’s milk, 10; lean meat, 26; butchers’ meat (no bone or extra fat), 29; codfish, 20; eggs, 35. Effects of Music. Music refines the taste, purifies the heart, soothes our sorrows, tranquillizes our passions, elevates our nature, The more a man talks, the less he thinks; and vice versa. 660 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Cunning is the ape of wisdom. wears away the asperities of life, intensifies love, and fires our patriotism ; and even the brute creation are charmed by the bewitching influences which it possesses. Brains and Small Waists. Much is now being said and done for the intellectual improvement of women, and much more ought to be done in this direction, but unless these efforts are pre- ceded by certain physical reforms in woman, they can only prove partially successful; for if the doors of all the literary institutions in the land were thrown open to her, she would be but very little, if any, better off then than she now is,—not five in a hundred, with their present habits and style of dress, could endure a regular colle- giate course of studies without the ultimate ruin of their health and constitution. On an average, at this day, it is entirely safe to say that not more than one woman in a hundred has a natural waist, that is, a waist that has not been made smaller by corset-lacing than it would have been without it; and that diminishing the size of the waist, and thereby the size and action of the lungs, upon which the health of all the parts depends, dwarfs the intellect, seems obvious, if not self-evident. And hence it is an absolute impossibility to find a female with a waist much below the full and natural size who is not also below the average in intellectuality. Not that all who have large waists are either intelligent or intellec- tual, or that a woman with a small waist may not have these qualities to a considerable extent, but that a full, natural waist is indispensable to a permanent high grade of intellectuality, the observation of a lifetime has fully convinced the writer. The exhibition of intellectual Grant with grace, and oppose with firmness. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 661 A beautiful face is a silent commendation. power in man depends upon the quantity of blood sent to the brain, and the quantity of pure air consumed by the lungs in a given time. And if the chest be habitually compressed by corsets, stays, bandages, or anything else, not only is the quantity of blood sent to the brain di- minished, but the quality also is deteriorated for want of aeration or purification while passing through the lungs, and by these means both the quantity and quality of the intellectual operations are also diminished and deteriorated. Hence, other things being equal, the size of the waist as well as that of the brain, is, in females, to a very great extent, the measure of intellectual power; and the almost universal distortion and deformity of the female waist at this day, doubtless to a great extent, accounts for the trifling, frivolous cast of mind so prevalent among females, and also for the minimum of sound and valuable thought contributed to literature by women. Feathers. The place where we spend on an average one-third of our entire existence, and that too for the sole purpose of renovating the exhausted energies of wearied nature, is surely a matter of no small moment to all, and one upon which all should be well posted. Formerly, feathers were in very general use for beds, but the recent rapid progress of hygienic information has now almost wholly banished them from use among the intelligent and progressive, and substituted other and better materials. When used for beds, feathers are highly injurious for several reasons. First, they are too light and soft, and do not afford sufficient buoyancy or support to the body He who converses not, knows hut little at least. 662 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Good breeding and dignity are usually closely allied. to secure the greatest amount of rest; secondly, the body becomes so deeply embedded in them that a great de- gree of heat accumulates around it, and during all the warmer portions of the year, at least, a copious perspi- ration is induced during the night, which is very debili- tating, and renders the system exceedingly susceptible to the slightest change of temperature; and, thirdly, feathers being animal matter, and subject to gradual but constant decay, and to a more or less offensive effluvia, with an exceedingly fine dust, both of which are con- tinually inhaled, prove highly injurious to the lungs and general health ; and when they are used for pillows, the qualities are still more objectionable. Americans and Flesh Meats. We are notoriously a flesh-devouring people, and the opinion prevails very generally among us that most of mankind are equally as much so; but this is not the case; for the great mass of the human family always has sub- sisted, and still does, mainly or wholly upon vegetable food; and it is only in a very few countries that the masses have ever been able to reach the use of flesh meats as an ordinary article of food. Millions of the peasants of Europe scarcely taste flesh, and millions more but very rarely ; and it is only in the more wealthy towns and cities that flesh meats are much used; and the same is true of Japan and all the interior portions of China and India. And we have abundant evidence of the effects of this simple vegetable regimen in the thou- sands of hardy, muscular, ruddy-cheeked peasants who are constantly flocking to our shores, most of whom are also strangers to those fashionable drug-poisons tea, Good government is the soul of society. