&$fM^^ -*&,&- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE; A SERIES OE POPULAR AND SCIENTIFIC ESSAYS NATURE, USES, AND DISEASES OP THE LUNGS, HEART, LITER, STOMACH, KIDNEYS, WOMB AND BLOOD: KEY TO THE CAUSES, PKEYEXTION, REMEDIES, AND CERE OF PULMONARY AND OTHER KINDS OF CONSUMPTION; ASTHMA, BRONCHITIS, HEART DISEASES, DYSPEPSIA, LIVER COMPLAINT, AGUE AND FEVER, BALDNESS, DEAFNESS, BLINDNESS, HEAD ACHES, CATARRH, COSTIVENESS, DIARRHOEA, DYSENTERY, GRUB AND WORMS, PILES AND FISTULA, MISCARRIAGE, FEMALE DISEASES, CANCERS AND TUMORS, FALLING OF THE WOMB, ETC., ETC. MARRIAGE GUIDE, On early Marriage, growth of the Foetus, Organs of Generation, Prevention of Con- ception, Impressions on the Female Organs and on the unborn Child, Art of Procreating the Sexes at will, and how to render Child- Birth easy and safe. BY HARMON KNOX ROOT, A.M., M.: ., LUNG BAROMETER. ILLUSTRATED WITH 65 RARE AND INTERESTING ENGRAVINGS. Blessed is lie that readeth, and they that keep those things that are written therein," [St. John,] for " It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools." [Solomon.] NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE PROPRIETOR, 512 BROADWAY. 1852. MS** FOR SALE BY BOOK DEALERS GENERALLY, THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by HARMON K. ROOT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. Copied from "An Act to amend the several Acts respecting Copyrights." _ Section 6. And be it further enacted, That if any other person, from and after the recording the title of any book or books according to this act. shall, within the term or terms herein limited, print, publish, or import, or cause to be printed, published, or imported, any copj of any such book or books, without the consent of the person legally entitle'! to the copyright thereof first had and obtained in writing, signed in presence of two or more credible witnesses, or shall, knowing the same to be so printed or imported, publish, sell, or expose to sale, or cause to be published, sold, or exposed to sale, any copy of such book, without such consent in writing, then such offender shall forfeit every copy of such book to the person legally, at the time, enti- tled to the copyiight thereof, and shall also forfeit and pay fifty cents for everj such sheet which may be found in his possession, either printed or printing, published, imported, or expos- ed to sale, contrary to the intent of this act ; the one moiety to such legal owner of the copy- right as aforesaid, and the other to the United States, to be recovered by action of debt in any court having competent jurisdiction thereof. N. B. — The retail price of "The People's Medical Lighthouse"' is $2 00. It may be obtained of the Author, Dr. H. K. Root, 512 Broadwa}', New York, and of Book Dealers generally. Also, on the receipt of $2 00. and the address of any person (pre-paid), it will be sent by mail to any part of the country, fir by the Author. Booksellers supplied at the following rates. — 12 to 50 copies, si 50 per copy; over 50 copies, si 30 per copy. Persons wanted in all parts of the coun- try to act as Agents. Terms, cash or re'sio .isible paper. +i % 4 PREFACE The author of this work having been before the public for some years, both in extensive practice of his profession and as writer of a widely-circulated series of "Lectures on Health," believes no apology wiU be needed for the appearance of this offspring of his labors ; especially when he remembers that he has been, as ic were, forced to offer it to the world, by the urgent and oft-repeated solicitations of hundreds of his patients in various parts of the country. That it will meet with a kind reception from thousands of the afflicted, the author is constrained to be- lieve by the fact that twenty thousand copies of his Lectures were circulated in the first eighteen months of their publication : and having, since the issue of that work, lectured to upwards of one hundred thousand persons, and successfully treated some twenty-five thousand cases of disease, in all the various forms which it pre- sents, (of which a minute and complete record, embracing many volumes, wherein symptoms, modes of treatment, causes of complaint, and temperament, age and con- dition of patients, has been kept,) he feels that the experience and observation he has gained, and the medical knowledge he has accumulated, when presented in the manner employed in the following pages, will not only insure a candid reading for his book, but will operate to greatly benefit those who shall peruse and digest its contents. The diseases treated of in this work, and their causes, prevention and cure, have been the objects of the intense study and close investigation of the author for many years, theoretically and practically. "With an earnest desire to understand and suc- cessfully pursue the great science of medicine, and with ardent feelings of sympathy for the afflicted, he has traveled over various parts of the country, visited numerous places where medical information is to be obtained, and attentively considered and candidly weighed all the prevailing systems and doctrines of medicine. The ex- perience and knowledge gained, the observations made, the truths elicited, and the convictions arrived at, the reader will find embodied in the work now presented for lification and instruction. In view of the facts that thousands are suffering from disease and pain — are ignorantly sacrificing health and life — and are cut off in tin' prime of existence, the author has felt it his duty to make use of his humble abilities in this manner, in the hope of benefiting his fellow beings, by pointing them to the paths of health, and so instructing them that they shall develop and preserve their faculties, personally and as a race — physically, morally and intellectually. In endeavoring to do this he has cut loose from the technicalities of medical schools, and from the professional jargon, (entirely unintelligible to all general readers,) behind which the ignorant in the science endeavor to hide their want of knowledge, and has presented his ideas, so far as possible, in undefiled English, and in a plain and vi PREFACE. direct manner, so that every one may be able to not only read but to comprehend that which is written, and be thereby instructed. In treating of the various complaints, and in pointing to remedies, the author lias endeavored, also, to set forth many causes of disease and premature death. This will be found to be one of the principal objects of the work. For the benefit of man, it is as important that we should know the causes of disease and the modes of 'prevention as the methods of cure; for, by knowing the former, we may escape often a necessity of resorting to the latter. And as his practice has led him to look into the causes of disease, and to observe the means by which sickness may bo prevent- ed, the writer deemed it incumbent in this work to give the reader the benefit of his experience and observation, in the hope that he may use them to his own good. The old adage — "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," applies with great force in all matters of health, and should be a rule for every man's governance. No one can with safety neglect it. To preserve health is a much easier matter, if men will give attention to the subject, than to restore it when once it has been lost. The first is in great measure in the power of every person ; the latter often requires the most scientific medical skill, such as but few men possess. Nearly every in- valid, now shut out from tiie joys of life and the pleasures of the world, borne down to the ground with an intolerable load of physical and mental suffering, and per- haps doomed to an early and untimely grave, might, by having taken the proper steps to preserve health, be now in the full enjoyment of that inestimable Messing, and in prospect of a long, happy, and useful life. We should remember the truth con- tained in the proverb which reads—" A prudent man foreseeth the evil and fleeth, but the simple pass on and are punished"— and apply it in the avoidance of all causes tending to disease. In view of some of the pernicious fashions and customs of modern civilization, and of the destructive vices existing, whereby many are led to the tomb, and dis- ease handed down to the coming generations, the author has felt it a duty to speak plainly and boldly his thoughts and convictions, the more especially as these subjects are in the main passed over by medical writers, as being injurious to their practice; and thus left to spread havoc and devastation in all classes of society. In doing this, though not withholding the truth for fear of offence, nor studying verbosity, where direct speech was better calculated to convey the desired idea, it has been his endeavor to avoid all language calculated to displease, and all phraseology which should be, by the most fastidious, thought open to objection ; in which, he humbly trusts, he has been successful. In various parts of the work will be found much valuable statistical information upon numerous subjects connected with the health and happiness of the human race, from which may be gathered by the reader ideas of the influences exerted by varied causes in the production of premature decay and death. These statistics have in part been gathered from a multitude of reliable authors, and are in part the results of the writer's own extended experience in the practice of his profession. A care- ful perusal thereof will not only afford the reader much valuable information, but will show him how many long-cherished but erroneous theories, intimately connect- ed with his welfare, are exploded by figures. To particularize among these is im- possible ; they are respectfully submitted for consideration, with the assurance that no one can read them without gaining such information as shall trebly remunerate him for the purchase and perusal of tins volume. PKEFACE. vii A glance at the table of contents will be sufficient to show that the work is filled with matters of the most interesting and important charactc •, connected with the human being, from infancy to old age ; that it is one needed by the public, and is calculated to convey the most satisfactory instruction to all classes of readers. The author feels confident that if this labor of his is received in good faith, carefully read and inwardly digested, it will be of great benefit to thousands of his fellows. It will teach them to know themselves. It will redeem them from disease, and place them in the possession of health and happiness ; it will take them from fingering misery, and place them in the lap of ease. If they would have health, strength, beauty, and length of days, in these pages shall the roads thereto be pointed out to them ; if they would have knowledge of themselves, physically and mentally, and would be instructed how to live happily, usefully and honorably, this book shall be the mine from whence rich stores of intellectual ore may be drawn freely by all. That it may serve these ends with his patients, his friends, and the public generally, is the earnest and sincere wish of THE AUTHOR LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Frontispiece — with Portrait of the Author ii Perfect Male and Female Fig- ures xxiv The Venous System 6 The Arterial System - - - - 6 The Heart axd Lungs - - - - 12 Section of the Heart - - - - 16 Lungs, with Arteries and Veins 17 The Emaciated Invalid - - - - 20 fcetus, showing the umbilical Cord, through which the Blood passes from the Mo- ther to the Child - - - - 21 Nervous Telegraphic System - 22 Married Couple, with their Child 42 The Vegetable or Botanic Medi- cines 46 Lungs Pierced and Dried Up - - 59 Ulcerated Lung 61 Lung with Grub ln it, and Ulce- rated 64 "Weariness and Lassitude - - - 65 Ulcerated Kidney ----- 70 Diseased Bowel, with Piles - - 71 Section of Tuberculous Lung - - 75 grrubs in the brain and optic Nerve 94 Injurious Position in Study - - 104 Incorrect Position for Standing 106 Correct Position for Standing - 106 Injurious Attitude in Sewing - 106 The Liver and Stomach - - - 113 "Worms — different kinds - - - 123 Snake, Frog, and Evet - - - - 125 Cancer of the Breast - - - - 128 Cancer on the Face 130 The Scrofulous all over - - - 132 Page The Swelled Leg 133 Crooked Boy 133 Straightened Boy 134 Tumor on the Neck - - - - - 134 Goitre on the Neck 135 Case of King's Evil 135 Spinal Curvature 136 Case of Scald Head 137 "White Swelling 143 The Onanists and their Child - 148 Artificial "Waist — Natural "Waist 184 Natural Chest 185 Compressed Chest 185 Case of Bronchitis 264 Abdomen of the Female — Inter- nal View 266 Womb fell in at the Top - - - 267 Womb and Appendages - - - - 269 Cancerous and Ulcerated Womb 269 Ovarian Tumor 272 Dropsical all over 288 Foetuses from Fifteen Days to Nine Months 338 Foetus in the Womb 340 Twins in the Womb 340 Four in the Womb 341 The Temptation and Disobedience 352 The Punishment for Transgres- sion 354 The Redemption 35 G Health for the Sick - - - - 374 Dr. Root surrounded by Distin- guished Persons 375 Lung Barometer 385 Flat Chest — Full Chest - - - 388 Contracted and Well-developed Chest 389 Dr. Root's Office— 512 Broadway 409 CONTENTS, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. Page Description of animals 1 Description of vegetables 2 Components of animals and vegetables 2 Teach the wisdom of God 2 Man should not be arrogant 2 Man's duty to preserve life 2 ON THE BLOOD. Blood the life of all flesh 3 Physiology, chemistry, reason and the Bi- ble teach this 3 From the blood originate the humors 3 Change of the blood 3 Blood a component part of all animals 3 The author's system of practice 4 His medicines 4 REVELATION ON THE BLOOD. Quotations from Scripture to show that in the blood is the life 4 Poisonous humors in the blood disease the system 5 Necessity of purifying the blood 5 Prevalence of impurity 5 The venous and arterial systems 5 CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD KNOWN TO SOLOMON. Circulation discovered by Harvey 6 tion of life by blood-letting 7 100 bbls. of blood drawn by an allopath. . . 7 il given by do 7 Number it would kill 7 Opinions of physicians 7 of the term "Q.uack" 7 8 The gravej ards ran witness 8 No blood to span- 8 The true system 8 Vegetable medii ood the test... 8 Animals resort to vegetable remedies 8 AIR THE BREATH OF ALL LIFE. Scriptural illustrations 9 Call to the consumptive 9 Air keeps the blood in circulation 9 I., i out theblood, death follows 9 Take away the air, and man dies 9 s OF 'I'll!-'. LUNGS. Lungs before birth 9 Filled 9 .\o air in the lungs of the foetus '■< Description of lungs 9 Description of heart, and organs of respi- ration 10 "Adam's apple" 10 Thyroid gland — necessity lor its greater size in the female ID The use of the lungs 1(1 Compo it ion of air II Electricity communicated to the blood ... 11 Air purines the blood 11 Generation of animal heat 11 Physicians should know of these matters.. 11 Ignorance of the "Faculty" 11 Invalids should not despair 12 Try the Lung Barometer 12 RESPIRATION. Amount of air to sustain life 12 Quantity sometimes inhaled 12 Children should have plenty of 13 Respiration per minute, hour, day and year 13 Air usually inhaled 13 Quantity of blood in the adult 13 Blood performs its circuit twenty times an hour 13 Importance of keeping the blood pure 13 Inflation of the lungs 13 Extra inflation 14 Extra inflation may be injurious 14 Necessity of Lung Barometer 14 Point at which death occurs 14 Air in the lungs of Jenny Lind, " American Deer," and others 15 Necessity of ventilation 15 THE HEART. History and development of 15 Diseases of, can be cured 16 Strength of body not in lungs 10 Expansion of 17 Value of the Lung Barometer in diseases of the lungs 17 ABUSE OF LUNGS BY INHALING TUBES. When extra inflation should be practised . . 18 Advocates of tubes have no guides 18 Inhaling tubes may cause disease and death 18 Ancients knew nothing of tubes 18 Gymnastic exercise for the lungs 19 MANS STRENGTH IN HIS BLOOD. Take away the blood and strength is gone 19 Loss of strength from thin blood 20 Believe not the deluding quack 20 Health restored through the blood 20 i;i i nourishes the child before birth — 20 The umbilical cord 20 How it should be tied and cut 20 Description of the foetus 21 ( in- n l:it ion of blood from the mother to the chilil 21 GB ITIFICATION OF THE PASSIONS. I The natural passions should be gratified .. . 21 ! The brain a phrenological congress 23 Desire tor child ten natural 22 No peace H ithoul gratification 23 i lectricity stimul s amativeness 23 The sexes magnetic CONTEXTS. Effects of masturbation 23 An explosion follows if God-given desire is not gratified 23 "It is better to marry than to burn" 23 Life shortened by not marrying 23 Gratification the safety-valve 24 Man should not hinder what God has ordered 24 No passion created in vain 24 Complete restraint dangerous 24 Passions of animals gratified 24 Prostitution follows total restraint 24 Laws and customs of society lead people from the paths of virtue 25 EDUCATION AND DISEASED BLOOD AT WAR. Phrenological teachings not correct 25 Character dependent upon the blood 25 Character cannot be told from the sinuositv of the skull '. 25 Purification of the blood necessary 25 Body and mind affect each other 26 Phrenologists gone beyond reason 26 Something besides the bumps should be at- tended to 26 Good men made irreverent by ill-health.. . 27 Necessity to attend to the health 27 NO BOOK TEACHES THE TRUE CAUSE OF INSANITY. The brain an assemblage of organs 27 Quality of the blood affects the mind 28 Cause of insanity explained 28 Substances of bone 29 Phosphorus in the brain 29 Actuating cause of insanity 29 Number of insane in the U. S 30 Age when most prevalent 30 Antidotes provided 30 NO BOOK TEACHES THE CURE OF CON- SUMPTION. Reason why given 31 The Lung Barometer removes all difficulties 31 Consumption is curable 31 Cured by the author 31 HEREDITARY DISEASE. Parents do not guard against 32 Parents live again in offspring 32 Impure blood cause of hereditary disease. . 32 Bad habits of dress cause of 33 Over eating and drinking cause of 33 Masturbation cause of 33 Excessive sexual intercourse cause of 33 Tantalizing cause of 33 Suppressing emission cause of 33 Should not cohabit when intoxicated 34 Leucorrhmal difficulties cause of heredita- ry disease 34 Prostitution cause of 34 Mineral medicines cause of 34 To prevent hereditary disease, become whole 35 EARLY MARRIAGE AND LONGEVITY. New-fangled theories pernicious 35 "What is the true teaching of modern philos- ophers ? 35 Total suppression of desire 36 what are the effects 36 God has implanted sexual desire 36 ordinances should be followed 36 Celibacv leads to masturbation 36 Also to "insanity 36 Proofs of 36 Masturbation cause of insanity 36 Celibacy le ids to prostitution 37 Prostitution in P.iris, London and N. York 37 Human life shortened by celibacy Proofs adduced Illegitimate births follow celibacy Abortions follow do Child-murders follow do Scripture in favor of early marriage The Jews married early Hindoos marry at twelve Dr. Hollick on the "strength of the sexual propensity" Rev. Dr. Wardlaw on prostitution and in favor of early marriage Effects of virtuous love Dr. Beuj. Franklin on early marriage. MINERAL QUACKS. I History of the term quack 43 Injustice of the allopaths 43 Desertions from the mineral practice . . . 44 Opinions of physicians 44 Advance of botanic practice 44 Effect of minerals 45 Minerals slain tens of thousands 45 A choice offered 4o VEGETABLE MEDICINES OF GOD. Scripture proof 47 Scripture says nothing of mineral medicines 47 Egyptians used herbs 48 Opinion of B-afinesque 48 Proofs strong in favor of vegetables 48 HOMCEOPATHY. No better than Allopathy 49 Wonderful effects in imaginary diseases.. . 49 . Do not adhere to their system 49 Make use of other chemical medicines 46 | Theory of Hahnemann ridiculous 49 Like throwing a spoonful of tea in the Hud- son 49 j Gunpowder to put out fire 50 Vegetable remedies may be concentrated.. 50 LOVE-SICKNESS CAUSES CONSUMPTION. ! Description of symptoms 51 j Love-sickness breeds disease 51 ; Also insanity 51 Disease and health coupled in marriage 51 1 The consumptive married 51 Masturbator united to the lovely, blooming " dew-drop " 52 I PROTRACTED CELIBACY A VIOLATION OF PHYSICAL LAWS. ' Delaying marriage wrong 52 Passion will be gratified 52 Is natural or artificial best 52 Woman a propagator 52 Menstruation a sign for marriage 52 Commencement of menstruation 53 Time of puberty in males 53 Natural desires to be gratified before we can be educated 53 God has determined the time for marriage 53 Parents accountable to God's displeasure.. 54 IMPERFECT MENSTRUATION CAUSES CONSUMPTION. What is menstruation 54 Time of appearance and cessation 64 No uniformity of appearance 54 Discharge may be from the mouth 54 Continuance of the discharge 55 OBSTRUCTION OF THE MENSES. Symptoms accompanying 55 ion of the menses. Ditlicultr of menstruation. CONTENTS. XI Excessive menstruation 56 Cessation of menstruation, or change of life 56 First appearance of menstruation 57 Importance of attention to 57 Change in the female 57 Drs. Hollick and Dixon — remarks on 57 Menstruation ceases when nursing 58 Sympathy for females necessary 58 THE LUNGS MAY BE CUT, ULCERATED, DRIED UP, TUBERCULOUS, BLEEDING OR SHOT THROUGH, WITHOUT LOSS OF LIFE. Changes in the lungs 59 Composition of 59 Cases of ruptured lungs cured 60 Cases of dried up lungs 60 Cases of lung diseases 61 Consumption is curable 62 GRUB CONSUMPTION. Discovery of the grub 62 Organs afl'ected by 62 Symptoms of the grub 63 Grub in animals 63 Ancient authority about 63 Detected by the Lung Barometer 64 Destroyed by proper remedies 64 WOMB COMPLAINTS. Results of 65 DISEASES OF THE WOMB CAUSE CON- SUMPTION. Organs affected 65 Symptoms 65 Ignorance of physicians 65 STERILITY CAUSES CONSUMPTION. Barrenness a m isfortune 66 Erroneous teachings 66 Sexual desire should be consulted 66 Incompetency destroys love 66 Barrenness from self-pollution 67 An ignoble infirmity 67 Ladies do not like to be barren 67 A mark of God's displeasure 67 Course to be pursued where it exists 67 Barrenness in males 67 Excessive sexual indulgence induces 68 Diseases from excess 6S Afflicted may be restored 68 Floodings often cause consumption 68 Irritants cause consumption 69 Cripples made by irritants 69 Gravel and kidney complaints 69 Physicians act blindfolded 69 Offices of the kidneys 70 The body a savings bank 70 Piles and liver complaints 71 Cause of piles 71 BATHING THE FEET. Cleanliness a law of health 71 Washing feet in the East 71 Among Mahomedans a religious custom. . . 71 LUNG CONSUMPTION. Symptoms and distinction of 72 Remarks of Combe on working the young. 73 Origin of consumption 73 Description of tubercles 74 Their progress and effects 74 Dissections prove consumption curable. ... 75 Course to be pursued by the consumptive. 75 Deposition of tubercles 75 Found in different organs 76 Consumption hereditary 76 Allayed by pregnancy 76 Consumption contagious 76 Hereditary per centage 77 Ratio of males and females affected 77 Difference of city and country 77 Reason for difference 78 Influence of age on 78 Influence of condition on 78 Influence of climate 7S Consumption curable 79 The proofs given 79 Remarks of Dr. Swett — establishing the fact 79 Opinion of Dr. Dixon 79 Be not discouraged 79 KINDS OF CONSUMPTION. Organs affected 80 Invalids must persevere SO Often relapse through carelessness 80 Relapse fatal 80 What the physician should know 81 Reasons of the author's success 81 SOUNDING THE LUNGS AND CHEST. Stethoscope cannot be relied on 81 Difficulties of sounding 82 Opinion of Dr. Swett 82 Sounding by auscultation 82 The deaf doctor S3 His catch-traps 83 Dixon on stethoscopes 83 The Lung Barometer a guide 83 Like the sailor's compass 83 Consumptive might have been saved 84 What the physician should be 84 IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT ON HEALTH. Effects of darkness on plants, flowers, and animals 85 Effects of light on phosphorus in the brain 85 Nervous and sensitive persons liable to in- sanity 85 Light a part of our bodies 85 Buildings should be well lighted 86 Effects of dark and damp houses 86 Wisdom of the Deity shown 86 AIR, AND ITS EFFECTS UPON HEALTH. Constituents of air 86 Necessary to life 87 Description of 87 Effects of too much oxygen 87 Do. of too little 87 Impure air a scourge 87 Diseases from 87 Might lie prevented 88 Illustrations of effects of ventilation 88 "Black hole" of Calcutta 89 Fevers annihilated by pure air 89 Terrible destruction of life from foul air. . 89 Cleanliness and air in ancient Rome 90 Contagion from foul air 90 Consumption from 90 Infant mortality from 91 How people aie used 91 Law should interfere 91 Pure air and light on health 91 The countryman and city resident 92 School miss and milkmaid 92 Some advice to parents and others 92 Duty of public men 93 LOSS OF THE SENSES PRODUCES CON- SUMPTION. Loss of sight 93 Diseases from 94 Blindness from grub 94 Loss of hearing 94 Loss of feeling 94 Dangers of cauterization, bleeding, &c. . 95 SI1 CONTENTS. Cauterizing to cure emissions dangerous.. 95 Natural remedy the best 95 Loss of taste 95 Caused by mercury 95 Loss of smelling 95 Cure for above-named diseases 96 MUSIC AND DANCING PREVENT CON- SUMPTION. Effects of music 96 Effects of sorrow 97 Music in the days of David and Solomon. 97 Its effect on Saul 97 Good results of dancing 97 The Bible upon 97 Melancholy influences induce sickness. .. 98 Music and dancing the reverse 98 STANDING ON ONE FOOT. Effects of 99 Arise from 98 Advice about 98 Handed down from Noah and Moses Ill Logwood and tobacco in Ill Champagne from Jersey Ill Brandy from whisky Ill REGULAR HOURS FOR EATING. Times to eat Ill Bad fashions of 112 How to select food 112 Mind on digestion 112 Masticate your food well 112 Mercury on the teeth and gums 113 The liver and stomach 113 Digestion in the stomach 113 Digestion in the duodenum 113 Absorption of the nutrient food Ill What to do in dyspepsia 114 DAILY EVACUATION OF THE BOWELS. COSTIVENESS CAUSES CONSUMPTION. INSTANCES OF LONGEVITY. No particular limit to life Death results from ignorance and indis- cretion Cause of decay — choking up the system.. Analysis of bones .' Deaths of rich and poor Reason of difference Remarkable instances of longevity Early deaths results of follies * Sanitation in the British Navy Importance of sanitation OFFENSIVE BREATH A GREAT NUISANCE. Beautiful woman made disagreeable by . . . 102 Caused by calomel 103 Go to the dentist 103 Use the Blood Medicines 103 ERECT CARRIAGE. Bad effects of crooked-back seats 103 Man made upright 104 School-houses and school benches 104 The young and beautiful slain 105 Diseases induced bv stooping 105 "What we should do' 106 Advice to clerks, mechanics, and sewing women 107 CHEERFULNESS PREVENTS CONSUMP- TION. Scripture on 107 All nature cheerful 107 Advice upon 108 Make angry children sing 108 HEART DISEASES HASTEN CONSUMP- TION. Results of heart diseases 109 Ignorance of pretended lung doctors 108 Cure for heait diseases 109 The Lung Barometer in 109 ADULTERATION OF FOOD— DISEASED MEATS, &c. Extent of adulteration 109 Articles tampered with 109 Effects of costiveness 115 Contract a habit of daily evacuation 115 URINATING OFTEN. ! Its importance 115 ! Death from neglect 115 Diseases arising from neglect 115 EARLY TO BED AND EARLY TO RISE. The design of God 116 Man not made a night prowler 116 City invalids should rise early 116 j Reason for 116 Sleep essential to all 116 Benefits of 117 Disturbances of 117 Best hours for 117 EXERCISE AND LABOR. Benefits from 118 Gymnastic exercises 119 , Diseases cured by 118 I Exercises for children 119 Care after exercise necessary 119 EFFECTS OF HEAT AND COLD. Caution necessary 119 ELECTRICITY OR MAGNETISM. Animal heat how generated 120 Acid in the stomach 121 Galvanic or magnetic power 121 Diseased meat and milk.. Punishment for Necessity of Lynch law. I,,., ADULTERATION OF LIQUORS. Cause of delirium tremens Pedigrees of liquors ELECTRICAL PSYCHOLOGY. Importance of 121 The key to it 193 God the positive, sinner the negative 122 How God works to convert 122 Psychology how induced 122 Advice to the professors 122 WORMS. Tapeworm 123 Symptoms of 123 Size and character 123 Vermifuges, lozenges and other nostrums. . 124 Pin Worms 124 Round worms destroy thousands of chil- dren 124 Ignorance of physicians 125 A medicine to kill worms 125 EVETS IN THE STOMACH. 110 Symptoms of. Ill ' How obtained 126 CONTENTS. FROGS IN THE STOMACH. FEVER SORE. Apply to a skillful physician 126 Induced by mercury . SNAKES IN THE STOMACH. Instance of.. . Size attained. Medicine for . CANCERS. The fissure cancer The spider cancer The rose cancer Do not tamper with Beware of surgical operations The bone cancer The sleepy cancer • The wolf cancer Parts affected by cancer The black scaly cancer The bleeding cancer Caused by prostitution Source of cancers and like sores to be found in the blood Marriage delays appearance of Ladies, what class most troubled Surgical operations fail of effectual cure. Operate upon the blood Cancers can be cured by medicine ERYSIPELAS. Simple and putrid SYPHILITIC SORES. Arise from prostitution Men generally give to wivt Avoid ignorant quacks Cause consumption May be cured FROST BURNS WHITE SWELLING. SALT RHEUM. Easily cured 131 SCROFULA SORES. Arise from impure blood. . . Troubles caused by S w elled sore legs Cause of Spinal curvature Tumor on the throat Goitre, or Derbyshire neck. King's evil Scripture on the blood ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE. THE MERCURIAL SORE OR HUMOR.. 137 Si: \LD HEAD. Egyptian or seven year itch. Barber's itch SYPHILITIC HUMOR OR LUES VENEREA. Its origin 138 Prostitution should be punished 138 Marriage would prevent 138 Prostitutes in New York, and in the world. 139 Not necessary to gratification 139 Six years ends the life of the harlot 139 PIMPLES OF YOUTH 139 STYES AND COLD SORES 140 LEPROSY. White and red 140 In Bible times 140 In Europe formerly 140 Horrible form of in Guadaloupe 141 RING WORM. MILK LEG.... Effects of. ONANISM OR MASTURBATION. Semen, how emitted What is masturbation ? Circumcision to prevent God slew Onan Sexes magnetic Sexual passion holy and from God Delaying marriage cause of self-abuse Parents to blame Amativeness cannot be suppressed Acts according to nature Evils and results of pollution Insanity caused by Symptoms of. Mistaken for religious anxiety Effects illustrated , 147 INVOLUNTARY SEMINAL EMISSIONS. Cause of 147 Effects of. 148 Symptoms of. 149 Miserable state of subject 149 CAUTERIZATION. Masturbation prevented by Remissness of parents Should watch children How to cauterize CIRCUMCISION— WHAT IS IT ? AND HOW PERFORMED ? Design of 151 Among the Jews 151 THE NATURAL REMEDY. Illustrative anecdotes 152 The M. D. and the old lady.... 152 The troublesome member 152 The virgin poultice 152 The great healing balm 152 Bachelors should try 153 The old lady and Dr. P 153 Mysterious root 153 The good old Elicom Fundle Top 153 Cooling to the bowels 153 Inferences from 154 SEXUAL TANTALIZATION— SUPPRESS- ING ELECTRIC EMISSION. Gratification proper 154 Natural and scientific way 154 Tantali/.ation — suppression— withdrawal. 154 Pernicious effects of. 154 Operation of. 154 Diseases induced 154 Duty of physicians 155 What should be done 155 Copulation without issue 155 HEN-PECKED WIVES. 141 Advice to husbands. XIV CONTENTS. HEX-PECKED HUSBANDS. Duty of wives 157 Duty of both parties 157 EARLY .MARRIAGE OFTEN PREVENTS ( ONSUMPTION. Deaths from not marrying 157 No more children from marrying young. . 157 Diseases from not marrying 157 Barrenness from 158 Dangers of running into harlotry 158 Language of Solomon about the courtesan 153 Advice to parents 15S QUICK CONSUMPTION BY MARRIAGE. Too frequent intercourse 158 Results from protracted celibacy 159 Having children too fast 159 Ladies" killed by 159 What should be done 159 ABORTION. Horror of 160 Effects of 160 Curse of God upon 160 Scalpel on 160 Woman as an abortionist 161 Woman designed to bear child 161 Appeal to parents 161 Fearful punishment of abortionist 162 Why they are not brought to justice 16-2 .Men in piace fearful of exposure 162 Extent of infant murders 162 Its fearful increase 163 Prevention better than abortion 163 Means of prevention 163 CHILDREN ARE BLESSED OF GOD. Scripture on children 163 Joy of parents 163 WOMAN BLESSED IN CHILD-BIRTH. Protecting care of God 163 Paul on the sin of the fall 164 Woman, keep thy blood pure 164 Redemption of mankind by the purity of woman 164 MISCARRIAGE CAUSES CONSUMPTION. Satisfaction of the womb 164 Danger of miscarriage 164 Causes of ] 64 Beware of supporters 164 Signs of miscarriage 165 May be prevented — how 165 To avoid miscarriage 165 To prevent its recurrence 165 Decline from miscarriage 166 UNHAPPY M LRMAGES CAUSE OF CONSl MPTION. Strength of love 166 Marriage without love revolting 166 Insanity from unhappy marriage 166 Had cll.-cts upon off.p'ring ' 167 Better the husband cause misery than the parents 167 NEVER MARRY RELATIVES. Idiots in Massachusetts 167 Condition of 167 Causes of 168 ige 168 Reason why now foi the first time given.. 168 ■ ■its report on the effects of in- iage 169 i inn marrving relath es. . lti!i Degenerates the phospl is.. no on, when to take place 170 '-' 'habitation, when 170 , IDIOCY, HOW CAUSED. I Causes arising from 170 How to prevent 170 Prostitution on idiocy 171 Solomon's advice to men, to marry and flee from whoredom 171 INFANTILE DEATHS— CAUSE AND PREVENTION. Arise from How to guard against Great mortality of infants Months when most Months best for child-birth Warmth necessary for children Infantile deaths from dusty streets Deaths from atrophy Syphilis — prostitution — first cause How contrac ted Deaths from lues venerea COMPARISON OF DEATHS OF MALES AND FEMALES. More male conceptions than females 173 Deaths of males greater at all ages 173 Reasons for, at some periods 174 Wonderful equalitv of the sexes in num- bers 174 EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY. So the Bible teaches 175 Jesus, Paul, and Solomon upon 175 The language of Scripture 175 BATHING IN COLD WATER. When and how to bathe 176 Beware of bathing too often 176 Not a cure-all 176 Effects of the cold bath 177 Cold air bath 177 Bathing among the Mahomedans, Greeks and Romans 177 In Oriental countries 177 Bathsheba seen by David in the bath 178 Bathing amonr the Hindoos and in Cairo. 178 ABDOMINAL SUPPORTER. Diseases caused by 178 Internal uterine supporters very bad 178 How to avoid falling of the womb 178 Do not go up and down stairs too much... 179 Remedies for falling of the womb 179 CUSTOMS AND FASHIONS OF DRESS. Female dress should be altered 179 Women always enslaved 179 Killed by fashions 179 Dress among the Turks and Arabs 180 Different outlandish fashions 180 Thin shoes in wet weather 180 Low -bosomed dresses in cold ISO Dr. Dixon on dress of females 181 Correspondent of Scalpel on 181 Combe on 1S2 Nature tli waited by dress 1S2 Indian women have no female weaknesses 182 Women should not wear the pantaloons.. 183 Woman a great comforter 183 Ruins herself 183 Country flooded with stays and supporters 183 These destroy thousands. 1*3 F*emale dress should be changed 183 EXPENSE AND LABOR TO PRODUCE CONSUMPTION. Stays and corsets 1 S I Stay-making in Paris 184 In New York 185 CONTENTS. Money expended 185 Advice to females 185 vaccination— its evils. Diseases from inoculation 186 Get vaccine matter from cow or a healthy child 186 DISEASES OF TRADES. Occupation influences length of life 186 The Butcher 186 Duty of people 187 Butchers generally healthy 187 Cattle and horse dealers 187 Fishmongers, or fishermen 188 Carters 188 Laborers 188 Omnibus-drivers, Cabmen, railway-guards, and postmen 188 Deaths from dust 188 Coach-builders 189 Upholsterers 189 Car venters, joiners, wheel and mill wrights 189 Coopers 189 Rope-makers •. . 189 Garde?iers 189 Pavim-s 189 Sedentary employments 190 Tailors 190 Condition may be improved 190 Need not sit cross-legged 190 Stau-7iia!cers 190 Milliners, dress-makers, and straw-bonnet- mailers 191 Blooming young ladies killed off" 191 Should not labor so long 191 Bookbinders and pocket-book-makers 191 Carvers and gilders 191 Clockmakers 191 Watchmakers 192 Cotton-mill operators 192 Barbarous length of working hours 192 Young people killed 192 Females oppressed by long labor and ill pay 192 The laborer worthy "of his hire 192 Duty of governments 192 Printers 193 Their early death and the causes 1 93 Pressmen and press-feeders 193 Tiiiii-t'tiumli-rs ami slereolijpers 193 Smiths 193 Cabineimaliers 194 House sei ' ants 194 Colliers 194 rs 194 Starch-makers 195 Rectifiers of spirits, and persons engaged in 'spirit vaults 195 Bricklayers 195 and white-washers 195 Turners 195 Tobaa o-manufacturers 195 Snuff-makers 195 /."SUMI TION. the United States 226 ' heerful state of the christian 241 Decrease in Europe 220 '^'''hulation of the sinner 241 What is the cause !!!!!!!!!!!!!! 226 Swcetness of religion 241 Milk used in New York ..!! 226 Lflicacy of prayer 241 Deaths of children not divine dispensations 226 The sick should pray 241 Impious doctrines 226 Law required 2 27 LOSS OF MECHANICAL EQUILIBRIUM. tion of a cow stable in New York. 227 ' Effects of.. . 040 where the cows go that sicken and die... 227 Man made upright."" '" 24-i •■< S pi„. c . ,,s„ll :of habit'.!!!!'.!."'.;.'.'.'.." 243 [uilibrium by tight clothing 243 Eflects of tight lacing ' 243 ble 228 do things !!!..'!!.'! !.'.'.' 228 Milk pails wiped out with dirty straw.... 228 CONTENTS. xvu Equilibrium lost by accidents 244 By intentional violence 244 How to recover equilibrium 244 LIVE YOU MUST AND DIE YOU CANNOT. Obedience only necessary 245 CONSUMPTION OF THE LIVER. Symptoms of. 245 From grub 245 Mistaken for pulmonary consumption 245 KIDNEY CONSUMPTION. Causes of 246 Grub and kidney snake 246 Effects of 246 May be destroyed 246 ENLARGEMENT OF THE SPLEEN. Diseases of 247 Grub in 247 SEXUAL LOVE HAPPINESS TO AND STIMULATOR OF MANKIND. The Bible on 247 Woman, dear to man 247 Happiness of the marriage day 247 Delights of wedded life 248 Holiness of connubial love 248 Prostitution destroys 248 Shall lust triumph 248 Shortcomings of physicians 248 Punishments to parents 248 Duty of in relation to harlotry 248 WEDDED LOVE PREVENTS CON- SUMPTION. Puts the mind at ease 249 Disappointment in love 249 Its effects 249 Sickness from, hard to cure 249 Easiest done by transferring the love 249 Beware of coquetry 249 Happiness from early marriage 250 Late marriages faulty 250 How the young woman is handled 250 Danger of losing her virtue 250 Passion cannot be suppressed so long 250 Insanity from disappointed love 250 Consumption from 250 DOMESTIC QUARRELS. Cause of sickness and death 251 Induced by 251 Insanity from 251 Consumption from 251 Unhappiness from marrying without love. 251 Difference between marriage for love and without it 252 RESTORATION OF SEXUAL LOVE. Power of sexual love 252 A fountain of pure happiness 252 Pure love to banish disease 252 Shame upon physicians, lawyers and cler- gymen 252 Woe is unto them 253 Call upon the ladies 253 LOVE HAS ITS MAGNET. Love is of God 253 Power of the passion 253 Its good effects 253 SECTARIANISM A CAUSE OF CONSUMP- TION. Different beliefs in a family 254 Often effects of 254 True religion defined 254 Sectarianism denned 254 Should have a union church 254 Insanity fiom religious anxioty 255 THICK BOOTS AND SHOES. Benefits of 255 Paper substitutes for 255 Deaths from thin shoes 255 Folly of fashionable ladies 255 AIR-TIGHT STOVES. Bad effects of 256 Operation of, explained 256 Consumptions from 256 THE DEATH OF A RELATIVE OR FRIEND. Consumption from sorrow for 256 Should not be indulged 256 Submit to God 257 Victims of sorrow 257 Disappointment in love — its fatal effects... 257 Insanity from 257 CONSUMPTION, A CHILD OF FASHION. None among the Indians 257 Child-births among the savages 258 Reasons why easy 258 Characteristics of the Indian — physically 258 ASTHMA, A CURABLE DISEASE. Kinds and symptoms of 259 Induced by what 259 Sufferings from i>59 Relapses in 260 General descriptions about 260 Effects of weather 261 Change of locality 261 Cure for 262 Perseverance necessary 262 KNIT SHIRTS HASTEN CONSUMPTION. Linen, cotton, woolen and silk 262 Which should be worn, and when 263 Let the skin have air 263 Rub it often 263 Objection to knit shirts 203 Care needed about clothing 2S4 BRONCHITIS. Description and symptoms 2G4 Chronic and acute 265 Persons most liable to 265 Consumption from 265 WOMB AND OVARIAN DISEASES. Falling of the bowels and womb 266 Causes of i;o6 Organs in abdomen 266 Tight d ress and corsets 267 Their effect on the womb 267 Different ways of the womb falling 267 Pains caused by 267 Miscarriage from falling womb 268 Polypus of the womb 268 Often mistaken for pregnancy 269 Grubs in the ovaria 269 Surgical operations dangerous 269 Ulcerations of the womb 269 Cancer of the womb 270 Origin of 270 Are they hereditary 270 Appear at " change of life" 270 Age when most 270 Married women have more 270 Inflammations of the womb 270 Causes of 270 Symptoms and effects 270 Women should not bo accused of "hypo" 270 XVI 11 CONTEXTS. The ovaria 270 Tumors of the ovaria 270 Render child-birth impossible 272 Cancer of the ovaria 272 Bewaie of surgical operations 272 Dropsy of the ovaria 273 Great enlargement from 273 Mistaken for pregnancy 273 Cancer of the vagina, rectum, and neck of the bladder 273 FISTULA. Fistula in ano 273 Cause of 273 Progi ess 274 Surgical operations make worse 274 May be cured medically 274 Ravages of fistula 274 Consumption from 275 Fistula in perinaeo 27-5 Fistula lachrymalis 275 HEART DISEASES. Enlargement and palpitation of the heart. 275 Symptoms of 276 Rheumatism in the heart 276 Inflammation of the heart 276 Softening of the heart 276 Fatty degeneration of the heart 276 Tubercles and cancers 276 Dropsy of the heart 276 Polypi in the heart 276 Ulcers of the heart 276 Consumption of 277 Humbug of empirical works on heart dis- eases 277 Ossification of the heart 277 FITS— CAN BE CURED. Cause of fits 277 Often from worms 278 Cause must be known and treated 278 DYSPEPSIA. Symptoms and causes 279 Exercise should be taken 279 Sofa and parlor will not do 279 Try the old spinning-wheel 279 Dj speptic students 280 Effects of too close study 280 Students must exercise 280 " Bolting" the food 280 Dyspeptics and consumptives should exer- cise 280 ( HOLERA, CHOLERA MORBUS, CHOLERA INFANTUM, D\SENTERV AND DIAR. l!l!(]'; \. The Asiatic cholera 280 'i' 281 iorbus 28 1 i manifestations 281 Cholera infantum 281 Causes and effects 282 1 283 Causes ;oid operations 282 Diarrhoea 933 283 Cure and prevention of these complaints.. 283 OFFICES OF THE SKIN. Organ of feeling 284 1 through 281 The skin it*, numerous pores 28 1 ible perspiration 38a Danger ol checking o S5 ; pores. 285 Perspiration indicates health 236 DROPSY. What is it, and how caused 287 Dropsy of the head 2S7 Dropsy of the abdomen 287 Mistaken for pregnancy in unmarried fe- males 287 Never deceive your physician 287 Dropsy of the chest 287 Dropsy of the ovaria 2S7 Dropsy of the womb. 287 Cellular dropsy, or dropsy all over 288 Cautions on tapping 289 Medical treatment only can cure 288 JAUNDICE AND LIVER COMPLAINT. Jaundice — its manifestations 288 Diseases of the liver 289 INHALATION FOR PULMONARY CON- SUMPTION AND THROAT DISEASES. Evils of fumigation 289 Inhalation through vapor of water 2S9 In catarrh and influenza 290 In chronic bronchitis 290 In spasmodic asthma 290 In pulmonary consumption 290 Preparation for inhalation 291 THE STREET DUST. Its different ingredients 291 Efl'ects to produce disease 291 People killed by 291 Should be abated 292 How to clean the streets 292 Both health and money might be saved.. . 292 Millions of money lost by neglect of sani- tation 293 What the dust does 293 Speculators fat 293 SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE. Effects of intemperance 294 Drunkenness hereditary 294 A cerebral disease 294 Can be cured by medical treatment 294 Duty of parents 294 Should there be legislation upon 295 EFFECTS OF WEALTH UPON DISEASE. Wealth decreases disease 295 Every man should have it 295 What God intended 295 Man has thwarted divine intention 295 Poverty produces murders, suicides, sick- ness, premature deaths 295 Fallacy of the common doctrine 296 Practice and precept at variance, 396 Rich people live longer than poor 296 The fact proved 398 Cholera report of Boston on 296 Report of Mass. Medical Society lishes the lact 296 The figures given 297 The fact shown in Paris. . . . .• 297 In the country towns of Mass i 1 ombe about 297 Twelve years difference between rich and poor 297 What is shown in London 297 Citj Inspector of New York on 298 Wealth and health inseparable' 298 Effects of wealth on health in old I; State of health after the fill of Rome 396 Remarks of Dr. Samuel 11. Dickinson on povertj and its efft cts 299 Prostitution from poverty 299 1 ics ot ;i people wealthy, and a poor 300 nam engine to man 301 (-ontrast the poor and rich 301 CONTENTS. Plenty of work and good pay 301 Poverty a curse 301 Duty of governments 302 Legislators should be treated as tape * worms and fungus tumors 30-2 Some general remarks 302 What a man should have 302 Money only can procure this 302 What could we do without 303 -'I false philosophy — the spawn of the devil 303 Its horrid results 304 Wealth the abundance of God 304 Poverty the net of the devil 304 MATURITY AND DECAY. Age of maturity — weight of 304 When we begin to go downhill 304 Death appointed unto all 305 Combe on death 305 Be prepared for death 305 INCREASE OF THE POPULATION. Malthusian doctrines 306 No danger of filling the world 306 What is the ratio of increase 307 Capacity of the earth to support man 307 Nonsense of modern doctrines 307 DEGENERATION. Its causes 307 General remarks upon the subject 308 OLD AND YOUNG SLEEPING TOGETHER. Reprehensible practice 309 Young diseased and killed by it 309 Philosophy of it explained ' 309 Wet nurses for old men 309 Females hired to associate with superan- nuated men 310 ART OF EMBALMING— BURIAL GROUNDS. Embalming in old times 310 Process with the Egyptians 310 Embalming in England 311 A modern process 312 Not lasting 312 Burial grounds 312 Monuments and tombs in 312 Diseases from 312 The " Potter's Field" 313 Beware of it 313 Location of burying grounds 313 Disease from burying yards in London 313 Cemeteries in the United States 314 PROSTITUTION-SUPPRESSION OF MAG- DALENISM. Its importance 314 Courtesans in London, Paris and N. York. 314 One to every six men 315 Number in the United States 315 Glory in their shame 315 ■Results of prostitution 315 Destroj s connubial love 315 Pollutes the first home of the being 315 Deprives virtuous women of husbands 315 Prevents marriage 315 Induces masturbation 315 Leads virtuous women into harlotry 315 Kohs the world of loveliness 315 Makes men hate all women 316 Stakes w en bate all men 316 Opens the door for :ill sorts of crimes 316 Sows tin' seeds of disease 316 The hideous serpent protrudes 316 Flowerv puths filled with thorns 316 Harlot painted without, but full of corrup- tion within 316 Unholy lust for pure love 316 Effects of unlicensed commerce on child- bearing , 316 Makes women barren 316 One thousand courtesans have but six chil- dren a year. 317 Extinction of the race by harlotry 317 Effects of syphilis 317 Leads the young man to ruin 317 Makes him a thief 317 Solomon on the harlot 317 His advice 317 Causes of Magdalenism 318 Caused by protracted celibacy 318 Illicit crime from celibacy 318 Language of a Baptist minister 318 Solitary vice among Shakers and Roman priests 318 Prostitution from poverty 318 Government more to blame than the harlot 318 Duty of legislators 319 Prostitution from seduction 319 How virtue is overcome 319 Sorrow of relatives and friends 320 Effects of a seduction 320 Prostitution from desire of the woman 320 Should not gaze upon the serpent 320 Beware of edged tools 320 Not suffer passion to be wrought upon 320 Don't play with burning brand 320 Power of choice with woman 321 Can tantalize man 321 Her artful ways 321 Other causes of prostitution 321 Duty of parents and guardians 321 Every man and woman who cohabit should be considered man and wife 321 Paul teaches this 321 Marriage in the sight of heaven 322 Woman impressed by first man 322 Illustration given. 322 Strong argument for early marriage 322 Unmarried man and harlot having inter- course should be man and wife 322 Better to marry than to burn 322 What God has intended 322 The " necessary evil'' considered 323 Most fallacious doctrine 323 Based on late marriages 323 "Lawless libertinism" 323 Arises from harlotry 323 Language of Rev. Dr. Wardla%v 323 Who are to be the "safety valves" 323 Whose daughters are to be decimated 323 Harlotry will not save wives and daughters 324 Will destroy them 324 Prostitution should be put under law 324 Courtesans subjected to medical examina- tion 324 Disease ought to be prevented 324 GOOD NURSES— CHEERFUL COMPANY. Often absolutely necessary 325 Differences made by 325 I Often better than the doctor 325 I Kind treatment in female diseases 325 I Remarks of Dr. Hollick 325 I Sanitary report of Massachusetts on ne- cessity of good nurses 326 HOW TO GAIN THE AFFECTIONS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX. Play upon the strongest passion 326 What love arises from 327 Remarks of O. S. Fowler 327 When to use "soft soap" 327 When to he moral 327 To be benevolent 327 To present intellect 327 To be pious and devout 327 I low to treat timid damsel 328 To display refinement 328 When to be sentimental 328 XX ENTS. To be affectionate and tender to excite love ;. ilile herbs of the Oneida India Possessed by the author 328 PROCREATION OFTHESEXES AT WILL. Old notions exploded 329 How sex is determined 329 Dr. Hollick's remarks on 329 Influence of age 3-29 . • 329 Effects of polygamy 330 When conceptions should take place 330 ll tie. anient often necessary 330 Results of experiments 330 ADVICE TO PREGNANT LADIES. Responsibility of 331 A mother from the moment of conception. 331 Impressions on the foetus 331 How they may be produced 331 to child from bad blood 331 Blood affected by the mind 331 Three generations nourished by the same blood 332 Interesting condition 332 Diseases of womb from mental emotions 332 Baneful cll'ects to the child 332 How the pregnant should conduct 332 Remarks of Dr. Caldwell on 332 ■ "! I be 332 Duty of woman to bear children 333 Made so by God 333 Language of Scripture given 333 Rejoicing at birth of a child 333 FOOD KOR PREGN INT \ND NURSING MOTHERS. Childbirth rendered easy by certain foods. 333 Subject explained 333 Proved bj facts 334 Illustrations given 334 Table of foods given, with the calcareous matter of each 335 Ladies can select from 33.3 Food during nursing 335 Nonsense about 335 ig mother needs good, rich food 336 itv of this 336 l onsult her appetite 336 Dp as at oilier limes 336 e clothing comfortable 336 i-y 386 Not nui e too ol ten 336 Had for the child 336 Milk aflbcted by the mind 337 Child maj be lulled by 887 Instance of 337 DEVELOPMENT OF THE FfETUS. Its til st appearance 337 Appearance at twenty davs 337 The first month 337 S id month —with weight 339 Third month 339 FoUl Hi month XiO Fifth month S89 Sixth month :i:t!l Seventh month 880 Eighth month 889 Ninth month time of birth 889 Twin , triplets, or more 340 Thru genera) weight — the extremes of weight 340 840 i sual weight of child an PERIOD OF GESTATION, General average 341 in tune 841 No fixed period 345 Laws on legitimacy 312 Some born 342 Some at over 300 days 34-2 Unjust remarks of ignorant people 342 PREVENTION OF PREGNANCY. Theories about 342 Expediency of 843 I Philosophy of impregnation 342 | Prevailing opinion 343 Veiled in some obscurity 343 Fallacious theory of prevention 343 Cannot be trusted :143 Conception can take place at any time.. . 343 Don"t trust to theories 343 Only security the Male Prevention Safe, or Powder 343 IMPRESSION ON" THE UNBORN CHILD. The fact undeniable 344 , Theories to account for 344 i Should think of this when marrying 344 Idiocy from festal impression 344 Deaf and dumb births 344 Effects on animals 345 Luliin and the peeled rods 345 Effects on the lotus from connection with a second person 345 Case of 345 Influence on future children 345 Alignment for early marriage 345 Instances given by Dr. Hollick 346 Remarks of Di. Harvey upon 346 Purity of blood lost by connection 346 Considerations suggested 346 Experiments on animals 347 Instances of palpable effects in the human being 347 Diseases communicated to the children of the second husband 348 About marrying widows 348 Consult this' in marriage 348 Child marked by the woman kneeling 348 Marked by ear-rings 348 Hatred of 'the father from mental emotion of the mother 349 Marked by a cancer 349 Maimed paupers should be kept out of the streets 349 Child with disposition of a tiger 349 Marked from killing a calf. 350 From killing neat 3.50 From spilling wine 350 From ]il;i\ ing with a heifer 350 From hearing of outrage on husband 350 From husband's hat knocked oft' 351 Marked by a cranberry 351 By a. dead owl 351 Numerous other marks 351 Duty of the pregnant mother 351 Children not always marked when ex- pected 351 By sudden and forcible impressions 352 From seeing idiots 352 Where idiots should be placed 352 THE SERPENT \\l> ADAM CAUSED THE FALL; THROUGH WOMAN < AMI'. THE REDEMPTION. General impression wrong 352 Woman not guilty Acted from benevolent feeling t;,:t Not in a spirit of disobedience 353 < ommand w .is to Adam 858 Adam disobey ed without boing Woman was deceived 353 iagi ol the Bible 168 nun through innocent woman. . . 868 Sin lul mini not the vessel of honor • a parent of i hrist 353 Woman found favor with God 363 CONTENTS. What the Bible says 353 Christ born of innocent woman 354 The language of Paul 355 Christ had respect for woman 356 Credit due to woman 356 She should be educated in a consciousness of innocence 356 Her usefulness impaired 357 Is unjustly accused 357 Appeal to woman i 357 Be no more weighed down 357 Witty reply of a lady to a clergyman 357 If woman i"s so wicked, why do men seek alter her ? 357 Woman in the churches 357 WOMAN THE GLORY OF MAN. What says the Bible? 359 Paul, Solomon, and God upon 358 Inteution of God in making man and wo- man 353 Magnets for each other : 358 How woman has been used 358 Her present condition 358 What she is to man 358 A fountain of love 358 What man does for her 358 Honor done to her 358 The boast of the woman 359 What she does 359 What man performs to earn her love. . . . 359 Man an icy mountain without 359 Influence of woman on the destiny of na- tions 359 She rules everywhere 359 Contrast the East with the West 359 Man in a state of polygamy 360 Miserable condition.". 360 Happiness only in marriage 360 Necessity to preserve the health of woman 360 WOMAN'S LOVE NEVER CHANGES. Continues after death 361 The pride of a nation 361 Her virtue destroyed, and downfall follows 361 Watch over her 361 INVALIDS IN OFFICE. Should they be allowed 361 Sick nan not fit for judge or legislator 361 1 ■ lie derived from excluding in- valide 36-2 Would make men seek health 362 Whole lace would be improved 362 ; UK BIBLE— THE GREAT LAW BOOK. K guide in all tilings 362 Health and happiness from obedience 362 Disease from disobedience 362 Greatest and best men have obeyed it 363 8TATK WORKHOL'SKS FOR THE POOR. Should be ind ustrial homes 363 , mid be paid for what they earn 363 Injustice of present rules 364 Every man should have labor 364 Streets infested with beggars 364 I disgrace 361 ii be done with them 364 i the unfortunate 361 FEMALE INDUSTR1 W. HOME. Great necessity for 365 Poor females should be employed by the ■i paid 865 Encouraged to lay up money 365 REFORM si HOOLS. Don't send boys to prison 365 | Effects of Reform schools in different states Results of— encouraging Reclaimed from sin Unfortunate boys made respectable Misery and crime prevented I Made worse by going to prison Ruined forever Objection about the cost One dollar for reform saves a hundred. MAGDALEN ASYLUMS. Lock Hospitals Benefits of Woman reclaimed through Remarks of Rev. Dr. Wardlaw Asylums in London Difficulty of fallen woman returning to i ciety Should be aided What said Christ FOUNDLING HOSPITALS. Child murders Law does not prevent Deserted woman will try to save her repu- tation More sinned against than sinning Illegitimate children Betrayed woman Cast off by the seducer M ade insane by Child murder flourishes Should save the mother from second crime Foundling hospitals for this Reputation of the woman saved Kept from prostitution How woman is seduced The lengthy siege Deserted by relatives Prostitution her only resort All this may be prevented Private lying-in hospitals Would save character of many What the rich do in case of accident Should not poor be saved also Remark often made 371 Blunder heads and ignoramuses 371 What doctors are made of 371 Doggedly ignorant 371 Proved by themselves 372 Glory in their imbecility 372 " Sheep-skins" passports for slaughter' 372 Can't get a living any other way 372 Bribeu through college '. 372 Don't know enough to go in ata burn door 372 Mass led by a ring in the nose 372 Merc ciphers 373 Crept in at the port holes 878 Not self-made men 373 Do not Imt tie with disease 373 The author has headed the enemy of man 373 The honor ho desires 373 ( I UK OF CONSUMPTION. Bungling mechanics 374 Bungling doe tors 374 \Vh\ one phj sician does what no other can 374 Reasons of author's success 374 THE SEVENTH SON. Seven remarkable number 375 Among the Jews 375 In the liil'lc In the heathen w in hi tyed in the David seventh so 376 876 itil son 376 xxu CONTENTS Seventh son a natural born physician.. . . 376 Author a seventh son 376 Horn with two veils o\er his face 377 Peculiar insight 377 .Men differently gifted 377 The natural talent 377 Second rate without 377 Can't make marhlc of granite 377 Why we have bunglers 377 Apostle Paul on natural gifts 377 Spirit giveth " gilts of healing'" 377 Called by Nature to be a physician 378 QCK.STIONS TO INVALIDS, For the benefit of persons at a distance, who wish to be prescribed for by letter 379 Always dangerous 392 Ladies killed 392 Always at risk of life 392 Reliable means of prevention 392 People will cohabit 392 Prevention by Onanism 392 Evils from ..'. 392 The use of injections 382 Use of a sponge 392 Objections to 392 i ompressing male organ 392 Disease from this practice 393 A voiding pleasurable feeling 393 Its futility 393 Safe and Powder always reliable 393 How they can be had .' 393 CHARGE FOR MEDICINES, ADVICE, AND EXAMINATION, Including the various cases that present themselves 381 Remarks to patients 381 Can be doctored by letter 381 i'u, TOB WILL VOL WARRANT A CURE? The question often asked 383 The author's answer 3*3 Reasons for 383 .■ not mind their physician 383 Should have full confidence.'. 3S3 Never take medicines doubtinglv 3*1 )lad I only known of or sen Dr. Hoit 384 Resulted neglect 384 Where the invalid may find aid 381 THE LINO BAROMETER. Consumption cannot be treated without . 385 Walking in light or in darkness 385 Lungs ran be tested only with the Bar- 385 Expansion and inflation of lungs 385 Among the Oreeks 385 In Europe 886 : into the U. S 386 Beneficial effects of 386 Inhaling tubes humbugs 386 Hon to get extra inflation 386 n ithout guide 3-a> Guide in the Barometer 386 Worthless imitations of 387 '.HER AND SHOULDER BRA( E. Its great importance 387 India rubber suspenders and. straps 387 ( onsumption from 388 388 lis effects on the ladies 889 European ladies 389 Inattention i>> good figures 389 ' by 3*9 Death caused 389 FRENCH MALE BAFE, AND FRENCH M U.K. PREVEN I ki\ POWDER FOR THE PREVENTION OF CONCEPTION. Invaluable in the maintenance of health.. 390 390 Remarks of Plutarch, Burton, Combe, and Esqulrol 390 v ife 390 i afldron killed without 390 Use ni :ili cases of malformation 891 Prevention a religious duty 39 1 Neglect of pin licians ' 391 ni .' 391 I .n prevented bj Safe 391 i >j Hollick "., conception and prevention 891 Death following conception 391 • aboi Hon 899 NOTICES OF CIRCULATING MEDICINES. Dr. Root's Blood Renovator 394 Anti-Bilious Pills 395 Heart Regulator 396 Lung Corrector 397 German Ointment 398 Catarrh Snuff 399 Cancer Eradicator 400 Female Wash 401 Water Regulator 401 Hair Producer 402 Eye Water 403 Ear Lotion 404 Worm Killer 405 Dysentery Specific 406 Root's Nervine 407 Magnetic Compass 408 ADDRESS TO THE SICK 408 DR. ROOT'S LECTURES 411 TESTIMONIALS OF THE SKILL AND SUC- ( ESS OF DR. II. K. ROOT. Cure of consumption in its last stage 412 Enlargement of and grub in the spleen... 413 Dreadful case of cancer cured 413 Spinal curvature cured 414 Cures of consumptive asthma, kc 414 Fever sore cured 415 Another case of consumption 416 Cure of epileptic fits and consumption 415 Case of neuralgia cured 416 Scrofula cured 417 Case of catarrhal affection 417 Another consumptive raised 417 Dropsy, jaundice, and contraction of leg.. 417 Remarkable cure of a bachelor 418 Remarkable insight 418 Cure of short breath 419 Cure of obstruction in the air tubes of the lungs 419 A cure of tuberculous lungs 419 Bleeding lungs cured 420 Inward humors, stiffness of joints, numb- nil debility, &c. cured 420 Sen dill, ins swelled neck 420 Enormous bronchial goitre cured 421 Case of suppressed menstruation 421 A common case — life of a lady saved 422 lie ni disease, dropsy, dyspepsia, fee. cured 422 Cure of asthma, pain in the head, fee 423 Another cure of a deep consumption 423 Despei ii.- ca ;e of rheumatism 424 i ase ol sixteen years' standing cured 424 Case ol" scrofula' all over 424 death 425 i as,' i,i grub in the liver 425 Vaginal polj pus cured 426 Case of dried-up lung 426 Loss nl smell restored 427 Cure of asthma 427 Cure ol asthmatic affection 427 CONTENTS. xxin Oure of salt rheum 423 Case of involuntary ."missions 428 An ovarian tumor cured 429 Case of paralysis cured 429 A cure for consumption 430 Case of falling of the womb 430 Cure of erysipelas 430 Testimonials of two ladies 430 Recommendation from a physician 431 Another case of consumption 431 Another lady's testimony 431 White swellings— ulceration and exfolia- tion healed 432 Cancerous ulcers of the womb cured 432 Extraordinary cure of bleeding lungs 433 Extraordinary cure of cancer 433 Bleeding lungs and grub 433 Milk-leg cured 434 Case of tumor cured 434 Another case of tumor 435 Diseased kidney and grub 435 Inflammation of the tonsils 435 The wise man 436 Scald head cured 436 A dream fulfilled 436 Female complaints 437 A truly extraordinary cure 437 Dyspepsia and cholera 438 CERTIFICATES OF CURES BY CIRCULA- TING MEDICINES. Dropsy and dyspepsia 439 Cure of heart disease 439 Female complaints 439 Coughs and colds 440 Removal of pain and inflammation 440 Remarkable cure of pleurisy 440 Fits, falling of the womb, and gravel 441 Saved by the lung corrector and inhaling fluid 441 Another ladv saved 441 Palpitation (if the heart 442 A cure for quinsy and croup 442 Saved from cholera and worms 442 Epileptic fits and palpitation of the heart.. 443 Wonderful good for fresh wounds 443 Case of catarrh cured 443 Inflammation in the eyes 444 Another great cure of dyspepsia 444 Blindness cured 444 Fulling of the womb cured 445 A mother's life saved 445 Effects of tin; shoulder brace 446 Lame side and stomach 446 Dreadful hip complaint 446 Cure of a scrofulous cancer 446 Remarkable cure of inflammation and black vomit 447 Cure of general debility 447 Hair restored 447 Unequaled for Piles 448 Deafness and discharge from the ear cured 448 Cure in a case of worms 448 Well attested in a case of poison 449 Cure of chronic rheumatism 449 Case of ulcerated throat 44'J Spinal affection 449 Erysipelas and sore eyes 450 The shoulder brace — from a lady 450 Another testimony in favor of the brace.. 450 Remarkable cure of cancer 450 Another spinal affection 451 Effects of Root's Nervine 451 The Lung Corrector and Blood Renovator in England 452 Tuberculous and ulcerated sore throat... 452 Saved from consumption 452 Physicians recommended to prescribe the German Ointment 453 Remarkable cure of diseased lungs 453 Cure of fever and ague 453 Another fever and ague case 453 Another cure of scrofula 454 For chilblains or frost-burns 454 Bronchitis and cough cured 454 Dreadful case of fits 454 Severe case of scald head cured 455 Cancer of the tongue and mouth 455 Further testimony in favor of the German Ointment 455 Remarkable cure of consumption 456 Cure of disease contracted in California.. 456 Genteel whiskers raised 457 Heart disease cured in a short time 457 Cure of chronic rheumatism 458 Another dyspeptic made happy 458 Child saved from worms 458 Another case of bronchial affection 459 More fever and ague 459 Cure of watery scurvy 459 Scrofula banished 460 Another bad cough stopped 460 Case of tic doloreux 460 Rejoicing where before was sorrow 461 NOTICES OF THE PRESS 462 RULES OF LIFE 471 DR. ROOT'S PERPETUAL ALMANAC. 472 PERFECT MALE AND FEMALE FIGURES. "Tiik human frame, as a machine, is perfect, — it contains within itself no marks by which we can possibly predicl its decay; it is apparently intended to go on forever." MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE " As health is the most precious of all things, and is the foundation, of all happiness, the science of protecting life and health is the noblest of all, and most worthy the attention of all mankind." — Hoffman. ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE CHEMISTRY. All bodies endowed with life, and with a power of spontaneous motion neces- sary to support life, are called animals. Animals are thus distinguished in general from vegetables. But a more correct and scientific definition is the following : — An animal is an organized body, sensible, capable of voluntary motion, provided with a central organ of digestion. They are all capable of reproducing their like ; some by the union of the two sexes, produce small living creatures, and are called vivipa- rous ; others lay eggs, which require a due temperature to produce young, styled oviparous ; some multiply without the conjunction of the sexes, hermaphrodites ; and others are reproduced when cut in pieces, like the roots of plants, animal plants. After man, all other animals have been divided into a few general classes in the following manner ; the study of which teaches the master works of a God of wis- dom, benevolence, and mechanical ingenuity, who has perfected with the most wonderful arrangement all the necessary physical organs suited to the whole ani- mal creation, each organ working in the most perfect manner, and with the most delightful harmony. Some species of the animal creation have heads, others have none, (as worms and insects,) some with nostrils, others having none, (as worms and insects,) some with ears, and others without, (as insects and worms,) some having two ventricles in the heart, (as man and quadrupeds,) while others have only one ventricle, (as birds, oviparous quadrupeds, serpents, and fish,) and worms and insects have hearts variously formed. Some of the animal species have hot blood, (as man, birds and quadruped animals,) others with blood nearly cold, (as oviparous quadrupeds, ser- pents and fish,) others with a whitish transparent fluid or blood, (as insects and worms.) Some species of animals have lungs,and inspire and expire air frequently, (as man, birds, and quadrupeds,) others inspire and expire air at long intervals, with lungs, (as birds, oviparous quadrupeds, serpents, and fish,) others admit air by gills, (as fish,) others air by spiracula, (as insects,) while others have no apparent entrance or aperture to admit air, (as worms.) Some of the animal species have teats, afford- iig milk for their young, (as the females of man, and thequadruped animals,) others 1 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. have no teats, or milk for their young, (as birds, oviparous quadrupeds, serpents, in- ad worms.) Some of the animal species have four Her, with hair, others with four feet without hair, (as oviparous quadrupeds,) others with fins and no hair, •■■ous animals,) others scaly without feet or fins, (as serpents,) others scaly with fin others with feathers and two feet, (as birds,) others with hands - - tan,) others having neither feet, hands, backbone nor scales, (as worms,) others having antennae or prominent organs attached to the head, like feel ies of animals have two nervous systems, (as the mami animals, birds, reptiles, and have a nervous system surrounding the Lor bone, being shell-fish, insects, worms, molluscae ..dies withoul ot hers have a knotty spinal marrow with articulated join: | others have a knotty spinal marrow without ar- ticula! | others without any blood vessels, veins, arteries, heart, or brail i. The • rts of all animal substances are found in the blood of animals, differing according to the kind of flesh, which are known to chemists under a few heads, viz.: — Nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. In addition to these it sulphur, phosphorus, iron, and small particles of saline matter. Theprincipa ces which have claimed attention, both for food and medicines, are embraced under a few general heads known to chemists, and of them are of great importance, and of frequent use in various and multi- plied forms. They are sap, mucilage, gum ouc, bal- 3, tannin, alkalies, wax. honey, and aroma. All - of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The to make up its composition, and which tends strongly to aid in position, and to throw off offensive smells while it is un- - of decay. Truly is GOD the master mechanic, perfect in all his works, for no other being could create the various animals, beautiful and complicated, forming each and all in lull pi 8 most radical of infidels, in viewing the wondrous works of God, d ad we no Creator to father the works we il who of men eolvinj ! things in heaven and earth, even were it p who v elf 1 i on these wondrous worl all, : themanew? Should not even the most lean rod, is as nothing) hesitate a1 the thought rear it up again? Ought he mdition of its i i of I tod with which he lias to deal? T,, nan he of the : mted within him, he may comprehi beings, and b perience learn ; in his in their full strength and beauty, all the called Man. But il for him in his arrogance to proceed in his endea ,: do) to the infallible teacl i lations tor himself THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 3 ON THE BLOOD. "For tlie life of all flesh is the blood thereof." — Levit. xvii. 14. Physiology, chemistry. Bible truth, and human, reason combine together to teach us that the blood, assisted by air, food, light, warmth, and exercise, is the source and fountain of animal and human life. "We know the effects of air in the purification and circulation of blood in the lungs ; and we know that the effects of light upon the body are as pleasant as to the eye, and as healthful ; and also that without exercise and warmth life could not be sustained. "We know, too, that the food, after being taken into the stomach, is subjected to a process of digestion, which converts the nourishing parts of it into a milky fluid called chyle ; and this chyle is the basis of the black or venous blood. We know, also, that in the blood originate all the humors of the body. The gastric and pancreatic juices ; the milk ; the sebacic acid; the bile; the urine; the prussic, zoonic, formic and bombic acids ; the hard parts of animals ; the humors of the eye ; cartilages ; brain ; synovia ; tears ; mucus of the nose ; cerumen of the ears ; saliva ; pus ; semen ;. sweat ; liquor amnii ; eggs ; hairs ; feathers, silk, and all the secretions, spring from this common fountain. After coursing through the veins in a dark and heavy stream, the blood passes into the lungs; and in this wonderful laboratory its character is changed. Its color, under the influence of the oxygen or vital air, communicated by the air vessels of the lungs, becomes a bright red ; and being now fitted to feed, nourish and sustain the various parts and organs of the body, is transmitted through the channels running through the heart to every extremity of the system. There is not a fibre of the body of which blood is not a component and highly important part ; and it follows of certainty, that upon the state of this material the diseased or healthy condition of every organ is greatly dependent. " A corrupt tree," saith the inspired volume, " briugeth not forth good fruit;" nor can corrupt blood impart health, beauty, good flesh or good spirits. Says Combe: — "The quantity and quality of the blood have a most direct and material influence upon the condition of every part of the body. If the quantity sent to the arm, for example, bo diminished by tying the artery through which it is conveyed, the arm, being then imperfectly nourished, wastes away, and does not regain its plumpness till the full supply of blood be restored. In like manner, when the quality of that fluid is impaired by deficiency of food, bad digestion, im- pure air, or imperfect sanguification in the lungs, the body and all its functions be- ore or less disordered." Tho theory of the author then is, That " the blood is the life;" that by a diseased and poisonous condition of this fluid (contracted from contagious disease or vege- table decompoi ition) ti si eds of fever, pain and death are conveyed to all parts of the sj ! no medicine which does not renovate, purify and enrich the blood can expel disease; and, finally, that this desirable object can always be at- tained by the use of tho proper vegetable remedies given by the hand of the Creator, when correctly prepared and understandingly administered. In view of these simple facts, and with a certainly of being able by the use of the proper means to cleanse the stream of polluted blood, the author offers his 4 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. ad his medicines to the public with a confidence in and cer- tainty of their efficacy and power in the cure of the varied diseases to which "flesh is heir." His practice is based upon the truths of inspiration, the laws of nature, and the knowledge of chemistry ; and his medicines are scientifically com- pounded from purely vegetable substances, received from manifold sources, and from every part of the habitable world. The productions of Nature from which they are prepared, have stood the assaults of the medical faculty from the first in- troduction and use of mineral poisons down to the present day. They were given, in the wisdom of the Creator of all, as wo may see recorded upon the pages of Holy Writ, for the health and welfare of mankind, audit is only for us to make skillful and proper use of their virtues and powers that the designs of God in their first production should be fully realized. These medicines are composed of widely different vegetable ingredients, suited to the various diseases they are designed to cure : for nature furnishes no cure-all applicable to every malady. They are, how- ever, all designed to subdue disease at its fountain-head — the blood — and thus ac- complish a radical cure. Notwithstanding, for one medicine, — the Blood Renova- tor, put up by me, whether used separately or in conjunction with other remedies, produces the most wonderful effects upon the health of the invalid. REVELATION ON THE BLOOD. Bkvelatiox first announced to man that the life-giving principle of the in tin' blood, in the rebuke of God to Cain for the murder of his brother Ah ' : — •• Ami the Lord said unto Cain, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy bn blood crieth unto me from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to brother's blood from thy hand.'' Here the death of Abel is ascribed to the sb of his blood; but if the life-giving principle had not been in the blood, its shedding could not have caused the destruction of his life. this truth does not rest on mere inferential authority; for we have the most unequivocal and explicit declarations of Scripture that ''the life of the flesh is in tli'- blood," sad "ts the blood." Cod, by the mouth of Moses, thus spoke to the children of Israel: — "For the life of the flesh is the blood: it is the life of all flesh : tin' Mood is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh ; for the lite of all flesh is the blood tii. reof." lie ognized, both by sacred and profane writers, not only as the life (jf all flesh, but as typical of spiritual cleansing and healing. Hence, both .unl .lews shed the Mood of animals to propitiate the favor of their d The God of Israel directed the shedding of blood in sacrifice; accordingly, for the blood of victims slain streamed from Jewish altars. Christ ■ led as the great antetype of the Jewish sacrifices, and as having, by the shedding of his own blood, obtain d i for mankind. — Eeb. ix. 12. The following, from among a multitude, are a few of the Scriptural declarations in proof of my theory that the blood contains the life-giving power, and the con- stituent elements of lil irl and parcel of man and animal, which decla- rations are BUpported by chemistr; iSOn derived from observation and THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE, 5 " Eor the blood is the life." — Deut. xii. 23. " For the life of the flesh is in the blood." — Levit. xvii. 11. "For the life of all flesh is the blood thereof." — Levit. xvii. 14. " He shall pour out their blood, for it is the life of all flesh." — Levit. xvii. 13, 14. If the above passages of Holy Writ be true, then I have proved that blood is, as it were, the maker of the body ; and the theory that it is the life of all flesh is es- tablished upon a basis from which it can never be shaken. And if this point be thus established, then this inference surely and legitimately follows, to wit : That all poisonous impurities in the circulating stream tend directly to plant the seeds of disease and death in the human system, and to enfeeble the constitution in propor- tion to the extent of their prevalence ; and that health can only be enjoyed in its full perfection where the blood is kept in a pure, rich and uncorrupted state. Hence the necessity of pure blood, to give health, beauty, long life and happiness. AVhat the sap is to the tree or shrub, so is the blood to the human system. This is most reasonable. If, as the voice of God declares, "the life of all flesh is in the blood," and "is the blood," reason would say, and observation confirm the decla- ration, that poisonous humors in the blood must inevitably corrupt it, and unless expelled, must sooner or later undermine the health and destroy the life of the victim. "We have reason to believe that in no age of the world were mankind so ex- tensively afflicted with evils arising from impurities of the blood, as in the present. Tens of thousands of all classes — old and young, high and low, rich and poor — almost our whole nation, if not the entire population of the globe — are in greater or less degree affected by derangement and impurities of the blood. Hence the 150,000 deaths annually from consumption in the United States alone, (constantly increasing,) with as many more from inflammation of the lungs and pleura, to say nothing of the millions of deaths annually from scrofula, erysipelas, cancers and tumors, salt rheum ; heart, liver and lung affections ; spinal disease, debility, fits, kidney and womb affections ; insanity, physical and mental infirmities, and diseases of other kinds, with deaths of children, which rise up before us wherever we go. The secret of skill and success in the prevention and cure of diseases tending to consumption must lie mainly in having the knowledge and means to restore the blood from a corrupted condition to a state of healthiness. These being possessed, and properly used, the physician will rarely fail to effect a cure. The veins and arteries in the human system are thousands in number. To give a ftunt illustration of their great importance to convey the blood from the heart to every organ, for the support and sustenance of the flesh, and to return it again, the following plates (Nos. 1 and 2) are appended. The venous system, by which the blood is conveyed into the pulmonary artery, and thence into the lungs, is represented in the following outline engraving. The arterial system, which is much more complicated than the venous system, branching out by the grand avenue of the aorta, pervades every fibre of the frame, and has offshoots so minute as to be invisible without a powerful microscope. It supplies the waste of nature, and upon the purity of the fluid with which it feeds the body in health, life and easo depend. Its multitudinous offshoots, which convey nutriment to the members as the sap vessels of a tree convey sap to the remotest branches and twigs, are depicted in the annexed plate. THE TEOFLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. No. 1. — The Yexous System. No. 2. — Arterial System. CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD KNOWN TO SOLOMON. ltKvowNKD commentators on the Bible have supposed that Solomon (a man of great wisdom and intelligence) possessed a knowledge of the circulation of the blood, and as full an acquaintance with its workings in tin' system as could be expected in that reunite age, when physiology generally was but little understood; and that be taught (in figurative language) this important truth. Previous to his time, tliough tin- fad itself had existed the same for 3000 years, and the Mood of myriads Of men and animals had been poured out, it is doubtful it' the attention of any one bj 'I b( en drawn to tin- si The language of Solomon in Ecclesiastes xil 6 — "Or ever tin (having referen nal marrow, from its color,) be loosened, or tl 7 (the yellow-colored skull) lie broken, or the pt ta cava, which brings back the blood into the righl auricle of 1 heart,) or the wheel (the great artery near th<- left ventricle of the hear!) broken at the cie- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 7 tern (the ventricle itself)" — is thought by commentators to have figurative reference to the circulation of the blood, and to show that thus much at least of physiology was known to the Jewish king. But according to the received authority of the day, the honor of the discovery of the circulation of the blood is due to Dr. Harvey, in the year 1619; but it has been claimed for Servetus, Columbus, and Csesalpinus. Erom the frequent and deadly practice of blood-letting in the last two hundred years, we would reasonably conclude that the discovery of the circulation had been a curse to mankind rather than a blessing. Solomon knew enough about the cir- culation of the blood and the effects of its shedding not to practice blood-letting. And blessed indeed would it have been for mankind had the followers of Harvey been as wise as the king of Israel. The destruction of human life at the hands of legalized man-killers, by bleeding, has been a heavy and needless tax on health and population. Could the voices of all those who have been hastened on their journey to the tomb by the murderous practice of blood-letting (and the voice of their blood crieth forth to the living as did that of Abel's) be heard at once, the earth would tremble with the shriek — " Murder ! murder ! " Says Dr. King — " If em- ployment of the lancet were abolished altogether, it would, perhaps, save annually a greater number of lives than in any one year the sword has ever destroyed." And Dr. Hunn has remarked — " Abominable is the murdering quack, who, forever impatient to unsheath his blood-thirsty lancet, draws from a fever patient the irrep- arable balsam of life." One of the professors in the Medical College of this city stated that he had fre- quently bled his patients to the amount of two hundred ounces, making ten pints. in three days. Another professor declared that he had taken three hundred ounces, making fifteen pints, in an extremely short time. A doctor of the city of Boston, stated in a p\iblic lecture, as an example for his students, that he had taken one hundred barrels of blood during his medical practice. (He ought to have said his slaughtering practice.) One hundred barrels, allowing thirty-two gallons to the barrel, makes three thousand two hundred gallons, or twenty-five thousand six hundred pints of blood I This would take the lives of eight hundred persons, allow- ing four gallons of blood to each individual ! The same doctor stated also that he had given fifty pounds of calomel ! making no mention of the number of blue pills. Of these remedies, Dr. Hamilton has remarked — "Among the numerous poisons which have been used for the cure or alleviation of diseases, there are few which possess more active, and, of course, more dangerous, powers than mercury." And other distinguished medical writers, most of them formerly of the "regular faculty," have concurred in saying that "Minerals exert a pernicious and baneful influence on the system ; they seldom or never cure, but often destroy the patient. Their operation is altogether uncertain, depending entirely on the state of the stomach whether they act at all or prove injurious." Blood-letting by medical men was but very little practiced, until 1615 or 1619, being up to this date, 235 years. The in- troduction of calomel, or mercury, as a medicine, was in the year 1493, 122 years before the discovery of the circulation of blood; making to 1852, tho space of 359 years. The introduction of quicksilver, as a medicine, was made in Ms:;, by Tlioo- plirastus IJombastus Paracelsus; and tho German or vegetable doctors gave him the name of Quack, for using quacksalver, or quicksilver. If all the doctors for the lasl 235 years, since the discovery of the circulation of the blood, and the introduction 8 THE . MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. of the lancet and bi h one hundred barrels of blood from the sick, and dealt out fifty pounds of calomel each, and given the other poisons also, what a wholesale slaughter had been carried on by the mineral (now "regular") '. In what, in the name of common sense and the great skill ; '.' In bleeding, vomiting and purging with blue pills, and pi : what do they mean when they say that their mineral medicines are the only medicines, and their practice the only practice to a ions and productions of Deity, for it places Cud, physiology, chemistry, and reason in the background of their assumed profundity. Tiny would seem to say. while making these assertions, (like the barbarous sa aptive) — "the dead tell no tales! " But they are ened oven by the death of their victims; for the very tombstones hi the graveyards bear witness of the fatality of their practice. We have not a drop of blood to spare, under any condition of health. The neces- sity of changing the character of the blood, is of frequent occurrence, and can be always mplished. During the treatment of over twenty thousand cases of consumption and disease in all its various forms, with the n. uceees, I have never i ■- y necessity lor bleeding. Nor do I think there o any necessity lor draining the vital fluid of life, in the cure of disease. Depreciate or take away the blood, and you take the life. Depreciate or take away the air, and you take the breath of lite. How simple, important, and yet how truthful! Still, for hundreds of years have we had the theories of philosophers, and systems and schools of physicians and anatomists, attempting to guide our steps and assist our researches into the origin of our lives and natures, but in vain! They have all strayed into theoretical con- jectures, written in barbarous technicalities, about matter, spirit, vitality, electricity. &c. Age after age has seen all these theories, systems and guessings of physicians, after momentarily agitating the world, pass away, leaving mankind a prey to per- plexities, doubts, suppositions, diseases and death. Mankind should have held on to nature, the teachings of inspiration, and to the remedies which nature has pro- vided, instead of betaking to the poisons that kill rather than make alive. ■ t botanic medicines have stood the test ever since the creation of the world, under every possible form of disease, saving life in every case where life could have been saved. They are ordained and created of God, given to men and animals both for food and medicine, and therefore cannot fad to cure, if properly used, and the disease is curable. The animals hasten to their vegetable remedies, with perfect safety, under all conditions, and rarely die of disease unless deprived of their healing remedies by confinement or decrepitude. AIR TITE BREATII OF ALL LIFE. □TO proved that blood forms every part of the body, and is the life of a> I now propose a few remarks as to tin- BREATH of all life. We and the breath of life. A\v is food far the blood, and blood for the various parts ot the body. This reason and inspiration teach us; and thi ■• of the won- derful < ir while in the lungs also teaches. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 9 In the Scriptures we read — "And God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of ]ife, and he became a living soul." — Gen. ii. 1. Paul said, Acts xvii. 25, that " God giveth all life and breath." God, before the flood, said he would " destroy all flesh wherein was the breath of life (excepting Noah and his family), and they should all die." — Gen. vi. 15. "Whose breath is in his nostrils." — Isaiah ii. 22. " They all have one breath." — Eccl. hi. 19. David said — " The Lord taketh away their breath and they die." Job said — " His breath was corrupt and his days were extinct; the graves were ready for him." — Job xvii. 1. Also, " his breath was strange to his wife, though he entreated, for the children's sake of his own body." — xix. IT. Consumptive, is your breath corrupt, like that of Job ? Are you diseased, as was he? Are your spirits gone? — has hope fled your bosom? Job kept up courage during his afflictions, and trusted in a safe deliverer. Go thou and do like- wise. Avail thyself of the aids which science has prepared for thee from the pro- ductions of the earth. Remember, that while there is life there is hope ; and that by the use of simple and suitable means, rightly administered, you can yet rejoice in health, good blood, abundance of flesh and buoyant spirits. While, therefore, blood forms the body, air keeps the blood in circulation. Blood alone affords nourishment to the child while in the womb, and it is only after birth, when the lungs are inflated, that air becomes necessary for the continuation of living existence, and for the preservation of health during life. All this is dem- onstrable. If the umbilical cord of the foetus be cut, or an artery of an adult be opened, the blood runs out and the subject dies : excluded from the air death imme- diately follows, after birth or after the lungs have once been inflated. USES OF THE LUNGS. Havtn'0 shown that air is the breath of all life, it may be well to explain the nature and use of the organs which contain the air. The lungs, before the birth of the child, are about one-thirtieth part of the entire weight. They have no action or use, however, until the child comes into the outer world. When tiny have been inflated for some months, their weight in proportion to that of the whole body is as 1 to 18. There is no air in the Lungs until after the birth of the child, nor even then, unless they are inflated. If the child dies before an inflation of the lungs, these organs will sink in water. By this knowledge it can be determined whether violcnco has been done to a dead child, and whether it died before or after birth. The lungs are filled with thousands of air-cells and air-tubes, and when these are once inflated the air can never be expelled from them, not even by cutting their. into the smallest of possible pieces. In this condition — whether whole or divided -they will not sink in water. The shape and size of the Longs in the adult person depend somewhat upon the form of the chest and the condition of the heart and liver. In a natural state of the body, and where the chest has net suffered from violence or bei a distorted in obe- dience to some injurious dictate of fashion — such as tight lacing, — the lungs on their 10 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. outer surface are convex— on the inner, concave. In the cavity or hollow of the left lung, which is expressly adapted to the purpose, and has been called the bed of the heart, lies that important organ. The shape of the natural lungs is like that of a sugar-loaf, having the smaller end up. The right lung has three lobes— the left but t wo. ordinarily; but there have been cases where as many as four to six existed. Each lung and their different lobes are separated by a membrane, called the pleura. The pleura lines the cavity of the thorax or chest. This membrane, when inflamed, adheres to the lungs or chest ; and is called a serous membrane, in distinction from those which line the mouth, stomach, intestines and air passages, called mucous membranes. Th '- bn menial tube enters the lungs about midway, and divides into two branches, which pass one to the right and the other to the left lung, where there is a sub- division into thousands of air tubes. This point is known as the root of the lungs. The blood vessels enter and pass out at the same place. These blood vessels are called pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins. The pulmonary arteries carry the blood from the heart to the lungs, to be purified by the air; and after there going through a chemical change, the fluid is returned to the heart by the pulmonary veins. By the color of the blood from bleeding lungs, it can be determined whether an ulcer or abscess has ruptured a vein or an artery. The heart is surrounded by a sac, called the pericardium, which is a part of the pleura. In a healthy state, the heart just tills the natural bed in the lungs; but when it becomes enlarged from any cause, it presses against the lungs, and some- tunes with such force as to produce great difficulty of breathing and to present the air cells from being filled — from which cause arise sudden deaths. The larynx is the top part of the trachea or wind-pipe. Within the larynx are four fibrous vocal cords, which, when inflamed or otherwise diseased, as in cases of sore throat and bronchial and catarrhal affections, frequently prevent the utterance of vocal sounds. The internal surface of the bronchial tube and air-cells is covered with a mucous membrane, which discharges a lubricating fluid to moisten the sur- face. An organ called the glottis is a part of the vocal apparatus, which, when in- flamed, also affects the speech. The thyroid cartilage is a projection found in the neck of the male, but wanting in the female. This projection is vulgarly known as '-Adam's Apple," from the Whimsical idea that when Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, (commonly supposed to be an apple,) a piece lodged in the throat in the act of swallowing! and hence the projection in the male throal and not in the female. The thyroid gland is situated in from of the trachea, and upon the side of the larynx. The use of this organ anatomists have never determined. It is larger in the female than in the male, and tends to give fullness and beauty to the female neck, if it serves no other purpose. As an offset to tho projection on the neck of the male, known as Adam's Apple, may wo not suppose the thyroid gland to be of Bpecial use in lubricating the larynx and throat of the female — she having much greater need of such a fluid to prevenl serious difficulty in the use of the tongue and vocal organs! ! Nature having been wise in all her creations, and making nothing in vain, and no other ase for this gland having been found, wo should (unless the ladies complain of as) i include thai to be its office ! ug spoken of the organs themselves— the lungs, tubes, air-cells, Ac.,— we proceed to a consideration of their uses in the animal economy. God, the being of THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. H infinite wisdom, taught the necessity of inflating the lungs, when he breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life ; and all the prophets and wise men of old had an understanding of the " breath of life," — which was no more than the air we breathe. The air is a fuel to consume carbon and to emit carbonic acid gas ; and is used for the purpose of purifying the blood while in the lungs ; the air also supplies the blood with electricity ; by this means the blood which has just come in contact with air while in the lungs, and also while it is passing in the pulmonary vein to the heart, is found to be raised to a higher temperature than that which is in the arteries passing to the lungs. The blood passing to the lungs from the heart has been found to be 100 degrees Fahrenheit; that passing from the lungs to the heart from 101 to 102 degrees. By passing into the lungs ah also loses its oxygen and electricity, and becomes when expired carbonic acid gas. Air is principally composed of oxygen and nitrogen, in the proportion of about one-fourth of the former to three-fourths of the latter. But it is evident that hydro- gen and electricity are also component parts of air. Oxygen and electricity are the principles of flame and animal life, while nitrogen extinguishes both. "When air is inhaled, the oxygen and electricity are communicated to the blood, which being charged with iron becomes a conducting medium ; while the nitrogen is disengaged and thrown off. The iron, which gives color to the blood, is instantly rendered mag- netic under the influence of electricity. The blood is at the same time oxydized by the oxygen of the air, and instantly becomes a cherry red. This oxygen generates in the blood an acidity, to supply an acid to the stomach, when there is not enough received in the form of food or drink. The blood magnetically prepared at the lungs is tin-own upon the heart, and forced into the arteries, and is driven into every part of the system. The propulsion of the blood in this manner creates animal heat, which causes it to throw off the electro-magnetic power to the nervous system, for which it has strong affinity ; or, in other words, electricity being the communicating fluid for the nervous system, it becomes nervo-Vital fluid. This nerve-electricity, or animal heat, being secreted by the brain often in too great a quantity, disorganizes the connection of mind and matter, which softens the brain, destroying the balance of the mind and producing mental derangement or insanity. From this cause, in connection with impurities of the blood obstructing the circulatory system, arise local diseases, with irritation and mflammation, often terminating in. putrefaction or decomposition of the affected part, frequently causing sudden death. The air we breathe, then, purifies the blood, and hy a chemical change in the lungs also produces animal heat. The blood in the pulmonary vein having come in con- tact with the air in the lungs, is rendered pure and brought to a higher temperature than in any other part of the body. And by this wise provision of nature, through I and nervous system, all parts of the body become electrified, and heat nearly equally diffused throughout the system, by which we are kept warm and alive. You now have a grand perception of the structure and uses of the lungs. "With- out a perfect under tanding of those important truths in the physiology of the hu- man system, no physician should attempt to administer medicines in any case of lung affections ; as pulmonary consumption can never be cured without a thorough knowledge of the true nature and state of the disease, and the remedies proper to be used. And yet, not one in a thousand of the practicing physicians of the day 12 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. at all understands these matters thoroughly ; they go blindly to work to relieve the sufferer, and failing (as they must) to effect a cure, declare consumption to be incut-able. But I have the happiness of being able to say to the afflicted that it is perfectly curable. The first step and great secret of success is to distinctly ascer- tain the kind of consumption and the stage to which it has arrived. This can be done most successfully by the aid of my great invention — the infallible Lung Ba- rometer. By the use of this invention, I am enabled to correctly ascertain the nature and state of the disease, when the proper remedies can be administered without experimenting with the life of the patient. Never believe your case to be beyond the reach of medical skill until you have tried the virtues of the Lung Barometer ; for after using it, I have cured thousands of consumptive cases tliat had been given up by other doctors as incurable. But be- cause others declare certain dis- eases to be beyond medical aid, that is no reason for me to re- linquish my efforts ; as I have long since found them to be in- competent judges of the condi- tion of the lungs. As a medicine in all lung complaints, my Lung Corrector stands first and foremost. It is the best compound ever present- ed to the afflicted. For a view of the lungs and heart, see accompanying en- graving. No. 3. — The Heart axd Luxgs. This engraving represents the heart and lungs in their natural position in the chest ; the portion marked L be- ing the several divisions or lobes of the lungs, and the central portion the heart, marked H., the pulmonary artery and aorta, &c. RESPIRATION. The amount of air to sustain life, must be from three to five cubic inches in the lungs ; but varies in proportion to the size of those organs, and also in persons of different habits. The sedentary individual consumes much less air than the active one. Adults with large lungs can inhale from three to four hundred cubic inches <>f Bar, and if the lungs are extra large, from four to six hundred cubic inches, at a single inflation. So varied are the conditions and sizes of the lungs, from habits of dress, and the condition of the heart and liver, that adult persons, by a correct ex- amination with the lung barometer, vary from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty cubic inches of air at each ordinary respiration. 'flic lungs are capable of great expansion and contraction. Active children, having plenty of outdoor exercise, consume as much air as adults, their breathing or respiration being quicker j but their lungs are not as large in general. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 13 From this necessity of children with large lungs to have plenty of ah' arises tho spasms, convulsions, and sudden deaths of infants when confined in close rooms, or covered with bed clothes. Great care should be taken by parents to avoid these disasters, and to see that children have plenty of pure air. Ordinarily, about eighteen respirations occur in a minute. This gives the num- ber of cubic inches of air inhaled in a minute, hour, day, and year of 365 days, as follows : — If 75 cubic inches at a respiration — Per minute. Per hour. Per day. Per year. 1,350 81,000 1,944,000 709,560,000 If 100 at a respiration — Per minute. Per hour. Per day. Per year. 1,800 108,000 2,592,000 946,080,000 If 150 at a respiration — Per minute. Per hour. Per day. Per year. 2,700 162,000 3,888,000 1,419,120,000 From this table it may be seen that the difference in the quantity of air inhaled by different persons is very great: but whether 150 or 75 cubic inches of air be taken in at a respiration, it must be observed that the use of the lungs for this pur- pose is a matter of vast consideration. The quantity of blood in the adult person averages between 30 and 40 pounds, or from four to six gallons. Compared to the weight of the body, the blood is about the one-fourth or the one-fifth part. The quantity of blood expelled by the heart at each pulsation or contraction, is about two ounces. As the pulse beats, or as the heart contracts, in an adult, about seventy-five times in a minute, it follows that tho whole blood in our bodies passes through the heart and through the lungs also, ouce in a little more than three minutes. According to this calculation, the whole mass of blood would perform twenty revolutions in an hour. "We have here the estimated labor of the lungs when in health ; but for a mo- ment imagine their extra labor when the blood becomes filled with humors or de- composed irritating matter from diseased lungs, liver, kidneys, costive bowels, or disease of other organs of the body. Breathe upon a clean glass a single breath, and observe how it will become loaded with impurities, in the condensed respira- tion, when the breath is rendered corrupt and offensive from disease. And then consider of how great importance it is to the lungs that the blood should be kept clear and pure, and the air tubes unobstructed, that they may not be subjected to extra labor in the discharge of their important functions. Inflation op the Lungs. — Inflation of the lungs is necessary at the birth of a child when the organs do not act. Also when the breath has been stopped by the fall of an individual, and in cases of persons nearly dead from drowning. There should be no time lost in inflation of the lungs in these cases, ere tho breath of life has fled forever, or it will be impossible to continue living existence. God, when he had made man out of the dust of the earth, taught by " breathing into his nostrils 14 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. the breath of life," the necessity of starting action in the lungs and setting the human machine in motion. When once the action is commenced, it continues until death. Extra inflation of the lungs is necessary in cases of contraction of the lungs, either by a deformed chest, habits of dress, or in case of ulcers, tubercles, phlegm, catarrh, strictures, or a collapsed state of the lungs and air tubes. The fiat, contracted, and crooked chest, by extra inflation of the lungs, can be changed to a full chest and noble figure, with large, healthy and useful organs of respiration. I have frequent- ly changed the appearance of a contracted, small and deformed chest to such a ; and beautiful figure, in such a remarkably short time, that the friends of the invalid would hardly know him. When extra inflation of tlte lungs is injurious, can only be determined upon by the aid of my Lung Barometer. No person should commence inflating the lungs untd having first been examined with one of these in- fallible detectors ; for those who may recommend the inflation, will not, by reason of not having the aid of this invention, know whether the extra inflation will prove beneficial or not. It is with them a matter of experiment. They may wish to ben- efit you, but their advice is given ignorantly, and as the internal organs may be in a diseased state to them unknown, it is not impossible that extra inflation may finally be the cause of death. I have been for many years a careful observer of the use of inhaling tubes, of various kinds, and have seen the most serious injuries caused by them. [See re- marks under the head " Abuse of the Lungs by Inhaling Tubes."] Extra inflation of the lungs is of great injury in some cases of liver affection. Where the liver has been badly diseased or decayed and commenced to heal, the pressure of the lungs on the liver, before the case was truly known, destroyed the growth of a new liver. The lungs often adhere to the chest or pleura, or to each other, and in these cases, extra inflation by the inhaling tube would be very dangerous, and has often proved so. Had the invalids been examined with the Lung Barometer, the injury would have been avoided. The heart is sometimes enlarged with water; and, wdiile in this state, the use of the inhaling tube might causesudden death. An examination with the Lung Barom- eter would warn the physician of the danger to be apprehended from extra infla- - by it he could determine the true disease. Cancers and tumors of the heart rated ly extra inflation and the use of inhaling tubes. The liver sometimes becomes greatly enlarged with grubs, and presses the lungs ; in which case, too much inflation might cause a rupture of the respiratory or break the liver. Then ble use for an extra inflation of the lungs when those organs tractedor i d, and the usual amount of air i< re into and thrown out, of them; but iii many eases of disease of those organs it is de- SciaL Extra inflation will always prove more or less injurious when the Lungs are well, and the heart, I stomach or spleen are affected with of their peculiar diseases. Si Kng axe i.i destroy the Life of the patient, I;, the use of the Lung Barometer all the evils attending extra inflation can bo avoided ; and if it he seen that inflation is necessary and expedient, it: can he prac- tieed v. And if a! any time THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 15 its locality, it can, by the use of this wonderful invention, be followed with the ap- propriate medicines with unerring certainty and successful result. [See notice of Lung Barometer.] Death generally happens at about three cubic inches of air in the lungs, and -is most certain to occur at that point. But sometimes, in cases of cholera, sudden falls, heart diseases, faintings and fits, when the breath has been supposed to have entirely gone out of the body and the person thought to be dead, the subject re- covers his breath and lives many years. In many of these cases the Heart Regu- lator will be found to be of great use to give new impulse to the circulation and breathing. I have often examined lungs with the Lung Barometer when the inva- lid was living on three or four cubic inches of air more than is in the lungs when death generally occurs. To have six hundred cubic inches of air in the lungs at a time is a matter of not unfrequent occurrence with large, and robust, and active men, and with the Ameri- can Indians, and men accustomed to much "racing." The celebrated pedestrian known as the "American Deer," who has been successful in races against men and horses, can inhale more than six hundred cubic inches of air at a single full infla- tion. Jenny Lind, and many other great singers, can take into the lungs from four to six hundred cubic inches of air at a single inspiration. Never shut up yovr houses tight from the air. If you want your children to be- come intelligent by study, ventilate your school houses. If you want a spiritual feast from the preaching on the Sabbath, ventilate your churches, else you will be a dull and sleepy hearer of the truth. If you wish to preserve the lungs of your minister, lawyer, judge, or orator, and get an animated speech from him, give him plenty of the pure air of heaven. "With air we breathe and live — without it we die. The young and old, the small and great, of all animate nature, breathe and live in the same atmosphere. It is food and medicine for all. THE HEART. The history and development of the heart has been of the utmost interest to mankind, from his creation to the present time. The law by which the heart is developed is rather curious. Before birth of the child it is characterised by its great weight compared with the rest of the body. At the end of the fourth or fifth week of infra-uterine life, it is so large that it seems to occupy almost the whole cavity of the chest. There is no use for the lungs before birth ; no air has entered them, and but very little blood; therefore the lungs are very small and in a collapsed condition. But the b iart at the end of the third month of the embryo state, or fetal life, is about the weight of the whole body. At birth, however, it is only l-120th of b.t. In adult life it weighs from seven to twelve ounces. Before birth, there is a hole, aperture, or door through the heart through which the Mood passes from the mother to the child, and from one side of the heart to tho At the moment of birth, when tho first breath is drawn by the child, this door or opening closes forever, and the mode of circulation of the blood is changed. The 'losing of the orifice mentioned, is generally perfecl at birth, although in some ases it does not occur; but in these the child seldom lives, and if it dots, not 16 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. often enjoys good health, unless it has particular medical treatment, which physi- cians generally seem incompetent to administer. The heart is the centre of the circulating system. It is divided into four apart- ments, two called auricles, the others ventricles, one right and one left of each. It lies on the left side of the chest, with its base or large end up. The left ventricle is much thicker than the right one — the former having for its office the forcing of the blood to all parts of the body except the lungs — the latter to the lungs alone. The strength or power of the left ventricle is equal to a weight of fifty-two pounds. The powerful muscular contraction of the heart is so great that when placed on hot coals it will jump from four to six feet in the air ! The heart of a rattle-snake or of a sturgeon will contract or pulsate for a long time after being taken from the body. The action of this organ is continued from seventy to one hundred and fifty years, or while fife remains in the body. In some animals it performs its office for a much longer period than that mentioned ; and, in old times pulsated in the human frame for several hundred years. Seemingly it never tires, laboring day and night with great endurance. Diseases of the heart (which are various) have hitherto, by all physicians, whether of great or httle skill, been considered as incurable. But it affords me happiness to be able to say to the afflicted, that I am prepared to perfectly ascertain the condition of and to cure any heart disease, by the aid of my invention — the Lung Barometer — and the administration of the proper remedies. By the light afforded by this in- vention, the appropriate medicines for the particular disease can be prescribed with the greatest safety, and with perfect success. This, all persons troubled with any affection of this important organ should know. My Heart Regulator, for all diseases of this organ, and for fits, is without a competitor in the whole field of medicine. The subjoined section of a heart shows the right and left cavity (auricles and ventricles) into which the blood is received, arid from which it is expelled by the pow- erful muscles which surround them. No. 4. — Section of the Heart. NO OTHER BOOK TEACHES THE USES OF THE LUNGS. No book heretofore laid before the public has taught the true uses of tho lungs. Many have been put forth upon the subject, filled with nonsense upon the nature and uses of these organs. Tho longs are nothing but air cells, air tubes, veins and arteries. Each cell has a pulmonary vein loading to it, and a pulmonary ar- tery Leading from it, carrying to and from the heart all the blood in the system. The strength of the body is not in tho lungs, as some lung doctors have pre- tended ; but, as I have proved, in the bl I. The action of the lungs is partly id partly from the control of the will. Tiny assist to bn and prevent it from falling in under the effect of pressure; but tiny have no power THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 1? to send air to any other organ or to assist the strength. The chief uses of the lun^s are to aid in singing and talking, to act as a furnace in the combustion of the air to purify the blood and to assist in generating animal heat. Under a proper condition of the lungs, heart and liver, and when the person is in health, and even in some cases of consumption, the lungs are capable of great expansion. They will . expand from ten to one hundred cubic inches in a day r without producing any injurious effect. This expansion, operating as it does upon the pleura, diaphragm, ribs, and abdominal muscles, has tendency to give a full chest large lungs, and a beautiful figure ; and if properly practiced even for a few months effects a great change in the flat and distorted human figure. Previous to my invention of the Lung Barometer, physicians knew but very little about the nature and uses of the lungs ; but by guessing and experimenting, they some- times accidentally afforded relief to the afflicted, though often doing in- jury. To tell to a perfect certainty whether or not the case is consump- tion, or whether it is consumption of the lungs or liver, is beyond the skill of any one who does not use the infal- lible detector alluded to. Nor can the whole of the medical fraternity cure the various kinds of consumption without experimenting, until first an examination is made with the Lung- Barometer. This I unhesitatingly assert from the experience gained in the treatment of twenty-five thousand cases of consumption, of every possible kind and form: — which is more than any other living physician has treated. Since the invention of the Lung Barometer, I am able to say — I am master of my business, which no other physi- cian can truthfully assert. No. 5. — Heart and Lungs, WITH ARTERIES AND VEINS LEADING TO THE AIR CELLS. 1. Heart. 2. Pulmonary Artery. 3. Aorta— carrying the blood to the extremities. 4. Air Tube, leading to the Lungs. ABUSE OF THE LUNGS BY INHALING TUBES. The abuse of the lungs by inhaling tubes is without doubt one of the greatest evils arising from any invention of man under the garb of effecting good. That extra inflation in some cases is healthful I do not deny; but the good or evil arising must Sepend upon the condition of the internal organs and how it is accomplished. All the good there can arise from the use of the inhaling tube must flow from calling the attention of the invalid to it two or three times a- day, and making him think it intrinsically valuable; when, in fact, the tube only enters the mouth; and extra inflation can be had without the tube, as well as with it, by the nose— thus getting 2 18 THE PEOFLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. all the good that may arise, -without danger of the injurious effects that sometimes follow the use of that instrument. No extra inflation whatever of the lungs should be practiced, with or without inhaling tubes, for the reason that the diseased state of the lungs, heart, liver, stomach, and spleen may be greatly aggravated, and a cure rendered more doubt- fid, except there is firs! an examination made with the Lung Barometer. The grand starting point, in doctoring, or in any other business, is to first start right; and whoever disregards this great principle of action, is lost in doubt, perplexity and disappointment, followed by failure in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. I asserl boldly and from knowledge, that the advocates of inhaling tubes have no e scale or rule by which they can determine when to commence or leave off extra, inflation of the lungs, or whether or not the lungs are deficient in air, or whether the various internal organs will admit with safety of extra inflation, or whether that course of treatment is needed. They maj^ measure the chest with a string or the eye. without being more wise as to the state of internal diseases, than would a man who should attempt to decide what minerals were imbedded in the bowels of the earth by walking over the surface. The inhaling tube is dangerous to inhale air through, as it admits small particles of dust and contagious matter [y into the air-cells of the lungs, causing irritation and inoculating disease in healthy parts of the lungs, when the nose would act as a, filter, purifying the air, and preventing both dust and contagious poisons from entering the lungs. The inhaling tube often causes bleeding at the lungs, and produces dangerous ruptures of those organs and of the heart and liver. In cases of asthma, when the lungs are generally too large, its use is very injurious. It causes sudden death when there is an enlarged and dropsical heart, and by rupturing the liver and spleen when affected by grub ; and induces disease from the inhalation of poisonous matter collected in a tube previously used by a consumptive whose lungs were badly diseased. .By the use of such a tube, contagious matter is directly inoculated into healthy parts of the lungs, and thereby the whole system is poisoned. Goose-quills, sticks with holes through them, tin candle-moulds, and a great variety of tubes made of all kinds of materials and in different shapes, some more and some less liable to collect dust and poison, have been resorted to with caper and anxious expectation of benefit, ever since the introduction of the instrument. But the whole of them are worthless, and decidedly dangerous, to say nothing of the liability to contract disease from the use of tubes used by other persons. The whole mass of inhaling tubes should be carefully avoided. Physicians ad- vocating their use have no right to hold up to the world the remarkable Longevity of Thomas Jenkins, Flora Thompson, and others, who have never seen or used an inhaling tube. There is no recorded evidence that any of the ancients were acquainted with the use of inhaling tubes, and yet it is undeniable that they attained to a muck r longevity than do the greal mass of mankind at the present day. It is obvious that conformi tural laws that govern life and health, will do much more than all the artificial mechanical helps in the universe, in restoring and preserving health, where these laws are .violated. There is not i evidenc gle individual of modern times, who has attained to great or remarkable longevity, ever saw an inhaling tube. It is at least, then. u:il';iir and uneandid for any physician to hold these up to the THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 19 world as fair examples of longevity to which mankind may, and will be likely to attain, if they will use inhaling tubes. For the examples to be relevant, it should be proved that the subjects, who have been adduced and held up to the public as having attained to a remarkable longev- ity, should, at least, have used this artificial help for the prolongation of life. Still I do not claim that artificial mechanical helps may not occasionally be used to great advantage ; but maintain that strict conformity to the laws of our own being, will accomplish more than all the artificial helps that have been devised by the ingenuity of man. Gymnastic exercise for the cure of diseases was introduced among the Greeks about the time of Hippocrates ; and among them were walking, riding, running on foot or horseback, recitation, talking loud, holding the breath, &c, for the cure of lung complaints : but the inhaling tube was to them a thing unknown ; and well would it have been for the afflicted if it had never been thought of. It may reasonably be presumed that if inhaling tubes were indispensable to the health and longevity of mankind, some such provision would have been made by Nature herself, and that the proboscidate member of the "human face divine" would have been extended enormously beyond its ordinary length, the nares have been vastly enlarged, so as to take in, at each inspiration, much greater quantities of air for enlarging and strengthening the lungs. But as Nature has made no such extraordinary provisions, we may safely con- clude that no such were needed. ' MAN'S STRENGTH IS IN HIS BLOOD. This the experiences of both learned and unlearned men, for thousands of years, would prove ; and still many arc slothful to receive the great truth. If we can drain the blood from the most powerful of animals, he falls helpless at our feet. Drain the vital fluid — the blood — from the giant, and he becomes powerless as an infant. Age after age has proved this, in the slaughter of men and animals — yet many regard it not. On the field of battle or at the bed of the sick, as you drain the vital fluid of life, either with the sword or lancet, the victim falls powerless before you. Need I ask the dead to declare from their graves that this is so? Has not God said that "the blood is the life of all flesh ?" and did not Moses, David, Solomon and the ancient prophets declare this truth ? Did not the bleeding side of Jesus when on the cross prove it? Let the physician think of this when he unsheathes his lancet to draw the balsam of life from the suffering sick! Let him think of it when he pretends that the strength of man is in the lungs, and that tho inhaling tube and abdominal supporter are the only remedies for the prostrated sufferer ! And lot the emaciated invalid, with weak voice and feeble pulse, a hollow cough, a fluttering heart, a glassy eye, and a feeble step— trembling upon the verge of the grave— think of it. Where is your full vein? where the rich, pure and healthful blood? Where the blossoming of health upon your face ? Like the widow mentioned in the Scripture lamenting over the corpse of her husband, you may exclaim — Alas! alas! the sal- vation of my face has departed. 20 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. No. 6. — The Emaciated Invalid. ii in the annexed out, where the blood has become very thin, watery, and impure, for want of good and wholesome food, or from working, living, and sleeping in badly ventilated and lighted i from any other cause, so that it loses its rich color and nearly all its nourishing qualities, great emaciation of vital, nervous, and mus- eedily follows, accompanied by ant sense of languor of body and mind; while the brightest and purest ob- jects that earth presents, tend rather to sink than to cheer the spirits of the dying invalid, from whose horizon the bright sun of Hope .. withdrawn, and set in darki Believe, then, no more the deluding quack, but go to a physician who has spent a life-time in searching out the hidden se- ts of health and long life, (which is in the blood,) and can send the pure, animating blood to the brain, give the flash of love and beauty to the eye. restore the voice to the lungs, strength to the muscles, clas- • i the step, power to the heart, carry health to the cheek, and flesh to tbo emaciated frame. All this can be done through the agency of the blood, and in no other way. J have Baved thousands from an early and untimely grave, whil of others have died, having had no access to my healing or ever having heard i -!ul endeavors, until too late, to heal and restore them to health and happiness. [For farther particulars on the blood, see under the head of "On the Blood."] Blood Nourishes the Child before Birth, for when it is in the womb there is no digestion, and nothing but blood can nourish it. The lungs are small and inactive, and the stomach is not used; but the blood of the mother passes to the foetus through the umbilical cord, and then to the heart and liver. The liver of did is quite large before birth, but diminishes in size at birth, when di- al the stomach and action of the lungs commences. In old times it was advocated thai the child actually nursed while j n the womb; and many plr gists supposed, very strangely, that nipples wwa furnished to the child by the placnta or "after-birth,' 1 and that the child did really eat; but this whimsical notion was Ion- since abandoned Such a thin-- as nursing before birth could not possibly be. The umbilical cord is to be tied in two places with a waxed string — one not less than an inch and a half I from the abdomen of the child, the other an inch further along; the separation to be made halfway between the two strings. When cut with the Bciasors, after being tied, one string saves the elukl from bleeding to death, the other the mother. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 21 fr No. 7.— TilK FCBTCS, SHOWING THE UMBILICAL CORD THROUGH WHICH THE BLOOD PASSES FROM THE MOTHER TO THE ClIILD. 1. Heart— large in the Foetus. 2. Aorta. 3. Lungs — small. 4. Liver— large. 6. Stomach. The point where the scissors are seen shows where the cord is to it should he tried. 6. Kidney — large. 7. Gall Bladder. 8 and 9. Umbilical Lord 10 and 12. Womb. 11. Placenta or After-birth the strings, where GB \TIFICATION OF THE PASSIOXS. That the natural passions of mankind should be temperately and wisely gra- tified, is both natural and reasonable to infer from this foot, (if from i ther,) bhal each organ of the •;• iV m ' ling to hi brain, and Its own representative stationed there, whose business it seems to be, by a law of human 23 THK PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. economy, to attend to the wants of the organ in the healthful gratification of its peculiar desire. The brain may be described as a con- gress or assembly of phrenological organs, and the nerves as telegraphs, leading from the physiological organs to their i ive representatives in the brain, as see cut. Lung, liver, eye, ear, stomach, genital and other organs have then- representa- tive in the congress of the organs, and through that representative are then re- spective wants and natural desires made known. If the stomach desires food, Se- nator Alimentiveness moves the passage of a bill for the' supply of a fresh lot of provisions ; and though Senator Acquisitive- ness may speak against such an enactment, the bill is generally passed without great delay, and hunger is appeased. Do desire to be honored, Senator Self-esteem is desirous to procure the doing of act which shall bring reputation and dory. Are children desired, Senator Phil nitiveness is upon the floor with loud de- mands for the enactment of a law favoring an increase of the population ; to him the smiles of the infant are powerful stimu- lants, and neither he or Amativeness, or then masters, the genital organs, will rest in peace till the desire for offspring is gra- tified. They will not be comforted with- out children any more than would Rachel of old, when she said unto Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die." — Gen. xxx. 1. Abraham and Surah could not be content or satisfied until Cod had given them a child, although Sarah was ninety, and Abraham one hundred years old, wh their desire, and they were No. 8, -Nervous Telegraphic System. A back view of the spinal nerves con- nected with the organs and limbs, and with the brain through the spinal cord. Also a view of a perpendicular section of ga\ - the back part of the brain 1. Cerebrum. 2. Cerebellum. pleased, and fell on their faces and laugh- ed. — Gen. xvh. 17. How many males and a in this age of the world are dis- contented and unsatisfied, who in their inmost souls cannot be sane, without having children, any more than Rachel, Abraham or Sarah. II jexua] intercourse is desired by the youthful or aged, Senator Amativi v to i, ;ive a ],. nv , congress thai the sexes may unite in sexual love, to gratify the finei md yield fruit unto God, who hath said, " lie fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.' 1 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 23 God hath declared children to be his heritage, and the fruit of the womb his reward. — Psalms cxxvii. 3. The gratification of the sexual passion keeps Senator Amativeness pleased and contented : so it is with the other phrenological senators ; but it is more particularly so with Amativeness, for it is well known that animal electricity so abundantly accumulates about and stimulates that honorable person- age — whether in the male or female of the human species, or among the brute creation — that he becomes perfectly unmanageable upon the subject, and often takes the whole phrenological congress by storm, seeks his sexual magnet and gratifies his desires, when he immediately cools down, and becomes as quiet and peaceable as ever. It is well known that the sexes are magnetic, both of men and animals, and their connection in sexual love produces animal electricity, and throws off the semen or seed. An emission of the semen, in either men or animals, cannot take place without the power of animal electricity, either by a connection of the sexes, masturbation, or by a concentration of the mind in dreaming, tin-owing the elec- trical power upon the genital organs. When the being is deprived of animal nervo-electricity of the sexual organs, there can be no erection nor any emission of semen ; and without proper health- fulness and power of these organs, all other powers of the physical and phreno- logical organs will fall into a state of stupidity and become incompetent to the rightful discharge of then duties. In the strength and richness of the blood, and in the nervo-animal electricity in the nerves, lie the grand secret of life and action. They are the propelling powers of the mind and body ; and man is successful or unsuccessful in proportion as he is supplied with them. The young man or woman addicted to the habit of masturbation can tell you of the debility, loss of energy, and the perfect wortlilessness to themselves and society, that follow a too frequent loss of the semen and the animal electric power necessary to indulge in co- habitation. There is no passion implanted in man but should have proper and temperate gra- tification, subject to the laws of our being and the dictates of reason. A rational gratification of the passions implanted within us by the Creator acts as a safety- valve to the system, and prevents many dangerous results that otherwise might follow. If any organ is constantly kept over-charged with nervous animal electricity, insanity or bodily disease will as surely result as would an explosion follow the accumulation of an undue head of steam in the boiler of an engine. But where the electricity is gently conducted away by its own magnets, every organ performs its functions with pleasure and precision, and in harmonious concord with its fellows. The female receives the animal electric impression of the genital organs from the male, and the male from the female, in the act of cohabitation, by an electric emis- sion of the semen. Rachel's natural passion could be satisfied only with a child; and so was it with Abraham. — Gen. xxx. 1. Paul's advice — an unfailing remedy for strong amativeness or animal electric heat of the genital organs — was, to marry. In 1st Corinthians vii. 9, ho says, " it is better to marry than to burn." Thousands of both sexes have shortened the number of their days upon earth by neglecting to gratify properly the oatural passion, by connection with the opposite sex. (See Longevity by Marriage.) Others sink into an early grave from the effects Of artifidaUy producing electric emissions j (see Masturbation ;) and still others from an 24 THE TEOrLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. excess oi cohabitation in the early montlis of married life, induced from the pas- sions having become ungovernable by delaying sexual intercourse until too late a period. (See Onanism of the Married, or Quick Consumption from Marriage.) Food _ ■ r; water, thirst ; property, acquisitiveness; music, tune; honor, self-esteem, and sexual intercourse, the organs of generation. Gratification is the '/(-' of the passion ; and without it there must of necessity be an explosion. The heavenly planets seek their attracting magnets, and act in harmonious concord when obej ingthe laws of their nature ; but if there should be a neglect to obey the natural laws of their several beings, the countless orbs that roll in the illimitable re- gions of space would be plunged in the chaos of confusion ! And as it is with the plant tary, even so with the human system. There can be no departure from the laws laid down by the wise Creator of all, but must result in more or less of con- fusion, discord and evil to the being. Man, in all his organs, is created perfect by the hand of God, and no organ has been made in vain or without wise purpose and design. Each organ of the system in due time develops its own peculiar passion, which wisely calls for a natural gra- tification, in accordance with reason and obedience to the dictates of prudence ; and he who would attempt to impede the just workings of any law established in the system, must act contrary to the intents of the Divine Creator, and in oppo- sition to the health, happiness, and well-being of the creature. God has not created any principle in nature, nor implanted any passion in man, which in its right workings is calculated to produce injurious effects. To suppose that he has is to impeach either his wisdom or his goodness of heart. No organ of the human system, or its passion, may be tampered with and unwisely con- trolled with impunity, but it should be indulged in the natural enjoyment ordained for it by God. The complete restriction from enjoyment of any of the passions im- planted in the human being must sooner or later produce an injurious effect, and in- evitably lead to insanity or bodily infirmities, and finally to death 1 (See Insanity. how induced.) It is a violation of the laws of nature; and when these laws, whe- ther in the animal or chemical world, be broken over, the punishment of the trans- gressor is certain and severe. This view of the matter is neither fanciful or unphilosophical ; it is the correct and real view ; based upon common sense and reason, proved by the experience of ml established by the testimony of the Bible. If we attempt to confine the electricity that is in the atmosphere beyond a due measure of power, it will break the bonds we have placed upon it, and launch forth, to the imminent danger of our lives; and if we attempt to put too great a restriction upon the nervo-eleetric tluid in the human system, it will be certain to burst forth in rage upon some inno- cent victim, or to shatter the system itself with the throes of its impatient desire. To restrict within the bounds of reason is both wise and prudent ; to restrain wholly is contrary to nature, and dangerous in the extreme. The passions of animals are gratified ; and there is in all the history of the world no proof that injury has followed from obeying the dictates of nature in this re- speet, When tin- sexual desires of animals are developed, they are gratified; but mankind an- restrained by custom and teaching from marriage and indulgence in sexual love till 25 years of age, when puberty commenced at 12 to 15. The ani- mals have no venereal dises of natural gratification of the sexual de- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 25 sire ; but mankind, being restricted, burns into passion and violates the command of God by plunging into prostitution, which is cursed with loathsome diseases. Generally speaking, the laws, customs and habits of society do more towards the deviation of men from the paths of virtue than the natural desires within them. This is proved by the records of crime, the statistics of prisons, and of asylums for the insane and poor, to be beyond doubt or question. In some future age, the laws and customs of society may be arranged upon physiological and phrenological prin- ciples, and adapted to the legitimate wants of man and the proper gratification of liis natural desires and passions. Could this be so, there would be more happiness for the race than is now enjoyed. But there are a few high-priests of the schools of law, medicine and mental philosophy, who will attempt to dictate for a while longer. Let our children be encouraged in their natural desires, and schools of education and mechanical trades be established to phrenologically suit all, and give all a chance to become men and women in the world, and crime would cease to blot the pages of history, and our lunatic asylums be left destitute of inmates. EDUCATION AND DISEASED BLOOD AT WAR. Much of the popular education of the day, based upon erroneous views of the science of phrenology, is at variance with the infallible teachings of experience and contrary to the established truths of medical science. Acting upon the rules laid down by those who make of phrenology the all in all to decide upon the char- acter of man and the treatment he should receive, people are apt to overlook the effects produced upon the mental being by the diseased or healthy state of the sys- tem. Nor do parents, nor the teachers in our schools, nor our ministers, always es- cape the same condemnation. Upon the state of the body, as regards health, is dependent much of the every- day, and no little of the permanent, condition of the mind. So intimately and connected is matter and spirit — so woven together, and made as it were parts Other — that it may be set down as a rule from which there are few if any ins, thai if the body is diseased in any vital part or portion, the mind will be diseased in connection therewith. Particularly will this be found to be the case when ili'^ blood is "out of order." We may regard it as certain, that if the blood is seriously diseased^ the brain will be badly affected thereby, and the character of tli^ individual, for a longer or shorter period, be materially different from what it would otherwise !"