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HANEY'S USEFUL HANDBOOKS. 
 
 SELF CURE 
 
 OF 
 
 DIBIIiXTl 
 
 CONSUMPTION, 
 Dyspepsia, Nervous Disorders, &c.,&c. 
 
 PRESENTING CLEARLY AND FULLY, • 
 
 | Stort anb Simple lltctljote of Ml Crtatpni 
 
 WITHIN REACH OF ALL AT NO EXPANSE. 
 
 INCLUDING AX 
 
 EXPOSITION OF THE SNARES SET FOR THE YOUNG 
 AND THE DANGERS OF EMPIRICAL TREATMENT. 
 
 > 
 
 l TRICE SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS. 
 
 < 
 
 < 
 
 ft w fori: 
 
 JESSE HANEY & 00., PUBLISHERS, i 
 
 I 
 
 OFFIOB OF HANEY'S JOURNAL, 
 
 No. 119 NASSAU STREET. 
 

 THE 
 
 CAUSES, PREVENTION AND CUKE 
 
 OF 
 
 DEBILITY, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 ConswitpiiaiT, Jgsptpsta, Ittrfaras §isorbers, #t. 
 
 GIVING SUKE AND SIMPLE 
 
 ■;?THODS OF SELF TREATMENT, 
 
 BY MEANS 
 
 EDI REACH OF ALL AT NO EXPENSE. 
 
 SHOWING HOW TO BUILD UP 
 
 VIGOROUS CONSTITUTIONS, 
 
 AND OVEKCOME TENDENCIES TO DISEASE,, 
 
 WITH MUCH INFORMATION OF VITAL IMPORTANCE TO THE 
 YOUNG, AND TO PARENTS AND TEACHERS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 JESSE HANEY & CO., PUBLISHERS, 
 
 No. 119 NASSAU STREET. 
 
.6 vi 
 
 Messrs. Jesse Haney & Co., of New York, are issuing quite 
 a number of little works popularly known as " Hauey's Handbook. s" 
 These volumes are neatly printed, generally illustrated, and present 
 an attractive appearance. They relate to quite a variety of subjects, 
 but as each work is the production of some writer thoroughly posted 
 on that particular subject, they may be depended upon for reliability. 
 Each book is entirely complete in itself, but we think it would by no 
 means prove a bad investment to secure them all. — Philadelphia City 
 Item. 
 
 Entered, according to Act- of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 JESSE HANEY & COMPANY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for 
 the Southern District of New York. 
 
 Self Cure of Debility. 
 
 We notice that Messrs. Haney & Co., of this city, in addition to 
 their extensive publication of periodicals, have engaged in the cheap 
 book business. Their " Handbooks," evidently the work of writers 
 fully conversant with their topics, are becoming quite popular, and 
 deservedly so. They possess two characteristics which many books 
 do not: they sell rapidly, and, what is more important to the pur- 
 chaser, we believe they generally prove satisfactory to the buyer. — 
 New Yorker. 
 
PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 THIS little book is issued in pursuance of our plan of 
 publishing compact, simple, and reliable works, on 
 subjects of interest and value to the public, at as reasonable 
 prices as cost of faithful preparation, extent of demand, and 
 fair profit on our outlay would warrant. Our "Trade 
 Manuals n and '* Handbooks/ 7 as well as other works, are 
 examples. - 
 
 In addition to this general reason, there were special ones 
 inducing us to bring out the present volume. As is well 
 known to many persons, we have devoted a special depart- 
 ment in Haney's Journal, since its commencement, to the 
 exposures of the swindles and humbugs by which so many 
 are cheated. Among many other forms of fraud were 
 exposed the various modes of imposition, deceit, and extor- 
 tion practiced by medical pretenders. We hope and believe 
 these articles have been the means of saving many persons 
 from ignorant tampering with diseases, or the payment of 
 extravagant fees to charlatans, who in many cases, so far 
 from benefiting the patient, would do him positive injury. 
 Numerous letters were received from persons who were 
 thus saved from falling into these traps, asking us to recom- 
 mend some practitioner or publication that we had confi- 
 dence in. On the first point, our advice has always been — 
 as it is now — if you need medical advice, your best plan is 
 to consult your own family doctor, or some physician in 
 your own neighborhood with whose reputation you are 
 familiar, and never intrust yourself to any individual who 
 boasts — in circulars, advertisements, or otherwise — of his 
 own skill, or the virtue of his medical discoveries; who 
 claims the possession of secrets unknown to other practi- 
 tioners ; or who publishes certificates from patients, or sam- 
 ples of his cases, as evidence of his skill ; or who promises 
 cures " after all others have failed." This is safe counsel 
 
e z>u%zisb:jzrs> announcement. 
 
 and well founded, though we have not space here for an 
 exposure of the quackery with which the land is filled. 
 
 Where correspondents have asked us to advise them what 
 books on health and kindred subjects they had better read, 
 we have done our best to oblige them, though it was often 
 difficult to find just the thing appropriate. There are nu- 
 merous excellent works designed for professional readers, 
 embracing every branch of medical knowledge ; but these 
 are not only very expensive, but are so full of technical 
 terms and references as to be utterly unintelligible to the 
 majority of readers. One or two books we found which 
 answered moderately well, but they were not so complete 
 and definite in their statements as was desirable; while 
 one, which would otherwise have been one of the best, con- 
 tained several statements which are contrary to the opinions 
 of those medical men who rank highest in their profession, 
 and whose opinions are held in the highest respect and 
 esteem. 
 
 Believing that there was an evident and important want 
 which would not be otherwise supplied, we decided to sup- 
 ply it ourselves. The gentleman to whom was intrusted 
 the preparation of the work was one in whose knowledge 
 of the subjects, and ability to present that knowledge in the 
 best manner, we had the fullest confidence. We are entirely 
 satisfied with the manner in which he has performed his 
 task, and we present this book with our heartiest indorsement, 
 believing it will be found worthy of confidence and success- 
 ful in its objects. The proof sheets have also been submit- 
 ted to several gentlemen in the profession, widely known 
 and highly respected, and they have expressed their full and 
 cordial appreciation of the truthfulness and value of the 
 work. 
 
 This book is not designed to advertise or recommend any 
 particular practitioner or medicine, or to advance any per- 
 sonal interest. Our business is publishing, and we design 
 making a liberal publisher's profit, as well as to liberally 
 compensate the author, but have no " ax to grind. 7 ' To 
 prevent any suspicion, however groundless, that the author 
 had any desire to bring even his name to the special notice 
 of patients, we have, in accordance with his own wishes as 
 
well as our judgment, withheld it. We believe no one 
 requiring the advice contained in this volume will consider 
 the price unreasonable. It must be remembered that the 
 cost of production, author's pay and our own profit, all come 
 from the sale of the book. Works on special subjects, trade 
 manuals, professional books, and especially all good medical 
 works are high-priced. The comparatively small sale which 
 they usually have, and the exceptionally high price it is 
 necessary to pay to induce properly qualified persons, whose 
 time is valuable in their own profession, to prepare them, 
 are the principal reasons for this. The present volume sells 
 at about the same price, in comparison with size and amount 
 of matter, as most other reputable works on health and 
 disease. The value of a work of this kind depends not on 
 the amount of paper it contains but on the worth of its 
 instructions. Hundreds of men will advise you gratuitously 
 on almost any subject — so delightful is it to give advice — 
 but if you want reliable advice you pay a lawyer, chemist, 
 physician, or other person familiar with the subject in ques- 
 tion, and the costly opinion is usually worth more than all 
 the gratuitous ones put together. 
 
 Many books as large or larger than this, and purporting 
 to treat on some of the subjects included herein, can be had 
 for little or nothing, indeed less than nothing, for adver- 
 tisers offer not only to send them without charge but also 
 to pay the postage on them. It is the evil done by such 
 books that we hope this volume, as a part of its mission, 
 will rectify. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN this little work I have no novel theories to advance, 
 and no wonderful discoveries to announce, which are 
 to revolutionize medical science. I pretend to no monopoly 
 of knowledge j the information contained in this book is, 
 substantially, probably already familiar to all the medical 
 profession, and I believe it is such as will meet their 
 approval and indorsement. My aim has been to present, 
 in convenient form for general circulation, facts which I 
 believe are now well established by the investigations and 
 experience of leading members of the profession. 
 
 My book is designed especially for three classes of readers. 
 First, those who are suffering from nervous disorders, weak- 
 ess, insufficiency of vital stamina, or from local derangements 
 of a debilitating tendency, and who are desirous of guidance 
 in overcoming their troubles. Secondly, those who are 
 violating the laws of health, either by errors in diet, work, 
 excesses or abuses, or otherwise, but who are ignorant or 
 careless of the dangers which they incur. Thirdly, those 
 who have nothing specially the matter with them, but who 
 have been terrified by the misrepresentations of designing 
 parties. It is these last who furnish the quacks with their 
 greatest number of patients, and I never heard of an adver- 
 tising practitioner refusing to treat any person, provided 
 he had money. It is not simply a waste of money that is 
 incurred by these victims; irreparable mischief is sometimes 
 done by such reckless administration of medicine j or, if 
 merely inert preparations are given, the victim may be 
 driven to despair by the failure to stop perfectly natural 
 phenomena. 
 
 The necessity for some work which would present plainly 
 and truthfully the information needed by such a large 
 number of persons, especially among the young, has been 
 becoming more and more apparent to thinking men and 
 
women. Henry Ward Beecher has frequently, in sermons 
 and lectures, exhorted the young against the snares of their 
 own passions or the beguilement of evil associates, and 
 cautioned them, as clearly as could be appropriately done 
 under the circumstances, against vile books of quacks and 
 others. Mrs. H. B. Stowe, in an article in Mrs. H. W. Beecher 7 s 
 late magazine, the Mother at Home, urged upon parents the 
 necessity of offsetting the influence of these charlatans by 
 teaching the children the truth concerning their organiza- 
 tions. Mr. Eobert Bonner has wielded the vast power of the 
 New York Ledger against the quacks with all the vigor of 
 of his keen pen, though fettered by the fact that not a tenth 
 of the enormities practiced by them can be detailed in such 
 a journal, designed for families, in which even the most 
 distant allusion to any subject at all approaching indelicacy 
 is never allowed to appear. 
 
 We might instance many others who have warred against 
 this system of imposture. Many editors have shut their 
 columns against the advertisements of the parties, and were 
 this done by all, the evil might be lessened, though, as 
 circulars can always be resorted to should admission into 
 newspapers be refused, quackery can never be suppressed 
 until the people are taught the real nature and proper 
 treatment of the "specialties" of the quacks, and so, know- 
 ing the truth, are able to distinguish without aid the utter 
 ignorance of the pretenders, and the worthlessness of their 
 statements and claims. 
 
 The surest way to destroy quackery is to present the actual 
 truth regarding those matters to which their business is 
 mainly restricted. Clearly convince a boy that nothing ails 
 him, or that his malady is within his own control if he will 
 faithfully adhere to a simple course of self-treatment, and 
 warnings against quacks are needless ; but to convince him, 
 you must explain the appearances which he has been led to 
 believe dangerous symptoms. Denouncing a vice will not 
 always save the victim ; he must be told how to overcome 
 the habit, and how to remedy the evils it may have entailed. 
 I am aware that many good people are very reticent con- 
 cerning all matters pertaining to the sexual organism — that 
 many consider that the young should be kept in ignorance 
 
*0 PREFACE. 
 
 of all such subjects. This is simply impossible, and the 
 attempt to do so aids quacks by inducing a clandestine 
 perusal of their books. Of course knowledge should be 
 measured somewhat by age, but it is safer for a parent to 
 impart delicately, lovingly, such as may be suited to the 
 child's years, than to have curiosity stimulated, as it surely 
 will be, by the bits of forbidden information, picked up from 
 impure companions or casual reading. No mere thing or 
 fact among God's creations is, in itself, impure ; it is the 
 associations which make any so. Let knowledge thereof be 
 presented properly, and there will be less likelihood of the 
 evil associations. 
 
 I am conscious that much must depend on circumstances 
 and the feelings of parents. I would much rather defer to 
 what must in many cases prove their better judgment. I 
 would even wish that this volume might pass through the 
 hands of parents or teachers before reaching any reader less 
 than fourteen or sixteen years of age. I would like each 
 parent to select what he thinks best suited to his child's 
 case ; and should it fall into the hands of any young read- 
 er, I would advise him to take counsel about it with his 
 parents, teacher, or clergyman ; they may perhaps aid him 
 in carrying out its suggestions j he will certainly have their 
 sympathy, and it is rarely unsafe to trust your parents with 
 any matter in which you are interested. 
 
 The topics treated in this book are such as are most fre- 
 quently inquired about, and most important to be known. 
 Every statement made has been carefully weighed and 
 tested by the best authorities ; nothing has been said care- 
 lessly. I have striven to be plain and explicit in all state- 
 ments, to give clear and full details for all necessary treat- 
 ment, and to leave no room for any misunderstanding. It 
 would be manifestly impracticable to confine the work to 
 subjects relating merely to any particular age, as its natural 
 scope must, in accordance with my proposed plan, include 
 all ages, from infancy upward. I trust that each reader 
 will find all information necessary to his individual case. I 
 believe there is nothing in the book which can in the slight- 
 est degree pander to any improper feeling; and I have 
 intentionally avoided engravings and physiological details, 
 
PREFACE. // 
 
 because I do not think them necessary to the proper under- 
 standing of my subjects, or for successful self treatment. 
 
 Kegarding the subject of self treatment, it may be proper 
 to say a few words here. While a good physician's advice 
 is generally useful in all cases, inspiring confidence and 
 relieving the patient from responsibility, ninety-nine out of 
 a hundred of those who will seek guidance from these pages 
 can treat their own cases without difficulty, by following 
 the instructions, if they will only persevere. This treat- 
 ment is harmless. If nothing ails you it will do no harm, 
 and it is the surest, quickest, and safest you can adopt. I 
 think I have made everything so plain (even to repeating 
 things over occasionally) that you will have little difficulty 
 in ascertaining your real condition and overcoming your 
 trouble, should any exist. Most of the difficulties for which 
 quacks are consulted are among the easiest and simplest of 
 regular medical practice (though represented to require 
 rare skill and special experience), and of all ailments the 
 safest you can trust to your own treatment, if you don't 
 mess with medicines. Let me say here, if you need any 
 treatment further than that laid down here, don't consult 
 any advertising practitioner. Your own family physician, 
 or any known and esteemed one in your vicinity, will un- 
 doubtedly do better for you, at less expense and with more 
 sympathy and honor, than any stranger you would be 
 likely to fall in with. I believe, however, that the neces- 
 sities of nearly all readers will be met in this little book. 
 
 The reader will perceive that I have drawn considerably 
 from the works of others j by this means I have endeavored 
 to present the best attainable information, thereby giving 
 the results obtained by many workers in the cause of 
 health, each of whom has had experience in some particular 
 branches less familiar to other practitioners. The result, I 
 trust, will be to the advantage of the reader. I have, of 
 course, endeavored to give full credit in all cases where I 
 have been indebted to the labors of others. 
 
DEBILITY, CONSUMPTION, ETC, 
 
 -o-o>S>4oo- 
 
 • HAP TEE I. 
 
 CONSTITUTIONAL INHERITANCE — PREDISPOSITION TO PAR- 
 TICULAR DISEASES — INFLUENCE OF PARENTS 7 HEALTH 
 AND CONDITION ON OFFSPRING — CAUSES OF HERED- 
 ITARY DISEASES AND LACK OF VIGOR IN 
 OFFSPRING — MOTHER'S DUTIES. 
 
 FIRST among the influences to which is due the vigor 
 or delicacy of the individual is inheritance. It is one 
 of the fundamental laws of the Creator that like shall pro- 
 duce like. Not that a particular disease in the parent will 
 inevitably be reproduced in the offspring, but in most cases 
 the tendency toward that disease will be found j thus, where 
 father or mother is consumptive, though the child may not 
 actually have consumption, he will be very apt to be trou- 
 bled with coughs and colds upon slight exposure, showing 
 that there is a predisposition toward affections of the lungs. 
 Where both parents are afflicted with, or have a tendency 
 toward, the same disease, that disease will probably appear 
 in an aggravated form in the offspring. On the other hand, 
 where one parent possesses great vigor in the organs where 
 the other is weak, the child is apt to have neither the vigor 
 of the one nor the weakness of the other. 
 
 There are sometimes apparent freaks in the laws of 
 descent — or, more probably, principles not yet thoroughly 
 understood — such as a hereditary disease skipping several 
 generations and appearing, without any immediate percep- 
 tible cause, after the fact of its ever existing in the family 
 had become almost forgotten. So, too, of children resem- 
 bling neither parent, but a grandparent or more remote 
 
V 
 
 /4 CAUSES, ^SUSTENTION A.JVD SEZF CUltJZ OF 
 
 ancestor, or even a person out of the direct line of descent, 
 as an uncle or aunt, or possibly a still more distant relative. 
 These family resemblances are curious and interesting, not 
 always confined to mere features, but extending to disposi- 
 tion. For all this, however, it is safe to assume, that, as a 
 general rule, the degree of vigor, physical and mental, in 
 the parents will determine the same in the offspring. This 
 influence extends even to temporary conditions. That the 
 son of a confirmed sot or debauchee should display a love 
 for liquor or a relish for licentiousness, or be feeble in con- 
 stitution, is not to be wondered at ; but numerous cases are 
 recorded of men usually remarkable for temperance and 
 morality indulging in one single spree, and children begot- 
 ten during this period of intoxication have been imbued 
 with an irresistible craving for strong drink, and have 
 finally filled drunkards' graves. So, too, temporary de- 
 pression of spirits, excessive anxiety, or other unfavorable 
 states of mind, may produce in the offspring a permanent 
 moroseness or unhappiness of disposition. That the chil- 
 dren of men remarkable for brilliancy of intellect so seldom 
 display a similar gift, is doubtless, in many cases, attribu- 
 table to the jaded, exhausted condition in which these men 
 allow their minds to be driven by the requirements of their 
 position, or the promptings of their own genius. 
 
 No man can predetermine what powers of mind or body 
 shall be his inheritance ; but the legacy which he shall 
 hand down to his descendants is in great measure subject 
 to his control, and it is for this reason mainly that I dwell 
 upon this matter. The scriptural assertion that the sins 
 of the father shall be visited upon the children of the third 
 and fourth generations is not a threat to those unborn 
 beings, who have no control or responsibility in the matter, 
 but the declaration of a physical law, and a solemn admo- 
 nition to those who would violate any law of their being. 
 The warning extends to matters even beyond the code of 
 strict morality. No one has a right to heedlessly or will- 
 fully entail upon another an impaired constitution, or any 
 bodily or mental affliction. While, therefore, mutual love 
 should be the primary consideration in selecting matrimo- 
 nial companions, it behooves all to pay due regard to the 
 
r 
 
 PHYSICAL AJV® MENTAL 1>E%II,ITY 3 ETC. 15 
 
 physical well-being of their children in making their selec- 
 tion. The great Haller mentions that he knew " a very 
 remarkable instance of two noble ladies, who got husbands 
 on account of their wealth, although they were nearly idiots, 
 and from whom this mental defect has extended for a cen- 
 tury into several families, so that some of all their descend- 
 ants still continue idiots in the fourth, and even the fifth 
 generation." Dr. Combe says : " I have lately met with a 
 very painful instance of a similar nature, in which insanity 
 suddenly appeared in a family solely in consequence of a 
 strong hereditary predisposition. In another family, in 
 which scrofula descended from both parents, all the children 
 were affected by it in its worst forms, and years of suffering 
 ensued to those who survived." 
 
 The most remarkable example of the hereditary trans- 
 mission of qualities with which I am acquainted is that of 
 Moses Le Oompte, given in the Baltimore Medical and 
 Physical Repository. Le Oompte was not only blind, but 
 he had thirty-seven children and grandchildren, who also 
 became blind. In all of them the blindness began about 
 the age of fifteen or sixteen, and terminated in the total 
 loss of sight about the age of twenty-two. Dr. Holland 
 mentions several cases of a similar kind in his Medical 
 Notes and Reflections. 
 
 Dr. Combe has so ably treated the subject, and his opin- 
 ion and knowledge have had, deservedly, so great weight 
 during his life and since his death, that I deem no apology 
 necessary for the following lengthy extract from his Trea- 
 tise on Infancy : 
 
 " Next to the direct inheritance of a family predisposi- 
 tion, the constitutional tendencies derived from the union 
 of parents too nearly allied in blood, and more especially 
 if themselves of a tainted stock, are perhaps the most 
 prejudicial to infant health ; and their baneful effects are 
 nowhere more strikingly shown than in the deteriorated 
 offspring of some of the royal families of Europe, in which 
 frequent intermarriages have taken place without any re- 
 gard being paid to the morbid predisposition on either side. 
 They are, however, often observed in private life also, and 
 especially among the Jews. In allusion to this Dr. Elliot- 
 
76 CAUSES, PRETENTION A.JVD SELF CURE OF 
 
 son remarks, that l the rich Jews in this country have the 
 same bad custom of marrying first cousins ; and I never 
 saw so many instances of squinting, stammering, peculiar- 
 ity of manner, imbecility, or insanity, in all their various 
 degrees, intense nervousness, etc., in an equal number of 
 other persons.' Where very near relations marry who are 
 themselves infirm, there is usually either no progeny, or 
 one characterized by unusual delicacy of constitution. 
 
 " The 'period of life at which the parents marry exer- 
 cises a great influence on the health and qualities of the 
 offspring. If the parents have married at a very early age, 
 and before the full development and maturity of their own 
 organism, the children are generally more deficient in stam- 
 ina than those born subsequently and under more favorable 
 circumstances. This, indeed, is one of the reasons why 
 the children of the same family often present considerable 
 differences of constitution and character, and why the first- 
 born is occasionally puny in an otherwise vigorous race. 
 In this country, it may be stated as the general rule, that 
 females do not attain their full development before from 
 twenty to twenty-five years of age, and males between 
 twenty-five and thirty. 
 
 "Late marriages are scarcely less unfavorable to the 
 health of the offspring, when there is any, than those con- 
 tracted in very early life. Indeed, as remarked by Dr. 
 Steinau, this seems t® be one of the chief causes of the 
 delicacy frequently observed in the children of healthy 
 parents. Beyond a certain age, neither animals nor plants 
 are capable of producing a vigorous progeny ; and hence, 
 the postponement of marriage beyond the period of matu- 
 rity, now so common, especially among professional men 
 suffering under the influence of strong competition for a 
 livelihood, is not unfrequently a source of evil to their off- 
 spring. Every observer, whose attention has been directed 
 to the subject, must have seen examples of this kind ; and 
 I have met with several in which the infirm health of the 
 children was obviously ascribable to the parents not having 
 married till their own vigor had begun to decline. In the 
 natural order of events, the impulse to propagate has lost 
 much of its force before the age of forty, and comparatively 
 
(jS> 
 
 'if- h 
 
 TMTSICdZ d±JVD M&JYTriiZ 'DEBILITY, ETC. 17 
 
 few children are born after that age to parents who have 
 been united soon after attaining maturity. 
 
 " Another cause of infirm health in children, which ought 
 not to be overlooked, is, great disparity of years in the two 
 parents. When one of the parents is very young, and the 
 other already advanced in life, the constitution of the 
 offspring is very rarely sound j but it is sufficient to call 
 attention to the fact." 
 
 Another and very influential source of delicacy in chil- 
 dren is, a hdbitualty deteriorated state of health in the 
 parents, arising chiefly from mismanagement or neglect, 
 and showing itself in a lowered tone of all the animal func- 
 tions, and a general feeling of not being well. Of all the 
 causes of this description, perhaps the most frequent and 
 injurious to the offspring is habitual indigestion, and its 
 consequence, impaired nutrition. Sir James Clark has 
 shown very clearly, in his admirable work on Consumption, 
 that the appearance of scrofula in the families of persons 
 not themselves tainted by it, is often partly owing to the 
 hurtful influence of dyspepsia in the parent, brought on and 
 kept in activity by mental indolence, irregularities of regi- 
 men, and impure air. It is in this way that many persons 
 pass years of their lives in a constant state of suffering from 
 " bilious " and " stomach n complaints, induced by inatten- 
 tion to diet, exercise, cleanliness, ventilation, choice of local- 
 ity, a free command of light, or other equally removable 
 causes, and unthinkingly turn over a part of the penalty 
 upon their innocent offspring. Not aware of the real con- 
 sequences of their conduct, they cannot summon resolution 
 to give up the indulgences to which they have accustomed 
 themselves, or to persevere in the easy use of the means 
 required for the preservation of their own health ; and they 
 are surprised when assured that, while thus trifling with 
 their own comfort, they are sporting with the welfare and 
 fate of those on whom their whole affections are one day to 
 be centered ; yet such is the fact ! 
 
 The mother's influence is great over the future infant j 
 but the precautions for her own and the child's welfare are 
 simple. Cleanliness, exercise (never violent or prolonged 
 to exhaustion), simple food, fresh air, cheerfulness, occupa- 
 
/8 CAUSES, PREVENTION j4JV2) SJEZF CUfiF OF 
 
 tion, and loose apparel, are the chief requisites. It is a mis- 
 take to suppose that the food should be greatly increased, 
 or more hearty in character ; it should only be increased 
 where the appetite and improved digestion really call for it, 
 and where there is no danger of becoming surfeited. Pas- 
 try, confectionery, and all articles likely to produce indi- 
 gestion, should be avoided, as should the exessive use of 
 tea, coffee, or other exciting beverages. Spirits, wine, and 
 beer, "for strengthening,'' are nine times in ten an unal- 
 loyed evil. Strong feelings, excitement, anger, etc., should 
 be avoided. Simple diet and fruits should keep the stom- 
 ach and bowels in proper condition, without recourse to 
 medicine.. The tendency of nature is toward an improved 
 state of health at this time, and with due regard for the 
 laws of health, little anxiety need be felt as the crisis ap- 
 proaches. A gentle and experienced physician, not over 
 anxious to " assist " nature, should, of course, be secured. 
 
 CHAPTEB II. 
 
 INFANCY — CARE OF YOUNG CHILDREN. 
 
 I HAVE said that any constitutional taint or weakness 
 in the parent will be apt to be transmitted to the child, 
 in either precisely the same form or in a tendency toward 
 diseases or weakness of a similar kind to those of the pa- 
 rent. Where the constitution of one parent is exceedingly 
 vigorous in the respects in which the other parent is feeble, a 
 modifying influence is exerted to lessen this tendency in the 
 child ; so, too, children in some cases possess a better con- 
 stitution than might be expected from the condition of the 
 parents. But seeming health in the children of unhealthy 
 parents is often deceptive. Beneath the surface of apparent 
 vigor often lurk the seeds of death, which will develop with 
 growth. In cases of strong hereditary tendency toward 
 blindness, insanity, consumption, scrofula, or other very seri- 
 ous disease, no efforts may prove availing to prevent the vie- 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MJENTAL DJZBIZZI'T, ETC. 79 
 
 tim's fate ; but where there is but slight tendency toward 
 even serious complaints, and especially where the inheritance 
 seems rather a mere general want of vitality and health, it 
 is often possible to build up health and strength, and ward 
 off entirely the threatened weakness. It is in childhood 
 that these efforts should be made; indeed, from earliest 
 infancy the child should be carefully guarded from those 
 influences which are liable to attack his weak points. If 
 the lungs lack strength, slight causes will produce colds, 
 and these will be more dangerous to him than to other 
 children. 
 
 Delicate children, where there is no special hereditary 
 weakness, often make the strongest, healthiest men and 
 women. Their feebleness causes greater care to be taken 
 of them ; while naturally strong children are submitted 
 to exposures, errors in diet, and other violations of the 
 laws of health which impair their vigor. Much has been 
 said in favor of the " hardening process" to which the chil- 
 dren of the poor and ignorant are frequently subjected, and 
 this is contrasted with the supposed excessive delicacy with 
 which the offspring of the wealthy are cared for. That 
 confinement to over -heated nurseries, over-feeding, and want 
 of fresh air and exercise, are evils to which the infants 
 of rich parents are sometimes exposed, is doubtless true. 
 That these evils are escaped by children allowed to shift 
 for themselves, and forced to incur cold, hunger, and hard 
 usage, may be also true. But advocates of the hardening 
 system, in their admiration of the hardy men produced by 
 that system, apparently lose sight of the fearful mortality 
 among the children subjected to this ordeal ; and while the 
 very strong may survive it and become powerful men, 
 thousands less vigorous are killed by it. 
 
 The wealthy are remiss, not so much in caring for their 
 children as in neglecting their own health, and transmitting 
 impaired constitutions to their offspring. 
 
 I shall, further on, speak more fully of ventilation, exer- 
 cise, etc. ; but so much of his future welfare depends on 
 the child's proper care in infancy, that I shall here briefly 
 refer to the main points to be observed. Dr. Combe says : 
 
 " In infancy, living in a pure dry atmosphere of moderate 
 
20 CAUSES, Z>2tFYJENTI0N o±jY2) SELF CURF OF 
 
 temperature is the best safeguard of health ; and in early 
 life, the rapid recovery which often ensues, even in very 
 unfavorable circumstances, after removal from the confined 
 air of a city to the pure atmosphere of the country, has 
 long been a matter of general observation. For the same 
 reason, the mortality in infancy always bears a direct rela- 
 tion to the impurity of the atmosphere ; it is greater in 
 towns than in the country, and in crowded manufacturing 
 districts than in those which are less populous and contam- 
 inated." 
 
 A fallacious but popular notion is that infants have a 
 great power of resisting external cold ; on the contrary, as 
 the power of generating heat is small for the first two or 
 three years of life — particularly in the earliest months — it 
 is necessary that the body be furnished with warm clothing, 
 and the temperature of the room kept up to a comfortably 
 high degree (65° Fahrenheit), and a careful avoidance of 
 sudden changes or draughts. The nursery should be thor- 
 oughly aired each day ; but while this is being done the 
 infant should be removed to another suitable room, and the 
 nursery restored to its proper warmth before he again enters 
 it. The skin of young children being extremely sensitive, 
 they are affected by variations in temperature not perceptible 
 to adults. On account of this sensitiveness their clothing 
 should not be tight or rough, and in handling, the utmost 
 gentleness should be observed. 
 
 The mother's milk is the natural food of the infant, and 
 this milk is at first thin and watery for a beneficial purpose 
 — to cleanse the bowels and prepare the child for his new 
 existence. The first milk secreted is the very thing first 
 needed by the infant. Where the mother's health permits 
 her to nurse the child it is better for him than the substitu- 
 tion of a nurse. If a nurse must be employed, it is impor- 
 tant that her own child should have been born at as nearly 
 as possible the same time as the infant she is called upon to 
 care for, or her milk may prove too hearty and disagree with 
 her charge. As the child's food is simple, and is taken in 
 small quantities, he should be frequently supplied, but never 
 tempted to take nourishment when he does not desire it, 
 and he should be restrained when it is found the stomach is 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL DJSSIZITT, ETC. 2f 
 
 becoming overloaded. Beef tea, arrowroot and other 
 unnatural food must be avoided. Ordinarily the milk is 
 sufficiently nourishing, and the infant's stomach has no 
 power to digest, in early infancy, any of these substances. 
 
 Next to the mother's milk (or that of a healthy nurse 
 whose own child was born at about the same time as her 
 charge) cow's milk is the most suitable food for infants j 
 indeed some experienced practitioners believe it -equally 
 easy to raise children on it. Good milk is of course essen- 
 tia], and it should not be too much diluted, as is often the 
 case. Very few, even among experienced nurses, know the 
 proper quantity for an infant's supply. Few children one 
 month old are satisfied with less than one pint of pure milk 
 daily, while many take a quart ; the average is between 
 these two extremes. Only sufficient water should be added 
 to make it pleasantly warm ; two teaspoonfuls of boiling 
 water to a pint of pure cool milk is enough. A common 
 error is to add too much sweetening ; a little is almost 
 always desirable, but it should be always in moderation. 
 A bottle has advantages over a spoon for feeding, approach- 
 ing more nearly to the child's natural mode of taking 
 sustenance. An infant's food should never be permitted to 
 become stale j even a degree of sourness, too slight to be 
 appreciated by adults will exert an injurious influence on 
 the child. 
 
 The use of medicine in infancy is another evil which 
 should be more carefully avoided. With proper care medi- 
 cine is seldom required, and in those cases where it is 
 necessary it should be administered only at the direction of 
 a physician. The " slops " of ignorant nurses are more 
 suited to the slop-pail than a child's stomach. The medi- 
 cines sold for producing sleep are always opiates, and there 
 is risk in using them. Thousands of children are killed 
 yearly by these preparations, but as they die slowly, and 
 little attention is attracted to the cause, their deaths do not 
 usually come under the investigations of the coroners. 
 Sleeping potions may be useful in rare instances, but like all 
 other powerful medicines should be restricted to a doctor's 
 special orders. 
 
 A number of proprietary articles have been recommended 
 
A 
 
 32 CAUSES, PRETENTION slJYZ) SELF CURE OF 
 
 by their manufacturers as substitutes for mother's milk. 
 Cue formula discovered by Liebig would seem in theory to 
 be just the thing, as it claims to be chemically identical 
 therewith. Unfortunately children fed upon it are reported 
 almost invariably to die. 
 
 During teething there is special danger of taking cold. 
 Tepid baths, moderate exercise, and careful attention to 
 clothing and diet, will be important. Lancing the gums 
 will often afford relief when the teeth have difficulty in 
 forcing their way through. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OVERCOMING CONSTITUTIONAL WEAKNESS AND BUILDING 
 UP STRONG CONSTITUTIONS. 
 
 EXCEPT when beset with strong antagonistic influences 
 the efforts of nature are toward health and vigor. It 
 was not meant that we should be weak and ailing ; we are 
 so through our own ignorance or sinfulness, or from the 
 errors of preceding generations. As a general rule it is safe 
 to say that all members of the human race were designed 
 to go through the various stages of growth, maturity and 
 decline, until they passed away as the " sere and yellow 
 leaf." There must, in the nature of things, be many indi- 
 vidual failures, just as many plants are destroyed or die 
 before fulfilling their various duties. But one of the strongest 
 proofs that the aim of nature is toward perfection in each 
 case is the fact that toward the birth of a child the mother's 
 health often improves, and a fatal disease may even be stayed 
 until the child is born. 
 
 Another evidence is the fact that a disease of this kind is 
 sometimes escaped by the child ; and though the mother 
 may rapidly decline, for in general the disease renews its 
 attacks with redoubled fury after the temporary stay, the 
 child may never show any signs of its inheritance. It is 
 true that care must be taken to guard him against anything 
 
JPtfrSZCaLL AND Jf^JVTA-L DBjBILIT2% ETC. 23 
 
 likely to develop the tendency thereto possibly lurking in his 
 constitution j but that this may be successfully combatted 
 is strong' encouragement for all to endeavor to establish 
 good health, even though they may know or suspect their 
 natural feebleness. The stoutest and most muscular per- 
 sons are not always possessed of the most vitality j they 
 are often the soonest prostrated by disease, and often the 
 least able to resist its inroads. On the other hand, how 
 frequently do delicate children develop into men of long life 
 and extreme vitality, resisting diseases which overpower 
 their apparently more robust neighbors. But they cannot 
 do this unless proper precautions be taken. Their good 
 fortune is due, doubtless, in great measure to the fact that 
 they are careful of themselves. 
 
 Dr. Dio Lewis, in his own person, testifies that even those 
 of feeble frame, and apparently little constitutional vigor, 
 may be developed into strong, powerful and vigorous man- 
 hood. From a puny youth, scarcely able to protect himself 
 against bullies of his own age, he became famous for his 
 muscular development, and for the vigor and soundness 
 of his vital organs. His may be an extreme case, but it 
 preaches a strong sermon against giving up to weakness 
 and degeneracy without attempting a regeneration which is 
 shown to be not only possible but, in most cases, with not 
 very severe efforts in the right direction, entirely in accord- 
 ance with the laws of our being. 
 
 While it is desirable that the building up of the constitu- 
 tion should commence in the earliest years, it is never too 
 late to make the attempt, and unless the vital force is very 
 nearly exhausted their effort will not be without avail. At 
 whatever age the beginning is made, whether under the 
 patient's own management or in his youth by parents, I 
 would advise mild measures and the avoidance of extremes. 
 Spasmodic efforts are of but slight benefit, if of any. In 
 entering upon a new course we are too apt to start off with 
 a flourish, and gradually allow a dwindling down to perhaps 
 absolute neglect. The opposite course is the one to be 
 commended. Let our exercise and endurance increase as 
 we increase our power. Of course this advice is not meant 
 to refer to changes in any positively bad habits ; gluttony 
 
£4 CAUSES, TStFYEJVTlOJY j4JV2) SELF CUfiJE OF 
 
 tobacco, and any other enervating influence, should be dis- 
 carded without delay — the sooner the better. 
 
 As to the actual details of this strengthening process, 
 appropriate information will be found in the chapters on 
 bathing, exercise, sleep, etc. 
 
 The most important point in this attempt to invigorate 
 the constitution is self-restraint. What not to do is as 
 important as what to do. When we have learned to live 
 regularly, eat moderately, restrain our passions, take plenty 
 of sleep, exercise and fresh air, and avoid liquor and tobacco, 
 we require few special prescriptions. The wonder is, not 
 that so many are feeble and " out of sorts," but that we 
 manage after all to get along so comfortably despite our 
 outrageous violations of those laws on which health depends. 
 But these transgressors do not know the full pleasure of 
 complete health. They congratulate themselves if they 
 have no special, obvious ailment to bemoan, but have no 
 experience of that exuberant state of bodily vigor which 
 makes living itself a continuous joy. 
 
 If any reader expects me to give him the secret of any 
 elixir for speedily insuring him vigor and long life, I must 
 disappoint him. My plan though, I believe, sure, is slow j 
 it involves the labor of a lifetime, but this labor is not 
 necessarily disagreeable. The habits of temperate living, 
 moderate enjoyments, and useful occupation of mind or 
 body, will soon become as easy as their opposites. A man 
 will finally be restrained from excessive eating by his 
 stomach if his head doesn't, and there is scarcely a more 
 miserable object on earth than a professed pleasure- 
 seeker. 
 
 Beyond the regulations applicable to all cases, those who 
 are predisposed to any particular weakness or disease should 
 specially fortify and guard themselves at this point, avoiding 
 whatever has the tendency to develop that disease or aggra- 
 vate the weakness. 
 
 y- 
 
* 
 
 2>&YSICo±L AJV3) MEJYTrf-L D&BTjLZTr, ETC. 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WANT OF NOURISHMENT — INAPPROPRIATE FOOD. 
 
 IN this country, want is comparatively unknown, so that 
 the existence on the very verge of starvation, which is 
 the common lot of vast multitudes of the industrious classes 
 in European countries, is the fate of only a few individuals in 
 our large cities. With us, want of proper nourishment is 
 the result of ignorance rather than inability to secure it. 
 Custom has even caused those portions of certain articles of 
 food to he discarded, which contain some of the most im- 
 portant elements of nutrition 5 for instance, the bran of 
 wheat, which is so carefully sifted out of our flour. 
 
 Again, there is a tendency to excess in consuming arti- 
 cles calculated for the production of heat rather than nour- 
 ishment. In cold weather, the warmth of the body must 
 be largely maintained by the eating of food composed mainly 
 of carbon ; thus the appetite for buckwheat cakes and mo- 
 lasses, fat meat, and other food containing large quantities 
 of carbon, is a natural one. But in warm weather, many 
 will consume heating articles of food at regular meals, and 
 then add candy between whiles. After that, when over- 
 come with the heat of the weather and the heat they have 
 themselves created, the very means resorted to to cool them- 
 selves is frequently but adding fuel to the fire. I do not 
 here speak of alcoholic beverages j the simple carbonic- 
 acid water, the " soda water " of the druggist, while it tem- 
 porarily assuages thirst, eventually increases the heat by its 
 sugary syrup. 
 
 A popular beverage .in the country is " switchell," a com- 
 pound of molasses, ginger, vinegar and water. The molas- 
 ses supplies carbon, and feeds the flame, the spice only 
 stimulates, and the vinegar I consider injurious in any con- 
 siderable quantity.. Sweetened lemonade is well known to 
 increase the thirst after a momentary assuagement. With- 
 out sugar, lemon, or other fruit juice, in water would doubt- 
 less be a refreshing and healthful beverage. It is claimed 
 by those who have experimented thoroughly, that the most 
 
k- 
 
 2G CoiUSJES, PREVENTION cdN® 6'EIF CURE OF 
 
 agreeable drink for warm weather or for those employed in 
 places of very high temperature, is water in which oat or 
 Indian meal has been soaked ; this not only slakes thirst but 
 cools the body. 
 