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 663 True greatness is honored in the confession of its faults. coffee, and tobacco; and we have only to compare them with our own meagre, pale, sharp-faced, slender, nervous, complaining, tea- and coffee-steeped, tobacco-poisoned, meat- and pastry-stuffed people, to enable us to see the vast superiority of their dietetic habits over ours. Health, Filth, and Poverty. On passing a group of dirty, ragamuffin urchins be- grimed with mud and dust, half naked and unheeded, their ruddy, chubby, hardy appearance leaves upon the mind a sort of mysterious impression that filth is healthy; and when we see the cabin of the poor laborer sur- rounded by a swarm of the same class of humanities, the impression is almost forced upon us that poverty too must be healthy; whereas both filth and poverty are adverse to health, and shorten life. In the first place, the filthy, neglected children of the poor nearly all die in infancy or early childhood, and we see none but the most hardy and enduring of them, whose viability has enabled them to survive the filth, neglect, poverty, and ignorance. And the coarse fare, abundant exercise, and fresh air enjoyed by these children are more than adequate to over-balance the injury sustained from the filth and neglect to which they are subjected; for if to the life- powers now enjoyed by them was added rigid cleanli- ness, they would be still more healthy and vigorous. And as to poverty being favorable to health and lon- gevity, the statistics both of Europe and America show that on an average those who are in easy circumstances live twelve years longer than those who are dependent upon their daily labor for support; so that filth and poverty are as far from being healthy as they are from Gaming destroys both decorum and morals. 664 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Good counsel is lost upon the self-conceited. being desirable or agreeable. Of nine children, Queen Victoria lost none, and they have all grown to men and women’s estate; yet thousands of much more hardy and enduring couples in the lower walks of life have lost as many as she has raised, the difference being in the ability of the one and the inability of the other to protect, care, and provide for their offspring, — showing, in a single important instance, the advantage of competence over poverty in the matter of health and life. Drug Cures. We have often in the course of this work spoken un- favorably of drugs and drug-medication, not through prejudice, but from a firm conviction that they are un- natural and injurious, and that there are better and less dangerous ways of removing disease and healing the sick ; yet we do not pretend to deny but that, in a certain sense, disease is cured by the use of drugs, for this is ob- viously the case. That is, diseased conditions of the system, which are showing themselves actively, as fevers, inflammations, eruptions, congestions, etc., are repressed or subdued, and the patient who was sick and suffering is enabled to get up and go about his usual business; but the cure was an unnatural one, and effected at the ex- pense of the future health of the individual. The in- troduction of a poison into the blood, and its lodgment in the tissues of the body, though it may check or sup- press the diseased action then raging, does not remove the offending cause or renovate the system, for the con- ditions precedent to the diseased action still exist, and are sure to show themselves sooner or later in chronic or acute disease. And the proof of this is in the well- Never assent to wrong merely to please. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 665 Gratuitous advice is seldom heeded. known fact that he who has once had a severe attack of disease, and been cured by the use of poison drugs instead of by Nature’s remedies,—air, exercise, bathing, sunlight, fasting, or simple food,—rarely or never after enjoys sound bodily health, but is constantly subject to a variety of aches, pains, and unpleasant sensations; for the original cause of the disease was not removed, but only suppressed, and the drugs given left in the system to war upon the healthy functions of the body ; hence the more the system is subjected to the drug cure pro- cess, the worse it will be in the future. The war of the great rebellion has been most emphati- cally a war of wealth to our agriculturist, for everything produced by them has been paid for at the rate of from two to six prices, and nearly every farmer who has properly attended to his business, for the past ten years, is now either rich or well-to-do; and the result of this rapid and substantial thrift and wealth has been the adoption of luxurious habits at war with their physical welfare; for there is no class of people in the land, at this day, which is deteriorating in health and physical stamina, so rapidly as the American farmer. They produce all their own provisions excepting a few groceries, raise their own pigs and poultry, fatten their own beeves, and make their own butter, cheese, sauce, and cider, and think they cannot have too much of a good thing. Their habits of living are gross in the extreme, and were it