■. i his it follows as a necessary consequence, that to decide of the character from Hi'- sinuosities of the skull with any degree of certainty is a matter entirely on, of the question. Ami he who would attempl to base his education of a child upon a decision thus made, without having regard to the impressions the mind has received from the Btate of health of the body, is committing a most grievous error. If, as we have proved, the life of .-ill flesh is in the blood, tho blood mus< be the life of the bcain, and therefore the brain must, be affected by the blood, and tho charac- ter in a degree dependent upon it. The flrsl step to be taken in education, or in the treatment of the insane, is to set aright the health — to purify the blood and restore the physical system to order. "When suffering from irritation the mind is incapable of acting in its full strength and 26 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. clearness — no matter from what cause the irritation may proceed ; whether it be from a pin thrust in the leg, the want of food in the stomach, a fever in the system, or a nc-lect to gratify rationally the appetites and passions. And when under tho effects of tii - the character of the individual is so gov- erned or modified by them that phrenology cannot fathom it or decide upon its quality. The body and mind reciprocally affect each other; whatever invigorates the body renders the faculties of the mind proportional >ly active and strong; what depresses the strength, lessens the spirit, (See in tables of Causes of Insanity,) the resolution, and the more active intellectual < ,ugh the phrenological organs may have the same size and appearance. The circulation of the blood and the nervous electricity unite the soul with the body, and govern and direct its operations; with the circulation of the blood, the vital functions continue; they vary and cease to beacco circulation varies or ceases. To preserve, then, the faculties of each, we must attend to the health of both in connection. And it follows from this that upon the diseased or healthy condition of the vital fluid much more of the character of man must depend than upon the size of his phrenological organs. If decided upon at all. tl qusI be pronounced upon from the phrenological, the physiological and the nervous being in connection; and all these governed in a ilood in the system. Phrenology, in the estimation of a modern school of mental philosophers, is the one gr< I with our being, by the aid of which we may determine thewh i, and guide him in safety through the world. But this school o - has become ov< r-zealous, and in their labors for their favorite have overstepped the truth as established by the experience of ages. Phrem ach us the location and comparative size of the different phren- ological organs; but as to deciding with certainty upon the character of the individ- ual, it cannot; for, generally speaking, however learned the phrenologist may be in ii nee, he knows little or nothing of chemistry or medicine; a knowl- edge of which ii is i ssential to possess in order to become fully capacitated to de- cide upon the mentality of the subject, or to attempt his education, or to decide what in his e], :il ;i. ter he should strive to i id what to increase. The condition of the blood has been entirely overlooked by the fathers of phre- holly founded upon the bumps; and education of the or- thing to produce a change of character. But how, allow luire, can an cated by force of will when it is acted upon and governed by d or electric fluid, until these are first set right? Or how can we decide from the size of the bumps upon the proper education of a child, of the vital fluid, the passion which a particular bump decides as weak manifests itselfin the actions to be uncommonly atrongt It is here that phrenologists have g< ne beyond wisdom, ana contrary vo the truth. They should n ti ps, or the experience of future years will place the seal of disapprobation upon their favorite Bcience. Thoy have embraced a fatal error. weight to their science, they must know whether there has [brmity in the development of the organ or not, whether the natural desires : "" 1 pa elj and rationally gratified, and whether or no the nervo-electric fluid be diseased or the Mood impure. And if they attempt the edu- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 27 cation of an organ without first knowing these things, they proceed ignorantly and dangerously. It often happens that when the physical constitution is out of order, men who have hitherto been remarkable for their noble qualities of mind, manifest the most ungovernable evil passions. The condition of the' physical being has in these cases overcome the strength of the moral phrenological organs ; and it is by no means a matter of rare occurrence that such a state continues for a season sufficiently long to place the character of the subject in direct opposition to that phase which the size of the phrenological organs might seem to indicate to exist. When the derangement and inflammation of the moral and religious organs of the greatest and best of men takes place, as frequently happens, they sometimes use the most profane language imaginable; and even where intellect is not de- throned, they frequently manifest but httle religious inclination, and often a peev- ishness, and irritability, and unkindness, wholly inconsistent with the Christian character, and with that of their own, when in health. To attempt to educate per- sons in this condition, without medicine, is absurd and irrational. How important that moralists and religionists should sacredly guard their health, and do all in their power to preserve it, if they would not suffer loss in their moral and religious feel- ings. If, then, as I have shown, not only the every-day, but the permanent, character of the individual is more dependent upon the state of the blood and the nervo-vital fluid than upon the size of the phrenological organs with which the subject happens to be born, of what vast importance it is to the individual and to society that the blood should be kept in a state of health, and the body in a correct condition. This should be the first subject of consideration ; and it should be considered under- standingly, and without being led astray by false lights hung about these important sciences connected with mind and matter. Be he king or president, governor or statesman, lawyer or divine, physician or scholar, general or soldier, merchant or sailor, mechanic or laborer — no matter what the station or calling of the individual — no matter what the condition or sex — no matter what the age, — the health should be attended to — the Hood should be kept good and {jure ; else both body and mind will be suffering in weakness and agony. Consider this as worthy your first attention, and hasten to avail yourselves of the great vegetable remedies which God has provided, and medical skill prepared for your restoration to health and happiness; for thus, and only thus, may you attain to fulness of days and fulfil the duties of your station. NO BOOK TEACHES THE TRUE CAUSE OP INSANITY. The brain, although the most important part of man, has never received that at- tention from medical men which it deserves. The brain is an assemblage of organs, whoso business it is to answer the calls of nature and attend to a rational gratifica- tion of the desires and passions of the various members of tho body. The desires of the members of the body are communicated to the brain by tho nervo-clcctrk* fluid, by means of the nerves. "When the wants of tho various members are made known, the organs of tho brain act to reasonably gratify the desire, and in its pro- por and legitimate gratification all tho organs experience pleasure and delight. 28 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTIIOUSE But when any member of U.o body transcends its duty as established by nature and oversteps a proper path, there is tumult in the ass- Qd hltQr [ ference on the part of those not especially connected with th< em bera So that, whether th, ratification or neglect to pi thew is discord and variance in the brain, which lead to disease and frequently to a dis- organization of mind and mailer. The fact of this phrenological congress of organs existing in the brain of man to act over and for the radons members of the body, is a powerful argunienl h, favor of the American form of general government, pre-eminent over all others ever es- tablished, and which must endure through all ages of time, because of the great natural and correct principles upon which it is based-which is a congress from the various parts acting in concord, the same as the phrenologio | for the body. The fact of our government being founded upon this -real natural principle presupposes an existence as interminable as the continuance of harmony, and de- stroys all the vain hopes of the monarchist against its permanence; even as the hopes of death are disappointed while there is harmony in the brain and the natu- ral wants of the various members receive proper hearing and attention; The quality of the blood in a great measure decides the character of the man- and if the blood be pure, rich and healthy, each and every member of the bodv will be healthy. J The blood has never been supposed, until recently, to affect the mind, cither when it was in a healthy or diseased condition. But it does strongly affect it. The brain, in the intelligent person, is greatly charged with phosphorus, though in idiots it is not. The intelligent and nervous become insane, but idiots do not. " The brain contains more phosphorus than any other part of the body of equal size, and is sus- ceptible of greater electric action than any other substance. The substances con- taining the most phosphorus are subject to the greatest action-being acted upon most powerfully by electricity. The electric nervo-vital or nervous fluid passes in such rapid currents to the brain when any of the members of the bodv are heated will, passion, and acts so powerfully upon the phosphorus of the brain, that it be- comes convulsed and sometimes disorganized, and reason is dethroned, unless the particular passion of the organ causing such convulsion is gratified. And this cou- VviB (» r derangement), will continue until relief is had bv a gratification of the passion or the effect of medicine. Thus, insanity may be caused by one or any of the passions of the phrenological organs; but its reasonable and proper gratifies tion will prove a Bafety-valve, and the evil thereby be averted. In cases where the insane can be gratified with the enjoyment of what caused the derangement the -lis,,,., wi]] ,,„„„„, „„„,, rea dily yield, and work out its c j —~.^ >^uuixj t H.-1U, aim work out IIS bul unless assisted by remedial agents, in those caseswhere grai cannol be had. *' '■ ■~ J - n ■ • — own cure the nervo-electric fluid will not stop convulsing the brain, and is rendered more uncertain. With proper food and treatment, insanity in i nine of an hundred came can be cured; bul not bj the course ordinarily pawned in medical treatment. The cause of insanity, (hen. is from the brain, (which is filled with phosphorus.) becoming over charged by continued shocks of the nervo-electric fluid, (arising from an intense concentration of the mind, or the warring of an he ti or from any '" '"""■ |l nervo-electric fluid to tlie brain,) acting upon the phosphorus of the brain. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 20 Having explained the cause of insanity, I now shall prove its correctness from the following table, exhibiting the average proportions of substances entering into the composition of bone, muscle, blood and brain. Bone. Muscle or flesh. Blood. Brain Gelatine, 30 7 Albumen, - 22 3 7 Ormazome, - 2 1-5 Phosphate, sulphate, and carbonate of lime, also sulphates, muriates and phosphates of soda, potass, ammonia, 70 2 12 6 White fatty matter, 5 Free phosphorus, - • 2-5 Water, .... 69 83 78 100 100 100 100 From this table we perceive, that the only difference between the composition of the brain and the rest of the body, is the presence of white fat-like matter and phosphorus ; but, as the fatty matter is composed of the same elements as the ordi- nary flesh, differing only in proportion, it remains conclusively that phosphorus alone gives the brain its peculiar qualities and action. Galvani, an Italian Professor of Anatomy, in 1791, discovered in his experiments, that frogs and fish were greatly excited and convulsed by a spark of electricity from the battery — they containing a great portion of phosphorus. It is also a fact that the proportions and variations of phosphorus in the brain are found to correspond with the differences in the charac- ters through life ; as I have said, idiots have very little, — lively and intelligent per- sons have much. Through the whole animal and vegetable worlds, the degree of susceptibility, sensibility, vitality and power is evidently owing to, and has been found to correspond with the proportion of phosphorus in their composition.* The following arc the actuating 111 health, various kinds, Intemperance, Loss of property, Disappointed affection, Domestic difficulties, Fright* ( hief— loss of friends, &c, Disappointment, ambition, Intense application to business, Religious excitement, Political excitemi at, Metaphysical speculations, Want of exercise, Engagement in a duel, causes producing insanity : — Inventions, Hard labor, Tic Doloreaux, General debility, Want of employment, Mortified pride, Celibacy, Anxiety for wealth, Use of opium, Use of tobacco, Puerperal state, Nursing too long, Egh1 lacing, Excessive sexual intercourse, Injuries on the head, * Boxtwick on Natural Death. 30 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Stock speculations, Periodical cases, Hereditary cases, Costiveness, Jealousy, Trouble with children, Indulgence of temper, Old age, Jaundice, Cancer, Paralysis, Love affair, Animal magnetism, Spiritual rappings, Epilepsy, Masturbation, Mental anxiety, Exposure to cold, Sun struck, Intense heat, Fits, Heart disease, Anxiety, Dyspepsia, Fevers, Grub in the brain, And various other internal and exter- nal causes bearing heavily upon the mind and body. Although considerable attention has been paid to the subject of insanity, it has not received that amount which it deserves. More adequate provision should be made for the restoration of those persons. At present, in the United States, the benefits of asylums are extended to about 4000 persons continually ; but it has been found that the total insane population of the country is over 23,000! So that, though much has been done, there is much more to do. By examination of the reports of lunatic asylums throughout the countiy. we shall find that all classes and conditions of people are represented in the hospitals for the insane, and that persons of all ages are liable to this grievous afflietiou. although the difference in age is very great. The greatest number of cases of in- sanity occur between the ages of 15 and 35, and particularly between the ages of 20 and 30. Persons may be attacked at any season of the year ; though the debilitat- ing months of summer and the changes of weather in fall and spring, have a tenden- cy to add to the numbers of the afflicted. The cases of insanity among the unmar- ried are much larger in proportion to the whole number than among the married ; and among the males, larger than among females, and among widows larger than widowers. In (In! dispensations of the wise Creator, it seems to have been established as a law from which there is no deviation, that if mankind, either by neglect or improper action in eating, drinking or otherwise, allow the system to become diseased, they shall receive punishment in pain and sorrow. But if there is a bane, let us be ! thai there has also been provided antidotes, which, by the labors of the physician, and the skill of the master mind, are made subservient to the a\ -,■■ man in the prevention and removal of disease To these, in trouble, the sick man ills and learns their efficacy for his relief. is insanity threatened yon by mi impure state of the blood, fail not to notice, that in the great blood medicines, which I have had the pleasure to prepare for tin of the unfortunate, you may find fortification against disease and be spared days fchs, perhaps years, of sickness and sorrow. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 31 NO BOOK TEACHES THE CURE OE CONSUMPTION. The great number of deaths from this destroyer of the human race, and its rapid increase, call with trumpet voices for the genius of some son of Adam to devise means for the dethronement of its power and provide an antidote against its bane- ful effects. The fact that the entire archives of medicine have heretofore afforded no clue to the cure of this disease, and that physicians from the earliest days of the science to the present time have been wholly incompetent to combat successfully this destroyer, called forth the author into the field of medicine, and induced the pub- lication of this volume, and a series of lectures on health, which treat upon the pre- vention, causes, and effects of diseases and the remedies for the ransom of the sick and afflicted. The reason why we have heretofore had no treaties teaching the cure of con- sumption is, that there were no means of determining the different kinds of consump- tion or its exact location or condition ; consequently medicines were given as expe- riments, and in doubt of their effects, and therefore physicians could not but get dis- couraged and give up their labors in perplexity and doubt. And aU this class of complaints was turned off under the wholesale name of consumption, and called in- curable. Before the invention of the Lung Barometer, I labored under the same difficulties as other physicians ; but I determined to overcome those difficulties or die a sacrifice in tho cause. I kept my mind constantly upon the subject, at all hours, whether eating, attending to business, or in times of leisure ; and after six or eight years of application and intense study I succeeded in producing an invention, by the aid of which, in all cases and under all circumstances, I could determine to a perfect cer- tainly the true nature of the different kinds of consumption; and then I could ad- mhiister the medicines suited to each and every particular case. I could take hold of a case of consumption knoiviwjhj, and ascertain daily and hourly its nature, and whither the disease vras increasing or decreasing. And if it changed from one form to another, or from one organ to another, I could follow it untiringly and certainly, until it was eradicated from the system. While other physicians are content with jogging along in the old track, and class all the deaths which they cannot prevent as "providences of God" that cannot be helped, I am one that objects to such neglect of the means placed in our hands by the Deity; I boldly declare that doctors can euro each and every kind of consump- tion, if th<-}' will only come forward and arm themselves with the proper remedies, linquish their old superstitious notions. annually curing numb of consumption, and saving from the grave mils of the most lovely ladies and noble men. It is usually this class of per- aons that fall victims to tho scourge of this disease: — "Death loves a shining mark." Physicians, where not selfish, are constantly sending their most difficult cases to my care, and availing themselves of my books ami medicines; and even 3 their inability to treat, these cases with SUCCeSS — which I have always known, without their acknowledgment, from examination of the bills of mortality from this disease. Bui it affords me pleasure to be able to say that since the inven- tion of the Lung Barometer, in all communities where consumptives generally have made application to mo, the number of deaths from this scourge has materially de- 32 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE creased. Let not, therefore, any say or think that consumption is incurable. Genius has invented a detector, Nature has furnished remedies, and Science has pre- pared them for the saving of the people. Avail yourself of these, and your redemp- tion fr ' certain ; neglect them, and you may be the next victim to fall insatiable destroyer. HEREDITARY DISEASE. " Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children of the third and fourth generation." The transmission of disease from the parents to the child is the cause of much of the infirmity that afHicts mankind; but so seemingly reckless are people generally of the welfare of a being yet unborn, that they pay little or no regard to the effects that may follow to their offspring from the indulgence by themselves in the follies of fashion and in the vices of life. If they have a care at all, it is for their own well- being— the creature that is yet to be is not considered in their estimates of effects following causes ; and of consequence we find that misery in both the corporeal and intellectual man or woman is the inheritance of thousands, and often the only one they receive! It is universally agreed by all who have paid attention to the subject of phy- siology, that a vigorous and healthy constitution of body in the parents will com- municate (he most perfect state of existence to the offspring; and that if the parents be diseased, enervated, or suffering from bodily infirmities, not the result of violent action, their children will be likely to be wanting in strength and vigor, or he lacking power in some organ. The transmission of diseases from parents to children is a. matter of universal notoriety; consumption, gout, rheumatism, scrofula, and insanity, are well known to descend from one generation to another; and so also do deafness and blindness. These last are often hereditary defects; they have been known to exist in a family successively for upwards of a, hundred years. Parents &equently live again in their offspring. A celebrated French writer, speak- ing of the family of Guises, says — "for generations they were alike; they were all sis feel high, and with the same features." In regard to the transmission of bodily qualities, it has been noticed even in the growth of supernumerary fingers and toes and other like marks. Maupcrtius men- tions that in Germany there were two families who had been distinguished for by six lingers on each hand, and the same number of toes on each foot. The causes which may result in the transmission of disease to the offspring are oid varied. In the hope of opening the eyes of the negligently blind, and calling the attention of the indifferent to this important subject in medical science, 1 will speak briefly of a few of the more prevalent inducing causes of hereditary id of the mode of its transmission. The first and great cause of the hereditary disease found in children is in the im- pure blood and unhealthy system of one or both of the parents; and were the health of the parents what it should be, do complaint of mind or body would be entailed on the offspring. One of the more immediate and a frightful cause for the entailment ol disease THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 33 upon offspring may be found in the improper modes of dress, prescribed by fashion and followed in foolishness by both ladies and gentlemen in this country — particu- larly the former. Bad habits in dress sooner or later prove detrimental to the health and welfare of a people. Tight lacing, and the wearing of heavy shirts that press down the bowels and derange the womb are prolific causes of complaints that are transmitted to the unborn child, and for which, in its years of breathing fife, it often suffers more than its sinning parent. It is through these and similar mediums that the iniquities of parents are visited upon the children, unto the third and fourth generations ! They should be carefully avoided. The voice of reason rather than the voice of fashion should be hearkened to — comfort and health to both the living and the unborn should be more considered than the whims of pecuniarily interested mantua-makers and tailors. It is by no means contended that people should not dress comfortably and beautifully and in accordance with the requirements of civil- ization. This can be done, and no injurious effects follow. It is -uncomfortable and ungraceful costumes, and uncomfortable compressions of the body, destroying the beauty as well as the health, with which the welfare of offspring is at war. Another source from whence is derived hereditary disease is the bad habit of eat- ing and drinking improper articles, and of partaking of the» "good things" of life to repletion. From these causes arise impurities of the blood, (manifesting themselves in gout and kindred complaints or in offensive sores,) which impurities affect the semen of the father, and are also conveyed from the mother through the umbilical cord, by which means the " life of the flesh " of the child is poisoned and he be- comes possessed of the diseases of his parents. Care, therefore, should be taken about what we eat and what we drink, and in what quantity, that the blood may be kept pure and healthful, and both ourselves and those who shall come after us be saved much of suffering and misery. A most prolific cause for the production of diseases to be transmitted to children may be found in the debasing habit of masturbation, indulged in by hundreds of both sexes, who take hold of and continue in the practice till both body and mind are wrecked, because not being married they do not find gratification of the natural desiro in tho legitimate manner ordained of God. The effects of this habit, both upon the person himself and upon the child that is born to him afterwards, are ter- rible. By it the whole system is reduced to a perfect wreck of matter, without fch and without power to act, and the mind is tumbled in confusion and chaos — plunged in the darkness of insanity. From a parent thus conditioned, how can it be reasonably supposed there should emanate an offspring aught but a libel upon the human being as God designed him to be? It is impossible that it should be i -'•. The man or the woman who has pursued this habit of masturbation till the grave yawns before tho eyes, is no more fitted to generate a child, than are tho i.y mountains of the frozen zone for the production of the frails of the tropics. ider head of Masturbation.) Excessive sexual intercourse, or tantalizing the passion, and suppressing omis- sion, (generally induced by too long delaying marriage,) are still other sources from whence originate evils to the Bystem to be handed down to the children. Tho of these are similar to, if not exactly like, those arising from masturbation; a.s injurious to the system, and as hurtful to tho offspring. They should be guarded against. " Be temporal in ■>" things" was a wise Injunction of the Apostle Paul, and one which we shall do well to follow. (See Sexual Onanism, or Pollution.) 3 34 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. And still another cause is found in the inducing of pregnancy when in a state of intoxication. Offspring germinated when one or both of the parents were in this degraded condition are often horn with an inordinate appetite for the in- toxicating cup. and not unfrequently idiotic — they seeming to take the stupid and unintelligent condition of the parent at the moment of conception. It therefore behooves those who will indulge in the unpardonable folly of stultifying the senses with strong drink, that they should not, unless using the Male Safe or Prevention Powder, indulge in cohabitation while thus situated, lest they entail misery or upon the child that shall he born to them. Ladies suffering from leucorrhceal difficulties and womb weaknesses will find oftentimes that their children born while they are thus diseased will inherit bodily infirmities. Conceptions at these seasons are like to the wheat sown upon stony ground, which sprung up, but having no nourishment, withered away and died. It would be the part of wisdom to abstain from intercourse while thus con- ditioned, and betake themselves to the means afforded to produce a cure. Other- wise tho effects upon children will be such as no parent, with the feelings of a pa- rent, would like to contemplate or transmit. A further cause for the transmission of diseases may be found in the prostitution of females, and in the distempers so common among that class of our population, and so frecpuently contracted by those who visit their vile abodes. These diseases, often innoculated into the blood, become secondary, and are thence transmitted to children, upon whom we often sec manifested the horrid effects of syphilitic poison. If for no other reason than this, the home of the harlot should be avoided, and a rational gratification of the desires be sought through the holy and refined institution of marriage, ordained of God for the health and happiness of man. While prostitution lives and scatters the seeds of distemper and death, and contaminates the world, a fruitful cause of hereditary disease will have being among us. And a still further, and I may say a wonderfully prolific source from whence flows hereditary distempers, is the poisonous mineral medicines dealt out needh the sick by the members of the "regular" profession. These poison the blood, i the system, unstring the nerves, deaden the intellectual faculties, and render the whole body liable to be easily affected by all baneful and pestiferous outward influences — such as taking colds, running into consumptions, and kindred complaint-. Mineral medicines generally induce more disease than i sibly cure ; and bodily affections created by them are readily transmitted oflsprit ire, and because of the fact that there is no good effect arising from their use that cannot be derived from some vegetable production which will leave no evil results behind, they should be discarded and kept out of tho - tough, certain! ting causes for the entailment of grievous physical burdens upon future generations that cannot be so easily avoided, without continuing to include Qm among the number. I therefore can do no less than cau- tion m tins! their use. If the "regular" physicians would cast in the their calomeL and other mineral poisons, a greal editary disease and liability to colds, would be banished from our midst posed to consumption, to insanity, ami in many otherills which growfrom impure blood, transmit theil 1,. ir children. To prevent this deplorable dldren from the afflictions that othei sown in THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIQHTHOUSE. 35 their systems, they should become whole themselves and have their blood renovated and restored to a state of purity. The health and the happiness of unborn nations of men and women demands tin's at the hands of the living generation. Let them see to it that this is done. It requires no sacrifice on the part of the living for the benefit of the unborn, for by the healing of themselves only can safety for those who are to come after us be ensured. For this nature has furnished the materials, that by partaking thereof the people may be healed. Hereditary diseases may be partially cured in the child by the use of the proper medicines ; but were the blighting first cause removed, hereditary complaints would inevitably die a natural death ; but until this is done they will continue. EARLY MARRIAGE AND LONGEVITY. Whoso findeth a wife fmdeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor cf the Lord.' lVIII. Op late years we have had put forth from the teeming press numerous works upon the important matter of marriage, examining it in all its various phases, and volunteering much advice upon the proper age of entering into the state of wed- lock. In reason there should be needed no advice upon this point ; for it would seem that nature in her wisdom had given the whole animal creation — man in- cluded — infallible and correct teaching upon the subject. But inasmuch as the wise Solons of this latter day and generation have seen fit to put forth their views contrary to nature and the teachings of God in His revealed word, I may be par- doned for expressing my ideas upon the subject, (which will be found in accord- ance with Scripture and nature,) and of attempting to show the unsoundness and fallacy of their opinions. Many of our popular (?) phrenological and physiological writers, teachers, and would-be guardians of public virtue, hold forth that marriage should be put off by the male till he Las arrived at the age of twenty-eight or thirty years, and by the female till twenty-five or twenty-seven! — because, as they say, earlier marriage will enervate the system, lead to a deterioration of the human race mentally and physically, and induce disease in various forms. Now, if I understand what these people mean by not marrying till the age they in their wisdom prescribe, it is this — that the natural passions of amativenesa and philoprogenitivcness implanted in every member of the human family by a wise Creator, should be entirely sup- pressed until the certain period of life which they appoint; that there should be in no manner a of the natural desire; for certainly these men would not wish us to understand them as meaning that the passions of man should find gra- tification clandestim ly and illegitimately, out of wedlock, and in the lazar houses li] e putrid Bores, upon the system of society; in the bed.of the diseased, blasphemous, abandoned and reckless courtezan, from whose heart all feminine bea iti nave fled, and on whose face the blush of modest] is never seen. Nor thai the natural desiresand wants of the female should find gratification out of the pale of marriage, where shame and derision from every quarter await her exposure, or unrestrained licentiousness brings its train of mental misery, barrenness, disease and untimely death. No ; God forbid that we should interpret 36 MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. them few. Nor can it be believed that they mean to say that the debasing habit of masturbation should be r I followed for ten or twelve years by the toman family that by a discharge of the secretions in that unnatural man ner the dean for cohabitation may be quelled and Bmothered. Certainly not; sire is the doctrine they would teach. This being I us to candidly inquire, to carefully investigate, to examine in reason, and a • thai legitimately and in- evitably follow a prolongation of celibacy to the periods of life these writers make . of, The Bub ' in any view, whether as regards tho health of individuals, the virtue of the people, the happiness of the race, or itual salvation of those who may be affected by the teachings we have al- luded to. , At the creation of man God implanted in his system certain desires and is, to the end that through them and by a rational gratification thereof he might enjoy life, drink the sweet waters of love, and propagate his species. And it is only by this rati life can be made worth the living, or the race V' should eat; if we thirst, that we should drink and be Batisfh 1. And if hungering and thirsting we eat and drink not. evil Ls sure to come to us. Exactly bo is it with any other natural desire within us. It is wisely ordained that the sexes should hav the other, and if this ordination is not followed ts are sure to eomo, a- .ill show us. One of the sad n - a prolongation of celibacy beyond the per. 'ion. This the reports of hospitals and lunatic asylums, and the ti stimony i , and the shatl !ie New York State I. Asylum. I'm- I out of S16 cases of insanity 10"! caused by masturbation ! ! being a little over i part, or about 17 per cen from various other institutions throughout the country for a series of years si. per oentage of masturbators ranging from 5 to 22 per cent., or an average of about 17 per cent of the number of insane : ! It is well known that there are thousands of other cases of insanity arising from this cause which never come within the ob .- -nation of the asylum officers; and many cases of insanity ascribed to other Causes arises from this prolific source. The total number, could we obtain them, would present a cataloguo frightful to contemplate. It has been ascertained that amongsl ill male patients admitted to the Colony Hatch Lunatic Asylum, Engl rere no married, 208 single; 25 widowed, and 8 not ascertained. Amongst C69 female patients admitted, 180 were ma 368 single, 109 widowed, and 24 n se instances may be cited in addition to the man; proofs of the tendency of "single bli foster insanity, especially among the femal .-■ .. Who would not get married after reading such evidences 7 Every bachelor, and every unmarried lady, should |ce< p this ' :■ I constantly in mind, and whenever they find themselves going in favor Of celibacy, should turn it over and admit that they are half crazy air. Insanity is not by any m f masturbation. It is a most fruit- ful csose of the monster consumption. Inducing, as it does, finally, emissions of men that cannot Decontrolled, both in waking hours and in deep, it exhausts {be nervous vitality, wreckB the whole frame, and frequently sends the victim to an early grave. And if this result is escaped, the system is so enervated and reduced THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 37 that the offspring of after years will be found to be sickly and weak — inheriting in- firmities from the parent. In the treatment of 25,000 cases of consumption, I have found that the number arising from masturbation is 25 per cent. Besides insanity and consumption, numerous other evils to the system follow from masturbation [for which see article on this subject]. And of all these the first cause is prolongation of celibacy ; for had the person wedded at a proper age, and found in the undefiled bed of marriage that temperate gratification which God and Nature designed he should have, his passion would not have driven him into the debasing and destructive vice. And upon the heads of those who advise the delay of mar- riage to a later period than Nature designed must rest much of the sin of this vicious habit. Prostitution, with its train of attendant evils and festering sores, is another sure and certain fruit of delaying marriage, which, follows for the same reasons as mas- turbation. From the police reports of London, Paris, and New York, where pros- titution tlirives with luxuriance, we find that nine in every ten, or 90 per cent., of the prostitutes embrace the degrading trade of the harlot before arriving at the age of twenty, and thousands commence this life as early as fourteen or fifteen years, or soon after the development of the sexual passion. This fact speaks strongly of the danger of delaying marriage ; for had these females married at an early age, and found gratification of their strong natural desires in wedlock, the appetite would have been appeased and they saved from disappointment in love and the fife of the harlot. To give a faint idea of the extent of this evil (mostly arising from the cause mentioned,) we might state that at one time in London, according to Dr. Ryan, Dr. Campbell, and Mr. Tabolt, every fifth female between the ages of fifteen and fifty was a harlot ! ! In New York at one time the proportion was about the same ; and at the present day it is as large as one in every eight to ten ! Another evil arising from prolonged celibacy is the shortening of human life. This is conclusively shown by census returns, to be the case in all countries ! — a direct and pointed contradiction of the theories and teachings of the self-constituted almoners upon the subject of marriage. The institution of marriage is a healthful institution — it is a prolonger of the days of man upon earth. Prom statistics ih four successive Registration Reports of the State of Massachu- setts, it appears that the average duration of life after 20 years of age of those who die withoul having married is 15.82 years for the males and 25.60 for females; of arried 34.61 for the male3 and 24.77 for the females; of those dying in Widowhood 53.94 for males and 53.67 for females. By coupling together the figures of the married and widowers (who have been married) — 34.61 and 53.94, and dividing \> 2, » e find, that the average duration of life after 20 years of males who have enjoyed wedlock; is 44.27 years to 15.82 for those who have not; and ; ii- coupling of the ages of married ladies and widows, gives the years of the wedded after 20 as 49.22 to 25.60 for the single. The statistics ofvarious European countries show a much greater difference of life in favor of the married state. These statistics speak strongly of the influence of marriage upon health and long life oven after the persons have arrived a1 the age of 20 years; and when wo recollect the great number of deaths occurring from puberty to the ago of 20 of complaints and from causes which marriage would have prevented, we shall observe that we have a most powerful and convincin in favor of early marriagi and againsttne theory of some of our modern philosophers. 38 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. From these figures it appears that marriage and the influences fullowing there- from 1. - fter 20 years of age, twenty- . 1 a half years more of life than he would have enjoyed without them; and d twenty-thn a and halfl This proves the pure, untainted sweets of nuptial be the life-balm for prolonging the days of man and woman upon the earth which ■ i them for an inheritance. From this delay of mar,, the most of the illegitimate births that occur in Bociety. The natural passions seeking gratification — and which cannot be suppressed — plunge the young woman into sexual connection, and the fruit of her womb becomes to her a curse and the token of her shame and degradation in the eyes of a community. Had she been married at an earlier age, she had brought forth children in honor; but being left to the sport of an ungratified passion which she could not always control, she is tortured in travail with the reflection of being thenceforth branded with the mark of sin, and perhaps of becoming an outcast from the roof of her lather. The results that follow from this are well known. Often the house of the procuress becomes her abode in her shame, and she is added to the fearful list of those. who pander to the - 5ions of the unrestrained and vile. Once the portals of infamy are crossed, her steps down the path of vice and degradation are swill and certain; and bi • go by ere she is hurried to the tomb, tin wept, uncared for, and unregn And if the fruits of this evil result of delayed celibacy be not gathered in the home of the courtesan and the tomb of the abandoned, we may see them in the dens of abortion. Scarcely a day passes but we may see recorded the finding of an infant in some out-house or by plao victim of a pi rational sexual connection in marriage has cast it, to hide her shame and dii The number of such child-murders — in good part arising from following the teach- ings of the nigh-priests we have alluded to — has become frightfully alarming. They are a disgrace to any people and to civilization, and should be a warning against the inculcation of the baneful theories of false teachers and philosophers. Such aro a few only of the baneful and damning results that legitimately flow from the teachings of those who have unfortunately obtained for their doctrines too gnat an ascendancy in society. la order to show that the philosophy of these men is not only pernicious in its influence, — detrimental to virtue, i ; i health, prejudicial to long life, injurious to o I contrary to reason and the laws of nature, but also in ion i" inspiration, and the virtuous ancienl customs of marriage, the injunc- ■ i liave lived, and to the natural teachings of godliness, — testimony of the Holy Scriptures upon this important bu] In 1 Timothy v. I I. we read — " I will, therefore, that the younger women marry. children, and guide the bouse." In Proverbs ii. 17, we read of the I woman who has " forSaki n the guide of her youth " — her husband ; and in Joel i. 8, of •• the husband of her youth :" — the Jews marrying very early, in obedience to the injunction — " Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.'' In 1 Cor. vii. 9 — h is in iter to many than to burn." In Hebrews xiiL •! — " Marriage is honorable m «//.'' In I Cor. \ii. 2— I it every man have his own wife, md f I lierown husband." In Psalm bexviii. »;.'!. it is repre- sented a- a mark of.. the Deity that " their ■■ not given to mania/ THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 39 From these and other passages in Scripture it will be seen that early marriage was enjoined by God and considered favorably of by the prophets and the apostles. The Jews esteemed marriage a matter of the strictest obligation, and embraced it at an early age. The time prescribed was eighteen years for the men ; and the virgin was ordinarily married at twelve. The Jews follow the commands of the God of Abraham. They circumcise to prevent masturbation, and marry young to give proper gratification to passion. (See Circumcision.) The Hindoos also marry their daughters at twelve, and consider it as a great calamity and disgrace if they are not disposed of in marriage before that age. I do not wish to be understood as advising marriage before nature intended, but as combating the mischievous and baneful theories that have in great measure obtained among us. My view of the subject is in accordance with the injunctions of Scripture and the infallible directions of Nature. For the correct and proper guidance of men and women in this matter nature has established signs that cannot be mistaken. Passion develops itself at the proper age ; and when puberty has arrived, we may safety follow the example of the whole animal creation. And if we do not, there will, as we have conclusively shown, manifold dangers arise against the health and the happiness of the human race. In reference to the subject of the " strength of the sexual propensity," as regarded in the light of a cause of loss of virtue by the female, in many cases, Dr. Hollick oilers the following remarks, which afford us a most powerful argument of the absolute necessity of early marriage in certain instances, if we would preserve the female from shame or from the baneful effects of self-pollution. li In some females, the organs of susceptibility of sexual pleasure are so exqui- sitely sensitive that it is scarcely possible for them to prevent their becoming excited and creating sexual desires. Even by contact of the clothes they may become congested, and excite both the uterus and brain. In these cases it is sheer 30 i" Bay, that the strong sexual desire experienced arises merely from y, or that it can be overcome by moral efforts alone. We might just as dude thai the hunger of an empty stomach arises merely from an unrurj < that it may also be overcome by moral effort. In making I. of course, do not intend to deny the great power of a determined will over the feelings, under most circumstances, nor to discourage such efforts; on trary, they ape mosl important and often highly effective; but I wish to draw attention to the obvious fact, that they alone cannot always succeed. It is Unquestionable that in many females, and especially about the age of puberty, the I lli;, I tin y '•"/"<"/ o,.-rcomi- in- < ■ . - 1 ■ : 1 1 1 ■ - from I ho feel inirs and ites; and, beyond doubt, it is from this cause alone that many seek improper indulgence and become depraved With these persons, qoI moral suasion alone, or threats, or the fear of consequences, that idled upon. * * Licentiousness is fully as often a result of the bodily i U of the mental disposition, or probably even more bo. it should hen reasoning upon these subjects, that person run not desii - of this well-known physiological fact, men would tell us that no woman should marry till eight or ten years at the lea ofpubertj ' msequenci a to v. bicb Buoh a doctrine, if carried out, ine\ itably must, and, in 40 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. many cases, docs lead, it is easy for the blindest to see, — is so palpable and plain '• that the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err therein." To show what have been the opinions of eminent divines upon this subject, we introduce an extract from Lectures on Magdalenism by the renowned Dr. Wardlaw, of Scotland, delivered before forty ministers of the gospel and eleven hundred citizens of Glasgow — published by J. S. Redfield, New York: — '• The causes which, by various author;?, have been assigned as, some more and some less, conducing to the melancholy aggregate of wickedness and misery, are numerous. I can only select some of the more prominent. " Whenever we think at all on the subject, the first thing which, in the order of nature, forces itself upon our notice is, the strength of the sexual propensity, and the comparative weakness of the moral principle which ought to hold it in restraint. This, however, is a topic of which, whether absolutely or comparatively, I shrink from the public discussion ; and am glad to think that I can waive it without ma- terially if at all affecting the completeness of my argument, or the force of my appeal. It may be enough, on a point of such peculiar delicacy, to say, that while other causes blend their influence with this, it is absurd to suppose that, but for this, they could operate with such fatal success: nor can it admit of a doubt, as to either sex, that this cause does at times cloak itself under the allegation of others, which can be pleaded in extenuation with less of shame. " Early marriages, wherever they can be contracted with any ordinary regard to prudence, are among the best preventives of prostitution ; and whatever contributes to hinder the formation of these, may be regarded as standing chargeable with their share of its encouragement, as ranking among the causes of magdalenism. I deny not that prudence is a virtue, and the question of marriage is a proper sphere for its exercise. But there cannot be a doubt that high notions, which, by the refinement and extravagance of our times, have been introduced, of the style in which young men entering on life must set up their domestic establishment, have, in many instances, hud restraints on the early cultivation of virtuous love, and prevented the happy union of hearts in youthful wedlock. I cannot look upon this as at all an improve- ment on the homely habits of our fathers. Many are the young men who are thus tempted to remain single by their felt inability to start in what is regarded a some- what a Would to God I had the e3.r of all the youth in our city, and in our country, thai I might tell them of the sweets of early virtuous union; and that I might earnestly and affectionately urge them to consult their own best interests, and to set an example pregnant with the most beneficial results to the community, by bidding defiance to Hie tyranny of fashion; by returning to the good old way; by rinding a partner who will many from love, and who will be willing, and more than willing, to begin upon little, and by the blessing of providence, to rise grad- ually to more. Thai was the way in the olden time; and, although no croaker for the superiority of all thai pertained to ancestry, this, most assuredly, is a point in which 1 should say of the former days, • they were better than these.' I would say to the rising youth — the hopes of coming generations — 'Moderate your views; defy many: fearGod; be virtuous; and be happy.' Could my voice and my counsel prevail, what a salutary cheek would be given to the prevalence of the vice which is our present subject " Virtuous love operates with a most beneficial influence on the vicious principles of our fall) □ nature: n Mson earth more delightful for the eye to THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 41 rest on than that of youth joined with youth in honorable and hallowed union — union of heart as well as hand — and living together in all the faithfulness and ten- derness of a first love. Even should their outset in conjugal life he somewhat stinted, how much better a little mutual self-denial than that cold, calculating celibacy which is ever looking forward to some distant stylish starting point, and which, in the mean while, is so frequent an occasion of young men ' falling into temptation and a snare,' and into 'foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown them in destruction and perdition ! ' " To the views of Dr. TVardlaw, thus expressed, I fully subscribe. They are wor- thy the attention of all well-wishers of the human family. And I would suggest to the eminent divines of this country, to such men as Drs. Beecher, Cox, Hawks, Bushnell, Potts. Phinney, TVainwright, and others, the propriety of following the excellent example of Dr. TV., and delivering courses of lectures, similar to Ms, to the American people, which might be published for universal circulation throughout the country, so that even' parent and every son and daughter in the land might read and profit thereby. You have before you, in the publications and teachings of some of the distinguished phrenologists and physiologists of the day, the theory of protracted celibacy : and in millions of degenerated consumptives, broken down, insane, prostituted and death-struck human beings, you have presented some of the legitimare fruits that follow the practice of such a theory : a theory which leads to degeneration ot the race, is a blighting curse to civilization, and Christian religion, a destroyer of wedded bliss, and a fruitful source of infant mortality. On the other hand, you have that theory of marriage ordained of God, advocated in the words of Holy TVrit, approved by reason, and prescribed by nature, to follow which leads to health, virtue, morality, purity, happiness, and long life to both men and women. The roads, with the results to which they inevitably and of necessity conduct the traveler, are before you : choose ye into which of the two you will direct your steps and the steps of those who are to fill your places in the world. In addition to the foregoing, I would submit to my readers the following opinion of the revered and celebrated Dr. Benjamin Franklin, upon the subject of early marriages, as expressed in letters to his friends. The views of so observing a man are worthy of the deepest consideration: •• Prom the marriages that have fallen under my observation, I am rather inclined to think that early ones Stand the best chance of happiness. The temper and habits uf the young have not become so stiff and uncomplying as when more advanced in life; they form more easily to each other, and hence many causes of disgust are re- moved. I'v early marriage, youth is sooner formed to regular and useful life ; and possibly some of those accidents, or connections, that might have injured the constitution, or reputation, or both, are thereby happily prevented. * * In general, when nature has rendered owe bodies fit for it, (hi preswnvption / in nature's favor that she has not \ in making us desire it Late marriag s are often led, i".., with this further inconvenience, that there is not the same chance that the parents will live to see their children i ducated, ' Late children,' says tho Spanish proverb, 'are early orphans.' A melancholy reflection to thoBe whbsecase itmaybel * * Inline. [ am glad thai you (John Alleyne,) are married, and itulate you mosl cordially upon it. You arc now in the oming a and you have escaped the unnatural Btate of celibacy for life, the late of many who never intended it, but who, having too long postponed tho change 42 THE PEOPLE'S MKDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. of their condition, find at length tint it is too late to think of it, 3nd so live all their lives in a situation that greatiy lessens a man's value. An odd volume of a set of books bears not the value of its proportion to the set. What think you of the odd half of a pair of scissors? It cannot well cut anything; it may possibly serve to scrape a trencher." No. 9. — Married Couple with their Child. " I will that the younger women marry and bear children."— 1 Timothy v. 14. " Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled."— Heb. xiii. 4. [In the above cut our readers arc presented with a picture of the married couple, in the enjoyment of bodily health, mental vigor, mutual domestic happiness and peace, living in the pleasure of connubial bliss as ordained by God, and rejoicing to- over the beautiful child given them as tlie choicest blessing of heaven — an honored image of themselves and of the Deity.] THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIOHTH0USE. 43 And again : "The account you (John Sargeant), give me of jour family is pleasing, except that your eldest son continues so long unmarried. I hope he does not intend to live and die in celibacy. The wheel of life that has rolled down to him from Adam without interruption, should not stop with him. I would not have one dead, unbearing branch in the genealogical tree of the Sargeants. The married state is, after all our jokes, the happiest, being conformable to our natures. Man and woman have each of them qualities and tempers, in which the other is deficient, and which hi union contribute to the common felicity. Single and separate, they are not tho complete human being ; they are like the odd halves of scissors ; they cannot an- swer the end of their formation." MINERAL QUACKS. " The whole nation is groaning under the present practice of the medical profession, which fosters disease more than it cures it, and debases or ruins our constitutions." — Mouiso.v. The history of the term quack is as follows : Mineral medicines were first intro- duced into use in the cure of diseases in 1493, by Theophrastus Bombastus Paracel- sus, in Switzerland, and the German vegetable doctors called him and his followers quacks, from the introduction among other tilings of quicksilver or quacksalver. When we apply the term of quack to that class of physicians which bleed and give mineral poisons to cure diseases, we by no means use it as a term of reproach, but as an appellation that we have shown legitimately belongs to them, to distinguish them from the class of botanic physicians which existed long before minerals were ever thought of as fit for the healing of the sick. And this name will cling to them in spite of themselves so long as they continue their present practice. It is manifestly absurd and unjust in the mineral doctors to attempt to cast the term of quack as a reproach upon the botanists, who never sanctioned the use of minerals as a medicine, but have steadfastly set their faces against them, and en- tered their protest against their use, as being unnecessary in any case, and often highly injurious, [fthe "regulars" are ashamed of the term, (as they evidently are,) let ion the principle out of which the name originated. Or if they will persist in their unnatural treatment of the human system in disease, let them manfully wear the name which their father Paracelsus earned for them, and not resort to the infamous trick of using it in abuse of those who continue in the practii f the Botanic system, that was ordained of God for the healing of tho sick and disabled. Para reat measure succeeded in overthrowing the Galenic system, which had stood the test of fourteen hundred years; and in its place he introduced be mineral or chemical system. The introduction of mineral agents into medical practice, caused greal excitement. The regular physicians of. thai day, the Galenic or Botanic, (now irregular,) contended with much zeal againsl minerals; while, on the other hand, the chemical practitioners, or quacks, inveighed againsl Botanies, as being weak and inefficient The whole medical world was thus kept in commotion for two hundred years. Both Bides assailed each other with the most opprol rious epithets, and the contest has continued to the present day. Since the days of Para- 44 TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. celsus, the great mass of physicians have placed their chief reliance upon the lan- cet, the knife, and a few acrid and poisonous minerals. But I rejoice that many distinguished physicians of the old quack school are beginning to abandon their poisonous quackeries, and enter their solemn protest against them. Of this number is Dr. Beach, President of the Reformed Medical Society of Xew York, and founder of the Reformed Medical Colleges of the United States. Drs. Kenworthy and Price, founders of the Eclectic Medical College of Petersburg. Ya., gentlemen of the highest order of talent and skill in their profession ; Dr. Antbony Hunn, of Kentucky; Dr. Bigelow, of Boston; Drs. Mathias, Blackall, Cheyne, I. J. Sperry, A. W. Russell, of Albany, Win. Elmer, of N. Y. ; and a host of others, too numerous to mention, who have abandoned their old method of mercurial quackery and gone to the vegetable kingdom for the great natural remedies which God has there furnished in rich abundance for the "healing of the nations." Let us hear the opinion of some of these noble reformers, in relation to mineral poisons as cura- tive agents : "Those," says Dr. Beach, "who wish to preserve their health, must avoid the use of all minerals internally. They never were designed by the Author of nature for medicine. They injure the coats of the stomach and intestines, and, instead of re- moving, create diseases. Mercury, which is universally in use, is the worst of all. Vegetables should be used in preference, being safer, and more congenial to the system." Dr. Hunn says: "The present calomel practice in fevers is a calamity co-exten- sive with the empire of civilization ; and war, with all its ghastly concomitants, must hail calomel its master." Dr. Bigelow says: "Mercury enters into every part of the body — the blood, bones, milk, urine, bile, cutaneous discharges, serum, saliva, breasts, intestines, and there continues : and if the victim to such quackery lives, his system will be a liv- ing barometer, to denote the changes of the weather — great pain making the only difference." Dr. Cheyne says: "Minerals are the most destructive to animal bodies that malice can invent, beyond gun-powder itself, and even spirituous liquors ; for not only nature has provided none such, but as poisons in venomous creatures, to kill their enemies. They become iron, bristles, nails and lancets, darting perpendicularly into the solids of the body, so as quickly to tear, rend, and destroy ; and, therefore, can never be proper for food or physic. "Whereas Galenical, or vegetable, productions have none of these bad properties, and are, consequently, designed for both food and medicines for the sick." Testimony to this effed might be multiplied to very great length; and it is most gratifying to the friends of the medical reform to hear these testimonies from those who have occupied the highest seats of honor in the school of Quackdom. We boldly predict that, at the rate medical reform is now advancing, the world in twenty-five years, will not contain an advocate for mineral poisons as remedial agents tor diseases of any description. The Galenic age, which has begun to dawn again upon the world, after a long night of over three hundred and fifty years, will spread its glories over the world. Signs of these glories meet us on every hand. The people nave eaughi a ghtnj.se of the true and genuine remedies, which the God of naturo designed for the use of mankind under their various diseases. Those THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 45 are all found in the vegetable or botanical kingdom. They are found in and among the trees of the forests and the luxuriant productions of the hills and the valleys. They grow in the crags and on the tops of the highest mountains : and lift up their enameled heads by the side of every lake and streamlet. These, like the leaves of the mystic tree which were beheld in the apocalyptic vision, are designed for the healing of the nations. These are out remedies. "We have tried them, and found them to be safe, agree- able, powerful in then- effects, and fully efficacious in removing the most inveterate maladies with which mankind are afflicted. We have long and carefully studied their nature, and observed their effects ; and we find that, while they are potent in eradicating diseases of every kind from the human system, they leave none of those baneful and crushing effects upon it, that often last during life; such as general emaciation and debility, increased action of the heart and arteries, tubercles in the lungs, scrofulous blood, inducing various forms of chronic disease ; thickening of various membranes, particularly the pleura and the pericardium ; metallic taste in the mouth ; peculiar and offensive odor of the breath ; rotten teeth and spongy gums ; excessive flow of the saliva ; swollen "and stiffened joints, tongue, and moveable palate ; increased secretions and excretions ; irritable state of the whole system ; temporary delirium, palsy, and epilepsy ; a pale, contracted countenance and trembling nerves ; rapacious appetite for food, and bad digestion ; disturbed sleep artd frightful dreams ; frequent aches and pains, darting through the limbs and various parts of the body; sudden loss of strength, as if dy- ing ; shocking depression of spirits ; tendency to commit suicide ; loss of memory and judgment ; sometimes incurable mania, and other evils, too numerous to men- tion ; all of which, to a greater or less degree, follow directly in the wake of mineral poisons administered as curatives of disease. These dreadful effects cannot but be known to all who are engaged in giving or directing their use ; and, inasmuch as they know them, they ought immediately to abandon their use. Even admitting that mineral poisons have a direct tendency to eradicate any acute disease; yet, when their ultimate chronic effects are considered, they ought never to be used; nor have physicians any earthly excuse for using them, inasmuch.as the God of nature has spread out before them, on every hand, in the vegetable kingdom, remedies that will produce all the good effects that can possibly be claim- ed to be produced by mineral poisons, without any of their injurious effects. If they are in doubt in relation to the correctness of this statement, their doubts will at once vanish, if they will but make the experiment with a strong decoction of Ins Versicolor, or Bind Flag-root, steeped in alcohol, giving a tea-spoonful three times a-day; or they may use Eupitorium Perfoliatum, or Thoroughwort, in double the above quantity, after having boiled it down till it is very strong. Either of the above substitutes will produce all the desirable effects claimed for mineral poisons, without one of their undeniably pernicious effects. Why then should any physician longer persist in the use of mineral poisons? For them ho has no earthly excuse ; and benevolence, at least to his patients, who confidingly trust their lives in his hands, ought to prompt him, forthwith, to abandon their use. If the sword has slain its thousands, mineral poisons have slain their tens of 1(3 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. thousands; and that within its period of three hundred and fifty-eight years ; previ- ously to which, as we have proved, they were wholly unknown to tho world as cu- - of disease, of any kind or form. For five thousand four hundred and ninety-seven years before the adoption of the mineral practice, during which the diuretic, abluent, and botanic practice prevailed, the world were, for the most part, strangers to those dreadful chronic maladies which have every where prevailed since the introduction and adoption of the min- eral practice. Almost all constitutions have become more or less affected by the use of miner- als, so that there is now very little use for thermometers or barometers, to indicate the present or prospective state of the weather. A man has but to consult his own, or his neighbor's constitution, to obtain all need- ed information in relation to this matter. If you wish the blooming goddess of health, happiness, and long fife, to take up "To everything wherein there ie life, I have given every green herb for meat." — See Genesit i. S9, 30 ; and Genesis ix. 3. Yes! They are pearls of great price. You have cured me! St. Paul. " The weak herbs." — Romans xiv. 2. No. 10. — The Vegetable or Botanic Medicines, Adapted to every age and to every condition of the bodily health, being both/Mi ayid medicine, far men and animals, have been in constant ure for nearly six thousand years, during which long perio 1 not one lias ever died from their effects, or been injured, except through their misapplica- tion ; nor one in ten thousand, when compared with the mineral patients in three hundred and fifty-eight years. The chemical or mercurial medicines, first introduced to the world in 1403, by Bombastus Paracelsus, the great prototype of all succeeding quacks, have, in the short space of three hun- dred and fifty-eight years, sent death and destruction broadcast over the land, furnishing con- stant employment to doctors, dentists, coffin-makers, and grave-diggers! Make your choice ! Me aiul mineral medicities are before you. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 47 her abode within your dwelling, banish all quack mineral poisons therefrom ; and when any curative agents are needed, resort to such as Nature has provided in the vegetable kingdom, where you will always find an abundance adapted to the nature of man, either in a state of health or disease. From these last I have labored many years to compound medicines suited to the various disorders to which the human system is liable, each calculated to work be- neficially in the particular diseases winch it is designed to cure, and all co-operating together to restore the disturbed system to its proper state of quietness and health- Prom the proper use of these you will find relief from sickness and pain, and the number of your years be prolonged upon the earth. (See notices of medicines in another part of this volume.) VEGETABLE MEDICINES ARE OF GOD. " The Vlora of North America is astonishingly rich in remedies. There is no doubt in my mind that, in more diseases than is generally acknowledged, vegetable simples are the prefer- able remedies." — Feof. Waterhouse Vegetables were given by God to man both for food and medicine ; and they have been used for these purposes since the creation of Adam, and stood the test through every age of the world. When man was formed and became a living soul God particularly declared vegetables to be food for man. See Gen. i. 29 and 30. " And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat." Gen. ix. 3, 4. " Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herbs, have I given you all tilings. But flesh, with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." King David said — "Purge me with hyssop (not calomel or blue pills.) and I shall q."— Ps. li. 7. St. John said — "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." — Rev. xxii. 2. Paul said — " The weak eateth 7ter&s." — Romans xiv. 2. [shmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spices, and balm, and myrrh, carrying it down to Egypt. — Gen. xxxvii. 25. And Either Israel said unto them — "Take of the beat fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down to the man a present : a little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh, mils ami almonds." i;i. 11. "Would not this example bo a good one for the minerals doctors to fol- low, when they visit their sick, rather than cany their deadly poisons; at least these are ile- medicines of the botanies; and their patients hail rather see these than the ■ .! 1 10 pills, or eineties. Jeremiah lamented lor the Jews — "Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no phy- sician there? why, then, is not the health of the daughter of mj people recover- ed?" — Jer. viii. 22. Jeremiah said — "Go up into Gilead, and lake holm.'' And he ironounced the vegetables, in this case, as medicines ; for heeadd~"In vrajn .shall thou use many medicines, ami .-hall not. In- cured." This passage also proves that God afflicts persons with disease, and thai they shall nut 1 ured; therefore piovoko not God's wrath, that you should fall into I aess. " Babylon is 48 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. suddenly fallen and destroyed ; howl for her; take balm, (not minerals,) for her pain, if so be she may be healed." Am I judging too hard when I say vegetable medicines are healing remedies for the sick, and that mineral poisons are not of God, but from the devil ? The whole- sale slaughter of mankind in every age since the introduction of mineral medicines proves this to be true. And the thousands living who have been tormented with diseases following the use of the deadly poisons cry out against them ; but the mineral quack heeds not then voices. In speaking of the moral corruption of Judah, the prophet Isaiah speaks of ointment. — Isa. i. 6 ; and in various portions of the Scriptures there is mention made of ointments, balms, myrrh, aloes, and other healing vegetables ; but we find no mention of calomel or other minerals as medicines. The ancient Egyptians encouraged and profited by the growth of many wild plants of the desert, which were used for medicinal purposes. Many of them are still known to the Arabs, and many others have fallen into disuse from the ignor- ance of the modern inhabitants of the country, who only know them from the Arabs, by whom the traditions concerning their properties are preserved. From what Homer tells us of "the infinity of drugs produced in Egypt," the use of "many medicines" mentioned by Jeremiah, and the frequent allusion by Pliny to the medicinal plants of that country, we may conclude that they were highly prized. Of vegetable remedies, Prof. Rafinesque has remarked : — " The popular belief, that every country produces simples suitable to cure all the prevailing local diseases, is not void of truth ; vegetable Substances afford the mildest, most efficient, and most congenial remedies to the human frame. The numerous cures that arc daily per- formed by the use of vegetable medicines are sufficient evidence of their super- excellent virtues." Enough is here presented to show that mineral medicines were not appointed of God for the use of man, but that vegetable medicines were ; and enough to banish the former and establish the latter as the only true and safe ones. And the experience of ages has confirmed the wisdom of the Scriptures upon tins point so strongly that all the mineral quacks in Christendom cannot shake it from its firm foundation. And when to these teachings of the Bible and experiences of the past we have added the dictates of common sense and reason, making an array of arguments that cannot be overthrown, we may be pardoned for asking why people will longer con- tinue in the use of thes.- pernicious and baneful mineral potions — especially when the labors of science in the vegetable kingdom have prepared for us remedies for the various diseases with which mankind is afflicted? HOMEOPATHY. Homeopathy we may regard as no better than allopathy, since all the medicines used by the homeopathic physician thai have any power in themweioes are the same as those used by the allopathic — being no more or less than the deadly mineral poisons of the "old school" doctors — yet prepared in a more concentrated form. Their little sugar pills, however, and drops of distilled water, possess remarkable THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 49 healing properties when administered to highly nervous and notional persons, who have no disease but what exists in the imagination. Such persons they not unfre- cmently cure : such persons are often restored to health from an imaginary disease by a few doses of powerful and efficacious bread pills ! The care of the homeopath to remove all medicines but his own from the sick room, for fear of the loss of the power of his remedies by absorption, is a grand thing where the patient is nervous and whimsical, and has little or no disease. The more of such affectation and pretension they practice, the better for that kind of invalids. But as regards the system of homeopathy, when practiced upon the principle laid down by its head and father, Hahnemann, and considered aside from the nervous and notional state into which people having no real disease sometimes get, it is utterly worthless. I have seen it tried in various acute and real cases of sickness, and it produced no effect whatever — unless medicines of other schools ivere used: The theory of practice, however, is perhaps a good offset to that of allopathy ; for while physicians of the latter school give too much medicine, the homeopath gives none at all, but pretends to give, and by governing the diet and exercise sometimes effects good. I am not 0]3posed to the practice, for, while it does no harm it may prove beneficial through the imagination. And did they adhere to their syitem in all cases they would be much less accountable for the entailment of disease upon the subjects of their skill than the allopaths. But, unfortunately, this is not the case. Prescribing for the imagination does not always answer, for there are cases of sickness of such severity and upon such per- sons that the infinitesimal doses and bread pills will have no effect upon them. In these instances they resort to the remedies used by the allopath — calomel, arsenic, morphine, quinine, strichnine, delphine, veratrine and others, prepared in highly con- centrated forms and sugared over to hide the taste. These remedies constitute almost the entire materia-medica of the homeopath — at least all that have any real power. So that in reality they are under the same condemnation, no matter what their pretensions may be, for the injurious effects of the medicines they use are the same as those produced by the agents of the allopath. And from the use by the homeopath of the medicines and practice of another school, we are brought to the inevitable conclusion that the theory of Hahnemann lias been found incompetent, in cases of real sickness, to effect cures, saving and excepting the good which may be* wrought by any medicine through the imagination of the patient! and this, too, by the experience of the pretended disciples of the homeopathic school. The theory of Hahnemann is totally based, and homeopathy as a distinctive school is entirely dependent, upon dilution, not concentration. The doctrine is that "like cures like," and medicinal agents are more active and powerful in infinitesimal ties than in ordinary doses: for, says Hahnemann himself "a grain of salt divid- ed to a million attenuation, and a particle dissolved in diluted alcohol, and the division of this extended to a millioneth degree, becomes a powerful and ' dicam n1 which ran be administered only with the greatesl caution!" II. .v, absurd and ridiculous! This would be like throwing a spoonful of tea- into the Eudson ai Albany, and telling the ladies of New York thai therefrom they could dip up a cup of the excellent beverage at the entrance of the river into the ocean! In the name of common sense how could a man grasp, or Bee, even by the aid of a powerful microscope, this truly homeopathic dose which Hahnemann speaks of ? An atom of water or alcohol could not by any power be separated from its sur- 4 50 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. rounding atoms, but would contain an hundred times more salt than Hahnemann describes ! And how could it produce any effect, when every patient using it takes millions of times as much with his daily meals? and when his secretions, his gastric and even- atom of his blood, contain always, as an indispensable constituent, 9 of times more salt than ho says will produce such extraordinary effects? Such is the whole doctrine of homeopathic doses; and we need not pursue it further in order that the reader may see its utter absurdity. It may be reasonably wonder- ed if the intelligence of those who believe in such a theory is not diluted to a greater degree than is one of their homeopathic doses! With reference to the other dogma, that "like cures like," or that <: all diseases may be cured by such remedies as are capable of inducing symptoms similar to each particular disease," it is by no means true. The doctrine is not based, as Hahnemann pretends, upon an invariable law. In some cases, it is true, that a certain medicine given to a person in health, will produce in him symptoms common in a disease. Creosote, which is given to cure vomiting, will, if administered in a dose sufficiently large, induce vomiting in a healthy person ; but it does not follow that it cures in the one case because it induces in the other ; for were this theory true, tartar emetic, which is almost sure to excite vomiting, when given in a large dose, would be sure to cure it when given in small ones, in all cases where the vomiting was not induced by tartar emetic. But we all know that it will do no such thing ! So we see the fallacy of this dogma. According to this theory of homeopathy, if a man is stung by an insect, he must let a snake bite him as a cure ; or to extinguish a fire we must throw on gunpowder or saltpetre. Would it not be more rational to use water to quench fire, and health- renewing remedies to destroy disease ? The theory of homeopathy as practiced, whether it be acknowledged or not, is this and only this ; they wish to dispense with the strength of medicines in many cases, because they have no confidence in them in those cases. But they cannot dispense with the use of something, because the patient is impressed with the idea that me- dicines must cure. They then start the theory of dilution, or giving the shadow of medicine without its strength or substance. Diluting the medicine, and at the same time impressing and concentrating the mind of the invalid, it requires no real virtue in the medicine, because the concentration of the mind strongly impressed, acts with a magic and wonderful power on the nervous electricity and animal secretions, blood or fluids, producing the cures without a particle of medicine. This theory and its pracliee is in many cases a grand one; the theory of operating upon the mind is ex- cellent ; but it will not do in all cases. But while we can indorse that part of homeopathy which operates upon the mind we must enter our protest against their use of the deadly minerals of the allopath, for reasons heretofore given in remarks upon mineral medicines. And if they would hold to the concentration of medicine, it is by no means necessary that they discard the vegetable remedies; for these, capable of producing all the good, and leaving behind none of the ill-effects that follow mineral antidotes, can bo had in concen- forms highly powerful and efficacious in the cure of diseases, divested of their cumbrous and worthless substance. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 51 LOVE-SICE^ESS CAUSES CONSUMPTION. Love is a natural passion of both sexes. Properly influenced, love is animated with the noblest expectations, and an ardent desire to promote the happiness of its object. Though not in itself a disease, love often produces an unhealthy state of the system and leads to diseases. The symptoms of love as outwardly manifested are as follows : The eyelids often twinkle ; the eyes are hoUow, and yet appear as if filled with pleasure ; the pulse is not peculiar to the passion, but the same as that which at- tends solicitude and care ; when the object of the person's affection is near, particu- larly if the idea is sudden, the spirits are confused, the pulse changes, and its force and celerity are very variable ; some, not conscious of their state, pine away, are slothful, and regardless of food ; though the wise, when they find themselves in love, seek pleasant company and active entertainments. As the force of love prevails, sighs grow deeper ; a tremor affects the heart and pulse ; the countenance is alternately pale and red ; the voice is suppressed in the throat ; the eyes grow dim ; cold sweats break out ; sleep absents itself, at least un- til morning; the secretions become disturbed; the heart dilated, and appetite lost ; a hectie fever, melancholy, perhaps madness, suicide or consumption, end the life of the victim. How to distinguish the love-sick, is particularly described above, which, in observing closely, will always determine the fact. Love-sickness is a most fruitful cause of decline and consumption. I have found many fast inclined to consumption, who, had they not accidentally fallen under my medical care, would have soon died ; but I am happy to say that I rarely fail of chang- ing the mind and directing it to other phrenological organs, by agency of the blood and diet, so as to effect a radical cure, and restore mind and body to health. Love- sickness is a fruitful source of insanity, as we may see from the reports of the vari- ous lunatic asylums in the country ; the average of cases from this cause being set down at about six per cent. That consumption often grows out of love-sickness, physicians have been compelled to admit ; yet, very few of them are able to do any good to the sufferer. But by careful study of the disease, and observing how the mind acts upon the body, and upon the blood, and renders it impure, and how the blood in turn acts upon the brain and its several organs through the nervous elec- tricity of the system, I have been able to ascertain the nature and character of this disease, and to prepare remedies for it which arc offered to those suffering from its influence, with an assurance of their producing the most salutary results. Diseask and IIku.tii COUPLED ix Makriage. — In the present age, it has be- come a matter of frequent occurrence that disease is united to health in marriage, without regard to consequences that will follow to offspring. Owing to customs of dress and habits of living, in connection with the evils arising from protracted celi- bacy, there are few couples united at the ago of twenty-five or thirty without seated disease existing in either the lady or the gentleman. This is a serious objection to putting off marriage and to the production of offspring. The consumptive invalid, ling the grave, is wedded in marriage; the female, having by tighl lacing and heavy skirts broke down and deranged the health and functions of the womb, is a Subject for wedded life: tho young man having de- stroyed his health, and caused weakness in the genital organs, derangement of the 52 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. mind, involuntary emissions, or partial idiocy, from a habit of self- pollution, is fre- quently a subject for the matrimonial life, (and what a piece of crippled mechanism is he too, to offer himself to a blooming young lady, fresh as the dew-drop of the morning.) This is all wrong. Individuals, and society as a whole, should endeavor to set this matter right by beginning at the fountain head, and advising obedience to those laws of nature which, being followed in wisdom, will 'prevent falling into the infirmities I have mentioned. Then we should have sound couples given in marriage, and the race would be perpetuated in strength and health. PROTRACTED CELIBACY A VIOLATION OF PHYSICAL LAWS. Marriage, in my opinion, should be instituted as soon as the person has budded into man or womanhood and the sexual passion is fully developed. Delaying mar- u or twelve years after puberty is altogether wrong — destructive to health, happiness and long life. All the secret habits which injure both the male and the female, lay the foundation for sickness, break down the constitution, and induce consumption directly or indirectly, grow out of too long a separation of the sexes ; for if the amative pa.-; \ atified naturally, it will be unnaturally; if there is no sexual intercourse, there will be self-pollution in nine out of ten cases, as ex- perience of the past most conclusively shows. And in all other cases (if there be any such,) where the secretion of semen is not discharged through the natural pas- sage, it must be absorbed into the body in a decomposed state, to elog up the sys- tem, impart impurities to the blood, and derange the action of the lungs and heart; acting the same as costiveness in the bowels, which gives headache, derangement of the stomach and insanity ; or as the urine, which, when not discharged by its natural passage, works out through the pores of the skin, and imparts a disagreea- ble odor to the body ; or as the bile, which, when obstructed, produces jaundice, known by yellowness of skin. The point, therefore, to be considered by all is this : Shall we have natural or artificial gratification? I say, most decidedly, the natural. The average life of married women is nearly twice as long as is that of the single. Woman is by nature a propagator of the human species. She is instinct with the desire of offspring, and nothing but offspring can appease the desire. Her soul is sileht- lybut ceaselessly on fire with a love of progeny; herphysical form, her mental organi- zation, her tastes and feelings arc constituted in harmony with the increase of the human race. The eye was not more evidently formed for seeing, the ear for hearing, the nose for smelling, the feet for walking, than was woman for the production of offspring. Deprive any of those organs of their proper fundi' erve the penalty of deprivation that is risited upon the system. And yet when God has es- tablished menstruation as an unmistakable sign of womanhood and marriage at fourteen or fifteen years of agi in thi latitude, (which ought as much to be heeded and followed as a shii man's or woman's health and happiness, as the unmistakable fiery cloud of God, hung in the heavens for a sure guide to Moses and the children of Israel to lead them with safety to the promised land,) physiologists and phrenologists, with unblushing impudence, instruct us not to marry till twenty- five or thirty, while meantime the passion of amativeness is raging within and THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 53 bursting out into prostitution and self-pollution, because not quenched in the pure waters of connubial love. Proofs the most incontrovertible have been afforded by experience and observa- tion that early marriage is beneficial to the health, and consequently to the contin- uation of life in the aggregate, fanatics, and others, teaching to the contrary notwith- standing. The following table, giving the age when menstruation of the female commences, shows the time that nature has appointed for marriage. It is derived from Dr. Parr and Dr. Lee of England, and Dr. Meigs of Philadelphia, and others. In 1781 females, the menses first occurred, At 11 years of age in 110 At 16 years of age in 284 12 " " 144 18 " " 144 13 " " 356 19 " " 72 14 " " 366 20 " " 40 The time of puberty in the male sex is upon the average about two years later in life than among the females, indicating the age for marriage according to nature to be that much greater. But notwithstanding these plain teachings of the Creator, many attempt to deny men and women indulgence in marriage for ten or twelve years, and until they become possessed of wealth and great education from the schools. But if all waited for* wealth, how many marriages should we have ? The race would become extinct ; for statistics in the financial world show us that only one man in a hundred ever becomes rich ; and that the most of those who do, be- come so after marriage. And if all waited for the education prescribed, the race would be broken down before the time of marriage came ; for until the natural de- sires of the body are gratified, man cannot be properly educated — the mind cannot be brought to bear so strongly upon the education while the passions rage within, as after they are properly appeased. And it is the ne plus ultra of man's success in study, to lirst gratify the sexual desire. This done, he may attain the highest rounds upon the ladder of science ; and not without, for ungratified exciting passion is constantly at war with education, and generally proves conqueror over it. The rattle-headed young man is as uncontrollable and as unfitted to receive education if natural desire- is not rationally gratified, as is the untamed lightning of the heavens, or the raging billows of the storm-driven ocean. Were this teaching of modern philosophers fully carried out among men, prostitution, self-pollution, and their legiti- mate offsprings, disease and short life, would exclude nearly the whole human fami- ly from participating in the divine institution of marriage. A comparison of the average age of the married and unmarried affords a strong proof, in the prolongation of life, of the wisdom of early marriage. [See calcula- ii.ii,- upon longevity under tin- head of "Early Marriage and Longevity."] From guch comparisons we are forced by facts derived from the most careful observation of distinguished nun in various countries, to admit, that length of days is in no small degree dependent upon obedience to the law of God and nature. God, as I have shown, has determined the time of marriage for both men and wo- men, by the token of puberty, or the first change, of life. He declared, in the fall of Adam and Eve, that woman's desire should be unto her husband ; and that, 54 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. though in sorrow she should bring forth children, obedience to the law of marriage should prolong her days upon the earth. In my opinion, parents are accountable to the displeasure of God, and answerable for sin, [Psalms, lxxvii. 63,] while withholding their sons and daughters from mar- riage to so late an age as is often done, in order that they may start wealthy, or for some other unpardonable and wrong reason. Where there is true love, and no moral or physical reasons interpose, desire for wealth or station for the child, nor false and foohsh pride of any kind, should keep young men and women from the happiness to be enjoyed in a state of wedlock, appointed of God and received from His hand by man. IMPERFECT MENSTRUATION CAUSES CONSUMPTION. Menstruation is a periodical discharge of blood from the uterus, vagina, or both, and continuing from about the age of fourteen till fifty. There is a difference as regards climate, in the age at which the first discharges take place ; in warm clim- ates the average is about nine years, in temperate, fourteen, and in the arctic re- gions, nineteen. There is also a difference in different individuals, sometimes of as much as ten years — the extremes in this cliinate being ten years of age in the very precocious, and twenty in the very backward. The quantity discharged is from four to ten ounces, but in this there is much variety ; the discharge continues from two to eight or ten days. In some relaxed constitutions there is occasionally not more than a week's interval ; and in general the more lax the constitution, the larger is its discharge, and the longer its continuance. The indolent, the sanguine, and the luxurious have generally a large periodical evacuation. Usually, the earlier the menses appear, the sooner they disappear. In this latitude they disappear about the forty-fifth year, though, from some accidental circumstances, the cessation may take place in the thirty-sixth, or be protracted to the fifty-second year. Of the time when menstruation commences, much depends on the cliinate, mode of life, struc- ture of the body, and peculiarities of the constitution. Thus in a warm cliinate the period may be accelerated to the age of ten or eleven, and in a cold one retarded to eighteen ; a girl indulged in all the luxuries of a modern fashionable life, and the sedentary seamstress, or the laborious peasant, experience equal prematurity or re- tarded expansion; a full-bosomed, plethoric girl, and a thin, attenuated one, with small, delicate limbs, and a torpid circulation, are respectively in the same circumstances. Somewhat depends also upon structure. Where the ovaries have been wanting, the menses have never appeared; and where we see masculine manner and growth, it is highly probable that the menses, if they appear at all will be scanty, and im- pregnation impossible, as the female structure is in some important respect de- fective. The menses flow chiefly from the uterus, and occasionally from the vagina alone, as happens sometimes during pregnancy. When the natural discharge is stopped, a vicarious bleeding takes place from the nose, the lungs, the nipples, the hemor- rhoidal veins, the stomach, the bowels, and even the gums, without any particular inconvenience. In some cases, the accumulation of blood that is usually thrown off by the vagina, is evacuated by the lungs and mouth, or nose. Instances are record- ed where the surplus of blood was entirely discharged in this way. When the men- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 55 ses have been suppressed, and there is a copious discharge of blood from the mouth, it will generally be found of benefit to the person ; and the physician who is ac- quainted with the philosophy of this matter, and knows sufficiently of his business to detect this discharge from a discharge of fresh blood from rupture of the lungs, will not regard it as an unfavorable symptom for the health of his patient, until he can restore the evacuation to its more proper and usual course. Bleeding at the nose, to a certain extent, is favorable in cases of suppressed mense.s. The continuance of the discharge is different in different constitutions, but it usu- ally continues from three to five days, when it ceases, sometimes leaving a serous discharge for a day or two, sometimes a mucus one, which, if continued, constitutes leucorrhoea. The recurrence of the courses is with more difficulty explained. Wo- men, horn their sedentary life, and from a looser contexture of vessels, are more subject to plethoric congestions than men, and the uterus is from its structure more likely to receive these accumulated fluids. By degrees these topical congestions be- come habitual, and recur independently of any real general excess of blood. This explanation appears to be supported by the irregular terms of the catamenia in the earlier periods, and the irregular continuance of the discharge before the habit is es- tablished. Why the accumulation requires a lunar month before it is equal to pro- duce the effect it is impossible to ascertain, as why the courses should commence at about the age of fourteen or cease at about forty-five ; or why the period of fourteen days should be most commonly required to produce the crisis of a fever, or why the seventh and the fourteenth years should be marked by striking changes in the consti- tution. Such is the determination of Him " in whom we live, and move, and have our being." When the monthly changes commence a great degree of irritability occurs, and sometimes considerable debility. At this period in young women, we find a languor, want of appetite, terrors, tremors, and even convulsions, often running into fatal consumption. Where the constitution is more robust and plethoric, violent pains, flushing in the face, and even feverish attacks, occur. OBSTRUCTION OF THE MENSES. Similar symptoms follow the obstruction of the menses, joined with other incon- veniences and troubles that specially arise therefrom. When there is a suppression independ f pregnancy, it generally results in disease, runs into tumors or can- cers, attended with pains, uneasiness, or a disturbance of the functions. [See cut of cancerous womb.] When tho discharge does not take place, the whole system be- comes languid, the complexion pale, the mucus secretions defective. The appetite is bad, or fanciful, often requiring substances not alimentary. Tho mind is whimsi- cal and variable, the voluntary muscles convulsed, tho sleep disturbed, the urine [Kile. In 1'iei, the animal luiietioiis are almost wholly suspended, and the vital ones feebly carried on, (br the pulse is low and quick, the breathing laborious, consump- tion or palsy seem to impend, and the patient appeal's to sink rapidly to the grave. In this weak stale women often continue for many years. Yet in most cases, hay- ing had greal experience in the treatment of thousands thus afflicted, by giving at- tention to the patients and administering proper aids to nature, the symptoms have taken a most favorable turn ; a little mucus or serous discharge, perhaps somewhat 5G THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. colored, changes the scene, and gives most decided signs of returning health ; the menses recur at distant and irregular interval*, attended each time with amendment of all the symptoms, till at last color, appetite spirits, increase of flesh and strength, and perfect health return ; and the once pallid and sickly female becomes a blooming and healthy woman. Suppression of the Menses. — When the habit of regularity in the courses is once established, and the discharge occurs monthly, it cannot be broken with im- punity. The most frequent causes of suppression are exposure to cold, frights, falls, sometimes fever, anxiety of mind, or confinement by ill health. Suppression of the menses in females of delicate habits induces pain and uneasiness. In plethoric hab- its the symptoms are different; if the cause occurs during the discharge, a feverish attack follows, the lace becomes flushed, the eyes red, pains in the head and back come on. with sometimes a bleeding at the nose. If the cause occurs in the intervals, and its effects are continued till the proper period for menstruation, the same symp- toms will be observed at each expected return, but gradually growing less, till there is a complete retention. "When the symptoms denoting a suppression of the menses are found to exist, advice should be taken upon the subject, and remedies used with- out delay. I have found in my experience numerous cases of consumption, fits, and sometimes insanity, arising from the want of the proper attention to these matters ; but where I have been consulted in season, I have seldom failed to afford the desired relief. DifauUy of M is a similar disorder, and an important one, for it pre- vents the completion of conception. On the occurrence of the discharge, the pain diarly violent: accompanied sometimes with obstinate constipation, or a suppression of the water. Frequently the spasms are so violent that the hold of the embryo attached in the intervals of menstruation is broken. No disease is more distressing in its symptoms or consequences ; and it should receive the im- mediate and careful attention of an experienced physician. Generally, doctors know but very little about these matters — they do not understand the disease or its symptoms — they are ignorant of the proper remedies, and not, therefore, to be I : but in the hands of a skillful physician there is safety. I have treated numbers afflicted with difficult menstruation, and always with the most gratifying success, seldom failing of a perfect cure. turn is a difficulty with which females are sometimes sorely troubled, and one which requires the most skillful treatment and perfect knowledge of the inducing causes. In this complaint most physicians have found difficulty in effecting good, and often the life of the patient is lost. But from the experiences of my practice, ] can say that it is easily curable, if correctly understood and properly treated. Cessation of " . or "Change of Life,'' is the period when the dis- charges naturally cease; and it is of the utmost importance to the future health of the female that she should receive the most careful attention at that time. Gene- rally females attribute vv<:ry future complaint to improper treatment at this period of their lives. The cessation of t ; preceded by temporary suppression, continuing for two or three months, followed by an increased and continued discharge. This will Bom< timee occur at short intervals and in profuse quantities. In this way the change is effected often without disease; but the suppression ia generally attended THE PEOPLE'S MEDIGAL LIGHTHOUSE. 57 with headache and wandering pains, and the excessive discharge, with debility. Great care should be taken in treatment of these cases, or else they had better not be treated at all. The incompetent physician is better out of the way, and Nature is more to be trusted than an unskillful doctor. Where the proper assistance is given to Nature by the administration of correct medicines, that will strengthen the sys- tem, purify the blood, and help her in removing the impurities from the system, and effecting the important change, everything may go on smoothly, and the fe- male live in health for many years. As medicines to be used at this important period in the life of woman, I can with confidence recommend the Blood Reno- vator and Anti-Bilious Pills as safe and excellent, and the best medicines to be used in all cases where the female is not personally treated. I have put up many of these articles for ladies about experiencing a "change of life," and have heard from them often as having given the desired aid to Nature, and strength and sup- port to the female system. Tlie fint appearance of Menstruation is an important event in the life of the fe- male, and should be carefully looked after, so that it may in no way be interfered with ; and also that proper means may be employed to bring it on at the requisite period. Every girl should be timely informed upon this subject by the mother or some other friend, to the end that she may conduct herself with reference thereto, and may not be unnecessarily alarmed at its first appearance. Says Dr. Hollick, " It is especiaUy important to bear in mind that females are usually more irritable and unsettled at these times, and that full allowance should be made for their being so. In a young person this is more apt to be the case, from the very novelty of her situation. The strange phenomena that is occurring in her system, the development of her person, and the new feelings and instincts that are awakened, all exert a powerful influence, which is still further increased by the mystery with which everything relating to the wonderful operation is en- shrouded. In the absence of proper information, imagination is busily at work, curiosity is excited, and the mind becomes filled with strange fancies and romantic dreams, which often exert a baneful influence in after life. Proper instruction at the proper time, would give more correct ideas of her real duties and actual i much of that sickness and unhappincss of mind which is so commonly seen after marriage. "There are few objects more interesting to the philosopher and philanthropist than a young female at this period of her existence, when the body is assuming its natural beauty of form, and becoming (it for its wondrous functions, and when panding mind receives the first fain! perception of her real destiny. "To a Hi the development of the whole physical system depends upon the proper action of the organs of generation at this period. * * Every one must have noticed whal an astonishing change occurs in a young female at that time. The bust becomes full, the pelvis enlarges, (he features chang< — especially in their expression — the mind takes a different turn, and the manner and conduct become altogether different, denoting the new fe< lings and instincts that begin to be experienced. In short, the girl is changed into the woman, and is conscious herself of the alteration." Speaking upon this subject, Dr. E. H. Dixon remarks: "The child dances, laughs and skips away its early years, and we are astonished at its growth, without 58 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. being able to perceive in what feature it has altered. No marked distinction occurs to render one year more memorable in its existence than another until the approach of puberty, when suddenly the forces of life seem to acquire new strength ; and before we are aware of the change, olten within a few weeks, we no longer ad- dress a child, but a woman. '• What has occurred to mark so important an era in her existence ? But yester- day she was pleased with the veriest trifle — a doll a dancing puppet, was to her a treasure. Now she is a creature prepared to sympathize and to love." Generally, menstruation is not carried on during nursing, though it sometimes is, commencing the first month after the birth of the child, and continuing uninter- ruptedly. The reason for this is, that the blood from which the menstrual dis- charge is secreted before conception, is now used for the secretion of milk. During the months of conception, it supported the foetus. "When menstruation takes place, either during conception or nursing, it must arise from a superabundance of vital energy and blood, by which both the functions can be carried on, or some of the organs of generation must be in an unhealthy state. In the first case, no injurious effects will be felt ; but in the latter, the double drain upon the system will exhaust the strength and impair the health of the mother. "From the age of puberty," says Hollick, " till the change of fife, Nature is con- stantly laboring at the functions connected with generation. This is the true ex- planation of those peculiarities that are seen in the female character, especially their excessive sympathy, sensitiveness, and excitability, and also much that is peculiar in their diseases. The incessant action of the ovaries keeps the nervous system in a constant state of irritation, and makes all the organic functions liable to derange- ment, so that it is impossible for a female to preserve that equanimity of mind, and that evenness of temper and disposition, which to individuals of the other sex is a comparatively easy matter. The female is, in fact, in a great measure, like a man who is constantly subject to annoyance from those around Mm, and who is obliged to use constant efforts to keep himself cool. Her situation is, indeed, in some respects, even worse, because the cause of her uneasiness is inherent in her- self—she cannot escape from it, and knows not what it is, and those around not knowing it either, she meets with but little sympathy and consideration. There are numbers of females who are most unfortunate in this respect ; some being subject to distressing depression of spirits, or the most melancholy despondency, while Others are irritable or peevish, or subject to ebullitions of the most frantic gaiety; and others, again, constantly change from one mood to another, without any appa- rent reason for so doing. Ignorant persons attributo these eccentricities to mere caprice, or whim, and fancy that females can avoid them if they choose. Some- times they are blamed or scolded fur them, and sometimes females even themselves of being ungrateful, and in this way increase their distress. IIJ how- ever, the true naturo of their constitution was understood, it would be seen that no blame whatever should be attached to them for these peculiarities, since they can- not be avoided ; on the contrary, every allowance should be made for their invo- luntary aberrations, and the fullest sympathy exhibited for the distress which they really endure." THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 59 THE LUNGS MAT BE CUT, ULCERATED, DEIED UP, TUBERCULOUS, BLEEDING, OR SHOT THROUGH, WITHOUT LOSS OP LIFE. To give a full description of the lungs under the various conditions mentioned above, and to prove the fallacy of the assertion that diseased lungs are incurable, is no easy task for the pen ; but having a duty to perform, though in contradiction to the high priests of medicine, I shall attempt to establish the truth that the lungs can be ruptured in various ways, and yet be healed. As a consolation to the afflicted, I assert that the doctrine of diseased or ruptured lungs being incurable arises from the ignorance of physicians, and has no foundation in fact. If my reader is a person of unbiased mind, I would have him peruse this at- tentively; as I shall prove, from the most reliable authority, that the human lungs can be cut, torn, mangled, separ- ated, dried up, ulcerated, tuberculous, calculous, catarrhal, and bleeding, either from disease or the introduction of for- eign substances, as a sword, bullet, dirk, pin, needle, or splinter, — and that they can be and are healed, and the person live years and enjoy as good health as ever. There are three important changes in the color and condition of the lungs. In the child, before birth, the lungs are small, and collapsed, with a pinkish color ; at birth they become filled with air, and then change to a whitish pink color. In adults, the lungs are greyish, and bluish in the aged. The lungs are divided into two lobes, each inclosed in a distinct bag or sac, formed of the pleura. The right and left lung have not the slightest communica- tion with each oihcr, i ixcept by adhesion ol'tlic pleura, which often happens. The pleura covers and surrounds the lungs, and also covers the ribs. An inner laminsR of the pleura passes into the substance of the lungs, in the infant, f have prei ion lj said, in treating of the lungs, that there were from three to six lobes to each lung in some cases, but generally threo of the right and two of the left. The whole mass of the lungs is composed of air-cells and tubes, blood- vessels, lymphatics, nerves, and cellular membranes. No. 11. — Lungs pierced and dreed up. 1. The wind pipe. 2. Represents a lung pierced with a dirk, which was afterwards healed up, to that the person enjoyed good health. Lungs have been shot through similarly with a ball, and healed up. 3. Shows a case where one lobe of the lung was di-Ud up, so as to lie completely imper- vious to air, and useless, and yet the person enjoyed good health for many ye:irs, with this condition of the respiratory organs. 60 TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. There are two distinct sets of cells in the lungs, each being affected by diseases different from the other — which arc the catarrh suffocatus and the hydrot) Pulmonary arteries carry blood from the heart to the lungs, and pulmonary veins return it back after it has been purified by the oxygen of the air, and the injurious portions thrown out by the respiration. While asleep, we breathe less than when awake. An office of respiration being to give heat to the system ; and breathing being slower in sleep than in wake- fulness, persons require more clothing to keep them comfortable when asleep than when awake. Disease of the lungs hastens respiration, and action of the lungs; and concussions often arise from coughing; but notwithstanding these spasms or concussions, wounds often heal readily. Coughing is often the effect of a cold upon the lungs, but not always arises from that; frequently it is produced by tubercles or grub in the lungs, which cause cough. Many persons of a scrofulous blood never have a cold in the commence- ment of a cough. Coughing is an effort of nature to free the air-cells and tubes, either in case of colds or tubercles. Hence the ignorance of many lung doctors and medicine dealers, in always attributing consumption or cough to colds. Numerous are the instances on record in which the lungs have been wounded by a sword, dirk, bullet, or other foreign substance, and the patient has been restored to full health. Bierling mentions a case in which one hundred and twenty ounces of blood were lost from a wound in the lungs, and the subject lived. What think you of this, who have bleeding lungs ? — are they incurable ? I have taught that they are not incurable; and in my practice have proved them not fatal; I have suc- ceeded in curing such cases, while other physicians pronounced them past redemp- tion. I have quite recently had ten cases of bleeding lungs, and not one fatal. But with those troubled with bleeding from the organs of respiration, there should be no delay in obtaining the services of the most skillful physician ; for ignorance of the case or long delay may end in fatality. A Gennan author gives a case where a ball passed through both lobes of the lungs, and did not prove fatal. In another case, the whole right lung was exposed and severely wounded, and cut in pieces, and then cured. The lungs of soldiers in battle are often pierced by the bayonet and cut badly, and yet heal. The dirk of the assassin is plunged into the lungs, and a cure is often effected. I have found js the size of an egg, and of an ordinary teacup, in which a cure was speedily effected — but in only one way, — attending to the blood. I have had as many as eighty cases of persons with but one lung — the other having been lost by accident or disease, or been dried up or collapsed so as to be perfectly useless. Such cases are not of unfrequent occurrence in my examinations and prac- tice. Rivinus, Tfaller. and De Haen have recorded numerous cases of the little injury which has resulted from the concretions in cases of wounds, and Dr. Parr mentions cases where the whole of one lung was completely decayed or destroyed, without any considerable inconvenience. Gangrene often affects the lungs, yet a cure is not doubtful. Malpighi mentions : decay of one lung, and abscess of the lungs, in putrid epidemics, which oc- curred as long ago :is L648 al Pisa. A dissolution of one lung is mentioned by Fontanus; and a great change in their texture, in the Memoires do Medecinea, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 61 from Haller. In the same collection we find remarkable cases of the lungs being in a dried state. I have had more than eighty such cases, in my practice of twenty-five thousand consumptive invalids. "What say you to these facts recorded by English, French, and German physicians of the greatest repute ? Do you say that diseases of the lungs or wounds of the lungs cannot be cured ? Go hide your ignorance ; tell it to the trees, the stumps and stones ; but never in this age of science utter it to a man or woman. By aid of the Lung Barometer, and by tho use of the proper remedies, I have cured and can cure, consumption in almost any case, even in the worst stages of ulcerated, tuber- culous or catarrhal disease; for the blood can be successfully treated ; and unless both lungs are wholly gone, a cure may be ex- pected. Some physicians have pretended that a person cannot die of consumption if the air tubes are filled or capable of being filled with air; and they palm off upon the public inhaling tubes as a means of lengthening life. But this is without reason or founda- tion in fact. If tho lungs are being de- stroyed by the poisons in the blood, all the air and inhaling tubes in the universe cannot save them. The causes must be removed: the blood must be purified, and then the lungs can be healed of their affections. God did not think of an inhaling tube for the mouth or nose of a man; if He had, it is ible to suppose He would have supplied him with one. Tho causes of lung diseases are numerous. I will mention a few general causes, which are, protracted celibacy, disappointment in love, failure in business, scrofula ereal taint, miscarriage, sexual pollution unnaturally by the married, colds, of various kinds, dyspepsia, masturbation of the young, disturbed menstrua- othera too numerous to mention. Dust from stone-cutting and grinding causes consumption. I have the lungs of a man perfectly filled with steel and sand bj at Collinsville, Ct. Hundreds have died with grit in the ra' or stone-cutters' consumption. About from six to eight years i umption of the most strong and healthy. Beware of all dust or grit to inhale in any business of life. Mechanics' shops are very dusty and cause the death oi Eli il-road cars, dusty coaches, and streets of cities where the side walks are covered with fine dust, kicked by the feet, for persons to breathe,— the dual I mpound of manure, stone, iron, expectorated catarrhal and scro- fulous matter, hairs, leather, filth of sores, and a host of other deadly agents; these inoculate disi ■ consumption in thousands of persons wlio ride in or frequent them much and continuously. From what ! have Baid, it will be seen that though tho lungs bo wounded thej can be healed, when particular portions thereof have not been injured; and that even if one lung be entirely gone, the person can enjoy good health. And from No. 12. — Ulcerated Lung. This cut shows a lung laid open, ex- posing large and small sloughing ulcers, which were afterwards healed, and the health of the patient restored. 62 TUE TEOrLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. this it will be seen how wrong it is to give up the patient to death, and to say in all cases that " consumption is incurable." It is not incurable. There are thousands r.ud tens of thousands sinking into the grave every year, after being given up to death by their physicians as beyond all hope of recovery, who, had they been at- tended properly, and received such medicines as I have prepared for such com- plaints, would have been saved to their friends and relatives and lived years in the enjoyment of health. It is no less than an awful sin to thus let consumption carry away the gifted and beautiful of the earth, while the proper knowledge will give power to turn aside this monarch of disease and snatch from the grave its expected feast. GRUB CONSUMPTION. To the readers, grub consumption will appear to be a disease of which they have never before heard. This will be true ; but it is not less true that such a disease exists — or rather that a prevalent kind of consumption arises from grub located in one or many parts of the human system. The disease nor the cause are at all new — grub have preyed upon men in every age of the world; but in the establishment of this fact I may justly lay claim to some credit; since, though ages ago the insect was believed to live in the human being, no plvysicians of modern times havo recog- nized or known of their existence. In ancient times, it was believed that men were troubled with grubs ; but after trying for ages to prepare a medicine which should reach, kill, and dislodge them, without success, they were ultimately lost sight of, and the task was finally abandoned. I have long been acquainted with this deadly insect, and of the fact of his having baffled every means used in the cure of consumption he produced — he being so deeply seated in different organs of the system, that nothing appeared to reach him with power of expulsion. After exhausting all supposed remedies, I became nearly discouraged in my efforts to treat successfully cases of consumption produced by the presence of the grub; especially considering my success in all other cases. Yet, to give up, and say that a mere insect should live in the human system and suck the very life away, and no one devise means for his expulsion, was not in the spirit of Yaukeedom. I did not make known the fact of my having satisfactorily ascertained the existence of the insect in man, for because of the difficulty of con- vincing the ignoranl of the truth, one who announces aught that is new is liable to lose his reputation. But I explored the- whole vegetable kingdom, and fed the grub on various extracts and compounds, till finally I succeeded in getting a med- icine thai would reach, Kill, and expel him, without doing injury to the patient. And I have now the pleasure of being able to declare, that the exact location of the grub can be determined, bis post invaded, and he driven out, and the consump- tive, (made ho by bis presence,) be cured. By the aid of the Lung Barometer, I have found that many cases of the worst, and apparently incurable, kinde of consumption, are caused by the grub in some part of the system, where, like a thirsty bl l-hound, ho lies and destroys the patient, Bending him a victim to the icy arms of death. The grub infests the liver, spleen, uterus, bladder, ovaria, kidneys, placenta, heart, brain, lungs, and even the muscles. He carries his sway over men and THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 63 animals, and is as destructive as the locusts that flood the land of the Pharaohs. He varies in size from a large pin head to a hen's egg, and is sometimes larger than this. I have succeeded in expelling them, whole and in pieces, or in matter. The insect is some times found alone, sometimes in clusters. Grub in the head of man cause pain, loss of memory, dizziness, dark vision, in- sanity, idiocy, and death. In the head of animals, as the sheep, they produce vertigo ; and when in the liver or kidneys of sheep or cattle, cause rot, horn dis- temper, weakness, and emaciation. In the lungs of man, they produce protracted cough, expectoration of a peculiar kind, severe pain through the chest, short breath, bleeding lungs, and lung consumption. "When in the liver, they cause d3"spepsia, enlarged gall and liver, ulceration and consumption of the liver — with a dark, bad appearance of the skin. Grub in the womb, or ovaria, cause dropsy, gleet, whites, miscarriage, false conception, tumors of the ovaria and womb, deranged menstruation, and consumption of those organs, with great pain, weight, sinking feeling in the side, stomach, abdomen and various parts. Grub in the kidneys cause great pain in the small of the back, dropsy of the abdomen, heart, chest, limbs, or other parts of the body. In the spine, they cause curvature, deformed and soft spine, pain in the back of the head and about the spine, and nervous feelings generally. In the stomach or spleen, they produce a sinking, gnawing feeling, dropsy, enlargement, and great pain and difficulty in the left side. Grub in the heart cause dropsy, enlargement, hard beating, ulceration, and great pain about the heart, bad circulation of blood, great debility of the heart, with strange and peculiar conditions of the mind. The presence of grub produces but very little uneasiness at first, or when they are small, but the symptoms increase as they enlarge, and there are pains, uneasi- ness, discharge of mucus, gleet, blood, and pus, and expectoration of a peculiar kind. ( '.nib are found in sheep, cattle, deers, hares, hogs, goats, rats, and various other animals. I ha\e taken pains to dissect different animals, and found them in some part or organ, with few exceptions, (always when the animal manifested the pecu- liar symptoms of the grub disease). Cattle, sheep and hogs in Ohio, Michigan, and other parts, with the wild animals, are well known by the butchers to have the grub in them. The largest of the specie are found floating in the cavity of the ovaria and abdo- men. 1 have succeeded in expelling them from the head, where they cause a gleet similar to catarrh ; from the lungs, by suppuration and expectoration, and from the liver, womb, ovaria and kidneys. Sometimes they are found floating loose in tho eye, (where they have been seen,) and in different parts and organs; but generally tbeyare in nests, sacs or cysts, and seem to hatch, and be in greal numbers. [See id liver, with grub in them, in another pari of this work.] There are two or three species of the grub, varying in color, which are grey, and spotted with black, with four or six fangs or blood-suckers on their heads. Afl there is no such disease as grub consumption known to other physicians, nor any mention made of it in modern medical works excepl here, | have given the name of grub to this insect that infests the system ; have described the symptoms arising from his presence in the various organs, and named the disease whii occasions. 1 shall now give some ancient authority respecting the grub, from reliable , bul known there by the more technical name of hydatids. Dr. Culler wasocquainted with them. They were found on the liver, brain, ovaria and other viscera of the human being, with heads and Bin 64 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Dr. Tyson discovered the hydatids in the livers and heads of sheep. Bartholine observed them in the livers of goats, Dr. Pallas discovered them in both men and animals, Dr. Pycrus observed the hydatids in the hog. Drs. Goeze, Batsch, Bloch, and others have added to the stock of facts. Dr. Pallas says the size of the hydatids or grubs, varies in size according to the age and temperament of the person or animal at whose expense they live, but from the size of a kernel of wheat to the size of the fist and often larger; and are found in the human person, chiefly in the liver, the spleen, the uterus, the ovaria, the kidneys, the placenta, the lungs, and the muscles or spine. Dr. Parr says those in the kidneys or accumulating fluids cause dropsy, those in the brain, insanity or idiocy ; but wherever they exist they cause an acute pain either continual or temporary, and their existence may be known or sus- pected by weakness, emaciation and oppression at the stomach. Dr. Baillie saw these in a cyst, with coagulated lymph or pulpy substance, sometimes floating loose or d to the side, and in size from a pin's head to that of a walnut; but the largest is found in the ovaria or abdomen ; he also found them in both men and animals. They are found under the tongue and in the fat and muscles of hogs. lu a they cause measles and leprosy. Dr. Goeze found the hydatids or grubs in the liver, the uterus and hydropic sacs of the human race, and thinks they more fre- quently cause dropsy and other disease than pathologists have suspected. He says they are very numerous, in their nests or sacs and when in the ovaria of the female, (their most frequent residence,) cause female diseases and false pregnancy. Although ancient physicians detected the presence of the hydatids or grub in man, they found nothing to kill and dislodge them ; besides they seemed unable to account for their existence. My first assurance of the existence of the grub was by its expulsion, when dead. By the aid of the Lung Barometer, I can now detect the location of the grub, ami then by administering the appro- priate medicine can kill and dislodge them from the sys- tem, when a speedy cure of the afflicted patient can be effected. The grub causes the most fatal cases of consump! ; i>n. of any organ. And as I have previously stated that there were different kinds of con- sumption, growing out of different causes, the cause and disease mi] known and understood be- fore the invalid can be cured. \js-* ^k^w Thousands who die annually 13. — LUNG with Guru m IT and Ulcerated, might be saved were it not for the i medical ipon this and similar subjects. But, being ignor- ant, it is not to be supposed that they can give any relief to the afflicted N This shows a lung lni.1 open, exposing to view in one side the ;'»■?<*« of various si/.e<. encased therein ; the other side represents ulcers in the long, developed oo the surface. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 65 WOMB COMPLAINTS [f^M&M^ Are produced by frequent colds, wearing thin shoes, tight lacing, disappointment in love, hereditary diseases, scrofula, venereal taint, cancers, tumors, protracted celi- bacy, self-pollution, too frequent sexual intercourse, sexual or married pollution, loss of children or friends, unhappy mar- riage, disappointed ambition, and a host of causes — both bodily and mental. As seen in this cut. where a complica- tion of diseases and weaknesses, arising from mechanical causes and impurities of the blood, appear, the individual will feel and exhibit a weariness and lassi- tude, both of body and mind, and that woe-begone expression of countenance and attitude, of which this is a fair resem- blance. Multitudes of females, suffering from weakness peculiar to their sex, early lose all their bloom and elasticity of spirit, and become wholly unfitted for the dis- charge of the common duties of life. No. 14. — "Weariness and Lassitude. DISEASES OF THE WOMB CAUSE CONSUMPTION. The organs which are affected in this manner are the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes. The diseases of those organs are leucorrhcea or whites; yellow, green, and black sickness; cancers, tumors, polypi, barrenness, flooding, miscarriage, irregu- lar and suppressed menstruation, &c. The symptoms attending these diseases are a clouded or black-spotted countenance, a pale and ghostly expression of the eye3 and around the eyos, dropsy or swelling of the liinbs, with pain, weakness of the knees, small of the back, shortness of breath, cough, emaciation, insanity or con- fused memory, expectoration, ending in consumption and death. These diseases often affect the heart and cause palpitation, dropsy and enlargement of the heart. I have known ladies to have from one to thirty-three miscarriages, by weakness of those organs. I have known a lady to have her courses periodically from the liver, lungs and stomach by vomiting, having had the womb lacerated in child-birth, which caused the mouth of the womb to close up; but in all cases where the men- struation of ladies is not perfect as nature designs, an affection of the liver, lungs, and stomach immediately follows, and if not regulated, consumption comes on. I do not recollect a caso of any of the above diseases where I have foiled of a cure, when applied to in their curable stages. These diseases should never be neglected, aa they lead to helpless and incurable forms; although I have cured many cases pronounced by all other physicians to be incurable. But I found thai they were mistaken in the nature of the disease and its stage. I must say that great ignorance prevails among most of our medical men, and but GO THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. very few are qualified to I illy diseases of ladies. As a natural pre- . of female diseases, girls should marry young, and prevent all the weakening - that break down and destroy the lives of so many valuable ladies. Avoid tight-lacing, heavy skirts, wet feet, damp houses, sudden exposures to cold, and i to disease. But if you are already troubled, make use of the Blood Renovator, the Anti-bilious Pills, the Female Wash and German Oint- if you have a cough in addition to other complaints, take the Lung Corrector; and if any heart disease, the Heart Regulator, but not otherwise. STERILITY CAUSES CONSUMPTION. Barrenjtess is a great misfortune to woman, and incompetency of generation a •misfortune to man. No person would be willing to take a partner for life in mar- riage, who was incompetent to the proper fulfillment of the requirements of nature for the generation of children. The doctrine so prevalent among self-constituted teachers on marriage, generation and kindred subjects, that men should marry with reference purely to the intellectual, and having no regard to the gratification of those 08 sneeringly denominated animal, is a false, unnatural and pernicious one — detrimental to the bodily well-being (upon which in great degree the intellectual depends.) of both the parties themselves and the generations that shall come after them. It is not less necessary that the animal passions should be consulted than the moral ones ; it was designed of nature that they should be, and if we make a rule of and carry out this doctrine of false teachers for a series of generations, the effect upon the race will be pernicious and hurtful in the extreme. Observations in this country and all others have shown us, that in those cases where the strongest intellectual love existed before marriage between parties, the discovery after that cither was incompetent, whether from malformation or disease, to the gratification of the sexual desire, banished the pure platonic passion before the natural wish for cohabitation. From this invariable experience of the past, the lesson of wisdom to be learned is, that the sexual as well as the mental should have due consideration in the formation of the marriage tie. Were it known before mar- riage that any cause existed in either party to positively prevent cohabitation, the partii 3 would never be united; nor do I know that an instance of this kind has ever been recorded or has occurred — no matter how strong the attachment was be- fore the fact of incompetency was learned by the other party. All of us are fond of our young ; We an- happy in our offspring; and though we have a dozen, we do not wish to part with or lose any of them. This is in accord- ance with a principle of nature inherent in the human being. To woman belongs the honored name of mother, and the honor of having nourish- ed from her bosom the greal and renowned of earth — poets, philosophei philanthropists, divines, physicians, artists, mathematicians, scholars and mechanics. And these honor and love the woman: they look op to and bless her in her character of mother. While woman is honored in the DOble station of mother of the human race, man tiher. And who among men is there that does not love to hear the sound of voices calling him father? — who among women that does not love to hear the name of mother V Thrice blessed arc they that bring upchildrcn, in THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 67 obedience to the wise command — " Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth ;" and how much of happiness is lost to those whom barrenness leaves destitute of the fruit of the womb, can be known only to those who are made happy in the chil- dren who are like olive branches gathered about their tables. Barrenness, therefore, which is induced in the woman by diseases of the womb, by self-pollution in the younger days and before marriage, by an excess of sexual indulgence, and by dress and other causes that affect the purity of and weaken the blood, by which debility of all the organs is produced — should be carefully guarded against by her ; both as regards her health and happiness and the natural desires and wishes of her husband There are few ladies that care to bear the reproach of barrenness ; for it is regarded as an ignoble infirmity. In all ages it has been looked upon as the greatest deprivation of woman — that she could not bear child. In the Bible we find it spoken of as an especial mark of the displeasure of God, manifested towards a people, that the women were visited with barrenness and the womb brought not forth its natural fruit. When tins condition of the female is induced by colds, leucorrhcea^ cancer, tumor, polypus or other disease in the organs connected with conception and child-birth, the female should speedily seek for relief from them, in order not only that she may conceive and bear child with safety, but be saved from running into a consumption ; which follows not only from the cause I have mentioned, but is sometimes a direct result of sterility itself, as I have often satisfied myself. And if the barrenness be the result of " secret vice " in youth, or of excess of gratification after marriage, it is necessary that the weakened frame should be strengthened by proper restorative medicines and the blood be made rich again by some renovating power, in order that the organs of generation be reinstated in their original condition and enabled to perform each its function with desired energy and effect. To this end, and from an experience gained in prescribing for many cases, I have prepared medicines that have never yet failed, when taken according to my directions, to effect the attain- ment of the desired end. But if these matters are not attended to, and nature receive no aid in its labors against disease in the enervated system, not only will barrenness bo continued, but consumption, as I have before stated, will fast lead the individual down the path of life into the silence of the tomb. In the male, the cases are by no means of rare occurrence where inability to cohabit exists. 