 Coming back to the subject of defective nutrition, it 
 must be remembered that it is what we digest and not what 
 we swallow which supports us j so digestion must be pro- 
 moted by exercise, etc. While health and vigor may be 
 maintained on either animal or vegetable food, or on a mixed 
 diet composed partly of each, it seems that the support de- 
 rived from each is somewhat different. Those animals 
 which consume flesh are better fitted for severe but tempo- 
 rary exertion, than are those who live on vegetable sub- 
 stance, but in a long -continued task on the strength, the 
 latter will surpass the former. So of human beings, the 
 flesh-eaters are capable of more severe temperory exertion, 
 but their power of endurance is exhausted sooner. The 
 vegetable-eaters will hold out longest, though perhaps 
 at no time capable of as severe a temporary strain on 
 their powers. When a person is engaged in manual la- 
 bors, or takes a large amount of exercise, it seems probable 
 that an exclusively vegetable diet will not properly support 
 his strength. When his occupation is sedentary, or where, 
 though much in the open air, he does not undergo any great 
 muscular exertion, vegetables should form a larger propor- 
 tion of the food, and in many cases an entirely or nearly 
 vegetable diet has been found the best. Much must depend 
 on the person's own preferences ; a little experimenting in 
 his own case may afford him useful hints for guidance. 
 
 I have already spoken of the danger incurred by infants 
 reared by hand of having their milk too much diluted with 
 water; another danger, less easy of detection, occurs in 
 some cases where the child is nursed by the mother. The 
 supply of milk is not always to be determined by the size of 
 the breasts — fleshy women often supply scanty milk, though 
 apparently well developed. Where there is a suspicion of 
 this, from the child's frequent hungry fits, or its feebleness, 
 a resort to the nursing-bottle may be advantageous. Still 
 one more fact in connection with scanty nourishment of 
 babes in early infancy, the digestive organs are capable of 
 
P^£2"SICA.Z AJVD MENTAL DJESIZITT, ETC. 27 
 
 acting only on animal nutriment. Before teething, all veg- 
 etable preparations at the very best serve merely as waste 
 matter to pass through the system ; many a child has 
 starved with his stomach full of farina, arrow-root, or other 
 vegetable preparation. In all such cases the sole nourish- 
 ment is probably derived from the milk which is added to 
 these articles. Milk is the natural nourishment of very 
 young infants, and nothing can be found to take its place. 
 
 I am a strong believer in pure fresh milk for all children — 
 and even for grown persons. Of course there may be pecu- 
 liar constitutions among adults and large children where 
 milk is not beneficial, but these are less numerous than many 
 suppose. The substitution of milk for molasses eaten with, 
 mush, at a Massachusetts reform school, was followed by 
 increased health in the children. It is incorrect to suppose 
 milk digests badly, it is almost entirely taken up. In grown 
 persons milk alone would not supply the necessary waste, 
 but it has been found a most beneficial article even in some 
 forms of dyspepsia, where the patient had carefully avoided 
 milk, even in coffee, under the supposition that it was inju- 
 rious for him. It sometimes disagrees with persons because 
 they stuff their stomachs with too great a variety of other 
 things. 
 
 A modern writer of eminence lays it down as one of the 
 most common causes of consumption in young people, that 
 just at the age when their physical system is undergoing 
 one of the most important changes, say from thirteen to six- 
 teen, milk is generally dropped, and nothing equally rich in 
 nourishment, (nitrogen) substituted in its place ; and to the 
 sam^ cause (want of noun 'siting diet) is ascribed much of the 
 weakness, nervousness, and liability to sickness. The writer 
 just quoted advises that good fresh milk should be used daily 
 by girls in their "teens," and tea and coffee avoided. 
 
 The bad consequences of defective nourishment are not 
 confined in their operation to the bodily constitution of the 
 poorly fed. Their minds also are deteriorated. The pres- 
 sure of poverty is unfavorable to the growth of refinement 
 and morality, and crime and turbulence are never so much 
 to be dreaded as during times of scarcity and manufactur- 
 ing or agricultural distress. Bodily health, satisfied appe- 
 
 ^i 
 
 ] 
 
28 CAUSES, 'PHETJEJJVTION XLJYD SEZF CU21M OF 
 
 tite, and peace of mind, are great promoters of individual 
 morality and public tranquility ; and whenever these are 
 encroached upon in any great class of the community, dis- 
 content and crime are sure to follow. 
 
 Says Dr. Combe in his work on Digestion, referring to 
 the insufficiency of food so much more common in England, 
 to which country his remarks apply, than here, but still ap- 
 plicable to some cases in our own land : 
 
 " Among the poorer classes, the children as well as the 
 parents suffer much both physically and morally from in- 
 sufficient food. Their diet, being chiefly of a vegetable na- 
 ture, and consisting of porridge, po.tatoes and soups, with 
 very little butcher-meat, proves far from adequate to carry 
 on vigorous growth in the one, or repair waste in the other ; 
 hence arise in the young an imperfect development of the 
 bodily organization, a corresponding efficiency of mental 
 power, and a diminished capability of resisting the causes of 
 disease. In work-houses and other charitable institutions, 
 ample evidence of these deficiencies obtrudes itself upon our 
 notice, in the weak and stunted forms and very moderate 
 capacities of the children. Under an impoverished diet, in- 
 deed, the moral and intellectual capacity is deteriorated as 
 certainly as the bodily ; and a full exposition of this fact, 
 and the principles on which it is founded, would be a great 
 public benefit. 
 
 " Even among the children of the wealthier classes, a 
 sufficiency of nourishing food is not always provided with 
 the care which it deserves. Both in families and in boarding- 
 schools, it is no uncommon practice to stint the healthy ap- 
 petites of the young, or to feed them with soups and other 
 eatables which contain too little nutriment in proportion to 
 their bulk. I am acquainted with many instances of this 
 most injudicious error, and have seen scrofula and severe 
 digestive affections brought on by persevering in it through 
 sheer ignorance, and even in the belief that such i tempe- 
 rance' was healthful. Where adequate exercise is permit- 
 ted, and the food is plain and nourishing, hurtful excess in 
 eating will rarely occur, at least in healthy children/' 
 
 The lack of suitable food may lead to over-eating of that 
 which is unsuitable, for there will be a craving which calls 
 
PHTSICAZ o±.Y2> MENTAL DEBIZTTT, ETC. 20 
 
 for satisfaction. When the food is proper there is not much 
 danger of eating too much ; it is generally the improper food 
 which does the evil, overloading the stomach, but failing to 
 afford the requisite nourishment. The unsatisfied appetite 
 craves more, but the improper food never satisfies. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EVILS OF OVEE-EATING — USE AND ABUSE OF FOOD. 
 
 "TTTHILE a sufficiency of food is absolutely necessary to 
 VV preserve the health, and enable the various organs 
 of the body to. properly perform their several functions, the 
 almost universal error is in eating too much rather than too 
 little. Experiments have been made in prisons, hospitals 
 and elsewhere, to determine on what amount of food the 
 body can be sustained, and on what amount it best thrives. 
 Such experiments are useful, but the results arrived at are 
 not a safe guide for people in general where circumstances 
 vary in each individual case ; but the fact remains, that the 
 almost universal error is to eat too much. It is astonishing 
 what a vast number of apparently very dissimilar maladies 
 are really but the result of over-eating. Persons frequently 
 imagine lungs, liver, kidneys or other organs affected, when 
 the trouble is in the stomach. Not only so, but if the stom- 
 ach is continually kept disordered other organs will in time 
 be affected. 
 
 Professor Caldwell ; of Transylvania University, Ky., in 
 one of his essays, years ago inveighed eloquently against 
 the intemperance in eating practiced in this country, and 
 said that one American consumes as much food as two 
 Highlanders or two Swiss, although the latter are among 
 the stoutest of the race. " Intemperate eating," said he, 
 u is perhaps the most universal fault we commit ; we are 
 all guilty of it — not occasionally, but habitually, and almost 
 uniformly — from the cradle to the grave. It is the bane 
 alike of our infancy and youth, our maturity and age. It 
 
30 CAUSES, TREYEjYI'ION c4JV"D SJEZF CURE OE 
 
 is infinitely more common than intemperance in drinking, 
 and the aggregate of the mischief it does is greater. For 
 every reeling drunkard that disgraces our country, it con- 
 tains one hundred gluttons — persons, I mean, who eat to 
 excess and suffer by the practice." " How, indeed," he after- 
 ward exclaims, "can the case be otherwise, while children 
 and youth are regularly taught, hired, bribed, or tempted 
 to over-eat themselves from their birth % Do you ask me 
 for evidence in proof of this charge % Go to our dining- 
 rooms, nurseries, to our bakeries, candy stores and pleasure 
 gardens — go even to sickrooms — and you will find it in 
 abundance. You will witness there innumerable scenes of 
 gormandizing, not only productive of disease in those con- 
 cerned in them, but in many instances offensive to behold- 
 ers. The frightful mess often consists of all sorts of eat- 
 able materials that can be crowded together, and its only 
 measure is the endurance of appetite and the capacity of 
 the stomach. Like the ox in rich pasture ground, or the 
 swine at his swill trough, men stow away their viands until 
 they have neither desire nor room for any more. I do not 
 say that such eating matches always and everywhere occur 
 among us ; but I do say that they occur too frequently, and 
 that they form fit subjects for caricature pictures by Euro- 
 pean tourists of our domestic manners. I add, however, 
 that similar scenes present themselves in every country I 
 have visited, where provisions are abundant and cheap." 
 
 With a little common sense and a little self-restraint, 
 almost any one can determine what amount of food is best 
 suited to his case. If he suffers on any day from uncomfort- 
 able feelings, dullness, lassitude, with perhaps a heaviness 
 at the stomach, let him, the next day, reduce his food at 
 each meal, say one-third or one-quarter. By noting the 
 effect from day to clay the proper amount will be arrived at. 
 
 One of the gravest mistakes on the part of parents is 
 compelling children to eat against their wills, or tempting 
 them in any way to go beyond what their appetite calls for. 
 If a child accumulates too much food upon his plate there 
 is no " saving "in making him eat it; the lesson against 
 waste is in such cases more than balanced by the injury to 
 his stomach, and the moral effect of the worse than swinish 
 
> 
 
 PHYSICAL zLJYS) MENToiZ, 7)BSIJLITT > JEJTC. 31 
 
 stuffing. When children are excited with play or other 
 employment, and feel no appetite, to compel them to eat a 
 hearty meal, merely because it is meal time, is unwise. 
 
 Next to the quantity, the quality of the food is important. 
 There are many reasons going to prove that man was 
 designed to use both meat and vegetable food; but I think 
 most persons eat too much meat. Many of the most robust, 
 vigorous and muscular tribes and nations subsist, either 
 mainly or wholly, on vegetable productions. Considering 
 the vast amount of pork consumed by our farmers, added to 
 the heavy salseratus bread, and generally badly cooked food, 
 it is not surprising that so many suffer from dyspepsia, in 
 spite of pure air and active out-door exercise. 
 
 Growing persons require more food, other circumstances 
 being equal, than those who have attained their full devel- 
 opment ; so a boy may eat more than his father without 
 proving that he is greedy. The season, weather, and innu- 
 merable circumstances affect the quantity of food which it 
 is proper to consume. So, too, of the kind of food ; * in win- 
 ter meat and hearty articles may be eaten, which in sum- 
 mer would prove a burden to the stomach. 
 
 To determine when the right quantity has been reached, 
 there is probably no guide but the person's own feelings. 
 The time to stop eating is just before satiety ; then there 
 is a pleasant feeling; appetite, though appeased, is not 
 turned to loathing, as is the case when satiety is reached. 
 If there is any doubt in the eater's mind, he had better stop 
 when he would still relish a trifle more. It is rare that 
 people err on the side of denying themselves when the 
 means of gratification is within their reach. 
 
 One common, but most pernicious, form of over-eating is 
 the nibbling between meals of any little dainty, pie, cake, 
 confectionery, or whatever it may be. The stomach must 
 have rest to maintain its proper condition and perform its 
 functions. Three meals a day give it about all the work 
 it can fairly perform, and for many two meals would be 
 enough. Now a single cracker will set the machinery in 
 motion ; it requires the same processes that an ordinary 
 meal would, though, of course, there would be less over- 
 loading ; it would be merely compelling activity when rest 
 
/\ 
 
 32 CoiUSJSSy PftFTFWTZOJr cd.YS) SFLF CU&F OF 
 
 should have been given. It is perhaps too much to ask 
 that children shall never have a stick of candy, and that 
 Julia shall refuse to partake of the boubous her beau brings 
 her of an evening. To one not suffering from dyspepsia 
 ailments, a little latitude may be occasionally allowed j but 
 the habit of eating even trifles, merely for want of some- 
 thing to do or to gratify a perverted taste, will surely end 
 in debility of the digestive organs and general ill health. 
 Infinite mischief is done by nurses and parents, in giving 
 children tempting articles of food at improper times, and 
 when nature does not require nourishment, merely to pre- 
 vent teasing or cause them to keep quiet. The display of 
 articles of food on table or sideboard, will often arouse a 
 fictitious appetite which it is hurtful to gratify. Ladies who 
 think they must have lunches of indigestible articles every 
 time they go shopping are making a grave mistake. 
 
 So confirmed does this habit of eating " promiscuously n 
 become if indulged, that the victim frequently gets up in 
 the night to gormandize j cannot eat at meal time ; loses 
 natural appetite, but becomes tormented by inexplicable 
 cravings, in some cases for disgusting or unnatural articles 
 for food. 
 
 The use of sauces or other articles, for stimulating the 
 appetite, often leads to taking more food than the system 
 needs or can properly dispose of. Mild spices in modera 
 tion, catsups, pickles, and relishes of like nature, need not 
 be totally discarded by persons in ordinary health, indeed, 
 being, in very small quantities, not noticeably injurious ; 
 but pepper and salt are often used in excess. The love 
 of excessive seasoning, of highly spiced dishes, or of biting 
 sauces, is pretty sure proof of perverted taste and impaired 
 digestion. 
 
 It is not the mere impairment of the powers of digestion 
 that is to be found as the result of over-eating. Where the 
 digestion is naturally powerful, it will often dispose of more 
 food, if forced upon the stomach beyond the plain and nat- 
 ural calls of healthy appetite, than is required to fully nour- 
 ish the body, and undue stimulation and inflammation ensue. 
 Many sudden attacks of inflammatory disease unquestiona- 
 bly result in this way, and death may ensue. Headache, 
 
PHYSICAL rf.JYD MENTsLL DJZ&IZI2'r, ETC. 33 
 
 palpitation of the heart, wakefulness, restlessness, dull- 
 ness and want of energy, and many other disagreeable 
 symptoms, result from over-eating and the consequent dys- 
 pepsia. Thousands of persons are treated for consumption 
 by special practitioners who are really suffering from phthisis 
 of dyspeptic origin j and a host of ailments, from the treat- 
 ment of which advertising pretenders reap rich harvests, are 
 caused by this same impairment of the digestive function. 
 
 Cutting down the quantity, paying more attention to the 
 quality and character of the food, and following advice con- 
 tained in other chapters of this book, will usually prove 
 effective in all ordinary digestive troubles. 
 
 OHAPTEE VI. 
 
 INVALIDISM— IMAGINARY WEAKNESS. 
 
 MANY persons are inclined, upon the slightest indis- 
 position, to retire to bed, coddle themselves, moan 
 over their suffering, and appear to take a sort of morbid 
 delight in being just as sick as they possibly can. There 
 are, doubtless, cases where it would be simply folly not to go 
 to bed and resign oneself to proper medical treatment ; but 
 in half the " sickness n activity and fresh air will remove all 
 disagreeable symptoms, while a close room, idleness, and 
 the fretting inevitably attendant on a case of trifling indis- 
 position which the patient allows himself to pamper ? will 
 often really produce a fit of serious illness. 
 
 Sometimes this " imaginary invalidism " takes so strong a 
 hold upon the victim as to outweigh all his own common 
 sense and all arguments. Of course a well person who will 
 stay in bed a week or two will become somewhat debilitated 
 for want of exercise, and when this is extended to months 
 the most lamentable loss of power results. One case is 
 recorded of a woman who threatened her husband that she 
 would go to bed, if some unreasonable request were riot 
 granted, and stay there till it was. She did go to bed, and 
 
34. CAUSES, ^SErEJVTIOJV AjY3) self cure of 
 
 the husband, who was a sailor, went off on a voyage, leaving 
 her there. Obstinacy kept the woman in bed until the 
 consequent weakness was enough to keep her. By and by 
 the husband returned, and finding a wife rendered helpless 
 by her own folly, cleared out again. The woman was by 
 this time really too helpless to leave her bed, and would 
 never have left it had not an energetic physician taken her 
 case in hand, and despite her agonized entreaties, insisted 
 upon making her walk between two stout women several 
 hours each day, until the wasted muscles were gradually 
 restored by use. 
 
 On the subject of imaginary or perverse invalidism, the 
 Medical Gazette, of this city, makes some apt remarks. 
 Though designed for professional readers, and calculated to 
 point out to them the best modes of treating such cases in 
 their practice, the article has so much which I think will 
 prove of general interest that I quote it here: 
 
 " It has so long been the custom to regard woman as the 
 1 weaker vessel/ to sympathize with her delicate organiza- 
 tion, and to commiserate the sufferings which she and we 
 consider inseparable from her sex, that it may seem hereti- 
 cal to dispute her claim to exceptional natural fragility j 
 and yet, if we study the circumstances under which her 
 invalidism is usually manifested, we can hardly fail to arrive 
 at the conclusion, that if she were not possessed of almost 
 more than masculine strength, her vital processes, instead 
 of being merely perverted, would absolutely cease. * * * 
 
 u With the exception of the hereditary weakness derived 
 from the mother's imprudence, and the somewhat injurious 
 effect of crowded population in a large city, there is scarcely 
 a cause of disease or physical discomfort which is not within 
 the control of every woman, and nearly all her suffering is 
 directly attributable to her persistent and monstrous viola- 
 tions of the plainest hygienic rules. The ' young girl of 
 the period,' born with a sensitive nervous system (the result 
 of the folly of two or three generation^), having managed 
 to survive a pampered infancy, and a diet in utter opposi- 
 tion to nature, with no worse result than the dyspepsia 
 which characterizes her class, and with her temperament 
 developed (?) by a course of absolute indulgence, until 
 
 V 
 
PHYSICAL JlJYD MJEJJYTrtZ T)ESIZITY, 1?TC. 35 
 
 any interference with her own sweet will causes a paroxysm 
 of nervous, or so called 'hysterical' excitement, is launched 
 into ' society/ destitute of that habit of self control which 
 adds materially to the resiliency of the tissues against mor- 
 bid influences. Kegular, systematic exercise is unknown 
 to her ; fashion prescribes a costume which should be called 
 upholstery rather than dress, and which aids in weakening 
 still more her undeveloped muscles. Padded to the throat 
 and swathed in furs during the day, she exposes herself to 
 the bleak night air of winter with bared breast and arms ; 
 and after violent and exhausting efforts in the vitiated 
 atmosphere of a ball room — where temporary strength is 
 given by nervous excitement, not by muscular tenacity — 
 she returns home near daybreak, having lost the most 
 needed period of sleep, and surcharged her system with car- 
 bon, to languish through the following day, fretful and 
 incapable of exertion until some fresh excitement furnishes 
 an unnatural stimulus. Marriage makes no interruption in 
 this routine. The mania for excitement continues ; the 
 hours which should be devoted to rest are passed in 
 crowded rooms, where the ingenuity of Satan could devise 
 no worse conditions for health ; where, instead of the requi- 
 site allowance of 1,000 cubic feet of air to each individual, 
 less than 100 are given, and even these unchanged j where, 
 in addition to four or five hundred human beings, as many 
 gas jets burn, each of which consumes as much oxygen as 
 eight adult men • where, from exercise and heat, the excre 
 tion of carbonic acid and organic matter is increased, and 
 panting lungs are forced to inhale these instead of pure 
 oxygenating air. 
 
 " Is it a wonder that the victims of such a regime suffer 
 from pains in head and back ; that household duties are too 
 heavy a tax upon their enfeebled frames; that they are 
 incapable of fulfilling woman's mission of child bearing; 
 or, if they have offspring upon whom their sins are visited 
 in mental or physical degeneracy, that they cannot furnish 
 nourishment to sustain the life they have bestowed ? n 
 
 He who first popularized the phrase " hysteria n as indic- 
 ative, not of a group of morbid manifestations arising from 
 actual structural or functional lesions, but of fretful, petu- 
 

 86 CAUSES, 'PStJEJTFJjYTIOJV o±JY5) SE£F CUKE OF 
 
 lant, i spoiled childishness/ inflicted an in calculable injury 
 upon womankind. Seizing upon this* apologetic name, a 
 series of i nervous ' symptoms, proceeding from self-indul- 
 gence, or aroused by the slightest impediment to the grati- 
 fication of every whim, are elevated to the dignity of dis- 
 ease, and the very condition which should call for reprehen- 
 sion is set forth as a claim on our sympathy. 
 
 tl It may be that some medical practitioners have been led 
 by frequent intercourse with such fair logicians to partici- 
 pate in their exculpatory delusion ; or the fact that these 
 self constituted valetudinarians furnish the most constant 
 and lucrative clientele may have something to do with the 
 matter; but, whichsoever reason be the true one, certain 
 it is that too many of our brethren yield to temptation of 
 some sort, and base their treatment on the one great prin- 
 ciple that their patient must be ( humored. 7 
 
 " We are sent for by Mrs. Hautevolee ; we find that lady 
 languishing, supine, upon her couch, and set about investi- 
 gating the pathology of her condition. 
 
 "The objective indications are : pasty complexion, tongue 
 slightly furred, hands and feet cold, pulse not very strong, 
 nutrition generally defective, no signs of any organic dis- 
 ease. Among the subjective symptoms we find a general 
 sensation of fatigue and lassitude ; no pain, but a ' dis- 
 tressed feeling' in the head, back, epigastrium, or wherever 
 else her attention may be for the moment concentrated ; 
 habitual constipation ; disinclination or incapacity for men- 
 tal effort or bodily exertion ; the noise made by the chil- 
 dren is insupportable ; contradiction ' makes her nervous/ 
 The history of the case shows us that she takes no regular 
 exercise, because she is ' so easily fatigued ; ' that her only 
 open air achievement is carriage riding, generally with the 
 windows of the vehicle closed; that her symptoms are usu- 
 ally confined to the area of her own home and the morn- 
 ing hours, subsiding later in the day, so that she can with- 
 out difficulty stand three or four hours at a l reception,' or 
 dance from 11 P. M. to 3 A. M., at an evening entertainment. 
 Now there is not a thinking man in our profession who does 
 not know that if such a patient were to be reduced to pov- 
 erty — forced to attend personally to her children, to do her 
 
 V 
 
%>HrSICrf-£ rtJYS) MJZJYTjIZ debizitt, ETC. 37 
 
 own housework, cook her own meals, and otherwise become 
 absorbed in necessary occupations — her health would be 
 improved if not entirely restored thereby ; and yet nine times 
 out of ten, in just such instances i change of scene ' and 
 i amusement' are prescribed, and the evil effects of this 
 advice counteracted temporarily by the administration of 
 stimulants and tonics. 
 
 " Surely no argument is needed to support the statement 
 that if a woman has not strength to fulfill both her house- 
 hold duties and the demands of l society/ the former alone 
 should have the preference. If. she cannot care for her own 
 children because of her physical weakness, or nervous irrit- 
 ability, she is certainly unfitted to undergo the excitement 
 and exhaustion of a fashionable routine of amusement. Our 
 profession is one which should exercise an influence for good 
 in the moral as well as the physical sphere, and it is sad- 
 dening to see its sanction too frequently given to a viola- 
 tion of woman's noble (because natural) mission — to a ne- 
 glect of her healthful duties as mother and wife, in favor of 
 a course which only aggravates, in the long run, the condi- 
 tions for which it offers a transient and fictitious relief. We 
 should treat women as rational beings, not as nervous sys- 
 tems without a governing brain. We should teach them to 
 use this governing power of the mind, and to fulfill the hy- 
 gienic laws under which health is alone possible. Above 
 ail, in the class of cases which we have been considering, 
 1 occupation ' will be found a much surer means of cure 
 than ' amusement.' w 
 
 It has been occasionally said of some persons that " they 
 have no time to be sick," and there is often truth in the 
 expression. A man may wear himself out by excessive 
 work j but many persons are " sick," only because lazy. 
 They need activity for mind and body. Let such take the 
 hint, and their troubles will soon disappear. " Nothing to 
 do n is a great curse, and wealth which induces laziness is 
 not a blessing. 
 
 There are some real " nervous " ailments, however, and 
 these I shall speak of in another chapter. The "pamper- 
 ing" system, however, is only an aggravation, even in 
 these genuine cases of lack of nervous stamina. 
 
 -V 
 
\ 
 
 3S CzLUSJES, 2>3£FyFJVTlOJV *UV'2) SJSZF CURE OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PHYSICAL EXERCISE, HEALTHFUL AND HURTFUL. 
 
 THE importance of muscular exercises and invigorating, 
 out-door activities has been year after year, insisted 
 upon by writers on health and the public press. Ameri- 
 cans, however, seem never to be able to do anything in mo- 
 deration, and when they do adopt any recreation or exercise 
 so completely overdo it as to destroy all, or neai'ly all, its 
 benefits while incurring its evils in increased degree. Gym- 
 nastics, skating and base-ball are some examples of these 
 manias. Good in their way, in proper times and limits, 
 each was carried to excess during its hight of popularity, 
 base-ball especially. Thousands are now suffering from in- 
 juries internal as well as external ; some the direct conse- 
 quences, and others the more remote ones arising from ex- 
 posure when heated, etc. Doubtless those who were con- 
 tent with moderation were benefitted by the exercise, but I 
 am speaking of the almost universal ignorant and excessive 
 manner in which it was used. 
 
 The fact is, too much exercise is as bad, or worse, than 
 too little. Moderation should be the rule and changes 
 should never be made suddenly. At first the exercise 
 should be but a trifle beyond the ordinary habits 5 this may 
 be gradually increased from day to day, but never allowed 
 to become overtasking. Regular exertion within easy range 
 of your power, will increase that power more than the effort 
 at any time to do a little beyond. 
 
 The Westminster Eeview, in the course of an article 
 against too much physical exercise, observes : " Those who 
 have gone through the severest training become, in the end, 
 dull, listless, and stupid, subject to numerous diseases, and 
 in many instances, the ultimate victims of gluttony and 
 drunkenness. Their unnatural vigor seldom lasts more than 
 five years. It was especially remarked by the Greeks, that 
 no one who in boyhood won the prize in the Olympic games, 
 ever distinguished himself afterward. The three years im- 
 mediately preceding seventeen, are years of great mental 
 
 . 
 
x - 
 
 ^HYSICAZ yljyii MEjYI'AL 2>JE%IZI2'r, ZJ2'C. 39 
 
 development, and nature cannot, at the same time, endure 
 any severe taxing of the physical constitution. Prudence, 
 therefore, especially at this critical period of life, must ever 
 go hand in hand with vigor, for the evils of excess out- 
 weigh by far the evils of deficiency." 
 
 The absolute neglect of physical development in the past 
 generation we see followed in this by habits of exercise 
 which threaten to make us a people of athletes and cripples. 
 Not content with a rational use of the gymnasium, under 
 the supervision of a teacher versed in physiology, develop- 
 ing in unison the muscles and the intellect, as in the Ger- 
 man universities, our youth aim each to be a Hercules, will- 
 ing to be dunces if their arms and loins be strong. Hence 
 the ball and cricket, and boat clubs ; hence the huge dumb- 
 bells and Indian clubs, which strain and fatigue the muscles, 
 and lay the foundation for many diseases of the limbs and 
 internal organs. There was a time when hernia, or rup- 
 ture, was principally confined to the laboring classes, among 
 whom it is so common that it is safe to say that one in 
 every fifth man you meet is affected with it in some degree ; 
 now this infirmity is increasing among the students, many of 
 whom lay the foundation for a life-long disease in the ill- 
 judged exercises of the so-called " manly sports." We are 
 not all the same, either mentally or physically ; and exer- 
 cise, like food and study, must be graduated according to 
 the power of the individual. This distinction is generally 
 overlooked ; and the puny boy emulates the strong, subjects 
 himself to the same vigorous efforts, and finds himself with 
 distorted joints, rupture, and incipient disease of the heart 
 and blood vessels. 
 
 All physicians and physiologists are aware of the effects 
 of rowing, as an exercise, on the heart and pulse. These 
 effects have been recently carefully examined by Dr. Fra- 
 ser of Edinburgh, by means of the u sphygmograph," an in- 
 strument invented in France, which produces a self-written 
 record of the swellings and contractions of the arteries ; the 
 delicate movements of these vessels, which the finger cannot 
 detect, are thus registered in a series of curves or waves, by 
 a pencil on a strip of paper moved by clock-work. The 
 "sphygmograms" of a crew of healthy persons before leav- 
 
 ■ 
 
4-0 CrtUSFS, *Pl£EYJE!NTrON riJYD SFLF CUliF OF 
 
 ing the boat-house, and immediately after its return, are 
 very different. The tracings show clearly that an extremely 
 large quantity of blood is, in rowing, circulated with 
 great rapidity, a condition of the circulation essential for the 
 continuance of prolonged and severe muscular exertion. 
 The effect of such a condition upon persons suffering from, 
 or liable to, functional, organic disease of the heart, can be 
 easily conjectured. There can be no doubt that many in- 
 cipient diseases of the heart and blood-vessels are rendered 
 active and dangerous by the violent exercise of rowing, and 
 that much discomfort, and premature death, are the result 
 of this mania injudiciously and intemperately indulged 
 in. As boat-crews do not, and cannot, here, submit them- 
 selves to " sphygmographicaF examination, and thus enable 
 the predisposed to heart-disease to retire in time to prevent 
 further mischief, it may be a wholesome caution for the 
 youthful oarsman to stop and consider, especially if violent 
 exercise produces an uncomfortable feeling in the heart 
 and lungs, whether he will indulge in anything more than a 
 moderate pull. The effects of rowing on the circulation do 
 not differ from those of many other forms of muscular exer- 
 cise ; it is the violence of such exercise, whether with the oar, 
 the bat, or the Indian club, which is the dangerous element. 
 While may be safe to row or play ball simply for amusement, 
 it may be eminently dangerous to engage in a boat-race or 
 a fatiguing ball-match. 
 
 The best exercise is that which gently stimulates the 
 whole system. Walking and running are among the very 
 best exercises for strengthening the muscles of the lower 
 limbs, as well as promoting general vigor. In these 
 simple things the preceding remarks are equally appli- 
 cable. Pedestrianism is a pleasant and healthful recrea- 
 tion, but one not accustomed to walking much should begin 
 with a short walk, and avoid on all occasions incurring 
 downright exhaustion. Each day it is well to begin the 
 walk with a moderate gait, which may be increased as spirits 
 rise. The body should beheld erectly though not in a stiff, 
 constrained position, with eyes directed to some object in 
 advance a trifle higher than the walker's head. Of course 
 the eyes need not be set fixedly on any object, but this is 
 
PHYSICAL 2LJY® MEJYrrils 2>E%IZITY, JZTC. £1 
 
 useful to observe occasionally to keep from unconsciously 
 falling into, a stooping posture. Most pedestrians consider a 
 cane or switch an essential item of their equipment, but its 
 utility is questionable. Easy shoes should be worn, and on 
 very long jaunts the application of common brown soap to 
 1he stockings will promote easy motion and prevent blister- 
 ing. In practicing running, only a short distance should be 
 done at first, commencing with a slow trot, and gradually in- 
 creasing speed. It is not well to keep this up when breathing 
 becomes difficult, but the pace should be gradually slackened 
 until the runner resumes the walk. During all this time 
 breathing should be done through the nostrils, and the mouth 
 kept persistently closed. To " get out of wind " and pant 
 and puff through a gaping mouth is only an injury. These 
 running exercises can be carried on without interfering with 
 ordinary occupations, by practicing them on the way to bus- 
 iness, etc. In time greater speed and endurance will be 
 attained. The pedestrian feats of u one hundred miles in 
 one hundred consecutive hours," and like unnatural out- 
 rages on nature always do harm — often irreparable. 
 
 Bowing is a highly valuable exercise, but great care is 
 essential, as the temptation is very strong to overdo. Not 
 only should the practice of the first few days be very short 
 and mild, but on all occasions the rower should at first use 
 the oars slowly until he " gets warmed up," and then, if 
 accustomed to the exercise, he may exert more force. 
 
 The swing is another important form of exercise. Of 
 this, among the simplest and best of apparatus, Dr. Long 
 says : u I wish to say a few words 'to whom it may concern/ 
 on the use of the swing — one of the gymnastic exercises— 
 as a preventive and cure of pulmonary diseases. I mean 
 the suspending of the body by the hands by means of a 
 strong rope or a chain fastened to a beam at one end, and 
 at the other a stick three feet long convenient to grasp with 
 the hands. The rope should be fastened to the center of the 
 stick, which should hang six or eight inches above the head. 
 Let a person grasp this stick, with the hands two or three 
 feet apart, and swing very moderately at first — perhaps 
 only bearthe weight, if very weak — and gradually increase, 
 as the muscles gain strength from the exercise, until it may 
 
 A 
 
4JS CAUSES, Pft&rEJVttOJY AJYf) SELF cure of 
 
 be freely used from three to five times daily. The connec- 
 tion of the arms with the body (with the exception of the 
 clavicle with the sternum or breast bone) being a muscular 
 attachment to the ribs, the effect of this exercise is to ele- 
 vate the ribs and enlarge the chest; and, as nature allows 
 no vacuum, the lungs expand to fill the cavity, increasing 
 the volume of air — the natural purifier of the blood — and 
 preventing congestion or the deposit of tuberculous matter. 
 I have prescribed the above for all cases of hemorrhage of 
 the lungs and threatened consumption for thirty-five years, 
 and have been able to increase the measure of the chest 
 from two to four inches within a few months, and always 
 with good results. But especially as a preventive I would 
 recommend this exercise. Let those who love life cultivate 
 a well formed, capacious chest. The student, the merchant, 
 the sedentary, the young of both sexes — aye, all — should 
 have a swing upon which to stretch themselves daily • and 
 I am morally certain, that if this were to be practiced by 
 the rising generation, in a dress allowing a free and full 
 development of the body, thousands, yes, tens of thousands 
 would be saved from the ravages of that opprobrium medi- 
 corum, consumption." 
 
 In all exercises it seems that much of the benefit results 
 from the pleasure of the person j so that mere mechanical 
 evolutions, such as putting up dumb bells or swinging 
 clubs, produce less benefit, even when not carried to excess, 
 than the same amount of exertion in some less aimless way. 
 There is a great deal in having some object, in addition to 
 the mere desire for strength, as inspiration in exercising. 
 Sawing wood may be good exercise ; but the actual phys- 
 ical benefit is greater in the case of a person paid for it than 
 where it is half grudgingly done "because it is good exer- 
 cise." Another thing, exercise should be varied. To lift 
 the extended arm from the side to a level with the shoulder 
 once or twice, or a dozen times, requires scarcely a percep- 
 tible exertion ; but continue this exercise for even five min- 
 utes, and a painful effort will be requisite to keep on. The 
 muscles become exhausted and require rest. To keep any 
 limb in one strained position is a severe task, because there 
 is an uninterrupted tension on the muscles by which that 
 
'PITTSICAI, A.Y2) MENTAL S)ESIZITT, ETC. 4-3 
 
 posture is maintained. The punishment, therefore, some- 
 times imposed in schools, of requiring a pupil to hold a 
 book or even his hand for a length of time over his head, is 
 an outrage against nature. Even to require one to stand 
 still a long time is an unnatural punishment, and is liable 
 to produce weakness of the extremities. Such inflictions 
 are sometimes imposed thoughtlessly, but the injury is the 
 same, even in several recorded instances to a fatal extent. 
 
 The Hartford Courant gives the following account of 
 one inhuman and fatal outrage, committed by a woman 
 school teacher in Connecticut : " The punishment occur- 
 red in one of the district schools in the town of Man- 
 chester, and the teacher who inflicted it is a young woman 
 named Emerette Campbell. Among her scholars was a 
 girl named Wheeler, aged about eight years, and this little 
 girl, together with two others, was deficient in her geogra- 
 phy lesson. There were certain questions which the child 
 could not or did not answer ; and Miss Campbell, believing 
 this inability arose from willfulness, told the child to stand 
 upon the floor of the schoolroom till the replies were given, 
 adding that the punishment would be continued until the 
 lesson was properly recited. The little girl did as she was 
 bidden, and was kept upon the floor during a portion of the 
 morning exercises, all through the noon recess, with the 
 exception of a few moments allowed her to leave the room, 
 aud, it is stated, all the afternoon ; making in all nearly 
 five hours. This punishment would have been more than 
 most grown people could have endured j but for a child of 
 eight years, and one of very nervous temperament at that, 
 it was carrying the authority of the schoolroom altogether 
 too far. The sequel proves this. When the little one 
 returned to her parents that night she was in a high state 
 of fever and excitement, and very soon the shock to her 
 system resulted in a high brain fever, in which she lingered 
 about forty-eight hours and died ! During most of the 
 time of her sicknevss she was delirious, and cried out con- 
 stantly, in heart rending tones, l Don't let her — don't let 
 her!' referring all the time to the teacher, whom she 
 seemed to imagine was following her." 
 
 There is one form of exercise which is, at all times and 
 
^ 
 
 44 CAUSES, %>3tJZyEJYTI0N olJVS) SJEJZF CURE OJB 
 
 under all circumstances, to be reprobated — running up 
 stairs. Dr. W. W. Hall, whose views are generally to be 
 depended upon, has fallen into the error of recommending 
 this, as did no less an authority than Dr. Franklin. It is 
 true, as they say, that a great deal of exercise is got in a 
 concentrated form, but this concentration is not desirable. 
 Any one who makes a practice of ascending long flights of 
 stairs rapidly, even if only on ordinary occasions, will find 
 himself injured by it ; while a person who resorts to this plan 
 for exercise will be apt to commit suicide thereby. The 
 Cornish miners break down ultimately from failure of the 
 action of the heart, produced by running up the ladders to 
 go home. This proves more fatiguing and destructive than 
 their entire day's work quarrying, by no means light work. 
 In reality, going up stairs should be done with great delib- 
 eration 5 the slower the better. The habit of making a 
 dash for the stairway, and rushing up as though about to 
 storm a breastwork, is exceedingly bad. If the contrary 
 plan, very slow ascent, is adopted the evils are avoided ; 
 and this is especially important to those whose breathing is 
 at all difficult, or who have the slightest tendency to any 
 trouble of the heart. 
 
 Speaking of the death of a celebrated Oxford boatman, 
 the London Leader says : " Our best rowers and athletes 
 almost invariably die of heart disease — and die at the very 
 moment when the bodily system appears in superb order. 
 Athletic science is a very Moloch, whose victims, were 
 they told up, would frighten the nervous into the opposite 
 extreme — that of not undergoing sufficient exertion to keep 
 the physical system in good working order." 
 
 The mania for velocipedes during the few months it 
 lasted, a few years ago, resulted in much injury. Not 
 only was it a prolific cause of piles, but ruptures were 
 frequent, and the tax on many of the muscles was such as 
 they were never intended to bear, consequently they were 
 strained. The principal tendency was to produce abnormal 
 enlargemnnt of the muscles and of the heart; but several 
 excellent authorities affirmed that a great variety of dis- 
 eases of the heart could be ultimately produced by persist- 
 ence in the exercise. 
 
 X 
 
X 
 
 PHYSICAL a&jYD MEJfTsiZ DESIZZTT^ ETC. 4.5 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 USE AND ABUSE OF MEDICINE — DANGERS OF SELF-DOSING — 
 
 INJURY DONE BY PATENT MEDICINES — SAFE 
 
 RULES FOR PATIENTS. 
 