not for their active out-door exercise, which wards off disease, they would be immensely worse off than they now are in the matter of health, and soon become a class Luxury of Farmers. A debtor is a slave; lienee, always pay when you buy. 666 HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. Pride is the destroyer of happiness. of invalids. As it is, their children, more perhaps than any other class of equal numbers, show signs of scrofula in its various forms, and each succeeding generation is evidently a step behind in the matter of health. Air and Breathing. We usually suppose that the greater the girth or cir- cumference of a man’s chest the greater will be the capacity of the lungs to receive and discharge air, but, as a general rule, the taller the man the greater will be his capacity to receive and deliver air at each respira- tion, usually more than compensating in length or depth of chest and lungs for deficiency in girth. Of two in- dividuals otherwise physically alike, the one out-measur- ing the other around the chest, the latter will not at a full exhalation deliver any more air than the former; and, as a general rule, persons of deep long chests are from long-lived ancestry, and have good life prospects. Full and free breathing is one of the most important means of removing impurities from the body, and the more air one receives into his lungs in a given time, other things being equal, the better will be his prospects for health and longevity. Each breath enters' the lungs as pure as the air from which it is taken, but such are the chemical changes effected in it while in the lungs, though but about two seconds there, that, if re- breathed the moment it is exhaled, it would produce speedy death. Capacious lungs and copious breathing become therefore one of the great secrets of health, and both, if wanting, can be secured by practice and perse- verance. Whatever brings the body into active mo- tion increases the frequency of respiration, and, conse- Have no fellowship with a profane swearer. HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. 667 Expose not the faults of your parents or friends. quently, the quantity of air consumed in a given time; hence running, laboring, walking, horseback-riding, etc. are among the very best means of increasing the quantity of air used; and a full and frequent inflation of the lungs, retaining the air as long as one can, is one of the very best ways of increasing the capacity and power of these organs. For all who have weak lungs, or a pre- disposition to consumption, an elevated site is greatly superior, for all know that consumption never prevails in rough, hilly localities; and for every twenty-five per- sons who die of consumption in New York City, which lies low, but two die in the city of Mexico, which is very elevated, with a pure atmosphere. Cause and Effect. How very slow and reluctant most of us are to look ahead and perceive the effects which we do, or ought to, know must inevitably follow from causes already and constantly in full and active operation! If we would only cast a thought down the coming years, and trace the relation of cause and effect in our own habits, even in the matter of diet and drink, what a world of torment and wretchedness would be saved to the human family! We should then see the close relation which exists be- tween pork and scrofula; bad air and erysipelas; poi- son, confectionery, and epileptic fits and convulsions; delicate pastries and delicate constitutions; sausage links and broken family links; rich, greasy gravies and early graves; hot short-cake and short lives; mince-pie and a minced-up short existence; coffee and cough drops; brandy and a branded reputation; between the reveries of tobacco smoke and the demoniac revelries of pande- Seek the friendship of chaste women, but avoid that of the lewd. 668 HUMAN LIFE PROLONGED. Never condemn or ridicule what you do not understand. monium; between late hours and early old age; nar- cotics and used-up nerves; between fine flour bread and liver complaint, piles, and costiveness; and between ex- cessive venery and prematurely ruined constitutions. Bad Matches. The object of matrimony is, or ought to be, to better the condition not of one, but of both parties; and such are the peculiar relations of married life, that if the con- dition of either party is changed for the worse or better by the union, that of the other will, to a greater or less extent, follow in the same course. No one, male or female, should ever marry a diseased person; at any rate without a full knowledge of the condition of the diseased party by the other; and even then a huge crime has been committed against Nature, the commu- nity, and unborn innocents: but when both parties are diseased, as is nowadays frequently the case, it is wholly inexcusable and culpable, and ought to be frowned down by every intelligent community, regardless of the pecu- niary condition of the parties. The greatest of all secu- rity in life against penury and want is good health and mental capacity to provide for one’s self; and although parents may, while raising a family, be able to provide for their offspring, or even be in affluence, yet they have no assurance that affluence will be the lot of their chil- dren ; and if the latter are diseased, as they are sure to be from diseased parents, either in mind, or body, or both, the parents have no guarantee that the children will not end their days in a hospital, almshouse, or lunatic asy- lum ; hence the sin of marrying, if diseased. Few greater misfortunes can befall a young man in life than to wed Jealousy, of all things, is the most contemptible. HUMAN LIFE PEOLONGED. 