'Ibis may have arisen from one of many causes; but, as a general thing, if I may be allowed to judge from observation, it is the legitimate fruit of bation or its offspring, involuntary emission. I need not here enter into anr description of how this detestable habit finally produces an incompetency to pei form the functions that nature intended for the propagation of the race. The effect follows so plainly from the cause, that the observer, though more than a fool, can- not be mistaken. A- a prevention of this, the best prescription that r have ever heard of is Offered by nature in tho person of the opposite sex— provided always that nature's medicine be taken in youth and before the habif has been formed, and the evil in greater or less degree produced. But where nature lias not heen heeded, and the habit of masturbation has commenced, it should be broken off at once; though this does not always answer, inasmuch as it will bo found that in- voluntary nocturnal emissions will quite often follow masturbation; when there is no other course than to resort to the vegetable remedies that will restore to the weakened blood its strength, fortify and renovate the enfeebled system, aid in tho 68 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. retention of the secretions, and finally work out a cure for the patient. When involuntary emissions have reached that degree where the whole system is badly •flbcted by them, they must be suppressed, or they will surely result in an incom- petency to gratify amativeness naturally, and the marriage bed will be barren of fruit; and worse than this, consumption or insanity will soou fasten upon the once deluded but now stricken sufferer, and his days be quickly brought to an end. There is another cause of barrenness, and of consumption, growing out of the genital organs, of which I will make brief mention here. It will be found more particularly treated of under the head of soxual onanism or pollution. That is excessive indulgence of the sexual appetite. Remember this good advice — excel- lent in all times and seasons — Be temperate in all things. Abuse not the gifts of God given to you for your happiness — not for your misery. The evils of excessive sexual indulgence are not unfrequently like those of self- pollution. Barrenness, debility generally, and consumption, often follow from excess. To the young married, I would offer these remarks with an earnest feeling for their welfare. Upon them depends in great measure the health and happiness of the coming generation; and due regard for their own welfare and the welfare of those who shall come after them should induce attention to these matters. Thousands are the cases of disease arising from a substitution of pernicious prac- tices for the healthful enjoyments of nature; for God having established laws, has also affixed penalties for deviations therefrom, and those who sin are sure to meet with punishment. Although a physician, and expecting to gain a subsistence as other physicians do, by curing those who are sick, I wish it distinctly understood that I teach the doctrine of prevention being better than cure, and that an obedience to a law of nature and the preservation of health thereby is a far better course than to disobey and afterwards be healed of the punishment of transgression. 1 do not wish any to get sick to be compelled to call on me or any other physician. Keep your own health ; it is, in a great measure, within your reach, and is the richest gilt of God to man. I have often been called upon to advise with, and prescribe for, young married people, in cases where the lady was sterile, or the gentleman incompetent, and sometimes where both of the parties were incapable to perform the functions of nature to the production of offspring; and I have had the satisfaction of not only working a reform in their systems and making the barren fruitful, but of saving many such from death by consumption induced by the causes mentioned. Therefore let none despair, but apply :it once and find comfort and perfect restoration. Nature has furnished the means for your relief: come to her fountains and be healed. Floodincs often 0A1 si: Consumption. — Miscarriage gives rise to floodings; also they occur from weakness induced by masturbation and excessive sexual indul- gence; also by strains and falls. At the "turn of life" many sutler severely from this affliction. The effed is to weak a the patient and exhaust the blood, out of which arise debility anil consumption. For this complaint, \ inegar or BpiritS and water bathed upon the bowels is good, or <\ weak injection of white oak bark tea may be given. I mention these remedies for the reason that their aid is sometimes immediately demanded, and they may be easily procured. A cloth wet with cold water and applied to the bowels is also good. A cure of this complaint is easily effected by a skillful practitioner. I have rarely THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. (J9 known a case that would not readily yield to a course of medicine under my treat- ment. As a general medicine, to strengthen the blood and fortify the system against floodings, the Blood Renovator will be found invaluable. Irritants cause Consumption, for the reason that they weaken and destroy the general health. It is of frequent occurrence that when physicians, particularly of the Allopathic school, treat a weak organ, they blister it and cup it or burn it with a. hot iron, sometimes all of these in a few days. They produce effects decidedly injurious, weakening the part instead of restoring it to health. I have never known any last- ing good to flow from the use of such irritants, but they often lay the foundation for consumption, and frequently make the patient a cripple for life. I would advise my readers to beware of such treatment ; it is not only barbarously cruel, but lasting in its injurious effects. The parts on which the irritants are mostly applied are the hips, legs, spine and chest. Some of the most helpless cripples I ever saw, (if we except the victims of calomel,) were made so by a persevering use of counter irritants. By their applica- tion, the once lively and active are laid under bondage to infirmities forever, or led into consumption. I never make use of these so-called remedies in my treatment of the afflicted. I have never found need of anything more than some moderate " draw- ing" or irruptive article, like mustard paste, and I have successfully treated ten times as many of such cases as these irritants are usually applied in, as any physi- cian living who advocates them. This is sufficient to show me they are not needed. By giving the proper internal medicines to produce a quiet and healthy state of the system, and applying soothing emollients to the affected part, cures can be effected without having to resort to the barbarous practice that has been too long in vogue. If they cannot, then there is no such thing as a cure to be looked for in the case. Gravel and Kidney Complaints are of more frequent occurrence than is gen- erally supposed by even the medical faculty. I have had the pleasure of curing many invalids who had been pronounced by so-called eminent physicians to be in consumption of the lungs ; but the very expression of the countenance of the in- valid pointedly indicated the contrary, and a little conversation with the patient ena- bled me to understand the disease; but to be certain in the matter, I examined the cases, and found that the disease was not consumption of the lungs or of tho liver, but of the kidneys, caused by gravel, grub, or ulceration of those parts. I never prescribe for these cases being blindfolded, as many physicians do. It is often the case that the practice is based upon guessing, or is an experiment. Those modes of treatment I renounce and denounce, having long since learned that there is danger in giving medical attendance in that way. I am proud to say tho.t guessing' and experimenting are no parts of my practice; the theory upon which I proceed has its firm foundations in the fixed laws of nature; the practice under that theory is plain and simple, when once known scientifically, and tho results arc always satisfactory in every case where the possibility of a cure exists. Experi- ments, in the matter of consumption, are no longer of service to me, since I have the means of knowing about the disease to a certainty. Because of this certainty, I make no mistakes, but euro where it is possible. There be those cases to which human skill can offer no relief — they are beyond the reach of medicine. Still, no one should give up in despair because of this, since none of us know that our pe- culiar case is beyond redemption, until we have satisfied ourselves by receiving the best of medical skill and taking the best of medicines. 70 THE PEOrLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. One office of the kidneys is to manufacture or secrete the matter or urine from the blood, and the kidneys must fulfill their office at all hazards, or dropsy and con- sumption will follow. When the kidneys are weak, either by an exhaustion of seminal weakness, masturbation or sexual pollution, gravel, obstruction and ulcera- tion, health is immediately dethroned, and restored only by making well the kid- neys again. The kidneys are often affected by strains in lifting, riding or jumping, exposure to colds, wet feet. The symptoms are numerous, but the more general are pain in the back, fever, discharge of red or white gravel high colored, bloody or wa- tery urine, gleet, red or white sediment in the water, little or no water, debility, vomiting, a ghastly looking expression, both to the face and eyes, a dilated, dull looking eye, and emaciation, ending in consumption. Both sexes are alike affected, and much oftener than is generally supposed, with one or more of the above diseases. The kidneys have another aud higher office to perform — that of supplying the semen or seed from the blood — not directly, but in- directly. Too great an exhaustion of the semen debilitates and relaxes the muscles of the spine, brain, bowels, stomach, liver, and lungs, and the nervous system. A dis- charge of semen from the genital organs is a draught on the whole body. The body of the male or of the female is as a bank, from which is drawn forth the se- men to be apphed according to the teach- ings of nature. But if the waste of se- men is too great, the body will as certain- ly break down, as will a bank when ex- hausted of all its specie. This is what I would call the attention of all to when I speak of consumption from those causes. Live temperately, and run not into consumption, is the advice of the author to his readers. I'n is and Liver Complaints go hand in hand ; and as a general thing, when the piles are not troublesome, the liver is out of order, and when the piles afflict the patient the liver is in good condition — provided either disease is about the system. The causes of piles are, a dyspeptic or morbid state of the liver and bile, costive- ness, pregnancy, drastic purges of pills or other medicine, doses of aloes, and corpu- lency. There are the Mind ami bleeding piles, the external ami the internal; also many tumors much resembling piles. Thousands are afflicted with one or both kinds; they an^ exceedingly painful ami troublesome, ami often terminate in fistu- la, but are perfectly curable by the proper medicines. If troubled in this way. you should take the Anti-Bilious fills ami Blood Renovator, and where they are external, the German Ointment also. [For more particulars, see the notices of these medicines in this work.] No. 15. — Ulcerated Kidney. This cut represents a section of the kidney in consumption, laid open to expose to view the ulceration in that organ, and the diseased state of the orifices leading to and from the diseased kidney. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 71 BATHING THE FEET. Bathing the feet thoroughly and keeping them free from dirt, should be a matter of often attention, as a means of promoting health and keeping off corns and bun- ions. In case of fevers, it is well to bathe the feet once or twice a day, as it will prevent the determination of the blood to the head, and equalize its circulation. Salt, wood ashes, or saleratus, may be sparingly used in the water. Consumptives should bathe the feet often in tepid or cold water ; and, in fact, every person should perform this ablution once or twice a week, sick or not. Cleanliness is a great law of health, from the diso- bedience of which, we all sooner or later suffer in a larger or smaller degree. And no little of the health of the whole body may depend upon keeping the feet clean and well-conditioned, so that the person may experience no difficulty therefrom in walking erect, and with a firm elastic tread, and in exercising, in running, dancing, etc. When the feet are sore, a Stooping and crippled attitude is soon formed, which contracts the chest, oppresses the limbs, causing fall- ing of the bowels, crooked spine, and finally con- sumption. Keep the feet pliable by washing them and scrap- ing off the dead and waste skin, and after wiping dry, rub them over with a little of my German Ointment, (which will keep them soft and free from sores,) and then retire to bed, and no colds will be contracted in the pursuits of daily business, nor will No - 16.— Diseased Bowel with Piles. The above represents a section of the bowels laid open to ex- pose its appearance when in- flamed and ulcerated, and when the person is troubled with piles. any corns grow upon the feet. In the East, in ancient times, it was the custom to wash the feet of strangers coming off a journey. g being usually done on foot, it was tial that the feet should be kept clean, and by being clean should also be kept free from the si Hi's that would retard the traveler. This custom still prevails in many eastern countries. Washing the feet is often made mention of in the Bible. We read thai the woman washed the feet of Jesus, and anointed them with oint- ment. This she would not have done but that it was considered a matter of mo- men! that the feet should be kept clean and in health. The Saviour also washed the feet of his disciples — which indicates the necessity of keeping the feet clean. I would advise the following of this excellent practice, among our own people. It has been said by a learned and witty divine, that no man can be a good Christian unless he keep himself clean. I incline to thai opinion. Cleanliness is so far apart ■ion in some countries, that the followers of Mahomet regard ablutions as es- lential to salvation as prayers. While I cannot subscribe to the superstitions of the Mahoincdan, [ can heartily commend his practice of cleanlineasto all my readers. Musi of the business of life is dependent upon an ability to walk about without trouble, and give attention to it; and this oannot be done with feet diseased and BOTO. Hence the importance of keeping them clean and in a healthy condition. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. LUNG CONSUMPTION. Tue lungs rarely become diseased unless from an affection in some other internal part, operating upon those organs. Real lung affection, without derangement of 6ome other organ, does not exist in one of a thousand cases; but to terminate life, the lungs are at last baffled in the performance of their functions — they be- oome so diseased as to shut out the air, which prevents s purification of the blood, and impedes its proper circulation. In this condition the patient is said to be in pulmonary consumption, and his situation is far from being a safe one. But had his State been known before the lungs had become deranged by the poison in the blood, and from other organs, he could easily have been restored to health. By aid of my Lung Barometer, in connection with other means, I am able to watch the progress of disease in other parts of the system in its effects upon the lungs ; also to see the rapid change in those organs from a diseased state to a state of heelth by the effects of medicines, and when under proper treatment, or vice versa. And this I claim to be the possession of a superior skill in the case of all complaints of this kind. By having the power to trace to the right organ the first seat of the disease, I possess the advantage of knowing what remedies must be used, and of being capacitated to give such advice as will, if followed, keep the lungs from be- coming di- Lung or pulmonary consumption is chiefly confined to the fair, with light skins and blue eyes, florid complexions, contracted chests and high shoulders ; yet, other temperaments are not wholly exempt. The disease often attacks insidiously. The patient grows tall, without a corresponding expansion of the head and chest, be- comes languid, and loses his flesh and spirits. A slight cough comes on, which is not often regarded ; but if the individual be examined, he will be found with a pulse varying from 80 to 100. Sometimes the patient will not he so easily on one side as the other, and will have slight chills, and often hemorrhage from the lungs, which is not at first much noticed. After this state has continued for a few weeks, there arise shooting pains in the chest. The chills are more strongly marked, and are followed by burning heat and co] lions sweat, when we say a hectic fever is formed. The cough becomes al- most incessant. The cheeks have a spot of pure, florid red ; there are flushings in the face after eating and sleep seems to afford no refreshing power. The counte- nanoe begins to jive Bigna of wasting health; the eyes are sunken, the cheeks pro- minent, and the strength begins to fail. The breathing becomes short, quick and offensive ; and morning sweats are increasing. The expectoration becomes loaded with matter, is discharged with ease, and comes up in great quantity. After a time the fever and cough abate, and there is a diarrhoea. Finally, the strength totally fails; fainting is added to the symptoms, the expectoration is changed to a dark brown color; the lower extremities swell, and unless the disease is checked, death comes for his victim. The distinction of consumption, particularly in its early stages, is of groat con- sequence; nor is it an object of small utility to point out its original source. At the age of about fourteen, in each sex, while the genital organs are assuming their proper powers, there is often debility and irritability of the person, and in the female there is sometimes a cough. At this period pulmonary consumption may THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 73 come on without suspicion, as all the symptoms manifested are ascribed to the na- tural change then being effected. And this may be urged as a substantial argument in favor of early marriage and sexual intercourse at this particular time, to assist nature to make a more healthy man or woman, which might be said with safety to far surpass the healing power of medicine in the prevention of pulmonary consump- tion, by starting puberty or the courses in a natural and healthy manner. If there is slight fever from cold at this period, or blood from the lungs, and a spasm or a cough on taking a deep breath, we may suspect the presence of pulmonary con- sumption. Says Combe : " Perhaps the most important time in the life of a person born with a predisposition to consumption is that of puberty, comprising from the com- mencement of rapid growth to the full consolidation of the system, about or after the twenty-fourth year. In most young people, the transition from adolescence to maturity is so rapid, that for two or tliree years all the animal powers are tasked to enable nutrition to keep pace with growth, and a corresponding debility of both body and mind is often observed to co-exist, indicating in the clearest manner the rityof a temporary omission from such studies and occupations as require much mental exertion or confinement within doors. The development and health of the physical system ought then to be almost exclusively attended to ; and when the body has acquired its solidity, the mental faculties will again become active. I have seen instances where a knowledge of the latter afforded substantial con- solation to young men who, while their bodies were growing rapidly, were apt to become despondent on account of the unusual sluggishness and inefficiency of their intellectual powers. ' In the course of a few years, when growth and consolidation were completed, the brain vigorously resumed its functions. " In such circumstances relaxation from study, residence in the country, exer- cise in the open air, plenty of food and freedom from care, will often do im- mense good, if sufficiently persisted in, and go far to protect the careful patient against the future invasion of consumption. "Whereas, if, under the mistaken notion that such precautionary measures are a waste of time, a delicate grow- ing youth is allowed to continue at his studies, or his desk, till diseaso has actually commenced, the disappointed parent may discover that it is too late to take alarm when health is gone." [In connection with this I would remark that we have in this presented to us a striking and powerful argument of the effects that a state of poverty may have in hastening death; a subject upon which I have treated at length in another part of this work under the head, "Effects of "Wealth upon Health." In the present state of society, where the wealth of a country is so unequally divided, the great body of young men and young women are obliged, as it were, to keep to their labor at this as well as all other periods ; the consequonce of which, as Combe remarks, is, in many cases, to induce the early death of this class of people I would not be understood as saying that at this ago per- sons should not work at all ; what I mean is, that they should not bo obliged to over-work in order to live. There is an extremo of idleness, and there is an extreme of labor; both these should bo avoided, as calculated to shorten human life.] True pulmonary consumption arises from tubercles or canker in the lungs, forming ulcers. Tubercles are enlarged conglobate glands. Their formation and 74 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. action depend on different circumstances. They are formed in contracted chests, perhaps from the pressure of the parts around obstructing the passage of tho fluids, and sometimes in consequence of an acrimony. As the tubercle does not y suppurate, it does not heal The cyst of it, however, sometimes sup- purates, and the contents are discharged: and when suppuration begins, all the symptoms of pulmonary disease supervene. If the tubercle be not deeply it bursts in the chest; but if deep, the matter is discharged into the bronchia. [f the discharge is not large, the patient throws it off without diffi- culty; but if the quantity of pus be considerable, he dies from suffocation. Tubercles are found, on sizes from the smallest granules to that of a large bean. In the smaller ones no cavity appears ; but as they increase in size cavities are formed, some of which contain matter. Finally, these tubercles in Bome measure change their character, when they are known by the technical name of vomica, being an ulcer with matter that may be expeetorated. These increase in size to two or three inches in diameter, with contents of a whitish- yellow, ash-colored, or greenish hue, and sometimes fetid, and when ruptured, more or less reddish. The larger vomica?, or tubercles, or ulcers, are generally found empty ; but on pressing the lungs, matter exudes. The branches of the pulmonary artery and vein running upon the tubercle, are much contracted, often filled with fibrous substance, and their pendulous ends completely shut up and i with a thick Blough. This fact may explain why death from bleeding from the lungs lias not occurred when so great a portion of the substance of those organs is destroyed. The parts of the lungs around the tubercle are inflamed, and more or less solid, and impervious to the air; the tubercles firmly cling to the lungs, preventing communication between the cavities of those portions of the lungs and that of the thorax. When a cold does not exist, and there are no symptoms of catarrh, nor any venereal poison in the blood, we may suspect a cough to arise from the pm of tubercles in the lungs, particularly if attended with shortness of breath on motion, and so trifling as to be denied by the patient, or has continued many months. The suspicions maybe stronger if the lungs have been injured by measles, local inflammations or other complaints, and confirmed, if, in addition to the symp- toms themselves, they are found existing in a person of thin, scrofulous habit, lino and delicate complexion, with swelled lips, glandular swellings in the neck, and Ihm tic fever. Generally, tubercles are deposited in the cellular tissue of the lungs; but they are sometimes seated in the air cells, the bronchi, or upon the surface of the mu- cous membrane of the lungs. The changes which occur around tuberculous de- posits are congestion, ulceration and suppuration. When the tubercle softens in- flammation supervenes iii the pulmonary tissues about it. These tissues ulcerate. and thus is formed a cavity ar td the softening mass. Suppuration takes .place in the easily, which, mixing with the tuberculous matter, forms what is known as an ire not often about a single tubercle, but around i of them, bo thai tin* shape of the abscess is generally irregular ; and they arc va- rious in sizes, from a pea to the occupancy of nearly the entire lobe of the lung. These al taallj when of large size, communicate by ulceration with the bronchi, and cut off the arteries ai i ing great bleeding. 'When they destroy tli,' air tubes, there results a rattle j n th,- lungs during respiration. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 75 Dissections of lungs hare shown that sometimes the tuberculous deposits have been changed in their nature, and the lungs saved. The marks of these tubercles are generally found at the upper part of the lungs. They consist of small chalky masses, or concretions, with often a harder substance in their nature. Everything connected with these concretions shows that they were originally the genuine tu- bercles, and that nature, striving against disease through extra inflation of the lungs, and a renovated blood, has changed their state and prevented their produc- ing fatal results in the patient. Frequently these concretions remain latent in the lungs for years, and health is enjoyed through Willi a long life. From this important fact in the history of tubercles, we may safely infer, I that if nature has succeeded in a given case, unaided, in so changing the character of the tubercle by an improved state of the blood as to prevent injurious effects from its pre- sence, it is at least possible that if nature were aided in its labors by proper blood re- medies, other and many cases might be shown where the fatality of the tubercle was prevented and the life of the patient saved. v- -, » s ECTI0N r 0F Tuberculous ^ rom * ms i as one reason > do I unhesitatingly t .„ say that pulmonary consumption is not al- ways incurable. However, as these tubercles are deposited in the lungs at different times, it does not follow because one deposition has been cured, consumption may not occur, for each successive deposit must be changed by the same process to prevent final death by the disease; or what is vastly better, if it is found that there has been one de- ildbe cleansed and purified, that no more depositions from it shall take place. In this manner we may not only cure cases of consumption, but we may prevent its occurrence. It i - ind, that in some instances there were incontrovertible signs of tubercles once having existed in a lung, when, on dissection, no part of them remained in any condition whatever. In these cases, the deposition had either utirely absorbed, or thrown off by expectoration, when the wound made in 1 healed, and health returned to the patient. This is r way in which oature cures pulmonary consumption without any aid what- ever. And it' this is done without aid, what, let mo ask, may not be done when oature i- assi ted in its labors by a scientific and experienced physician, operating with prop The depositions of tubercles take place in successive crops, the first of which is usually small. This, nature often throws off; but if the patient, when in this attention to his condition, and lets nature go on unaided, struggling there Will bo other depositions made before the first are ed or absorbed, and so in gradual succession till the disease gains a decided mastery, not only over oature, but over all its known aids. The knowledge of this will show US of what importance it, IB that, in (lie lirsl stales of the diseases, nature should have the assistance of science in some remedy for the relief of tho patient. It has been to this point that I havo devoted myself in tho study of con- 7G THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. sumption; with what thousands who have been saved by my rnedi- attest 1 would take occasion to remark here, that these tubercles are not always con- fined to the lungs. They are found deposited in other organs of the body, where the nature and progress is the same as in the lungs, and their effects as destructive and fatal. And the symptoms by which they are attended, allowing for the differ- ence in the functions of the different organs of their location, are nearly the same. The deposit is not unfrequently found in the cranium, especially among children. It is found in the membranes, in the lymphatic glands in the neck; also in the Bpleen, liver, bladder, kidney, uterus, heart, and in the structure of the bones. It may bo questioned if there is any organ of the body entirely exempt from its effects. But it is a general law that when tubercles exist in any other organ, they may be found in the lungs. However, there are exceptions to this ; and when these excep- tions exist is a matter of the most momentous importance to the physician who at- tends upon a patient. But I feel called upon to say that there are few physicians indeed who are capable of determining with certainty upon this point. In truth, they seldom think of it. It is by the aid of the Lung Barometer that I have been enabled to satisfy myself in every case presented upon this important matter, and am, therefore, better qualified to treat the patient. And it is from this knowledge thus gained that I so seldom fail to afford relief and effect a cure, where the lungs are not entirely destroyed. Pulmonary consumption we may consider as one of those diseases which is here- ditary — it is handed down from one generation to another in some families as an "heir loom ;" and though an inheritance not at all to be desired, it comes without will or law, and as something which thousands are forced to look upon as their sure and certain fate. But it is not always the case that persons born of a con- sumptive father or mother, or even of both, will be consumptive themselves. The chances are most certainly great that such will be the case, but it cannot be set down as a fixed rule. Generally speaking, those children resembling in form, in complexion and temperament the consumptive parent, will bo afflicted with the disease, while tlio.se who arc dissimilar in these particulars will not inherit the com- plain). The same is true in this respect as in respect to scrofula, asthma, and other complaints that seem to be transmitted from parent to child. It is sometimes the case, thai neither parent is consumptive, but the child will appear to have inherited the disease. It may be supposed, that where the family is predisposed to pulmonary consumption there may happen to occur a generation in wlii. Ii the complaint will not manifest itself, but will appear asatruly hereditary disease in the next line of succession. There ia a singularity inected v.iili the manifestations of hereditary pulmonary disease, thai is, that nol only the general predisposition, but the period of life at which the parent and child are affected are the same, independent of external causes, saving pregnancy in the female, and removing to a wanner climate just previous to the critical period Either of these may put off death for a timet but do not prevent final fatality from the complaint. The symptoms of pulmonary consumption have been noticed to occur repeatedly in the female, and to be re- moved by pregnancy, perhaps as many as four or live times. In Southern Europe, pulmonary consumption has been regarded as strongly in- fectious; and although not generally believed to be so in this country, I regard it THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 77 as in many respects a sympathetic and contagious complaint, particularly where persons are long and closely connected. To live in the same room or occupy the same bed I regard as decidedly dangerous, and in some cases have satisfied myself by close observation of the truth of this inference. In cases where there is a predisposition to pulmonary consumption, it requires great care to avoid the disease. All exciting causes should be carefully guarded against, such as catarrh and fever, especially at that period of life when the com- plaint lias manifested itself in former generations. By giving particular attention to all outward causes that have a supposed tendency to bring on the first stages of the disease, and by taking such vegetable preparations as will keep the blood pure and prevent it from leaving poisonous deposits in the lungs, the person may be carried in safety beyond the critical period and his life lengthened out for years in the enjoyment of good health. And where women are predisposed to this complaint, it has been found that marriage and pregnancy have sometimes not only carried the person beyond the expected consumptive time of life, but that, aided by vegetable preventives, they have proved of more than temporary efficacy against this com- plaint. It is not, however, always the case that marriage and pregnancy put off the ravages of the destroyer, yet it is very often so ; which is a powerful reason in favor of early marriage and child-bearing, as efficacious in lengthening the life of females, considered as a body — as proved by statistical reports, embodied under the head of early marriages and longevity. With regard to the per centage of cases of consumption arising from hereditary predisposition, there is great difference of opinion. Dr. "Walshe, of London, gives 21 per cent, of males and 37 of females from consumptive parents. Briquet, of Paris, gives 30 per cent, from this cause. But I am satisfied, that from the inability to learn the facts in many cases of consumption, and from the well-known reluct- ance of many patients to admit that their ancestors were consumptive, that the proportion is considerably larger than that given in either London or Paris — at least, thut it is so in this country. With safety, it may be set down at GO per cent., and many contend for a larger per centage. It is thought, too, that the cases of pulmonary consumption which seem to ariso hereditarily are in genoral more un- favorable in regard to a cure or a relief than those springing from other causes. Reports from the London hospital for consumption show the singular fact, that Consumptive fathers most frequently transmit the disease to their sons, and tho moth'i-.; to the daughters. The reasons for this it would be difficult satisfactorily to explain. With reference to the proportion of males ami females, there seems to be a contradiction from reports of hospitals. In some cases, there are more men attacked than women, in others the reverse. It would appear from statistics that in Paris, the number of women troubled of this disease is larger than of the men — say as about GO to 70; while in London hospitals the number of men is Gl to 88 of tho dpposito sex. In tho city of Geneva, Switzerland, tin.' cases are as 1 15 men to 10G women. From tho Sanitary Reports of the city of New York, wo gather that of 1000 persons who died of consumption, that are about 22 more males than females. Boston shows a similar difference, but greater. On the other hand, rep., ns from New York State and from the state of Massachusetts — I icing country places — Bhow a larger preponderance tho other way, in about tho proportion of 5 deaths of females by this diseaso to 3 of males. From this it would appear that somo cause exists in country towns to oxtond the disease among females; while different 78 TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. causes exist in cities, to aggravate the disease in the other sex. From these facts it will appear that there is difference in locality as regards the outward influences of business under which the sexes are brought. This shows that consumption often from causes which might be guarded against ; and it shows, too, that by having proper regard to those causes, and intently considering the occupations and of individuals, and ascertaining the character and nature of the inducing we should not only better know how to treat each individual case, but our labors would be attended with much greater success than generally falls to the lot of the careless empyrics and unprincipled quacks that infest our country under the name of physicians. What these causes are, it may be difficult to decide with certainty, unless we attribute to the country ladies, their exposures to wet feet, arising from the mud and snow, during the critical periods, habits in fashions of dress, — heavy skirts, tight lacing, open bosomed dresses, thin bonnets and dresses, — self-pollution by masturbation, disappointed love, and protracted celibacy; while the men in the cities are more confined in-doors, deprived of pure air, exercise and light, and sub- jected to the dust of workshops ; and are given to excessive sexual intercourse by prostitution with the harlot, contracting the poisonous venereal disease of the cour- tesan, and early dying with consumption. If other and better reasons than these can be offered from statistical reports, I would be pleased to hear them. The influence of age on pulmonary consumption is somewhat remarkable. A very large proportion of consumptives die between the ages of twenty and thirty— probably over one-fourth. Probably three-fifths of those who suffer from it are attacked between the ages of twenty and thirty-rive. But it is to be found in per- sons of all ages, and even the lungs of the foetus sometimes contain tubercles. Condition of life has its strong influence in inducing consumption. The circum- stances which seem to increase the tendency are poverty, sedentary habits, a bent position of the body, impure air in workshops, the inhalation of certain mineral and vegetable vapors, or air loaded with a coarse or impalpable dust, or with fight, thready, elastic substances; while those which exercise a preservative influence are easy circumstances, an active life in the open air. and regular general exercise. Sedentary habits, especially sitting much with the body inclined forward, exert a decided influence in favor of pulmonary consumption. Shoemakers and tailors are largely subject to the disease. atical reports show many curious facts relative to the difference of situation of countries in effect upon consumption. It has been commonly supposed that : to a warmer climate would prove beneficial to the consumptive; but this is not always the case. The fact is, that a permanent residence in a tropical climate tends to increase the chances of death by this disease, though this is not true of ail places in the tropical region. In this respect the East and West Indies have been found to differ materially, though situate in the game latitude — the East being more favorable to the complainl than the West. This difference is so marked, that statis- -,v that the proportion of deaths in the West Indies from this disease is greater than in Great Britain, while in the East Indies it is less. The same may I to be true with refi country; that removal to the East Indies might in the main prove of benefit, while to the West Indies it would pro', terioua But taking case after case, it may be seriously doubted if removal should bo recommended. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 79 Reports from the army of the United States show 9 deaths among 1000 men from this disease in the Atlantic posts and those on the lakes, while those remote from the large bodies of fresh or salt water give only 6 deaths in 1000. This shows a decided advantage in the inland towns. At the same time, a sailor's life is de- cidedly favorable in lessening the number of deaths from this disease. It has been generally beheved that inflammations of the chest and lungs produce a large number of cases of pulmonary consumption; but of the truth of this there is doubt. I think it would be found that where the symptoms of consumption have followed a bad cold or an inflammation, the tubercles had existed in the lungs pre- viously. The cold or inflammation might have forwarded the injurious action of the tubercles, but did not cause their deposit. However, very serious results follow often from colds and inflammations, and whether they really cause pulmonary con- sumption or not, they should nevertheless receive careful attention. Thus I have shown you the cause, character, symptoms, and history of lung or pulmonary consumption, with statistics connected with its rise, progress, fatality in different places, ages and occupations; and also explained how, by the opera- tions of nature alone, the disease is, in spite of the commonly received doctrine, often cured, and how it may be cured frequently if nature received the proper aid And I will now assure you, whatever your physician may say, that con- sumption is not an incurable disease. And I do not make this assertion without any foundation — it is based upon the knowledge I have gained by experience and upon statistical information derived from various reliable sources. And let me here repeat, that it is only the ignorant who still adhere to the old opinion ; being unable, because of their ignorance, to cure the disease in any case, they assert that no one else can cure it. This is certainly arguing from a poor premise, and infusing erroneous opinions among the people, which exert a tendency decidedly injurious. But to prove to you that I do not boldly face the entire mass of physicians alono upon this point, (although the great body of them are against my assertion,) I will state hero that a physician attached to the almshouse for aged women in Paris, found, on post mortem examination of 100 women, all over sixty years of age, and dying of various diseases, that 51 of them presented evidence, chiefly by chalky concretions in the lungs, of tubercles or ulcers once having existed in them, from tin: fatal effects of which they had been relieved. And a distinguished professor of New York, Dr. Swett, in his lectures before medical students, has admitted that and especially anatomical facts, prove beyond a doubt, that cases do recover, and that these cases are not very rare!" Speaking of consumption, Dr. Dixon, on page 114 of the " Scalpel," says: "When the constitution can bo rapidly improved either by diet or climate, those ulcers may heal, and if no more tubercles form, and digestion and the skin be kept in full play of their powers, so as to produce plenty of material, and it throws off carbon or the useless matter of the system, the person is." "What more do wo want in proof? And why should you believe the ignoranf pretender wheD be declares that in your case there is no hope of recovery — no chance of escape? His declarations are false! — I know them to be false — I hare proved them to be false. Take courage, therefore; and if others tell you you (•annul, recover, apply a1 once to Bome one who will understand your case, and can afford the necessary relief. Give not up to death until you have satisfied yourself by testing some one who has perfect knowledge of all diseases of the lungs, and who, if a cure is possible, will be able to effect it in the most speedy manner. And 80 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. to those who are continually discouraging tho sick by telling them that they are beyond hope, I would say — Go, ignoramus, and inform yourself; preach no more your abominable falsehoods ; make yourself fit for a teacher before you undertake to prt scribe for the afllieted. KINDS OF CONSUMPTION. The causes and kinds of consumption are so numerous, and physicians making no distinctions between them, but treating all alike, when each should receive its distinctive medicine, that it is not at all to be wondered at that most fail of doing the patient any good. This is the reason why they do faiL Until physicians better understand these matters, they may as well hang up their saddle-bags and do as they have always done — call consumption of every kind by one name — a compound disease, not understood, and incurable. Is it true that the different kinds of consumption cannot be known and treated as they should be? Unhesitatingly, I say no! I say they can be known, and each separately and distinctly treated with its own appropriate remedies. [See Lung Ba- rometer and its use.] There is consumption of the lungs, liver, heart, kidney, stomach, womb, spleen, larynx, bowels, and other organs. A wasting disease in any organ affecting tha general health may be properly classed under the head of consumption. When administered to under the knowledge gained by the use of the Lung Ba- rometer, a cure of all lung and pulmonic diseases may be regarded as nearly cer- tain: without this, recovery is mere matter of chance. I have cured many persons who had lost one lung entirely and had the other badly diseased. A man can live with one lung as well as with one eye or arm. The loss of one gives the other greater strength and power. Some cases of lung consumption we may regard as incurable ; but I seldom fail of restoring to a state of health either one or both lungs unless the invalid is unfaithful to the directions given him. Many fail to ex- perience benefit because they will not sacrifice their convenience or taste; but me- dicines in all cases must be compounded to suit tho complaint and not the taste of int. Unless the invalid is willing to make sacrifice of time, taste and conve- nience to a certain extent, (provided such sacrifices are necessary,) in order to obtain health and enjoy a long life, I am not desirous ho should apply to me for help; for it is in the treatment of such invalids that I should lose my reputation for skill, be- i n it li the facts in the case ; and by unfaithfulness the patienl would be almost certain to lose his life. 1 have seldom treated a i mption but that the patient has began to in, l"'"' has gone on from better to better till a cure was finally off cted, mil. i Q tly the case, there has been an inatten- tion to the remedies presi ribe I and the advice given. Frequently I have known an invalid brought up n i threshold of the grave, and placed in a situation where perseverance in the use of tho proper medicines would have certainly made him a well man; but, unfortunately, when the more serious symptoms of the dis- easo had disappeared, the patient would become careless, leave off taking the medicines, go into a relapse and Boon reach the grave. A relapse in these cases is almost always fatal. It is indeed strange that a person who has hud the con- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 81 gumption for months, perhaps years, and has been looking for a speedy death, once relieved of hi3 complaint by the power of medicine, and feeling his lungs nearly healed, should give up to carelessness or indifference on some trivial excuse, such as that the medicines are unpleasant to the taste, or he has not time to take them, or it is not convenient to follow advice ; and by thus doing fall back into a state worse than at the first. Persevere, should be the motto of every consumptive. ] If you get better, keep on till you are well ; and when you are well use the means and the preventives of disease to keep well. I would enjoin this upon all who ever expect to escape from the consumptive's grave. If it is not attended to, the invalid cannot reasonably hope for a cure. A physician to treat pulmonary consumption with that efficacy and good result that may attend his efforts, must know the real cause of it, and the effect which it has produced upon the organ afflicted. He must understand if tubercles or ulcers exist ; if ossification has taken place ; if rupture of the air-cells or arteries has oc- curred ; whether the disease is increasing or decreasing ; whether it bo immediately dangerous or not ; whether it can be cured in a long or a short time. He must know what state the blood is in, and whether the disease be scrofulous, cancerous, venereal, or arise from accumulation of animal decomposition, or from adulterated articles of food and drink, mineral poisons, from humors of the blood, or be induced by the action of the mind — disappointment in love or business, &c, &c. He must know the quantity of air the lungs will contain, and whether or not inhalation has been deficient ; whether stricture, or a contracted state of the lungs exists ; the color of. the matter expectorated, if there be any ; whether the patient is troubled with canker, sore-throat or catarrh ; whether the lungs are weak or strong ; whether the liver is affected or not ; whether the liver has adhered to the lungs, and matter passes through the lungs from the liver or not ; whether the lungs have adhered to the pleura, chest, or to each other ; and a thousand other things which may bo ne- cessary in the case. And to get at these he must have a Lung Barometer ; for by the usn of the stethoscope or by sounding the chest, they can never be determined about with certainty. And a principal reason why I have had so much better suc- cess in the treatment of consumption is because I have used the Lung Barometer and other inventions of mine, by which I learn positively the condition of the parts affected, whilo others only judge of and guess about them. SOUNDING THE LUNGS AND CHEST. The most eminent of medical men have of late nearly discarded tho use of the .stethoscope in determining the nature of consumptive diseases. And, in truth, there can be but little reliance placed upon it. In order that you may be able to compre- hend in some measure tho difficulty of determining the condition of the lungs by sounding tho chest, either with tho stethoscopo or by percussion (rapping on the chest,) I will endoavor to show you the doubts thrown ov< t these tat thods Inj those who practice them, ami the reasons why sash soundings are rendered doubtful in their results. In the fir.>t place, to learn anything at all from percussion or rapping upon the ches f ., you must clearly under tand the natural resonance of each and every patdont while in health; you musl knew the elasticity of the in1 ma] m , and tho 82 TITE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. parities of the chest. These are by no means alike in different persons — the lungs are not equally elastic in different individuals, nor equally charged with air; so that on examination we find much greater resonance in one person than in another, uth he perfectly free from disease. There is also great difference arising from the presence of great or small muscles the chest, from the pressure of flesh in greater or less quantity, and from the condition of the heart, (which may be enlarged in its bed in the lungs, and cause a very different sound on rapping from what would otherwise result.) also from the condition of the liver and spleen, (which encroach upon the cavity of the chest and in their well or diseased condition much difference of sound.) "When the a of the chest are thick, scarcely anything can be determined from rapping. . the fullness and size of the breasts often prevent the gaining of any certain information of the conditions of the lungs in all that portion over which they Up hi the back, the shoulder blades extend over a large portion of the lungs, which makes it impossible to obtain any accurate information from rapping in that quarter. The degree of tension of the muscles also greatly affects the resonance of the chest, and it requires the nicest care to so place the patient that you can learn by a comparison of the two sides how much one is affected ; for if there be the - difference in the tension of the muscles of each side, there will be a corre- sponding difference of sound. In addition to these natural difficulties, there is a greater one arising in the way in which the operator will percuss the chest; and from the chest of the same indivi- dual no two operators will obtain the same sound. That this is so, I will not ask 70U to believe on my authority alone, but to establish the fact to your satisfaction will quote from a series of lectures delivered at the Xew York Hospital by a distin- guish' '' the allopathic school, Dr. Swett. He says — " The act of percussion seems to be a very simple thing ; you may think that you can practice it perfectly after a little practice. But it is not so. It requires much practice and care to percuss the chest well. Look at those toho havt for years, and what a difference is there in the results obtained by different practiMon- ers .' One will render a'sEght difference in sound in different portions of the chest quite apparent, while another will obtain only the most unsatisfactory n '111- truth of this, as Bet forth by the professor alluded to, is admitted by the me- dical faculty generally — at least by all that portion whose opinions are considered of any worth. ■'ion (that is by listening with the ear applied directl 1 he stethoscope,) is liable to the same difficulties and differences in result, and for the same ion or rapping. is such difference in different persons, whose fun ' ctly sound, that unless the practitioner lias been acquainted with the respiratory sounds of his pal fore the patiem nd has a very nice ear and a retentive memory at ihat, he will he very liable indeed to be mistaken nol only in regard to the state of a dis- V, -Mental cai kinds — agitation of the mind — pains in other parts of the body, fear. and numerous other causes, many of which it is ognizanoe of— UlgS, that tip mere than equal thai the el, server will able to determine tin- condition of ' THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 83 where nothing intervenes to prevent the hearing. This being the case, (as is also admitted by the professor alluded to,) how can it be with any reason believed that even the closest observer can accurately determine the condition of the lungs by the means and in the ways mentioned. It is impossible. And yet I have been informed on the most reliable authority, that a doctor in New York who claims for himself the highest skill in the cure of consumption, and who is quite deaf of one ear, as often uses the deaf ear in his examinations of the lungs as the other one ! This shows of how much service such an examination would be. Could a man partially deaf hear those slight and delicate sounds made by the air in the lungs ? Certainly not. Such an examination of the lungs is fit to be classed with the use made of the other deaf and blind catch-traps of this eminent (?) physician — shoulder-brace, sup- porter and inhaling tube. These inventions, though useful at times and in certain complaints, are quackish in the application to which they are often put, and are used as mere hobbies to deceive people and lead them to resort to useless means to obtain relief from disease. Consumption cannot be cured by rule, nor can the dif- ferent kinds of this disease be subjected to the use of supporters, braces and tubes, as is pretended. Says Dr. Dixon, in the Scalpel, page 109 : — " Many physicians carry about with them the stethoscope, a small cedar stick with a hole in it, ornamented with ivory, to give it ' professional effect ' in the eyes of the people ; but it is for the most part a mere trap to get business by!" Page 110 — "It is very mortifying to observe the uses made of the stethoscope by many physicians ; to see them frighten and fatigue a poor invalid, by their tricks and solemn countenances, when nature or over-feeding has made many of them so obtuse in their hearing and intellects, that it can convey no particle of information." It being the case, as I have shown, that these means of determining the condi- tion of the lungs often prove fallacious and render every thing therewith connected uncertain, what is it the duty of the medical man to do? Should he continue in this uncertainty ? Are the matters of commerce and of pecuniary gain of greater ac- count than human life, that man should be without a sure guide to disease, while by many inventions he is placed in comparative safety upon the ocean, and surely di- rected in his labors upon land? The sailor, though no cloud looms upward in the space over which his watchful eye extends, regards with anxiety his barometer which foretells him of the coming storm; and ere the fury of the hurricane, which else had buried him in the bosom of the ocean, is upon him, he furls his sails and securely ridee And when the fogs of the ocean encompass, and the darkness of the night envelops him, so thai nature gives no guide to his course, he trstchi by bis side and sails forward in security. And so is it in the other fields of life. But in disease, we have been left without a guide, anil all action has been m ide in the dark, without certainty, and by guessings, experiments, and dap-traps. A.nd so il mighl have continued for ages to come, had not the author entered the Held of invention, and determining to devise -nine means to learn the condition of the afflicted sufferers, brought out the Lung Barometer as the fruit of his laborious toil Tbia has opened the door of knowledgt — has made the orooked roads straight, and given co hope to the afflicted, By its use the state of tli" lungs is accurately determined, consumption is foretold, and the in- dividual warned to prepare his bark bo encounter the coming storm ; and consump- tion is placed in the list of curable di 84 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGIITIIOUSE. The mineralogist, as be traverses the earth in search of mines of wealth beneath the surface, is directed by his metallic needle, which points downwards to the stores of ore beneath. But for this he had wandered far without profit; the mineral wealth of the world bad lain undiscovered of man in tho bosom of the earth, and where now plenty abounds, ruin and idleness have prevailed. But though directed by inventions to the gold and the silver that enriches, man has had no security against disease. Even while searching for that which he hoped would give ease and comfort to his later days, the fangs of consumption were fastened upon him, and he knew it not till the destroyer was ready to slay. Ilad he been under the detecting eye of the Lung Barometer, he had escaped destruction ; for this would have warned him of the first approach of tho disease, and he might have been saved to life and to the enjoyments of the world. We have the clock and the watch to give us the hour of the day ; the scale to deter- mine weights to exactness ; the thermometer to indicate the degree of heat ; and numer- ous other inventions that detect with unerring certainty in the uses to which they are employed. Still, in that most important of all earthly matters, the health of the human being, there was for ages no infallible detector and guide. But this state of criminal ignorance no longer exists ; the genius of man has finally invented the means by which all conditions of the lungs may be determined, and through it the raging pestilence of consumption is forever robbed of the terrors that for ages have clung about its name. [See Lung Barometer.] A physician should be both a natural mechanic and an experienced practitioner, so as to know how to adapt his mechanical helps and his ditferent medicines to each individual case of consumption ; since no two cases will be found exactly alike, any more than the physiognomy of two persons will be alike. There may Ikj a strong resemblance, but there will still be a difference. A physician can no more cure different cases of consumption by exactly the same treatment than a black- smith can fit one shape and size of shoe to the feet of all horses, or a hatter one hat to all sizes of heads, or a milliner one glove to the hand of all ladies, or a tailor one coat to a dwarf and a giant. IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT ON HEALTH. The effects of light on health and on the human system generally, both mentally and physically, have not yet been fully elucidated and explained. "We have only of late began to perceive with clearness and to trace with certainty its influence on vegetable, animal and chemical substances. Light in general separates oxygen; it changes nitre into nitrous acid, and tbo oxy-muriatic to common muriatic acid. Lighl also deprives many preparations of their peculiar color and medicinal value, particularly phosphorus, and seems greatly to influence tho progress of crystallization. Carmine requires to bo exposed to a strong solar light, for a cloud, it is said, will spoil the color. In the vegetable kingdom, and from the humblest plant to the tallest tree of tho forest, we find that the absence of light deprives the leaves of their peculiar and beautiful colors, and the vi te and healthfuln«8B. Humboldt found in shafts of mines that the haves of plants were not shaped the same as wore those of the same kind growing in the light above. The florist can tell you of THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 85 the great importance of light to give a healthy and beautiful growth to his various plants and flowers. Plants grow very feebly and imperfectly without light. Their growth is not wholly dependent on the decomposition of water ; but their color depends materially on the decomposition of water and the carbonic gas. Animals which most usually live in the open air, by confinement and exclusion from fight, become feeble, and lose a great portion of their health, liveliness and color. Other animals, as the mole, the pangolin, and some others which scarcely ever see the day, are not white, and are peculiarly active and intelligent. Some animals emit light in their motions, and this light is connected with their life and activity, as in the lampyrcs, the glow-worm, the insects in oyster shells, and those which il- lumine the sea in storms ; in these it seems that hght enters into the composition of those fluids to which their activity is owing, giving a lively action to the phospho- ric acid of which those animals are greatly composed. The eyes of the cat give out a light in the dark ; and if we rub the hair* of this animal in the night, it will emit sparkles of light. I have previously shown, when speaking of the causes of insanity, that all living beings having the greatest proportion of phosphorus or phosphoric acid in their compositions, have the greatest activity and liveliness ; and that the brains of all animals, mankind included, containing the most phosphorus, gave the highest de- gree of mental activity and intelligence. I also stated that idiots, and animals of a low mental caliber, were destitute of a due share of phosphoric acid in the brain ; that they must necessarily be so ; and that chemical analysis had established this fact ; and further, that persons having a very large share of phosphorus in their brains or bodies, were the most sensitive and nervous, and the most likely to be- come insane or broken down in their mentality, under the influence of long continued or rapid currents of nervo-electricity, passing to the brain — caused by fright, disappointment in love, or any other mental excitement — and convulsing the brain by action upon the phosphorus. It ifl a feet established by practical observation, that active, nervous and highly sensitive persona, are the ones most likely to become mentally deranged by the per- plexities, disappointments, and embarrassments of life: and with such persons men in their promises and transactions should be punctual and honest, and act with th< in a bey agree, or the mental balance of these persons may be over- thrown and perhaps destroyed forever — the nervo-electricity acting so powerfully Upon the brain when it is unfitted for the shock, the connection of mind and matter is dissolved, and saneness is dethroned. All persons are aware, or should be, that the relations of accidents or troubles to interested persons, should generally be by degrees rather than hastily, for fear of (lie suddenness of the matter communicated operating injuriously upon the mind. That those animals mo I Busceptible to the power of electricity or galvanic batteries are charged with phosphorus in the largest quantities, was determined by the ex- periments of Galvani, from whence we argue thai men oontsining phosphorus in large proportion are more likely to be injured by sudden electrical excitement than (hose poss ing less. Light may properly be said to be a component part of our bodies; and it seems to be particularly con ted with the activity of the mind. At night or in the dark W0 are inclined to be dull and sleepy; and so it, is with the animals. When wo reflect that the general health is apparently connected with light, and 86 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. that this peculiar acid of the system, the phosphoric, has a powerful attraction for light, ami appears to contain it, not only in a chemical combination, but when in the form of an oxide united with it, and allows it to separate without decomposition, we may Suspeol it to be a greater and more powerful agent in the animal economy than has yet been behoved. In proportion as light is shut out of our houses, churches, and school-rooms, will the mind become sleepy and inactive, the body lose its strength and health, the liveliness and color depart, and the system become feverish; and if the rooms are damp, we shall lose our nervous and mental activity, and become scrofulous or con- sumptive, perhaps sicken and die. Deprivation of light destroys the health of body and mind, by destroying the phosphorus of the body. Dark, damp houses destroy the phosphorus and prevent the nervous electricity from passing on the nerves and acting upon the brain ; and for this reason a person having great mental labor to perform soon loses something of*his mental acquirements when he is confined to business in dark ami damp rooms. And the same is true with reference to his bodi- ly health if he live in a dark and clamp house. Dark and damp days are dreary and dull seasons to persons of lively mind and active body, with a large share of phosphorus and nervous electricity, because the diminution of light affects the phosphorus, and the dampness of the atmosphere prevents the easy and frequent flow of the nervous electricity. This it is that makes damp houses, stores, churches and other places of business so destructive to the health. A person with a small share of phosphorus in his blood is never remarkably ac- tive — never noted for acts of heroism. The reason why is, that he cannot be elec- trified by any nervous electrical excitement; but one having a large share of the phosphorus is filled with life and overflowing with heroic The phosphoric acid of our bodies, with its attracting and absorbing power for light, together with its being the highest principle in man's existence, when electri- fied with electricity from the body or nervous electricity from active passions of men, is the source of the activity and liveliness of the person. And when we are shown by chemical investigation that phosphorus absorbs and requires