 PEOBABLY if the use of medicine were entirely discon- 
 tinued, the public, as a whole, would be benefited. 
 Not that medicine is not in many cases, not only useful, but 
 absolutely essential ; but the harm done by its injudicious 
 administration is vastly greater than all possible good ac- 
 complished by its appropriate use. The greatest harm is 
 done by persons prescribing for themselves. It is much 
 easier to swallow a few pills or a nauseous medicine than 
 to make important changes in diet or habits of living, to 
 conform with the laws of health. Indeed, taking medicine 
 seems to be a real pleasure with many persons, and many 
 value a physician's services only in proportion as he doses 
 them. 
 
 Now, taking medicine into the system is an unnatural 
 act. No medicine in the world has power to cure any 
 disease, except by promoting the action of some part of 
 our organism. In health, all the functions of the differ- 
 ent organs are performed as was intended in their creation ; 
 and when they cease to act so, it is owing to some error or 
 abuse on our part. Now, medicine will often stimulate an 
 organ into activity or check excessive action ; its perma- 
 nent restoration can only be effected by removing the causes 
 which produced its unnatural action or the obstruction to 
 its natural functions. Otherwise, the effects of the medi- 
 cine are but temporary, and the derangement or disease 
 assumes severer form. Eepeated resort to medicine in 
 such cases at last causes the organ to act only under that 
 stimulus, and its natural power is lost. Not only are ive 
 " creatures of habit," but many of our organs are so also. 
 
 Let us take a common example : Nothing is more com- 
 mon than the use of pills to induce action of the bowels. 
 The constipating diet, want of exercise, or other producing 
 causes, are rarely rectified, and the necessity of using pur- 
 
£6 CAUSFS, -PREYJSJYTIOjY sUSTD SFZF CUHF OF 
 
 gative medicines, to cause the bowels to act, becomes more 
 frequent. Gradually the doses require to be increased in 
 quantity and frequency, until at last powerful purgatives 
 fail to cause any evacuation. Stoppage results, the person 
 going perhaps for weeks without a passage from the bow- 
 els, until the accumulation has to be removed by a spoon 
 or other mechanical device. 
 
 Besides the deaths resulting from stoppage, there are 
 many caused by the destruction of the digestive powers, 
 the result of excessive use of purgative medicines. 
 
 Sir Astley Cooper, the most celebrated English practi- 
 tioner of the last generation, has left on record his opinion, 
 that on the whole, more harm than good is done by medi- 
 cation. Since his day, however, physicians have become 
 more skillful and cautious in the administration of medi- 
 cines ; but his assertion applies with even increased appro- 
 priateness to the self-dosing of the present day. 
 
 There are another class of medicines which also do much 
 harm, namely, the bitters, tonics, and other preparations 
 for u loss of appetite," for " invigorating the system," etc. 
 In the proprietary compounds, the active element is almost 
 invariably alcohol in some form, generally the cheapest, 
 vilest spirits. The continued use of such preparations must 
 establish a taste for liquor, and unquestionably confirms 
 many persons in drinking habits. Aside from this, the 
 digestion is really impaired, though stimulated for a time 
 into apparent activity. The loss of appetite usually ap- 
 pears with the approach of warm weather, and, in most 
 cases, merely indicates that less food is required. Confine 
 eating to the quantity that is really relished, without any 
 artificial stimulation, and the appetite will regulate itself. 
 It is only in very peculiar cases that persons should eat 
 when they do not desire food. Artificial appetite produced 
 by ales, spirits, and spices, generally only clogs the system 
 with unneeded and superfluous food. 
 
 Perhaps the most injury is done by the use of spirits and 
 narcotics. All proprietary soothing syrups, nervines, and 
 similar remedies, contain opium. Though temporarily suc- 
 cessful in allaying pain, subduing " nervousness," or pro- 
 ducing sleep, their use really aggravates the difficulty. 
 
bose 
 link, \ 
 con- \ 
 
 ness 
 
 THTSICvlI, AJVS) MENTAL DJESIZITT, ETC. 4.7 
 
 People are too apt to resort to them for trifling troubles j 
 soon they find that they cannot sleep, or are fidgety, or 
 nervous unless soothed (or rather, stupefied) by their favor- 
 ite medicine. Larger and larger doses become necessary, 
 until the nerves become completely unstrung ; good, natu- 
 ral slumber is impossible ; and the victim becomes weak- 
 ened and miserable from want of rest, peculiarly susceptible 
 to annoyance at trifling causes, and often a victim to ner- 
 vous pains; while the reactions following the use of the 
 medicine produce dullness, headache, loss of energy, and a 
 general disgust of life and of everything else. 
 
 Specifics for various diseases often do harm because those 
 using them, frequently, do not have the disease they think 
 and because no preparation for general use can suit all con 
 stitutions, to say nothing of the ignorance and carelessness 
 with which these compounds are usually prepared. Many 
 persons doctor themselves for the liver, when the matter is 
 with the kidneys ; thousands are swallowing remedies for 
 consumption, while it is their digestion which is troubling 
 them. Often, when they have the disease located rightly, 
 their medication does harm, because the medicine either has / 
 no virtue whatever, or is unsuited to their individual case. / 
 But probably the greatest harm results from the patient's / 
 faith in the medicine leading him to neglect proper precau- / 
 tions regarding diet and other matters, without attention to ■ 
 which even the best medicine is often powerless. Or he 
 may be trifling with a disease which requires prompt atten- 
 tion from the ablest medical skill. He may really be 
 dosing himself into his grave, while the temporary stimula- 
 tion of the alcohol, used as a preservative in nearly all 
 patent medicines, leads him, until perhaps too late, to 
 believe he is steadily recovering. 
 
 There is one very important consideration in regard to 
 "patent" medicines, which is frequently lost sight of by their 
 users : the patient has nothing to depend on, usually, but 
 the bare assertion of the vender as to their efficacy, the 
 ingredients being almost always kept secret. Such prepa- 
 rations are highly dangerous in some cases j and in order to 
 include as large a portion of the public as possible among 
 the purchasers, it is claimed for them that they will cure 
 
 ) 
 
r 
 
 4.8 CAUSES, ^SFTFJYTIOjY o±jYD SJEZF CUftE OF 
 
 long lists of diseases, of which many are really quite con- 
 tradictory in their character, and require exactly contradic- 
 tory modes of treatment from others in the list. Again, 
 sometimes proprietary preparations claim to be composed 
 of ingredients of which they actually contain not a particle ; 
 so that, even were the article mentioned a suitable medicine 
 in a given case, there would still be no benefit derivable 
 from the purported compound of it- 
 There are many symptoms common to different diseases ; 
 in several the symptoms are so near alike as to require the 
 utmost skill to determine which disease their presence indi- 
 cates; yet persons recklessly take medicines which are 
 reported to remove those symptoms, though the different 
 diseases, to both of which they are common, may require 
 directly opposite treatment. Another thing, "symptoms 7 ' 
 are often processes of nature for relieving the system, to 
 check which is often exceedingly dangerous. 
 
 The practical lesson to be drawn from all this is, that 
 where the faithful attention to the laws of health are insuffi- 
 cient to preserve you from illness, the best thing is to con- 
 sult some physician in your own neighborhood, preferably 
 your own family doctor, and don't pester hitn into giving 
 you medicine if he does not wish to. Above all things, 
 don't balk his treatment by taking other medicines on the 
 sly. Beware of all " doctors " advertising themselves as 
 the possessors of superior skill, or remedies unknown to the 
 general profession. It is a safe rule never to consult an 
 advertising physician,* and never to trust your case to a 
 stranger who will treat you by mail. If your case really 
 requires the services of another than your family physician, 
 I believe he will advise you conscientiously and wisely to 
 whom to apply. Such cases do occur ; but the advertisers 
 who desire cases where "all others have failed" are the 
 last ones to trust. 
 
 * To this rule I mean no exceptions. The vast majority of adver- 
 tising "doctors" have really no just claim to the title — are ignorant 
 pretenders, unprincipled scoundrels, who care only to extort money, 
 and, to do so, will exaggerate your case, tamper with it till your funds 
 are exhausted, or even treat you for months for a disease which you 
 have not got, and which they know, or ought to know if possessing a 
 particle of medical knowledge, that you have not got. 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL DEBILITY, ETC. £9 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CAUSES, PKEVENTION AND CUKE OE DYSPEPSIA. 
 
 DYSPEPSIA is one of the commonest forms of debility, 
 and at the same time one of the most disastrous in 
 its results. It consists in the inability to convert the food 
 into nourishment ; is due principally to a disordered or en- 
 feebled state of the stomach, but may be produced by the 
 failure of any organ connected with the digestive process 
 to perform its functions properly. The preparatory pro- 
 cess, to which food requires to be subjected for proper diges- 
 tion, commences in the mouth. Thorough mastication is 
 necessary, not only to reduce the food to a proper consistency 
 which can be readily and thoroughly acted on in the stomach, 
 but also that it may be mixed with the saliva, which is an 
 important element in the digestive process. This important 
 point is too frequently overlooked, especially by the very 
 persons in whom it is most necessary. Dyspeptics are 
 usually rapid, impetuous feeders j literary men and persons 
 of highly nervous temperament, seldom eat slowly and com- 
 posedly. Many eat too rapidly without being aware of it ; 
 Americans being especially notorious for this unhealthful* 
 haste. 
 
 A noted writer has remarked that the moment a man 
 becomes aware that he has a stomach, something ails it — or, 
 that digestion should progress so insensibly as to produce 
 no feeling. The stomach possesses considerable sensitive- 
 ness, designed, doubtless, to warn us of any tampering with 
 it. Yet we constantly disregard these warnings, persist in 
 overloading it, keeping it often without rest, by eating ir- 
 regularly, and giving it improper articles to work upon. 
 Then when it complains we give "dinner pills," purgatives, 
 or stimulants. These may hush its complaints temporarily, 
 but at the expense of weakening effects. 
 
 It frequently happens that the first symptoms of indiges- 
 tion create little apprehension. The stomach, like other 
 organs, will endure some tampering with ; the horrors of 
 dyspepsia do not come all at once. The transgressor by 
 
50 CrtUSFS, ^RFTFJVTIOJV ^.JVD SFLF CURF OF 
 
 and by accepts the slight pains and disagreeable sensations 
 as the inevitable fate of human nature, rather than the 
 warning symptoms of approaching disorders. Many young 
 people lay up for themselves the seeds of dyspepsia, with 
 but slight present indications, which will hasten the giving 
 out of their powers in later life. 
 
 As all parts of the body are dependent, for nourishment, 
 on the stomach, it is not strange that dyspepsia produces a 
 vast number of derangements, differing greatly from each 
 other. Dyspepsia will aggravate, may produce, consump- 
 tion. Persons frequently suppose themselves consumptive, 
 are even treated for that disease, when the real location of 
 their trouble is in the digestion. In severe forms of dys- 
 pepsia the action of the heart becomes seriously deranged, 
 and many persons suppose themselves suffering from chronic 
 heart disease, when really it is only dyspepsia interfering 
 with the proper functional action of the heart. This is 
 serious enough, but the digestion is what must be looked to 
 for a cure. Dyspepsia exerts a pernicious influence upon 
 the mental faculties, producing low spirits, morbid feelings 
 and impulses, and hypochondriasis. 
 
 Although so prevalent a disorder, popular notions con- 
 cerning dyspepsia are extremely vague. Many suppose 
 « that pain, is the invariable accompaniment of all cases of 
 indigestion, and if they c'an eat and drink, and are free from 
 bodily inconvenience, that they cannot be suffering from any 
 disturbance of the digestive function, although an experi- 
 enced observer would have no difficulty, oftentimes, in trac- 
 ing their extraordinary symptoms to such a cause, remotely. 
 The most aggravated forms of dyspepsia — I mean, where 
 mental delusions prevail — are often characterized, by abso- 
 lute freedom from all pain. In some of the most alarm- 
 ing forms of hypochondriasis, pain forms no feature in 
 the complaint. Exalted intellects, in all ages, have suffered 
 greatly from this distressing malady, and we gather from 
 their lives and writings, sufficient to warrant such a con- 
 clusion. The celebrated Dr. Johnson was a great victim 
 to dyspepsia, but he no doubt contributed largely to the 
 predisposition, which high mental culture invariably in- 
 duces through his enormous appetite and gross feeding. 
 
PHYSICAL JLJVD MENTAL DJEEILITY, ETC. 5/ 
 
 Alexander Pope's singular temper, beyond question, was 
 ascribable to this cause; it rendered him the most peevish 
 and disagreeable companion. All great satirists, too, who 
 have so unmercifully derided the follies of their fellow man, 
 in by-gone times, may have delineated the short-comings 
 of their brother mortals with increased acerbity, when their 
 own feelings were exasperated by a paroxysm of dyspepsia. 
 Persons afflicted with dyspepsia, although their bodily and 
 mental serenity are so greatly disturbed by this infirmity, 
 frequently attain considerable longevity. 
 
 Dyspepsia is characterized by so many and such varied 
 sypmtoms, that any one, unacquainted with the real truth 
 of the matter, would positively suppose that mythology 
 was not such a fable as we are taught to believe it, and 
 that there is some little truth in the reputed existence of 
 Pandora, and the opening of that dread box, when she 
 visited mankind with such a category of evils. 
 
 Dyspepsia may commonly be known by some one or other 
 of the following symptoms — many of these are so opposite 
 as to arrest our curiosity : A sense of weight and oppres- 
 sion at the pit of the stomach after taking a full meal ; 
 flatulence ; foul breath ; drowsiness, and an indisposition for 
 any exertion of mind or body; thirst; flushed face (dys- 
 peptic flush); a feverish state of the general surface ; loss 
 of appetite ; a morbid craving for food; furred tongue ; low- 
 ness of spirits ; thirst after meals ; nausea ; pyrosis ; con- 
 stipation ; costiveness ; diarrhoea ; the existence of piles, 
 or hemorrhoids ; syncope, or faintness ; hysteria ; epilepsy ; 
 palpitation of the heart; irregular pulse ; pains in the side 
 (right or left, or both) ; pain in the shoulder, or between the 
 shoulder blades ; head-ache ; disordered memory ; ground- 
 less fears ; apprehensions of approaching dissolution ; con- 
 fusion of ideas ; amaurosis ; disturbed sleep ; nightmare ; 
 somnambulism ; irritability of temper ; cutaneous erup- 
 tions ; and mental halucinations. That well-known disease, 
 St. Vitus' dance, depends on the vitiated secretions of the 
 bowels. 
 
 Among a dozen dyspeptics, no two will have the same 
 predominant symptoms, either in nature or locality ; and as 
 these persons differ further in age, sex, temperament, con- 
 
/>? CAUSES, PltEyfiJVTlOJY vlWD SEZF CURE 01 
 
 stitution, occupation, and habits of mind and body, it is the 
 bight of absurdity to treat any two dyspeptics precisely 
 alike; hence the failure to cure in many curable cases. 
 Dyspeptics of high mental power, and of a bilious tempera- 
 ment, are subject to sick headache ; those who are fat and 
 phlegmatic have constipation and cold feet j while the thin 
 and nervous have horrible neuralgies, which make of life a 
 continued martyrdom, or they are abandoned to forebodings 
 so gloomy, and even fearful sometimes, as to eat out all the 
 joy of life, and make death a longed-for event. Some dys- 
 peptics are wonderfully forgetful 5 others have such an irri- 
 tability of temper as to render companionship with them, 
 even for a few hours, painful, while there is such a remark- 
 able incapacity of mental concentration, of fixedness of 
 purpose, that it is impossible to secure any connected effort 
 for recovery. 
 
 There are some general principles of cure applicable to 
 all, and which will seldom fail of high advantages. The 
 entire body should be washed once a week with soap, hot 
 water, and a stiff brush. Wear woolen next the skin the 
 year round, during the daytime only. By means of ripe 
 fruits and berries, coarse bread, and other coarse food, keep 
 the bowels acting freely once in every twenty-four hours. 
 Under all circumstances, keep the feet always clean, dry, 
 and warm. It is most indispensable to have the fullest 
 supply of sound, regular, connected, and refreshing sleep in 
 a clean, light, well aired chamber, with windows facing the 
 sun. Spend two or three hours of every forenoon, and one 
 or two of every afternoon, rain or shine, in the open air, in 
 some form of interesting, exhilarating, and unwearying exer- 
 cise — Aval king, with a cheering and entertaining companion, 
 is the very best. Eat at regular times, and always slowly. 
 That food is best for each which is most relished, and is 
 followed by the least discomfort. What may have bene- 
 fited or injured one is no rule for another. This last men- 
 tioned item is of universal application. Take but a tea- 
 cupful of any kind of drink at one meal, and let that be 
 warm. Let your diet consist mainly of coarse bread of 
 corn, rye, or wheat ; ripe, fresh fruits and berries, in their 
 natural state; and fresh lean meats, broiled or roasted, 
 
f>HY8ICsiI, XLJY2) MEJVTsLL ftJESlZITY, JEJTC. 53 
 
 as meat is easier of digestion than vegetables, which should 
 be used only moderately in confirmed dyspepsia, Milk, gra- 
 vies, pastries, heavy hot bread, farina, starches, and greasy 
 food in general, aggravate dyspepsia by their constipating 
 tendencies. It is better to eat at regular times as often as 
 hungry, but so little at once as to occasion no discomfort 
 whatever. Constantly aim to divert the mind from the 
 bodily condition, in pleasant ways ; this is half the cure in 
 many cases. 
 
 Confirmed dyspepsia is a very troublesome and difficult 
 disease, to overcome j therefore, the wise course is to avoid 
 it, or at least take measures for correcting it in its earliest 
 stages. While there are cases where medicine may be use- 
 ful if administered with skill, it is never safe for the patient 
 to attempt to prescribe medicine for himself, or to trust to 
 the prescriptions of nonprofessional friends, or the represen- 
 tations of medicine venders. There is no proprietary prep- 
 aration which is a cure for dyspepsia, or which is safe to 
 take. Even the simplest and least dangerous are mere 
 trash, while most exert an injurious influence, though some- 
 times temporarily lulling some of the symptoms. Hints in 
 other chapters, together with what is above written, will, I 
 think, serve as a safe guide for self-treatment. Due atten- 
 tion to exercise, ventilation, bathing, and other laws of 
 health, are the best and safest modes of prevention and cure. 
 
 On the subject of drinking cold water during meals, one of 
 the most prolific causes of dyspepsia, the Herald of Health 
 says : " Whoever, contrary to his usual cu'stom, will turn 
 down his glass at the beginning of a meal, and not make 
 use of it till the close, may perceive that a great many con- 
 sequences flow from so simple an action. In the first place, 
 the only aid to mastication and deglutition, apart from the 
 teeth and tongue, will be the saliva, of which, from long 
 disuse, there probably will not be the desired abundance. 
 The time occupied in disposing of a mouthful of food will 
 thus be prolonged, and the character of the food make a 
 greater impression on the palate. The stomach will not be 
 treated to a cataract of half drowned morsels, but at proper 
 intervals to well prepared material for digestion. There 
 will be no haste, no bolting 5 the tendency to stuff and over- 
 
54 causes, pft^r&jvrzojv rtJYD sfzf cuhf of 
 
 load the stomach will be checked, or fairly overcome ; at 
 least there will be no leisure to consider whether one is eat- 
 ing too much. It is needless to add, that these changes 
 would be in the interest of good breeding at the table, there 
 being few things more repulsive than the sight of a person 
 who darts at his food, gulps it down in an instant, and, 
 before it is fairly deposited in his mouth, has caught up 
 more with which to pursue it. 
 
 " A little reflection will convince us how narrow must 
 have been the distribution of animal life on this globe, if the 
 habit of which I complain had been a provision of nature 
 for elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, all the deer kind, the birds, 
 and even the beasts of prey. The crocodile and the hippo- 
 potamus would have been enviable to all their unamphi- 
 bious brethren ; while the area devoid of lakes or streams 
 would have been so deserted, that man could with difficulty 
 have settled upon it in his savage state. As it is, the herds 
 which roam the trackless wilds of Africa are content to 
 slake their thirst at the close of the day, after a wandering 
 of many miles away from the fountain, and a tedious return 
 to its life-giving waters. Their enemy, the hunter, is for- 
 midable accordfng to his powers of endurance against thirst 
 in the desert." 
 
 In some of the aggravated forms of dyspepsia, the optic 
 nerve is so far affected as to produce several kinds of par- 
 tial csecity (day blindness and night blindness). Double 
 vision is only ,a variety of the same affection, and is not 
 unfrequently traceable to a dyspeptic origin. Change of 
 air, and sometimes even of climate, in addition to other 
 apposite treatment, will in some instances be absolutely 
 necessary, in order to effect a permanent restoration to 
 health. All such cases demand the promptest and most 
 careful diagnosis. Drunkards are very subject to this pe- 
 culiarity of vision. Many other affections of the eye may 
 be traced to depraved nutrition, and premature blindness is 
 a common symptom with inveterate dyspeptics. 
 
Z>JIYSICri.I, J4JV2) MENTAL f)JESIZITT 3 JSTC. 55 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 NERVOUS DISORDERS — u WEAK NERVES," ETC. 
 
 THERE is nothing so difficult to define in words, and 
 yet so thoroughly understood by the sufferer, as that 
 state of misery called nervousness. This is a condition to 
 which men, the most robust^ originally, may be reduced by 
 anything which weakens the brain and other sources of 
 nervous power. Dissipation j excess of wine, spirits, or 
 tobacco ; too much work, but oftener too little; .and acci- 
 dental disease of various kinds, are generally the causes of 
 the nervousness of- men. The same causes will undoub- 
 tedly produce the same effect in women ; but their nervous- 
 ness, though much more frequent than that of men, is 
 generally to be traced to a different source. 
 
 For the development of this disorder in man, some extra- 
 ordinary cause seems necessary. In woman, on the con- 
 trary, the malady would appear to be almost inherent, so 
 common and ready is its manifestation. Nervousness, 
 though a disease, is in fact the normal state of modern 
 women, hardly one of whom can claim the possession of 
 health. Notwithstanding that nervousness, to a greater or 
 less degree, is almost universal among womankind, it is not 
 in any respect a necessary result of their organization. 
 There is no natural reason why woman should be more 
 afflicted in this respect than man. On the contrary, there 
 seems to be a very good reason why she should not be ; for 
 her life exposes her less to the gross debauchery and other 
 excesses which are the common causes of the nervousness 
 of men. 
 
 The fact is, however, that women do suffer much more 
 fh an those of the opposite sex, and the reason is obvious. 
 They are feebler — not by nature, but by art ; and physical, 
 moral, and intellectual weakness is the great predisposing 
 cause of nervousness. With the notion, carefully inculcated 
 for ages by her master man, for reasons of his own, that 
 she belongs to the weaker sex, woman's education has been 
 conducted in conformity, and care taken that she should 
 
56 CAUSES, 2>REYJEJV , TI0N XLJY® SEZF CUStJS OF 
 
 never dispute with her lord the claim to power. Her mus- 
 cles have thus been allowed, by a calculating neglect of 
 exercise, to dwindle away or lose themselves in layers 
 of ineffective fat, and her brain and nerves, designedly, so 
 enervated and unstrung as to be incapable of acting in har- 
 mony with the original strength and independence of her 
 nature. She has been made delicate of flesh and unresist- 
 ing in mind, that she might be pleasing to the touch and 
 complacent to the humors of her master. 
 
 It is not only the faulty physical and intellectual educa- 
 tion which has deprived woman of her natural robustness, 
 and thus rendered her nerves weak and morbidly impressi- 
 ble, but tier sensibility has been also directly cultivated to 
 a degree of acuteness which is fatal to health. At the ear- 
 liest period the female child is reminded of its delicacy, and 
 preveuted from doing a thousand things which are allowed 
 to a brother, on the ground that they are wrong for the one, 
 though right for the other. Emotional indulgence is en- 
 couraged in the girl while rebuked in the boy. Fear of the 
 dark, fright at a mouse, a sudden noise, or any harmless 
 thing, is deemed becoming in the former, while it is consid- 
 ered disgraceful in the latter. Tears are supposed to adorn 
 the face of the future woman, while they are thought stains 
 upon that of the embryo man. The mother can never get 
 over the idea that she and her daughter belong to a weaker 
 sex, and the female propriety she inculcates is a feebleness 
 of which only debility is capable and strength would be 
 ashamed. An excessively acute sensibility is thus engen- 
 dered in woman from the earliest age, and she becomes an 
 easy victim to nervousness or nervous diseases, the- horrors 
 of which are thus described by an intelligent female writer : 
 " There are many of these affections which take on a defi- 
 nite form, producing violent pain in a particular spot, or 
 some special local derangement ; but the majority assume 
 the most protean forms, simulating all manner of organic 
 diseases, but without producing any perceptible organic 
 change. There is no kind of malady which the nervous 
 person will not imagine herself to have — scarcely any which 
 the physician may not be induced to suspect, from the pres- 
 ence of diagnostic symptoms, till the non-appearance of 
 
certain results proves that it is only nervous. But is the 
 suffering any the less real because the victim of nervous 
 disease lives on, and the body preserves to some extent its 
 integrity I All the nameless horrors and the tortures of 
 morbid sensation are terrible realities to the sufferer 5 and 
 when, after trying in vain to obtain relief from doctor after 
 doctor, and resorting to every new system or to every quack 
 till the sympathy of friends is exhausted and hope is gone, 
 she finds nothing left but to endure existence till she dies, 
 it is mockery to tell her she is only nervous." 
 
 Such a frightful condition of mind and body it is unques- 
 tionably better to avoid, by the certain preventives of the 
 early formation of good habits and a rational education, 
 than deliberately to incur with the probability of its settling 
 into incurable disease. If parents could get rid of the 
 notion that their daughters necessarily belong to a weaker 
 sex, and bring them up with the robustness of their sturdy 
 sons, our women would have less reason to complain of the 
 wretchedness of nervousness. 
 
 Some women and girls affect an extreme nervous suscep- 
 tibility they do not really possess. The little frights, hys- 
 terics, and the like manifestations, when assumed, are not 
 only ridiculous, but may result in confirmed habits. The way 
 to cure nervousness is to take plenty of out-door exercise ; 
 cultivate cheerfulness ; engage in interesting, exhilarating 
 occupations ; get plenty of sleep ; retire early j avoid indi- 
 gestible food, morbidly exciting reading, and all unnatural 
 excitements. The use of medicine in cases of nervous 
 excitability is almost always a positive aggravation of the 
 trouble, though sometimes, for a while, apparently soothing. 
 It will readily be perceived that "bitters" and all alco- 
 holic preparations only aggravate the disorder. Nervous- 
 ness may be due partly to improper food j for the nerves 
 require nourishment as well as any other part of the system. 
 The excess of sugar, fat, and other carbonaceous food, 
 often used by those who are, or fancy themselves, afflicted 
 with nervousness, is injurious. They should avoid confec- 
 tionery, cake, and pastry, and eat only plain, nourishing, 
 though not necessarily disagreeable food. I again say, that 
 a liberal use of pure fresh milk as a part of the diet of chil- 
 
58 CAUSES, 2>22JZrJZJVZ'Z0JV J4.JVS) SELF CUfiF OF 
 
 dren will be likely to furnish them with a due portion of 
 nerve power, which can the more easily be sustained as 
 they grow up. Children are sometimes peevish and fretful 
 from actual lack of nervous vigor ; not always from per- 
 verseness of disposition.. 
 
 Some persons are more finely organized than others — 
 more emotional, capable of more exquisite feelings, both 
 of joy and sorrow ; and excess of feeling inany direction is 
 apt to be followed by reaction in the opposite direction. 
 This fineness of organization is not a defect unless it is per- 
 mitted to become a tormentor to its possessor — sporting 
 with him ; now lifting him to bights of delight, and then 
 plunging him into depths of despair. When this happens 
 he is apt to become irritable and nervous. It is because 
 he feels too much and acts too little. Let him work off 
 some of this superfluous feeling by engaging in enterprises 
 or labors calculated to benefit or add to the happiness of 
 others, and see that the bodily powers are exercised as well 
 as the mental, and he will soon be in a more healthful state 
 of mind. 
 
 CHAPTEK XI. 
 
 " UNBENDING THE BOW " — THE NECESSITY OF REST AND 
 
 RECREATION. 
 
 A BOW continually bent loses its elasticity and power. 
 So of the human mind and body. Judiciously man- 
 aged, a man can get a good deal of work from brain or 
 body 5 but if he attempts to make either work ceaselessly, 
 or repeatedly to exhaustion, he will defeat his own object. 
 Unless he takes proper rest he will wear out — he must 
 tc unbend the bow." There are several ways of doing this : 
 First, varied employment. If a man hoes cabbages all day 
 for many days, and does nothing else, he will gradual^ 
 become more and more identified with his occupation — more 
 aud more a cabbage head. And it is equally true of any 
 
tutsicsii AjYS) mjzntaz debility, urc. 59 
 
 other monotonous calling. The unused faculties or mus- 
 cles lose their vigor, and, for want of the proper " unbend- 
 ing/ 7 the very faculties used will lose their power too. 
 This is better seen in mental pursuits. A clergyman who 
 does not sometimes engage in studies or recreations divert- 
 ing his attention from subjects immediately connected with 
 his preaching, will soon find himself losing the power of 
 making good sermons — of thinking clearly and logically. 
 A speculator thinking continually of stocks and the fluctu- 
 ations of the market, by and by loses his perception in such 
 matters, and acts foolishly or insanely in his operations. 
 
 There should always be a due relation between the labor 
 of body and mind. Students and professional men are ben- 
 efited by a little garden digging, wood sawing, or other 
 manual labor j and it is probable that a little mental exer- 
 tion is beneficial to those whose labors are entirely muscu- 
 lar. The longest lived are, as a rule, not among those 
 working the hardest physically. 
 
 Play is often rest. Did you never see boys after a 
 hard day's work in the cornfield play tag, or ball, or some 
 game really requiring considerable exertion, and yet be 
 less tired than when they commenced ? It is not merely 
 changing the particular muscles used, for no such relief 
 will be experienced by sawing wood after exercising in a 
 treadmill. It is the " play n which does the good, which 
 brightens the spirits, arouses pleasant thought, and pre- 
 pares the boy for sound sleep, and the better performance 
 of his duties on the morrow. While boys, in cities espe- 
 cially, may devote too much time to mere amusement, and 
 so lose much of its relish, I believe there is no age at which 
 some play is not beneficial. There are many business men 
 who grudge any time devoted to their families. They can- 
 not take notice of the children, because they are fagged out 
 with the labors and cares of the day, and spend the evening 
 reading the paper, going over accounts, pondering on the 
 transactions just completed, and planning those for the next 
 day. These are not among the most successful merchants. 
 In the biographies of the merchant princes, how frequently 
 we note how part of their time is devoted to their children's 
 amusement, and the relaxation of society ! 
 
60 CAUSES, PREVENTION AND SELF CURE OF 
 
 Certain books for the young tell of youths whose whole 
 spare time, including midnight hours and all the hours they 
 could steal from sleep before sunrise, was devoted to study 
 I am afraid any youth, existing anywhere except in these 
 authors' imaginations, would be paying pretty dear for his 
 whistle — and fail to gain his whistle after all. There is 
 much time, which most of us possess, which might be 
 healthfully and profitably devoted to the acquisition of use- 
 ful knowledge; but no one can follow the example of these 
 supposititious cases without injury to health, and he cannot 
 learn as much as in less time more appropriately chosen. 
 To those working all day, evening may be the only time 
 they can have for study, and moderate study at that time 
 need not be injurious. The great test is one's own feel- 
 ings 5 real weariness is an indication that you need rest. 
 
 If we work when exhausted, not only is restoration hin- 
 dered, but the labor tells on us with multiplied force. We 
 are exhausted and need rest ; instead of rest we get more 
 work j and in this condition we may remain all our lives, 
 doing less than we could if we rested properly, while that 
 lessened amount of work does, us more injury than much 
 more would if we were properly prepared for it by inter- 
 vening rest. 
 
 Much is said of the overtasking of the minds of authors, 
 editors, clergymen, and those in kindred professions, and 
 references are made to " burning the candle, at both ends," 
 wearing themselves out, and the like. It is not among 
 those who use their brains professionally that the greatest 
 strain and the greatest waste of brain power are always 
 found. Trained to it, devoting certain hours to it and the 
 rest to relaxation, coming fresh again to their duties, these 
 men frequently perform a surprising amount of work with- 
 out excessive or painful exertion. 
 
 An astronomer will make. calculations involving intense 
 mental labor and application, with less fatigue to the brain 
 than many a merchant experiences in trying to guess whe- 
 ther cotton will rise or fall in price, or a farmer in wonder- 
 ing if the bugs will get at his cucumber vines. It is worry 
 that does the mischief generally, and more farmers than 
 editors, in proportion to their numbers, go insane. When 
 
thinking becomes painful the mischief is doing. Ceaseless 
 thought on any subject, the more trifling often the sooner, 
 will weaken the brain. One whose thoughts dwell pain- 
 fully and against his will upon any subject is a monoma- 
 niac, and he must break himself of the habit by bringing 
 other things — amusements, duties, or something — to wean 
 his thoughts into other channels. * 
 
 Sleep, the greatest of physical forms of rest, is sufficiently 
 important for a separate chapter. 
 
 It seems important, for the health of mind and body, that 
 not only should each day have its due portion devoted to 
 rest, but that occasional breaks should occur in the routine 
 of our lives. Aside from all religious claims, it seems 
 proved by experience, that one day in seven devoted to 
 rest, change of thought, and the forgetting of business, 
 gives vigor to mind and body. So a' few weeks' vacation, 
 change of scene and occupations, in some cases pure idle- 
 ness, in others muscular exertion, in still others the culti- 
 vation of the higher faculties — these, chosen to suit each 
 individual, seem to be beneficial. 
 
 The plea is sometimes made that it is impossible to avoid 
 the overtasking of body and mind in the competitions of 
 business. This is, I think, the direct opposite of the truth. 
 For a little while one may stand the ordeal, and perhaps 
 feel it but slightly ; but many such have broken down in 
 the prime of life, when just on the point, perhaps, of the 
 accomplishment of their plans. 
 
 Business men need to forget their responsibilities once in 
 a while, that they may retain clearness, vigor, and health 
 of mind, the better to attend to them. There are, of 
 course, some persons who so rarely have a thought, so sel- 
 dom feel any responsibility, or an interest in their duties, or 
 a purpose of any importance in life — who, indeed, consider 
 life an aimless, a passive state of existence — that I hope 
 they will not apply this chapter to their own cases, and 
 attempt to quench the faint spark of brain power they have. 
 Neither is it intended for those who seek no nobler or 
 higher object in life than mere pleasure. A little work, 
 mental or physical, would do them good. 
 
X 
 
 62 CAUSES, JRfiJZr&jYTZOJV rf.JV2) SELF CURE 01 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OTJR PASSIONS AND EMOTIONS — INFLUENCE OF THE MIND 
 ON THE BODY AND ITS ORGANS — NECES- 
 SITY OF CONTROL. 
 
 THE influence of our passions and emotions, of every 
 kind, is often so great upon our physical system 
 and bodily functions, that their proper regulation is of the 
 utmost importance. So regulated, they are all serviceable 
 to us according as occasion may require their exercise j but 
 they must always be kept under control ; when the power 
 to restrain them is lost, the individual is at their mercy. 
 Fear may be a good adviser if it is not oar master, and so 
 of other passions. Each individual has constitutional pecu- 
 liarities of disposition, and in each the passions are differ- 
 ently proportioned. Still, a vast deal depends on cultiva- 
 tion, especially in the youug ; and for this reason the utmost 
 care should be taken never to stimulate in a young child 
 anger, fear, or any other passion which may seem puny and 
 amusing at the time, but will under such tuition strengthen 
 beyond all calculation with his growth. 
 
 The vascular and nervous systems are perpetually under 
 the influence of the mental emotions. What palpitations 
 and tremors are every morning excited by the postman's 
 rap, when we are in anxious expectation of intelligence 
 from absent friends ! How often are we hardly able to 
 break the seal of important letters ! The effects of the 
 mind on the circulation of the blood were early observed j 
 instance the detection of Antiochus 7 passion for Stratonia 
 by the pulse. But it is not on the heart and large vessels 
 only that mental emotions operate ; the minutest capillaries 
 feel their influence. Let the idea of shame cross the ima- 
 gination of sensibility, and instantaneously the capillaries 
 of the cheek are gorged with blood. Let the emotion be 
 changed to fear ; quickly the lily usurps the rose, and the 
 vessels of the face are blanched and bloodless. 
 
 We are not able to explain how the mind acts upon the 
 body, but we know it does act upon it powerfully. His 
 
 
PHYSICAL &JV"D MEjYTAZ DJESIZITT, JETC. 0.9 
 
 tory informs us of a Roman lady who fell suddenly dead 
 of joy upon meeting her son, who she supposed had fallen 
 in one of the battles of Hannibal. A Jew in France came 
 by night over a dangerous passage on a plank, that lay 
 over a brook, without harm ; the next day, on viewing the 
 perilous situation he had been in, he fell down dead. 
 
 Anger, grief, and fear have all been known to destroy 
 life. The imagination, acting through the medium of faith 
 and hope, has had unbounded influence over human dis- 
 eases. When the physician has been believed to possess 
 superior skill, the efficacy of his prescription is exceedingly 
 advanced by the patient's confidence in that knowledge of 
 the prescriber. This truth has been verified from the days 
 of Hippocrates to the present time. During the French 
 Revolution and the Reign of Terror, it has been remarked 
 that diseases of the heart were extremely common, pro- 
 duced, unquestionably, by that constant state of agitation 
 and alarm which seized upon every mind. Oorvisart and 
 Burns, as well as many ancient writers, have thrown much 
 light on these subjects, to wit, the influence of the pas- 
 sions upon the body. 
 
 " Passions are the elements of life," not to be annihilated, 
 but governed ; and if they get the reins, like Phoebus driv- 
 ing the chariot of the sun, they will soon set the world on 
 fire, and dig an early grave, as they often have, for many 
 of the brightest gems in society. 
 
 There is one thing which may deserve mention in this 
 connection — early love. Marriage before the system is 
 fully developed is known to exert an injurious influence ; 
 and indulgences which are injurious in later years are still 
 more injurious before maturity. But even a pure love may 
 be injurious ; for, however free from sensuality, its tendency 
 is to develop the sexual instinct, and this development 
 should not be hastened ; if it is, it will prove a temptation, 
 which may lead to too early a marriage, or to an injudicious 
 one, or possibly to habits which will undermine the health. 
 
 I shall have more to say hereafter of the evils of books 
 designed to stimulate this passion, and of the results of 
 indulgence. It is the innocent love I referred to above.. 
 Even before children have the slightest wish for "beaux " 
 
 \ 
 
64. CAUSES, PRfiYJENTZON rtJY2> SEZF CU1ZE' 01 
 
 or " sweethearts/' parents, nurses, and others, lay the foun- 
 dation of premature love by their talk to and before them. 
 They are made to kiss one another, asked how they would 
 like one another for lovers, and an endless amount of other 
 nonsense, which may annoy a child, but will, perhaps uncon- 
 sciously to himself, set his mind in that direction, and, once 
 started, stimulation is very easy. The evil is not that chil- 
 dren are fond of one another, but that this fondness is made 
 to assume a form unsuited to their years, by such injudi- 
 cious action as I have spoken of — a form not natural in 
 early years. Children's loves should be nothing more than 
 such as they might properly feel toward their parents, or 
 toward playmates of their own sex. Improper food often 
 stimulates the excessive or premature development of amat- 
 iveness. Rich gravies, pastries, confectionery, spices, and 
 all heating food have this tendency. Fondling by strangers, 
 even where there is not the slightest infringement of propri- 
 ety, may sometimes have a bad effect, though without any 
 intention beyond innocent petting. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF STIMULANTS, ETC. 
 
 EXAMPLES of the debilitating effects of alcohol on 
 the human system are too numerous at every hand to 
 require arguments to prove such effects. The tendency 
 of alcohol, in whatever form it may be taken, is to weaken 
 mind and body. The evil may be vastly increased by the 
 almost universal drugging of wines and liquors ; but the 
 influence I have spoken of exists in alcoholic preparations 
 of absolute purity. In all cases and under all circum- 
 stances, the effect of alcohol (and alcohol is the "life" of 
 every fermented or distilled beverage) is to first produce an 
 unnatural, unhealthful exhilaration, or fever, followed by 
 the reaction which follows all fever, and the accompany- 
 ing depression and exhaustion. This is alivays the effect, 
 
PHYSICAL AJY2) MfiJYTolZ, D&SZZITT, ETC. 65 
 
 though in degree varying with the quantity taken and the 
 constitution of the person. A man who takes his glass 
 of port at dinner may not perceive any result beyond its 
 pleasant taste, for the exhilaration and reaction are slight. 
 The man who gets dead drunk feels quite differently.; but 
 the actual physical phenomena are identical, except the 
 excessive loading of the stomach may cause the rejection 
 of the liquor, in which case the action ceases. In a word, 
 alcohol is a stimulant, and this is where the danger lies 
 to the most moderate drinker. Though so slight as even 
 to be imperceptible to himself, there is the exhilaration 
 and reaction every time he uses the liquor. The tendency 
 of this is to lower the tone of his system ; and unless his 
 constitution is strong, and his system sufficiently vigorous 
 to resist this action, his health and the action of the bodily 
 organs will be impaired, while increased doses of the stim- 
 ulants will be required to produce the accustomed exhilara- 
 tion. A man who depends on stimulation to keep him " all 
 right " and feeling well, will soon be apt to reach a stage 
 where he will be constantly " out of sorts." The system 
 will become so much depressed, that no stimulation will 
 suffice to bring it up even temporarily. 
 