669 Order and method make all things easy. a feeble, complaining, sickly woman; and if the husband be an invalid, the case is obviously still worse, and more to be feared before marriage. The best possible practi- cal rule to insure healthy offspring and happy marriages is, first, that those who are diseased, either congenitally or accidentally, never marry at all while diseased. Secondly, let all marry their antipodes in physical make, build, and temperament; that is, let candidates for mat- rimony seek as great a cross as possible in all the phys- ical qualities and peculiarities. The city should marry from the country; the black-haired, dark-skinned man the blonde; the fair-skinned the brunette; the bilious the nervous; the stout the slender; the tall the short, etc.; for to marry one’s like is not only contrary to the interest of both the parents and offspring, but sure to degrade and sink the race. A faithful wife makes a kind husband. INDEX. PAGB Abortions 204 A healthy child 214 Ancestry and temperament 217 Alcohol and temperature 262 Alcohol and endurance 259 Air and food 247 Animal heat 241 Alcohol useless 233 An appeal 267 Apartments, heating of, 206 A valuable fact 318 Aphrodisiacs 302 Atmospheric influences 317 Adequate food 301 Aeration 275 Air and food 92 A mistake 160 American women 323 Afraid to marry., 349 Action and change 361 A temperance wonder 366 Anatomical analogy 364 Appetite 342 Atmospheric pressure 334 A false argument.... 324 Atmosphere, density of 301 Accidents, results of 366 Atmosphere, temperature of 330 A great truth 415 Action of soap 400 Absurdities 422 A maxim 439 A fashionable school 449 Air and the lungs 463 A fact 465 Animal temperature 452 A national misfortune 438 An experiment 430 Americans, physical decline of... 472 Apples, use of 442 Aeration, modes of 432 An easy death 511 Airing bedding 477 Artificial aids 500 A mother’s duty 512 A. PAGE Admitted gluttony 16 A common cold 17 Abusing nature 19 A hint 20 An error 23 Alcohol 25 Alcohol and the stomach 34 Alcohol and nature 40 A morbid appetite 42 Amalgamation 45 American women 46 Alcohol and tobacco 48 American gormandizing 50 Alcohol and the absorbents 54 A compound 57 A query 59 Age and temperature 60 Adaptation of meals 64 A greedy appetite 71 Annual mortality 77 Adulteration in cookery 88 A popular error 89 An absurdity 96 Apoplexy and paralysis 99 A vulgar whim 104 A physiological fact 116 A good hint 121 Adulteration of wines 132 A caution 133 Albumen 140 Artificial lights 141 Ancient longevity 148 Alternation 156 An underrated evil 140 Appetite and season 46 Acid, prussic, in tea 60 Alcohol liquors, Dr. Rush versus 63 Americans, health of 94 Animals, food and habits of 149 Active emetics 187 Animal reproduction 194 An old idea 195 A morbid taste 196 Ancestral origin 203 670 INDEX. 671 PAGE Apology for dissipation 520 Apparel, color of 490 Artificial stimuli 571 An obvious fact 567 An erroneous plea 563 A merry life 533 Alkalies in bread 546 Abernethy, Dr. and the Yankee.. 558 Age and the bones 599 American gluttony 579 A difference 574 American youth 586 Alcohol and the Bible 592 Alkalies in cooking 590 Air and the lungs 647 Americans and flesh meats 662 Air and breathing 666 B. Beauty 21 Blessings of tobacco 47 Bodily exercise 70 Butter 78 Bread 83 Bulk and ability 95 Bad breath 122 Boils 132 Building sites 155 Business and health 156 Breath, offensive 27 Bread, home-made 14 Blood, constituents of. 108 Births, prolific 66 Bed, posture in 135 Breakfast, early 121 Butter discarded 202 Blood, importance of 213 Beauty, natural 213 Bathing infants 234 Buttermilk 303 Breathing 295 Bulk and longevity 287 Butter, modern use of 291 Broom, use of 806 Bread, unfermented 346 Breathing and bed-rooms 419 Baths 899 Bedbugs and tobacco 895 Bodily changes 435 Blood-letting 454 Blood, uses of 466 Body, position of 440 Breathing of the skin 487 Buckwheat cakes 559 Boys and tobacco 557 Bed-covering 555 Broadcloth 553 Brevities 535 Bread 533 PAGE Baldness 536 Baby-wagons 544 Bad teeth 566 Boots 568 Bread, alkalies in 546 Bread, fermented 568 Baths and bathing 615 Baby men and women 593 Bully lifting 578 Bad breath, cause of. 617 Brief hints 657 Beds, bedding, etc 635 Brains and small waists 660 Bad matches 668 c. Choice of occupation 20 Corset-lacing 30 Crowded tenements 37 Cleansing the teeth 39 Carbon 48 Cost of tobacco 55 Complexion and climate 63 Curious facts 72 Children’s beds 107 Consumption contagious 108 Confectionery 110 Causes of disease 120 Cheese 119 Conjugal hints 123 Complexion, teeth, etc 147 Cancer caused by tobacco 26 Cookery fashionable 40 Climate and complexion 63 Confectionery poisonous 110 Cookery, adulteration in 88 Climate, effects of 84 Children, government of. 82 Compounds, digestion of 159 Cousins, marrying of 130 Children, producing beautiful.... 154 Causation 182 Covering the head 207 Co-education of the sexes 209 Chronic disease. 