light for its support, in connection with the support derived from the food taken into lie tem, we ean see the wisdom of the Deity in so bountifully supplying us with light, not only to directly sustain our bodily and mental activity, bu1 to give to the ani- mal and vegetable worlds a large share of phosphoric acid, from which phosphorus is mostly obtained — that man may be constantly supplied through these sources with the active principle of his existence: for a person nearly destitute of this principle Lh but at best a drone in society, if not truly idiotic. Phosphoric acid or phosphorus is decidedly dangerous in its action when in the form of & medicine, and should not, therefore, ever bo used in a greater quantity than is found existing in some animal or vegetable substances, which are taken in the form of food. (See table of foods containing phosphorus.] AIR, AND IIS EFFECTS UPON HEALTH. Atmospheric air is a compound gas, the constituents of which are one-fifth oxygen and four-fifths nitrogen. Nitrogen, of itself, seems to pog active properties, and it- ttly to dilute the oxygen, which, if taken pure, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 8? would prove highly injurious. Oxygen, on the other hand, possesses exceedingly powerful and vital properties. Air is necessary to animal existence — as is easily to be seen by experiments made with the air pump. Deprive a man of air and he will soon die. Toads, vipers, eels, insects of various kinds, and fish, will survive for a short tune in an exhausted receiver, because they expend the oxygen slowly and separate it per- fectly from the nitrogen ; but they will die sooner or later if deprived of air. Air is a fluid of extreme rarefaction, and is moved by the slightest force. It is invisible ; it refracts, but does not reflect the rays of light ; it is inodorous and insipid, and its weight Ls not perceptible except in large quantities ; but it possesses a great power of elasticity. Its particles are said to be too small to be perceived by any microscope. It is a vehicle of sound, of the objects of taste, and of effluvia to the nose. It is a part in the composition of all bodies, but cannot be rendered of itself solid by any known means. Heat rarefi.es and cold condenses it. The effects of air upon the spirits as well as upou the health are great. Thus, when the air is light, we find languor steal over us ; when it is heavy, our spirits are brisk and free. Of the two compounds of air, oxygen is, as far as has yet been ascertained, the only sustainer of life. It is this which gives to the blood its healthy properties and bright color, and removes from it its impurities. It imparts to the brain, the muscles, the stomach, the heart, and every other organ, a principle which gives and power, and keeps, alive the body by removing from it those sub- Btances whose accumulation would soon destroy it. If the lungs were to receive constantly a larger portion of oxygen than they obtain from the common air, all the operations of the body would be accelerated to a point incompatible with its relations to the other departments of nature, and the would soon be destroyed by overwork. The presence of nitrogen, therefore, serves the purpose of tempering the oxygen to a degree proper for the just and equable operations of life. Sets of oxygen may be observed by letting a person inhale an attuning two ['arts of that gas to three of nitrogen. IX will excite all the iter degree of activity and force than is natural. iced by its influence almost beyond control; the energies of the mind are increased ; and the circulation of the blood is accelerated. This air reathed with safety but for a very few minutes. This will show you the influence of oxygen on the human system when taken in ■ quantity than is designed by nature. And, on the other hand, a reduction in the n low the quantity found in the puresl atmosphere, tends tern beneath the standard of health, gives rise to debilitated bodies, diseases of various organs, general deficiency oJ strength, or, when carried to too greal i death, more or less sudden. When, from any cause— and the causes are various — the oxygen in the air taken into the lungs is reduced in quantity below the Btandaxd found to exist in the > 1- mon untainted atmosphere, we may say that the air has become impure. In this a. it i- nol fit to breathe; and no man can breathe it continuously without encing effects decidedly injurious to his health. In truth, impure ail is one of the scourges of mankind. No age or sex is exempt from its influei but especially are they subject to its evils who live after the fashions prevailing ■under S8 the peop] .irniousE. modern civilization and refinement. Impure air is a prime and continuous cause of disease and death. There are some conditions of the atmosphere beyond the control of man, out of winch flow to him diseases of various kinds; but it is nevertheless a fact, that at least one-half of the maladies received from a bad air arise from causes easily under- stood and which might be prevented ! This no one denies, and yet, the importance of having pure air is a subject that receives but a small share of attention. "Writers on pestdence have noticed two distinct species of virus applied to the body through the medium of the air — 1st, that arising from the putrefaction or decomposition of dead animal or vegetable matter; as the exhalation of marshes, sewers, graveyards, bogs, uncultivated or undrained plains; the accumulation of filth in cities, houses, &c. : 2d, effluvia generated by the decomposition of the nat- ural exhalations and excretions of the human body, (growing out of a natural tendency to putrefaction of our bodies, when they are excluded from pure air,) accumulated and confined in ill-ventilated habitations. The first has been called marsh miasma, and is supposed to give rise to yellow, remittent, bilious and inter- mittent fevers, dysentery, and perhaps cholera. The second, sometimes termed typhoid miasma, usually gives origin to common typhus and low nervous fevers. From these two sources arise many of the diseases which impair the bodily and mental health of the people, and bring a considerable portion prematurely to the grave. If we allow the sources of impurity to exist in or around our dwellings, we are virtually poisoning ourselves ; and while many, from these sources, die of fevers and other acute diseases, the remainder have their health impaired and their lives shortened ; and an unhealthy race arises in consequence of the great defect. The medical man may be told, when he speaks of the subject of ventilation, that ventilation is a hobby of his, and that hitherto people have got on very well without attending to it. But this does not alter the fact that without ventilation the body and mind are seriously affected to illness. It is generally supposed that the larger comparative mortality in large towns among the poorer classes, is chiefly attributable to meagre and unwholesome food, and immoderate indulgence in adulterated and poisoned liquors. And these do in truth operate as destroyers of the human race. But in this country, where, for a portion of the year, we experience a degree of heat but little below that endured in the tropics, which quickly decomposes all dead animal matters, meagre food and bad liquors are insignificant causes of disease compared with impure air — either* that previously respired or that rendered unwholesome from being loaded with the particles of decayed vegetable and animal matter. That the use of the same food and drinks in the country, where the air is generally comparatively pure, are attended with much less of sickness and mortality than in the impure and close air of cities, is a fact universally known. The influence of pure air to stay the ravages of an epidemic have been often wit- nessed. It is indeed a powerful disinfectant. It has been repeatedly noticed in the large manufacturing towns in England that the number of fever patients in the hospitals daring seasons when nearly the whole population was shut up and at work in the bad air of the factories, was much larger than in seasons when they were all tamed out into the "pen air by a stoppage of the mills. Sometimes the reduction of fevers in the times when the people were out of work and out of doors, was as large as from 8 to 2£l I And invariably, no sooner have operations been THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 89 renewed in the mills and the inhabitants returned to their labors therein, than the fever has gone back to its former numbers, and sometimes new epidemics have broken out. This fact alone is sufficient to show the necessity of pure air in order that we may enjoy good health. And there are on record many instances where the progress of an epidemic has been suddenly stopped by simply ventilating a house in which it prevailed. Dr. Arnott, of England, makes mention of a vast lodging-house connected with a manu- factory at Glasgow, in which fever formerly constantly prevailed, but where, by making an opening from the top of each room through a channel of communication to an air-pump, the disease had disappeared altogether ! The supply of pure air obtained by that mode of ventilation was sufficient to dilute the cause of disease to such a degree that it became powerless in the production of sickness. In the famous " black hole " of Calcutta, one hundred and forty-six Englishmen were shut up at night in a small, close room ; in the morning but twenty-three were alive — the remainder had perished of a horrible death. There were not more than four or five thousand cubic feet of air in the room ; and as each person should have had at the least three hundred cubic feet, the oxygen of the air was very soou exhausted, and the carbonic acid gas thrown out of their different lungs into the room and received back again, soon poisoned them to death. And the few who were found alive in the morning were so affected that they are said "to have been attacked with a fever analogous to typhus." Besides these cases, thousands of instances are recorded where ventilation has banished epidemic fever. I will mention one more of these. At one time in Glas- gow, there was a building inhabited by five hundred persons, crowded very thickly together. Not one of the rooms was ventilated — the inmates would not be pre- vailed upon to ventilate them : and fevers constantly prevailed. At one period for two months there were not less than fifty-seven cases in the house ! At last the proprietors of the factory connected with the house fixed a tin tube of two inches diameter into each room and communicated it to the chimney of the factory furnace. Thus there was produced a constant draft from each room, and the inmates were compelled to breathe pure air. The result of this simple contrivance was, that for the nezl eight years fever was scarcely known in that building! And by com- paring tin' amount of sickness in tho ill-vcntilatcd jails and prisons of times past witli that in the better ones of to-day, we shall see the effects of good air upou the health of man. Before the days of Howard, jail-fever existed almost constantly in all the jails of Europe. A striking case of death from tho want of air occurred in 1797-8, on board a small vessel belonging to Southampton, England, in which wero seventy men, women and children, coming from Jersey. A heavy blow coming on, the captain sent all the passengers below, for the greater safety of his sloop; laid on the hatches, and battened them down with tarpaulin. When tho hatches wero opened, there was not left a living soul among the seventy! ! Such cases as these, and tlioso that sometimes occur on board slave ships, and emigrant vessols, show how mankind are affected by foul air ; and though death does not always result immediately, as in some of the instances noted, bad air, no matter how small the quantity, operates injuriously upon the system, in proportion to its strength and the length of time it, is inhaled. Mankind appear to have early learned that cleanliness and pure air contributed 90 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. greatly to health, and plague and pestilence have always been somewhat under the control of sanatory measure*. Mosea inculcated scrupulous cleanliness, and among the Egyptians and Grecians laws upon this subject prevailed. In Rome, shortly after the foundation of the city, sewers on an extended and magnificent scale were commenced, " to remove all filth and odor, which in a great capital too often breed , disease." These sewers were large receptacles for the filth and dung of the whole city. They were begun by Tarquin, fifth king of Rome, ami linished by his grandson, Tarquin the proud, six hundred years before Christ. They were built under th arches w< re so high that men on horseback could ride ttttough tin in. The principal of these sewers still exists. The Romans also drained the marshes near the city, and drew oft all the stagnant waters, to render the place orated Appian way, that cannot now be even approached, ran through the marshes, south of the city. But the -lory of Rome has departed— her sewers are tilled up with earth and rubbish, the marshes around have returned to theh original .state, and the once healthy city is described by McOulloch as -'a land Whose fragrant breezes are poison, and the dews of whose summer evenings are death." The contagious viri of small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, and all other diseases of that class are communicated through the atmosphere, and actually inhaled into the lungs, and absorbed into the circulation. In the same manner, consumption, where the communica q two persons is Ion- ami close, is inhaled into the lungs and blood of the well man from the impurities thrown off by the sick of that are always in proportion to the amount of virus inhaled, (the condition of the body being supposed to be always equal,) therefore, it follows, that if the fetid aft of a sick room be diluted with^wre air, the chances of disease to the physician or visitor are lessened. Tims, in a well-ventilated apartment, with a dozen sick men, you ari to contagious disease than in room with only one. These tacts are well known from the Statistics of hos- pitals in various parts of the world Although levers arising from impure air may be classed as the largest in num- bers from thai source, there are various other diseases which are largely con- tributed to by this cause. Diseases of the dige ii rgans, inflammation of the air passages and lungs, skin diseases of various kinds, consumption, and numerous Other complaints, with gradual deterioration of health generally, flow largely from this pn Nor does the evil stop with the body; it extends to the mind, and ofl or less degree of paralysis upon the spirit ; the ambition is destroyed, and slothfuhiess casts a jrloom over all the intellectual faculties. That consumption is greatlj influi need bj impure aft-, we may infer from the fact atlemen at huge ami professional ' or artizans — the average of deaths by consumption in cities is l<; to th i first, for 23 of the second, and 30 of the third. The manner in whiehaoanj tradesmen five (in the back room of th ■i fol I Li '■ Of their liability to disease; while for the mass of mechanics we have only to look at the places in which thousands work day after day, confined to a close compass and exposed to dust from the movements of machinery, to understand why they THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 91 should sooner run into consumption than professional men and gentlemen of leisure. Bad air operates banefully upon the health and lives of infants. This I shall show by one statistical fact. At the Dublin Lying-in Hospital, in three years, 2,944 out of 7,650 children died within a fortnight after birth. This is over every third one ! Dr. Clark, the physician, suspecting this mortality to arise from want of pure air, contrived to introduce a full supply of this element into all the apartments, and as a result thereof, he found that in the next three years there were only 1G3 deaths among 4,245 children — less than one in twenty-five! This shows plainly what a difference is made by pure air. Considering this fact, is it not a matter of surprise that mothers should swathe their children in blankets and cloaks lest they should be visited by a breath of the pure ah' of heaven ? And yet, in spite of our knowledge upon this subject, we are plunged into a bad atmo- sphere as soon as born, and continue in it uselessly a good portion of our lives. As babies, we are swathed in blankets like so many mummies, and kept in close rooms continually, lest we take cold. As school children, we are crowded into unventilated rooms, where the air is breathed by perhaps a hundred others, where the oxygen is exhausted by an air-tight stove, and where artificial stimidus is substituted for the natural stimulus of the air. As mechanics, we are confined often to foul and dusty shops, where fine particles of poisonous matter are continually entering the lungs ; or as clerks, cooped up in the counting-room, where the clear winds of heaven have never dared to come ; or as factory operatives, inhale dust and par- ticles of cotton, and breathe a tainted air that breeds fever and consumption. In short, whether in the church, in the court-room, the lecture-room, the ball- room, the sitting-room, the chamber; either at home or while stopping at fashion- able hotels ; in the cabin of the steamboat, in the rail-car, in truth, in almost any situation resulting horn our civilization in which man can be placed, we are de- prived of a proper share of good and wholesome air. And we endure this — we is and from this, when a little attention to the demands of nature by the proper ventilation of the buildings in which we five and visit would give us increase of health and prolonged length of days. Physicians, health committees, and owners of buildings unventilated, and conveyances destitute of air, should give more attentl ject of a pure atmosphere for the people. And if it can be done in no Other way, the strong arm of the law should interfere in at least so much that all boats and ships for public conveyance, and every building used for any purpose w batever v. herein mankind are to live or to be for any length of time, ihould reo Lve proper ventilation. If this were done, our bills of mortality would i the universal race become healthier, happier and wiser than at the presenl Pure air and light are great preventives of poor health, disease, and death It is truly am how little attention the great mass of men pay to these es- Beotial elemenl , though generally aware that life and health in great measure de- pend upon them. Pure air and lighl exert a most powerful influenco upon tlio whole animal and vegetable kingdoms. This may be seen at onco by comparison. Look at those persons that pass the greater part of their lives in factories and coal mines, in prisons and in cellars, huddled together in great numbers, rendering 92 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. the air poisonous by the impure exhalations from their bodies, where the sweet light and pure air are strangers. Observe their emaciated frames, and haggard countenances, and sunken and expressionless eyes, and their always pale and sickly skins. rve the countenances of those that pass their days in cities, and mostly within doors, where the air ami light are not as pure and abundant as in the country. Contrast all these with the generally robust frames, and florid counte- nances, and healthy skins of those who reside in the country, and whose occupations lead them to be much exposed where light and air, pure and strong, are poured around them in rich abundance, imparting a vigor, and color, and power, unknown to the pale and languid inmates of prisons, and mines, and factories, and under- ground rooms and cities. Observe the boarding-school miss, as compared with the country lass that milks tho cow and dances in the sunshine. Look at the student, that exhausts the midnight oil in poring over his books, as compared with the young man that grasps the plough and swings the scythe. See you no difference between the two in the speaking lines of health, and bloom, and vigor ? "Whence the cause ? Surely, naught but pure light and air, enjoyed by the one more than the other, in connection, perchance, with more healtliful exercise. How is it in the vegetable kingdom ? Do we not see plants that are placed in cellars and shady rooms present a very pale and sickly appearance after a little season, while those that are placed in well-lighted rooms, 3nd other places where air and light are abundant, present a healthy, deep green color, with blossoms far more brilliant ? Thus we see that light and air are essential to the health, and growth, and per- fection of the vegetable as to the animal kingdom, and that neither can thrive and be vigorous without them. Who, then, that would sustain the functions of his skin and body in a healthy state, will neglect to properly ventilate and light his parlors, his sitting and sleep- ing rooms, his workshop, his store and counting-room, or whatever room he may statedly occupy ? The parents, and guardians, and teachers of children and youth should see that their places of public instruction are all well lighted and ventilated, if they would promote their comfort and health. Parents should also see that their children are provided with spacious and well- vtiitilai.il sleeping apartments. The practice of putting several children in a small room to sleep, and closing tho door, and, perhaps, adding to the list one or two grown persons, is destructive of all comfort, and highly injurious to health. It is the direct way to enervate and render nervous and feeble children that are naturally healthy and Strong. The air, in a small room in which several persons are put to sleep, with the door and windows closed, bocomes corrupted by being breathed through the lungs, and rendered highly poisonous and unlit for use, and is dangerous to health in a high degree. Men arc like fish in this respect. You put a large number of fish in a small quantity of water, and as soon as it lias passed through their gills, as it very soon THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 93 will, it is not fit for use. The life-giving principle has been extracted from it. It can, therefore, no longer sustain life, and they all soon die. If you put a mouse into a jar, and cork the mouth, he will at first take no notice of it ; but as soon as the life-giving principle of the air in the jar is destroyed by passing through his lungs, he will manifest great uneasiness, and soon expire. So, if children or grown persons be placed in a room poorly ventilated, they will suffer injury ; and if the room were to bo made sufficiently tight, so as to exclude entirely the ingress of the external air, they would all soon die. All places of public resort for great numbers — as churches, theatres, concert- rooms, school-houses, and the like — should always be .well ventilated, both for comfort and health. It is truly astonishing to see how little attention is paid to this important condition of comfort and health. If the evil were as apparent as it would be in twenty-four hours, if large bodies of people were to remain crowded together, it would excite universal attention, and the evil would be universally remedied. Much yet remains to be done for the improvement of the public, as well as indi- vidual health. Moral philosophers and Christian philanthropists have a duty here to do, and great is their responsibility to their fellow men, nearly all of whom, in relation to this subject, are " sitting in the region and shadow of death." If we ourselves would enjoy good health, and impart, so far as possible, the same invaluable blessing to our children and others, we and they must pay a due regard to proper clothing and diet, must keep the skin pure and clean by bathing, sleep in well-ventilated rooms, let the light of day be poured in upon us, and ever be surrounded by pure and fresh air. This will give health, vigor and elasticity to our bodies, clearness and energy to our minds, and send the pure blood in healthful currents through every vein and artery of our frames. LOSS OF THE SENSES PRODUCES CONSUMPTION. The deprivation of the blessing of sight, hearing, feeling, tasting or smelling, is frequently a cause of consumption. Therefore, we should strive to preserve to our- selves these senses in their fullest powers, not only that through them we may be enabled to enjoy life in its fullness, but also that by the loss of any we may not bo visited by disease. To be deprived of the groat blessing of sight is indeed to. be subjected to a calamity of magnitude. To be cut off from the enjoyment of all the beautiful works of nature ami creations of man, — to behold no more the green and growing grass of the fields, to see not the beautiful verdure of the waving trees, to be blind t<> the gorgeous colors of the rainbow and sightless in the presence of all the works of the painter, the sculptor, and the architect, and to be unable to receive lighl into tho mind from the pen of the poet and the scholar — to be away from and beyond the influences of these things, is indeed a soro affliction, such as only he who has one.- Looked upon the fair face of nature, and then been .shut oat from I lie enchant- ing vision, can adequately feol. And when to these is added the- thought that one e an no more behold tho faces of those frionds near and dear to him upon tho earth, — that lie cannot bask in tho sunshine of their smiles and look back lovo to those who gaze with fond affection upon him, how agonizing indead most be the 94 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. WJ 1 No. 18. — Grubs in the Brain and Optic Nerve. thought! It would seem that this were enough for mortal to endure, without subjection to the further infliction of disease. But unfortunately the individual does not always escape the latter trial ; often consumption arises to him from the loss of sight — the veins 1 icing so intimately connected with the brain — and hurries him forward to the tomb; and this, too, when the cause of disease is attributed to another source and his blindness left uncharged of his further trouble. The loss of sight is some- times caused by the presence of grubs in the optic nerve. A portion of the annexed engrav- ing represents the optu laid open, exposing small grubs therein. Also a grub is pre- sented in the brain, which would be likely to produce in- sanity. The cerebral grub, is the animal which causes vertigo in sheep ; and by naturalists and physiologists has been supposed to occasion mania in man. And as with the sight, so with the hearing. It would seem that to be cut off from listening to the melodious voices of nature's minstrels, who make the woods and fields and the very heavens vocal with sweet sounds ; to hear no more the soothing voices of sympathizing friends, the laughter of gay children, the ripple of the dancing brook, the rustling of the soft wind making music in the trees, the sounds of instrumental melody, and the thousand harmonious voices of nature that give pleasure to the mind through the listening ear, — are enough of worldly depri- vation and trouble, without having arise to us therefrom the ghastly spectre of con- sumption. And though we have a hope beyond this 'vale of tears, and look forward with so uticipation to a happy meeting of friends and relatives beyond the grave, where we shall hear the vies of father and mother, of brother and sis- ter, of wife and children, and behold their radiant with heavenly joy, aed to live on in blindness of eyes and utter deadness to all the sounds of earth. TheloflBoff ii. The nerves of the human system, milions in number, run over it in every part, so thai a n< ing the bodyp; them do we experience the sensation of bodily feeling'. E< j, tasting and smelling also dep< nerves, and up alth and activity; and the life and health of these is dependent upon the condition of the blood and nervous fluid. Thousands are thi which we are pe from by the action of the nerves, [f the nerve ■■ linkfromttie body to the mind is broken and sensation and nervous fei I tering, cupping; burning, raising tartar- lac sores, and such barbarous methods of treat- mi nt in the cure of di i lortant nerves leading to the brain, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 95 liver, and stomach, and cause an unhealthy inactivity of those organs, where- by consumption is induced. Various are our delightful enjoyments, that depend on the healthy condition of the nervous system. Ask the deaf and blind, the importance of feeling ; ask your- selves the importance of feeling ; and when you have realized it, never allow a doc- tor to cauterize any part or organ, for fear of severing nerves leading to the brain, and thereby destroying sensation ! Quack doctors have cauterized the nerves of the genital organs for a pretended cure of seminal emissions. But for the production of our species, such a course is highly dangerous. Such cases only require the natural remedy to quench irritation and passion through the divine institution of marriage. For example, see how the nerves of foundered horses are separated above the hoof, thereby destroying ner- vous sensation without curing the disease. Beware of such quacks. Aside from marriage, seminal emissions can be cured without resorting to such barbarous sur- gical operations as cauterizing and separating the nerves running to the brain. I speak this from observation ; for I have known many destroyed by such cauteriza- tion, and have cured hundreds without performing any such operation. Stopping or cutting oft" the nerves of the teeth at the ear to kill the toothache, is an evidence to prove what I have asserted. A loss of tasto also leads to consumption. Catarrhal diseases are a fruitful cause of loss of taste. This loss is attended with dyspepsia, indigestion, and stomach and liver diseases, causing appearances similar to those produced by consumption. Taste governs the seasoning, the quality and the kind of food or drink taken into the stomach. By destroying the taste we make of the stomach a store-house for all Lble and indigestible matters, which, had the taste been alive, would have been properly chosen from, and the consumption arising from the presence of these matters in the stomach would have been prevented. By taste we make almost en- tirely our choice of food and drink ; and by this monitor, when unperverted, the stomach may be generally safely guided. The nerves of the mouth are sometimes seriously affected by diseases, so that the lost. But it is from the use of mineral medicines, administer- ed to ct that the worst effects experienced hero arise — particularly from mercury. This often ulcerates the gums, loosens and destroys the teeth, annihilates the Ben > ifulmoutha pit filled with foul and sickening corruption. God forbid thai the human mouth, that temple of speech, of loving kisses, so impo all, should be turnedfrom a house of purity and sweetness into a den of corruption and filth 1 — by th of physicians. But when it is thus abused and irmed from its original state, can ii be wondered at that consumption should How from so f'"til a source? Certainly not. Beware, then, of tampering with fans of taste, Ii fasten upon you. From the loss of smelling al ften foil tion. God, in endowing his living creatures with senses for the enjoyn i arth, includ- ed among thorn tl tnse of smellin In I he animal creation, this said to be of an import ! -t. Tothehonndin pursuit, of his game, the di from the presence of man, the horse in avoiding the claws of the lion, or the bee in pursuit of flowers, the is not merely important) but indispi a 96 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. It would seem that to every living thing there had been imparted its natural odor or perfume, as also to the varied vegetations of the earth. How sweet is the per- fume of the rose, and of a thousand other productions in the field of nature ; how delightful those extracts obtained from the vegetable kingdom by the art of man. To deprive mankind of tho important sensation of smell, would be to leave him to fall into filthiness and consequent disease. The diseases most generally destroying the sense of smelling, are catarrh, poly- pi, cancers of the nose, venery of the nose and larynx. Also it is destroyed by mercurial salivating medicines, poisoning the mouth, larynx and nose. But per- haps tho most fruitful sources of the loss of smelling, hearing, tasting, and seeing — in connection with their power of affecting the mind — are catarrhal and blood humors and poisons. The above, and all other diseases that destroy the smell, cause dyspepsia^ liver complaint, and consumption, frequently closing in death. Remember that the organs of smell, and of the other senses, are nourished and kept in health and activity by the blood, and that through the blood alone, (sometimes by the assist- ance of external medicines, and sometimes not,) can health be restored to them when they are diseased. In consideration of these facts, and for the benefit of those suffering from the loss of any of the senses, I have carefully prepared medicines for general use, which will be found to be invaluable in their several departments as curatives. For catarrh, (which, as I have shown often affects the organs so as to destroy the action of one or more of the senses,) has been prepared the Catarrh Snuff, a com- poumd unequalled and invaluable. For diseases of the eye — where outward appli- cation can be of service — the Eye Water and German Ointment. For all diseases of the ear, the Ear Lotion and German Ointment. For loss of taste and feeling, the Blood Renovator, Anti-bilious Pills and German Ointment. The Blood Reno- vator and the Anti-bilious Pills will be found by all patients to be invaluable aa purifiers of the blood, and to renovate and restore it to a right and healthy con- dition. MUSIC AND DANCING PREVENT CONSUMPTION, Thk one by operating favorably upon the mind, the other as exercise for the body and enlarging and strengthening tho muscles, while the mind is acting in harmony under the influence of melody. Music, vocal or instrumental, raises tho depressed and drooping spirits, and in- fuses into the soul of man activity and strength, with patience, gentleness, kindness, forgiveness of evil, and temporary forgetfulness of tho ills and troubles of life. The tones of the voice in singing soften alike the heart of the innocent child and the hardened sinner; they call back the brutalized being to his natural humanity, and restore the backslider to tho paths of religious life. Music cheers alike tho young and old, tho well and the unwell ; it relieves the mind of its loads of trouble ; it takes man from himself and from tho outward world for a season, and carries him to a fancied region of happiness and joy, from whence he returns recruited and refreshed in body and spirit. Music casta off gloominess and lowness of spirit; discontent and uneasiness de- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 97 part before it, and in their stead come cheerfulness, men-mess of heart, love to man, contentment, and quiet of mind. And while from the former flow bodily ills in abundance — broken constitutions, dyspepsia, indigestion, consumption and other diseases — the latter breed health and happiness, as the sunshine and rains of spring bring forth fruits and flowers from the bosom of the earth. Therefore, discard not music, whether made by the human voice, by the songsters of your native woods, by the murmuring winds amid the green leaves of the forest, by the little brook that babbles at your feet, or by the numerous instruments that are of the invention of man, but hail them as aids to cheer you through the toils and cares of life. The hearts of men are dilated by joy, contracted by sadness, and broken by sorrow. They melt under discouragement, are desolate in affliction, and fluctuating in doubt. And when under these depressions, is it not well, both as an antidote to sorrow and a prevention against the disease which such states may induce, that some counteracting influence should be brought to bear ? And for this, what is there equal to listening to the sweet sounds of music that will float into the soul and fill it with a quiet happiness, under the influence of which we become imper- vious to the effects of disappointments and sorrows of the heart ? Among the Jews, in the days of David and Solomon, music was regarded as an indispensable part of religion. They conceived, and rightly, that it calmed the passions of man and prepared the mind for the reception of prophetic influences; and the prophets employed instrumental music to accompany their predictions. They, like the Egyptians, not only delighted in music and dancing, but the higher ranks deemed them a necessary part of education. At feasts, at religious services, at marriages, at ceremonies of all kinds, music was with them one of the most im- portant items of the performance. In the disease with which Saul, the King of Israel, was affected, the remedy of music was applied, and was certainly a most proper and fitting one. He was afflicted with an occasional melancholy, almost reaching to madness, (a condition that often leads to positive insanity, and powerfully disposes to consumption) ; and for the removal of this — to calm his perturbed mind and re-instate reason upon her throne — David made music before him upon the harp. Its effect was moro power- ful than a thousand doses of medicine. Dancing; when practised properly, and removed from the bad influences that have been thrown around it by the perversions of men, we may class as not only an innocent recreation, but a valuable exercise in the promotion of health, by its calling into action all the muscles of the body and setting them at work in ?icvr- mony with the mind. Exerciso of any kind, when divested of any stimulus but that which is thrown over it by an idea of its being healthy, becomes a task rather than a pleasure, and is, therefore, not near so excellent in its effects as when done in harmony with the pleasure of the mind. This it is that makes exercise by dancing a most excellent medicine. Not only the whole body is in it, but tho whole .soul, also; and when soul and body arc exercising in harmony, 1 he results upon tho health an- wonderful I have known the most excellent effects to follow from this exercise to many persons suffering languor, and bodily ami mental debility. Dancing waa much practised in ancient times, and in the worship of the Lord, as we may see from v;ni. hi- passages of Scripture. "Praise I lim with the timbrel and dance," was the exhortation of David. And from tlii- wo may infer that the 7 98 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. exercise was beneficial, since it would not have been used in praise of the Lord had it been supposed injurious. That many times persons are greatly influenced for good, and indeed have been placed upon the road to health by the influence of musical sounds brought to bear upon them, and by the exercise of dancing, in connection with the melody, is what I not only firmly believe, but may assert has been often witnessed. That judicious exercise is good for the invalid, no one will undertake to deny ; and that many times persons have got well of complaints over which medicine had had but little effect, by some power operating upon the mind, is a matter of frequent occurrence. And as a general thing, there is in all nature no power so capable of affecting the mind to those states of quietness, contentment, resignation, forgetfulness of the dark hours and dark sides of life, (all of which operate powerfully often in the cure of disease,) as music. It is a fact well known to physicians, and to other men of observation, that where persons are brought under sombre and melancholy influences — whore the face of every one wears a garb of sorrow, and smiles are scarcely known — where the enlivening strains of music are never heard, and a moody folly (wrongfully de- nominated godly piet}') holds perpetual sway over body and mind — that there mankind much sooner reach the tomb than where they rationally make merry, and enjoy of the beauties given them by the Creator of all. This fact has been fully substantiated by the statistics of convents and nunneries, and of other abodes of religious fanaticism, where the God-given principles of our nature are held in check or curbed into utter subjection. Such a life not only hastens men and women to the grave, but is in opposition to all the teachings of God, as manifested through His outward works, and revealed in his Gospels to men. If, then, music and danc- ing exert an important influence in the cure of many complaints, of how vastly greater efficacy must they be in the prevention. As I have before in substance said, they induce powerfully those states of mind under which the body throws off the disposing causes to eickness ; while, if they be altogether neglected, moodiness, melancholy, reserve, gloomy thoughts, dark fancies, hypochondria and other bad etates of the mind arise, out of which frequently flow consumption and various other diseases, and sometimes downright insanity. I would say then, let us have music and dancing, as in the olden time. Let us make merry with one accord. Let us drive melancholy and sadness away, and have thereby more health and more happiness. Nature in all its works makes merry and rejoices — it wears no long faces and carries no doleful hearts, unless disease have fastened upon its parts. Melanchoty and sickness are generally com- panions, while mirth and health walk hand in hand together through the world. STANDING ON ONE FOOT. Tins practice, altogether too common among us, is very injurious in its effects upon the system. The practice commonly arises from the person getting tired and wishing to change his position — he appearing to think that that will rest him. Possibly it may do so temporarily ; but those who have to stand through the day in one place, with little or no movement of the legs, will find by experiment that a firm position maintained on both feet will soon become the best guard against THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 99 weariness that they can adopt, because it is the natural position. If yon doubt this, ask the soldier in the army, or the printer who stands all day at his case. Standing on one foot for a very little while may answer as a change, but never adopt it for your permanent position. The fashion of standing on one foot while talking may have been derived from viewing statues and models. The attitudes of these, it is true, are in a certain de- gree graceful ; and when intended to convey to the mind of the beholder some par- ticular emotion supposed to have been existing in the original of the statue at a certain time, the position is all well enough. But this position will never do for the living being who wishes to preserve his uprightness and symmetry of body. Standing on one foot throws the corresponding hip up higher, and brings the corresponding shoulder lower down. Thus the chest is contracted, the spine crooked, and the figure generally deformed ; and from these many times arise con- sumption, as well as other diseases. Neither young children nor adults should in- dulge in this habit ; and those too young to understand its effects, should be taught by parents and teachers to assume an upright position as their general mode of standing. For the same reasons, children should not be confined to sitting too long at onco, either in schools or out. The muscles require a change of position of the body. Mothers should be careful of their children, and let them have plenty of exercise, pure air and light, if they would keep them healthy, make them strong and robust, and save them from deformity and consumption. To clerks, bench workmen, and mechanics of any sort much confined to one po- sition in standing, let me say, beware of contracting a habit of standing on one foot. It is pernicious, and if long persisted in will result in deformity more or less serious. INSTANCES OP LONGEVITY. There are no laws of nature which place a particular limit upon the length of human life. On the contrary, disease and death are generally the consequences of one or more violations of the laws of nature, in either ourselves or the persons of near or remote ancestors. The health and life of a man, so far as the physical structure is concerned, are placed in great degree in his own keeping ; and death is rather the result of indiscretions and ignorance on his part, than of dispensations of Providence. The human machine, as it comes from God, is perfect in all its parts; and by proper warmth, food, air, light, drink, exercise and sleep, we might live on almost indefinitely ; at least to a ripe old age. The greatest cause of early decay and death, if we except contagious diseases, arises from the choking up of the system — the veins, arteries, bones and muscles — with earthy matter or lime. In proportion as we eat or drink, are our lives shortened or lengthened ; by choosing the articles of diet we may in groat measure live to old age, or not, at our pleasure. By analyzing the bones of the young and old of both men and animals, the earthy matter iu their substance is found to differ greatly. This difference is repre- sented as follows: „ 100 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Gelatine. Earthy Solids. Total. Bones of a child or young lamb, 3 14 Middle-aged persons, 2 2 4 Aged persons, sheep or oxen, 13 4 Here we may observe the proportions of gelatine and earthy solids are entirely reversed in the progress of the young cliild or young animal to maturity and old age. The difference in the bones of a child and of an adult is, then, owing to the earthy or limy matter contained in them. The bones of a child can be bent very easily without breaking, but if we bend those of an adult, they crumble and break. The bones of the child before or at birth resemble India-rubber in some measure, and are very yielding. Now, to prove what I have stated as to death being caused greatly by what we eat and drink, I will give the following table from the bills of mortality of those who live well and those who live poor, from a Mr. Cobden, of London : From the age of 25 to 40 205 rich, and 550 poor die. 40 ' 50 244 426 50 60 349 " 718 " 60 10 738 " 1501 70 80 1489 " 2873 " 80 90 2787 " From the above table, it appears that at every stage of life, up to the age of 80, the number of poor who die is double that of the rich. It will be recollected that the poor classes of society everywhere consume a greater amount of bread, flour, and potatoes than the rich, chiefly because their scanty means will not allow them to purchase more costly food. The wealthier classes use more animal food, fowls, fish, fresh vegetables, fruits, preserves, wine, cider, and other luxuries. In proportion as men become wealthy, they live better and reduce the quantity of bread, and other substances containing the most solid matter. The Egyptians lived mostly on vegetables, and fish, and animal food. Ladies consume less solid food than men, and are more like the child in the choice of food, selecting the most nourishing kind, and use but little. — Bostwick on Natural Death. The oldest woman in the world is supposed to be Mary Benton, now residing at Elton in the county of Durham, England. She was born on the 12th of February, 1731, and is of course in her one hundred and twenty-second year. She is in pos- session of all her faculties, perfect memory, hearing and eyesight. She cooks, washes and irons, in the usual family avocations, threads her needlo and sews with- out spectacles. Dr. J. V. C. Smith, from Cairo, says that in the district of Geezeh, which includes the pyramids, and a population of 200,000, there are 600 persons oVer 100 years of age, or ono in every 333. Numaua do Cuyan, a native of Bengal, in India, died at tho incredible age of 370 years I he possessed great memory even to his death. Of other aged persons wo might mention Mr. Dobson, aged 139, of Hadfield, England, farmer. His diet was principally, fish, fruits, vegetables, milk and cider. Ninety- one children and grandchildren rt.snC A his funeral. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 101 John do la Somet, aged 130 years, of Virginia. Old Thomas Parr, of Winnington, Shropshire, England, lived to the age of one hundred and fifty-two years. He was first married at 88, and a second time at 120. He was covered from head to foot all over with a thick cover of hair. Henry Jenkins lived to the extraordinary age of one hundred and sixty-nine years. At the age of 160, he walked a journey to London to see King Charles U. The king introduced Jenkins to his queen, who took much interest in him, putting numerous questions to the patriarch, amongst which she asked, " Well, my good man, may I ask of you what you have done during the long period of life granted to you, more than any other man of shorter longevity ?'■' The old man, looking the queen in the face, with a how, naively replied, " Indeed, madam, I know of nothing greater than becoming a father when I was over a hundred years old 1" He re- plied to the king that temperance and sobriety of living had been the means, by the blessing of God, of lengthening his days beyond tho usual time. Edward Drinker, aged 103, of Philadelphia, rarely ate any supper. Valentine Cateby, died aged 116, at Preston, near Hull, England. His diet for the last twenty years was milk and biscuit. (Fortunate for him that he did not have New York still-fed milk.) His intellect was perfect until within two days of his death. There died in 1840, at Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, a Mr. Warrell, aged one hundred and twenty years. Mr. Edwin Gray, the missionary of the Evangelical Home Missionary Society of Kensington, says the Philadelphia Ledger, reports that he visited a Mrs. McElroy, residing at No. 622 North Third street, who is one hundred and eight years old. Her maiden name was Catherine Snip. She was born in Allentown, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, on the 25th July, 1'744. She inherits the constitution of her father, who was from Germany, and lived to be one hundred and seven years of age. She remembers the occurrence of the principal events of the revolution, and frequently provided food for the American soldiers. She has a distinct recollection of General Washington. In 1790, when 46 years of age, she was married to John McElroy, a revolutionary soldier, by whom she had seven children, four of whom arc now living, two of them being twins. had a remarkably vigorous constitution, and often assisted her husband in the mill before they came to Philadelphia. She would take up a bag containing 112 of flour, with all case, and place it on the back of a horse. She still retains trength and activity, and would be taken for a woman of 60 or 70, instead of 108 years of age. Twenty-one years ago, she received what is termed second sight, and can now Bee as clearly and distinctly as ever. She does all her housework, waits upon her youngest daughter, fifty-one years of ago, who has been blind for three years past, and attends a store or shop, which they keep in tho front room. In tho report of deaths for New York city, lately returned, there are two given as having deceased aged upward of 100 years. A divino in a country place, five miles from Utica, in the State of New York, when at the ago of 115 years was the only pastor of th" church, and preached two sermons every Sabbath. His intellect was clear, his delivery active, and his voice so strong that ho could bo heard dis- tinctly ten rods from the churcu when the doors or windows were open. Tin' sanitary reports of many towns in Bfittsacnusetts show deaths at upwards of ioo years of age ; and many others from various parts of the world might bo added to the foregoing list, who have seen a century of years. 102 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. If the blood be kept pure and the lungs large, and we have good food, exercise, air, sleep, and warmth, the health and intellect would continue, and life be lengthen- ed into old age. The human system differs from the mechanisms of man in this re- spect — that while the latter are continually decaying from even the most careful use, the former is so constructed as to be improved by a certain amount of use, and thus keep perfect indefinitely. It is through the follies of men that so many die at an early age; by living wisely our lives would be made longer and more pleasant. In answer to a question of Hon. Horace Mann, of Massachusetts, on the sanitary condition of that State, physicians of eminence have expressed the opinion that from one-half to three-fourths of the bodily evils of mankind and of the deaths, arise from ignorance of the laws of life and health, or from a disregard of them ; and that more than half of the cases of sickness might have been avoided by knowledge, attention and care. In this opinion my observation and experience have led me to coincide. And we may say, too, that at least one-third of the pauperism of any country flows from the same source. Of what vast importance, then, is it to every member of the human family, that he or she should become acquainted with the laws of life and health to a certain degree, and should make proper use of that knowledge. If attention were given to this, not only would life be lengthened out, but the race would be healthier, stronger, happier and wiser. To show the effects of sanitary measures in decreasing the ratio of deaths, it is only necessary to look at the statistics of the British navy. One hundred years ago, when no attention was paid to cleanliness on board of vessels of war, and filth and stench reigned among the sailors, the number of deaths in a year in the navy was 1 in 8. Now, when cleanliness is enforced and other sanitary measures kept in con- stant employ, the number of deaths is 1 in 72 1 And in this calculation are included the deaths from other sources than disease. From disease the deaths were but 1 iu 85. And in the army, sanitary regulations have operated in the same manner, though not to quite so large an extent. These figures tell plainly the tale of human misery that arises from a disobedience of the laws of nature. And did each individual take it upon himself to attend to those laws and carefully obey them, in the choice of his foods, in his clothing, in his exercise, and in all other matters, the difference in the results upon life and health would be still greater than is seen by the figures given above. But if men persist in aiming the frame which God has given them to take care of and keep in health unto a ripe old age, they must expect disease to follow to them and to their offspring. On the other hand, by attention to proper foods and to the right con- dition of the body, you will live to fullness of days, and, in the language of Eliphaz the Teinanito to Job, "come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season." OFFENSIVE BREATH A GREAT NUISANCE. There is not a more intolerable nuisance to be endured in our association with others than that of a fetid breath. The most beautiful and accomplished womau that over trod the earth, would, to a person of delicacy and refinement, be rendered disg.isting and intolerable by carrying with her a disagreeable breath. However THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 103 much of politeness there may be, however much of outward accomplishment or gentleness of spirit, loveliness, beauty of face or form or agreeableness of speech, it will be lost if a nauseating breath be their constant companion. An offensive breath may be the production of one of many different causes. Sometimes it arises from decayed teeth or ulcerated gums — directly or indirectly. Either of these are detrimental to the health of the body, for they retard or prevent mastication, and the food being taken into the stomach in an unprepared state causes indigestion and dyspepsia, from which arise a foul stomach and offensive breath as well as impure blood. If your teeth are unsound, apply to a dentist and have them extracted, or filled so as to preserve them. Do not let decayed teeth remain in the head to in- jure the health and give an insufferable breath. There are many other sources of foul breath, more or less lasting. Among them is taking calomel, blue pills, and other poisonous mineral medicines, which ulcerate the gums, destroy the teeth, and render the mouth a pit from whence issues forth a foul atmosphere. Many of the popular sarsaparilla syrups of the day contain cor- rosive sublimate and other mineral poisons, disguised under the name of vegetable medicines, the use of which is destructive to the health of the teeth and gums and productive of an offensive breath. If your breath is bad (directly) from the presence of poor teeth in the mouth, let me say, have them extracted. Also, keep your teeth and gums and all other parts of the mouth clean ; and if your stomach is in good condition, your breath will be sweet aud healthy. But if the evil is deeper and beyond the reach of the dentist, and your own efforts, do not therefore let the offence cling to you. Have the blood and the stomach cleansed and purified, and costiveness prevented, and the effects of calomel or other bad drugs overcome, and a pure, sweet breath will be restored to you. This end can always be attained by the use of my Anti-bilious Pills and Blood Renovator, which are unequalled for this purpose, and never-failing. ERECT CARRIAGE. To keep the body upright and straight, whether sitting or standing, is a matter of great importance to every individual. The head, neck, spine, and shoulders should bo carried perfectly erect and not bo allowed to stoop over. The shoulders and Bhoulder-blades should be carried back from the chest, and not allowed to press upon it. Rocking-chairs, sofas, and seats of whatever kind having curved backs, have a tendency to give those using them crooked spine, contracted chest, round shoulders and crooked nock, and should bo dispensed with. They may feel comfortable for a time, bul they exert a pernicious influence. A great many crooked and deformed persons have been made so by the use of curved-back seats. These aids to disease are to bo met with in numerous places, — oftentimes in churches, cars, and stages, but moro generally in tho elegant parlors and drawing-rooms. The form of tho scat a child is accustomed to use often governs his carnage in after life. Not unfrcquently ho gets a habit of sitting which leads In an Irreparable contraction of tho chest, to stooping shoulders, and other deformities outwardly, while within, tho last effects are consumption and following death. Tight lacing, wearing heavy skirts, high-waisted pants, strapped pants and tight 104 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. suspenders also aid in breaking down and crooking the figure, and cause consump- tion. They should be avoided. Shoulder-braces and supporters will do no good while the counteracting influences of these things are allowed. And if you would pay attention to keep a correct carriage and would discard these bad influences, you would have no need of shoulder-brace or supporter, unless it were to replace what had been misplaced by previous neglect. There is no use of mechanical helps where natural and correct rules have been obeyed. Stooping over forward much and continuously is a very bad attitude to indulge in. A person obliged to stoop forward, in order to perform some labor, should prac- tice frequent bending backward, in order to counteract the bad influence of his working position. If laborers and others obliged to assume the stooping position at times would follow this rule, there would be much decrease in the numbers of round-shouldered and bent-up men. God made man upright in his figure ; and if he will but follow the laws laid down for him, strictly and systematically, he will keep a correct carriage and escape many afflictions that arise from careless disobe- dience. Without doing this, health and longevity are by no means to be expected. The practice of carrying a cane, so common among gentlemen, especially in cities, is sometimes the cause of evil results, by its being so short as to require a slight stooping in order to make it of use ; a tendency to round shoulders may be obtained in this way. Every person who is in the habit of using a cane to walk with, should be particular about its being long enough for the purpose desired without in the least requiring the body to stoop. ■pr. This P late presents to the eye a ■ -^v^jlll^ striking illustration of the bad position ygj§jtft7>jy hi study of nearly all the scholars in MB^fflSl^*^^ our common schools. ^ a r«* J *^#^^HS(L^ J&^} ° f tllC CVil conse 'l uell( -' c s upon \,\j^f' \^^^ ^^^ ^^C^^ health and life in after years, neither ^\il\ \ ('^^^fW^^ teachers nor parents seem to be t^ —=^rimfm y ^^ If J ° U wU1 observe healthy child- ^^Wuimmmmm ll ^^.^L^^^ ^ =L __^^ r —-^r^ rcn m g enera i before they have been They stand upright, as nature in- No. 19.— Injurious Position in Study. tended and made them. They have not yet entered that grim Moloch of torture and murder from which few ever escape wholly unscathed. School-houses, and Bchool-benches, and school-desks, as they are generally con- structed, are a curse, rather than a blessing to the world. The foundation of evils is there laid, the aggregate of which can never bo told. The public attention should be awakened and directed to this subject, that, as speedily as possible, the evil may lie checked. Our school-houses, especially those in the country, should be nearly all torn down, and rebuilt upon a more spacious and convenient scale. The seats should be constructed to support the backs of the scholars, and the tables and writing- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 105 desks should be raised nearly as high as their chins ; and on these they should be taught to study and write, and never be allowed to make a table of their laps. Thus will the wretched and injurious habit of which we speak, be corrected, and the scholars saved from lasting injury. But the evil which we are rebuking does not stop here. Like the surges of the great Pacific ocean, that in their might have borne down untold thousands of mariners, and still roll on in pursuit of new vic- tims, this alarming evil sweeps on, spreading desolation and ruin through all the higher schools, and colleges, and seminaries of learning. There, where might and knowledge should meet and arrest its progress, it is allowed to enter and do its dreadful work. Before it the young, the beautiful, the promising, the talented, the accomplished, alike fall and the hopes and expectations of kindred and friends are blasted. Nor does this evil stop even here. It still moves on with gigantic strength. It invades and dashes in upon the highest grades of society, both the professional and the non-professional. Before it, fall the renowned statesman and the eloquent orator; the eminent law- yer and the distinguished physician; the self-sacrificing philanthropist and the pious divine ; the crowned head and the laureled brow ; the peerless beauty and the honored matron. It is impossible to set bounds to this dreadful and alarming evil. Its name is legion. In its train follow lung affections, heart diseases, liver complaint, dyspepsia, costiveness, rheumatism, gout, chronic diarrhoea, kidney dis- eases, fluor albus, diseases of the spleen, bladder, and lower bowels generally ; dropsy, paralytic strokes, prolapsus-uteri, and many other grievous and dangerous complaints, too numerous to mention in this place ; all of which are more or less hastened on or greatly aggravated by the wretched practice of crushing down upon the internal organs with the head, neck, and shoulders of the body, and thus preventing the easy and natural performance of their functions. "When men and women come to carry themselves "upright," straight up as God made them, and not bending forward, as if they would root the earth, as they have made themselves, these evils will be greatly lessened, and the good and happiness of individuals and of society thereby be greatly augmented Would our limits permit, the practical remarks under this head might bo multi- plied to great length. All classes and all professions in the community and throughout our whole country, have contracted habits of stooping, from which they are Buffering incftlffldftbl? evils, and will continue to Buffer them until light is more generally diffused among them in regard to the laws that govern life and health. Win rever you go, or which way soever you turn your eyes, you see the deformity of round shoulders and stooping attitude, and a perfectly " upright," erect form, is almost as rare us perfect beauty of face. The evil here contemplated has become truly alarming, and calls loudly for speedy action. Almost our whole nation is Numbering over this subject, and but littlo is being done to break the dangerous ■lumber. Very lew are lilting the warning note. With the multitude, both pro- fessional and non-professional, scarcely a thought is bestowed upon the had conse- quences of stooping, either upon health or elegance of figure, at nearly all the occu- pations, relaxations, and even amusements of mankind. The two following cuts strikingly illustrate these last remarks. 106 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. No. 20. — Incorrect Position for Standing. No. 21. — Correct Position for Standing. If we ourselves would long enjoy health, we must pay constant attention to the proper position and carriage of the head, shoulders, arms and chest, carrying them " upright," as we were made and designed to carry them. If, by stooping, we destroy the mechanical equilibrium and support of our bodies, the plagues resulting from this violated law will inevitably be visited upon us. This plate represents a female at work in an attitude directly at vio- lence with the natural laws of her constitution. Now, as Nature in- tended that man and woman should stand, and sit, and walk "upright," and not Btooping or bending for- ward, it follows by a law of neces- sity that any habitual violation of tho laws of our constitution, in stooping or bending forward, must bo productive of injurious conse- quences. This stooping and bending atti- tude in our occupations, is as con- trary to the designs of fnfinite Wis- dom, as for the beasts to walk erect X,,. 22. — INJURIOUS Attitude in Sewinc. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 107 Habit, and not necessity, makes people stoop and bend in their occupations ; and the results are most disastrous to life and health. Tailors and seamstresses, watchmakers and engravers, shoemakers and stone- cutters, clerks of counting-rooms, and the like, are of this class. Their occupations, as they generally follow them, throw the whole weight of their heads, necks, and shoulders, upon their chests, especially upon the lower part; and thus their bent position, with all this superincumbent weight from above, presses in and down upon the lungs and heart, contracting their space, and imped- ing the discharge of their functions of respiration and circulation. Feebleness, disease, and death, are inevitable results of this violation of natural mechanical equilibrium and support of the human body. These things ought not so to be. There is no natural necessity for our mechanics and others thus ruining their health, and destroying their lives, in following their occupations. They must learn to sit and stand upright, and work upright, as they were created to do, and as thousands of their profession are constantly doing, and enjoying the best of health as a natural result. Tailors and tailoresses at the board, shoemakers at the bench, watchmakers and engravers in their shops, stone-cutters in their yards, and clerks at their desks, are able, and can, if they will, sit upright and perform their work. "What others have done and are constantly doing, they can do. The great Na- poleon, in removing the objection of his Marshal McDonald to conducting an army over the Alps in the dead of winter, said to him: "Where one man can go, an army can follow." The army of McDonald crossed the Alps. What other clerks and artisans have done, you can do. Kesolution and effort will win the day, and rich will be the reward. In all healthy and well-organized constitutions, the habit of stooping is formed ; it is not natural ; as, for example, in the eases already enumerated. It begins the first year on the floor at home ; from thence it extends to the infant school ; and as soon as may be, from thence to tho common schools, where it pre- vails universally; thus early laying the foundation for future feebleness, disease, and death. (I1KKRFULNESS PREVENTS CONSUMPTION. "A merry henrt nmketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken."— Prov. xv. 13. Were we to deprive mankind of all entertainments calculated to infuse cheerful- ness into the soul, and thus leave them a prey in greater or less degree to brooding moodiness ami melancholy, wo should undermino thereby tho health, and bespeak for them an early entrance at tho gates of death. The actions of nil animate nature combine together to teach us the usefulness of cheerfulness. Behold the playfuluess of the brute beasts, when left to nature and unruled by man. 'J'in- dog, the horse, the lamb, tho feathered inhabitants of the and even the fish in the bosom of the sea, make merry in innocent sport and cheer themselves in amusement Ami in all tho works of God there Ls manifest a smiling face and a cheerful countenance. 