 It is well for people to understand the real nature of 
 alcohol ; for the dependence on it for improving digestion, 
 invigorating the feeble ? or protecting against cold or hard- 
 ship, has been proved, time and time again, to be fallacious. 
 The only possible aid to digestion it can ever afford is to 
 add to the savoriness of a meal 5 but this is counterbal- 
 anced by its inducing a dependence on stimulants, which 
 will eventually lose their effect. So far from being a pro- 
 tection against cold, it has been found, that of two persons 
 exposed to the same cold, one who uses no liquor will 
 endure the exposure with less risk and less discomfort than 
 the liquor user. As a means of prolonging life or sustain- 
 ing the strength for any length of time, in cases of con- 
 sumption or debilitation of any kind, alcohol has proved 
 worthless. Many of the ablest physicians assert that their 
 experience has proved a dependence on alcohol, in all such 
 cases, to only hasten dissolution. Sometimes temporary 
 relief from particular symptoms may be obtained by its use. 
 
66 CAUSES, 'PHFTFJVTIOJV A.JVD SELF CUHF OF 
 
 and for this relief from severe pain its use may be desira- 
 ble, even at the expense of hastening death. 
 
 Professor Yeomans, of New York, says : " It has been 
 demonstrated that alcoholic drinks prevent the natural 
 changes going on in the blood, and obstruct the nutritive 
 and reparative functions." Dr. Worthington Hooker, of 
 New Haven, says in his prize essay of 1857, that he be- 
 lieves the peculiar form of typhus fever prevalent some 
 years ago, and which under alcoholic medicines proved very 
 fatal, was in reality a disease produced by the use of stim- 
 ulants. Let two starving men have nothing but alcohol 
 and water, and let one drink pure water, and the other alco- 
 hol and water, and the water drinker will live the longest. 
 The experiment has been tried accidentally on man- — inten- 
 tionally on animals. 
 
 Alcohol is a stimulant, and no stimulant is ever safe to 
 use, except as any other powerful and dangerous medicine 
 is to be used, in extreme cases and by able professional 
 advice. The little benefit ever to be derived from it is 
 never obtained by those who take it on their own u pre- 
 scription," or by the advice of some " friend." There is 
 one circumstance under which its use by a physician is 
 proper ; when the life forces are so depressed, that some 
 powerful agent is requisite to goad them into temporary 
 activity, that time may be gained. There is always reac- 
 tion, and if no other means of restoration were used at the 
 same time no good would be effected ; dissolution would 
 only be hastened. But if, in this time of revival of the 
 energies, nourishment can be administered which the stimu- 
 lation will enable the system to assimilate, the reaction of 
 the alcohol may possibly be overcome, and the good effects 
 of the nourishment overbalance the evil tendency of the. 
 alcohol. This is a safe expedient only where the system is 
 too far reduced to use the nourishment without stimulation j 
 where the system is strong enough to do this — in all cases 
 where the patient is able to prescribe for himself — there is 
 no need of the stimulant, and it does only harm. 
 
 Dr. Albert J. Bellows says : u . I have sat by the bedside 
 and watching the sinking pulse, and fearing lest nature 
 might not be able to carry the load, have put in the goad, 
 
Z>EYSIC3±L riJVl) MJSJVTAL 2>E%IZIT2\ J2TC. 67 
 
 and in three minutes have felt the circulation rise ; but in a 
 few minutes more it would sink again, and the stimulant 
 must be renewed, or it would sink lower than before. By 
 carefully watching and spurring, I have kept up the heat 
 and circulation till a little nourishment could be digested 
 and perhaps the patient saved. But this is all the use I 
 ever made of alcohol as a medicine." 
 
 It seems rather a hopeless task to attempt uprooting so 
 universal a vice as the use of tobacco. It is probable that 
 the warfare against this drug is sometimes carried to excess. 
 That the oil of tobacco is a deadly poison is beyond doubt ; 
 that, used in large quantities, tobacco itself will cause lin- 
 gering death, as well as in many cases cause heart disease 
 and other severe maladies. When the smoker is a full 
 grown man of hardy constitution, and not more than ordi- 
 narily susceptible to its influence, tobacco in very small 
 quantities is not perhaps more of a poison than the system, 
 can by practice endure. That it is ever beneficial there 
 seems no reasonable ground for believing. That it is as a 
 general rule injurious is conceded, even, by smokers them- 
 selves, who often detect its pernicious influence in their own 
 cases, though they may lack the energy to break off the 
 habit. To many constitutions it is peculiarly injurious, 
 even in the smallest quantities. 
 
 Whatever pleas may be put forth in extenuation of its 
 use by adults, there can be no question of its serious effects 
 upon boys and young men. Before the body is fully ma- 
 tured, tobacco is peculiarly injurious, and the ability to 
 resist its influence is particularly weak. Upon all persons 
 not fully matured, tobacco tends to check growth and phy- 
 sical development by impairing nutrition. There seems 
 to be a strong belief, among those whose opinions deserve 
 to have great weight, that tobacco also prevents as full and 
 vigorous a mental development as the person would attain 
 without its use. That even in adult smokers there is a 
 tendency to dreaminess and mental indolence, seems to have 
 some show of truth. That tobacco sometimes proves a 
 solace in solitude, or a promoter of sociability, is unques- 
 tionable, and in moderation may not prove dangerously 
 injurious to some constitutions, and this is about all that 
 
ft 8 CAUSES, 2>2tErJEJfTI0N oiND SJE6F CUftJS OF 
 
 can be fairly said in its favor, while the habit almost inevi- 
 tably becomes an excess, and the immoderate use of tobacco 
 is, beyond all reasonable question, always pernicious and 
 sometimes fatal. So many have a tendency toward dis- 
 eases which are developed and speeded by its use, that it is 
 hazardous for any one to adopt it ; while, even in what 
 would be innoxious quantities to a matured man, it is 
 surely and seriously injurious to all who have not attained 
 their full growth. Boys just outgrowing their "teens," 
 and anxious to be thought men, are seriously risking their 
 manhood by this " manly n practice. After all, it is not 
 so inconsistent a proceeding as it might at first seem for a 
 smoking father to interdict the use of tobacco by his grow- 
 ing sons, though it might be still better if he could set 
 them the example of abstinence. 
 
 Of late years a beverage called absinthe has sprung up, 
 the principal ingredient being concentrated extract of worm- 
 wood. It originated in Paris, and for some time was all 
 the rage, the result being a great increase of insanity, as 
 shown by official statistics. Absinthe was adopted, soon 
 after its introduction, by the New York young men about 
 town ; but the fearful prostration and alarming symptoms 
 induced by its use led them to soon discard it -, and though 
 still called for occasionally at some bar-rooms, it is now 
 almost a thing of the past, remembered, principally, as 
 being perhaps the most deadly beverage ever concocted. 
 
 Several health reformers and writers on hygiene have 
 classed tea and coffee among the articles to be totally dis- 
 carded. That they are capable of proving injurious to 
 the health is undoubted. The professional tea tasters, for 
 instance, are as a class wan and nervous wrecks ; while 
 many brain-workers, by using coffee to spur their jaded 
 faculties, have enfeebled both mind and body. But both 
 tea and coffee have, in numberless instances, proved their 
 restorative virtues, in cases where alcoholic preparations, 
 or any mere stimulant, would be ineffective. Coffee will 
 sustain one against exposure to cold, will invigorate the 
 exhausted, and will sustain life, when deprived of food, far 
 beyond the time it would last without its aid, or with the 
 use of anv alcoholic article. In all such cases there is no 
 
PHYSICAL o±jY3) MEjYTAZ, D&&IZZTT, JZFC. 69 
 
 reaction, no depression, following its use if used judiciously. 
 "Both tea and coffee are nourishing, though both may be used 
 merely as stimulants, and in such cases they are injurious. 
 Coffee will enable a man to do mental work many hours 
 beyond what is natural ; but so used it is merely a spur, 
 and the brain forced beyond what it can properly endure 
 will be proportionately exhausted and weakened when the 
 effect of the stimulant has passed. Coffee or tea will ena- 
 ble one to keep awake, but it will not prevent a particle 
 of the injury resulting from the loss of needed sleep. Such 
 uses of tea or coffee are only advisable where of importance, 
 and where present results are more to be thought of than 
 after effects. 
 
 As daily beverages, both tea and coffee in moderation 
 appear to be innocent. Indeed, if we must drink anything 
 during our meals, some warm (not hot) beverage is prefer- 
 able to cold water ; but excess is possible, and it is well to 
 use discretion. Some persons are injuriously affected by tea 
 or coffee, or both, and such individuals should, of course, 
 avoid them. They are not to be recommended as a bever- 
 age for children, almost always proving injurious, though 
 no bad effects may be at first discernible. Warm milk and 
 water, very slightly sweetened, is probably the best bev- 
 erage during meals for children. 
 
 Excessive use of coffee may produce many disagreeable 
 results. Zimmerman says : " The continued abuse of cof- 
 fee occasions many nervous diseases, especially among 
 women. It causes eruptions on the face, severe headache, 
 cough, and congestion of the nostrils, lungs, uterus, and 
 hemorrhoidal vessels." The power of coffee to diminish 
 decomposition of tissue renders it valuable in circumstances 
 of unusual fatigue or deficient alimentation. M. Gasparin 
 has shown, that the use of coffee enables the miners of 
 Charleroy to maintain good health and great muscular 
 vigor, with one half the quantity of nutriment ordinarily 
 required. In children the encephalon and muscles are act- 
 ive enough without the use of stimulation, and we should 
 never administer to them an agent which will retard those 
 organic transformations that already progress slowly. As 
 a therapeutic agent, strong coffee in many relieves head- 
 
70 CtLUSFS, ^SFTFJVriOjV AJVD SFLF CUHF OF 
 
 ache. In miasmatic regions it fortifies the economy against 
 the noxious effluvia. 
 
 In the small quantities in which it is ordinarily used as 
 a condiment, vinegar supplies the acid which the system 
 sometimes calls for, particularly at the beginning of warm 
 spring weather. This acid would be better supplied by 
 fruits in their natural condition j but even vinegar in sal- 
 ads, pickles, etc., in moderation may be good. There is 
 often, however, an excess in its use which is injurious. It 
 is sometimes believed to possess considerable medicinal 
 virtues ; and one proprietary preparation, highly vaunted 
 for its universal restorative and strengthening virtues, 
 claims that vinegar is its foundation. Vinegar is sometimes 
 recommended for reducing a tendency to corpulency ; but 
 it is pretty certain, that beyond a very small quantity as a 
 condiment its use is positively injurious, often to a serious, 
 and occasionally to a fatal extent. Its principal injurious 
 action is in preventing the formation of chyme, thereby 
 interrupting nutrition, and producing paleness and wasting. 
 Foolish girls use it sometimes to produce paleness ; but 
 such paleness is only an accompaniment of the wasting, 
 which is a step in the direction of death. Vinegar is at 
 best a poor substitute for acid naturally existing in fruits. 
 Tomatoes, lemon juice, or other vegetable acids, will pre- 
 vent scurvy for an indefinite length of time, but vinegar 
 will not. 
 
 Pereira quotes from Portal the following case : " A few 
 years ago, a young girl in easy circumstances enjoyed good 
 health ; she was very plump, had a good appetite and a 
 complexion blooming with roses and lilies. She began to 
 look upon her plumpness with suspicion ; for her mother 
 was very fat, and she was afraid of becoming like her. 
 Accordingly she consulted a woman, who advised her to 
 drink a small glass of vinegar daily. The young lady fol- 
 lowed her advice, and her plumpness diminished. She was 
 delighjted with the success of the remedy and continued it 
 for more than a month. She began to have a cough ; but 
 it was dry at its commencement, and was considered as a 
 slight cold which would go off. Meantime, from dry it 
 became moist ; a slow fever came on and a difficulty of 
 
IPMTSICjIZ, AJVD MENTAL DESIZITT, JSTC. 7? 
 
 breathing j her body became lean and wasted away ; night 
 sweats, swelling of the feet aud legs succeeded, and a diar- 
 rhoea terminated her life. On examination, all the lobes 
 of her lungs were found filled with tubercles, and somewhat 
 resembled a bunch of grapes." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OUR HOUSEHOLD POISONS. 
 
 A FREQUENT cause of debility, the sapping away of 
 health, and eventually life itself in some instances, 
 are what may be denominated household poisons. These 
 assail us in many forms j in our food and drink, in the air 
 we breathe, and even in our clothing and the earth we 
 tread. I have elsewhere spoken of the importance of pure 
 air, and the deleterious effect of that which is contaminated 
 with impurities or exhausted of its vitalizing properties. I 
 propose here briefly pointing out some of the other dangers, 
 which are perhaps less suspected. Among these are adul- 
 terations in food. 
 
 Some few years ago, considerable excitement was occa- 
 sioned in the upper part of the state of New York, by the 
 fact that all who ate of a certain lot of flour ground in that 
 section were more or less poisoned. This was accounted 
 for at the time on the hypothesis of a small quantity of 
 lead having been ground up with the flour. In the Ameri- 
 can Entomologist, Dr. Walsh suggests that the flour was 
 made from a lot of very buggy wheat. He says that the 
 black snout beetles (sitophilus granarius), about one fifth of 
 an inch long, which are commonly found in granaries, have 
 been used successfully at the south as a substitute for the 
 Spanish blister beetles (cantharides), which are known to 
 be fatally poisonous when taken internally. He also quotes 
 the opinion of a medical man, that these grain weevils are 
 as poisonous as the cantharides. 
 
 Notwithstanding that some persons believe the contrary, it 
 
72 CAUSES, %>3tJ2rZ!NTlON JLJV3) SJEI.F CU11JE OF 
 
 is doubtful whether flour in this country is ever adulterated 
 with plaster, chalk, or ground bones. The bones, at least, 
 would scarcely pay to grind to the impalpable powder neces- 
 sary for this purpose. Bakers, however, use alum to some 
 extent in their business to whiten inferior flour, as well as to 
 cause it to hold more water. In any quantity, certainly in 
 any that bakers would find useful, this is injurious, destroy- 
 ing important nutritive constituents of the food. A more 
 deadly ingredient has been detected in " French" buns, hav- 
 ing a peculiar bright yellow hue. This same coloring is used 
 sometimes in " egg powder," a chemical preparation de- 
 signed as a cheap substitute for eggs in culinary prepara- 
 tions. This coloring matter has been found in some cases 
 to be chromate of lead. An unintentional poisoning of 
 bread may result from a common practice of city bakers of 
 heating their ovens with the refuse of demolished buildings. 
 Much of this wood is painted, and the white lead, verdigris, 
 and other noxious substances are absorbed by the crust. 
 In the report of a chemical examination now at hand, it is 
 said that this contamination extends only to the lower 
 crust, the top crust and interior of the loaf being unaffected. 
 
 In meat, the main thing to fear is a diseased condition 
 of the animal before death, or unsoundness produced by 
 long keeping or the weather. 
 
 Milk has seldom anything added to it but water. The 
 most outrageous and injurious fraud in this article is the 
 swill feeding of the cows from which much city milk is 
 obtained. This " swill" is the refuse grain from distilleries, 
 and thousands of cows are fed entirely with it. The ani- 
 mals are kept huddled in noisome pens ; never, as a rule, 
 exercised ; breathing an atmosphere reeking with foul and 
 poisonous odors ; and watered, in some instances, from pools 
 formed mainly of rainwater and the drainage of the stables. 
 Among all these thousands of cows there is not, and cannot 
 be, a single healthy one ! The swill, aided by confinement 
 and foul air, produces -the most loathsome ulceration, and 
 the animal becomes simply rotten through and through. 
 The only way to prolong life a sufficient time to make a 
 cow " pay," is found to be innoculating her with the disease 
 immediately upon her arrival. Of course, all milk secreted 
 
PHYSICAL AND MBjYTAL DUSIZITT, ETC. 73 
 
 is slow poison 5 not only does it lack power to sustain life, 
 but it will destroy it, as it has done in the case of many 
 babes fed with it. It is impossible to exaggerate, or even 
 conceive without witnessing, the disgusting and horrible 
 appearance of the animals and their surroundings — every 
 one of them so far diseased as to render her milk foul and 
 pernicious, and some dying. Not only are the cows milked 
 up to the very point of death — being sustained, when too 
 weak to stand, by ropes from the roof — but, when death 
 approaches thus near, the animals are converted into meat. 
 Indeed, actual death from the foul disease is no bar to this 
 use of the carcass. 
 
 To drop a disagreeable though important subject, let us 
 glance at the sweeter matter of candy. Accounts have 
 appeared in many journals of the extensive use of plaster 
 and a certain white clay by candy makers. This adultera- 
 tion is practiced, but mainly in cheap stick candy, lozenges, 
 and the plaster-image looking figures. The taste will usu- 
 ally expose this kind of tampering; but there are other 
 things even more injurious. The dull red candies almost 
 all contain red lead ; bright green almost always indicates 
 the presence of arsenic ; while the test so long supposed 
 infallible, that of the transparency of the candy, is no longer 
 safe, as aniline colors are now largely used. Severe cases 
 of sickness have been produced by children eating the 
 bright colored, transparent candy. 
 
 In Portsmouth, N. H., a scientific individual, whose wife 
 used tea pretty freely, and who for the last few years had 
 suffered much from a nervous affection, recently made an 
 analysis of the tea she used, and found that the coloring 
 material was gypsum and Prussian blue, and that the 
 amount in a pound of tea, if administered at once, would 
 produce instant death. 
 
 The use of rye as a substitute for coffee has proved seri- 
 ously injurious ; the grain used is almost always damaged 
 or smutty, not only unfit for food, but possessing consider- 
 able poisonous properties. 
 
 Poisons may attack us otherwise than through our sto- 
 machs. A private letter from Washington mentions the 
 serious illness of a literary gentleman of that city, his dis- 
 
74. CAUSES, PRETENTION riiJY® SEZE CU'ME OF 
 
 ease being pronounced to be " pen palsy." The affection 
 derives its name from the fact that it is attributed to the 
 use of the popular French copying ink, which contains 
 arsenic. Both his hands and feet are badly swollen, and his 
 health is so precarious that his physicians have prescribed 
 abstinence from labor, and especially from the further use 
 of the copying ink. This case should serve as a warning 
 to those who use the fluid, which has proved so deleterious 
 in its effect. 
 
 So many cases of accidental poisoning have occurred 
 from the employment of arsenical green ^arsenite of copper) 
 in the arts, that several continental governments are taking 
 measures to proscribe its use, especially in dyeing ladies' 
 gauze dresses, tulle, tarletan, artificial flowers, paper hang- 
 ings, etc. It may be interesting to know that the new 
 green, so fashionable for ladies' dresses, is just as danger- 
 ous in its nature as the green wall paper, about which so 
 much was written some time since. It is prepared with a 
 large quantity of arsenic ; and we have been assured by 
 several of the leading dress makers, that the workwomen 
 employed in making up dresses of this color are seriously 
 affected with all the symptoms of arsenical poison. 
 
 Loss of muscular power, complete or partial paralysis, is 
 the common effect of lead poisoning ; and one of the most 
 common sources of this poisoning is found in the cosmetics 
 and hair " restorers " so extensively used. The whitening 
 preparations for giving a smooth, white surface to the skin, 
 all contain lead, as no other ingredient has yet been found to 
 answer in its stead. So every one of these, however recom- 
 mended, however much it may be " warranted harmless," 
 is a poison, whether it is called Bloom of Youth, Cream of 
 Eoses, or by whatever poetic appellation. Dr. Lewis A. 
 Sayre reports a case of a lady who had paralysis of both 
 forearms, and was wearing a spinal brace, under the suppo- 
 sition that the paralysis was the result of disease of the 
 spine. The difficulty seemed to steadily increase, baffling 
 all attempts at treatment, until the patient's arms had only 
 power left to close her fingers. The doctor goes on to say : 
 "After two or three days of close questioning, the lady 
 very innocently asked me, i if whiting would do it.' When 
 
PHYSICAL AJV2) MENTAL 'DEBILITY, ETC. 75 
 
 I asked her what it was, she handed me a beautiful little 
 bottle and said it was l this/ and on looking at the label I 
 found it was ' Laird's Bloom of Youth/ Taking the bottle 
 to Prof. Doremus, I received an analysis the following day, 
 stating that it was highly charged with lead." Antidotes 
 for lead were thereupon administered to the patient, who 
 eventually recovered. From some of the secretions Prof. 
 Doremus, by analysis, obtained a specimen of lead in metal- 
 lic form. 
 
 The hair "restoratives," showing a white powdery sedi- 
 ment at the bottom, without a known exception, contain 
 lead ; as is the case with the applications for the face, these 
 possess the poisonous properties of lead. Some persons 
 are less affected than* others ; death may not result from a 
 few applications by any person, but any substance possess- 
 ing the properties of this is never safe to use at all. Para- 
 lysis of the brain is supposed, on good authority, to have 
 been in some instances induced by these preparations, while 
 headache is a very common result, indicating that the poison 
 is acting in a degree. One hair restorer was found to con- 
 tain a duachm of acetate of lead to the half-pint. 
 
 Lead combs also produce, if used daily, insidious forms 
 of lead poisoning ; at least one fatal case being recorded. 
 In all these modes of lead poisoning some persons use the 
 articles for a number of years with apparent impunity, and 
 yet suddenly feel the deadly effects. 
 
 Professor Johnson of Yale College, says : " It is a great 
 misfortune that we have nothing to take the place of lead 
 pipes, tin-lined or otherwise. The fact is quite indisputable. 
 G-lass and earthen are too fragile and not easy to join. 
 Gutta-percha oxidizes and becomes good for nothing when 
 exposed to air and moisture. Iron rust, although service- 
 able in many cases, is apt to spoil water for laundry pur- 
 poses. Lead and tin are best on the whole, and if we simply 
 adopt the rule not to drink or use on the person water which 
 lias been long in contact ivith the metal, ill effects need not be 
 anticipated. Lead pipes for the supply of drinking water 
 should be short, and should be freshly filled from the spring 
 or a main of other material just before using their contents. 
 Water that has stood in lead for some hours should never 
 
7G CAUSES, FftjEyjENTlON siJVD SELF CUftF OF 
 
 be employed for drink or for cooking. In consideration of 
 the serious consequences which so often follow the employ- 
 ment of lead for water-service, we may be tempted to de- 
 claim violently against its further toleration; yet human 
 life is, at the best, a series of narrow escapes, and we must 
 seek, by intelligence and care, to mitigate and neutralize the 
 evils which cannot be wholly overcome, except at a cost 
 greater than is involved by rendering them harmless by 
 precaution." 
 
 Impure water is even more deleterious than impure air. 
 Many cities have been afflicted with fevers from drinking 
 water from rivers contaminated by sewers. Grave-yards 
 have rendered neighboring wells pestilential, and the com- 
 mon habit of placing privies and wells in close proximity 
 often defiles the water with the drainage of the privy. 
 Ordinary surface water often contaminates the water, though 
 in less degree, if allowed access to a well. Drinking water 
 becomes unfit for use if allowed to stand in an occupied 
 room, for it absorbs the effluvia of breath and perspiration, 
 as well as any odor of fresh paint or other injurious or 
 offensive matter. The colder the water, in comparison 
 with the temperature of the room, the greater is its power 
 of absorption. The mere fact that such water is not always 
 noticeably disagreeable to the taste does not prove its pu- 
 rity. Taste and smell are of great service in detecting 
 danger, but are not infallible. It was claimed for the 
 " earth closets n that they prevented the pestilential influ- 
 uence often characteristic of water closets, by neutralizing 
 the odor. The best medical opinions oppose this, as air 
 charged with pestilential influences is not always percepti- 
 bly'different from that which is innoxious. 
 
 There is scarcely a house in this city in which the servants 
 are not in the habit of procuring, often on their own responsi- 
 bility, to " take out stains/ 7 quantities of a substance which 
 bears the innocent name of " salts of lemon," but which is 
 in reality peroxalate of potash. Ignorant of its real char- 
 acter, this corrosive poison is frequently placed on shelves 
 in juxtaposition with condiments used*for culinary purposes, 
 where it may readily be mistaken for something else, and a 
 pinch or two applied to flavoring soup. The most frequent 
 
PHYSICAL AjYD mental DEBILITY, ETC. 77 
 
 accidents in connection with this article are in taking it in 
 mistake for Epsom salts, owing to their great similarity in 
 appearance. One journal now before me records two fatal 
 cases of this kind. 
 
 In some trades there are unhealthful influences, in a 
 measure inseparable therefrom, but many may be wholly or 
 greatly obviated by proper precautious. In the manufac- 
 ture of friction matches, mirrors, artificial flowers; paints, 
 and others, much of the injurious influence may be counter- 
 acted by ventilation, and especially by out-door exercise in 
 the intervals of work, and frequent washing. The habit of 
 taking the noon-day meal in the workroom, the air of which 
 is contaminated with the poison of the materials, is very 
 bad. There is often a neglect to wash the hands thoroughly 
 before eating, and some poison is doubtless carried to the 
 mouth. The skin, however, is more frequently the medium 
 through which the poison gains access to the system, and 
 the longer the particles remain on hands or faces, the longer 
 is the absorption going on. The clothes, too, carry much 
 of the deleterious substances, and in many trades health 
 cannot be maintained by any efforts so long as the same 
 clothes are worn during work hours and the rest of the 
 time. 
 
 In many of the trades there are methods known of carry- 
 ing off poisonous fumes or dust, but even where known they 
 are sometimes neglected. A simple device for protecting 
 the lungs from dust in file-making, iron turning, and similar 
 avocations, is secured by simply allowing the mustache to 
 grow, which will afford tolerable protection. In cotton and 
 woolen factories the girls should generally wear something 
 to catch the dust in the air, which otherwise they would be 
 likely to breathe. Painters, printers, and all workers with 
 lead, in addition to well washed hands, should pay particular 
 attention to cleaning the nails — a nail-brush is the best 
 article to use, as knives or pins irritate the skin — if they 
 would avoid lead colic and the consequent cramps. 
 
78 CAUSES, PfiJEy^YTIOJV AjYS) SEZF CUliS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MENTAL WORE] — USE AND MISUSE OF THE BRAIN. 
 
 MUCH has been written on the injurious effects of in- 
 tense mental application ; these writers generally 
 maintaining that brain-work can only be carried on to a 
 very moderate extent without incurring the penalty of a 
 broken-down mind. There is doubtless a good deal of truth 
 in these statements, perhaps, also, some errors. I am in- 
 clined to think most .of us could accomplish much more 
 mental labor, with much less danger of injury than at pres- 
 ent, did we always go the right way about it. 
 
 So far from our being able to endure less mental than 
 physical activity, the contrary would seem to be proved by 
 the fact that, while no set of muscles can be exercised 
 steadily for any considerable length of time without fatigue, 
 there is scarcely any intermission in the activity of our 
 minds during our waking hours. 
 
 It is true that every thought, the least mental action, 
 causes a waste, an actual destruction of minute brain tissue, 
 just as every muscular action wears out a minute morsel 
 of muscular tissue; but in both examples this waste is a 
 perfectly natural process, the loss being repaired by nutri- 
 tion. It is the law of our very existence that this distrac- 
 tion and renewal shall go on. It only becomes harmful 
 when the waste exceeds the repair, whether in the case of 
 mind or body. There is great sympathy between-mind and 
 body, each exerting a powerful influence upon the other. 
 Now, for the mind to act powerfully and healthfully, it 
 must be seconded by a healthy body. True, we hear of 
 cases of great mental powers in weak bodies ; but those 
 same powers would, beyond question, produce even more 
 brilliant results if their possessor had also sound health. 
 
 The mind is strengthened by exercise, not only in a gen- 
 eral way, but particularly in whatever special direction it 
 may be applied. But no particular study, art, business 
 pursuit, or hobby should be allowed to monopolize thought, 
 to the exclusion of all other subjects. The mind allowed 
 
2>HYSICri.Z AJVS) MSJJVTAZ SUSIZITT, ETC. 79 
 
 to dwell exclusively on one subject loses the power to act 
 in other directions. Not only that, but even in this special- 
 ity the mind loses its power to clearly and correctly act, 
 and becomes morbid and distorted — -just as the eyes, kept 
 intently on a page, see, by and by, blurred and distorted 
 characters instead of the really legible print. 
 
 Our minds, like our muscles, are greatly influenced by 
 habit. I believe clergymen generally feel in the mood for 
 preaching when Sunday comes around ; and authors who 
 devote specific hours to literary labor will perform their 
 work day after day, the "inspiration" coming to them, 
 with rare exceptions, at the habitual time. This plan 
 of allotted hours for study or other mental werk has the 
 advantage of accustoming the mind to such action at those 
 times, and enabling it better to recuperate its powers by 
 exercise in other directions during the intervals. 
 
 Much that is ascribed to inspiration and genius is really 
 the result of systematic cultivation. True, one may pos- 
 sess powers which will triumph over every disadvantage, 
 which no amount of training alone would enable him to do; 
 yet, to the vast majority, training and system are indis- 
 pensable to great success. Young men or maidens, who 
 fancy themselves born poets or novelists, make a mistake 
 when they shut themselves up in close rooms, deny them- 
 selves food or relaxation, and strive to goad their brains 
 into a feverish state, which they erroneously imagine to be 
 the manifestations of genius. By sticking to this plan for 
 a few days or weeks, as the case may be, something may be 
 produced j but it will seem anything but a work of genius 
 when the writer's ardor has cooled down. Most of the 
 failures of young authors result, not so much from lack of 
 talent (for many of our successful writers have but a very 
 small allowance of that commodity), but from this nonsen- 
 sical view they take of the subject. Their great need is, 
 supposing them to have some decent knowledge of gram- 
 mar, orthography and similar rudiments, to learn something 
 of the details of the profession, customs of publishers, pub- 
 lic wants, and similar matters, which they can obtain from 
 some literary friend, or from some work devoted to the elu- 
 cidation of the subject. Then let them sit down quietly in 
 
80 CAUSES, ^HFTFJVTlOJSr *LjY2) self cukf of 
 
 a pleasant, well ventilated room, and write for, say, half 
 an hour. By following this plan day after day, aiming 
 for what you think yourself most capable — or, if merce- 
 nary, that most salable — by and by your talent will begin 
 to show itself, and your productions become more likely 
 to hand your name down to fame. So of any pursuit 
 involving mental labor. Genius prompts its possessor to 
 exercise his gift; if he does not exercise it, it will not 
 burst forth itself. 
 
 It is frequently remarked, that we seldom hear of any 
 of the " smart " children achieving eminence when they 
 grow up ; while, of those most prominent among the intel- 
 lectually great men, nearly all are said to have been rather 
 dull when young ; some, indeed, being reputed to be down- 
 right blockheads. It seems to be a rule, that the most 
 powerful minds develop more slowly than those possessing , 
 quickness, rather than depth. Those who learn the most 
 easily generally forget the most readily ; and of the things 
 any individual learns, those which require the greatest 
 application to master are usually the longest remembered.* 
 It is unsafe to say that the dullest boys become the smart- 
 est men; but what is considered stupidity may in some 
 cases be merely slowness, which often implies thoroughness, 
 and the brightness of another may be really but a super- 
 ficial, transient quickness. 
 
 There is one point, of vital interest to parents, upon 
 which physiologists seem united in opinion, namely, the 
 forcing of mental action in the young. Discrimination 
 must be made between u forcing " and " developing." An 
 infant's mental powers are, at first, about as near nothing 
 as anything well can be, and it is only by their exercise 
 that they can be developed. So, too, youth is the proper 
 
 * A defective memory does not necessarily indicate mental feeble- 
 ness, but may be merely a want of proper cultivation. There in 
 scarcely any faculty which can be so increased in power by judicious 
 training. The principal secret of good memory is system. There are 
 many devices, too, by which memory may be aided. A useful little 
 work for those desirous of self-improvement is one issued by the pub- 
 lishers of the present volume, entitled " How to make Bad Memory 
 Good, and Good Memory Better." The cost is only fifteen cents. 
 
THYSICAL *LJV2) MENTAL 3)ESILITT, ETC. 81 
 
 time for acquiring education. Children are always thirsty 
 for information, and acquire rudimentary knowledge much 
 more easily than adults. To prove nourishing, however, 
 this must be presented in proper form and proper quantity ; 
 they must be able to comprehend it, and it ought not to be 
 forced upon them. 
 
 Attempts have been made to adapt text books on gram- 
 mar, botany, philosophy, geography, etc., to very young 
 pupils. The u adaptation" consists mainly in using short 
 words and adopting a primer-like style of diction, assuming 
 that the most difficult matter to understand needs only 
 short words to make easy. Children are quick to compre- 
 hend matters connected with their own experience and 
 feelings ; hut it is some years before one can realize the 
 meaning of zones, equators, poles, longitude, latitude, etc. ,• 
 or that ice really possesses heat; or the real signification of 
 nouns, adjectives, and verhs. The ability to repeat any 
 formula of words does not by any means prove a compre- 
 hension of their meaning. Unless the meaning is under- 
 stood, the rules and definitions of the schoolbooks are only 
 so much rubbish encumbering the mind. Every grown 
 person knows the difficulty of learning any collection of 
 words joined without any sense ; to a child, the " lessons n 
 which are beyond his comprehension are but the same sense- 
 less jumble. Whatever is drudgery is a severer task to the 
 mind than what gratifies a thirst for knowledge. 
 
 The practical application of all this is, merely, that all 
 instruction should be adapted to the capacity of the pupil j 
 that learning a lesson " by rote v may be done without 
 gaining a spark of its meaning j and that a distasteful task 
 under compulsion is more difficult to learn, and is more 
 exhausting to the brain, than double the amount of interest- 
 ing matter. The aim should be to make education pleas- 
 ant ; for a dread of school will often prove a serious barrier 
 to learning even years after, as the mind instinctively recoils 
 from whatever has impressed it with disagreeable feelings, 
 even long before. A child will learn the alphabet much 
 quicker from a box of letters printed on bits of card, and 
 taught them in play, than from the steadiest drilling under 
 severe threats for looking from his book. He will learn the 
 
82 CAUSES, PSFYFJVTIOjY AjYD SELF CUHF OF 
 
 addition table quicker with his marbles, and a little prompt- 
 ing, than from wearying tasks commencing "once one is 
 one'" 
 
 Children aided to learn the alphabet and the first steps 
 of primary education in a pleasant way at home, and not 
 consigned to school until seven or eight years of age, will, 
 with equal natural talent,, surpass in a few years those 
 whose school education commenced at three or four. In 
 early youth the mind is very liable to injury from any 
 forcing, and what " forcing " is the child's own instincts 
 will usually show. We should not relinquish the child to 
 ignorance, but we should strive to make learning attractive. 
 The success of the kinder-garten system, and the old style 
 " spelling matches " of our country schools, show how the 
 mental faculties will act better and with less fatigue where 
 agreeably exercised. It may be better to send children to 
 school early than to have them run wild with the rabble of 
 city streets, but the best way is to employ them at home. 
 Let them do something for themselves ; let them use their 
 faculties in their play ; they take more pleasure in invent- 
 ing and cutting out dresses and furniture from paper, than 
 from the most elaborate and costly toys which leave nothing 
 for them to do. 
 
 Able authorities estimate from four to six hours of men- 
 tal work sufficient for adults ; yet. children and young per- 
 sons are usually required to devote fully this time to duties 
 in school (in recitations alone in some cases), and to devote, 
 as some of the school circulars announce, " fully two hours 
 to study out of school." This study, usually, is done at 
 night, just before bedtime. The brain is excited and 
 fatigued at the same time, the night's rest is disturbed, eyes 
 strained in looking out names on dim maps by bad light, 
 and the intellect dulled from Overwork. It is in extreme 
 youth that the greatest injury is done. As we reach our 
 "'teens " the mind becomes more disciplined and is capable 
 of greater work ; but individual cases of injury from over- 
 study are numerous in pupils of all ages. 
 
 M. Tissot brings an enormous list of accusations against 
 the over-application of the mind, with many interesting 
 illustrative cases. A young gentleman had given himself 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL DUSIZITT, ETC. 88 
 
 up to metaphysical pursuits, which he pursued with ardor, 
 notwithstanding that he felt his health failing. At last he 
 fell into such a condition that he appeared to see nothing, 
 hear nothing, and spoke not a word for the space of a year. 
 He says that he has seen " very promising children, who 
 have been forced to study so constantly by severe masters, 
 that they have become epileptic during the rest of their 
 lives." On this subject Sir H. Holland says : " In the 
 course of my practice I have seen some striking and melan- 
 choly instances of the exhaustion of the youthful mind by 
 this over-exercise of its faculties. In two of them, unat- 
 tended by any paralytic affection or other obvious bodily 
 disorder than a certain sluggishness in the natural func- 
 tions, the torpor of mind approached almost to imbecility. 
 Yet here there had been before acute intellect, with great 
 sensibility, but these qualities forced by emulation into 
 excess of exercise without due intervals of respite, and with 
 habitual deficiency of sleep." 
 
 In young persons, the mode of response to stimulus and 
 requirements on the part of the system is somewhat differ- 
 ent, both in nature and extent, from that observed in adults. 
 In early life, and up to the margin of manhood, a great 
 part of the energy of the vital functions is devoted to the 
 direct nutrition and consolidation of the bodily organs. 
 The tissues are soft and" yielding, and are capable of being 
 very much modified by external agency. If a strain of 
 unusual force be applied, the result is not necessarily, as in 
 the adult, fatigue, which may be readily relieved by rest ; 
 but the organ yields and its efficiency is impaired. Thus 
 the heart over-excited in a child will become dilated ; the 
 bone on which unnatural pressure is exerted bends ; the 
 ligament often or long stretched yields and becomes relaxed. 
 Now, the brain being subject to precisely the same laws as 
 other organs as to nutrition, we shall expect to find here 
 also a difference in its response to the calls made upon its 
 action. Long continued exercise of the mental functions 
 will be attended, as in the adult, by increased circulation 
 and activity of the nutritive functions of the brain ; but 
 there is this difference, that the brain tissue here is soft and 
 yielding, and instead of offering the normal resistance to 
 
84. CsiUSES, PRETENTION xLJVD SEZF CUHJE OF 
 
 the abnormal afflux of blood, it yields to the pressure, the 
 vessels become enlarged, perhaps permanently, and conges- 
 tion is the result — productive not only of serious conse- 
 quences for the time being, but, by the very fact of its 
 occurrence, inducing an ever increasing liability to its recur- 
 rence. Then, perhaps, the overcharged vessels make an 
 attempt to relieve themselves by pouring out some of their 
 fluid contents, and effusion into the ventricles or on the sur- 
 face of the brain is the consequence. It is easy to conceive, 
 from these considerations, what is the lesson which physi- 
 ology would teach us in reference to the consequences 
 which may be predicted from intense application in the 
 young. These consequences will be still more marked and 
 serious if the attention be confined exclusively to one class 
 of ideas — if one faculty be cultivated and urged forward, to 
 the exclusion or neglect of the others. 
 