215 Cold water 253 Climate and industry 244 Changes in food 244 Cranberries 241 Chemical elements of man 239 Childbed, mortality of. 227 Coffee 270 Children, raising of 119 Curtains and shades 146 Congenital influences 316 Classification of diseases 304 Cold feet and hands 311 Corpulency 285 Cost of coffee 273 672 INDEX. PAGE Children and flesh meats 652 Consumptives, climate for 631 D. Dirty children 22 Drugs and liquor 38 Diet and morality 43 Doctors and the potato 50 Debility 58 Danger of drugs 62 Dr. Rush versus alcohol 63 Drugging 65 Dosing versus nursing 77 Divorce and polygamy 80 Diet and religion 104 Dogs and horses 107 Di'ugging infants 120 Dangers of tobacco 129 Dangerous adulterations 138 Digesting compounds 159 Diet versus drugs 161 Death, pains in 15 Drugs, dangers of 62 Digestion and salt 93 Dinners, late 159 Development, period of 153 Disease, causes of 120 Doctors, the best 126 Digestion and economy 188 Dosing and drugging 264 Demand for fluids 261 Digestibility of food 251 Disease, chronic 215 Dreaming 300 Degeneracy, physical 277 Diseases, classification of 304 Daughters and sons, health of.... 282 Delicate subjects 31 Density of the atmosphere 331 Drugs, value of 369 Drowsiness, chronic 342 Dignity 397 Diseased livers 379 Decision of character 390 Disease, sources of 379 Drunkard, spontaneous combus- tion of 380 Desserts and disease 447 Damp walls 451 Dews 460 Diagnosis 434 Diets, test of 462 Dog-days 491 Domestic • order 485 Dancing 498 Dissipation, apology for 520 Domestic sports 559 Dandruff 539 PAGE Confectionery, poison of 293 Coffee, cost of 273 Cutting the hair 47 Cosmetics 65 Constituents of the blood 108 Coquetry 72 Chemical items 335 Choosing a wife 337 Costiveness 343 Cotfee and digestion 372 Curing a cold 360 Chronic drowsiness 342 Celibacy 340 Cities, health of 370 Common cold, curing of 360 Celibacy, cause of. 340 Climate and flesh meats 413 Consumption of coffee 391 Children's voracity 376 Cooling water 396 Children’s bones 412 Consumption (Kirke White) 382 Cheese, sorts of 401 Character, decision of 390 Cookery, modern 414 Carbonic acid gas 427 Comparison of women 435 Cleanliness 454 Chapped hands 448 Climates compared 428 Checked perspiration 424 Chilliness 521 Consistency 513 Comparison of nutriment 481 Cod-liver oil 486 Color of apparel 490 Croakers 506 Complexion and habits 509 Cities, health of 508 Confectionery, effects of 516 Chairs 537 Care of health 530 Condiments 534 Cravats and collars 564 Cheap health 564 Children, killing of, fashionably.. 555 Cause of bad breath 617 Coffee and precocity 582 Culinary alkalies 590 Calculi 596 Carpets, use of 619 Clothing, objects of 576 Children, diet of 594 Cause and effect 667 Cheese 641 Climate and consumptives 631 Charcoal and respiration 623 Cabbage and turnips 621 INDEX. 673 PAGE Dress 529 Domestic infanticide 540 Dr. Abernethy and the Yankee... 558 Digestion, friends and foes of 524 Defecation 613 Dog’s flesh 591 Desserts 577 Diet of children 594 Devouring flesh 608 Diet, high-pressure 597 Digestion, rapidity of 610 Dried beans and pease 624 Doctors and narcotics 652 Drug cures 664 Drunkenness and tobacco 634 E. Early sleep 16 Early decline 28 Early rising 41 Effects of gluttony 49 Exercise 64 Extermination 68 Effects of tobacco.... 69 Exercise in old age 87 Effects of grief 96 Early breakfast 121 Eggs 123 Exhaustion and recuperation 133 Economy in food 142 Effects of marriage, etc 155 Economy and digestion 188 Education, physical 203 Ear, insects in 253 Eye, motes in 252 Electricity 319 Effects of climate 84 Excess of females 186 Extremes in food 269 Experiments on narcotics 344 Elastics or garters 338 Errors, popular 350 Enjoyment, physical 348 Elevated sites 419 Excess of food 380 Early marriage 436 Equal radiation 501 Early fruits and vegetables 482 Evening protection 484 Effects of confectionery 516 Endurance, human 505 Exercise and old age 502 Early rising 563 Effects of neglect 561 Eminent men. 547 Expanding the chest 540 Extreme development 552 Effects of air on water 554 F. PAG* Flesh and vegetables 26 Flesh and ferocity 34 Fashionable cookery 40 Food in childhood 42 Fresh and salt water 43 Fat and muscle 45 Fasting 57 Food in age 59 Feather beds 65 Food items 69 Food and mind 79 Flesh as food 80 False exercise 81 Fine flour 74 Formation of fat 116 Flesh meats 120 Favoring prolificacy 137 Fat and disease 145 Facts, isolated 294 Food and habits of animals 149 Female, nubility of 51 Food, refuse in 34 Fashion, the foolery of 48 Food and the teeth 102 Functions, important 151 Fat, formation of 116 Family inheritance 180 Food and temperance 181 Family longevity 193 Fashionable murder 205 Fish 220 Frailty and longevity 219 Fashion, slavery of 211 Foreigners, marrying of 191 Females, excess of 186 Freaks of nature 260 Fat, butter, oils, etc 249 Flesh diet and brute force 235 Food and climate 225 Food, economy in 142 Food, extremes in 269 Food, quantity of 223 Families, health of 229 Food, digestibility of 251 Fluids, demand for 261 Female gossip 318 Flesh meats, qualities of 321 Female beauty ... 327 Food of animals and vegetables.. 355 Feet dress 399 Filth of tobacco 420 Fever sores 422 Flesh meats and climate 413 Food, excess of 380 Fruits, preservation of 410 Fluids and solids, quality of 470 Fashionable suicide 557 674 INDEX. PAGE Fermented bread 568 Feet, offensive 567 Flatulency 595 False experience 583 Feathers 661 Food and medicine 647 Food items 627 Fashion mongers 626 Flesh eating 656 Farmers, luxury of 665 Filth, health, and poverty 663 Food, nutriment in 659 Flesh meats, summary of 640 Flesh meats and children 652 Flesh meats and Americans 662 G. Growth of nails 37 Governing children 82 Gravel. 