108 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Among men, the sweet smile or the merry laugh, which alike denote a cheerful heart beneath, help to lighten the cares and sorrows of life and make of mountains of trouble mole-hills of but trifling account. And to deprive men of these and of all incitements thereto, is to place them in a road leading to consumption and prema- ture death. This has been proved in all ages, through the medium of nunneries and false religious schools. To destroy cheerfulness and cast gloom upon the spirit of man, we may regard as an act the very essence of demonized ignorance. It is contrary to, and a libel upon the wisdom of the Deity, who created within us the elements of cheerfulness, that by the use thereof we might enjoy happiness, and from its exercise extract health. God has ordered it for, and taught it to, his every creature. All nature is full of cheerfulness. As a physician and a man, speaking from physiological and medical knowledge and with religious purpose, I would say to all, Do not discard cheerfulness; keep in your bosom a merry heart, which is always acceptable to God ; and so educate and rear your children that cheerfulness shall remain steadfast in their souls; for thus shall you keep anger, and envy, and other evil passions far from them, and give them greater happiness, better health and longer life than if the contrary elements of mind reign over and rule them. I have been informed that some parents, when their children are quarrelling, compel them to unite in singing cheerful songs, to banish anger and hatred of each other from among them ; and that the effect is ex- cellent and admirable. I would recommend to mothers to make experiment of this in lieu of sending their children to the seclusion of a dark and gloomy closet.— "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones."— Prov. xxii. 22. HEART DISEASES HASTEN CONSUMPTION. If the heart, as is often the case, becomes enlarged, it presses upon the lungs surrounding it, and thus keeps out the air from the air-cells, closes them up, and induces a collapsed, contracted, and compact state of the lungs. If the heart be affected by rheumatism, enlarged, ossified, ulcerated, cancerous, or tumorous, the circulation of the blood becomes imperfect, both to and from the lungs; and much more so to other parts of the system, where all the power of a healthy heart is required to force the blood. The labor of the heart is immense. Having, as it does, to receive and discharge again all the blood in the system once in every 'three minutes, it will be obvious that health cannot be enjoyed if this organ is so diseased as to perform its labor with great difficulty. And if the blood is not perfectly circulated, by reason of derangement of any sort in the heart, it will sow in the system the seeds of consumption. The theory of some pretended lung doctors, that heart disease prevents consumption, is so con- trary to reason and physiology, and so absurd, that it only serves the purpose of exposing their ignorance of the nature ami action of the heart, and the office it has to perform. If the blond was kepi perfectly pure and was always properly circu- lated, consumption of tire lungs would never occur; but if it bo not properly circu- lated, it thereby becomes impure, and from it. impurity arise congestion, and bleeding of the lungs. Therefore, if you are troubled with heart disease of any THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 109 xad, do not follow the advice of these false lights in medicine, and let the disease increase, clinging to the delusion that it will keep you from consumption; but look at the reasonableness of the matter, and at once set to work to cure the heart disorder, as a means of escaping death from it directly, and to prevent death from it indirectly through consumption. As a medicine for the heart, in all complaints of that organ, you are recommended to the Heart Regulator, as invaluable in complaints of this nature, and to which they generally yield. But in obstinate cases, where this does not, unaided, produce the desired effect, no delay should be allowed in obtaining a thorough course of medicine, which will readily produce a cure. I do not know that any other physi- cian pretends to cure diseases of the heart ; nor am I aware that they do cure them. And the reason why they do not, is, because they have no means of ascer- taining the exact nature of the disease. Until the invention of the Lung Barom- eter, diseases of this organ were but imperfectly understood ; and what little was known of them, was obtained after examinations of, and observations upon, the patient for six months or a year. But by the aid of the Lung Barometer, a very few minutes suffices to determine the exact state and nature of all complaints of the heart. This being known, the appropriate medicines can be given ; and under its guidance I have never failed of curing all cm-able cases, and of affording great relief in those incurable — which last are but seldom met with. ADULTERATION OF FOOD— DISEASED MEATS, ETC. " A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight." — Prov. ss. 1. The extent to which adulteration is carried at the present day, in almost every- thing pertaining to food, and, in truth, to drinks and even medicines of all kinds, is both astonishing and alarming. It has grown to such an extent that to get a pure article of many of what are generally esteemed the necessaries of life is almost out of the question. An unadulterated article is often what the market does not afford. — what you cannot get at any price. Particularly in tin; line of groceries is this business of adulteration carried to an enormous extent. In our sugar we have sand; in our saleratus, salt; in our ginger, wheat l»ran and burnt corn; in our coffee, peas and beans; in our tea, beach-treo and clover leaves ; in oar vinegar, water poisoned with acids; in our milk, chalk and water; in our Hour and bread, none of us know what; and in our sausages and such like eatables, it is doubtful if the pork lias not been qualified by the flesh of tho canine animal who annoyed us with his hark on the yesterday, or the COW Which the day before was under the care of the cattle doctor. To such an extent, in fact, has this adulteration been carried that it would be impossible for mo to enumerate the different articles of diet and drink thus treated; an enumeration of those not adulterated would not be (bund so much of a task. Besides adulteration, another evil of magnitude, in cities, and ono at tho very Ihsught of which we instinctively revolt, is that of having palmed oil' upon ua dLsiiisrd meat and milk. I will not dwell upon this subject. The heart sickens at the bare thought of the matter. The results that follow to those who partake of these adulterated and diseased 110 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. articles are often lamentable in the extreme. Various diseases of the most malig- nant character flow from the use of many of them, and not unfrequently they are the cause of death. Too much caution in the purchase of groceries and eatables, espe- cially meats, cannot be exercised; and particularly to families having children, much milk is used, I would say, Be careful of what you purchase. Of the men who thus adulterate the articles of every day consumption of the universal people, and who sell the meat of animals that died of disease, I know not what to say ; for I cannot find terms sufficiently strong to express the detestation in which they should be held by every individual. Any punishment which the inge- nuity of man could devise would seem as too merciful to be meted out to them. Thej' richly deserve the embrace of the garote. Ask the dyspeptic who has been brought to the edge of the tomb by villainous compounds of unprincipled men, put up under the name of some wholesome article of diet, if this is too severe ? Ask the consumptive, in whose system the seeds of disease were sown by adulterated or diseased foods, if the garote or the halter has not been richly earned by these men? Of this matter the law should take stricter cognizance than it has ever yet done. "V7e have, it is true, some legal regulations in print upon these matters; but they are seldom enforced. The subject is deserving of the closest attention ; so that every offender therein may be brought to justice, and receive at least some punishment for his crime. And if we have a law that is not enforced, and a set of officers who can be bribed into overlooking this matter of adulteration, it is high time that Lynch law or some other mode of renovation was put in force, and both those who adulterate and those who wink at it hung up at the corners of the streets on conviction. In this way we might purify the city of this evil, and have articles in a healthy and unadulterated condition. We often find men who have been the victims of some grocer or butcher through the medium of adulteration ; and they are frequently making application to physi- cians for relief, but generally with but little benefit to health. Physicians mostly do not go to the bottom in treating complaints arising out of these evils. If dyspepsia has been induced, they treat the patient for dyspepsia, and dyspepsia only; but this does not answer; the disease has got into the blood — the blood has become poisoned, and it must be purified, or the patient cannot get well. Of this I have seen a sufficiency of cases to satisfy me. Leave oft' the use of the adulterated arti- cles, and take a course of my celebrated blood medicines, and you may recover from the effects of the adulterations. Otherwise, it may be considered certain you will sooner or later become the dead victim of your butcher and grocer. ADULTERATION OF LIQUORS. There was a time, years ago, when wines and spirituous liquors were to be had in their pure and unadulterated Btate, and when delirium tremens was a disease un- known. But that time has passed by; and now every kind of liquor and wine is most inhumanly mixed up, poisoned, weakened and cooked over, till it is no more like the original article than is a Btatue like a living human being. There is a re- semblance — one is made in imitation of the other, but they are not alike; as one is destituto of life and its powers, so is the other destitute of eood qualities. And THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 1H fortunate would it be for mankind if it were destitute of qualities of any kind. But, alas, it has the power of deadliness in its bosom — it stings as with the enven- omed fangs of the serpent. It is not a little amusing to enter a wholesale liquor store and hear of the high and ancient pedigrees of the various brands. And, as for age, you cannot fail of be- ing suited ; for there are barrels that have stood in the cellar since the days of Noah, of Moses, of Job, of David and of the patriarchs ; and brands put up by the various kings, and dukes, and noblemen, that have drank through all the ages of the past. And indeed, for the aid of sale, it would seem they should have the benefit of Bupposed age and high renown ; for of themselves they are generally most vile and miserable compounds. Their true qualities are known only to those who stagger and reel through our streets, and leave the sidewalks filthy with the vomited-up, nauseating contents of their stomachs. Logwood and various other articles of equally bad qualities are used in the prepa- ration of the liquors of the present day. But perhaps the most filthy ingredient is tobacco, of which a certain per centage, to give appearance of age and strength, is used in almost all liquors. Truly the stomachs of those who guzzle at the slop- shop rum-holes of cities are to be pitied. This adulteration and poisoning of liquor extends also to almost all our wines. Most of the imported (!) wines drank in this country, under various names, never crossed salt water. Any quantity of the very lest brands of champagne can be manufactured out of our native cider; and nine in ten of those who drink it will for a little while be ready to swear that it came from the other side of the big pond. But the only salt water it ever saw it met at the mouth of the Hudson in crossing from Jersey. And as for brandies, whiskey can, with trifling cost, be changed into a brandy that lias every appearance of age, and be sold for three or four dollars a gallon. It is hardly necessary that I should inform you of the evils entailed upon man- kind by the use of these adulterated liquors; for you can meet them on nearly every hand and behold them with your own eyes. To the voice of others I would add my own, saying unto you, Beware of these villainous compounds; for they burn and inflame the stomach ; their use leads to poverty and wretchedness ; diseaso and death are their certain fruits. If liquor is necessary in any case, for medicinal purposes, nothing but a pure and unadulterated article should be purchased. This may In: taken without inflaming the stomach; for it is the base counterfeit, and not the genuine article, that produces such disastrous evils upon tho human system. REGULAR HOURS FOR BATING. There is but little danger of too much being said upon the subject of diet and of regular hours for eating, in the prevention of disease, and as a means of promoting health and assisting tho system to survive to old age. in, dyspepsia, and liver complaint often come from irregular and improper diet. By an increased temperature in the Btomach, (which is necessary for the assist- ance of digestion,) the times that food should be eaten are indicated as follows: Breakfast from 5 to 7 o'clock in tho morning, dinner from 12 to 1, and supper from TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 5 to 7 in the afternoon. After this period, the heat in the digestive organs subsides, and food of no kind will bo digested so readily — nor anything like it, unless an in- jurious habit, contrary to nature, has been contracted; and under any habit what- ever, the digestion is not so perfect as at the time indicated. A most destructive habit of eating has arisen in our large cities, under the bid- ding of Fashion, which would be more properly known under the title of laziness. Men have no right to set nature at defiance, and transform day into night and night iuto day, changing the proper hours for sleeping and eating; and if they do this they must expect to suffer the consequences. The approaching shades of the evening give warning for relaxation, rest and re- tirement. The beasts of the field and the fowls of the air give heed to the indica- tions of nature ; they retire to their rest at night, rise refreshed and cheerful in the morning ; and dyspepsia, indigestion or consumption rarely visit them, unless they are placed in confinement. Articles of diet, in themselves, either vegetable or animal, have no part in causing sickness unless they disagree with the stomach, provided they are properly cooked and eaten in reasonable quantities- at the proper hours. It is from their abuse that evils arise. And to decide what you shall eat to promote health, I would say, choose out of the bountiful storehouse of God those kinds of food that suit best your taste and digestion ; for almost all kinds of animals may be eaten, from the smallest to the largest — from the snail and grasshopper up to the elephant ; and of fowls from the humming-bird to the condor — and of fish from the red-fin to the whale ; and every person may choose that which suits him best. Also eat of the variety of fruits and vegetables ; for God has made them for your use, to be food and medicine for all. But let me say to you, do not hasten your death by dieting improperly, or at improper hours; do not dig your grave with your teeth, but re- gard the proper hours for sleeping and eating, rather than the kind of food, provided the food is not hurtful to you. "We have a great many treatises now-a-days, prescribing for us what we shall eat, by persons who of necessity can know nothing of our peculiar tastes or our peculiar digestion. I deny the propriety of this dictation ; for as the mind acts in a meas- ure with the stomach, and in a certain sense indirectly aids the digestion, it is obvi- ous that articles of food repugnant to the stomach and consequently to the mind will retard digestion and induce disease. It is well known that the mind operates powerfully upon the muscles of the stomach, and that digestion is greatly influenced by it, as is also eating or drinking; for when the mind is composed, and we are eat- ing very heartily, being quite hungry, the sudden alarm of fire, or hearing of the death of some one dear to us, will instantly destroy the appetite and retard the di- gestion. This is frequently seen in both children and grown persons. Do not eat or drink under great excitement of mind of any kind ; for food taken when in this state will do you but comparatively little good, and is almost certain to injure the digestion. The greatest composuro of body and mind arc important while eating, and for a short time after, until digestion is over. Cheerfulness while eating and drinking in excellent ; and a chit-chat with an old friend after meals will assist digestion extraordinarily. Masticate your food well. — This is of great importance. Food should never b« taken into the stomach until it is properly prepared by being well masticated in tl* THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 113 mouth. The saliva of the mouth is the only natural substance for mixing the food and preparing it for digestion. To prepare the food, the mouth, teeth and gums, should be in a state of health, so that not only it shall be well masticated, but that disease be not imparted to it from a diseased mouth before it enters the stomach and is thence diffused into the blood. Hence I particularly deprecate and deplore the effects produced in the mouth by mercury and other mineral medicines. Their horrors cannot be told ; and again I would caution you against their use. Two very important organs in the physical economy, and those through which all medicines act \ipon the blood and other fluids, are represented in this cut. The liver is the largest of the internal organs, and generally weighs about four pounds. — Its uses are to secrete a fluid called bile, necessary in the conversion of food into venous No. 23.— The Lives and Stomach. blood > and {t also > when Wealthy, separates impurities therefrom. The necessity of keeping this organ in proper order must therefore be obvious. The vessel in which the bile is secreted, or gall bladder, is marked G in the plate ; the liver L, and the stomach S. In the stomach, the milky fluid called chyle is pre- pared, which, after being mixed with the bile, &c, becomes venous blood. Digestion in the Stomach will not take place properly unless the food is taken at regular hours and under a condition of composure, and the food be well cooked. The gastric secretion will not consumo living substances or animals : this is well known to physicians and physiologists ; and it is, therefore, a bad practice to eat meats rare, or with blood in them, as is frequently done. There be some men, having a digestion like that of an ostrich, who seem to ©At any thing and at any time without injury to them. But even these arc finally injured by their continued rebellion against the laws of nature. And what such men do, it may seem to some all may do; but they will find it different. It will never do for the man with a weak stomach, or with the consumptive, to take pattern after the ostrich. The gastric fluid of the stomach will digest aud sweeten the most putrid meats, but it will liavo no action on living substances; for it is well known that various animals live in the human stomach. [See evcts, frogs, snakes, &c, in another pari of this book] Digestion in the Duodenum. — Thoro aro but two points in the human system for the digestion of food— one in the stomach, the Other in the duodenum. In the first, digestion takes place by the action of the fluids of the stomach; in the other, by the action of the bile or gall and pancreatic secretions, whicb Beparate the nutritious part of the food and prepare it for a union with the Islood, when it is taken up or absorbed in the small intestines by the absorbents or lacteal vessels. In order to a proper digestion in the duodenum, it la necessary that the bile be in a healthy and unobstructed state ; for though digestion may go on alter a Blow manner, it is done imperfectly; and under this condition the body becomes emaciated, the strength 8 114 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. diminishes, and disease supervenes — often taking the form of consumption, for which it is mistaken. Absorption o/Oie nutrient food is accomplished by the lacteal vessels, which carry the nutritive properties to the blood, which passes through the heart to the lungs? where it undergoes a chemical change by contact with the air. And thus you seo illustrated the theory I have presented to you, that blood is the life of all flesli, and air the life of the blood. "Without purity and strength in the blood, received from what is taken into and digested in the stomach, the workings of our machinery soon manifest symptoms of disorder, and the machinery runs to decay. In any case where the digestive organs neglect the performance of their duty, we may suppose that not only is there disorder in those particular parts, but that through them the blood is becoming diseased. And, indeed, it is very often the case that disorders in the stomach have their origin in an impure blood; for it may be possible that the immediate effect of indiscretions in eating will not be upon the stomach, but upon the blood, and from thence re-act upon the stomach. While, therefore, all will see the expediency in the first place of keeping the system from evil by due attention to eating at the proper hours and under proper circumstances, they will also see the necessity in all cases, where disobedience of the laws of nature has taken place, and dyspepsia or other diseases of the stomach have been induced, either directly, or indirectly through the medium of the blood, that the correctives should be administered to overcome the pernicious effects, and restore both stomach and blood to their natural and healthful condition. And the longer this is neglected the worse will the condition of the person become. Occasionally fasting for a meal or two will be found excellent to restore the stomach to a healthy tone. For the benefit of those suffering from indigestion and dyspepsia, or from other complaints growing out of inattention to regularity in meals and taking improper foods into the stomach, I would recommend my Anti-Bilious Pills and the Blood Renovator. These medicines will be found highly efficacious in all complaints of this nature. They will restore the stomach to right condition and the blood to its original purity, and remove obstructions to the bile, in all cases where the disease has not been of such long standing as to have completely got mastery of the whole system. In the latter case, a regular course of medicines should be taken system- atically and perseveringly, and thus will health be regained. DAILY EVACUATION OF THE BOWELS Is of the utmost importance in the maintenance of health. Without attention to this, the entire system will becomes deranged and corrupted. Beauty of person as well as health depends iii no small degree upon regular daily evacuations; and a d stomach, bad breath, sallow complexion, enlarged and diseased liver, rush of blood to the head, loss of memory, headache, heart diseases, bleeding at the lungs, a thick, coarse skin, loaded and contaminated blood and bile, falling of the womb, dyspepsia, piles, hectic fever, consumption, and confirmed costiveness, are induced by neglect of this matter. The morning — cither just before or just after eating — is the best time for regular evacuation; and a habit of this should be THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 115 formed and strictly adhered to, all business calls to the contrary notwithstanding, or disease may be the result. COSTIVENESS CAUSES CONSUMPTION. The inability to evacuate the bowels daily, or the neglect to do so, loads the lungs with impure deposits, and gradually grows worse and worse if it is not attended to, and finally seriously affects the system and frequently induces consumption. In all ordinary cases this may be prevented by simply forming a habit by perseveringly endeavoring at a fixed hour each day to induce an evacuation. People may think lightly of this, and mauy troubled with costiveness may say they have tried without contracting a habit. But I knovj that if the rule I have here laid down is com- menced and adhered to faithfully before the disorder has got complete mastery of the system, the effort will finally be crowned with success, and the health of the person saved to him. What matters it if you try a hundred times to produce evacuation, and do not gain the end? Try five hundred, yea ten times five hundred, rather than be led into consumption through neglect and growing cos- tiveness. Where costiveness has been neglected and has gained a complete mastery over the system, it will often be found difficult to restore a healthy and regular action to the bowels without recourse to some corrective medicine. For this, you will find in my Blood Renovator and Anti-Bilious Pills qualities that will bring the bowels to a healthy state, and save you from consumption. These you may always obtain by sending to me. But in the want of them, and before you can obtain these as a relief, I would recommend the use of Turkey rhubarb as the next best remedy in your complaint, with occasional injections of cold water. URINATING OFTEN Is also a matter of great importance. People generally suffer more from long abstinence from urinating than is supposed by physicians even. I have had cog- nizance of cases where individuals have dropped down dead from long continued holding of the water. The health of tlio kidneys, bladder, and blood are much dependent upon proper discharges of the urine ; for if it bo not frequently drawn, earthy sediments are deposited, and gravel or inflammation or ulceration of the urinary organs follows; or the matter is absorbed by the absorbent vessels and deposited in the blood, by which the heart and lungs aro affected, unless it bo thrown off, witli an offensive smell, by perspiration. Much of the watery portion of tho blood is drained off by the kidneys and through the urine; and to stop the regular flow 'of this will produce an impure blood, and cause dropsy or kidney consumption. Thousands are the cases of kidney and urinary tided with debility, emaciation, haggard < otenanoe of various hues, and ghastly eyes, which many eminent physicians pronounce to bo cases of lung consumption, and treat according- ly. I have been so fortunate as never to bo mistaken about those complaints, and 116 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. invalids have expressed the opinion that I had a miraculous power to detect disease and its location. Very well ; that is what should be done in all complaints ; for when the disease and its location and character are perfectly understood, appropriate medicines can be given ; but not till then can any physician prescribe for his patient with an)- surety of a cure. Persons are frequently troubled with pain on making water, with scalding or burning heat of the water, thick water, difficulty of holding the water, too much or too little water, bloody urine, and red or white sediment in the water ; and also with grub in the kidneys, producing many of the above complaints, together with a gnawing pain in the region of those organs and great heat and weakness in the small of the back. In some cases of these complaints a regular course of medicine is necessary to restore health to the organs ; but generally the Water Regulator will be found sufficient in itself to afford the desired relief. Females troubled with any of the above diseases will find the Female "Wash of great value, in connection with the Water Regulator. EARLY TO BED AND EARLY TO RISE Is an excellent maxim to follow. It is detrimental to the health to turn day into night ; to be up till the early hours of morning, and then lie in bed till the middle of the next forenoon. This is a transformation of the intention of nature, which sooner or later results in evil effects to the system. The beasts and the fowls retire at dark and are up with the break of day, with the exception of that portion which, by the peculiar construction of the eye, see better in darkness than in daylight, and were evidently intended by the Creator to be night-prowlers. But from the fact that man in the night season is comparatively blind to surrounding objects, the con- clusion is obvious that God intended he should sleep in the night and be awake in the day time. Particularly in cities, more than in the country, should this rule of " early to bed aud early to rise " be observed, and more especially by persons who are ailing, and require exercise and good air. But, generally speaking, the reverse of this is true — country people do not so much turn day into night and night into day as those of the city. The chief reason why the invalid in the city should rise early is, that he may get witli his exercise an air as pure as is possible to be had in his locality ; and for this he must be up in the morning. Then, before the vehicles have tilled the streets with dust, (so bad for the lungs,) and the ten thousand chimneys have emitted their deleterious smokes, and the reflection of the suu from the walls and walks has dried up the freshness of the morning, the invalid may indulge a hope of getting a few breaths of air comparatively pure and healthful, from which he will derive new strength and vigor. And this is about the only time he can get it. And besides the artificial causes that poison the atmosphere, the air of the morning is sweeter and better than that of any other part of the day: though in the country, remote from dust and filth, from smokes and Bteams, the air has always a species of fresh- ness and purity unknown to the city; ami therefore it is not so essential that the invalid in the country sh arly lor the purpose named. Sleep, "tired nature's sweet restorer," is essential to all animate creations — to none THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. H7 more so than to man. During sleep the functions of the brain have ceased ; they are held in temporary suspension, while the action of the heart and lungs is nearly the same as in wakefulness. The recurrence of sleep is indispensible to recruit the faculties of body and mind, and prepare them anew for further labor ; and when the body is in health and the mind at ease, this state of existence, if undisturbed, is perfect in giving new life, vigor, cheerfulness and power to both the physical and mental being. But by what influence the powers of the body and mind are restored to the individual while in this state, or how the insensibihty is terminated of itself, we have but vague and unsatisfactory ideas. The hours necessary for sleep differ in different individuals, and in proportion to the activity and size of the brain. Men, animals and birds, having small heads or brains, sleep less, and actually require less sleep than those having larger and more active brains. The causes that disturb rest are various — both bodily and mental — but greater in the day time than at night. Sleep is prevented by constant pain, by disorder in the nerves, by great heat or cold, by unusual noises, and often by light, because light in- duces activity of the phosphorus in the system, from which emanates activity of the brain, and darkness operates to check the action of the phosphorus, from which dull- ness and sleepiness of the brain supervene. For this reason night is preferable to day for sleeping hours. Also by distressing news — the death of a friend, failure in business speculations, disappointment in love, connubial infelicity, and by a thousand other causes, sleep may be broken ; all of which tend to debilitate and derange the brain, and often induce consumption and other diseases. To witness a person overcome by the power of sleep is sometimes laughable. The delights of courtship are often interrupted by this agent ; the merchant is taken from his business, and the student from his book, by the power of sleepiness. Often when we exercise the greatest watchfulness it steals upon us ; and again, when most desired, it is most distant. Many, like Peter of old, have wept because of oversleep, while others have sighed for the want of it. The best time for sleep is in the early part of tho night. Rest before twelve is much better for the system than an equal amount after that time. But the hours of its greatest strength are from about ten in the evening till one ; therefore, this period should bo spent in bed- There is no rule to govern the amount of your sleep, any more than the kind of your diet. Much of its duration will depend on the labors of the previous day, mentally and physically; but generally from six to eight hours in the twenty-four arc sufficient. Some constitutions require more than eight hours; but there are but few who can labor hard and continue in health with less than six. Persons who are in the habil of being often broken of their rest will be considerably recruited with four hours sleep; bu1 if they I laliituate themselves to this thcro aro but few constitutions but will suffer injurv from it. Carefully avoid all excitements tending to deprive you of the requisite amount of regular sleep. And if your nervous system is suffering from derangement, and me- dicinal aid is required, you will find Root's Nervine an excellent soother and pro- motor of sleep and rest to both body and mind. 118 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. EXERCISE AND LABOR. Ik order to the full enjoyment of life, strength and health, the system of man requires a certain amount of exercise, either as labor understood in its general sig- nificance or as labor in sports and games of some kind or other. By exercise the limbs and muscles of the body gain strength, and thus the in- dividual becomes better capacitated to withstand the shocks and physical trials of life. And the mind also gains additional strength and power through the same channel ; for by those it is led from one change to another, which relieves it of a sameness ; and while acting in harmony with the muscles of the body it gains force and vigor which it would never attain to were exercise disregarded. For true and beneficial exercise, there must be harmony of action between the moving power and the power to be moved. The will and the muscle must both be directed to the same end at the same time, otherwise the effect will be imperfect. Gymnastic exercises, which originated among the Greeks, are excellent for persons of sedentary habits, and should in greater or less degree receive their attention. To the hard-working mechanic, farmer, or day laborer, there is no need to give ad- vice about exercise ; for generally they get quite as much of it as is essential to health — except in cases of mechanical work which is of a sedentary nature. But persons whose business has no exercise in it, should practice riding, walking, wrestling, pitching quoits, or some other kind, which will develop the muscles and strengthen the system. They are excellent for the preservation and restoration of health, and often highly useful in the cure of diseases. Gymnastic exercises among the Greeks were somewhat different from the gym- nastic exercises of to-day. In the olden times they were designed to accustom the youth to feats of activity and strength and prepare them for the fatigues of war. Many of the affections to which men are liable may be greatly influenced and often entirely removed by exercise. Glandular obstructions are best treated in this way. On the other hand, where exercise has been too powerful, it occasions bodily complaints — loss of appetite, loathing of food, costiveness, rigors and fainting. In these cases, a moderate use of good wine, warm clothing, quiet sleep, and a moist, nourishing diet afford the best relief. Exi -reising the lungs by inflating them, is excellent, both in disease and health, unless the lungs, heart or liver are suffering under some peculiar state of disease which makes inflation dangerous. If the body have ao exercise, the orifices become filled up with the waste or de- composed matter which should escape through them; but if we exercise, the muscles are contracted about those orifices and the waste matter is thus forced out, (the same as the vermicular action of the bowels forces out the contents of the bowels,) and the body becomes free from obstructions. Choke up - ^,.i|i two <>r three times a-day, and apply the Ger- man Ointment. Iu other iii-iances, the impurities of the blood pro- duce thai common disease known as spinal curvature. Locating in the spino of the back, they weaken and destroy the vigor of that part of the system, so that it Curves about in different directions, distorting the whole ami rendering the patient unlit for any duty of life. The variety in the form of these curvatures is almost as great as the number of cases themselves. The following cul is a representation of a spinal curvaturo of a daughter of Mr. Luiii.in A. Atkins, of Meriden, Ofc., which I had the pleasure of curing. The accompanying cuts have been introduced as illustrations of the terrible effects of all poisonous humors in the blood. They showafew of the many thousand ways and forms by which these poisonous humorsadliet and injure Hi'' children of men. No. 3i. — Case of King's Kvn,. 136 Till- PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTIIOUSE. They are also designed to speak with trum- pet-voice to all who are. in any degree or form, afflicted with the scrofula, erysipelas, ulcers, or any cutaneous eruption whatever, not to neglect to give their immediate attention to purifying and cleansing their blood; otherwise, though they may apply ever so mauy external remedies, they can never be healed. Revelation first announced to the world that the life-giving principle of the flesh is in the blood, in the rebuke which God gave to Cain for the murder of his brother Abel. "And the Lord said unto Cain, what hast thou done ? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand." Here the death of Abel is ascribed to the shedding of his blood; but if the life-giving principle had not been in his blood, the shed- ding of his blood could not have caused the destruction of his life. But this great truth does not rest on mere inferential authority. "We have the most explicit and unequivocal scriptural declarations that "the life of the flesh is in the blood," and "is the blood." God, by the mouth of Moses, thus speaks to the children of Israel: "For the life of the flesh is in tlie blood : it is the life of all flesh ; the blood is for Vie life there- of: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no man- ner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof." Reader, if you wish the blooming goddess of health to inhabit your frame, apply at once to one who has studied in the great volume of nature, and who, by the aid of science and investigation, has prepared from the vast store-houses of the vegetable kingdom, upon a basis as fixed and eternal as the everlasting hills, the medicines which will purify your blood, improve your appearance, and strengthen your con- stitution, so that the delights of happiness and long life shall be before you, and in- vite you to the gaieties and pleasures of the world. In case of spinal curvature, use the Blood Renovator and Anti-Bilious Pills; apply the German Ointment, and use a well-adjusted Shoulder-brace. No. 35. — Spinal Curvature. ST. ANTHONY'S FIRE Differs from real scrofula in being more irritable and fiery. It is very painful and accompanied with swelling It appears in various parts of the body, more especially about the ears, eyes and extremities, and attacks persons <>f gross habits. It proceeds from morbid or acrid secretions retained in the system. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 137 In this disease there is constitutional disturbance, more or less fever, and the secretions disordered. There is a shining redness and swelling of the parts affected, accompanied with very distressing irritation ; the inflamed parts have acute pain on pressure. Frequently serous or watery effusion takes place from the inflamed surface, elevating the skin into vesicles like those produced by blisters. Ulceration sometimes follows, and becomes very distressing ; red, deep-seated ulcers being formed, particularly on the legs. This disease, though much dreaded, I have found not difficult of cure. Generally my circulating medicines will not only heal up the sores but eradicate the evil from the system, so that the patient will not be again troubled ; but where these fail, a full and thorough course of medicine, according to directions, will restore the suf- ferer to health. THE MERCURIAL SORE OR HUMOR Is a very fiery, red pimple, or spot, similar to the salt rheum, while on the skin. But if much mercury has been taken into the system, pain is felt in the bones be- fore storms. Often it settles in some bone and entirely consumes it. It always causes great diffi- culties with the teeth and gums. SCALD HEAD Is a species of venery, sometimes transmitted to the child, at others inoculated by the use of combs and brushes that have been used by per- sons troubled with the disease. Itch, when pro- tracted, more nearly resembles scald head than does any other complaint. Never comb tin- head of your child with a comb used by other persons, and see that the nurse t do it In fact, no comb or brush should be used but by one person, and then should be occasionally we No. 3G Case of Scald Head. ITCH Is of two kinds — the simple and secondary, the last often bearing tho name of Scrofula The simple itch consists of a number of little fiery pimples, usually first appearing between the Angers. When squeezed, the pimples discharge a clear, Watery secretion. When the disease is not checked it appears in the same form over the trhole body, running together in larger bodies or blisters, and is attended with greal irritation and Itching. Tht Egyptian, <>r , r /rh, afflicts Hie Angers and thickens and destroys the life of the nail-, both on t]ie flngeTS and toes. Itch of either kind, when suffered to remain in the system, becomes secondary in tho blood, and breaks out 138 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. in lar- eyery part of the body, subject to irritation. When pressed theb!:- white, watery matter. A dry, white scab is sometimes found over it. Itch is often a cau.se of lung consumption. Also, it causes the neck, ears, and various parts of the head to become very raw and sore, and is sometimes at- tended with a loss of the hair, the same as the scald head. BARBER'S ITCH Is a species of venereal humor, contracted by the use of combs, brushes and shaving utensils that have been employed about other persons, who have left upon them the infectious virus to be inocculated by touch, or taken up by the absorbents of the skin. It is exceedingly troublesome and painful especially where there is a thick, harsh beard. The same humor or poison will destroy the lids of the eyes and the muscles of the nose, when very powerful. For the common itch, Egyptian and barber's itch, and scald head, use the Blood Renovator and Anti-Bilious Tills internally; wash with Castile soap two or three day, and thru use the German Ointment. For the barber's itch, the beard musl 1"' soaked soft and kept shaved as close as possible. SYPHILITIC HUMOR OR LUES VENEREA. Tins disease was first made distinct mention of in 1494, at Naples. Dr. Cullen gave it the name of syphilis. Hock de Brakenaw, Cataneus, De Vigo, Pinto, (a Spanish physician,) and others, agree in 1494 being the first known time of its ap- pearance. The disease was contracted by the prostitution carried on among the soldiery, and was carried into Spain, Italy, France and England, thence by emigration to America, and finally spread a horrible distemper over the face of the whole world, contaminating the purest blood, entering alike the hovel of the peasant and the palace o! the prince. Of its origin in prostitution there can be but little doubt; and it is through this channel that it continues still to affect the human race. Tin.- curse of prostitution should find its end — it should be stopped, especially in those countries boasting of refinement in civilization. Marriage should be insti- tuted at an earlier age than is now common, as a salutary measure to check t lie of prostitution. If there be no other way to stop the progress of this foul practice, a heavy fine and imprisonment should be levied on all who communicate the renereal disease, or who peraisl in leading the life of the harlot while in a dis- eased state. Thai prostitution arid the diseases growing from it are the cause. either directly or indirectly, of a very large amount of the mortality of almost all COuntri rived from observation and treatment of various complaints by which both sexes are affected. It rapidly spreads degeneration, eon- sumption, and other evil-, and sows the seeds of decay and death in the systems of millions. Prostitution is morally, physically, intellectually and religiously wrong — wrong in every way. When the diseased— those afflicted with the worst of all God's plagues— arc suffered to carry on their loathsome trade and propagate distemper, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 139 without regard to law or justice, wherein is the safety of the purest of mortals from hereditary disease? — where security for the child unborn? — where peace to the families of a land ? It is a shame to us that we sneer at the ignorance of passion, and blush to warn our children of the death that awaits them at the threshold of prostitution. In New York and vicinity there are to-day 50,000 prostitutes, who carry on their business under the eyes of our legislators and officers of justice — the wives, daugh- ters, sisters and widows of the most respectable people, of correct and religious habits. More than 200,000 courtezans are now sowing the seeds of venereal dis- eases in almost every place of size in the United States ! Throughout the world there are 2,000.000 prostitutes scattering the deadly poisons of their trade. As a physician, ardently desiring the health and happiness of the present and coming generations, I would seriously ask, if the propagation of venereal diseases should not be made punishable by lines and imprisonments, as a means to save the virtue and the purity of the people, and check the inducing of consumption and death ? Unless this be done, we may doubt if it will ever be suppressed. Prostitution is bj T no means necessary to a gratification of the natural passions; for God has appointed a wonderful equality of the sexes, and instituted the diviue law of marriage, so that each and every person may have his or her partner in love, and live in purity and virtue, and the diseases of venery never be con- tracted. And the health of all, the world over, depends in no small degree upon obedience to and conformity with the requirements of this institution. As a warning to those young ladies who would trust themselves in the thorny paths of prostitution, where all the virtuous feelings of the woman are swallowed up in debauchery and lust, where there is no real love or friendship, where the most dreadful diseases await their every step, and perdition of soul is their certain reward, let me speak to you of the sudden and untimely death that comes to ninety and nine of the hundred who launch themselves upon this troubled sea. By the most carefully prepared statistics of the abandoned women in large cities, it has been shown that the average of life among courtezans after embracing that business is only about six years. Six years of a most miserable existence — a foretaste of the horrors of lull — and the diseased body finds its way in a rough board coffin to Bome Potter's Field, and tho polluted soul its reward in the punishments laid up for tuose who disobey the laws of Nature and of Nature's God. In a work intended lor general family use, I cannot givo full descriptions of syphilis and other venereal diseases. I speak of them to warn you against their deadly poisons, and to keep you from tho fatal consoquencos that attend their pre- sence in the human system. PIMPLES OF YOUTH. THESE arc caused by the pores of the body becoming stopped up, whereby the natural waste or decomposition is prevented from passing off; and, being retained under the skin, it breaks out often in the form of pimples, either having a white mattery secretion, or presenting a hard, knotty texture without any secreted matter. 140 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. STYES AXD COLD SORES, Either on the lips or eyelids, also arise from a suppression of the natural decom- posing), which induces blisters or festers. Biles, carbuncles, and other excrescences of like character, arise from impurities of the blood, caused by some obstruction to the outlets of the waste matter of the body. In all cases of humors, the blood is the only thing that will need to be purified Fur that purpose, the Blood Renovator and the Anti-Bilious Pills used internally, and the German Ointment applied externally, are superior medicines, and effect a speedy cure. Also they will be found efficacious in most of the diseases mentioned just previous to this. LEPROSY. This disease is of two kinds— the white and red. The white leprosy is a foul cu- taneous disease, appearing in dry, white, thin scurvy or scabs, attended with vio- lent itching. The white patch is of the color of milk, and spreads all over the face, hands or body, turning both skin and hair the same color. Red Leprosy gives a reddish, shiny patch or elevation. A thin, white scale is formed on it, which quickly flattens, while the base enlarges. The separate patches preserve their round and red appearance, with a wrinkled state of the skin. When the scales drop off, they are renewed again. This disease is very trouble- some, especially at night, when in bed. I have cured persons of the red leprosy who have frequently taken a pint of scales from the sheets after a night's torture. Leprous humors very frequently terminate in consumption,— the humor locating on the lungs, liver, or other vital organs. Leprosy is a chronical disease ; in warm climates infectious, but not evidently so in cold countries ; though its infectious nature was formerly suspected, and the un- happy Victims separated in distinct establishments from the rest of mankind. It does not seem to affect the general health of the person. Without assistance nature will not give a relief in this disease. The signs of amendment in it are the diminution of the ridge around the patch, and the scales not reproduced when rubbed off We find often mention made in the Scriptures of the disease of leprosy, and it ap- pears to have bees regarded among the Jews with a peculiar horror. They consi- dered it incurable ; and it has been generally so regarded in the East, where it now exists in much more numerous instances than with us. The Mosaic law gave no di- rection for the cure of this disease, but only to prevent its spread; and to this end lepers wen- obliged to war a peculiar dress, and dwell apart from those not trou- bled with the di these matters, and will understand how to treat them, and place their systems in a state of perfect health. CIRCUMCISION— WHAT IS IT, AND nOW PERFORMED? In connection with the Bubjects of seminal emissions and masturbation, we may consider the matter of circumcision This act consists in removing the prepuce skin or foreskin of the penis (covering the elands) by a surgical operation; after Which masturbation is difficult, The word "prepuce' is derived from the Latin praeputo, to lop off before. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 151 "We read in the Bible that circumcision was a seal of the covenant which God made with Abraham and his posterity; and it is thought by many to have been instituted for the purpose of preventing self-pollution and inducing the young to marry, that the command of God — " Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth," might be obeyed the more willingly. "Were the act generally practiced at this day, there would undoubtedly be much less of self-pollution and of the evils therefrom arising than at present exist among us. Viewed in this light, it is a sub- ject worthy of consideration. As practiced among the Jews, the ceremony of cir- cumcision is attended with trouble and unnecessary expense ; but it may be per- formed without trouble by any surgeon. " The history of Abraham proves that circumcision was an ante-Mosaic rite, for the command is expressed in such terms as to make it evident that the rite was known previous to the time of that patriarch. It was practiced in Egypt and Ethiopia from the earliest times. " The ceremony of circumcision as practiced by the Jews in our own times, is thus: "When a male child is born, the godfather is chosen from among his relatives or near friends ; and if the party is not in circumstances to bear the expenses, which are considerable (for after the ceremony is performed, a breakfast is provided, even amongst the poor, in a luxurious manner,) it is usual for the poor to get one amongst the richer, who accepts the office and becomes a godfather. There are also societies formed amongst them for the purpose of defraying the expenses, and every Jew receives the benefit if his child is born in wedlock. " The circumcisor being provided with a very sharp instrument, called the circum- cising knife, plasters, cummin-seed to dress the wound, proper bandages, &c, the child is brought to the door of the synagogue by the godmother, when the god- father receives it from her, and carries it into the synagogue, where a large chair is placed. The godfather being seated, and the child placed on a cushion in his lap, the circumcisor performs the operation. Forms are repeated by the circumcisor, the parents and the congregation." THE NATURAL REMEDY. In connection with these subjects, I append some anecdotes, which, if rightly in- terpreted and followed, may be beneficial to my readers. The first was the result of the concoctions of one of the " bloods " of the allopathic fraternity, a son of one of the most wealthy and respectable merchants in the western part of Now York State; and grew from attempts to " get the rig " upon a doctrcss of high repute in his locality. It is well known that the allopathic physicians have made great ■ns to put down those practising in the vegetable or botanic school, whether males or females; and the lady who was the object of attack in this instance baring superior skill in the healing art, ami in the use of harmless ami simple vegetable preparations, was an object of special dislike. This good old lady phyafc cum :md neighborhood nurse, beloved and sought after by all, was a ■ to the allopathic medical aspirants (as botanists generally arc), and had often to take downMhose youn^' gents in her vicinity who were wiser than their moti the seven men spoken of in Scripture, and who wished to restrict woman's ness and detract from her motherly guardian care. 152 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTII- Our hero, Dr. P , of county, a doctor wanting practice, was greatly annoy. . our lady physician. So with two or three other disciples of the healing art, similarly situated, he resolved to "run a saw" upon Mrs. If , and then use it to laugh her out of the neighborhood. All things being rightly planned, the started one evening to make Mrs. M a call, resolved to six ::;odesty and put her to the blush. Arriving, they knocked at her door : and were soon admitted by the lady herself, and requested to be seated, in her usual bland and good-natured way. After the usual compliments, she inquired. " Well, gentlemen, what can I do for either of you to render you more happy and comfortable in life ?"' Dr. P informed Mrs. M that his case was considered a very dangerous one ; that as it was also a delicate one. it was exceed- ingly embarrassing to have to consult a lady; but as he knew his danger, and had been informed of her great skill, and that all confidence could be placed in her dis- cretion, he had felt compelled to seek her advice and prescriptions. Mrs. M assured the doctor that confidence might be placed in her in all delicate mat- ters, and that his secret would be safe in her keeping ; and expressed a wish to examine, that she might become fully acquainted with the nature of his complaint, and so be enabled to prescribe for him with greater certainty of success ; at the same time offering a private room for the examination, which was declined. Mrs. M went for her spectacles and a light, and the doctor exposed the obnoxious member, which, he informed the good old lady, was a source of great annoyance and trouble to him, both in and out of company ; being subject to swell- ings and violent erections, so painful as to disturb his rest and afflict him bodily and mentally day and night. As is usual in cases of this kind, Mrs. M carefully examined the offending member, in various fights, in order to the understanding of the complaint While turning it to and fro, to examine it in the various aspects presented, it chanced to slip from the good doctress's fingers, and her head being somewhat bent forward, it unceremoniously knocked her spectacles upon the floor, and broke them. But without manifesting chagrin or embar: calmly informed Dr. P that though his was certainly a bad case, she had successfully ■_d lor many much worse ones, and the patients had never failed to find relief under her dir- -Isease soon passing off, and the afflicted part being reduced from its inflammatory state in a very short period 1 The prescription was immediately ordered, and the price requested; when the lent lady informed her patient that in unusual dolicate cases, affording room for an advance in knowledge for the relief of the sick and unfortunate, she made no charge for advice or medicine. Mrs. M received the thanks of the young bucks, and handed the foil. *n, which she said might be legally ob- tained of any . :i the neighborhood: — "One virgin poultice — apply three t. I the inflammation is completely reduced. To prevent a recurrence of the >..- I application should be con- tinued. This is a never-failing remedy." The disciples of Esculapius incontinently sloped, and were not afterwards heard of in the locality. Mrs. M successfully continued her business witi. Considered in a medical view, this prescription of Mrs. M is by no means to be thought of lightly. yell at length upon the efficacionmeffl of this remedy, and its power of this we ma -—that ins healing balm, possessed of rare and peculiar qualities, prepared ex- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 153 pressly by nature for the purpose to which it is applied; is unparalleled in its sooth- ing action, and a remedy that no substitute of man can ever dispense 'with with impunity. Before it the prescriptions of modern physicians — cauterizing, cooling lotions, applications of cold water, and the like — dwindle into insignificance; and before this great remedy of nature the egotistical physician may well hide his head in shame. Bachelors who, from long celibacy, are troubled as was Dr. P , would be wise to consult and apply the remedy of nature rather than the remedies of those teachers who inveigh against early marriage. After the discomfiture of Dr. P. and his associates, Mrs. M. continued successfully her practice undisturbed by any aspiring M. D. for considerable time. But finally another allopath settled in the neighborhood. Dr. D. was an accomplished single gentleman, of high character, and attracted the attention of many a lovely dewdrop of the place. In short, he was the pet of all the ladies who were not fit subjects for blue pills, and who of course were opposed to bleeding while in a state of health. But months went by and the doctor had no patients, wliile all the while Mrs. M was overrun with practice. Finally Dr. D. grew desperate; and resolved to make an attack on his lady rival and see if he could not outwit and get the joke upon her. He procured the assistance of some fellow physicians, and they laid their heads together to concoct a scheme. Knowing Mrs. M 's good natured wit, and her skill in the use of her tongue, and remembering the discomfiture of Dr. P , they wore some time in planning a mode of attack. Finally they hit upon a scheme. They had been informed that the doctress was remarkably well versed in botany and was acquainted with the name and use of every vegetable and root ; and never failed of giving the right name to any article that was presented for her inspection. Upon this they resolved to act, and see if they could not put the old lady to her wit's ends and turn the laugh against her. The article was procured, in a dried state, and forthwith they posted off to visit Mrs. M. They found the old lady busy with a number of patients, but finally obtained an audience. "My good gentlemen, what can I do for you?" inquired the doctress. Dr. D replied, that he came to obtain her opinion of a root, a piece of which he had brought with him, and respecting which there had been much dispute as to its name.-; and healing that Mrs. M. was skilled in all matters of this kind, ho had, after in vain applying to many skillful physicians, called upon her; and thereupon -terious root was produced. The old lady scanned it closely through her id then cautiously tasted it, as was her usual way when not satisfied by ocular evidence. After nibbling a little, she remarked with a knowing look and a hearty laugh — "0, la! it is the good old Elicom Fundlo Top, so cooling to the bowelfll I have long been acquainted with its wonderful powers in many oich we females are Liable 1" The old doctress's wit had the desired effect. The discomfited bloods sloped amid the laughter of the old lady, and did not Buffer the grass to grow under their heels till far away from her neighborhood. Since; that time Mrs. M has en- joyd the practice of the village undisturbed and without a rival. As "all things are purotothe pure," it may be well to mention that the old lady's prescription will be found a salutary cure, in most cases, for involuntary emissions and masturbation, as well a.s in those cases to which she ordered it applied. Thoro 154 TILE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. is therein a volume of meaning to the male sex. And the second may be found as efficacious in the suppression of harlotry, and as speaking loudly to the females. These anecdotes will serve to show that nothing was made in vain, and may lead our minds to the contemplation of the language of St. Paul, that it "is bet- ter to marry than to bam." Physicians may encourage bachelor habits, and de- and cooling preparations to deaden the natural passion of sexual love, all for the purpose of extracting round fees for medical services; but let me plainly say to the young of both sexes — " Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband;" and that, too, in early life, that the in- born passion may be gratified in accordance with nature, and in the holy bonds of wedlock. Then seminal emissions, masturbation, and other evils would cease, and much of misery would be spared the human race. SEXUAL TANTALIZATION— SUPPRESSING ELECTRIC EMISSION. There is quite too prevalent, in all classes of society among the married, a prac- tice highly destructive to health, which consigns thousands of persons annually to the tomb ; and yet no voice has been raised against it, either because of its being thought a subject too " delicate" to be treated of in a public work or lecture, or because ofignorance. But waiving all such considerations of a false and over-fasti- dious refinement, and being desirous to point out the causes of consumption and death, as well as to speak of cures, I shall make brief allusion to the destroying sin of tantalization of the passion, or suppression of semen. In the rational and temperate gratification of the sexual desire, as ordained of God, there is nought of harm. For a proper participation in the delights of wedded life, physically as well as intellectually, in the natural and scientific manner, there is no punishment decreed ; inasmuch as it is not only in accordance with nature, but in compliance to the commands of Jehovah. It is not, therefore, against this I shall speak, but against tantalization and suppression, which is unnatural and highly per- nicious in its effects upon the human system. This evil act consists in exciting the organs of procreation to the highest degree, and then checking the emission of the electrified semen, through fear of " the consequences" — loss of character to the un- married by having a child, or physical danger to the wife, or desire not to have child* rem Never be guilty of this sin 1 Married people often practice tantalization and suppression, or withdrawal, by ad- vice of the family physician, where the wife is physically deformed, subject to dan- gerous miscarriages, or unable to give birth to a living child without greatly endan- gering her <>\vn life. And bo, as amativenesa will be gratified, the husband igno- rantly risks the sacrifice of his life by practising suppression; for by apursual of this course, consumption Is Burely induced, and the person Finds an early grave. Nine- tenths of the mooted people Indulge in this pernicious habit to a great degree, to say nothing of what is practised by the unmarried Tantalization and pappreBBion are injurious to the system, because often by the son, the power afthe electricity, do< bring allowed its natural escape, is ex- pended upon the body. Ihe organs that \vv<- wont to exercise their functions be- mpelled into a cessation, the electricity in them stimulates to action ; and, as am pent up in an engine, which, when ao! employed and suffered to escape, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 155 finds vent in a disastrous explosion, so is the force of the electricity generated by friction, when thrown back by suppression, expended on the nerves, organs, and ma- chinery of the body, to its great detriment and manifest harm, destroying both health and life. But, you will ask, if the life of the wife is in danger on the one hand, and that of the husband on the other, what shall be done ? what safe course shall be pursued ? Shall the desire of cohabitation be suppressed ? I answer, no ; for there is pro- vided means whereby the life of neither shall be in danger, nor cohabitation be de- nied, of which I shall speak in another place. Self-pollution or masturbation, as I have told you, is unnatural and destructive to health ; but the indulgence of the habit of which I now speak, is much worse than the other. In masturbation, a free discharge of the semen is allowed ; but in sup- pression, the passion is checked in the height of excitement, and the electricity is thrown back upon the system, scattering the arrows of death through every part of the body, and inducing insanity, idiocy, spinal diseases, and consumption. Thou- sands are annually carried to the grave through this cause, ignorant of its fatal ef- fects ; weak, exhausted, and emaciated skeletons, a mockery to even food for worms. Delaying marriage gives encouragement to this evil ; where the passions become ungovernable, and cohabitation is sought in the days of courtship. Physicians and people generally seem to be profoundly ignorant upon this subject, or else they indulge in such a false delicacy, that they will see the race dege- nerate, and groan under an evil of a mighty magnitude, sooner than say a word upon the matter. But I have a duty to perform to my fellow-men, to warn them of this as well as the other habits that lead to consumption and untimely graves, and be- seech them to flee the evil ere it becomes too late. I have treated hundreds of per- sons far gone in a decline, who, when I pointed out to them the cause, blamed their physicians because they had not warned them in the matter, but rather let them go on, and then fatten off their purses by doctoring them in their sickness. And after curing these persons, I have pointed them to the means of escaping further danger by recommending, where their wives were deformed or unable to bear children, that they should use the French Male Safe, or the Prevention Powder, which allow of a full unobstructed, and voluntary emission, without any danger to the health of the wife or husband. [See notice of these articles.] I may be blamed by many physicians, (but it will be them only,) for speaking up- on this matter, because they will bo annoyed at my originality in thus presenting an unrecorded cause of consumption, and my ingenuity in pointing out the way to avoid it. But if you will visit with me the insane retreats, the poor-houses, and the hos- pitals of the land, and the beds of the consumptive, and learn for yourself how many have been brought to those places by indulgence in totalization and suppression, you will feel to thank me for alluding to the matter in this work. What is the use or the business of medical men ? Are they to be guardian shepherds for the people, or let them run astray? Are they to let tho causes of disease and death go undis- turbed, in order that they may get more fees? Is it not their business to treat of causes, effects, and preventives^ as well as cures? For my part, I feel no delicacy in warning mankind to lire from any cvdl that is prolific of sickness, and is annually carrying thousand ave^ and should there be any objection bo I he introduc- tion of these hints into b popular work liko this, I would say "Let him that is without sin cast the first stone." 