 The testimony of writers on the subject of the effects of 
 mental labor upon the body is singularly unanimous j none 
 seem to doubt its dire results, especially if commenced 
 young, if pursued long and constantly, and if directed too 
 exclusively to a restricted range of ideas. Dr. George 
 Moore, who has entered deeply into these inquiries, makes 
 the following observations : 
 
 " The brain of a child, however forward, is totally unfit 
 for that intellectual exertion to which many fond parents 
 either force or excite it. Fatal disease is thus frequently 
 induced ; and where death does not follow, idiocy, or at 
 least such confusion of faculty ensues, that the moral per- 
 ception is obscured, and the sensitive child becomes a man 
 of hardened vice, or of insane self will/ 7 
 
 I quote the following passage from the Scarificator: 
 " There is that which destroys more fatally than continued 
 physical exertion. The tendency that over brain work has 
 to destroy the intellect has been long observed. Southey 
 died in darkness from over toil. Walter Scott — he who 
 Anglo-Saxonized the language of Europe and made a lite- 
 rature — broke down near sixty, and went to his grave with 
 a soft head. 'Tis but the other month a young Scotchman 
 died in London, worn out, his mind a blank from literary 
 toil. And (who can doubt it ?) Angus B. Reach — a clever, 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL DEBILITY, JSTC. 85 
 
 witty fellow "he was — might have laughed much longer and 
 made others laugh, too, if he had only taken half care of 
 himself! 
 
 " ' From Marlborough's eyes the tears of dotage flow, 
 And Swift expires a driveler and a show ' — 
 
 a soul in ruins. Those mysterious, appalling afflictions, 
 laying desolate and waste ' minds that could wander through 
 eternity/ have made us pause and wonder at the awful dis- 
 pensations of an all-wise Providence, and for a moment 
 doubt their justness. The continued tear and wear, the 
 constant demand for more, more, more, sets the cerebral 
 mass ' on fire.' l My brain is burning — I can bear life no 
 longer ! ' said the author of the ' Old Red Sandstone/ and 
 shortly ceased to exist. Strange, some said, how Provi- 
 dence should have allowed such a man to pass away from 
 earth in such a manner 5 but when we consider the subject 
 philosophically, there is nothing mysterious in it, however 
 much we may regret the circumstance. Providence acts 
 by genera], not by special laws. Hugh Miller was intellec- 
 tually a giant, and, physically, possessed a frame of iron; 
 but he violated the laws which govern health ; he demand- 
 ed more work from his brain than it could well perform ; it 
 reeled and staggered, but it reeled and staggered in vain. 
 He pulled away and lashed it into fury, and he perished to 
 gratify his genius and his ambition." 
 
 There is a danger sometimes incurred where a child has 
 any one predominant talent or aptitude. While such a gift 
 will naturally take the lead, it is wrong to urge its develop- 
 ment too much. At an institution for the insane on Long 
 Island, some years ago, was a beautiful girl about fifteen 
 years of age. Most of her time was passed at a piano 
 which had been furnished her, and in which alone she 
 seemed to feel any interest. Her playing and singing were 
 simply wonderful ; with a voice of exquisite sweetness, 
 great compass and richness, she would pour forth melodies, 
 often apparently her own wild invention, and then in the 
 very midst break off abruptly, with a maniacal laugh, and 
 then talk of her mother's expected arrival to take her 
 home, or of whatever fancy her disordered brain conjured 
 up. She had at a very early age possessed so fine a voice 
 
86 CslUSJES, ?>SJPy'J3JVTI0JV' JiJYD SJZLZ CUSJS OF 
 
 and shown so great a musical talent, that her parents de- 
 signed her to become a professional singer, and with this 
 object had pushed her musical education with the utmost 
 vigor — alas, with too much ; for long before the time set 
 for her debut, her brain gave way beneath the rigors of her 
 tuition : the blight of insanity fell upon her young, hopeful 
 life, probably never to be removed this side the tomb. 
 
 Perhaps some of the evils supposed to result from stu- 
 dious habits and brain work generally are more properly 
 attributable to other causes. Schoolrooms, with their fre- 
 quent lack of ventilation, may be the unsuspected cause 
 of pallid faces and heavy heads. Many members of the 
 legal, medical, literary, and other professions, who are sup- 
 posed to succumb beneath their intellectual labor, really 
 sink beneath a much more potent power- — alcoholic or 
 other stimulants. There is often a fatigue, often a lack of 
 thought ; ideas seem loth to come ; and the temptation is 
 strong to revive flagging energies, arouse sluggish thought, 
 and stimulate imagination by liquor or drugs. The demands 
 of a profession sometimes compel overwork. This is bad 
 enough, but when under the goad of stimulants is much worse, 
 and the stimulants themselves too often lead to inveterate 
 habits of intemperance. Add the unnatural hours often 
 necessitated, the confined habits, the indigestible food, and 
 a host of other unfavorable influences, and brain work must 
 not be accused of all the broken down constitutions and 
 early deaths. Certain unnatural and pernicious indul- 
 gences, which schoolboys and students in some cases give 
 way to, are, in such instances, the real cause of troubles 
 ascribed wrongly to excessive study. 
 
 It is impossible to set any invariable rules as to the 
 amount of brain work which shall be safe or beneficial in 
 all cases. What would only be healthful exercise for one 
 would drive another to madness. Nature generally gives a 
 pretty clear hint to those who are sensible enough to take 
 it. When thought becomes painful, when you are wearied 
 with any one subject, drop it ; turn your thoughts into a 
 new direction ; or, if it be evening, go to bed. Sleep is the 
 great mental restorer. Don't attempt to be studious or 
 " professional " all the time j seek cheerful society ; sympa- 
 
Z>H2~SIC?1L AjYD MENTAL 2>EBIZITT, ETC. S? 
 
 thize with others. Seek to strengthen the constitution ; 
 take judicious exercise; breathe plenty of fresh air; eat 
 wholesome food and digest it well ; keep the bowels regu- 
 lar j sleep plentifully, and, as far as possible, at reasonable 
 hours. As Dr. Elam says : " Fear not to do manfully the 
 work for which your gifts qualify you ; but do it as one who 
 must give an account both of soul and body. Work, and 
 work hard, while it is day; but the night cometb soon 
 enough — do not hasten it. Use your faculties, use them to 
 the utmost, but do not abuse them ; make not the mortal do 
 the work of the immortal. The body has its claims ; it is 
 a good servant ; treat it well, and it will do your work ; it 
 knows its own business ; do not attempt to teach or to force 
 it ; attend to its wants and requirements ; listen kindly and 
 patiently to its hints ; occasionally forestall its necessities 
 by a little indulgence, and your consideration will be repaid 
 with interest. But task it, and pine it, and suffocate it — 
 make it a slave instead of a servant — it may not complain 
 much, but, like the weary camel in the desert, it will lie 
 down and die." 
 
 A mistake is sometimes made by students in their first 
 ardor ; they commence their efforts with a rush, reaction 
 follows, and they become dispirited. The true way in 
 adopting studious habits, or any pursuit involving brain 
 work, is to commence with, moderate efforts, increasing 
 them as exercise strengthens the powers. In the same 
 manner that certain muscular actions, at first painful, diffi- 
 cult, and complex, become perfectly easy, and are performed 
 almost, if not altogether, without attention, after long prac- 
 tice and frequent repetition, so processes of thought, which 
 originally induce painful sensations, and confusion in the 
 mind or brain, become by. repetition familiar and simple, 
 and are attended by no pain at the time, nor any inconve- 
 nience subsequently. And thus the most complex opera- 
 tions of the mind, calculations involving the most intricate 
 processes, and analyses of the utmost difficulty, are at last 
 performed with an ease, and almost unconsciousness, rival- 
 ing the extempore performances of the most finished artiste 
 on a musical instrument. It is of importance to mark this 
 and by so doing failure to injury may be avoided. 
 
88 CAUSES, -PRETENTION AND SELF CURE OF 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 NECESSITY OF PROPER SLEEP — WHEN TO SLEEP AND HOW 
 TO SLEEP — EYILS OF SLEEPING WITH OTHERS. 
 
 SLEEP in due amount is absolutely essential to con- 
 tinued health of mind and body. Nervousness, head- 
 ache, depression of spirits, morbid feelings, and many other 
 evils, result from a want of sleep, and if the deprivation 
 be sufficiently long continued, actual insanity is produced. 
 The approach of insanity is, indeed, generally accompanied 
 by excessive wakefulness j and the power of some insane 
 persons to go for days, almost weeks without slumber is 
 well attested. 
 
 The proper amount of sleep varies with each individual, 
 and depends on age, occupation, etc. Eight hours out 
 of the twenty -four are considered about the average. In 
 infancy this will be largely exceeded, the child for some 
 weeks after birth doing little else. Children should be 
 allowed to sleep all they are inclined to, without the stupe- 
 fying influence of drugs or soothing syrups. If a child, 
 from unusual fatigue or disturbed slumber in the earlier 
 hours of the night, sleeps beyond the usual hour of rising, 
 it is best not to arouse him. Brain workers usually require 
 more sleep than those whose occupations are mainly manual. 
 
 Next to the due amount, the important point is, the par- 
 ticular hours to be devoted to slumber. The night is evi- 
 dently the time, and it seems equally certain that the early 
 hours thereof are those in which slumber proves the most 
 recuperative. Hufeland, a German authority of the highest 
 repute, gives an interesting . and doubtless correct theory 
 regarding this subject in one of his books. He says : 
 
 " Many believe that it is entirely the same if one sleeps 
 seven hours either in the day or the night time. People 
 give themselves up, therefore, at night, as long as they 
 think proper, either to study or pleasure, and imagine that 
 they make everything even, when they sleep in the fore- 
 noon those hours which they sat up after miduight. But I 
 must request every one, who regards his health, to beware 
 
PHYSICAL rf.JYD MJEJJVTAZ DESIZZTT, JETC. S9 
 
 of so seducing an error. It is certainly not the same whe- 
 ther one sleeps seven hours by day or by night ; and two 
 hours' sound sleep before midnight are of more benefit to 
 the body than four hours in the day. 
 
 " That period of twenty -four hours, formed by the regu- 
 lar revolution of our earth, in which all its inhabitants par- 
 take, is particularly distinguished in the physical economy 
 of man. This regular period is apparent in all diseases ; 
 and all the other small periods, so wonderful in our physical 
 history, are by it in reality determined. Now, it is observed, 
 that the more the end of these periods coincides with the 
 conclusion of the day, the more is the pulsation accelerated, 
 and a feverish state is produced, or the so called evening 
 fever, to which every man is subject. The accession of 
 new chyle to the blood may in all probability contribute 
 something toward this fever, though it is not the only cause, 
 for we find it in sick people who have neither eat nor drunk. 
 It is more owing, without doubt, to the absence of the sun, 
 and to that revolution in the atmosphere which is connected 
 with it. This evening fever is the reason why nervous peo- 
 ple find themselves more fit for labor at night than during 
 the day. To become active, they must first have an arti- 
 ficial stimulus, and the evening fever supplies the place of 
 wine. But one may easily perceive that this is an unnatu- 
 ral state, and the consequences are the same as those of 
 every simple fever — lassitude, sleep, and a crisis by the per- 
 spiration which takes place during that sleep. It may with 
 propriety, therefore, be said that all men at night have a 
 critical perspiration, more perceptible in some and less so in 
 others, by which whatever useless or pernicious particles 
 have been imbibed by our bodies, or created in them during 
 the day, are secreted and removed. This daily crisis, neces- 
 sary to every man, is particularly requisite for his support, 
 and the proper period of it is when the fever has attained 
 to its highest degree — that is, the period when the sun is in 
 the nadir, consequently midnight. What do those do, then, 
 who disobey this voice of nature which calls for rest at the 
 above period, and who employ this fever, which should be 
 the means of secreting and purifying our juices to enable 
 them to increase their activity and exertion % By neglect- 
 
90 CAUSES, PRETENTION AN3) SELF CURE OF 
 
 ing the critical period, they destroy the whole crisis of so 
 much importance, and, though they go to bed toward morn- 
 ing, cannot certainly obtain on that account the full benefit 
 of sleep, as the critical period is past. They will never 
 have a perfect, but an imperfect crisis, and what that means 
 is well known to physicians. Their bodies, also, will never 
 be completely purified. How clearly is this proved by the 
 infirmities, rheumatic pains, and swollen feet, the unavoid- 
 able consequences of such lucubration. 
 
 " And lastly, those who spend the night in labor, and the 
 morning in sleep, lose that time which is the most beautiful 
 and the best fitted for labor. After every sleep we are 
 renovated in the most proper sense of the word ; we are, in 
 the morning, always taller than at night : we have then more 
 pliability, powers, and juices — in a word, more of the char- 
 acteristics of youth ; while at night, our bodies are drier 
 and more exhausted, and the properties of old age then pre- 
 vail. One, therefore, may consider each day as a sketch in 
 miniature of human life, in which the morning represents 
 youth, noon manhood, and evening old age." 
 
 In the young, this observance of early hours is specially 
 important. The practice, so common, of requiring children 
 to study in the evening the lessons for the next day is doubt- 
 less productive of much harm. Not only is it exhausting 
 to the vital force, but the stimulation of the mind so near 
 the hour of retiring tends to prevent healthful slumber. 
 
 All mental emotions are unfavorable to repose. The 
 merchant who has been fortunate in some daring specula- 
 tion cannot sleep for joy if he dwells upon his successes 
 after retiring to rest. Another who has met with reverses 
 will be sleepless from sorrow if, as too often happens, his 
 losses intrude upon his thoughts during the night. But it 
 must be admitted that, as a sleep-dispeller, joy is far inferior 
 to grief. The memory of what we achieve or of what we 
 gain is never so persistently active as the memory of what 
 we lose. The recollection of the one soon dims through 
 repetition, while that of the other long preserves its force. 
 
 Indigestion is a very common cause of wakefulness. Any- 
 thing which acts as an irritant to the stomach is apt to ir- 
 ritate the brain by means of the close union which exists 
 
-physical suv® jkejytjli, debility, etc. 91 
 
 between these organs through the medium of nerves. For 
 the same reason heavy suppers, taken when the necessity 
 for them is not felt, commonly produce broken sleep, or 
 cause it to be disturbed by disagreeable dreams, sometimes 
 of all the horrors of nightmare. 
 
 On the other hand that kind of exhaustion which occurs 
 from want of food frequently prevents sleep. When. a per- 
 son, accustomed to dine late, happens to dine early, and 
 goes to bed without any substantial refreshment, he is very 
 liable to find himself utterly sleepless. It may be that no 
 actual hunger is experienced. It is rather an indefinable 
 sensation of sinking in the region of the stomach which 
 gives no distinct indication of the want of food. This kind 
 of sleeplessness is apt to be very persistent, because the ex- 
 haustion increases in proportion to the time during which 
 the person remains awake. In such a condition a sandwich 
 or a bowl of mutton or beef broth act better and more 
 speedily than an opiate. No sooner has food been taken, 
 than a glow of comfort and a tendency to repose succeed, 
 and the person soon falls into refreshing sleep. It is not 
 difficult to comprehend how this occurs ; the brain in its 
 previously vigilant state was too full of blood by which its 
 unnatural activity\was sustained. When food was taken 
 into the stomach the process of digestion was excited, and 
 the superabundant biood was, by this means, diverted from 
 the head to the abdominal organs. 
 
 Many articles cause wakefulness when taken internally. 
 Of these, tea and coffee, are the most familiar. Every 
 one knows that either, but especially tea, when taken too 
 strong, prevents sleep. Opium in small doses, belladonna 
 or deadly nightshade, or Indian hemp, produce the same 
 effect. Each of these substances has also a specific action 
 of its own. There are good reasons for believing that all 
 these drugs act alike, in at least one respect, namely, by in- 
 creasing the circulation of the blood in the brain. This is 
 attended by increased activity and power of thought. 
 
 Nothing banishes sleep more effectually than pain. Pa- 
 tients suffering from neuralgia have been almost sleepless 
 for months. But no amount of pain can altogether do away 
 with sleep, nor will mental depression or fear prevent repose 
 
92 CAUSES, &21EYENTI0JV rf.N2> SELF CUKJZ OF 
 
 when exhaustion ensues. Wretches are said to have slept 
 while undergoing the punishment of the rack, and culprits 
 usually sleep soundly on the night preceding their execu- 
 tion. 
 
 Cold, when not excessive, dispels sleep, because of the 
 discomfort it induces, and probably also on account of the 
 derangement of circulation which it produces. Coldness of 
 the feet is a very common source of wakefulness. A sensa- 
 tion of dry burning heat in the soles of the feet and palms 
 of the hands, to which some people are liable, and which 
 also accompanies certain diseases, is another cause of sleep- 
 lessness. Sponging the parts with vinegar and water re- 
 lieves this aifection. 
 
 Another cause of sleeplessness, little recognized, is taking 
 stimulating drinks. It is certain that in a great number of 
 instances stimulants do not agree with the system, and that 
 many people would sleep much better if they abstained from 
 them altogether. This is by no means inconsistent with the 
 fact that a certain dose of brandy and water, or its equival- 
 ent, is considered by some persons indispensable to repose. 
 Anything to which the system has become habituated from 
 constant repetition grows into a necessity. In the present 
 case an unnatural want is established, which, if not attend- 
 ed to, is a cause of discomfort and consequent loss of sleep. 
 
 The effects of protracted wakefulness sooner or later 
 show themselves in the strongest constitution. The person 
 becomes gloomy, irritable, and peevish. The memory is 
 defective, and the thoughts confused. Perhaps the most 
 terrible punishment which Chinese ingenuity has devised, 
 is prolonged loss of rest. In some instances it leads the 
 way to, and even seems to be the cause of, insanity. Some 
 of the greatest intellects have suffered from privation of 
 sleep : Newton's mind was impaired by it in his later years j 
 Southey's insanity was preceded by it. The more gifted 
 and cultivated the mind of an individual is, the more liable 
 he will be to wakefulness. The untutored sons of bodily 
 toil have but few vigils, and among all the animals sleep- 
 lessness without internal cause probably belongs to man 
 alone. The lower animals are soon affected by loss of 
 sleep. In Ceylon, wild elephants are kept constantly awake 
 
PHYSICAL AJVS) MJSNTri.1 DEBILITY, UTC. 93 
 
 until they become tame ; by this means the spirit of the 
 most refractory is soon subdued. 
 
 In order to promote sleep in cases where it is wanting, it 
 is, of course, in the first place necessary to remove every 
 exciting cause of wakefulness. It is generally essential to 
 give up the use of tea and coffee, and, as has been said, it 
 is sometimes necessary to leave of stimulants. The person 
 should take care that he does not go to bed either with cold 
 feet, or with a stomach that has been long empty. 
 
 Many devices for inducing somnolence have been prac- 
 tised with more or less success ; one of these is combing 
 the hair, which has a very soothing effect on some persons. 
 Another is to have the feet gently shampooed. Walking 
 about the bed-room in one's night-dress, so as to get what 
 Dr. Franklin called an air bath, is a good plan, and the 
 cold water bath just before retiring to rest, by virtue of its 
 stimulating action, is often successful. In more refractory 
 cases tbe warm bath may be tried — it acts by withdrawing 
 the blood from the brain. On the same principle, this 
 upright position, by favoring the return of blood from the 
 head, is sometimes useful. It is, indeed, no uncommon 
 thing to meet people who sleep with great facility when 
 sitting in a chair or in a carriage, but who sleep with 
 difficulty when lying down in bed. 
 
 The best bed to sleep upon is a hair mattress, and the 
 worst of all is that made of feathers. Many people are so 
 susceptible that they are unable to sleep in a strange bed. 
 A pillow filled with hops, the emanations from which are 
 narcotic, has been sometimes used with success to induce 
 sleep, and if anything must be used, this is probably best. 
 
 People, as a rule, go to sleep most easily when lying on 
 the right side. Proper ventilation of the bedroom is indis- 
 pensable for sound sleep and for health. 
 
 Sufficient out-door exercise should in every instance be 
 taken, and those who are strong enough should carry it to 
 a sense of fatigue. In the Satires of Horace, to swim 
 three times across the Tiber is recommended as a means 
 for procuring deep repose. 
 
 One of the most effectual modes of overcoming wakeful- 
 ness is, to force upon the attention some monotonous train 
 
94- CAUSES, PRErEJYTlON ?1JV2) SELF CUltF OF 
 
 of thought, and to tire the brain by its constant repetition. 
 Beading a dull book on a heavy subject sometimes answers. 
 Eepeating short verses over and over, or counting back- 
 ward, is often successful. Monotonous sounds act in this 
 way. Boerhaave ordered for a sleepless patient that water 
 should be so arranged as to drop constantly on a metal 
 pan. The murmur of a flowing stream is for the same 
 reason soporific. 
 
 The whole chance of success lies in compelling the mind, 
 by a strong effort of the will, to give up the train of ideas by 
 which it has been occupied, and to take up the less interest- 
 ing and more simple ideas or perceptions presented to it. 
 
 Many years ago, a curious plan for procuring sleep by 
 this means was announced by a Mr. Gardner. As this 
 plan made some noise at the time, and was reported to have 
 seldom or never failed, we shall give a full description of it. 
 Let us suppose, then, a person to be in a particularly 
 wakeful state, and that he has tossed and tumbled about 
 into the small hours of the morning without any feeling of 
 somnolence. If he should now desire deep repose, the fol- 
 lowing proceedings must be adopted: he is to lie on his 
 right side, with his head comfortably placed on the pillow, 
 having the neck straight, so that respiration may be unim- 
 peded. Let him then close his lips slightly and take a 
 rather full inspiration, breathing through the nostrils as 
 much as possible. This last, however, is not absolutely 
 necessary, and some persons breathe habitually by the 
 mouth. Having taken the full inspiration, the lungs are to 
 be left to their own action ; that is, expiration is not to be 
 interfered with. Attention must now be fixed upon the 
 respiration. The person must imagine that he sees the 
 breath passing from his nostrils in a continuous stream, and 
 at the instant that he brings his mind to conceive this apart 
 from all other ideas, consciousness leaves him and he falls 
 asleep. Sometimes it happens that the method does not 
 at once succeed ; it should then be persevered in. Let the 
 person take in thirty or forty full inspirations and proceed 
 as before ; but he must by no means attempt to count the 
 respiratory acts, for if he does, the mere counting will keep 
 him awake. Even though he may not now succeed in pro- 
 
PHYSICAL AJV2) MENTAL DESIZIl'T, ETC. 95 
 
 curing very sound sleep, he will at least fall into a state 
 of pleasant repose. 
 
 Such is the account ? somewhat abridged, of this much 
 vaunted " art of procuring sound and refreshing sleep at 
 will/' given by Mr. Binns in his Anatomy of Sleep. Be, 
 it seems, purchased the secret from Mr. Gardner, and hints 
 at his generosity in having made it public gratis.- It is 
 founded on the principle that monotony, or the influence on 
 the mind of a single idea, as we have already shown, induces 
 slumber. The inventor had for years suffered great agony 
 with consequent sleeplessness from injury to his spine. In 
 this sad condition, opium and other sedatives were found 
 rather to increase than to allay his sufferings. He was a 
 contemplative man, and at length discovered the secret of 
 " subduing sleeplessness and commanding repose by a sim 
 pie effort of volition." The plan is at all events safe and 
 easy of application, and any wakeful reader can test it for 
 himself. 
 
 Is it possible to take too much sleep? Not if it is 
 sound, natural slumber. It would seem, however, that the 
 practice of half dozing in the morning, after the regular 
 night's sleep is accomplished, sometimes produces listless- 
 ness aud languor, besides confirming the habit. Bad sleep, 
 as for instance where the sleeper is haunted with terrifying 
 dreams, not only fails to recuperate, but actually wearies. 
 Late morning second naps, generally unsound, are often 
 accompanied by lascivious dreams, which may result in 
 debilitating influences. Lying awake in a warm bed, after 
 due slumber has been obtained, has a tendency to develop 
 lascivious thoughts, and, as will be shown in a subsequent 
 chapter, these sometimes lead to evil results. 
 
 Sleeping with aged persons appears to exert a very seri- 
 ous, injurious influence upon the health of children. We 
 believe the old have sometimes encouraged the plan, 
 under the impression that it was beneficial to their own 
 health and tended to the prolongation of their own lives. 
 I can scarcely think they intend to injure the children, and 
 perhaps do not believe any harm will result. While the 
 benefit to the aged is considered, by those best qualified to 
 judge, to be only imaginary, the injury to the child seems 
 
96 CAUSES, PftJZr&jYTlOjY A.JY2) SELF CURE OE 
 
 beyond question. One physician mentions a little girl who 
 had been accustomed to sleep with her grandmother from 
 her fifth year to her twelfth year. When about six years 
 of age she began to manifest symptoms of declining health. 
 Heretofore plump, rosy, joyous, and full of healthful viva- 
 city, she became, as the years rolled by, pale, languid, and 
 thin j she lost her former buoyancy of spirits ; nervous 
 headaches became frequent j she was puny, weak, and small 
 for her age and growth; and life itself seemed blighted by 
 some mysterious influence. None seemed to suspect the 
 cause, some attributing it. to the fact that " she was grow- 
 ing." Beyond all doubt, this wasting away was the result 
 of the six or seven years' sleeping with her aged relative. 
 If I am not mistaken, when her case was referred to the 
 family physician, when she was about twelve years old, and 
 he suggested this cause, it was deemed an idle theory and 
 the evil permitted to continue. I believe her death was the 
 penalty before her family realized the danger. 
 
 Whatever may be the secret of this baneful influence — 
 whether " electrical influence," " nervous force/' or what- 
 ever other name it is called by — it does not appear to be 
 restricted to instances where young children sleep with 
 very old persons, but to cases where there is any consider- 
 able difference in the ages of the parties ; thus, where there 
 is a difference of, say, twenty years or more in the ages 
 of a married couple, there seems to be an injurious effect 
 upon the younger, generally proportioned to the difference 
 in years. 
 
 The influence is also felt where the robust sleep with the 
 weakly, and where one sleeps with a consumptive patient. 
 It is claimed by some writers that the same influence 
 extends to cases where the parties have different constitu- 
 tions. The exact meaning of the phrase is not so clear as 
 might be desirable, and it may be theorizing beyond what 
 can be supported by facts. 
 
 Perhaps a part of the debilitating influence is due to the 
 fact that much impurity goes from the body in the form 
 of insensible perspiration. This contaminates the air of the 
 bed ; and it may be that the skin of the other person actually 
 absorbs a portion of this impurity. 
 
z>b:ysic?±z jijyd m&jvtai, D&sizirr ^rc. 97 
 
 Injury is doubtless produced by the almost universal use 
 of double beds in boarding schools, aggravated by the fact 
 that there is usually no change made even in cases of sick- 
 ness, unless it be severe. Large dormitories amply venti- 
 lated, with a bed allotted to each sleeper, are probably 
 preferable to small rooms occupied by even so few as two 
 or three pupils. Two beds are frequently crowded into a 
 room of very moderate dimensions, and as many as three 
 sleepers required to occupy each bed ; and the room in 
 addition, as likey as not, with very imperfect means of 
 ventilation. 
 
 In addition to the fact that children are sometimes taught 
 bad habits by sleeping companions, the animal warmth has 
 a tendency to stimulate sexual instincts, and without any 
 impropriety of conduct, or even consciousness thereof, feel- 
 ings which should much longer lie dormant may begin to 
 be awakened. 
 
 OHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 CONSUMPTION" — ITS CURABILITY — DIRECTIONS FOE SELF 
 
 TREATMENT — FALLACIOUS THEORIES AND 
 
 MODES OF TREATMENT, ETC. 
 
 A CCOKDING to Professor Henry J. Bowditch, about 
 -Ol_ one fourth of all who die annually in Massachusetts 
 are carried off by consumption ! Consumption is one of 
 those diseases which frequently prove a hereditary scourge 
 in families, sweeping off the members of generation after 
 generation until their extinction, or until the infusion of 
 new blood overcomes the hereditary taint. In some cases, 
 so little strength do the lungs possess, and so strong is the 
 tendency to disease, that no power on earth can avert the 
 fate which overshadows the victim. Where, however, the 
 predisposition to consumption is less marked, where only 
 one parent has been consumptive, and the other remarkably 
 vigorous, or where consumption exists only in remote an- 
 
OS CAUSES > PftErEJVTTOjY AJVD SELF CUHE OE 
 
 cestry, precautionary measures will often save the individ- 
 ual from any trouble. 
 
 Many medical men are of opinion that the fatal forms 
 of tubercular consumption result largely from venereal 
 diseases in some ancestor, and that consumption bequeathed 
 from this source is incurable. No one, however, should 
 neglect any possible effort to ward off the disease. 
 
 It is probable that most of the consumptive cases are 
 produced by local climatic or sanitary influences, sedentary 
 and confining employments, lack of exercise, fresh air, etc. 
 The discovery — and it certainly is a discovery of immense 
 importance — has been recently made, both in America and 
 in England, by independent investigators, of the fact, which 
 is so universal that it constitutes a law, that soil moisture 
 is a potent and chief cause of consumption ; to which may 
 be added the correlative fact, that dryness of the soil is 
 characteristic of all places on the globe where consumptives 
 resort with advantage. It is to Dr. Bowditch, of America, 
 and Dr. Buchanan, of Great Britain, that the world is 
 indebted for the elucidation of this inestimable information. 
 Dr. Bowditch says : " In 1854 a committee was appointed 
 by the Massachusetts Medical Society to investigate the 
 origin of consumption in Massachusetts. Among questions 
 sent out to physicians in every town in the commonwealth, 
 and upon which either positive statistics or medical opinion 
 was obtained from all the towns, were two upon the influ- 
 ence of locality. Contrary to all preconceived notions, the 
 committee was compelled to draw the following inferences 
 from the facts presented by correspondents : First, phthisis 
 is very unequally distributed in New England: second, 
 there are some places which enjoy a very great exemption 
 from its ravages, if not quite as much exemption as any 
 portion of the globe can claim ; third, there are some spots, 
 nay, even particular houses, which are frightfully subject to 
 it ; fourth, there is a cause governing this unequal distribu- 
 tion of the disease— a law not recognized before these inves- 
 tigations, and still practically ignored by the majority of 
 human beings, which, however, is one of the main causes, 
 if not the sole cause, of this unequal distribution in New 
 England, and possibly elsewhere $ fifth, this cause is inti- 
 
PHYSICAL tLJYD JfJZJVTAZ 2)E%II,I2'Y, ETC. 09 
 
 mately connected with, and apparently dependent on, mois- 
 ture of the soil, on or near which stand the villages or 
 houses in which consumption prevails." 
 
 Dr. Bowditch states, that there are from twice to three 
 times as many deaths from consumption in the wet places 
 of New England as in those that are dry ; and that, gen- 
 erally, in proportion to the amount of dampness of the 
 soil is the tendency to death by consumption. 
 
 The fact that u wetness of the soil is a cause of phthisis 
 to the people living upon it n should be universally recog- 
 nized, published and proclaimed, until every man shall in 
 future build his house on dry ground, or thoroughly under- 
 drain every building spot that is damp, and look well to it 
 that his house is not unduly shaded by trees and vines, to 
 the exclusion of dry air and sunlight ; also, that those who 
 now dwell in houses standing upon wet ground may take 
 immediate and efficient measures to remedy the evil by 
 drainage, and spare not the noblest tree or finest vine with 
 which they are surrounded, provided they exclude the sun- 
 beams and the drying breeze. Then will the fearful mortal- 
 ity from consumption be sensibly diminished, and the phys- 
 ical condition of the race greatly improved. 
 
 But there are other things besides houses on damp ground 
 which tend to produce consumption. To keep in health 
 the lungs must be exercised, and must be supplied with 
 plenty of fresh air. Not only this, but the general health 
 should be promoted, as the lungs, as well as other organs, 
 are influenced by any general debility. For this reason, 
 consumption is sometimes caused or hastened by certain 
 sensual indulgences. A stooping position, so common 
 among book-keepers, students, and in many confining trades, 
 is exceedingly bad, and combined with lack of exercise and 
 the generally close and impure atmosphere of workshops, 
 schools, and offices, is a frequent cause of consumption. 
 
 Prevention is better than cure j but you should not defer 
 the prevention until the disease has got. a firm hold on you. 
 If you are of delicate build, if you suspect any of your 
 ancestry were consumptive, or if you are troubled with 
 cough, or if colds seem to select your throat or chest as a 
 location, it is well to be on your guard. Many imagine 
 
zoo causes, pretention an® self cure of 
 
 they have consumption when the trouble is elsewhere than 
 in the lungs ; many have nothing serious the matter ; but 
 it does no harm to take precautions, and these may save 
 you from a premature grave. 
 
 The danger of neglecting a cough or a cold, and its prob- 
 able ending in consumption, are subjects for frequent advice 
 to ward off the danger by taking so-and-so's syrup or other 
 preparation. I believe all these advertised nostrums not only 
 utterly worthless, but an absolute injury. They frequently 
 allay the disagreeable sensations, but it is by checking 
 nature's efforts toward a cure, and, by lulling the patient 
 into fancied security, they prevent his adopting proper 
 means to effect a real cure. By and by the pent-up disease 
 will break forth with redoubled violence. The "troches/' 
 " pectoral syrups," " lung balsams," and similar concoctions 
 • are believed in time to produce very serious injury. 
 
 The regular faculty have, with praiseworthy zeal, striven 
 to discover remedies for consumption. We have phosphate 
 of lime, cod liver oil, naphtha, and other articles recom- 
 mended and experimented with, often with announcements 
 of highly successful results. But one after another of these 
 fall into disfavor after a brief season of popularity, to be 
 followed by some other vaunted cure. But the recoveries 
 in cases where these or other medicines were used, I am 
 inclined to think, resulted from improved hygienic rules 
 adopted by the prescribing physician, rather than from the 
 medicines themselves. I do not say that medicine may 
 not in some cases of consumption (which is often compli- 
 cated with other ailments), if administered by a qualified 
 physician. But in all attempts at self treatment, it is 
 almost certain that every dose of medicine merely hastens 
 death. Articles absolutely injurious are frequently taken, 
 and even where the dose is innoxious, time is frittered away 
 in idle experiments, until, after trying the long list of bal- 
 sams, pectorals, etc., there is left only a rotten, ruined hulk, 
 beyond the possibility of repair. The most successful prac- 
 titioners content themselves largely in giving nature fair 
 play, placing the patient under favoring hygienic influences 
 and using little or no medicine. I do not think it wise for 
 any one to expose himself continually to the causes of con- 
 
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL DEBILITY, ETC. 101 
 
 sumption, trusting to curing himself should he be attacked. 
 Though consumption may be arrested, it is better to pre- 
 vent it entirely by exercise, erect attitude, sunlight, avoid- 
 ance of dampness, and proper food. 
 
 Consumption is principally, a want of nutrition. The 
 first essential in effecting a cure is to digest the largest 
 possible amount of nourishing food. The error must not 
 be made of stuffing the stomach — the food is worse than 
 worthless there if not well digested. To promote digestion, 
 exercise must be had ; not violent gymnastic evolutions, 
 but gentle out-door occupation. Fresh air is essential. It 
 is probable that all the good effects of cod liver oil are due 
 to its nourishing properties ; and as this is frequently adul- 
 terated, and even when pure does not agree with some sto- 
 machs, it is likely that all its virtues may be found in bread 
 and meat. Raw beefsteak, or that but slightly cooked, 
 light bread, and pure water, with such fruits and vegetables 
 as may be desired, are the best u medicines." I do not 
 think it essential that the diet should be confined to any par- 
 ticular articles. Only avoid all pastry, cake, rich gravies, 
 and indigestible articles of every kind. The stomach must 
 not be overloaded ; it is what you digest, not what you swal- 
 low, that nourishes you, and regularity in eating is impor- 
 tant ; then get as much cheerful, out door exercise as pos- 
 sible, avoiding severe exertion and fatigue. The following 
 story shows the beneficial results of such a course of treat- ' 
 ment, even though perhaps in this case, toward the last, 
 carried somewhat to excess : 
 
 " Several winters ago, a well known New Yorker, famous 
 among other things for his physical strength, arrived in 
 Albany quite ill, and took to his room at a hotel. Grow- 
 ing worse, he sent for a physician, who found him suffering 
 from a good deal of fever and general derangement. Days 
 passed on and the patient grew no better. Finally he told 
 his physician that his own opinion was that his whole sys- 
 tem was overcharged with water — that he could feel it — 
 that it seemed to oppress him like the nightmare. The 
 physician did not readily fall in with this view of the case. 
 The patient grew no better, and sending for some friends, 
 he insisted upon at once returning to New York, where he 
 
102 cs± uses, Tst^ rEJvriojr ajvs) sezf c un& of 
 
 would be at home, and have the care of physicians whom 
 he knew, and who knew him. Against all protestations he 
 bundled off. In New York the physicians made a diagno- 
 sis of his case, and concluded the man was suffering from 
 Bright's disease of the kidneys. They told him plainly the 
 nature of the disease j that it was obstinate — one which 
 could be relieved, but not cured ; and that the probabilities 
 . were, it would carry him off in a year. Eecovering from 
 the attack very slowly, and reduced to a skeleton, -his first 
 attempt to walk was across his room; the next day he 
 walked twice across his room ; and repeating the exercise 
 daily, he found he gained a little, very little every day. 
 In a month he walked half a block from his home and 
 returned. 
 
 In this state of convalescence, he remembered what diet- 
 ing had done for him on one occasion j that under a strict 
 regimen of the plainest food, regular exercise, attention to 
 hours of sleep, and careful avoidance of every possible 
 excitement, he had wonderfully increased in strength and 
 agility in the course of a few months. He reasoned if this 
 diet and exercise was good for a well man seeking even 
 more strength, it would be efficacious in the case of one 
 who had everything to gain. Explaining his theory to' his 
 physician, the reply was, the experiment could do no harm. 
 So the patient became his own doctor. His food at once 
 became exclusively lean mutton and Graham bread, three 
 times a day, in limited and measured quantities, which were 
 never varied. His exclusive drink was cold water. As 
 his strength increased, he increased his exercise by dumb 
 bells, lifting weights, etc., but mainly by long, vigorous 
 walks, usually wholly by himself. Improvement was steady 
 from the commencement ; and with improvement in vigor 
 and spirits came an appetite which, it seemed to the man, 
 the larder of a first class hotel would fail to satisfy. And 
 here came the trial.- Surrounded by everything to tempt 
 him, the battle between hunger and regimen was often 
 severe 5 but regimen triumphed every time. Often encoun- 
 tering in his rounds, at hotels and restaurants, " feasts of 
 fat things," he thought he would give thousands of dollars 
 could he partake and gratify his appetite as others were 
 
THYSICvLI, J4.JY& MUJVToiZ DESJZITT, ETC. fOS 
 
 enjoying theirs. But he said it occurred to him, at these 
 times, that with him the question of abstinence had become 
 one of life and death. In all this he persevered for two 
 years, at the end of which time he considered himself a well 
 man, without a vestige of disease about him, and as fine a 
 specimen of the man physical as one meets in a lifetime. 
 
 " There are eminent physicians in the city of New York 
 who know the particulars of the case as we have related 
 them. They consider the facts as having an important 
 bearing on a class of disease, and have written them out 
 with a view of bringing them to the more general atten- 
 tion of the medical faculty. The hero of the case is John 
 Morrissey, ex-prize fighter, and since member of Congress. 
 The regimen he adopted to cure himself of disease was the 
 same, in all respects, as the one he was put under by his 
 keepers while training for his famous prize fight with 
 Heenan." 
 
 Dr. Hall says : " Consumptive people die for want of 
 strength, want of flesh, want of nutriment — not for want 
 of lung substance, as is almost universally supposed. They 
 die, in almost every instance, long before the lungs are con- 
 sumed so far as to be incapable of sustaining life. Numer- 
 ous cases are given where men have lived for years with 
 an amount of available lungs not equal to one fourth of the 
 whole. They were there, perhaps, but not available, not 
 efficient. The majority of persons who die of consumption 
 perish before a third of the lungs have consumed away, in 
 consequence of loose bowels, torpid liver, indigestion, night 
 sweats, want of sleep, clogging up of the lungs with matter 
 and mucus by the daily use of cough drops, balsams, tonics, 
 or other destructive agents. These symptoms need but be 
 controlled to protract life indefinitely ,* that is, if the symp- 
 toms were prescribed for according to general principles, and 
 the patient properly nursed, letting the consumptive portion 
 of the disease alone, it would sometimes cure itself, or at 
 least allow the patient to live in reasonable comfort for a 
 number of years. 
 