89 Gluttony, effects of. 49 Gluttony, admitted 16 Great men, progeny of 28 Gormandizing, American 50 Grief, effects of. 96 Glasses, use of 222 Gums 234 Good living 249 Growth of man 292 Gossip, female 218 Gum shoes 369 Grecian women 386 Genius, origin of 391 Growing old 426 Grain, minerals in 445 Growth in stature 532 Great longevity 547 Gleanings 584 II. Home-made bread 14 Hereditary descent 29 Hereditary taints 29 Hermaphrodites 41 Hard water 51 Hardening ourselves 53 Health of Americans 94 Health and causation 121 High-pressure life 121 Health versus delicacy 143 Hints, conjugal 123 Health, the guardians of 128 Heating apparatus 206 Health maxims 211 Head, covering for 207 Hunger and thirst 261 Human strength 239 Health of families 229 PAG! Honor to mother! 238 Hardening and pampering 144 Health of sons and daughters 382 Hot weather 275 Hair, cutting of 47 Health and causation 121 Health of cities 370 Hereditary taints counteracted... 398 Hot breadstuff's 414 Health and locality 416 Hair, washing of 386 Health and study 408 Health and mental culture 425 Hydrophobia 448 Health hints 439 Habits and complexion 509 Human endurance 505 Hard and soft water 483 Home and hot weather 488 Health of cities 508 Habits, personal 507 High heels 565 Health, care of 530 High-pressure diet 597 Health, filth, and poverty 663 Hair mattresses 625 Hoop skirts 624 I. Ice-water 46 Iron 50 Introduction of vaccination 64 Immature food 67 Insanity and tobacco 79 Insanity and suicide 71 Importance of oxygen 115 Important functions 151 Infants, temperature of. 24 Infants, drugging of 120 Infants, management of 158 Irregular inheritance. 189 Intellectual inheritance 178 Importance of the blood 213 Items, matrimonial 175 Items, reproductive 220 Indian corn 262 Inverted nails 260 Infants and the mother’s milk 250 Iron 244 Importance of vaccination 228 Infants 266 Insects in the ear 253 Insalivation 243 Interesting items 237 Impure water 265 Inheritance, family 180 Items, maternal 269 Items, interesting 237, 308 Infants, bathing of. 234 INDEX. 675 PAGE Inebriation, statistics of. 266 Interesting items 308 Isolated facts 294 Inherited influences.... 290 Ignis fatuus (will-o’-the-wisp),... 309 Influences, lunar 305 Influences, congenital 316 Influences, local 304 Indolence 88 Imporianee of the lungs 335 Impotence 359 Insanity 415 Improving the race 403 Intellect and instinct 429 Indigestible trash 458 Infants, temperature of 523 Infanticide, domestic 540 Intellectuality and muscularity... 575 Immature parents 580 Individual longevity 582 Inverted nails 642 Indian corn 648 J. Judgment 276 Jews and Quakers 328 K. Killing children 17 Keep the head cool 128 Killing children fashionably 555 Keeping warm 572 Kitchen slavery 630 L. Liquor versus digestion 24 Leaden pipes 27 Labor in youth 51 Longevity of Quakers 58 Labor and age 59 Love 60 Liquor as a medicine 120 Limiting progeny 150 Life items 157, 182 Late dinners 159 Liquors, malt and alcoholic 52 Longevity, signs of 97 Life, sacrifice of 108 Longevity, modern 92 Lights, artificial 141 Life, high-pressure 121 Longevity, ancient 148 Life, waste of. 54, 162 Life, periods of 221 Long dresses 241 Life, taking of 142 Love, a husband’s 162 PAGH Longevity, family 193 Longevity, national 271 Life statistics 312 Local influences 304 Lunar influences. 305 Life a lamp 297 Light and life 289 Longevity of the sexes 283 Longevity and bulk of body 287 Longevity, patriarchal 298 Longevity, vegetable 278 Longevity 73 Life, disease, and death 75 Locality 331 Life and oxygen 355 Lungs, importance of 335 Long dresses 415 Light and vegetation 407 Light and air 393 Life miscellanies 392 Livers, diseased 379 Life expenditure 450 Lake water 480 Longevity, means of. 519 Lungs, poison through 479 'Longevity and occupation 476 Light 549 Life gems 549 Liquor at meals 531 Laconic hints 570 Longevity, natural 551 Life, a merry one 533 Lightning-rods 579 Loss of time by sickness 578 Lightning shocks 580 Lightning 588 Life hints 606 Luxury of farmers 665 Labor during pregnancy 628 Longevity of physicians 686 M. Malt liquors 23, 255 Man and sunlight 44 Malt and alcoholic liquors 52 Moderation 54 Menstruation 67 Milk 79 Men and horses 84 Mastication 86 Modern longevity 92 Maturity and longevity 98 Minor evils Ill Marrying cousins 130 Minor vices 146 Management of infants 158 Meals, slops at 13 Meals, sleeping after 18 676 INDEX. PAGE Marriages, second 77 Males, nubility of 85 Murder, voluntary 66 Meals, adaptation of. 64 Marriage, effects of 155 Marriage 202 Melons 220 Matrimonial items 175 Marrying foreigners 191 Man a clock 215 Maxims, health 211 Murder, fashionable 205 Metals, poisonous 200 Milk, the mother’s 222 Motes in the eye 252 Milk 248 Maternal items 269 Meals, two, daily 183 M an, chemical elements of 239 Meats, preservation of 259 Mothers, honor to 238 Medical facts 310 Mushrooms 321 Modern use of butter 291 Man, growth of. 292 Matrimonial misfortune 325 Modern marriage 353 Motion 359 Mercury 372 Medical experience 370 Mind and muscle 354 Modern facts 326 More evidence 411 Mercury and the teeth 407 Mortuary statistics 405 Marrying young 389 Money and health 381 Modern cookery 414 Meats, sorts of 401 Minerals in 445 Muscular power 456 Morning hints 452 Mind and matter 442 Modes of aeration 432 Mental culture and health 425 Misfortune, a national... 438 Means of longevity 519 Medical agents 515 Mortality, premature 483 Married at last 537 Medical criticisms 528 Mourning apparel 538 Meals, liquor at 531 Monomania 605 Mementos 610 Milk as food 637 Miscellanies 638 Meals, rest after 655 Meals, time at 656 N. PAGB Need of temperance 59 Nursing children 67 Narcotics 72 Nature’s remedy...., 73 Nubility of males 85 Nibbling 93 Narcotic slops 96 Nature’s pointings 101 Nature’s guidance 118 Narcotics 135 Nails, growth of 37 Nature, warring against 23 Night air 176 Natural beauty 213 Nursing items 258 Nature and art 253 Natural food 243 Nation longevity 271 Nature, eccentricities of 216 Nails, inverted 260 Nature, freaks of 260 Nubility of the female 51 Nature and economy 60 Nature and sleep 202 Noxious agents 323 New medical platform 357 Narcotics, experiments on 344 Nuts 411 Nose-bleed 397 Nutriment, proportion of, in food 409 Nerves and muscles 425 New developments 469 Nutriment, comparison of 481 Natural longevity 551 Necessity for sleep 552 Neglect, effects of 561 Necessity for suffering 602 Nails, inverted 642 Narcotics and doctors 652 o. Obesity 28 Offensive breath 27 One dish at a meal 53 Oxygen and digestion 90 Occupation, choice of. 20 Old age, exercise in 87 Oxygen, importance of 115 Our meats 187 Old age 197 Our origin 246 Our girls 224 Obesity and leanness 253 Origin, ancestral 203 Organic bodies, temperature of... 255 Origin of genius 391 Order and system 385 Opiates 402 INDEX. 677 PAGE Our mothers 459 Occupation and longevity 476 Old age and exercise.i 502 Order, domestic 485 Offensive feet 567 Old Virginia and tobacco 543 Our women 548 Optional health 570 Objects of clothing 576 Odor, personal 601 P. Pain in death 15 Progeny of great men 28 Poison potatoes 30 Pork 29 Puberty 36 Providence 35 Precocity 51 Prolific births 66 Physic 79 Posture 85 Paint 89 Pure water 93 Patching up 53 Producing the sexes at will 114 Posture in bed 135 Pickles 147 Pampering and hardening 144 Period of development 153 Producing beautiful children 154 Polygamy and divorce 80 Pulse, rapidity of. 70 Progeny, limiting of 150 Poisonous metals 200 Physical education 203 Periods of life 221 Pregnancy, respect for 201 Preserving meats 259 Popular narcotics 237 Prolificacy, favoring of 137 Pores, number of 134 Perspiration, checked 424 Position of the body 440 Parents and progeny 362 Poison 356 Popular errors 350 Physical enjoyment 348 Popular poisons 348 Platform, new medical 357 Poisons, fashionable 348 Pressure, atmospheric 334 Proportion of nutriment 409 Public halls 422 Physicians, medical strictures of .417, 421 Potato, the wonders of 878 Physical decline of Americans... 472 Perspiration 464 PAGE Personal habits 507 Poulticing the neck 493 Poultices 491 Premature mortality 483 Poison through the lungs 479 Pond water 482 Punishing the innocent 494 Prevention and cure 555 Pride and sin 553 Pain 560 Promising youth 572 Personal odor 601 Personal safety 573 Power of tobacco 608 Poison in food 618 Parents, immature 580 Precocity and coffee 582 Pregnancy, labor during 628 Physicians, longevity of 636 Patriarchal longevity 298 Physiological items 301 Poison confectionery 293 Punishment 287 Preaching versus practice 279 Physical degeneracy 277 Privies, poison of 315 Premature puberty 39 Pastry 84 Q. Quality of vegetables 56 Quakers, longevity of 58 Quantity of sleep 214 Quantity of food 223 Qualities of flesh meats 321 Quackery 485 Quality of solids and fluids 470 Quietness 522 Quack nostrums 514 Quantity of nutriment in food 659 R. Rusting and wearing out 22 Rum 27 Refuse in food 34 Rough sense 96 Raising children 119 Religion and diet 104 Refinement and soap 104 Reproductive items 220 Respect for pregnancy 201 Rum and water 274 Religion and tobacco 287 Rapidity of the pulse 70 Results of accident 366 Resisting disease 394 Rum and gluttony 396 Rum, curses of 387 678 INDEX. PAGE Rickets 445 Rapid eating 473 River water 478 Rapidity of digestion 610 Rest after meals 655 Regular sleep 651 Rice 643 Results of respiration 642 Rye 646 Rooms, size of 623 Respiration, results of 642 s. Sleeping together 13 Slops at meals 13 Sleeping after meals 18 Shoes 20 Safe dancing 21 Sugar 26 Scrofula 31 Size of the sexes 35 Suggestions 35 Season and appetite 46 Sex 61 Stature 71 Strong beer 73 Soap 74 Second marriages 77 Sheep and babies 87 Skill versus drugs 86 Salt and digestion 93 Snuff and brains 95 Signs of longevity 97 Subsisting on water 98 Soap and refinement 104 Sunday stuffing 105 Sacrifice of life 108 Strange ideas 110 Sterility 126 Short skirts 145 Shades and curtains 146 Sexes, size of 35 Suicide and insanity 71 Stature 173 Spurred rye 176 Severe, but true 188 Stuffing and thinking 179 Summer fruits 187 Slavery of fashion 211 Scurvy 181 Sleep, quantity of 214 Statistics of inebriation 266 Science and alcohol 268 Summer mortality 253 Sickness wicked 231 Sexes, producing at will 114 Sexes, coeducation of. 209 Sleep, time for 200 PAG* Sleep, quantity of. 214 Strength, human 239 Sleep 288 Sexes, longevity of. 283 Sloping shoulders 207 Snuff 206 Sons and daughters, health of.... 282 Sense of smell and tobacco 325 Sickness a crime 339 Sense of touch 345 Sterility 361 Smell, sense of 355 Strictures of European physi- cians 421 Strictures of American physi- cians 417 Sorts of cheese 401 Sorts of meat 401 Sources of disease 379 Spontaneous combustion of a drunkard 382 Study and health 408 Solitary vice 418 Solids and fluids 418 Soap, action of 400 Season and food 437 Small items 465 Sorts of water 471 Starvation 444 Stove, water on 433 School, a fashionable 449 Statistics, vital 463 Salt, use of 446 Skin breathing 487 Spring water 475 Snow water 473 Sewers of the body 517 Sniffing 541 Surfeit 525 Secret vice 572 Smiles 532 Stimuli, artificial 571 Suicide, fashionable 557 Stature, growth in. 532 Smiles, sorts of 532 Sleep, necessity for 552 Sleep, time and quantity of. 562 Success of vaccination 587 Slavery 587 Stale eggs 590 Surfeiting 592 Saltpetre 596 Small eaters 598 Solitary vice 604 Structure of the teeth 614 Sickness, loss of time by 578 Suffering, necessity for 602 Size of rooms 623 Scraps and crumbs 622 INDEX. 