 " The reader may almost imagine that he has a clue to 
 the cure of consumption, if he could but give the patient 
 phosphorus and lime, or phosphate of lime — that is, burned 
 
\ 
 
 /6>4 CAUSES, FUJSrEJSTTlON AND SELF CUHJ2 OF 
 
 bones — eight or ten grains, with the first mouthful of each 
 meal, so as to let it be mixed with the food and carried 
 with it into the blood, from twenty to thirty grains being 
 daily needed in health. The scientific world were charmed 
 less than a hundred years ago by the discovery of oxygen. 
 It was supposed, that as oxygen was the constituent of the 
 air which imparted vitality to the blood, gave it its purity, 
 its activity, and filled the man with life and animation, 
 nothing was needed but to take enough oxygen to purify 
 the blood, and thus strike at the root of all disease. Ac- 
 cordingly the oxygen was prepared and administered. The 
 recipient revived, was transported, was fleet as the antelope, 
 could run with the wind. He smiled, he fairly yelled for 
 joy, and — died laughing, or from over-excitement. The ma- 
 chine worked too fast ; it could not be stopped j and pure 
 oxygen has never been taken for health since. Thus it 
 will perhaps always be with artificial remedies ; they can- 
 not equal those which are prepared in nature's manufactory. 
 The phosphate of lime, in order to answer the purposes 
 of nature, must be eliminated from the healthful digestion 
 of substantial food in the stomach ; and the only natural 
 and efficient means of obtaining the requisite amount is, to 
 regulate the great glands of the system in such a manner 
 as to ^ause tne perfect digestion of a sufficient amount 
 of suitable food." 
 
 The preparation which Dr. Churchill believed a specific 
 for consumption, and which he generously made public 
 when it was believed he could realize a fortune by keeping 
 it, was afterward renounced by him, for he found that with 
 the most honest intention, and with undoubted skill and 
 learning, he had still made a mistake. His hypophosphates 
 are now extolled only by parties who prepare and adver- 
 tise them as a proprietary article. The "inhalation" is 
 now exclusively in the hands of quacks ; the respectable 
 members of the medical profession, after a faithful trial, 
 utterly discarded it as worthless, and often positively in- 
 jurious and dangerous in practice, whatever it may have 
 been in mere theory. This verdict may be safely applied 
 to any future discovery vaunted by advertising practition- 
 ers. 
 
•PHYSICAL *LND MJEjYTAL DESIZITT, JETC. /OS 
 
 While the rotted-away portion of a consumptive's lungs 
 can never be replaced, a considerable portion may be so 
 destroyed and yet leave enough to sustain life, and even 
 give no special inconvenience to the patient. But the de- 
 cay must be stopped ; then the tubercles will heal, and 
 though their scars will remain to the dying day, life may be 
 prolonged many years. No medicine can arrest this decay. 
 Nature alone can cure ; but to succeed must be aided by 
 exercise, pure air, and good digestion. Though cases far 
 gone, apparently without any chance of recovery, and even 
 given up by able physicians, have been cured by active 
 out-door exercise, plain, healthful food and pure air, the 
 time to adopt these is at the first suspicion of any lung 
 complaint. The sooner you begin the surer the cure, or the 
 entire avoidance of consumption. For those already con- 
 siderably enfeebled some caution may be advisable in adopt- 
 ing this change of habit. Don't overdo at first, beware of 
 fatigue, but don't " coddle" yourself. If you house your- 
 self up, if you make an invalid of yourself, you are doomed. 
 The cough is really a useful process of nature for getting 
 rid of diseased and contaminating matter; to check this by 
 medicine is to pen up the very thing which will spread ul- 
 ceration to the, as yet, healthy tissues. 
 
 A very common recommendation to consumptives is to 
 try a sea voyage or a change of climate. The only cases 
 where a sea voyage has proved beneficial were where the 
 disease was in its early stages, and in such cases the great 
 benefit resulted from the plain living and the active labor — 
 the duties on shipboard being well calculated to exercise the 
 muscles of the chest and to induce deep breathing. The 
 benefits result from the seaman's occupation rather than 
 from any influence of the sea air. Go " before the mast " if 
 you go at all. During most of the time a passenger gets 
 very little fresh air, and it is deemed doubtful if sea air, 
 even in its purity, is beneficial to consumptives. 
 
 With the advocates of change of climate great variety of 
 opinion seems to exist as to the most suitable locality. The 
 West India Islands have been in great favor, but their 
 climate, though balmy and delicious to the healthy, seems 
 only to exert an enervating influence upon the already de- 
 
/06 CAUSES, 1PHFYFNTI0JST AjY2> self cuhje of 
 
 bilitated. The South has been recommended, but so uni- 
 versally fatal have cases proved that the southern physicians 
 have joined in advising cosnumptives to avoid this region. 
 Minnesota was long considered the favored spot, and still 
 more recently, Alaska. The air of Minnesota is remark- 
 ably pure, but whether from its rarity or the extreme cold- 
 ness of the climate, it seems from experience to afford no 
 safe hopes. It is not likely that a country like Alaska has 
 any inducements. 
 
 Of course a resident in a decidedly consumptive lo- 
 cality may be benefited by a removal north, south, east, or 
 west ; and if a consumptive upon removal anywhere adopts 
 improved habits of living, exercise, etc., he may recover, 
 when he would have died at home under his former mode 
 of living. What I wish to convey is the fact that there is 
 little hope in mere climatic change for one who has allowed 
 himself to be brought to the brink of the grave. There 
 are undoubtedly those whose constitutions are not strong 
 enough to withstand the rigors of our northern climate ; 
 these may find a more temperate one better suited to their 
 strength, but the change should be made before the disease 
 has a firm hold. Some are probably saved by sojourning 
 during the winter in some one of the dry, healthful locali- 
 ties which are to be found scattered through many parts of 
 the South. Such cases I believe exceptional — if the region 
 is reasonably healthy, I believe home the best section for 
 consumptives, as a rule. As large a proportion of cases of 
 recovery at home have probably occurred as have occurred 
 among those adopting a change of climate. We hear of 
 the cures effected in certain localities, but often the fearful 
 number of deaths which offset them are not mentioned. 
 
 It would seem well established that the place for curing 
 consumption is just where the patient resides, excepting, of 
 course, it be a damp or otherwise specially unfavorable 
 location. Most of the benefits experienced in individual cases 
 from changes were most likely due to changes in habits, 
 modes of living, etc. A dry, healthy rural locality is 
 doubtless preferable to the city, food, cooking, and other 
 things being equal. The mountains are considered bene- 
 ficial, the British troops in India when attacked with con- 
 
\ 
 
 / 
 
 PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL 2>E%ILITY, ETC. /07 
 
 sumption being sent away from the sea-coast to the moun- 
 tainous inland districts. 
 
 Chopping wood, horseback riding, and rowing are all 
 good 5 but the riding should be commenced in moderation 
 and gradually increased each day, trotting being considered 
 the best gait ; rowing should be very cautiously done, as, if 
 excessive, great harm will result, and its benefits are more 
 available as a preventive than a cure. All exertion must 
 be made with caution ; no strain or exhaustion should be 
 incurred. Walking, running, leaping and similar light ex- 
 ercises are beneficial. In walking, an erect position should 
 be maintained, with the eyes raised to some object ahead 
 slightly higher than the eyes. Corpulent individuals rarely 
 have consumption, their exception being largely due to the 
 erect position they maintain. Braces are objectionable, as 
 they must press injuriously upon some part of the body, 
 and have only a temporary effect in sustaining the wearer. 
 Violent jerking back of the arms or thumping the chest are 
 not beneficial. 
 
 Cold air is better than warm, but too sudden changes of 
 temperature are bad. To avoid these, respirometers of 
 various kinds are used. A handkerchief or vail folded sev- 
 eral times answers better than any patented one. The object 
 is to mingle the warm breath with the colder outside air, as 
 both pass through the respirometer, so preventing sudden 
 chills. Cold air, after being inspired by the lungs, expands 
 with increased heat and distends the air cells. This is 
 beneficial, and if after running a short distance the patient 
 will keep his mouth shut and compel his breathing to be 
 done through his nose, he will be aiding the expansion of 
 his lungs and the filling out of the air-cells. A good exer- 
 cise, where it does not occasion pain in the chest, is to ex- 
 tend yourself upon the floor, face downward, with the palms 
 resting on the floor. Then raise your whole body, with the 
 points of the toes resting on the floor, several times in suc- 
 cession by the muscles of the arms and chest. This exer- 
 cise by sedentary persons a few times during the day, and 
 at night before retiring and in the morning upon rising, 
 would aid in warding off consumption. 
 
 The tendency of* tight lacing to produce consumption is 
 
fOS CAUSES, ?>ZtEyE,YTIO,Y 3±jYQ SEZ1 1 CURE OF 
 
 sometimes underrated by those addicted to the practice, for 
 lack of comprehension of the real facts. The compression 
 rarely injures by actually squeezing the lungs so much as 
 to prevent their holding enough air to support life. This 
 would be almost impossible with •healthy lungs, for there is 
 ample excess over what is absolutely sufficient. But the 
 trouble lies in preventing the full expansion of the lungs. 
 Air is essential, and without it the cells begin to develop 
 tubercles. These spread steadily, enervating more and 
 more until consumption is fully developed. The victim for 
 months or years may be unconscious of the danger. Even 
 compression which produces no immediate discomfort may 
 be sufficient to induce eventual disease. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 PURIFYING THE BLOOD — FALLACIOUS THEORIES — SCROF- 
 ULA, CANCER, ETC. 
 
 THE necessity of purifying the blood is loudly insisted 
 upon by thousands of men, each one of whom, 
 strangely, is fortunate enough to be the possessor of the 
 sure and only preparation which will do this. Brandreth, 
 the pill man, used to say {not in his advertisements), that if 
 you advertised month after month that, to cure any ailment, 
 it was absolutely necessary to drink a pint of beer each 
 morning, the public would by and by believe it and drink 
 the beer accordingly. The constant reiteration of the ne- 
 cessity of purifying the blood, and the equally strenuous 
 assertion that this can only be done by this or that syrup, 
 or this or that pill, have convinced thousands of both state- 
 ments. Now, although purifying the blood is a good thing 
 to do, you cannot do it in this way. 
 
 The great purifier of the blood is oxygen, and the way 
 to take it is to breathe pure fresh air. The heart, with 
 every beat, drives the blood through the arteries to every 
 part of the body, and, taken up again by innumerable little 
 
&irr$rcAz ajvs mental 7)esilitt, etc. 109 
 
 veins, it returns to the myriad of little blood-vessels in the 
 lungs. The blood never comes in direct contact with the 
 air, a membrane of the thinnest possible structure forming 
 the air cells on the sides of which the blood-vessels are 
 spread. Through this membrane, by what is known as the 
 dialysis, the vitalizing principle of the air, oxygen, passes 
 to the blood, while the carbonic acid and effete matter of 
 the blood pass off with the next expiration of the breath. 
 
 This expired breath is impure, though bad breath is not 
 always proof of impure blood. When the blood goes to 
 the lungs it is dark colored, known as " black blood,"* and 
 after this process of absorbing oxygen, becomes of a 
 bright, sparkling red. The exhaled breath has lost its 
 power of sustaining life, for if breathed again as it comes 
 from the mouth, without admixture with other air, suffoca- 
 tion would result. It seems certain, therefore, that the 
 proper way to purify the blood is to breathe pure air. 
 Without so doing the blood can never be made pure, and 
 unless purified it cannot perform its duty of nourishing and 
 repairing the wastes of the system. 
 
 A most fruitful source of disease is bad air. The con- 
 tagion resulting from inspiring the breath of those sick of 
 certain diseases, or of the air which has absorbed the poison 
 from their clothes, excrements, or bodies, is well known. 
 
 * This same principle is exemplified in an experiment which may be 
 readily made by any one curious about the subject. If there be left 
 a mixture of alcohol and water in an uncorked bottle, the alcohol 
 having a greater affinity, a greater liking for the air than the water 
 has, begins at once to pass out of the bottle and mingle with the air 
 of the room, as will be known by the odor of the apartment, and will 
 continue to pass out until there is, nothing left in the bottle but the 
 water. But fill another bottle with a similar mixture, and place a thick 
 membrane over the mouth ; in a few days all the water will be gone, 
 while the alcohol remains. Another illustration of this doctrine of 
 chemical affinities is found in the experiments of Lewis of London, in 
 the examination of the exterior of twenty-two thousand leaden 
 coffins, and the contents of a large number in the church vaults of the 
 British metropolis, showing " that nitrogen and carbonic acid gasses 
 holding animal matter in suspension, unperceived, but steadily pene- 
 trate through, and escape from the pores of leaden coffins, and dis- 
 appear in the air, so that by the end of fifty or one hundred years 
 nothing but dry bones remain ; and this escape may go on, though 
 the coffins are uninjured." 
 
110 CAUSF, 'PnEYEjYTlOJV AJVS) SFLF CURE OF 
 
 More indirectly perhaps equal harm is done by general im- 
 purities in the air. The prevalence of scrofula in crowded 
 cities is largely due to the filth contaminating the atmo- 
 sphere. Consumption is induced or hastened in those pre- 
 disposed, in many cases. The country is not free from the 
 curse of bad air. Eotting fish on a fish-manured corn field, 
 a miasmic swamp, or other source of foul odors may prove 
 as deadly as the stifling air of a crowded tenement house. 
 
 Even where pure air is abundant thousands of persons 
 insist on stinting themselves, often to an allowance barely 
 sufficient to sustain life, sleeping in. small rooms without 
 ventilation, and with windows tightly closed, possibly add- 
 ing " weather strips n to complete the exclusion of fresh 
 air. Where two or more sleep in the one room it is 
 specially important that there should be plenty of air, for 
 another's breath is worse to breathe than one's own. Many 
 diseases not commonly considered contagious may prove in 
 a measure so where a person sleeps regularly with the sick 
 one, and breathes the confined air of a close room. On 
 this subject of pure air an excellent authority writes : 
 
 " Miss Nightingale has such faith in the healing and re- 
 storative powers of the air, that she makes a full and free 
 supply of it, night and day, the first condition of successful 
 hospital treatment. In the English hospitals the space 
 allotted to each bed is twenty-one hundred cubic feet, and 
 Miss Nightingale insists that this is not sufficient for a 
 single night without constant change by ventilation. If 
 this be so, what must be the effect of sleeping, as half the 
 people in this country do, in little eight by ten bed-rooms, 
 with the windows and doors tightly closed, and perhaps 
 the heat of a furnace or stove for warmth besides, in the 
 winter °! The French hospitals provide for the complete 
 renewal of the air of a sick room every hour. We sleep 
 in about a thousand cubic feet of air for six or eight hours, 
 without renewing it at all, and sometimes two or three 
 persons in that confined space. The fetor of a chamber 
 that has been thus occupied is a sufficient demonstration of 
 the unfitness of exhausted and stale air to be received into 
 the lungs ; and the pallor, headache, and lassitude ex- 
 perienced in the morning by those who sleep in these close 
 
PHYSICAZ AJVD MEJYToiZ 2>EjBIZITT, fiTC. /// 
 
 rooms show very clearly that the repose which should have 
 renewed the vital powers has only been the occasion of 
 poisoning them. What wonder that the lungs, denied their 
 natural aliment, and fed on poisonous malaria, refuse to 
 perform their functions and go to premature decay ! We 
 have no donbt that this one sin against nature of sleeping 
 in impure air is the great source of nearly all the lung dis- 
 eases which sweep so many to early graves in what should 
 be the bloom and vigor of life. The idea that the night 
 air is hurtful is a mere prejudice. It is the dead air of our 
 sleeping-rooms, laden with foul animal matter, that poisons 
 us, corrupts our blood, and destroys our vitality." • 
 
 Though the average amount of air used by a person's 
 lungs in the course of twenty -four hours is about three hund- 
 red and eighty cubic feet, a room containing that amount 
 will not sustain life in a person for one half that time ; for 
 with the expiration of the first breath the whole air of the 
 room is in a slight measure contaminated, and long before 
 all the air has actually been taken in by the lungs it has 
 become so adulterated as to be entirely unfit to breathe. 
 Were it not so, and were one able to breathe up every par- 
 ticle of air in a given space, even the Black Hole of Cal- 
 cutta, whose horrors are a matter of history, would have 
 sustained without special discomfort the hundred and forty- 
 six persons confined there on the fatal night when but 
 twenty -three of them escaped suffocation. Though we may 
 not feel special inconvenience even when the air has be- 
 come considerably vitiated, the harm is being done. We 
 can become accustomed to a close atmosphere, be even un- 
 aware of its closeness unless we have an opportunity to 
 contrast it suddenly with a pure one, but we feel the effects 
 in headaches and other symptoms. Almost all schools, 
 public buildings, theaters, churches, etc., furnish too limited 
 a supply of fresh air. In schools the evil is specially to 
 be avoided, for to children plenty^ of pure air is even more 
 important than to grown persons. Physically and mentally 
 they will suffer, and the youthful vitality, upon which the 
 constitution must depend for building up, is impaired. 
 When children become pale, languid, feverish and otherwise 
 " out of sorts," let parents look to the nursery and school- 
 
//# CAUSES, PfijerJENTION c4JV2) SELF CUHF OF 
 
 room for the possible cause. Children often suffer from 
 impure air without noticing it particularly , or if they do, 
 not being generally aware of its dangerous properties, may 
 neglect speaking of it to their parents. There is increased 
 regard paid now to schoolroom ventilation, but there are 
 still many neglectful teachers and poisoned pupils. 
 
 As to purifying the blood, it would seem that dependence 
 is best placed in obtaining plenty of fresh, air. Many suf- 
 ferers have been revived and restored by this means, and 
 combined with cheerful employment, active out-door exer- 
 cise I have faith, in as a very powerful remedy. Change 
 of air is often beneficial j for instance a change to mountain 
 air by one living on the sea-coast, or to sea air by one re- 
 siding in the interior or among mountains. Scrofula is 
 popularly considered a disease of the blood, or resulting 
 from its impurity j but there is a growing conviction among 
 many of the best authorities that it is rather a debility of 
 tissue 5 that is, that the tissues have not the necessary 
 vigor to abstract the required sustenance from the blood. 
 In scrofulous persons this debility may extend to the blood, 
 which may be deficient in the nourishing property, but it is 
 more a general trouble than a disease of the blood. Real 
 scrofula appears to be beyond the power of medicines, 
 which only act in one of two ways ; they either diffuse 
 the disease, causing the sores to appear on a large surface, 
 or they concentrate it upon one point, perhaps driving it to 
 heart, lungs, or stomach, where it fiercely attacks the struc- 
 ture and hastens death. I have no hope for the worst cases 
 of scrofula, except perhaps temporary alleviation of their 
 sufferings ; but for slight manifestations, or a mere predis- 
 position thereto, I believe in the power of pure air, exercise, 
 and simple and nourishing food, to ward off the threatened 
 disease. Though there is no reasonable ground for believ- 
 ing that scrofula when once developed can be cured, it may 
 be warded off for an indefinite period even by those predis- 
 posed thereto, and the very means of so doing are those 
 just mentioned. 
 
 Whether cancer is a result of impure blood is not known ; 
 indeed, it is a mystery to even the ablest physicians. There 
 is no cure, though cancers may be cut out or burned out 
 
^HTSIColZ AJVS) MJZWTAZ DJZSIZITT, ETC. 113 
 
 with caustic. Even by these means it is difficult to exter- 
 minate them ; but what are frequently termed cancers are 
 not so, merely one or another species of sores easily cured, 
 or likely to cure themselves if let alone. It is these that 
 the advertising " cancer doctors n cure, after frightening 
 the patient with startling stories of their dangerous charac- 
 ter. Heal cancers are extremely rare. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE BOWELS — NECESSITY OF THEIR PROPER ACTION" — 
 DANGERS OF PURGATIVE MEDICINES. 
 
 "TTTHILE the proper action of the bowels is one of the 
 VV most important requisites of good health, many 
 persons defeat their own and nature's object by excessive 
 attempts to " regulate." I have, in another chapter, shown 
 the bad effects of depending on purgative medicines for 
 overcoming a costive tendency ; and there is danger, too, 
 in checking slight cases of unusual looseness. One evacua- 
 tion each day is the natural action. This should occur at 
 nearly the same hour every day, and will, if one makes a 
 practice of attending to the matter at the specified time. 
 Probably the best time is immediately after breakfast, as 
 then the pressure of the new meal aids in forcing the ac- 
 cumulations of the bowels onward ; while time has been 
 allowed the food of the preceding day to part with its 
 nutriment. 
 
 Too little attention is paid to this regularity of hour. 
 By it regularity is encouraged, and the bowels will them- 
 selves often overcome slight obstructions which they would 
 not otherwise do. Where no special time is observed it is 
 apt to be put off, the bowels are less prompt to act, and 
 straining is often induced. After the nutriment has been 
 absorbed from the dissolved and prepared food from the 
 stomach, the bowels go on absorbing the liquid portion of 
 the waste matter if it is allowed to remain beyond the 
 
//4 CAUSES, ^nEYENTJON vlJVT) SFZF CU2ZF OF 
 
 natural time ; this is the reason of extreme hardness and 
 dryness of the stools in such cases; they becoming more 
 and more so until they resist the power of the muscles of 
 the rectum, remaining therein and causing stoppage, and 
 even in some cases rupture of the anal passage. Diarrhoea 
 is often only a remedy of nature for getting rid of indigest- 
 ible food or foreign substances. In such cases, to stop it 
 by powerful astringent medicines is forcing the bowels to 
 retain what it is highly important they should get rid of. 
 The bowels when such foreign or indigestible substance 
 finds its way therein, by a natural provision, are flooded 
 with water to wash away the impediment ; this forms the 
 diarrhoea. Should the looseness not be accompanied by 
 severe pain, not exceed five or six evacuations a day, and 
 lessening in a day or two, it is best to merely avoid laxative 
 articles of food and leave the .matter to regulate itself. 
 
 Where the bowels have not been accustomed to regular 
 action such may be induced (provided there be no severe 
 complaint) by the following method : Should they refuse 
 to act without straining, after breakfast, do not attempt to 
 force them, as injury, even rupture, may result; but ar- 
 range a walk or moderate manual work for an hour or two 
 exercising sufficiently to maintain the skin moist. During 
 this time as much cold water as is desired may be drank. 
 When the exercise is finished, if in winter, go to a warm 
 room, or before a good fire ; if in summer, to a sheltered 
 place free from draughts. Eat no meals until an evacua- 
 sion takes place, or if any food at all, nothing but a 
 baked apple, bread and butter, or dry toast in very small 
 quantity. The next morning quietly remain in the house 
 until the time for a passage arrives ; if you do not succeed, 
 then repeat the proceedings of the previous day. 
 
 For maintaining regular action the food should be partly 
 made up of fresh fruits, and such coarse food as hominy, 
 corn bread, Graham bread, and the like. Boiled turnips, and 
 baked apples are excellent to prevent constipation. In lieu 
 of the purgative medicines usually employed, an efficacious 
 and innocent substitute will be found, where dieting is not 
 sufficient, in injections of water, not sufficiently cold to cause 
 any chilly sensation. This is often useful in the case of 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MHJVTtLZ DEBILITY, ETC. 115 
 
 children who cannot carry out the foregoing rules of diet, 
 exercise, etc. 
 
 Where the action is more frequent than twice a day a 
 diet of boiled rice, farina, boiled milk and preparations of 
 corn starch, will usually be sufficient to restrain the excess. 
 In more severe cases remaining abed, or if the patient 
 mus^be on his feet, using a bandage of thick flannel twelve 
 or fourteen inches wide tightly bound over the abdomen, is 
 recommended. Drink of all kinds should be avoided -, but 
 pounded ice may be eaten. Exercise should be very mod- 
 erate when evacuations of the bowels are thin or watery. 
 
 OHAPTEB XX. 
 
 THE URINE — FALSE ALARMS — HOW TO CURE SUPPRESSION 
 OF URINE AND NON-RETENTION OF URINE. 
 
 "YT"ERY serious injury is frequently done by a failure to 
 V attend to the passage of urine when nature demands 
 its voidance. So important is this, and so severe are the 
 possible evils resulting from persistent disregard, that I be- 
 lieve a chapter may well be devoted to the subject. This 
 is the more desirable as certain practitioners of ill repute 
 have misrepresented many facts connected therewith, with 
 a view of arousing alarm and thereby securing patients. 
 First of all, the primary object of the urine is to carry off 
 the waste liquids of the system ; therefore its quantity and 
 quality will vary from time to time with the varying sub- 
 stances taken into the system in the form of food and 
 drink. In warm weather, when the individual perspires 
 freely, there may be but a trifling quantity of urine passed, 
 notwithstanding he may have drank considerable. In win- 
 ter, the bulk of the water taken into the stomach eventu- 
 ally finds its way to the urinary organs. 
 
 Great stress is laid on the significance of sediment or 
 cloudy substances in the urine, by certain parties. The 
 " brick dust n deposit indicates an excessive amount of lime 
 
//# CAUSE, Z>ftfiYJEjYTION jLJYD SJSI^F CU2ZE OF 
 
 in the .system j but the fact that it passes off in the urine is a 
 favorable one rather than otherwise. If suppressed, it is 
 liabls to cause the formation of stone in the bladder j its 
 being washed away in the urine aids in preventing this ca- 
 lamity. The substance frequently found floating on the 
 surface of the urine after it has stood awhile, or mixing 
 with it giving it a cloudy appearance, is in most cases a per- 
 fectly natural secretion, having nothing whatever to do 
 with the organs of generation, though insidiously repre- 
 sented to be the seminal fluid, and indicating extreme de- 
 bility of the sexual organism. This secretion is the pro- 
 duct of the mucous follicles which line the urethral walls, 
 and is often mixed with perfectly healthy urine. It is of 
 no more moment than the saliva in the mouth. 
 
 There is great sympathy between the urinary and gen- 
 erative organs, and abuses of the one tend to induce weak- 
 ness of the other. But urinary weakness may often be 
 constitutional, and is frequent in children. Wetting the 
 bed is often treated as a vice, as though the child delighted 
 in the act. The fact that it generally occurs during sleep 
 would alone indicate that it is a matter beyond his immedi- 
 ate control. If not accompanied by self abuse a little re- 
 gulation of the drink toward bedtime will in most cases 
 cure the trouble. Such a thing ought not to arouse 
 special alarm, if right measures are adopted to overcome it. 
 
 In these cases mild diuretic medicines may be useful, but 
 I would not recommend them. Medicine is rarely needed, 
 and may be administered injudiciously by inexperienced 
 parents or nurses. It is better to trust to nature. Let the 
 supper be light and dry, never salty. Give no drink in the 
 evening, and above all require the patient to pass water 
 immediately before retiring, if there is any in the bladder — 
 also on arising in the morhing. This will prevent much 
 fluid accumulating. The trouble often arises from not 
 passing water when inclination demands. It is impossible 
 to set down as definite rules for this as for the evacuation 
 of the bowels, but it is dangerous to neglect it. Neglect, 
 however, is almost universal. Business men go from morn- 
 ing till night, week after week ; travelers restrain them- 
 selves till the bladder becomes distended almost to burst- 
 
ing, and visitors in strange places will endure extreme 
 misery and constitutional injury perhaps, from excessive 
 delicacy. Persons on excursions or picnic parties, or in 
 similar situations, should be mindful of the comfort of 
 their companions, and give them an opportunity of leav- 
 ing the company, if desirous, without making that fact con- 
 spicuous. Unless the bladder is emptied at proper periods, 
 not only is inconvenience felt, but permanent injury may 
 result. If kept unnaturally distended it becomes weakened, 
 but this is not all, the secretion of the urine must stop or 
 it must find a vent either natural or otherwise, so it bas 
 been known in extreme cases to pass from the ears, nose, 
 eyes, or in other unnatural ways. These are not common 
 results, but it can never be restrained when it plainly calls 
 for voidance without bad results. One's own desires are 
 the best guide, but it is well to have some regular times for 
 attending to this matter. 
 
 In old age the necessity of passing water becomes more 
 frequent, and the aged commonly require to rise at least 
 once during the night for that purpose. Great barbarity, 
 doubtless unintentional, is practiced now and then in 
 schools, in preventing children attending to the demands of 
 nature. To deprive them of recess is a punishment liable 
 to do vast mischief, and to prevent a pupil leaving the 
 room, even at unusual times, may be a grave error. I 
 know teachers are often imposed upon ; but, on the other 
 hand, I know timid scholars have refrained from asking, 
 when absolutely essential to health and comfort, for fear of 
 reproof. 
 
 Where the secretion of the urine has become small, or 
 the passage thereof painful, from habits of neglect, fruits 
 are beneficial, and such soothing drinks as flaxseed tea or 
 boiled slippery elm. One of the best and pleasantest pro- 
 moters of the secretion is watermelon. This fruit agrees 
 with, and is highly relished by, nearly all persons, and in 
 reasonable quantity, fresh and ripe, can do no harm, unless 
 the person has that strange and unaccountable antipathy 
 for it which is sometimes manifested, in individual cases, 
 toward the commonest articles of food. Such idiosyncra- 
 cies are not common, howevei. 
 
//<? CAUSES, PRETENTION AJVD SELF CURE OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE TRANSITION STAGE — CHILDHOOD AND MATURITY. 
 
 A MOST important period in the lives of the young is 
 the time in which they are passing from childhood 
 into maturity, in which the person is neither child nor 
 adult, but in a state of transition from the one to the other. 
 This seems to be but little understood — certainly does not 
 receive the attention its importance warrants. The consti- 
 tutional disturbances which occur during this period need 
 give no cause for alarm ; but on the course which the child 
 then takes the whole future turns. 
 
 This constitutional change is not manifested at the same 
 age in all subjects, but may be looked for at about the age 
 of twelve years. With some the change is scarcely percep- 
 tible j with others there appears to be complete confusion 
 of moral and mental faculties. Gentle and submissive chil- 
 dren may become turbulent and fractious, while sweetness 
 of temper may be changed to extreme irritability. The 
 most unaccountable freaks in conduct and disposition may 
 appear. In boys there is a disposition toward lawlessness, 
 noise, a tendency to break loose from parental authority, a 
 seeming carelessness of family ties and affections, wild ideas 
 and extravagant dreams of impossible careers. Where there 
 is a strong animal temperament, great bodily force being 
 developed, rapid growth and development, these symptoms 
 are usually the most severe. The outward symptoms of 
 those of more quiet temperament, where the mental pre- 
 dominates over the physical, are not so striking, but require 
 equal care and skill in their management. 
 
 While it would be a mistake to relinquish the child to its 
 own devices at this time, it should be remembered that 
 these manifestations are in a measure beyond its own respon- 
 sibility and control. They are indeed, in their most extrav- 
 agant forms, a near approach to a mild form of insanity, 
 and in rare cases a form of insanity is actually developed. 
 On this point we have the testimony of Dr. Ray, a well known 
 writer on the medical jurisprudence of insanity. He says : 
 
2>HYSICri.I ?LjY3) MUJVTsil DEBILITY, ETC. 1/9 
 
 " That the evolution of the sexual functions is very often 
 attended by more or less constitutional disturbance, espe- 
 cially in the female sex, is now a well established physio- 
 logical truth. The shock seems to be felt chiefly by the 
 nervous system, which experiences almost every form of 
 irritation, varying in severity from the simplest hysteric 
 symptoms to tetanus, St. Vitus' dance, and epilepsy. And 
 when we bear in mind, also, that general mania is some- 
 times produced by this great physiological change, it can- 
 not be deemed an extraordinary fact that partial mania, 
 exciting to acts of incendiarism or murder, should be one of 
 its effects. Still, we would not be understood as favoring 
 the opinion that every youth between the age of twelve 
 or fifteen, guilty of incendiarism, is a subject of pyromania. 
 The general principle of the power of the change in ques- 
 tion to produce this disorder is not alone sufficient. It is 
 necessary to trace the connection between them in the par- 
 ticular case, and unless this can be done we have no right 
 to claim the benefit of a general truth." 
 
 Oases of this kind are extremely rare ; but any state 
 capable, in any instance, of so powerful an effect upon the 
 mind cannot be passed over as trifling. The transition 
 period is a natural one ; these troubles are the result of 
 some interference with the natural development, or wrong 
 guidance. The cases of malformation, or irregular develop- 
 ment, are not frequent j and in the rare instances where 
 they do occur and give rise to these troubles, competent 
 professional advice should be obtained, as they are not 
 fit subjects for self treatment. The object of this chap- 
 ter is not to arouse any fears of this description, which 
 would be groundless in nearly every individual, but to 
 point out more common evils. It is the unnatural modes 
 of living to which most of these are to be attributed. High 
 feeding ; impairment of the digestive powers by irregular 
 eating and improper food, like pastry, cake, spices, and rich 
 gravies ; stimulation of the mind by over study or exciting 
 reading ; a state of morbid irritableness ; and the influence 
 of lewd books. As it will be the mother's province to 
 guide at this time, especially in the case of young girls, I 
 cannot do better, I think, than give an extract from one of 
 
120 CAUSES, 'PRETENTION j4jY2) SEZF CURE OF 
 
 Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Letters to Mothers, which 
 gives a woman's suggestions for the guidance of women. 
 She says : 
 
 "As this is the period when the great sexual change, 
 which constitutes the child man or woman, takes place, it 
 is one in which curiosity is apt to be aroused upon that 
 mysterious subject j and it is to be regretted that for one 
 good, plain, sincere instructor, who tells the child clear and 
 noble truths in chaste and modest language, there are twenty 
 of the devil's angels always ready to fill the rising curiosity 
 of youth with dangerous and fatal images. There is a 
 series of literature prepared expressly with reference to this 
 work of corruption that parents or teachers seldom see. 
 Such pamphlets are sometimes to be found lying like ser- 
 pents, concealed in the darkest corners of a schoolboy's 
 room. Often a boy, outwardly quiet, who makes no noise 
 and no disorder, is growing weak and thin, while he lies 
 on his bed secretly gloating over this poison literature, 
 which blights the poor victim's life in its very morning. 
 Perhaps the father and the mother of this very boy were 
 too delicate to be able to explain to him, in safe and plain 
 terms,' those mysteries of his being into which he is igno- 
 rantly passing, and therefore the devil, who is not embar- 
 rassed by delicacy, takes the tuition of him. 
 
 " The young girl, at this stage of life, is liable to many 
 dangers. Life is often sacrificed by these poor young 
 creatures, in simple ignorance of the risks they run. If 
 life be spared, the foundation is often laid of life-long disor- 
 ders of the nervous system, which embitter the peace and 
 shroud all their future days with melancholy. Such are 
 the evils which come from ignorance and mismanagement in 
 this period. Many a healthy, happy girl passes through 
 this crisis into a nervous, complaining woman. 
 
 " We have just indicated the dangers of this transition 
 stage, to suggest to those who have the care of young chil- 
 dren a careful preparation beforehand, to understand this 
 period of life, and thus enable themselves to treat it wisely. 
 A mother well instructed and prepared might, on the first 
 appearance of symptoms which mark a constitutional dis- 
 turbance, say to a child: 'You are now about to pass 
 
^PHYSICAL *UV& MEJVTaLL DESIZITT, ETC. 137 
 
 through an important and critical period of your life. You 
 are growing rapidly ; your brain and nervous system, being 
 taxed to supply this growth, are in a highly excitable state. 
 You may consequently feel more irritable, and perhaps often 
 suffer from very disagreeable feelings ; but if you are care- 
 ful to keep up self control, if you attend strictly to the rules 
 of health, in a year or two these troubles will pass . away, 
 and you will be a happy, healthy man or woman. 7 
 
 ' " The necessity of self control must be mildly, but firmly, 
 enforced. If a young girl is tempted to give way to hys- 
 terical symptoms in any of their various forms, or a boy to 
 morbid appetites or impulses, which seem to them at the 
 time irresistible, the parent should try to make them under- 
 stand how all-important it is, just at this critical era, to 
 establish a firm habit of self government, and never to allow 
 one's self to do an unreasonable thing merely because one 
 feels an unaccountable impulse to do it. Multitudes of 
 boys fall into fatal habits of intemperance, or other destruc- 
 tive vices, through the unguided and ill understood cravings 
 of this period of life. They are away from home at board- 
 ing schools, where there is no care for their peculiar wants ; 
 where the food is ill adapted ; where the only thing thought 
 of is to press up this already taxed brain to a certain amount 
 of study. Under these circumstances, they seize wildly on 
 tobacco, or the more dreadful stimulus of alcohol, to allay 
 .these feverish cravings, and thus, out of ignorance, the ruin 
 of a whole life is wrought. 
 
 " It is hoped these few hints may turn the thoughts and 
 inquiries of mothers to this subject. It is one that needs a 
 volume, and an article like this can only indicate an out- 
 line, which mothers must wisely fill out. It is the mother's 
 business, like Mary, to keep all these things and ponder 
 them in her heart." The rearing of childhood to the sev- 
 enth year is full of care and anxiety. Teething, and the 
 various diseases of infancy, such as measles, mumps, whoop- 
 ing cough, scarlet fever, etc., all bring their dangers. But 
 when these are all past, and the child seems at last to have 
 cast firm roots into life, and to have become a fixture in 
 this mortal state, then comes this last and severest trial. 
 If this period be passed safely, the human being is then, 
 
122 CAUSES, PRETENTION tlJYZ) SELF CURE OF 
 
 to all appearance, well established for a prosperous life. 
 " One remark should be added : While religion should 
 be the great moving force relied on in carrying the child 
 through his early education, it is particularly important to 
 guard against anything of a driving or stringent religious 
 action, at any one particular time during the delicate period 
 we speak of. All the religious influences used should be 
 calm, quiet, gentle, appealing mainly to the reason and to 
 the affections. The child should never be driven into states 
 of religious crises, violently excited, or forced to special 
 religious exercises, by special and pressing urgency, such 
 as often occurs in time of revival. The great evil of such 
 periods is, that they come in collision with a certain great 
 law which regulates the action of all brain forces, and inva- 
 riably punishes any over-action of them. Any over-strain 
 of the brain or nervous system, with regard to a particular 
 subject, brings on a reaction of the mind, by which that 
 subject is regarded with dislike and sometimes with aver- 
 sion, amounting to horror. Many young people have con- 
 tracted a permanent habit of dislike to religion, by an early 
 over-strain upon their moral faculties in this important 
 period of life. This consideration cannot be too seriously 
 pondered by both parents and teachers." 
 
 The subject of self abuse — delicately, but earnestly, 
 hinted at in the above — is fully treated in another chapter. 
 I have also aimed to show, in yet another chapter, the 
 serious evils resulting from the reading of bad books. Mrs. 
 Stowe has pointed out many things it is important to ob- 
 serve 5 to these it is well to add, that the bodily health and 
 vigor should be carefully looked to. During the years 
 from twelve to, sixteen, a good stock of health and physical 
 vigor should be accumulated. In the case of girls, espe- 
 cially, it is too often the habit to press them forward in 
 their studies till the brain seems almost ready to give way 
 beneath the pressure j to give them little exercise j allow 
 them to stuff their stomach with candy, sweetsmeats and 
 pastry, and their heads with unnatural and insipid (or 
 worse) novels ; with often insufficient sleep. What they 
 specially need is plenty of sleep, simple nourishing food, 
 ample exercise in fresh open air and mental exertion to 
 
PHYSICAL ztJVD MENTAL DESIZITT, ETC. 123 
 
 whatever extent is not painful. Cai'e should be taken in 
 the selection of reading matter, as there is often a morbid 
 craving for high -wrought fiction, especially exciting now. 
 
 With boys the main danger at this period is the forma- 
 tion of bad habits. It is mainly those with unduly active 
 brains, the bright ones of the school, ambitious, full of 
 nervous energy, and generally of delicate build, who are 
 liable to exert their brains too much in the way of study. 
 What boys, especially city ones, need most at this age is 
 occupation, work. Not mere drudgery, disagreeable manual 
 tasks, but interesting labors which will develop their powers. 
 Forced to drudge, he may acquire such a distaste for work 
 as to become a confirmed shirk and loafer for life. With 
 no object but to "kill time," he will be as badly off. Give 
 him a tool box, printing press, garden, or whatever he 
 seems to take to most naturally, as a part of his play j 
 intrust him with responsibilities and duties within his capa- 
 city, and which will interest him and arouse his self-respect. 
 He is apt to be sensitive about his " manhood," fearful 
 of being thought " childish," show him your willingness to 
 treat him as a man so far as he shows himself manly. 
 Thus he will work off the surplus nervous energy which 
 would otherwise become morbid, and keep his mind actively, 
 healthfully, employed, checking much of the desire for 
 mere rowdyish demonstrations, or impurities of thought or 
 action. 
 
 * Dr. I. Ray says : " To prove the existence of pyromania, produced 
 by the sexual evolution, the age should correspond with that of 
 puberty, which is between twelve and fifteen. Sometimes, however, 
 it may occur, especially in females, as early as the eleventh or tenth 
 year, and, therefore, if the symptoms are well marked, we have a 
 right to attribute them to this cause. * * * These general signs 
 are either a rapid increase of stature, or a less -growth and sexual de- 
 velopment than is common at the age of the individual, an unusual 
 lassitude and sense of weight and paiu in the limbs ; glandular swell- 
 ings ; cutaneous eruptions, &c." 
 