679 PAGE Summary of flesh meats 640 Stimulants and the brain 632 Small waists and brains 660 T. The beard 16 The tobacco slave 18 The potato 19 The difference 21 Temperature of infants 24 Tobacco and cancer 26 The infant stomach 28 Tea and the skin 30 The heart 31 The teeth 33 Tobacco slavery 38 The onion 46 The foolery of fashion 48 Tea and prussic acid 60 The cravat 57 Tea versus flesh 62 The hardy and feeble 117 The choice 119 The best doctors 126 The apple 126 The twin harpies 125 The guardians of health 128 The pores 134 Taking life 142 The abdomen 157 The extremes 95, 160 The lungs 161 Tobacco, cost of 55 Tobacco, blessings of 47 Taints, hereditary 29 Temperature and age 60 Tobacco, effects of 69 Tobacco and insanity 79 The brain, weight of. 79 Tobacco, dangers of 129 Trundle-beds 182 Twins 190 Temperature of water 196 Time for sleep 200 The sluggard 212 The doctor’s friends..., 212 The mother’s milk 222 The voice 177 The graminivora and carnivora... 183 Two meals a day 183 The kine-pox 195 The science of medicine 205 The two systems 262 The stomach and nerves 258 Taciturnity 248 Tea, coffee, and beauty 228 The first teeth 272 Temperature of organic bodies... 255 PAGE Taking cold 245 The stomach and bile 245 The law of inheritance 236 Tea 267 The sexes, producing at will 114 Treacherous agents 320 Tobacco and the taste 314 The skin and bowels 300 The contrast 284 Tobacco and the teeth 291 The imagination 281 Tobacco 281 Tobacco and religion 287 The skin 107 Then and now 106 The teeth and food 102 The human temperaments 100 The cucumber 66, 90 The pulse 84 The passions 82 Temperature of the body 68 Temperance and longevity 64 The human chest 184 The vision 198 The tomato . 264 Tobacco breath 230 Tea, coffee, and the nerves 329 Tobacco and the vision 347 The sense of smell 355 The sense of taste 365 Tobacco and the appetite 371 The butcher’s bill 352 Tobacco and the voice 340 The two ways 332 Temperature of the atmosphere.. 330 Tea and coffee intoxicate 328 Tobacco and the heart 326 The barometer 324 Tobacco and the sense of smell... 325 Touch, sense of 345 Taste, sense of 365 The nerves 367 The peach and pear 411 The curses of rum 387 The nails 374 The scalp 374 The great book 388 Timber 402 The third meal 406 The preservation of fruits 410 Teeth, effects of mercury on 407 Tobacco and bed-bugs 395 Tobacco, filth of 420 The great scourge 441 The cellar 443 The bones 447 The kitchen 457 The physician 461 The point at issue.... 471 680 INDEX. PAGE The will 468 The eyes 450 Trichinae 430 Test of diets 462 The hair 515 Titbits 499 The human voice 497 The third meal 495 Trifles 480 The oil glands 504 The bodily vsewers 517 To the girls .545 The mouth and nose 543 Temperature of infants 523 The friends and foes of digestion 624 Time and quantity of sleep 562 Tobacco and boys 557 Tobacco and the brain 599 The bile 595 The animal passions 591 Tartar 596 The stomach 596 The special senses 612 Taking cold 618 The brain and tobacco i.... 599 The Scriptures and wine 589 The Bible and alcohol 592 The teeth, value of 598 Tobacco, power of 608 Teeth, structure of. 614 The beard 651 Tobacco spitting 649 The twin brothers 637 Tight shoes, 625; The onion 621 The brain and stimulants 632 Tobacco and drunkenness 634 The potato 644 Temperature and urination 646 Twice a day 650 Time at meals 656 Turnips and cabbage 621 IT. Use of glasses 222 Use of the broom 306 Unfermented bread 346 Uses of the blood 466 Use of salt, 446 ; Use of apples... 442 Use of carpets, 619; Underclothes 574 Urination, 620; Unhealthy bread 654 V. Vinegar 24 Voluntary murder 66 Viability 26 Ventilation 25 Vegetables, quality of 56 Vaccination, introduction of 64 Vaccination, importance of 228 IA01 Vegetable longevity 278 Vegetable food 297 Value of drugs 369 Valuable advice 397 Vital statistics, 463; Variety 526 Value of the teeth 598 Vaccination, success of. 587 Varieties 644 w. What is needed 17 Warring against nature 23 Water 25, 148 Woman and sunlight 32 Water versus alcohol 49 Waste of life 54, 162 Water drinkers 66 Weight of the brain 79 Water as a drink, 79; Wheat 86 Wine and water 99 Woman physically 138 Wealth, 152; Water, hard 51 Water, fresh and salt 43 Wines, adulteration of 132 Warm bath 200 Water, temperature of 196 Wet and dry nursing 232 Wet feet, 270; Water, impure.... 265 Water and vegetables 316 Winds, 310; Whey 304 Will-o’-the-wisp, 309; Wine 299 Wheat and the potato 299 Water as a drink, 283; Worms... 15 Wine, 72; Water versus whiskey 219 Wonders, 359; Wife-killing 362 Women, American 323 Wife, choosing of, 337 ; Woman... 375 Wonders of the potato 378 Warming the feet 380 Washing the hair, 386; Wealth... 423 Water on the stove 433 What we drink 459 When we die 468 Woman’s endurance 443 Women, comparison of 435 Water, sorts of 471 Warmth and cleanliness 479 Well water 475 Wet underclothes 478 Wearing apparel , 492 Wine and the Scriptures 589 Wild and domesticated animals... 600 Y. Yeast bread 56 Youth, labor in 51 Yeast, or leaven 303 Youthful training 383 Young wives 503