 Patients themselves are not, however, the proper persons to act on 
 these symptoms. They will be apt to imagine they have th'em when 
 really not so, and what might be mistaken for one or another symptom 
 may actually have no connection in that individual case. 
 
/24 CAUSES ', PRETENTION AJVS) SELF CURE OF 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DEMORALIZING LITERATURE — MENTAL AND PHYSICAL 
 EVILS OF IMPURE READING. 
 
 EVEN those persons who have endeavored to repress 
 the sale of lewd publications or to restrain the young 
 from their perusal, I believe, generally consider the injury 
 to lie in their influence on the moral nature only. I think 
 it can be shown that there is, in addition to this, a positive 
 and serious physical injury directly resulting from the read- 
 ing of these and other pernicious works to which I shall 
 allude to presently. 
 
 In human beings it was designed that the sexual passion 
 should be held in control by the higher moral sentiments. 
 The reading of works in which lust, either openly or 
 covertly, is the charm, stimulates this passion in the reader 
 until it becomes the ruling passion. The extent to which 
 one may become the slave to this feeling (even though he 
 commits no outward act of impurity) is almost beyond 
 belief. His whole mind seems only a repository for vulgar- 
 isms and indelicacies. He fairly revels in everything which 
 can conjure up impure thoughts ; nothing that he can dis 
 tort into an image or sentiment of indelicacy escapes him 
 From being at first merely an excessive and unnatural ex 
 citement of a natural feeling, it becomes a morbid love for 
 mere nastiness ; the mind, debased by degrees, loses its 
 healthful action and longs for whatever is filthy, just as a 
 diseased appetite may hanker for putrid meat or substances 
 at which a stomach in natural condition would revolt. To 
 such a degree can this degradation extend, that among 
 other choice articles advertised in the circular of a certain 
 dealer in " fancy articles," are " snuff boxes in the form 01 
 human excrement !" That these should have been invented 
 as well as other articles enumerated in the circular about on 
 a par with them, is proof that there are persons who appre- 
 ciate and patronize them. No doubt such foul minded 
 beings consider such an article an achievement of rare 
 humor ! 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL VESILITY, ETC. J25 
 
 Should good counsels or the instincts of a natural deli- 
 cacy rescue the victim before this degradation is reached, 
 he will find it hard to totally banish the thoughts and 
 images he has permitted to gain lodgment in his memory. 
 One of the ablest and most exemplary ministers of a neigh- 
 boring city, in a recent earnest exhortation to young men 
 to purity of thought as well as action, instanced his own ex- 
 perience as a warning. He had been taught by a companion, 
 when a young boy, two stanzas of a vulgar song, of which 
 he then scarcely understood the purport. But those verses 
 clung to his remembrance all his life, though other things 
 learned at that age had passed entirely from his recollec- 
 tion. Though often baffled to remember the wording of a 
 text or hymn, these lines he could have repeated at auy 
 moment. They haunted him, intruding upon his thoughts 
 when least expected, when least appropriate. Boys, you 
 may think lightly of the coarse jests, the vulgar rhymes 
 you now pick up, but you may one day loathe them and 
 despise yourself for their possession, should you escape the 
 worse fate of a debasement so thorough that you will have 
 no self respect left to upbraid you. 
 
 As to the effects of bad books upon the bodily health, it is 
 beyond question that lascivious thoughts, whether resulting 
 from impure reading, sight of indelicate pictures, or what- 
 ever cause, produces an unnatural excitement of the genital 
 organs. This sexual desire, so produced, is a powerful 
 provocative of self abuse, but even should the individual have 
 sufficient self-command to restrain this impulse he will not 
 entirely escape injury. All excitement of this kind causes an 
 extra flow of blood to the genital organs. This stimulates 
 the secretions, which not being naturally demanded in these 
 cases only serve as an injurious excitant, promoting further 
 mental disturbance and a new accumulation of blood. 
 Every such accession of blood to the parts is a form of con- 
 gestion, not usually very dangerous, in most cases removed 
 by the resumption of pure thoughts, but where erotic 
 fancies rage with but slight intermission, these congestions 
 and the unnatural stimulation of the sexual organs, do have 
 bad effects. How serious these are will doubtless depend 
 measurably upon the constitution of each individual, being 
 
126 CAUSES, PRETENTION 3±jY2> SEZF CURE OF 
 
 greatest where the nervous susceptibility is keenest. Ex- 
 cessive excitement in any part is always followed by weak- 
 ness. In these cases not only are the organs themselves 
 weakened, but the whole nervous system suffers. 
 
 Allowing the thoughts to dwell excessively on any sub- 
 ject is directly injurious to the mind. With thoughts con- 
 nected with the sexual function this is particularly true, as 
 no other emotion can so completely absorb attention and 
 render the mind so entirely subject to its damnation. This 
 mental sensuality is a bar to the success of thousands of 
 young men. While there may be instances of the fastest- 
 minded men achieving wealth and power, there is nothing 
 to prove that they would not have been even more success- 
 ful had their minds been free from this incubus ; while 
 many examples might be given of the genius, talent, and 
 brilliant prospects blighted by this mere mental view. 
 During the war in the South, among the model regiments 
 was one from Ohio, composed principally of young men. 
 Not only did they win laurels upon the battle-field, endure 
 cheerfully the weary marches, but in all those little details 
 which go to make up true soldiess and gentlemen, they 
 seemed perfect. There came a change so sudden that the 
 colonel imagined he could detect the very day when it com- 
 menced. Ambition, spirit, and energy seemed to have de- 
 serted the regiment. The men became inattentive to their 
 duties neglectful of their appearance and even personal 
 cleanliness, and were rapidly losing that prestige which had 
 once been so dear to their hearts. Investigation showed 
 that on the very day which the colonel had mentally deter- 
 mined on as the date of the demoralization commencing, a 
 quantity of obscene books had been introduced into camp. 
 There was no other apparent cause, and on this being re- 
 moved the regiment once more recovered its moral. 
 
 It is not the glaringly indecent works which are alone 
 productive of injury. One who would turn with disgust 
 from these will often be inveigled into the downward path 
 by those books, wherein the immoralities or excitants are 
 in a measure veiled. The latter are generally the produc- 
 tions of abler writers than the former, consequently more skill- 
 fully act on the passions, while the slight screen of affected 
 
FtfTSZCriLZ zUYD MENTAL f)E%IZITY, ETC. 12? 
 
 morality only serves to make them more terribly seductive. 
 It will not do to interdict merely fictitious. So far as 
 this unhealthful excitement is concerned it is of no conse- 
 quence whatever, it is prov.oked by accounts of imaginary 
 or actual facts. The Bible itself may be wrested to minis- 
 ter to this gratification, while certain police records, and the 
 highly-wrought accounts of the criminal journals, as well 
 as some others which industriously cull all exciting facts, 
 exert a wide-spread and insidious demoralizing influence. 
 
 A prominent professor in a leading medical college has 
 recorded his opinion that seeing a ballet performance is in 
 some cases as bad as an act of masturbation. If the effect 
 of such an exhibition is the promotion of sexual excitement, 
 that performance is immoral and injurious ; it is immaterial 
 whether it be in an opera house or a low music hall. When- 
 ever statuary, or other productions of art excite feelings of 
 disgust or lasciviousness to those persons, they are impure 
 and to be avoided, though to others they may be void of 
 offense. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 SNARES FOR THE YOUNG — POWER OF THE IMAGINATION — 
 DISTORTIONS OF TRUTH IN BOGUS MEDICAL BOOKS. 
 
 THAT class of works so extensively advertised under 
 various seductive titles, such as "Facts for the 
 Feeble," " Marriage Guide," " Book of Nature," and the 
 like, are not only all open to the grave objection pointed 
 out in the preceding chapter, of causing an unnatural and 
 injurious sexual excitement, but to others of perhaps even 
 greater importance. They nearly all purport to give infor- 
 mation concerning disorders of the sexual system, promising 
 in their advertisements to teach the way to speedy and 
 certain cure. This cure the reader fiuds on perusing the 
 book to be either by consulting the person in whose interest 
 the book is issued, or buying some preparation which he 
 
128 CAUSES, -PREVENTION j4JV2) SjEZF CUftE OF 
 
 has for sale. Now, with all the pretence of philanthropy, 
 the real object is to make money by the publication of these 
 books. Considering that many are sold at a price less than 
 the cost of the paper alone, others given away to all appli- 
 cants, and postage paid in addition, and even when a large 
 price is charged the advertising bills often overbalance the 
 receipts, how is the profit made % By the fees for consulta- 
 tion or the sale of medicine. 
 
 To those unfamiliar with the character of these adver- 
 tisers, and with the real nature of the diseases they intend 
 to heal, all this seems fair and reasonable. In reality it is 
 one of the most infernal swindles on the face of this earth. 
 It is not mere robbery — it is sometimes murder. The 
 object is to make as large a proportion as possible of the 
 readers of these books come to the practitioners advertised 
 therein. Without attempting to detail all the maneuvers 
 of these charlatans, I may say, in brief, that the plan is, 
 with slight variation, as follows : Lascivious pictures, or 
 anatomical ones, which to his eyes serve as well, excite the 
 reader's passions, while the descriptions of the organs and 
 their functions, and the main matter of the book are all 
 concocted with the same view. Then the evils of mastur- 
 bation are dwelt on, and then the strong point, spermator- 
 rhoea, is introduced. 
 
 In treating this subject every imaginable symptom — 
 which, even if they ever accompany this disease is equally 
 characteristic of a score of others, and affords no safe test — is 
 described as indicating fearful debility. Appearances of the 
 urine, one or another of which occur in nearly all urine, are 
 specially indicated as gravely important. The symptoms 
 of no particular importance are always the ones selected ; 
 these can be rarely remedied, the real dangers are not 
 spoken of; if known to the quack he does not care to point 
 out anything he would find troublesome to treat. 
 
 In its appropriate place I trust I have shown clearly the 
 nature of these ailments and their proper treatment. The 
 reader can then see for himself how glaring is the perver- 
 sion of the truth in these books, and how the treatment 
 these men propose may be not only of no service but often 
 a positive injury, and their victims seeing certain symptoms 
 
2>KrSTCAL AND MENTAL 2>E%ILITT, ETC. 129 
 
 removed which they are taught to consider all-important, 
 may be deluding themselves with the thought that they are 
 cured, when in reality they are much worse off than before. 
 Or failing to have these appearances checked, for reasons 
 which the reader will find elsewhere, utterly needless despair 
 may result, and further waste of time and money upon still 
 more pretentious quacks, with, perhaps, the final refuge, 
 suicide. And perhaps nothing ailed the victim more serious 
 than would be a cold in the head ! These books themselves 
 may produce some of the "symptoms" which they ascribe 
 to spermatorrhoea, dreams and emissions, for instance. 
 
 There is an objection which applies not alone to empirical 
 publications, but to the very best medical works, in the 
 hands of non-professional readers. Few persons can read 
 details of the symptoms of any disease without imagining 
 to a greater or less degree that they themselves have those 
 symptoms. Oases are recorded of persons remarkably slim 
 actually fancying themselves bloated up with dropsy.* One 
 case is mentioned where the individual could not even hear 
 a dream named without thinking himself afflicted with it. 
 Medical students, as an almost universal rule, fancy them- 
 selves subject to half the different diseases to which they 
 come in succession in their studies. This is the great ob- 
 jection to works designed for domestic treatment. Even 
 when prepared in good faith, the imagination and inexperi- 
 ence of an amateur unfit him to administer powerful medi- 
 cines or to decide on the real character of the disease. 
 While such works are sometimes useful in emergencies 
 when a physician or surgeon cannot be obtained, there are 
 few capable of using them understanding^ as a regular 
 thing. Works on general health, wherein no medical pre- 
 scriptions are given, are of course not open to this objection. 
 Those on any special disease, whether standard works or 
 not, have the objection that they are liable to excite un- 
 founded fears. It is possible that this little volume is not 
 entirely free from this objection, though I have striven to 
 
 * This is more correctly perhaps due to a monomanical notion, on 
 a par with those cases where the patient fancies his legs made of glass 
 or butter, or that his head is wrong side before, but they all illustrate 
 though in exaggerated form the action of the imagination. 
 
/SO CciUSJS, PRETENTION o±JYZ> SJEZF CUltE OF 
 
 make all so plain and simple, to avoid all needless details 
 of symptoms, and to prevent any possible doubt or misun- 
 derstanding on any point. There is, however, less danger 
 here than were the subjects such as required powerful 
 medicines or specially skillful treatment. While the courses 
 I point out are among the most effective and speedy, they * 
 can never do harm ; there is no risk of mistakes, for the 
 remedies given in the appropriate places in this volume are 
 sure to improve the general health, and wherever there is 
 actually any sexual debility these are the best. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SELF ABUSE OR MASTETJBATIOtf. 
 
 OF all debilitating influences there is probably none 
 which equals in extent or fearful consequences the 
 pernicious practice of masturbation or self abuse. This 
 consists in applying friction, with the hand or otherwise, to 
 the sexual organs, and is practiced by both sexes, though 
 in by far the greater proportion of cases by the male. It 
 is difficult to over-estimate the injury done to the health, 
 though in some of the details certain parties representing 
 themselves as physicians, have so mixed up fact with fric- 
 tion as to greatly befog the readers of these so-called 
 medical works. 
 
 As there are many erroneous notions held by even intelli- 
 gent, well educated persons, it may be well to give in brief 
 here a simple statement of the truth. In the first place 
 the practice alluded to is much more common than most 
 persons are aware of. Secondly, it is often begun at an age 
 which would seem incredible if not vouched for by medical 
 authority, recognized as among the highest. There is, in- 
 deed, recorded in at least one standard professional work a 
 case where a mere infant, too young even to indulge him- 
 self, was " quieted " by a resort to this device by an ignor- 
 ant nurse.' The babe began to grow feeble and wan ; the 
 
PHYSICAL *LJY2) MENTAL IDEBIZITT, ETC. /«?/ 
 
 physician suspected the cause from certain symptoms, ques- 
 tioned the nurse and discovered the truth. This is not an 
 ordinary case, but children are* liable at almost any age 
 to be taught this practice by companions, servants, or may 
 even be led to it accidentally through a desire to relieve a 
 temporary itching. These facts it is important to impress 
 upon parents and teachers. No child is too good or too 
 pure to be led into this snare, and for any parent to deny 
 the possibility of his child doing so, is worse than foolish 
 — it is a sin. The child errs ignorantly ; it is the parent's 
 duty to prevent him ; and this can only be done by fore- 
 warning him. I do not mean to say that he need be told 
 everything about the sexual organism — he would probably 
 not comprehend it — but he must be told something of the 
 effects of such indulgence. 
 
 The only sure and safe method of doing this is to talk 
 kindly and plainly to the child, induce him to confide 
 fully to you. If you have any suspicion that he is addicted 
 to the practice state your suspicion, and then urge him to 
 avoid it ; stating that it will reduce his strength and make 
 him sickly. Do not treat his act as a criminal one ; it is 
 really a disease, as much as wetting the bed j and by the 
 way, the statement that self abuse will weaken his organs 
 and tend to cause his wetting the bed, will often prove the 
 most powerful argument with a child. Punishment or 
 "shaming" is rarely effective ; it only prevents his seeking 
 your sympathy and guidance, and the habit can be indulged 
 in despite your utmost precautions. 
 
 On another point it is well to utter a note of warning. 
 Among boys especially there is a notion prevalent that 
 while young they can practice masturbation with impunity ; 
 that the evil results they have heard of are only produced 
 after the individual has reached maturity, and that the 
 danger is in the loss of semen. Consequently they persist 
 in the indulgence with the firm intention of quitting it when 
 they reach an age at which the semen begins to be secreted. 
 
 There are two very grave errors in this. As I shall show 
 presently they are, with every commission of the act, doing 
 an injury to their health, and as manhood approaches they 
 will find themselves more and more the slaves of the habit. 
 
132 CAUSES, PRETENTION tlJVD SELF CURE OF 
 
 with less and less energy to overcome the increased intensity 
 of their passion. 
 
 Throughout our bodies extend a system of nerves com- 
 municating with the brain. By these nerves is telegraphed, 
 as it were, every such sensation as heat, cold, pressure, etc., 
 produced by causes acting on any part of the body. 
 Through the medium of the nerves, too, every voluntary 
 motion we make is directed by the brain. So intimate is 
 this connection of mind and body that you can take a per- 
 fectly sane man and convert him into a raving maniac by 
 merely tickling the soles of his feet with a feather. The 
 nervous connection of the brain with the sexual organs is 
 more intimate than with any other portion of our bodies, 
 and to this is due the greatest evil resulting from masturba- 
 tion. Friction applied to the penis will produce insanity 
 much quicker than tickling the feet. 
 
 Every faculty of the mind is impaired by masturbation, 
 and this loss of mental vigor is greatest in the young. In 
 early life the mental powers are in process of development 
 and masturbation exhausts their vitality, deadens them. 
 The effects of this unnatural nervous excitement extend to 
 the body as well as the brain ; may result in weakness, 
 stunted growth, and defective physical development, or pre- 
 mature wasting away and death. 
 
 Mind, I do not say that these results will follow every 
 case of masturbation. A vigorous constitution may resist 
 in a measure, but no constitution can fail to be impaired to 
 some extent. It is not safe to indulge at all ; there is com- 
 paratively little desire ever to do this the first time, and 
 this desire grows with every gratification until it becomes 
 irresistible, and the victim with his energy and will ex- 
 hausted by the very act, yields to the fatal impulse though 
 he may have learned the fate with which it threatens him. 
 
 The effects are not always immediately perceptible ; the 
 actual loss of physical or mental vigor can be told in the 
 milder cases only by comparison with what power would 
 have been possessed had the practice not been indulged in, 
 but it is safe to say that every single indulgence has really 
 some bad effect. 
 
 To every boy indulging at all in this habit I have one 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL 3)jE%ILITY, ETC. 783 
 
 word of advice — Stop. Stop now. When next you feel 
 the inclination take up this book, and then call up all your 
 will to stop. If you cannot stop the practice now while 
 your attention is specially aroused, there is no probability 
 that you ever will. It is very easy to make good resolu- 
 tions immediately after the act when the passion is suc- 
 ceeded by exhaustion and depression, but resolutions made 
 then are of little avail when the passion again seizes you, 
 and every time the passion will be stronger and and your 
 resistance weaker But if you have failed heretofore, if re- 
 solutions have been broken "just this once" over and over 
 again, as you value health and happiness, I entreat you to 
 try once more. It is your only hope, you must effect the 
 cure, if you will not discontinue the practice entirely, there 
 is no help for you. No medicine on earth can avail against 
 the results of your own indulgence. 
 
 The application of cold water to the parts, rubbing the 
 body with the palms of the hands to promote an even cir- 
 culation of the blood, or warming the feet, will allay 
 the desire for indulgence by diffusing the blood in better 
 proportion throughout the system. Masturbation causes an 
 undue flow of, blood to the organs, and this in turn excites 
 them and causes a desire for further indulgence. It is im- 
 portant, too, to avoid all other exciting causes, such as ex- 
 cessively warm clothing, or rough or irritating clothing, 
 about the parts ; rich or stimulating food, as pastry, cake, 
 meat in excess, spices, spirituous or malt liquors ; and all 
 sensuous thoughts or reading. 
 
 Though no medicine can counteract the evils while the 
 practice is continued, yet, as the desire is largely due to 
 heat at the organs, aid in resisting may be derived from 
 whatever will reduce the heat and excitement. Some 
 medicines will do so, but the same object can be much more 
 certainly and safely attained by means which any o#e can 
 apply, and which always do good and never harm. 
 
 A good plan is to have a basin of cold water in the sleep- 
 ing apartment, and with a sponge or cloth bathe the organs 
 and the adjacent parts before going to bed, wiping gently 
 with a soft towel. Whenever the desire comes on this may 
 be repeated with advantage, the warmth and glow, pro- 
 
/S4- CAUSES, PSlSYJeJVTION AND SELF CUfiJE OF 
 
 duced as a reaction from the bathing, does not appear to 
 excite, on the contrary all the feverishness and inflamma- 
 tion is soon subdued by the bathing. Another way to apply 
 the water is by using a hip bath, or by stooping over a 
 basin or other suitable vessel and dashing the cold water 
 upon the person. Strict cleanliness is useful in reducing 
 all feverishness, so a weekly warm bath will be a beneficial 
 addition to the treatment. Kegularity in stooling and 
 urinating should be observed 5 costiveness having an injuri- 
 ous effect, and excess of water in the bladder always 
 proving an excitant. The proper courses for overcoming 
 any difficulty of these evacuations will be found in forego- 
 ing chapters. 
 
 As the act may be committed in a half unconscious state, 
 between sleeping and waking, the patient should strive to 
 sleep soundly and wake promptly j promoted by eating light 
 suppers, exercise and interesting employment in the day 
 time, moderate bed covering, and prompt rising on waking 
 in the morning. 
 
 As I shall elsewhere speak fully of the emissions which 
 are the other important results of self abuse, I need not 
 dwell upon them here. Whether or not these emissions ac- 
 company your indulgence is of little moment so far as the 
 necessity of breaking off the habit is concerned. Their 
 special effects will be the subject of another chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 " LOSSES " — SEMINAL WEAKNESS SPERMATORRHEA OR 
 
 SEMINAL WEAKNESS' — FULL DETAILS FOR SELF TREAT- 
 MB%T — SOME FALLACIES EXPOSED. 
 
 SOME confusion has resulted from the fact that the term 
 " spermatorrhoea " is by some writers applied to all 
 emissions of the seminal fluid other than in the act of 
 copulation, while others restrict it to cases of frequent 
 emissions with resulting debility. So the best authorities 
 
THTSICzLI, AJVD MEJVTsLL 2>JESII,ITY, JETC. 135 
 
 may seemingly differ in their estimation of the character 
 and effects of spermatorrhoea, owing to the difference in 
 range each gives the word. So much falsehood has been 
 promulgated regarding this subject by designing persons, 
 and so important is it to every youth approaching manhood 
 to fully understand the real nature of these phenomena of 
 the seminal secretion that I briefly refer thereto before 
 touching the subject of self cure for those needing treat- 
 ment. • 
 
 In many animals the secretion of semen occurs only at 
 particular periods, and with them the power of performing 
 the sexual act, and of propagating their species, is re- 
 stricted to these limited seasons. In man the fluid can be 
 secreted at any time, unless the organs have lost their 
 power from abuse, and this secretion and ejectment of the 
 semen is the culminating part of the act of copulation, 
 without which the act is incomplete, unnatural, and produc- 
 tive of injury, as will be shown in a subsequent page. The 
 semen is secreted or formed during the act ; it does not 
 constantly accumulate as is supposed by some persons, re- 
 quiring to be got rid of either in the marriage relation or 
 by some other mode ; hence the folly of all pleas for illicit 
 indulgence on this account. The power to secrete the fluid 
 exists constantly in all healthy males who have reached 
 maturity, but it is not essential that a drop be actually 
 secreted for years, and the vulgar notions of calamities to 
 the organs from an inevitable accumulation of the semen in 
 virtuous unmarried men is unfounded. There is no physical 
 necessity for either for the "losses" or for illicit indul- 
 gence. Some unmarried men go for years without either 
 and experience no ill effects. 
 
 Strictly speaking, therefore, all secretions and emissions 
 of the seminal fluid, otherwise than in the act of copulation 
 are unnatural, therefore to all such the name spermatorrhoea 
 may properly apply, though in such cases there must be 
 understood to be two forms of the disease — the one compa- 
 ratively unimportant and innocent, and the other, or excess 
 of the first, one of importance and danger. There are 
 many things not strictly according with a perfect state of 
 health, but which are yet so easily induced and so trifling in 
 
/36 C^iUSF, PK'ErJPJVTIOJV jLJVD sjzzf cure of 
 
 their results as to be of little moment, slight colds, tran- 
 sient headaches, and the like are liable to occur, not with- 
 out cause, but on slight provocation ; so an emission oi 
 semen may occur from a cold, inducing a trifling feverish- 
 ness, from some article of food, chafing of clothing, heat of 
 bed-covering, or other causes. From the age of fourteen 
 or sixteen, such an emission may occur from such causes 
 where the person is guilty of no impure act or thought. It 
 is not probable that such accidental causes would occur with 
 sufficient frequency to produce any injury j should they ex- 
 ceed one or two a month, however, the probability is that 
 there- is or has been some delinquency of thought or act, 
 to which the emission is due. 
 
 There is no specific amount of semen that a man can 
 produce in a lifetime, as is ignorantly supposed by a few in- 
 dividuals, after which he is doomed to impotence. It is 
 very like other secretions, all our glands and organs have a 
 capacity beyond the absolute requirements of nature, to 
 insure against possible contingency. The saliva, bile, 
 gastric juice and other fluids are examples, and much more 
 semen can be secreted than is required for the perpetuation 
 of the race ; reasonable indulgence. in wedlock is allowed 
 for, but even in this relationship excess is possible. Exact 
 limits cannot be prescribed, but it is safe to say excessive 
 indulgence is too often the rule. All our organs are 
 nourished by the blood, and all secretions are drawn from 
 material in the blood, hence an excessive secretion in one 
 direction will deprive other parts of the body of their due 
 supply of nourishment j this is the reason of debility result- 
 ing from excessive secretion of the seminal fluid. As else 
 where shown, masturbation has its own evil effects aside 
 from merely stimulating the secretion of semen. 
 
 Lewd reading and impure thoughts induce lascivious 
 dreams j these produce sexual excitement, and in the non- 
 resisting state of slumber the semen is secreted (for in man 
 the secretion can be produced in many ways besides the 
 natural act of coition) and passes off. Where a young 
 man has an emission and has never been addicted to mas- 
 turbation, and is not accustomed to impure thoughts or 
 reading, he need not distress himself. Even if not abso- 
 
2>tfTSICxLZ AJVD MENTdLZ, DEBILITY, ETC. 73? 
 
 lutely natural it is not worth a thought. If he is not so cer- 
 tain of his purity of character and thought, it is another 
 matter, for the sexual organism may be dangerously stimu- 
 lated by continued indulgence in even impure thoughts. To 
 those who have indulged 'in- self abuse the later remarks in 
 this chapter are commended, for there is hope for even the 
 most injured victim, though no one can safely put off reform, 
 and so long as the practice continues the harm is being 
 steadily multiplied. 
 
 Even the most virtuous will probably have an occasional 
 emission from one or another cause involving no impropriety 
 on his part. One or two a month may be perhaps thus ac- 
 counted for ; should they occur more frequently it would be 
 well to ascertain whether there is not some fault on your 
 part, overheating diet, or more serious delinquency. It is 
 true a strong, vigorous person, accustomed to active out- 
 door employment, nourishing food and otherwise simple 
 habits, may endure even three or four emissions per month 
 without incurring any severe penalty j but it is not vigorous 
 persons, who usually have these accidental emissions ; the 
 slight accidental causes which will produce them in the weak 
 and delicate have no effect on the hardy ; the danger is,too, 
 that they cannot be kept within these limits if allowed to 
 attain them. The mere fact that the organs have become 
 habituated to such action will lead to their more and more 
 frequent action, till control is lost of that passion which it 
 was designed our higher nature should restrain within its 
 due and proper sphere. 
 
 Horseback exercise is bad for persons subject to seminal 
 emissions, and may, indeed, be the original cause in indivi- 
 duals peculiarly sensitive. 
 
 Three or four emissions a month can be endured by almost 
 any unmarried person of eighteen years or over, but even 
 this number is apt to be some drain on the system, and 
 the debility induced thereby will be likely to increase the 
 number of emissions, which in turn will increase the 
 debility, and so each in turn acting in steadily increasing 
 ratio, will soon become highly exhausting. 
 
 Of spermatorrhoea the most frequent producing cause is 
 self abuse. If this is practiced after the age at which the 
 
238 CAUSES, PREVENTION AJVD SELF CURE OF 
 
 semen begins to be secreted, each act will be accompanied 
 by a discharge of this fluid, as well as being followed in a 
 few days by further emissions without the abuse being re- 
 peated. Generally, however, in recent cases of masturba- 
 tion, before this second emission takes place the excitability 
 produced by the first act tempts to the repetition of the 
 abuse. As the frequency of these indulgences are usually 
 increased by the victim as he becomes confirmed in the 
 habit, the organs soon become morbidly sensitive, pains and 
 inflammation are frequent, the emissions take place on slight 
 provocation and become very frequent during sleep and 
 even in the day time, sometimes even without the patient's 
 knowledge. 
 
 These emissions become a drain upon the system, sapping 
 away the vitality of the victim. The painful erections, the 
 soreness, and other local evils are but a small part of the 
 effects. The blood which should nourish brain and body is 
 impressed to supply this special drain, the effect of mastur- 
 bation on the nerves accelerating the exhaustion of the vital 
 powers. Every faculty of the mind suffers, and the victim 
 is liable to become a madman or a driveling idiot. Specific 
 diseases, as consumption, heart disease, and others, are also 
 often induced ; or the result may be an entire wasting away, 
 and death from the mere exhaustion of the life powers. If 
 not quite so bad, the victim may linger for years a con- 
 firmed invalid, or with the power of reproduction destroyed. 
 
 It is difficult to exaggerate the probable, nay, almost 
 certain results of continued masturbation, and as long as 
 you practice this habit you are on the road with steadily 
 increasing speed toward one or another of the several, but 
 all horrible ends. When the habit has been indulged in in 
 youth but discontinued for years, a weakness may have been 
 produced which results in too frequent emissions when man- 
 hood is reached. So long as the habit has not been, and is 
 not resumed, these cases are speedily remedied by proper 
 treatment. 
 
 The first and imperative step toward cure in all cases is 
 the total and immediate discontinuance of self abuse. 
 Before entering upon the details of treatment I may here 
 remark as an encouraging fact to those who find it difficult 
 
PHYSICAL oiND MUJVT^.1 "DEBILITY, JEJTC. f$9 
 
 to relinquish the habit, that so long as they do feel it diffi- 
 cult to stop they have not reached the worst stage of sper- 
 matorrhoea. There is still vigor in the organs which may be 
 fostered into health. By and by you may find no trouble 
 in leaving off the practice ; and why ? simply because the 
 organs have lost all power of controlling the semen, which 
 as fast as formed dribbles away without causing any. erec- 
 tion, or passes off through the bladder, while the patient 
 fancies because his nightly emissions become less frequent 
 that he is recovering health ! If there is any case entirely 
 beyond the possibility of cure this is it. 
 
 The reader should disabuse his mind of the falsities so 
 cleverly and persistently reiterated for many a year by quacks 
 preying upon the misfortunes or fears of the victims of self 
 abuse. By representing the habit and its results as im 
 measurably odious and degrading, they increase his repug 
 nance to confide in his parents, clergyman or family physi- 
 cian — the best and safest counselors — and to seek the ad- 
 vertiser's aid. Their primary falsehood is that these ail- 
 ments can only be treated by one who has devoted many 
 years to the study, or that the ordinary remedies are value- 
 less, but that each advertiser (and he only) has the real 
 skill, and has discovered the particular medicine or mode of 
 treatment sure to be effective. In truth the safest and 
 most effectual treatment is very simple, and will succeed 
 where any treatment will. Indeed, most patients can cure 
 themselves, if they will only persevere, as well as any one 
 can cure them. Certainly, if advice is needed, the family 
 physician, who is familiar with the constitution and can 
 personally examine the condition of the patient, is better 
 .able to treat him than a stranger who has never seen him. 
 None of the advertising " physicians " possess any remark- 
 able skill or have really any wonderful discoveries. They 
 are almost wholly ignorant and in ability not up to the 
 average standard of reputable practitioners. 
 
 I believe ninety-nine out of every hundred of these 
 patients can cure themselves. The first impulse will be to 
 take medicine of some kind j to most people it will seem 
 absurd to tell them not to ; they will think it absolutely im- 
 possible to effect anything without the aid of somebody's 
 
14.0 CAUSES, PRETENTION AND SJEZF CU2ZJS OF 
 
 specific, or pills, or extract ; or if not a quack nostrum at 
 least a physician's prescription. It is possible to stop these 
 emissions by medicine, but it is like driving in the measles. 
 The medicines which will do this are powerful poisons 
 though undoubtedly used in some of the drops, or elixirs of 
 the quacks. The temporary suppression will be followed 
 by an increase of the evil, or may aggravate a simple case 
 into an incurable one. Simple tonics, preparations of iron, 
 or the like may be in some cases of slight benefit as an aid 
 in toning the system, but one who designs self treatment 
 had better let all medicine alone j the probabilities are that 
 he will only retard his case by any attempt at prescribing 
 for himself in this line, 
 
 The aim should be to build up the general health. So 
 long as the system is debilitated spermatorrhoea cannot be 
 cured. Where the great laws of health regarding diet, ex- 
 ercise, cleanliness, etc., are observed, the tendency of nature 
 is toward a cure ; but these must be carefully and perse- 
 veringly carried out. It is better not to worry about, or 
 pay special attention to mere " symptoms." If you fancy 
 you are dull, or are losing your memory, or are having 
 pains from your ailment, it will do no good to fret about 
 them. The quickest way to cure them is to attend to the 
 general health, with returning vigor, " symptoms n will 
 vanish if they ever really existed beyond your own excited 
 imagination. There is a good deal of nonsense about some 
 of the " symptoms" upon which the quacks lay so much 
 stress. Take, for instance, the deposits often found in the 
 urine. Though semen may in rare and extreme cases be 
 found in the urine, what is represented to be' such is 
 nearly always merely a mucus discharged from the bladder, 
 where it is the result of slight inflammation or cold. It has 
 nothing to do with the disease of which it is asserted to be 
 a " symptom n and is no more serious than the discharge 
 from the nose in case of cold in the head. The "brick 
 dust " deposits are merely the natural way nature gets rid 
 of certain foreign substances, which if not got rid of may 
 result in stone or gravel. The theory that one kind of 
 deposit is of an acid nature, while another is alkaline, and 
 that the way to treat them is to administer acids or alka- 
 
physical ajvd m-ejvtal debility jetc. /4/ 
 
 lies as medicine, I think fallacious. It is only adding mate- 
 rials for more deposits, and simple diet, fruits largely in- 
 cluded, will soon rectify most troubles of the kind. 
 
 In the majority of cases of spermatorrhoea the emission 
 takes place during the unsound slumber immediately pre- 
 ceding waking, generally accompanied by dreams of a 
 lascivious nature. If the patient can awake instantly with- 
 out this intermediate stage between sleeping and waking, the 
 emission is often avoided. Several appliances are sold to 
 accomplish this. As the penis becomes erected and enlarged 
 before the loss takes place, it is claimed that a ring or belt 
 fitting the organ in its quiet state will be too small to permit 
 the enlargement without causing pain and awakening the 
 sleeper. At first this is the case, but the penis becomes 
 callous to the pressure after a few times, or the sleeper is, 
 perhaps, slower to awake, and the semen is forced past the 
 obstruction by a violent effort, or if it does not pass from 
 the person, is yet discharged from the glands and remains 
 in the urethra until the removal of the ring permits its 
 escape. There are serious dangers connected with the use 
 of all contrivances for preventing the emissions by pressure 
 on the penis — the semen if prevented from escaping from 
 the penis when discharged by the glands, may be forced 
 backward into the bladder, and after one case of this kind 
 it is more apt to seek that route, and render the complaint 
 less easy of treatment. Strictures or ruptures are also 
 liable to result from their use. 
 
 The prompt awakening, so important, can be promoted 
 by getting up instantly after waking, whatever the time 
 may be. Unless absurdly early, it is better not to retire 
 again ; the next night you will sleep more soundly. If you 
 do go to bed again, before doing so, spread open the bed- 
 clothes to expel the warmth ; meanwhile walking around, 
 rubbing the limbs, chest, and back with the palms, or 
 swinging the arms to equalize the circulation. If there is 
 heat about the genital organs, or tendency to erection, the 
 application of moderately col4 water thereto will prove 
 beneficial. Lying in the heated bed after awakening, even 
 if you do not go to sleep again, is enervating, even if not in 
 all cases immediately provoking sexual excitement. 
 
*4# CAUSES, PRETENTION ^JY® SELF CURE OF 
 
 The best position in sleeping is on the right side. Lying 
 on the back is almost certain to cause discharges if the 
 person is at all liable to them. An excellent way to prevent 
 falling into this position while asleep is to secure around the 
 body under the arms, a strap or belt, of any convenient 
 material, in which are placed numerous pins or carpet tacks, 
 with the points toward the body, in the parts of the belt 
 coming at the person's back. The pain caused on turning 
 over on these points when the sleeper turns on his back will 
 be sure to arouse him, and without any harm. 
 
 Excessive bed coverings are to be avoided, sweltering in 
 blankets is almost certain to bring on excitement, followed 
 by an emission. The coverings should be only sufficient 
 to keep the person from suffering from the cold. Feather 
 beds have the same objection. Straw, hair, or the sponge 
 or cork mattresses are better, and when accustomed to the 
 change you will find them more enjoyable than the feathers. 
 Any cool hard mattress is good, its contents are not very 
 important, corn husks are preferred by many to all other 
 stuffing. 
 
 In diet, spices, rich gravies, cake, confectionery and all 
 indigestible food should be avoided. The patient should 
 eat plenty of ripe fruit, vegetables, preparations of oat or 
 corn meal, also Graham and brown bread if he likes them. 
 As meat is stimulating it should be eaten sparingly, but as 
 the system is specially in need of nourishment at this time, 
 I think a little poultry, beef, or mutton at dinner is advan- 
 tageous. Immature meats, as veal, are to be avoided. 
 Moderation in eating is important. It is not essential that 
 prison diet should be adopted. The articles named above 
 afford a wide variety to choose from, and there is less danger 
 with them of overeating than when the appetite is spurred 
 beyond the natural demands of the stomach by stimulating 
 sauces, catchups, and spices. 
 
 Coffee and tea are often injurious, though some persons 
 may find it too hard to give them up ; if so, they should 
 be used in moderation. In most cases chocolate or cocoa 
 will be found a pleasant substitute, and both are very 
 nourishing. Milk appears to have a tendency to produce 
 the emissions, though this would probably not be the case 
 
physical xuvd mental vesilitt, ETC. 1JL.3 
 
 if its use were restricted to the earlier portion of the day. 
 Any liquid taken toward night is apt to have the effect com- 
 plained of, and a simple glass of cold water taken in the 
 evening is almost certain to produce an emission in a sus- 
 ceptible person. To take no supper or " tea" is often a 
 good plan, though a light dry one if hunger demands it 
 can generally be indulged in with safety. I think wine 
 and liquors of every kind should be avoided. Wine, or 
 more generally ale or porter, is frequently recommended as 
 strengthening. I doubt it being so in this ailment — its 
 stimulating effect would more than counterbalance any 
 alleged value — even if pure, while the compound of poisons 
 almost universally sold under these names only need to 
 have their real constituents disclosed to refute all claims 
 which might be made by their advocates, supposing them 
 to be genuine articles. Tobacco is bad. 
 
 Exercise is absolutely necessary, but many on the spur 
 of a new resolve, may be apt to go to excess. Violent ex- 
 ercise is injurious, in this case especially j a regular course 
 of gymnastics would in many cases result in harm. Calis- 
 thenics, or exercise without apparatus, in the morning on 
 rising and at night before retiring, will be beneficial, but 
 some regular employment must be the main source of exer- 
 cise. Pleasure in the exercise is half its benefit, and ten 
 times the good will result from some active employment in 
 which the person is interested, and which diverts his mind 
 from worry and anxiety, than from the same amount of ex- 
 ercise expended in aimlessly lifting up a dumb-bell. Tenpins, 
 rowing, and like diversions, are often beneficial ; so are gar- 
 den work, digging, and light out-door labor. The exertion 
 should always be proportioned to the strength j never pros- 
 trating, and the change from previous habits, in this respect, 
 should not be too sudden. While exercise or labor up to the 
 point of just tiring the patient will be good, exhaustion will 
 be bad ; any strain, too, will be apt to affect the weak part. 
 
 The mental treatment is as important as the physical. 
 If impure thoughts have power to produce these emissions, 
 it is easy to see that they can defeat all attempts at cure if 
 persisted in, as the organs are then peculiarly sensitive and 
 with less strength to resist the exciting influence. Purity 
 
/44 CAUSES, PRETENTION AJVD SEZF ClffiF OF 
 
 of thought and action is essential to successful treat- 
 ment. This may be encouraged by substituting reading of 
 an elevating nature, which shall at the same time awaken 
 thought and interest in new directions ; history, biography, 
 or any innocent subject the patient finds most interesting. 
 Cheerful, refined, and agreeable society is desirable, and it 
 is a mistake to avoid it ; the keen sensitiveness sometimes 
 felt by patients is usually the result of groundless fears that 
 the patient's weakness is patent to the casual observer. 
 
 Frequent cold baths are the best " medicine." These 
 may be taken even as often as twice a day, night and morn- 
 ing, if there is a pleasant reaction and glow after them. 
 This should be promoted by rubbing the body and limbs 
 briskly with soft towels and with the palms of the hands. 
 If followed by a ©hill and heaviness the bath is an injury, 
 but these result usually from staying in the water too long. 
 Sponge baths may be substituted if conveniences for a full 
 bath are not possessed. A basin of water and a large soft 
 sponge are the materials needed. The body is to be wet 
 thoroughly with cold water, with the sponge, and then dried 
 briskly as above directed. Hip baths, and local sponge 
 bathing with cold water, may be used to almost any extent 
 with benefit. 
 
 The patient must not be discouraged if his cure seems 
 tardy. It is perhaps natural that he should expect imme- 
 diate improvement after commencing treatment, but this 
 will be gradual for weeks or even months. Having become 
 accustomed to act in this way, it will be some time before 
 nature can regain its sway and restore the perverted func- 
 tions to their natural channel. The tendency, however, is 
 always toward this natural state, provided all exciting influ- 
 ences are removed. It is the errors in diet, want of bath- 
 ing, and other causes which generally retard the recovery 
 after masturbation is discontinued. 
 
 I have said that seminal weakness may result from libid- 
 inous ideas alone. It may also result from inflammation or 
 from several other causes. These are, however, unfrequent, 
 and the treatment detailed above is safe to follow in all 
 cases. If worms are the cause, as may be detected by the 
 itching in the rectum, and in the neighborhood of the base 
 
PHYSICAL AJVS) M&WTAZ DJESIZITT, UTC. 14-5 
 
 of the penis, they can usually be removed by injections 
 of water at a temperature of 60 or 70 degrees, Fahrenheit. 
 About ten o'clock in the evening is probably the best time, 
 though whenever the itching is severe it indicates a suitable 
 time for the injection. As much water should be thrown up 
 as the intestine will comfortably hold j this must be allowed 
 to descend suddenly, and will generally wash out the worms 
 collected within reach of the water. 
 
 Marriage is not a cure for seminal weakness, on the con- 
 trary an aggravation, intensifying the debility. The 
 strength should be fully restored and the ailment entirely 
 overcome before the patient enters into matrimony. The 
 fallacious idea has been encouraged by quacks to get rid 
 of patients whose money had become exhausted, and is 
 sometimes made the excuse for illicit companionship $ such 
 associations open the gates to irreparable mischief, and the 
 probability of incurring one of the most frightful diseases 
 to which erring humanity is liable. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 IMPOTENCE — REAL AND IMAGINARY. 
 
 ~TVT"0 form of debility is held in such dread as the loss of 
 -i-N genital power. The agony of mind suffered by one 
 who supposes his power of reproduction has become 
 destroyed or impaired is beyond description. The dread of 
 entering the marriage state devoid of the ability to perform 
 its duties, has induced many to form immoral associations, 
 or to resign themselves to despair — perhaps suicide. Real 
 impotence is extremely rare, though it may result from con- 
 firmed bad habits, and libertine courses, and is to be justly 
 regarded as a possible result of such indulgence, if persisted 
 in. 
 
 So tender is the human mind on this subject, and so grossly 
 have pretenders distorted the truth that a vast amount of 
 needless anxiety has been caused, the fears of most of the 
 
14.6 CAUSJZS, Z>2t£VJEJVTZ0JY AJY2) SJELJF CURJS OF 
 
 readers of pernicious u medical" advertising pamphlets 
 being without any reasonable foundation. What is really- 
 proof of vigor in many cases has even been held to indicate 
 the want of it ! Thus, the instantaneousness of the discharge 
 in the act of coition, after long abstinence, is given as proof 
 of want of power, whereas, after long abstinence, keenness 
 of any appetite is quite the contrary to proof of the inability 
 to enjoy. Excessive indulgence may produce temporary 
 loss of power, but rest, temperance and attention to the rules 
 of health will suffice to restore. 
 
 Many persons are childless from no immorality, nor from 
 any malformation or other special trouble with the repro- 
 ductive organs. Luxurious habits, indolence, and similar 
 causes may interfere with the increase of the race. This, is 
 shown as well in individuals as in nations, where exercise 
 (labor) strengthens and invigorates the system and so in- 
 creases the power of performing all the duties of the vari- 
 ous functions. A state of muscular activity, too, prevents 
 the passions gaining too great an ascendancy. Idleness is 
 apt to foster voluptuousness, and the indulgences which 
 should be incidental and occasional are apt to become ex- 
 cessive ; this over-indulgence proves an unnatural excite- 
 ment and increases the desires. Over-use begets weakness, 
 and this reversing of the law of nature tends to the extinc- 
 tion of the race. An example is given by Dr. Hall of a 
 Russian nobleman, childless, who was banished to Siberia. 
 He and his wife, who accompanied him, were compelled to 
 live in a miserable hut, and work hard every day, after 
 fifteen years they had a house full of healthy children. 
 
 The importance of moderation in the gratification of our 
 natural functions is in none more important than this. Like 
 one given to over-eating, the appetite becomes inordinate, 
 there is no satisfying its demands, while at the same time 
 the pleasure is becoming less and less. 
 
 Young men who have indulged in masturbation are often 
 haunted with the fear that their powers have been destroyed. 
 This is rarely the case, though a temporary weakness may 
 have been induced which will require attention. Such 
 persons we refer to another chapter, where the treatment 
 of difficulties resulting from self abuse is given in full. 
 
PHYSICAL AND MJEJfTAL DEBILITY, ETC. U7 
 
 Provided the habit is discontinued, a sound state of health 
 promoted by exercise, bathing, and healthful food, morbid 
 excitement subdued by purity of thought, little fear need 
 be apprehended of incompetence. Few young men have 
 gone beyond the point where these rules will not restore 
 them. 
 
 Various stimulating preparations are sold under the titles 
 of Rejuvenators, Elixirs, Invigorators, etc., and prescrip- 
 tions of a similar nature are given by advertising practi- 
 tioners, but such administrations are directly opposed to the 
 real needs of the cases. Such stimulants, tincfcure of cantha- 
 rides being the most common, only excite the passion, 
 which is already unduly in the ascendancy. It is true this 
 artificial stimulus may give an appearance of vigor, but it 
 is only deceptive, using up the powers of the system at an 
 increased rate. In these cases the powers of the organs 
 become weakened, and if this system of medication is per- 
 sisted in, total exhaustion will result, or by goading the sys- 
 tem to unnatural efforts, even life itself may be involved. In 
 the majority of cases where these medicines are taken there 
 is not even lack of power — merely excess of desire. That 
 the very excess of desire, resulting even from natural power 
 and abstinence, may actually prevent its gratification is 
 unquestionable — Monteith referring to it as early as 1572. 
 Mistaken as to the cause of his inability, a young man is 
 overcome with horror and remorse, and greedily seeks the 
 aid of these panaceas for invigoration, though in reality 
 nothing ails him. The injury in such a case is certain 
 nearly as much so as in the cases of their use to stimulate 
 really jaded powers, which require rest not stimulation. 
 
 Old men, " hard cases," who have been confirmed mas- 
 turbators, have more grounds for their fears of impotence. 
 One of the ablest medical instructors in this state, in a 
 lecture to his class recently, said in relation to these sub- 
 jects : " I have ho faith in medicines. Such cases are 
 always taking phosphorus, strychnia, or some other tonic, 
 bat I do not see that it does any good. You must put 
 your patient under the best conditions for health. Make 
 him ride horseback j make him so tired with physical exer- 
 cise in the air and sunshine, that he will sleep soundly and 
 
w cause, pftjzr&JvriOjY ajvd se.lf cu&f of 
 
 wake without an emission. Make him eat simple food, and 
 eat nothing after, say, six o'clock in the evening. Advise 
 him not to take wine or strong drink j for strong drink is 
 rarely necessary for a young man ; much of it is carried off 
 by the urine, rendering this irritating 5 and wine, as Shaks- 
 peare has it, prompts desire and damages the power of per- 
 formance. Look out for the function of the bowels — in a 
 word, attend carefully to the patient's hygiene." 
 
 I would not advise any reader to attempt to treat any 
 case of impotence which requires the use of any medicine 
 or surgical operation, however simple. The avoidance of 
 exciting causes, active employment, bathing, nourishing but 
 not stimulating food, temperance, early hours, and purity of 
 thought will be sufficient in all common cases of any real 
 or supposed trouble of the kind. If you have reason to 
 fear your case requires more vigorous treatment, the only 
 safe way is to consult a reputable physician. The follow- 
 ing instructions which I quote from the professor cited 
 above, are designed as a suggestion to practitioners called 
 on to treat such cases, rather than for individuals to adopt 
 for their own treatment. In the same lecture from which 
 I have already quoted, he says : " Now, what surgical 
 means have we at hand to remedy this affection, of which 
 the only pathology, in the majority of cases, is a little con- 
 gestion in the postatic portion of the urethra, associated 
 with a great deal of morbid sensibility, and a too ready ex- 
 cretion of the seminal fluid. The surgical means are such 
 as blunt this unnatural sensibility, this sign of weakness 
 brought about by ungratified desire. The first of them is 
 the occasional passage of a simple steel sound. This, 
 gently done, has the effect of begetting a better feeling 
 about the genital organs, even in old, broken down cases, 
 and in young men, virgin to such treatment, it has a very 
 decided effect, and is often the best of all means for dimin- 
 ishing the sensibility. Pass the sound very gently, and 
 never oftener than twice a week. Tell the patient to think 
 little about his genital organs, to leave them in your hands, 
 and not meddle with them himself. 
 
 "Where this fails, I have used tannic acid, a drachm to 
 the ounce of simple cerate. I apply it by means of a 
 
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL DEBILITY, ETC. J4.9 
 
 sound having a half-dozen little saucer-shaped cavities upon 
 its convexity along the part that conies in contact with the 
 prostatic urethra in passing the sound into the bladder. 
 These cavities I fill with the ointment, and wipe the instru 
 ment clean, leaving the little cups full. Then, having first 
 passed a sound a little larger, I pass this, and keep it in the 
 urethra for five or ten minutes, sometimes even longer, but 
 best not so long as to produce spasmodic contraction of the 
 perinseal muscles. This treatment is based on scientific 
 principles. I apply this astringent to the congested sur- 
 faces, and the result is that the patient, if he follows out 
 the hygienic treatment carefully and honestly, is benefited, 
 and I have saved him from the hands of the quacks. As a 
 general rule, I do not have to make the application more 
 than two or three times. 
 
 " There are other cases still more difficult to treat, where 
 the seminal loss is occurring so constantly that the delusion 
 of the patient's mind is kept up, and a prompt remedy is 
 needed. In these cases I employ the old remedy, nitrate 
 of silver ; but the cases in which I use it are more and 
 more rare. Into a catheter, fitted with a piston, and having 
 one small hole in its extremity, I draw up three or four 
 drops of solution of nitrate of silver — sometimes ten grains 
 to the ounce, sometimes stronger — and, having introduced 
 the instrument to the proper point, I expel the fluid. Here 
 I show you Lallemand's instrument. It is passed in so as 
 to bring its point just into the prostatic portion of the 
 urethra j then the stylet — bearing at its end a little cup of 
 strong nitrate of silver ointment, or of soap covered with 
 the powdered nitrate, as I have used for years — is pushed 
 out. But this operation I would not advise you to employ, 
 until you are thoroughly familiar with these cases. It is 
 done far too frequently." 
 
 In reference to the use of caustic, at one time very gen- 
 erally recommended but now in less esteem by medical 
 authorities, he says : " I tell you I believe much more harm 
 than good has been done by the use of Lallemand's instru- 
 ment. I have seen more strictures, more tender urethras, 
 more cases of intense neuralgia of the neck of the bladder 
 produced by it than I can tell you. It is only to be 
 
750 CAUSES, PREVENTION AND SELF CUKE OF 
 
 employed in serious cases, and then very exceptionally. On 
 the contrary, the use of tannic acid, in the way I have de- 
 scribed, can be more generally adopted, and I think you 
 will find it usually sufficient." 
 
 Regarding the frivolous light in which sensualists are 
 often apt to strive to place this matter, as though it were 
 one of no importance, a mere bugbear raised by moralists, 
 he adds : " The course to be pursued with patients suffering 
 thus, is not to treat their complaints as light and foolish, 
 not to make a joke of them. It is no joke j in reality, it is 
 a very serious business ; and the circumstance whether the 
 young man falls into the hands of a sensible physician who 
 will be his friend, often settles the question of his usefulness 
 in life. Many a young man throws himself away through 
 the fancy that he is impotent, though he is not likely to 
 confess it except to some old, gray -headed doctor." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 PROMOTERS OF VICE — PLAUSIBLE BUT FALLACIOUS THE- 
 ORIES — UNRELIABLE AND DANGEROUS INSTRUMENTS 
 AND MEDICINES — WARNING: AND NEEDED ADVICE. 
 
 THE subject which I propose treating in this chapter is 
 one I would gladly avoid, were it not that the pre- 
 sentation of some truths regarding it is absolutely necessary 
 for the safety of many unsophisticated persons. There are 
 many persons who are kept from immoralities only by the 
 dread of penalties, and if these believe the penalties can be 
 evaded they will step beyond the bounds of virtue. In ad- 
 dition to the open temptations to immorality which are a 
 social cancer in great cities, there is another form in which 
 temptation is being insidiously introduced even into the 
 most retired rural localities. 
 
 In many journals are more or less openly advertised arti- 
 cles under the titles of "Male Safes," " French Safes," 
 " Something for every man — married or single," or in more 
 
PHYSICAL AJYD MENTAL 3)E%I£ITY, ETC. 15 f 
 
 obscure terms. To those ignorant of the meaning of these, 
 information is given in circulars j and the same class of 
 goods are often advertised on the covers of lewd books, or 
 in catalogues of " fancy articles." Were the representa- 
 tions about these articles correct, it would be injudicious to 
 add to their publicity, by denouncing here or in the public 
 prints the immorality of their use, as tending to bring to the 
 attention of those seeking safe means of indulging in illicit 
 pleasure. As the assertions of the advertisers are false in 
 many particulars, I think a true statement will do good, 
 restraining those who might otherwise be led into sin by 
 the plausible arguments of the venders. 
 
 The safe is a small cap of thin rubber or other material, 
 and is intended to be worn over the extremity of the penis 
 during the act of copulation. It is claimed, and might 
 seem very reasonable to casual inquirers, that while this 
 thin rubber does not interfere with the pleasure, it prevents 
 any escape of the semen, and consequently fecunda- 
 tion cannot result. Some of the sellers of these arti- 
 cles defend their morality on the plea that they are de- 
 signed for married persons who cannot afford or do not 
 desire increase of family j and they even appeal to their 
 readers not to use them illicitly, while they take every 
 means to reach the young and unmarried with their circu- 
 lars, filled with such reading as will arouse or stimulate pas- 
 sion. As they offer in these very circulars the u safe" as 
 a means of gratification with perfect immunity, is not the 
 intention self-evident? 
 
 There is no safety in evil doing. These " safes v are not 
 only very liable to rupture in using and so afford a very 
 uncertain guarantee against pregnancy, but to the male there 
 is positive and serious injury done, as I shall presently show. 
 
 There is another practice which, through its lamentable 
 consequences, is now attracting the attention of physicians. 
 This is known by the term " withdrawal." This consists 
 in only partially performing the act of copulation, discon- 
 tinuing it previous to the flow of semen. The act thus be- 
 comes little more than masturbation, and results in a very 
 serious and peculiar combination of ailments. The power 
 of enjoyment is lost, and instead the act is followed by 
 
752 CAUSES* PRETENTION *LJV3) SELF CURE OF 
 
 intense pain; the whole . system becomes weak; pains in 
 the loins, and a soreness and pains when sitting, so great as 
 to cause continual torment. So sore do the implicated 
 parts become, that the lightest clothing causes discomfort, 
 and the calls of nature are imperfectly performed. At the 
 same time physical, mental, and moral power seem to be 
 leaving the victim, and depression, anxiety, and dire fore- 
 bodings fill the mind. 
 
 The sexual act must be full and as nature intended ; any 
 tampering with it is fraught with evil to both parties. The 
 safes produce much the same results as the withdrawal. 
 Of the evils of promiscuous indulgence out of wedlock, I 
 do not purpose to speak. God himself has affixed penalties 
 thereto, which I trust will restrain every reader of this 
 book, should honor and morality combined prove insufficient. 
 While marriage is unquestionably the natural condition for 
 all human beings after the full development of their powers, 
 the restraints of celibacy are not necessarily incompatible 
 with full health, and this restraint is far better than to risk 
 the almost certain penalties of illicit gratification. 
 
 Various pills and potions are advertised, their object being 
 to destroy the child at one or another stage before birth. 
 That young girls sometimes give way to temptation, trust- 
 ing to the powers of these nostrums in case of need, there 
 is no doubt. Generally they are mere inert compounds, 
 and will not produce the result stated. When effective it is 
 only at the expense of severe injury. Of those who place 
 themselves under the care of the male or female vultures 
 who offer " confidential treatment," a large number are 
 killed outright, many live only to linger in almost intolera- 
 ble suffering a few years, and it is doubtful if a single one 
 escapes without painful incurable ailments, and functional 
 injuries. The act is unnatural, and even when induced by 
 accidental causes, produces serious results, though less dan- 
 gerous than where intentional. 
 
 I consider the duties and gratifications of the married 
 state a subject among the most sacred on earth, to be ap- 
 proached only with the greatest reverence and the utmost 
 delicacy, but a word or two may be of vital importance. 
 In a certain book intended for general circulation, excellent 
 
PHYSICAL AJYD MENTAL DJESILITT, ETC. 158 
 
 in many particulars, and containing much that is true and 
 valuable, but marred by one or two grave errors, as I con- 
 sider, the author attempts to prove that sexual gratification 
 should only be indulged in with the direct intention of pro- 
 ducing offspring in every case. Now, to insure against all 
 possible contingencies, these powers are vastly greater than 
 the demands of mere reproduction, and proper gratification 
 not only compatible with, but productive of health. But 
 there can be excess, and such excess is debilitating, as it 
 overtaxes the powers. The exact amount of indulgence 
 can only be determined by individual experience j so long 
 as health and spirits remain good no harm is likely to result. 
 The act should never be indulged in while either party is 
 exhausted, intoxicated, mentally depressed, or otherwise so 
 conditioned as to be liable to transmit any ailment or gen- 
 eral lack of vigor to posterity. What may be but a tem- 
 porary mood or condition in a parent may prove a perma- 
 nent trait in the child, embittering its existence from 
 beginning to end. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVIII. 
 
 OLD AGE — ITS NATURAL APPROACH AND CHARACTER — H07T 
 TO MAKE AGE A MEANS OF STILL FURTHER PROLONGING 
 LIFE — PREMATURE OLD AGE AND HOW PRODUCED — EX- 
 HAUSTION OF THE YITAL FORCES. 
 
 "TTTITH increasing years, after the prime of life, comes 
 VV a gradual loss of power, mental and physical. The 
 vigor given to each person to carry him through the various 
 stages of growth and life in this world, has achieved its 
 purpose and exhausted itself in the natural course of events. 
 Though the elasticity and energy of youth has fled, old age 
 ought not to be a state of suffering and prostration. Many 
 examples are recorded of very aged persons performing 
 duties, and displaying an activity which ought to put to 
 shame many modern loafing loungers. Where the consti- 
 
/J4 CAUSE, Z>ftJZrJZJVTI0JV*UV2) SELF CURE OF 
 
 tution is sound, and the habits of life good, old age should 
 be scarcely more unpleasant than any other period of 
 existence. 
 
 Old age, though the natural consequence of living, and 
 the commeDcement of death, can itself, on the other hand, 
 be a means for prolonging our existence. It does not, how- 
 ever, increase the power to live, but it retards its being ex- 
 hausted ; and one may thus affirm, that a man in the last 
 period of life, at the time when his powers are lessened, 
 would, were he not old, finish his career sooner. 
 
 This position, which appears to be somewhat paradox- 
 ical, is confirmed by the following explanation : Man, 
 during the period of old age, has a much smaller provision 
 of vital power, and much less capacity for restoration. If 
 he lived with the same activity and vigor as before, this 
 provision would be much sooner exhausted, and death 
 would soon be the consequence. Now the character of age 
 lessens the natural irritability and sensibility of the body, 
 by which the effects of internal as well as external irrita- 
 tion, and consequently the exertion and wasting of the 
 powers, are also lessened ; and, on this account, as con- 
 sumption is less, he can with such a stock of powers hold 
 out much longer. The decrease of the intensity of the 
 vital processes, as age increases, prolongs therefore vital 
 duration. 
 
 Irritability being thus lessened, lessens also the effect of 
 pernicious impressions and morbid causes, such as the 
 passions, overheating, etc. ; it preserves likewise much 
 greater quietness and uniformity in the internal economy, 
 and in that manner secures the body from many diseases. 
 It is observed that, for this reason also, old people are 
 much less attacked by infectious disorders than those who 
 are young. 
 
 To this may be added the habit of living, which, without 
 doubt, in the latter period of one's days, contributes to the 
 support of life. An animal operation, which one has carried 
 on so long, always in the same order and succession, be- 
 comes at last so customary that it continues through habit 
 when the action of other causes ceases. It is often aston- 
 ishing how the greatest debility of age will hold out, pro- 
 
PHYSICAL AJVD MENTAL DLTBILITT, ETC. 155 
 
 vided everything remain in its usual order and succession. 
 The spiritual man is sometimes actually dead ; and yet the 
 vegetative, the man-plant, still continues to live ; but for 
 the latter, indeed, much less is necessary. To this habit 
 of life it is owing also that a man, the older he grows, 
 becomes still fonder of existence. 
 
 If old age, therefore, be properly treated and supported, 
 it can be employed, in some measure, as a means of pro- 
 longing life ; but, as this requires deviations from the gen- 
 eral laws, I consider it necessary to give the rules proper 
 to be observed. 
 
 The principal points in this treatment are, that one must 
 always endeavor to lessen and soften the increasing dryness 
 and rigidity of the vessels, which at length occasion a com- 
 plete stoppage of the whole machine ; that nourishment and 
 restoration of what has been lost must be facilitated as 
 much as possible ; that stronger irritation must be given to 
 the body, because the natural irritability is so much weak- 
 ened 5 and that one must promote excretion of the corrupted 
 particles, which in old age is so imperfect, and which 
 therefore produces an impurity of the juices, that acceler- 
 ates death. Upon these are grounded the following rules : 
 
 1st. As the natural heat of the body decreases in old 
 age, one must endeavor to support and increase it exter- 
 nally as much as possible. Warm clothing, warm apart- 
 ments and beds, and, heating nourishment, are all means, 
 therefore, that contribute greatly to the prolongation of life. 
 
 2d. The food must be easy of digestion, rather fluid 
 than solid ; abundant in concentrated nourishment, and, at 
 the same time, much more stimulating than would be ad- 
 visable at an earlier period. Warm, strong, and well- 
 seasoned soups are, therefore, beneficial to old age; and 
 also tender roast meat and nutritive vegetables. 
 
 3d. The tepid bath is exceedingly well calculated to in- 
 crease the natural heat, to promote excretion, particularly 
 of the skin, and to lessen the aridity and stiffness of the 
 whole frame. 
 
 4th. Guard against all violent evacuations, such as let- 
 ting blood, unless when required by particular circum- 
 stances j strong purging, exciting perspiration by too much 
 
756 CAUSES, PliFrFNTION *LJVD SFLF CUKF OF 
 
 heat, indulging in excesses of any kind. These exhaust 
 the few powers still remaining, and increase aridity. 
 
 5th. People with increasing years, should accustom them- 
 selves more and more to a certain order in all the vital ope- 
 rations. Eating, drinking, motion, and the rest, the evacu- 
 ations, and employment, must have their determined periods 
 and succession. Such mechanical order and regularity, at 
 this season of life, may contribute greatly to the prolonga- 
 tion of it. 
 
 6th. The body, however, must have exercise, but not vio- 
 lent or exhausting. That which is rather passive will be 
 the best, such as riding in a carriage, and frequent friction 
 of the whole skin. Violent bodily shocks must in particular 
 be avoided. These, in general, lay a foundation for the first 
 cause of death. 
 
 • 7th. A pleasant frame of mind, and agreeable employment 
 for it, are here of uncommon utility ; but violent passions, 
 which might derange it, and which in old age may occasion 
 instant death, ought to be avoided. That serenity and 
 contentment which are excited by domestic felicity, by the 
 pleasant review of a life spent not in vain, and by a conso- 
 ling prospect of the future, even on this side the grave, are 
 the most salutary. The frame of mind best fitted and most 
 beneficial to old age, is that produced by intercourse with 
 children and young people. Their innocent pastimes and 
 youthful frolics have something which tend, as it were, to 
 renovate and revive. Hope, and extending our views of 
 life, are in particular noble assistants for this purpose. New 
 proposals, new plans and undertakings, which however 
 must be attended with nothing dangerous, or that can create 
 uneasiness; in a word, the means of continuing life longer in 
 idea, may even contribute something toward the physical 
 prolongation of it. We find, therefore, that old people are 
 impelled to this, as if by internal instinct. They begin to 
 build houses, to lay out gardens, etc. ; and seem, in this 
 little self-deception, by which they imagine they secure 
 life, to find an uncommon degree of pleasure. 
 
 While the decadence of old age is inevitable, sooner or 
 later, the time with each individual will vary greatly. 
 Many men are as old, except in mere length of days, at 
 
PHYSICAL 34JV® MEA IrfLL DEBILITY, ETC. ?57 
 
 thirty as others at fifty. Premature old age is too common 
 in America. It is a misfortune, but a fault none the less. 
 Hufeland, who has investigated, with rare skill and patience, 
 the various influences tending to lengthen or shorten life, 
 has the following very true and very forcible remarks on 
 this point : 
 
 " We may see at present, particularly in great cities, men 
 come to maturity in their eighth year ; in their sixteenth, 
 attain to the highest point possible of their perfection ; in 
 their twentieth, struggling with every infirmity, a proof 
 that they are already on the decline ; and in their thirtieth, 
 have every appearance of exhausted age, such as wrinkles, 
 dryness and stiffness of the joints, a crooked spine, loss of 
 sight and memory, gray hair, and a tremulous voice. I 
 once dissected the body of such an artificial old man, who 
 had scarcely attained the age of forty; and found not only 
 his hair gray, but the cartilages of the ribs, which do not 
 become bones until the greatest age, totally ossified. 
 
 "One, therefore, can imitate by art, in our climates, that 
 hastening of the periods of expansion as well as of old age, 
 which, in warm countries, takes place naturally. 
 
 "I must now say a few words on the art of ingrafting 
 old age on youth. This is done by weakening very early 
 the vital power as well as the juices, and giving to the ves- 
 sels the highest possible degree of hardness, stiffness, and 
 want of pliability, which characterizes old age. 
 
 " I shall here lay before my readers the surest means to 
 accomplish this, as it is of importance to know such pre- 
 scriptions, in order that people may be better enabled to 
 counteract them. If one, therefore, will only live alto- 
 gether contrary to the following rules, one may be enabled 
 to preserve one's self in a state of youth to an advanced 
 period of life. 
 
 "1st. Endeavor, by every art physical and moral, to 
 attain to maturity as speedily as possible, and waste the 
 vital power with as much profusion as possible. 
 
 " 2d. Begin very early to expose yourself to the utmost 
 fatigue. Forced journeys of several days, continual dan- 
 cing, sitting up all night, and shortening every period of 
 rest, will, in this respect, be of most service. By this 
 
/5S CAUSES, 3±JY2> SELF CURE OF DEBILITY, ETC. 
 
 means you will accomplish two objects, that of speedily 
 exhausting the vital power, and that of making the vessels 
 soon hard and brittle. 
 
 " 3rd. Drink abundance of wine and strong liquors. This 
 is an excellent prescription to dessicate the body, and to 
 make it become shriveled. 
 
 11 4th. Care, fear, and sorrow, are extraordinarily well 
 calculated to bring on, very early, every characteristic of 
 old age.. We have instances of persons acquiring grey 
 hair in the course of one night spent under the highest de- 
 gree of grief and terror. Now, one might believe that 
 certain causes are absolutely necessary to produce these 
 affections; but there are people who understand, in a mas- 
 terly manner, the art of seeing everything in a melancholy 
 light, of dreading some evil from every man, and of finding 
 in the most common circumstances abundant matter to ex- 
 cite wretchedness and misery. 
 
 "5th. That system, carried too far, or at least badly un- 
 derstood, of hardening the organs by the means of cold, 
 bathing frequently and for a long time in cold water; 
 nothing can be more proper to produce every symptom of 
 age." 
 
ART OF TRAININB ANIMALS; 
 
 A complete guide for amateur or professional trainers, explaining the most 
 approved methods of the most celebrated and successful trainera, thoroughly 
 initiating the reader intoltil the secrets of the profession, exposing various 
 bogus "charms," &c, sold to the credulous at high prices, aad telling, in 
 fact, everything connected with the art of breaking, taming, and training all 
 kinds of animals. It includes a new and improved method of horse and colt 
 breaking, selection of horses, management of farm animals, watch and sport- 
 ing dogs, and a complete, system of teaching all Circus Tricks. Besides all 
 these, it has a chapter on Snake Charming, chapters on Singing, Talking, and 
 Performing Birds, including information which is alone worth the price of 
 the book to any bird owner. 
 
 An Idea of the book may be gleaned from the following partial synopsis of a 
 few oft ie chapters : 
 
 Horse Taming and Horse Training. — How to' manage a horse, conquering 
 vicious and breaking wild horses, kindness and firmness, curing stubborn 
 disposition, the tamers tools, to teach a horse to stop, to teach a hore to back, 
 to make a horse follow you, to stand without holding, whip training, to drive 
 without bit or bridK to cure balky horses, to prevent harnessed horses run- 
 ning away, to instantly stop a runaway horse. 
 
 Trick Horses. — Appliances used in teaching tricks, to teach ahorse to sit up, 
 to kick at command, to answer questions, to jump, to stand erect, to " pirou- 
 ette," pedestal feat, to kiss, to fetch and carry, to find hidden articles, to select 
 chosen card, to fire pistol, to dance, to eat at table, to play hand-organ, to 
 feign lameness, to walk over you, &c. 
 
 Performing Dogs. — Simple tricks and training, to teach him his name, to leap, 
 to walk erect, to dance, to jump rope, to sit and lie down at command, to 
 beg, to give his paw, to sneeze, to speak for it, to fetch and carry, to bring you 
 his tail in his mouth, to stand on a ball and roll it up and down a plank, to 
 walk on stilts, to go up and down a ladder, to stand on his head and walk on 
 fore legs, to "sing," lump of sugar trick, to feign death. 
 
 Wonderful Feats of Dogs. — Celebrated canine performers of the world, to 
 teach dogs the alphabet, to select from a number of articles any article called 
 for, to place any article in any place directed, or give it to any designated per- 
 son, to eat any article of food and leave any other, as he may be ordered, to 
 play dominoes, " Munito " and " Mile. Bianca," their wonderful performan- 
 ces, how they were really achieved, tricks of exhibitors, as well as tricks of per- 
 formers, real education vs. clever deception, full details of training, canine 
 actors. 
 
 And over twenty other chapters. Gives more information about training 
 animals in a single chapter than any other entire work. It is cram full of stories 
 and anecdotes about celebrated performing animals, and is a most interesting 
 and readable book, even to those who care little for the mere secrets and in- 
 structions. Over 300 large 12mo. pages, and over 60 illustrations. Only 
 50 cents in paper covers, and $1.00 in cloth binding. 
 
 Just pubbshed, and may be had of all booksellers, or by mail, post-paid, on 
 receipt of price. Trade supplied by News Companies and wholesale houses. 
 .JESSE HANEY <Se CO., 119 Nassau St., New York. 
 
 " Every man who owns an animal, from a horse to a canary bird, shcild have 
 a copy. It will teach him more in a week than he could learn in a '"^o-time with- 
 out it. . . .No more acceptable book could be put into the hands .,» boys who live 
 
 in the country. . . .It will at ©nee take its place as astandard work We do not 
 
 know of a book better worth the price asked for it." — New York Evening Press. 
 
 «• It seems to be a guide not only to teaching the more intelligent of the dumb 
 beasts good tricks, but also of breaking them of bad ones."— Prov Morn.Herald. 
 
 " It is highly spoken ot by those capable of judging. ' — Chicago Eve. Journal. 
 
 " "Will commend itself to most readers interested in animals." — Boston Even- 
 ing Traveler. 
 
 '* The anecdotes are quite amusing, and will entertain both old and young."— 
 Advance, Chicago. 
 
 « The general method recommended is reasonable. "^Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 
 
 '• A more complete manual of tne art of animal training than this would be 
 difficult to imagine."— N. Y. Evening Express. 
 
 "The teachings are very clear, and the illustrations numerous, leaving nothing 
 in the dark" — American Union. 
 
 4t With all its precision, it is by no means a purely didactic work, but mingles 
 with it3 claar directions a number of pleasant facts, pleasantly told " — Day Book, 
 
 '*The courses commended must end in & access." — Flag of Our Union. 
 
HANEY'S JOURNAL 
 
 FOR 1870. 
 
 A Handsome 16 page, Illustrated Monthly Paper 
 of Interesting and Profitable Matter, for 
 Everybody in Town or Country. 
 « ♦ » 
 
 Hanet*s JouENAii occupies a field entirely its own, competes with no other 
 publication, and while we advise you to give np no accustomed paper to take 
 this, we think all can afford the small outlay of 50 cents a year, and we in- 
 tend to make it PAY every reader— to " put money in his pocket," as well as 
 interest and amuse him. No important change will be made in form or char- 
 acter, but we shall aim to make every number just as good as possible ; we 
 do not know that we can make a better paper than we have already, if we CAN 
 we WILL. Among a few of the articles which will appear in the early num- 
 bers of 1870, we may mention :. 
 
 THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS, a curious and in- 
 teresting inquiry, embodying many strange facts and some novel theories, 
 presenting much incidental information about Birds, Beasts, &c, which will 
 prove highly interesting as well as well worth knowing, whatever may be 
 thought of the author's " notions." 
 
 MONEY MAKING, embracing many things which will aid 
 young men and others in the battle of life, presenting openings for enter- 
 prise, best application of talent, skill, labor, &c. 
 
 PROFESSIONAL. ITEMS, improvements in trade pro- 
 cesses, new arts, recipes, discoveries, &c. 
 
 GRAVEL WALL BUILDING AND CON- 
 CRETE HOUSES. Practical instructions for this useful, cheap 
 and substantial mode of building, which is now attracting so much attention. 
 All about it, with engravings, &c. 
 
 PUZZLES* and interesting matters for the Young. We (th~| f\f\ 
 shall offer $100 cash for Original Puzzles, in order to obtain the kDJLU U 
 very best for our Puzzle readers. 
 
 MAGIC, including some of the most marvelous facts of ancient and 
 modern jugglers and magicians, startling novelties, as well as more simpler 
 ones for amateur conjuring, for home amusement. We shall have contribu- 
 tions from one of the most talented and celebrated professional "prestidigi- 
 tateurs." 
 
 Besides these, there will be a vast amount of interesting Miscellany, items 
 for Farmers, Mechanics, Storekeepers, Manufacturers, and the Household. 
 Hanev's Joubnal is not a " story paper." We believe fact is as interesting as 
 fiction, and in lieu of thrilling or sentimental effusions, we shall give curious 
 matters from the vast stores of Natural History, Natural Philosophy, Chem- 
 istry, Invention and Travel, the whole illustrated with fine Wood Engravings. 
 Though not designed specially for the Young, there is much to interest them, 
 and many parents take the paper for the express benefit of their juveniles and 
 consider it a good investment. It is a great favorite with boys — and girls too. 
 
 We shall continue our series of Biographies of the Bich Men of the World, 
 showing how they gained their wealth, and furnishing examples and keys to 
 success, which cannot fail to prove useful to young men. Our exposures of 
 
 HUMBUGS AND SWINDLES, 
 
 which have already proved so popular and beneficial, will be kept up regu- 
 larly, the author of the celebrated book "Kogues and Bogueries" being spe- 
 cially engaged to investigate thoroughly, and fully show up all HUMBUGS 
 as they are put in operation. Quack Doctors, Patent Medicines, and some 
 grand schemes of imposition are now under investigation. We anticipate 
 
highly interesting developments. Our Notices to Correspondents will give a 
 vast amount of interesting matter, just what people want, solving difficul- 
 ties, and aiding our readers in their troubles. The answers are carefully pre- 
 pared by competent persons. 
 
 Haney's Journal is not a " cheap" paper, Though furnished at a low 
 price, it is a costly paper to make, no pains or expense being spared to make 
 it as good as possible, and merit the high favor it already enjoys. Our large 
 circulation enables us to give each reader, at a small price, what costs us very 
 much. Competent persons are employed upon each department, and in every 
 respect the Journal will be first-class, and even if " only fifty cents a year," 
 it is no "ax-grinder" advertising sheet, or trashy " scissors-and-paste" affair. 
 It is not sectional or local, but designed for general circulation, and we en- 
 deavor to exclude matters of only restricted interest. 
 
 We don't want anybody to take Haney's Journal out of charity, but if you 
 think it will pay you, we should be most happy to have you try it by sub- 
 scribing for 1870. Remember, 
 
 ONLY SO OEINTTS A. YEAR. 
 
 "What ROBERT BONNER thinks of Haney's Journal z 
 
 THE TROTTING HORSE AND HOW TO TRAIN HIM, is the title of a 
 series of very interesting and instructive articles, by John ElderMn, now in 
 course of publication in Haney's Jounral. They are alone worth the price 
 of the publication. — New York Ledger, Oct. 16th. 
 
 What JAMES PARTON thinks of Haney's Journal : 
 
 "I was one of your "pioneer" subscribers, and when years ago, I sent 
 the money for my subscription, I predicted the success of Haney's Journal^ 
 I knew the public would appreciate a paper of such real excellence, and I am 
 pleased to know I have proved a true prophet. I consider the Journal of to- 
 day even better than in those early days, good as I believed it then." 
 
 [James Parton. 
 
 We might add many commendations from many sources — from those who 
 have MADE money from its information, from those who have SAVED money 
 through its exposures of humbugs, and from many who have derived pleasure 
 and instruction from its pages. 
 
 J8®*If there is a newsdealer in your vicinity we prefer you should get the 
 Journal of him. He will get it for you if requested to, even if he does not 
 keep a supply on hand. The price is 5 cents a copy. If any trouble is ex- 
 perienced in getting the Journal of dealers, the subscription price — 50 cents — 
 may be sent us and the paper will be sent one year. In all cases where speci- 
 mens are desired, the price must be sent. We send no gratuitous copies. No 
 " premium lists" and but very slight inducements to club-raisers. Subscrip- 
 tions may commence with any number — back numbers from January can be 
 supplied, as we have complete electrotype plates. 
 
 JESSE HANEY & CO., Publishers, 
 
 119 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
 4®»Dealers supplied at regular trade prices, by the news companies and al* ; 
 wholesale houses. The Journal sells steadily and quite largely in many lo- 
 calities. 
 
 Sample of " Opinions of the Press : " 
 
 Haney's Journal. — This handsome periodical stall pursues the even tenor 
 of its way, furnishing its readers with a wonderful amount of interesting and 
 valuable matter at a wonderfully small price. It has concluded the impor- 
 tant series of papers on " Slow Horses made Fast," and continues in the No- 
 vember number its sketches of " Rich Men and How they Became so." * 
 * * * A sleepless, enterprise, ransacking every region of literature, art 
 and science, for novelties, is the secret of the very successful management of 
 Haney's Journal. Engravings of superior excellence are strewn through its 
 sixteen pages in lavish profusion, and form one of the chief attractions. For 
 the younger portion of its constituency there is a well-conducted puzzle de- 
 partment and miscellany. — Newark, (iV, J.) Daily Advertiser, Nov. 2d, 1869. 
 
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