156 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Life and health are in a great degree dependent upon a proper discharge of the duties and fractions of the married state. For this reason the chamber of marriage should be quiet; the mind should be calm, and in its loveliest moods; no fear or fright should disturb it ; and if the pleasure of sexual intercourse is to be enjoyed at all, it should be with a full, free, and unobstructed emission of the semen, as nature has ordained and demanded. Nothing short of this can be healthy, satisfactory, na- tural, or of God. HEN-PECKED WIVES. " Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence ; and likewise also the wife unto the husband."— 1 Cor. vii. 3. These are generally those wives of the most refined and lovely characters ; vir- tuous, industrious, forgiving, kind, and faithful to the duties of the wedded life, and to their husbands. Their feebleness and sickness, and often their purity, beget ha- tred in the mind of the husband, and in place of the kindness and consideratiou they should receive, they are treated with coldness, or annoyed by " hen-pecking," fault- finding, and unjust recriminations. A cold look, a cross word, indifference, pestering or torture by the husband, ali add to the many sorrows of the sensitive wife, and till her cup of bitterness to over- flowing. This is wrong, not only in a sense of injustice to the woman, but because such treatment often weighs heavily upon the mind, breeding consumption and car- rying the faithful woman to the grave, besides leaving sad effects upon the family of children, and sometimes affecting the unborn child. Husbands should not suffer themselves to be annoyed into pestering their wives. Study the happiness of her who has united her fate with yours. "When the winds of adversity frown upon you, take new courage from her consolations ; cultivate pure love, affection, cheerfulness, faithfulness, kindness, and forbearance. Endeavor to add new comforts to your wife and children, and you will avoid much disap- pointment and sickness, and many doctor's bills, and be blessed with the blessings of heaven. The riches of paradise will never be accorded to the man who abuses a virtuous and lovely wife and innocent family. HEN-PECKED HUSBANDS. This class of men is of two kinds ; first, those who have had the misfortune to marry a woman excessively desirous of wearing tho pantaloons ; second, those who are less capable intellectually of managing the business affairs of the family, and providing for tho wants of the household. Of the wives of the latter class, whatever their faults may be, we must accord to them the honor of being excellent managers and providers for the family. Husbands are often feeble and sickly, while the wives know nothing of sickness; and contrawise, wives are often feeble while the husbands are strong and healthy. In these c;ises it may be well for the strongost to take the management of use; though the reins of govern- ment should always be holden with proper regard to the natural feelings of the different sexes. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 157 Wives not unfrequently cause their husbands great trouble in mind, leading to sickness, debauchery, licentiousness, or intemperance, by seizing or attempting to seize, the reigns of government, and transferring the business affairs into their own hands, when the husbands are capable of attending rightfully to what belongs to them. Ladies who do this, should never find fault at any save themselves, if their husbands turn out to be bad men. Many good men have been transformed into bad ones by the "hen-pecking," " breeches- wearing" dispositions of their wives, to say nothing of the sickness and deaths by consumption that have frequently followed an usurpation of power by the female in the household. That the wife should love and obey the husband was the first command of God after the fall of mankind. "And the husband shall rule over thee." — Gen. hi. 16. The husband should consult with the wife, but not at all times hearken to or be governed by her : he should not be persuaded to evil or foolish works, like Adam persuaded by Eve. — Gen. iii. 17. The reins of government belong to the man, and God will hold him responsible for the performance of the duties attached to the state of government, as he did Adam ; as also for the protection of the wife and family. Women axe not always to be hearkened to ; for proof of which, and for the rebuke God gave to man therefor, see Gen. iii. IT, 18. The husband should love and cherish his wife, and show her all the respect due to her nature ; and the wife should honor and obey her husband, for this is the command of God. Do not "hen-peck" each other; but live in mutual lovo and esteem, and you will escape much of unhappiness and sickness, and will enjoy in greater abundance the riches of virtue and domestic felicity. "Drink waters out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy foun- tain be blessed ; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe ; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times ; and be thou ravished always with her love."— Prov. v. EARLY MARRIAGE OFTEN PREVENTS CONSUMPTION, For through it the mind is placed in a state of comparative contentment upon amatory subjects and upon most others, and the sexual passion is gratified ; a pure love is engendered, and both parties are rendered happy in the enjoyment of the sweets of connubial felicity. Thousands of the unmarried die annually, who, had they married early, would have lived to a good old age. The objection entertained by many against marrying young is, that they will be burthened with too largo a family ; but a fear of this kind may be considered as somewhat absurd ; since a little observation will show us that tho number of child- ren a woman has seems in no way to be governed by tho age at which she mar- ried; except thoso cases where she was too aged to have many I Women marry- ing at twenty-five generally have as many children as those marrying at eightoen. And if it were so, that tho ago at marriage governed the number of children, there is no need to use it as an excuse ; for a large family can bo prevented if tho parents desire. Others make for an excuse, that the mind should b<> educated and developed before mwumrng the responsibilities of married life. But if we wait for this, the years of old age will come on first; and sickness, broken con- stitutions, disappointments in lovo, self-pollution, or the diseases of prostitution 158 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. occur, by which the man is made unfit to be married, unless he would have his offspring tormented with hereditary diseases. Ladies, in consequence of not marry- ing earlier, often run into consumption through irregularity or a change of the course of the menstruation, or into dropsy or general debility, and are then less fit to be married. They may bo hewn down like the barren fig-tree spoken of in Scrip- ture — Luke iii. 9 : xiii. 6, 7. Physiological, phrenological and other fanatics must change their instructions upon this point, or the final effect will be extremely per- nicious to the race of man. Young men cannot restrain their passion while the beautiful and voluptuously-dressed prostitute walks the streets and opens wide the doors for the gratification of their natural sexual appetite. "While, in the language of the Proverbs of Solomon, "the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil;" while she cometh out to meet the unwary, " and catcheth him, and kisseth him, and saith unto him with impudent face — I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt ; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon ; come, let us take our fill of love until the morning ; let us solace our- selves with loves" — " with her much fair speech she will cause him to yield ; with tho flattering of her lips she will force him" ; " he will go after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks ; till a dart strike through his liver ; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life," — unless there be afforded in the divine institution of marriage, at an early age, a means for the rational and pure gratification of the passions of his youth. With- out this, it will be in vain that we warn him, saying, " For a whore is 3 deep ditch ; aud a strange woman is a narrow pit. She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and in- creaseth the transgressors among men;" in vain shall we say — " He that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance." In vain ask — "Why wilt thou, my son, bo ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger ?" In vain tell him to " Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house." In vain caution him that, though " stolen waters be sweet, and bread eaten in secret be pleasant," it should be remembered that " the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell." I say to you, parents, if you would save your children from manifold evils, en- courage in them a love for one alone of the opposito sex, with a view to marry- ing early, and you will behold the most beneficial results. If parents are declining in health while raising children, the offspring are un- usually liable to sickness and early death; but if parents marry young, and before becoming sickly, the children, though the parents be not fully matured, will be likely to possess good constitutions, with superior intellects, and with probabilities of arriving at a good "Id age. Sickly young ladies are generally soon restored to health by marriage; and if those who are healthy at marriage afterwards decline, it is from imprudence and abuses, and not from the marriage itself In alluding to the preventions of consumption, T cannot, without disregard to your happiness, recommend protracted celibacy; but must enjoin early marriage, that it may be well with you and with the children that shall come after you. [Seo Early Marriage and Longevity.] THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 159 QUICK CONSUMPTION BY MARRIAGE, Is sometimes induced ; it arises in consequence of imprudence or too frequent in- tercourse. If the sexual passions be strong, they must be kept in rational subjec- tion. There is no good thing under heaven given to man by God to promote his happiness, but may be, and sometimes is, abused; and when abused, that which was designed for, and which properly used was, a blessing, becomes to those who do abuse it a curse. As I have before said, too frequent a discharge of the semen reduces the power of the system, causes debility and prostration, and induces early death by consumption. Persons who have struggled to put off the gratification of sexual desire till the age of twenty-five or thirty, are peculiarly liable to fall into the error of abuse when they are married, and to be crushed under it :* had they embarked upon the sea of matrimony at an early age, the lusts of the flesh would not have been so strong, and no injury would have resulted to them. Many die annually of quick consumption, induced by an abuse of sexuality. I would caution my readers against this ; it is an evil into which both men and wo- men are exceedingly liable to fall. Do not sin against yourselves by foolish abuse of the pleasures God has bestowed upon you for your happiness. But if you have already trodden this path farther than was wise, put a curb upon your steps ; be more cautious ; be rational ; and lest what has already been done shall have a pow- erful tendency to the disease of the consumptive, invigorate and restore your weak- ened system and blood to health and strength by the use of the Blood Renovator. I can recommend this medicine to you as invaluable in all cases of sexual debility. It is a matter of often occurrence that married women run into consumption, and are completely broken down and ruined in health, and frequently hurried into the grave, in consequence of having children faster than the strength of their systems will allow of, and keep in health. Through this means of having children too often, ladies frequently become burthened with a very large family in a very few years ; and what with the hard labor to which they are sometimes obliged to submit them- selves, in order to help support their children, and the general debility induced by a constant and unremitting run upon the system, in either gestation, parturition, or lactation, they are soon worn out, and die, leaving a family of helpless children be- hind, with no mother to watch over them. Many females will have a child in every twelve or lifteen months; frequently weakly and sickly women ; and thereby they are kept in thai condition where they find it impossible to do anything else than bear children; and their life becomes one of prolonged misery. I have known ladies to have six children in seven years, all single births! In all cases of this kind, where the health of the woman is being ruined, and her day,; materially shortened by too often child-bearing, it becomes a question worthy of deep con- sideration, if it is not a doty which both the man and the woman owe to each other and to their children, that some steps should be taken to prevenl cone occurring so often 7 No woman, howevor healthy she maybe, should bear child Oftener than every second or third year; and, if the lady be unhealthy, it is manifest that her duty to herself is to place, if possible, a still longer time between the periods of gestation. In cases where, for this reason, it becomes desirable to prevent too rapid an in- 160 THE PEOPLED MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. crease of family, in order to preserve life and health, I have, in other parts of this work, made mention of the proper means to be used, presuming that every person will act from these hints according aa he or she shall deem expedient and proper. ABORTION. This is one of the evils of modern civilization, generally arising from dictating to nature upon the subject of marriage — holding in improper check for too protracted a period the law of amativeness, and placing the age for marriage beyond the bounds of reason, and the dictates of nature. As I have previously shown, the passion cannot always be kept in bondage ; and the result of the modern fashion is, that amativeness is illicitly gratified ; and then, to hide the deed from the face of the world, the innocent offspring is expelled from the womb by force, contrary to na- ture, to religion, and to the teachings of God ! Those upon whom the act of abortion is practised, are generally unmarried women, who would hide from the world the knowledge of their shame : but far too many married women allow the same evil, either because it is physically difficult for them to have children, or they do not want the trouble of bringing them up ; sometimes because they have left the path of virtue, in the absence of a husband, and would hide their sin from his eyes. In nature, the expulsion of the foetus from the womb before it is matured, is felt to be a great misfortune ; it is often a cause of sickness and consumption. In society, the end of abortion is too often sought as a most desirable result. By nature, every woman dreads abortion — in society, many women seek it. Abortion, or miscarriage, is always attended with great danger of a fatal haemor- rhage, from the adhesion of the placenta. Many lose their fives directly from an abortion ; and in miscarriage, especially if it occurs several times, the woman drags out a miserable existence. The curse of God will be upon all who engage in any way in the practice of abortion — either man or woman. That fallen and degraded man should destroy the fife of the unborn babe, does not surprise us ; but that woman, whose soul seems fitted to be filled with heavenly love, should either procure or allow an abortion, seems impossible ; it excites our astonishment and detestation. And yet, it is nevertheless true, that here in the city of New York, and under the very eye of the law, fiends in the form and garb of men and women carry on this their damnable iniquity ! Speaking upon this subject, an article in the Scalpel observes: "We have de- fined abortionism to be the knowledge and practice of expelling from the womb the uvum. or the foetus, ere it is matured. "What an employment for a human being! The plunderer of a temple, or a church, is justly execrated for his sacrilege, the act of stealing sacred things I Was ever any temple, any church, more sacred, than the secluded Banctuary where an immortal being is preserved and nourished? The Paradise of God is sacred beyond any other spot of this all-hallowed universe, be- cause it is the dwelling-place and throne of God! The womb of woman is the holy shrine where God, in all bis wisdom and his love, creates another image of himself, fitted to live with him in his own Paradise, in blessedness and glory! "Who dares to enter that august and lofty pile, solemnly dedicated to the service of THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 161 the High and Holy One, and ruthlessly destroy the symbols and the elements of worship ? None hut the burglar infidel — the Atheist thief! "Who dares invade the shrine of glory, where in His resplendent blessedness the Hierarch of the Universe of Being dwells — to plunder and destroy ? The arch-fiend Satan, only, dared at- tempt the deed ; and he, for the black act, was doomed to dwell in everlasting fire and chains of darkness ! Who is it forces the sealed doors of the enshrined and dedicated sanctuary of the womb, and ravages and tears from thence the sacred image of divinity? The fell abortionist, who in his character combines the sacrilegious burglar and arch-fiend of hell! Can man, rejoicing in the vivid imageries of the beauties and delights of progeny, endowed with the creative power, and worshiping himself in the mysterious shrine where he was wondrously developed — can man, with fraud and force, enter the temple of creation, and with fiendish savageness destroy the image of himself, tear down Ms throne, dilapidate and desecrate his temple, and overthrow his dynasty ? Can man do this? Can he who has been dignified with the exalted power of emanating an immortal being, and depositing the trust in the rich temple of formation ; will he leap off from the Creator's throne where all is light and joy, and plunge in the abyss of the destroyer, where all is darkness, degradation and damnation? Tes, man, degraded, fallen, lost to all his glory — man may do this ! Can woman ? She is by nature a pro- ducer, former, educator of her race. She is instinct with the desire of offspring. The perils that attend on pregnancy and parturition sometimes occupy her thoughts ; the joys of offspring always. ' Man's love is of man's life a part- 'Tis woman's whole existence.' Her form, make, organization, thoughts and feelings are expressly constituted, all for offspring." Woman is designed of God to feed and nourish with her blood the foetus, aud bring it into the world of humanity a living image of the Deity and of man, en- dowed with the love of life and instinct with affection. And yet, despite of this constitution of her nature, we sometimes find woman acting against herself and her sex, and vacating the fruitful womb of its precious burden ! What is more awful to contemplate ? — what sensitive soul will not shrink back appalled from the contemplation of such an atrocious deed? Yes, it is too true, that both males and females are daily practising the wholesale butchery of innocent infants yet unborn, still none the less instinct with the life that is God-given and immortal ! And if there bo a place on the earth where the business is carried on to a greater extent than in another, that place is this philanthropic, moral and religious city of New York I Mother, father, or abortionist, dost thou love life ? — dost thou not plead for mercy at the hand of the murderer? Dost thou not ask of God the sweets of life and loved friends, and for future happiness? Do you not desire the heart of the man who has you in his power, or of the God who rules over you, to be filled with mercy and kind feelings, favorable to your life? And if your prayers and plead' ings, in beseeching speech, arc heard and hearkened unto, cannot you see the sweet and prayerful smiles of the innocent, speechless, and hi I] less babe, imploring the guardian spirit of God, and the fatherly and motherly care of parents to pro- 11 102 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. tect and cherish it and save it from destruction ? Cannot the heart feel ere the murderous hand destroys the innocent, unborn babe ? Remember a day of retribution and damnation will surely come, fearful and without mercy ; and those will be visited with the wrath and vengeance of a just God, who have not had mercy upon infant innocence and unborn children. The mighty God of armies will protect, if not in this world, in the world of spirits, the innocent babe. And if there be a hell heated by ten-fold the usual power — if, I Bay, there can be a furnace or hell that can be heated by the blasting breath of the Almighty a thousand fold, it will surely be in readiness for the reception of the soul of the cold-hearted abortionist. "Will these beings continue to rise up amongst us? "Will there be another child- murderer ? "Will there be another person to enter upon the career of the hellish abortionist? God forbid! Can it be possible that abortionists, both men and women, ride through the fashionable streets of our city in the most gorgeous carriages, pointed at as they pass for their costly equipments and liveries ? — and when it is known, too, iu what manner they have earned their gold, and can support their extravagance ? "Why is this so, in a civilized and Christian land ? — a city of bibles and churches, of wealth and refinement — the great emporium of the country — the fashionable star of America 1 Why all this, I ask, without these murdering fiends being brought to justice and the gallows, or the prison ? I will explain why it is so, after the manner of Solomon, the wise man of old. Judges, lawyers, merchants, ministers, deacons, citizens of, and visitors to, this great City — many, too many of them, give wealth and support to the murderous abortion- ist ; they are tools and cat's-paws to uphold the vile dens of child-murder and ravished innocence ! They have themselves been at the door of the harlot and the abortionist — they have rendered themselves liable to exposure — they are pledged to do evil lest their own iniquities be published in the streets and from the house- tops — their honor is given unto others and their years unto the cruel. — Proverbs v. 9. The abortionist says to them all — to hundreds from all classes of society — Attempt to punish me, and your profession and name shall be exposed, for I have had your patronage as well as that of others ! And so, by keeping the officers of justice under the fear of exposure, they escape themselves. May heaven protect the virtue and innocence of unsuspecting females, and guard the unborn child against the hand of the destroyer; and bring to speedy punish- ment the accursed abortionists, and destroy the dens of hell ; for certain it is the men who rule over us and try the criminals guilty of these sins will never bring them to justice. Could we have placed before us the number of infant murders and the deaths of children resulting either directly or indirectly from this practice, the sum total would be truly alarming to contemplate. But to do this is impossible, since all these transactions are done in darkness and beyond the reach of statistics. But by giving a aught view of the prevalence and of the increase of still-born children and of premature births, and by reflecting how many of these are the effects, more or li ae remote, of previous abortions and of abortions attempted upon those thus born, •y be able to get a distanl idea of the prevalence and growth of child-murder among us. The report of the city inspector of the citj of New Fork giv number of 1558 dead children brought into the world in this city in the year 1851. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 163 How many were there besides of which the officers never knew or heard ? And how many of tins number were killed either directly or indirectly, by the labors of the abortionists ? I leave it for the imagination of the reader to give the answer. To show the increase in the numbers of dead-born, and consequently the increase of the labors of the abortionist, it is only necessary to say — that in 1805 the ratio of dead-born children to the population was as 1 to every 1612 ; in 1850 it was one to every 386, or an increase of about 80 per cent ! For this practice of abortion there never can be offered an excuse that can in reason be considered weighty. Certainly no one will say that a woman able to bear a child without danger to life should resort to expelling it from the womb before the natural time for birth ; and for those whom, by reason of infirmity or malfor- mation, it is dangerous to have child, there are provided safe protections against pregnancy, whereby the sin of abortion need never to tempt them. These are found in the French Male Safe and French Prevention Powder, which are employed by the most learned and respectable, and which are a great blessing to man and womankind, giving sure protection against disease and pregnancy. Our Maker bids increase — who bids abstain 3" — Milton. CHILDREN ARE BLESSED OF GOD ; Foe Christ has said, " Of such are the kingdom of heaven." — Mark x. 14. Christ was foud of little children, recollecting that he himself was once a child, born of the virgin Mary. King David said, " Children are the heritage of God" — Psalms cxxvii. 3. He also speaks of the joy of a mother of a child. — Psalms cxiii. 9. Solomon, the wise man, said, " Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers." — Prov. xvii. 6. In Ps. cxxvii. we read, " Children are an heritage of the Lord ; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them ; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." I might cite many passages from scripture to prove that the blessing of God upon the world depends upon the care and rearing of children. They are the joy of the father and the hope of the mother, and the greatest and the best of men and women of every age, have been those who loved and delighted in their children. Therefore, have respect for the fruit of the womb, and destroy it not before it oometh into the outer world of light and beauty. WOMAN BLESSED IN CHILD-BIRTH. Tins is evident from the danger that awaits on difficult labor. If thero is any one time when God's protecting care is exercised over mortal beings it is at tho time of female labor ; and at no timo in the lifo of woman can she feel to lift up her heart and voice to praise God with more fervor, for his protecting care, and rejoice in hia mercy more, than altera safo delivery of a living helpless and innocent babe; for this suffering is the punishment for her transgression in Eden. We have the most posi- 104 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. tive proof that God, in all the perils aud dangers of child-birth, will exert his espe- cial care to protect and shield. "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the transgression ; notwithstanding, she shall be saved in child- bearing, if they continue in the faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety." — 1 Timothy ii. 14, 15. From this it will appear that what I have elsewhere said of the fall is true; and that Paul knew that woman was deceived, and no condemna- tion rested on her, although she suffered punishment with Adam. Woman being the noblest work of God, was chosen as the medium for the giv- ing of Christ unto the world, and blessed with the honor of nourishing the Saviour of fallen man with her own blood. Noble, beautiful, and lovely woman — the fair- est and best of the creations of earth — dishonor not thyself in the loss of thy virtue and purity; for it was from thy purity that Christ came into the world; and had he not received purity in his form of man from the pure woman, his blood would not have been innocent to have redeemed the world — it would not have been a pure sacrifice in the sight of God. Were the world to need another redemption, where could be found the pure blood — without hereditary taint or stain of personal sin of the world — to furnish a child for the sacrifice ? I beseech you, then, save thy blood from the taint of whoredom, lest the whole world be filled therefrom with the seeds of disease, leading to con- sumption and death, and moral degradation. Preserve thy purity, virtue and chasti- ty, aud thy days will be many and pleasant upon the earth, and finally thou shalt become a chosen angel of heaven, to sing the praises of God and the Lamb. MISCARRIAGE CAUSES CONSUMPTION. Trrs satisfaction of the womb is in receiving, retaining and supporting foetal life. To lose its fruit is just as much an affliction to the womb as for the hand to lose a finger, or the body an arm. It is impossible that its loss should be converted into gain: miscarriage cannot be productive of health, happiness, or long life for woman. Miscarriage is one of the greatest misfortunes that can visit a woman — the most to be dreaded naturally: and what a pity it is to have the life sacrificed by flood- ings and inflammations, arising from having the fruit of the womb expelled before its proper time. Every means should be taken to prevent this sad result. I have often in in applied toby ladies who apprehended a miscarriage, and in all cases where they have applied in season have succeeded in preventing the disagreeable result — even when the woman was far advanced in consumption. Pregnant ladies should be very careful of lifting, jumping, reaching, sudden fright, anger, and other causes that sometimes induce an abortion or bring on premature labor. They should be careful about wearing abdominal supporters, for by these things great injury is often done to the child, and frequently miscarriage produced. For a physician to n commi ad this instrument is to say that God did not make the necessary abdominal supporl by bones and muscles for woman to carry her young — it is a libel on the nature of our physiology. Good, rich, pure blood is the only support wanted by the Bystem, in travail Weakness, venereal diseases, Bitting up late at ni-1 its, fear, grief, violent emotions, poisons, violent purges, immoderate i xercise, obstinate diarrhoea, great loss of blood, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 165 acute diseases of various kinds — all these sometimes induce an abortion, and should, therefore, be guarded against. Miscarriage is also often caused by a stricture of the uterus, or by a relaxed state, and falling of the uterus. [See article on Womb Diseases.] The Signs of Miscarriage, or of the death of the foetus, are, the breasts growing sud- denly flabby ; painful weight in the loins, which reaches to the thighs ; pains about the navel, head and eyes ; cold extremities ; convulsions ; colic pains in the belly, simi- lar to labor pains ; shiverings ; faintings ; languid motion of the foetus, and less frequent than before. As the miscarriage draws nearer, the pains in the loins and hips increase ; the womb dilates ; watery discharge is perceived, often with blood, pure or clotted. The most certain sign is the discharge of a fleshy colored sub- stance, which comes away with the water. When these last signs appear, mis- carriage is unavoidable. I hopefully trust that these minute descriptions of the signs of miscarriage will be the means of directing attention to the matter, and thereby saving the health and life of many women, and preventing the loss of the foetus ; for if women can un- derstand the signs of an abortion of the fruit of the womb, they may be induced to apply in season for the means of preventing such a result. Advice by letter or otherwise, to all who may feel the need of it, will be given faithfully and confidentially to all who shall choose to make application to me, send- ing one dollar as consultation fee. Having had much experience in this matter of miscarriage, and accurately understanding its signs, I have no hesitation in saying that I can give ladies such advice as will save them days of sickness and agony, and often be the means of preserving their lives. To avoid MUcarriage. — Ladies known to be incompetent to produce a living child without danger to their own lives, or who have a dangerous habit of aborting, should not suffer themselves to become pregnant. This can be easily avoided. I know of no safety to the life of the wife and the health of the husband, in these cases, except in the use of the Male Prevention Safe or Prevention Powder. And as prevention is better than exposure, or even a cure, these articles will be found perfect for the purpose. I know that if the sexual passion is to be enjoyed, there must be a full and free emission of the semen, without fear of danger : if there be not, the husband will surely run into decline and consumption. And if, on the other hand, there be no precaution, pregnancy will result to the woman, and death will follow, as the conse- quence, or there he a dangerous miscarriage. [See cut of Ovarian Tumor, in Pregnancy.] To avoid these — to preserve the health of both husband and wife, and to give enjoymetil in sexual love — there is nothing equal to the means I have alluded to. T would Bay here, however, expressly and pointedly, that no persons should use those articles except in cases absolutely requiring them for the protec- tion of life and health ; for, like all other good things, they may be abused, and a great deal of injury done in preventing conception where it should not be pre- vented. To prevent miscarriage, where conception has taken place, use, with Root's Nor- vine, cold drinks; gentle laxatives and moderate but not violent astringents will be found useful; but your physician should bo called to your aid without delay, if your case is dangerous. Precautions to prevent miscarriage, during pregnancy, are not so effective as those used betwixt a miscarriage and the next impregnation, and the 166 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. advantage of this interval should by all means be embraced; the particular disorders or weaknesses should be attended to and removed or overcome, and the general vigor restored if possible. Cold bathing, at bed-time, is good; lime-water, mineral spring waters, salt water air, and bathing are good ; but the only sure cure is in the attention and directions of a skillful physician. Convulsions and floodings demand immediate attention and help from your phy- sician, as a cure is uncertain, and your life at stake. I do not know when I have failed of preventing miscarriage, if applied to in season. I have treated thousands of ladies, having had from one to thirty-three miscarriages, with success. Ladies rarely suffer more than three or five miscarriages ; and often date the commencement of decline, poor health, or consumption, from this cause. Let me warn all ladies, both young and old, never to cause abortion, under any circum- stances, but rather study prevention of pregnancy, whereby your health will be saved, and the great sin of abortion will never be laid at your door. Thus you will escape the physical curse and the divine displeasure. UNHAPPY MARRIAGES CAUSE OP CONSUMPTION. In order to the enjoyment of health of the body, it is necessary that the mind should be properly cared for and consulted ; since that, in great measure, controls the nerves and muscles, and influences the body to a state of health or a state of sickness. The cause of the consumption, and of the prostitution of many of the most re- fined, beautiful, well-educated, wealthy, and influential persons, may be found in the thwarting of the heart's pure love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Angels love, and are lovely; and those that love most are most godlike; for "God is love." Love is a constituent element of man, and the soul and life of woman. None are wholly destitute of its charms, of its sweets. Blot it from the soul of man, and you blast his nature. If a man and woman love each other, body and mind partake of its nature; but if hatred, jealousy and discord are wedded in mariage, disease of body and mind will be the ultimate result, as sure as effect follows cause. But there is a "friend that sticketh closer than a brother." There is a tie stronger than life— it is that oneness of soul " which binds two willing hearts" indissolubly together, and makes "of them twain one flesh." This is connubial love — the "holy of holies" of human emotions. Parents, if you would see your children well and happy, study their safety in their love. Do not suffer them, nor compel them, to many for wealth, where there is no love. There is nothing more revolting than to see a beautiful young girl led unwillingly to the altar, by a man for whom she feels in her heart not the least spark of love— oompelled to marry against her desires, and to give up the cherished idol of her soul, to please parents or to secure wealth. Almost the certain fruits of this course are — consumption and death by suicide or disease; particularly if the woman possess any of those soft and womanly feelings, and the sweet and virtuous sensitiveness that are the beauties of her sex. If we consider health and happiness anything, all perrons Bhould marry to please themselves, as the first con- sideration; the pleasure ofparentsor friends is of secondary importance, and should ever bo so regarded. By reference to the reports of lunatic asylums, it will be seen that unhappy mar- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 167 riages are a fruitful source of insanity. When the pure love of the heart has been thwarted, and the victim of selfishness has been compelled, as it were, to marry against choice, the mind is frequently so powerfully affected by it that reason is de- throned and driven from its temple. This result is frightful to contemplate ; and yet, in the face of it, hundreds of people are forced to the risk of this unhappy fate. Besides this, marriages contrary to the desire and the love, often entail upon off- spring bad mental characters, for the reason that the parents were in no manner suited to or intended by nature for each other. These matters should receive the serious attention of all, particularly of those parents who desire the happiness of their children. If ladies or gentlemen have formed an attachment of love, and intend marriage, although the union is not quite desirable by the parents, when those parents have neglected to place their young in the society of such persons as would be best agreeable in marriage, it is not always best to break or to rashly oppose the mar- riage on such ground, provided signs of insanity, suicide, or lingering consumption threaten them. If the son or daughter is to be brutalized, and their lives rendered useless, either by death or otherwise, who shall take upon them the horrible deed to execute ? If parents refrain from such a horrible deed, and of two evils choose the least, they will have no child to brutalize or murder ; but if the wedded demon in the form of man, debases, murders, or uncivilizes his partner in wedded love, he alone is answerable to both man and God, the parents being free in the sight of Heaven of wrong to their own child ; and while they may lament over the fallen state, they will love them still ; and although they be lost to humanity and useful- ness, parents will never have to reflect that they caused the fatal and horrible deed, or visit their own child a raving maniac or emaciated consumptive, made so by their own wilL Inspiration saith love is stronger than death ; and parents should act cautiously in the separation of the intended married. Parents had better' bestow a few thousand dollars extra upon such children, to give them a home, and encomago them to a useful and moral life, rather than quarrel, and forever perplex and tor- ment them. NEVER MARRY RELATIVE^, But cross the blood to persons of good habits and health, not given to over- drinking, gluttony, whoredom, love sickness, or masturbation before marriage; as all .11 h:ii. its tend to the transmission of disease to your children, infecting them with the seeda of idiocy, insanity, or consumption and early death. Dr. Howe, Eoratio Byington, and others, appointed by the Legislature of Massa- chusetts to investigate the causes of idiocy, report four hundred and twenty idiots found in seventy-seven towns only, by which they conclude the number in that State to be between fourteen and fifteen hundred. "Ofthe four hundred and twenty idiots proper, two hundred and eighteen are gluttons, and ono hundred and two arc given to self-abuse in an uncontrollable and frightful degree." These, bythecon- ditions of their birth, though made in the image of God, are deprived of all instruc- tion; confined in asylums; ace likhy, gluttonous, lazy, and given to abominations of various kinds. Left in this condition, they sink deeper and deeper in bodily de- pravity and mental degradation. 1G8 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. It may be truthfully asserted that this is the result of ignorance rather than of any unkindncss; but the plea of if norance can no longer put away the sin and disgrace. The report states thai of the four hundred and twenty cases of idiocy examined, in three hundred and fifty-nine of them one or both of the parents bad violated iral laws of health by becoming intemperate, by marrying blood relatives, or by i • I indulgence, or masturbation, or were afflicted with scrofula or affections of the brain. The effects of hereditary indisposition upon offspring are very strong. Thus in insanity, out of eight hundred and sixteen cases in the New York State Lunatic Asylum, one hundred and eighty-seven were known to have had insane relations, and from the known reluctance of friends to make this public, there can be no doubt that the actual number is much greater. From this we may conclude, that where there is a predisposition in any family to any particular disease, or where any particular disease or mental deformity exists strongly w> « family — whether there be scrofula, asthma, consumption, or frequent cases of insanity, or of idiocy in that family, or any other complaint or deformity, mental or physical be often manifested in it (and there be but few families but have in them a prevalence to some particular infirmity or ill) — the intermarriage of mem- bers thereof is highly dangerous to the health of offspring ; inasmuch as by the sexual connection of persons both suffering from or inheriting a tendency to a par- ticular disease, the offspring will be rendered doubly liable to the inheritance of that disease. The same will be true of any qualities existing in that family. TV here both father and mother are consumptive, and the disease has existed in the families of both, we may look for an almost certainty of the development of consumption in their children, whether the parents be related or not. And inasmuch as it is much more probable in a given number of marriages between relatives that there will be a predisposition to a particular disease in both, than a predisposition in both to a particular disease iu the same number of marriages of persons not connected by blood, we may conclude it is better that there should be no marriages of relatives. Whether, in a case of marriage of blood relatives, where there was no predisposition to disease in the family, and both parties were in good health, strong and robust, there would be any greater probability that the children would be constitutionally ailing than in a case where no relationship exist ed, other circumstances being the may be doubted. It is in the fact that almost all families possess some predisposition to disease, and perhaps some traits of a mental character which should not be cultivated by increasing them, that the objection to intermarriage, and ire frequent pernicious effects upon offspring, lies, and not in the relationship itself. This I conceive to be the philosophical and physiological explanation of the r frequency of diseased, idiotic, or insane children from marriages of relatives than from oilier man iages, in proportion to the numbers; and, so far as I am aware, it is the first time a reasonable and philosophical explanation, founded upon known phrenological and physiological laws, has ever been given to the public; although the matiei- !m omment for many of the most able writers in the of medicine, and other Bciences pert lining to the human body. In the repoi iidedto, the committee very plainly point out the (act thai intermarriage of relatives is a source of idiocy, insanity and disease; bv&fh kould besot The effect, but not the cause, is given. Speaking of the intermarriage of relatives, the report says: THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 169 " By giving this as one of the remote causes of idiocy, it is not meant that in a majority of cases the offspring of marriage between cousins, or other near relations, will be idiotic. The cases are very numerous where nothing extraordinary is ob- servable in the immediate offspring of such unions. On the other hand, there are so many cases where blindness, deafness, insanity, idiocy, or some peculiar bodily or mental deficiency, or a manifest tendency and liability to them, is seen in such offspring, that one is forced to believe they cannot be fortuitous. Indeed, the infer- ence seems to be inevitable, that such intermarriages are violations of the natural law, though not such flagrant ones as always to be followed by obvious and severe punishment. " If two full cousins, who are both in good health, and free from any predisposi- tion or tendency to any particular disease or infirmity, should marry, the probability is, that their immediate offspring will have tolerably good constitutions — though no one can say how much less vigorous in body and mind they will be than offspring born to either parent from some one of a healthy family not related by blood. " But, on the other hand, if a man in whose constitution there lurks a predisposi- tion to any particular disease of mind or body, inherited from his father's family, should marry a daughter of his father's brother or sister, there would be a strong probability that the disease or infirmity would appear in the offspring ; while the probability would be less if he married a healthy cousin by his mother's side ; and still less if he married a person free from all unhealthy predispositions, who was not related to him at all." From evidence, it appeared that more than one-twentieth of the idiots examined, were the offsprings of the marriage of relations. Now, as marriages between near relations are by no means in the ratio of one to twenty, nor are even, perhaps, as one to a thousand to the marriages between persons not related, it follows that the proportion of idiotic progeny is vastly greater in the former than in the latter case. Then it should be considered that idiocy is only one form in which nature manifests that Bhe has been offended by such intermarriages. The probability, therefore, of unhealthy or infirm issue from such marriages, becomes fearfully great, and the ex- istence of the law ugainst them is made out as clearly as though it were written on -tone. "The statistics of seventeen families, the heads of which being blood relatives, in- termarried, tells a fearfal tale. Most of the parents were intemperate or scrofulous; some were both the one and the other; of course there were other causes to increase chances of infirm offspring, besides that of the intermarriage. There were born unto them 95 children, of whom 44 were idiotic, twelve others were scrofulous and puny, one was deaf, and one was a dwarf. In some cases, all the children were cither idiotic, or very scrofulous and puny. In ono family of eight children five were idiots II" I. is a general rule, thai close affinity of parents produces a deteriorating influence on the children. The degeneracy, and even idiocy, of some of the noble ami royal families of Spain, Portugal, ami other European countries, from marrying nieces and other near relatives, is well known. Defective brains in all th( be ob- serve.l. The intermarriage of blood relatives usually degenerates the rich quality of the blood, the quantity of the phosphoric acid, and the power of the nervous electricity upon the same principle that air or water become impure without the introduction of 170 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. new air or water, of a richer, purer, and more enlivening character. Animal and vegetable subs ell as air and water, degenerate and decompose, unless •. renewed by the introduction of new invigorating principles. Intermarriages induce deficiency in the lively, animating, healthy principle of life, phosphoric acid, by which persons can be electrically acted upon, and electricity im- parted to the semen in the act of impregnation, to give new qualities to the foetus, and new animal electric life. I have previously stated in this work, that idiots, or persons of inferior intelli- ire deficient of phosphorus or phosphoric acid in the brain and blood; and that thifl phosphorus is the great principle to impart activity and intelligence to the brain. Nervous and highly intelligent persons have the larger share of this princi- ple, while idiots, and the degenerated offspring of blood relatives, have but little. In the case of idiotic children, it would be found, could we get at the matter, that the persons most defective mentally, chanced, during sexual intercourse, to predo- minate in heat of passion, or electrifying power upon the seed for the foetus, where- by a greater or less degree of imbecility was caused in the offspring. This will ap- pear obvious from the fact, that intemperate persons electrify their offspring with a desire for strong drink, when impregnation takes place under the excitement and stimulus of the liquor, which arouses the whole electric power of the system at the time of cohabitation. The one predominating in electric heat or excitement, wilHm- press upon the semen his or her peculiar qualities, and govern the character of the child then propagated. — whether it be lively and intelligent, or inactive and imbe- cile in intellect Therefore the womb should be impregnated when the person hav- ing the greatest degree of intelligence and composure, and least liability to disease, is in a higher state of sexual excitement than his or her companion; and where either parent is from a diseased family, or a family where idiocy or insanity have prevailed, this should be the only time that intercourse should be had, without pre- cautions against conception are taken by the use of the Male Safe or Prevention Powder; unless parents would transmit to their offspring disagreeable, unhealthy, or imbecile qualities of mind and body; for be assured that these will follow inat- tention to this matter, as certain as causo follows effect. IDIOCY, HOW CAUSED. The causes of idiocy in children arise from intemperance of the parents in eating; drinking adulterated, poisoned, and tobaccoed liquors; immoderate use of tobacco; tight lacing, and heavy skirls; depressing and dragging down the bowels; disturb- ing and compressing the foetus; love sickness ; unhappy marriage; marrying blood relations: scrofula, or venereal disease ; -rub in the system; nursing the child too long, to proven! another conception; masturbation before marriage; weakness of the sexual organs, arising from protracted celibacy, or anj other cause debilitating the powers of the parents; exposing the child to cold, striking it on the head, or abusing it with any viol ace. To prevent idiocy, misery, consumption, pain, and degeneration in the offspring, all cause of afflictions should be carefully guarded against by the parents, and by those who ever contemplate becoming parents; for we know that diseases are trans- mitted to the child while it is yet in the womb, and the physical and mental charaq- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 171 teristics of its parents entailed upon it. If in your blood the seeds of disease, which may be transmitted to offspring, are lurking, do not have any progeny until your blood is purified, and your system restored to health. Use the Blood Renovator and the Anti-Bilious Pills, and become healthy before you farther propagate the race. These will cleanse your system, purify the life of the flesh, and render you better fitted to "multiply and replenish the earth." If, as has been estimated, there are in a city like this, an abandoned prosti- tute to every six or seven male adults, busily employed in scattering the venereal diseases ; and if, (as is really the case,) two-thirds of the people before marriage practice self-pollution, and more or less impair the strength of their systems ; and if these take no steps to make themselves whole before they beget offspring, how, in the name of reason, can insanity, idiocy, and consumption be prevented ? Turn from evil and destructive habits, violate no physical law, marry early, and study purity, virtue, temperance, and holiness, and thy days shall be many and happy upon the earth. Let the licentious, the glutton, and all in danger of imparting in- firmities to their children, read the following from the Good Book: — "He that begetteth a fool, doeth it to his sorrow." "A foolish son is grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him." " But fools despise wisdom and in- struction." Wherefore " incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding ;" " drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well": "rejoice with the wife of thy youth, let her be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe ; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love" — that " thou mourn not at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed," and thy children filled with disease, "and say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me." — Proverbs. INFANTILE DEATHS— CAUSE AND PREVENTION. The causes of deaths of infants are exposure to cold, croup, dysentery, teething, bad milk and food, attempts to abort by the mother, miscarriage previously, nursin°- to prevent pregnancy, inflammation or dropsy of the brain, grub in the head or liver of the child, and many other causes, all of which should be carefully guarded against. To preserve the life of your children, in infancy, see that they have sufficient Warmth, pure milk and good food; do not nurse longer than ten or twelve months ; let the child be carefully exercised; the father abstain from intercourse during the period of nursing, unless be use the Male Safe — for if nursing will prevent pregnan- cy, it musl affeel and derange tho milk of the mother, from whence sickness will fol- low to the child; assist teething by cutting the gums; do not let worms accumulate too largely in the child; check bowel complaints without delay; never strike the Child on the head ; n ith powerful drugs; novor put it into strong sleep With paregoric or laudanum ; do not rock or swing your child too much. To prevent still-born or premature births, keep tho womb and general health in good condition ; avoid heavy skirts, long walks, hard work, lifting, &c. About two-thirds of the entire mortality of tho world is of children under five years of age. The ratio of deaths is 1 to 3 under one year of age, and 1 to 8 from 172 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. one to two years of age. The months giving the greatest number of infantile deaths are July and August — mostly of bowel complaints. [For these use the Dysentery Specific] Next in this list stand January, February, and March, when the major portion uf fatality occurs from croup, colds, inflammations, convulsions and fevers, the results of the cold weather. May. Juno and July seem to he the most favorable monlhs for child-birth, as re- gards the life of the infant Children born in these months seem to have a better chance to survive past the days of infancy. The weather favors the tender plant, and aids it to attain strength and power to better withstand the shocks its system encounters. More birtlis also occur in these months than in the same number of cold ones. If statistics were presented of the mortality of children during the warm weather, on one side, and during the cold on the other, we should see that the greatest num- ber of deaths was in the cold months. This shows the importance of a proper degree of warmth for the child. The infant is helpless and inactive, and is there- fore incapacitated to generate heat by exercise and increased respiration. All animals or fowls that are active or capable of action while young, are better prepared to resist the influences of cold, as exercise and respiration generate animal heat. Ducks and geese have a temperature of 100 to 107 degrees; the sea-gull has 112, and they are more active when young, and their lungs are larger in proportion to the size of the body than those of a man. The heat of the human body is 97 de- grees ; but in the newly-born child, at the arm-pits, it is but 80 degrees. The younger the child is. the more readily does it become chilled; there is more demand for external heat in early life, when the supply from the system itself is limited. A pale and shrunken aspect, with cold hands and arms, will often appear in the infant, arising from cold, when no sensation of cold is experienced by the adult. And yet parents often keep much less warmth upon their young children than upon themselves. Children are often injured by being kept to sleep -without sufficient warmth. Neither the infant or the adult breathe so frequently when asleep as when awake ; and the effect of this is, a less degree of animal heat. The heat of the adult while asleep is 95 degrees — while awake, 97. The same difference will bo manifest in the infant; consequently both require more clothes when asleep than when awake. A French author informs us that out of 100 infants born during the months of Janu- ary and February, 66 die in the first month after birth, and 15 in the course of the year, leaving bul 1!' survivors; that of 100 born in the spring, 48 live beyond the first year, and that of 100 born in the summer, 83 live through the year. In Russia a similar result was shown; <',()0 deaths in 1000 in some places, owing to the cold, says Hevriman in his statistics on the mortality of children, occurring in the first month after birth in the winter season. A prolific source of the deaths of children in cities may be found in the filthy and poisonous dust that sweeps up and down the streets with every blast, filling the mouth, throat and lungs with its offensive and disease-breeding particles. Children sel- dom guard themselves against this prolific source of death, and consequently many of them have consumption and inflammations of the lungs and throat produced by it, and are swept into the grave. In 1851 (here were 1316 deaths in New York from inflam- mations of the lungs and throat, four-sevenths or 752 of which were children under five years of ago. Many of these deaths were induced immediately by the dust and THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 173 filth in our streets ; and how many of deaths by other causes, inflammations in the head, &c. , had their foundation in the same filth, it is impossible to say. The number of deaths of children under ten years of age, by consumption, in the same time was 366, many of which, also, are chargeable upon the dusty filth of our streets — a destructive compound of fine stone, iron dust, powdered manure, decom- posed animal and vegetable matters, and other elements, ground together by the hoofs of horses and the. boots of men, and mixed up with urine, tobacco juice, poisons from sores and expectorated matter, vomiting of drunkards and other nau- seating liquid substances. Another cause of infantile deaths, to which I would direct your particular atten- tion, is atrophy. By examination of New York city reports for the years 1848, 1849, 1850 and 1851, I find that there occurred 385 deaths from atrophy. These cases, for the most part, arose from congenital syphilis — a disease of prostitution — nearly all of the deaths being of children under two years of age. They show that secondary syphilis was in the blood and bones of one or the other of the parents, as the effect of prostitution of the mother or cohabitation with prostitutes of the father ! As women in these days are in the habit of nursing their children nearly two years, to prevent pregnancy, and the husbands meanwhile have intercourse with both the prostitute and their own wives, it is not to be wondered at that the child nurses death from the bosom of its mother ; in whom it has been sown by the husband, and thence taken up by the blood and conveyed into the natural food of the infant. The deaths from this source will not seem strange when we know that in the last two years there have occurred in this city 58 deaths by lues venerea, growing out of prostitution — the victims of which have not only suffered themselves, but have sown the seeds of death for their offspring. These deaths alone, to say nothing of con- sumptive and other invalids from the same source, are enough to demand that the people should arise and banish prostitution from our midst. If these deaths are to be attributed to the male, (as the most of them must be,) it may be seen that if he had avoided the house of the harlot in tho first place, or, being diseased, had made use of the French Male Safe, this sacrifice of infantile fife would have been avoided. At first thought, it may seem that there would be a greater number of deaths of infants in tho warm than in the cold months, but statistics show us that this is not the case. The reason I have shown to be, inattention in many instances to the ex- posures of the child to cold, and ignorance of the laws of its well-being. I shall hope that those who may read this work and are by heaven blessed with children, will give more attention to the rules and the facts hero presented for their consideration. COMPARISON OF DEATHS OP MALES AND FEMALES. From statistics of New York and Massachusetts, and other States, it appears that the mortality of male children is greater than that of females. The number of cases where the foetus is a mule considerably exceeds the number of females. The ox- cess of conception of males, over that of females, according to the reports made in New York, is 2650 in a total of 23,530; or about 14 males to 11 females. The proportion of still-born and premature births <>f male children is about as 4 to 3 females ; and of deaths of children the preponderance of males over females 174 TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. is the same. Thus in a given time, the number of still-born and premature births in New York was 3605 males to 2754 females; the number of deaths of children in a given time. 8172 males to G177 females. The same law exists in adult life; out of 7675 deaths of adults in New York, there were 4003 males to 3672 females. This law so generally prevails that, notwithstanding the greater number of male conceptions and of births of males, the female population in New York is found by census returns to exceed the males,- by 7477, or 26 females to 25 males. Prom this we may see that the probability of life of the female foetus is better than that of the male. The reason for this is the greater height and size of the male foetus and the consequent greater danger of its death at birth. The average weight of the male child at birth is 7.06 pounds, of the female 6.42 ; the average height of males 1.64 feet, of females 1.61. "Why the mortality of male children should so greatly preponderate over the mor- tality of females, as is shown to be the case, has never yet been explained ; and I know not to what to refer it, unless it be that the female child is better fitted by na- ture to endure the ills of infancy, is not so tender, nor so liable to disease — as I be- lieve is the case. This better chance of life continues with the female to puberty, for the reason I have given. The higher rate of mortality in male adults is owing to several obvious causes. Of these, greater exposure to accidents is one ; thus the deaths in New York result- ing from casualties, in a given time, were 179, only 24 of which were females; by drowning, there were 162 deaths, only 15 of which were females. Besides the greater liability to accidents, the males plunge more generally into the various dis- sipations that lead to disease and death, particularly intemperance in using ardent spirits. They are more given to self-abuse than females, they indulge in excessive sexuality to a greater degree, confining themselves less to the one companion at home. They do not marry so early, and from this fact the chance of long life is lessened, as we have shown elsewhere in this work. These and other causes com- bine together to make the number of adult male deaths greater than those of females. From the statistics here given, it will appear that, notwithstanding the dangers to life resulting from conception and child-birth, the chances of the female to attain to maturity are considerably better than those of the male ; although such would not be generally supposed to be the case. And these statistics also show, that, were it not that men more generally indulged in the dissipations of society than females, and thus decreased the numbers of their sex — thwarting the purpose of na- ture in this respect, then' would be in all the years from puberty to a ripe old age, an almost wonderful equality in the numbers of the two sexes; which plainly says there shall be one man for one woman, one woman for one man, and no polygamy, prostitution, or other kindred evils. EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY; But whatsoever you eat or drink, see that it is clean, fresh, unadulterated, un- poiflOnod, uncorrupted; and you will have added to life, health and length of days. Never eat to gluttony; never drink to drunkenness: whether you pay much or little lor what you eat or drink, commit no sin for thy stomach's sake, but eat and THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 175 drink with moderation. Do not partake of too great a variety. Study ease, tem- perance, and moderation, and show thyself a vessel of honor rather than dishonor. Never eat food half cooked, for such the gastric secretion of the stomach acts upon but feebly. Jesus said unto the man sick with palsy — "Be of good cheer ; to the fearful, " Be of good cheer;" to the troubled in mind, " Be of good cheer;" "In me ye might have peace — in the world tribulation ; but be of good cheer." Paul said, " I exhort you to be of good cheer." Solomon said, " Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than the stalled ox aud hatred therewith." — " A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance ; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken." I would say to all my readers, " Be of good cheer." Does not the stomach of the dyspeptic, in its desire for food of the right kind, sanction this language : — for cheerfulness and love assist digestion, but hatred and other bad passions retard it. The sick, the fearful, the discouraged, and even the dying, should be of good cheer. If one die in the Lord, he may be of good cheer in the hope of a glorious eternity ; and if he be to live, the hope of health and happiness should make him of good cheer always. "Whatever your condition, let me commend this to you as a comfort and an antidote against consumption and many other diseases. Christ, the master physician for diseases of both body and soul, exhorted to cheer- fulness. " Let your heart be cheerful, let none cast you down." If sick, take new courage, in the hope of a restoration to health; for "all things are possible with God." "Bring out the fatted calf and kill it — eat, drink and be merry; for it is meet that we should make merry and be glad." " Is any among you afflicted ? — let him pray." " Is any merry, — let him sing psalms." "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine ; but a broken spirit drieth the bones." " Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart." Such, my readers, is the language of Scripture upon this subject. And in con- cord therewith, I might pile up for you physiological proof as high as the mountains and immovable as the everlasting hills; but I consider the necessity of cheerfulness, proper mirthfulness, music, song, and dance to be self-evident to aU reasonable men, in order that health, happiness, and long life may fall to the lot of man upon the earth which God has given him for an inheritance. All the face of nature smiles and is cheerful; the beasts and the birds make merry; why then should not the heart of man rejoice and his soul take comfort and be glad ? That it should be so is evident : therefore, it will need no further illustration. BATHING IN COLD WATER, In fevers, nervous and rheumatic irritation, and diseases of a consumptive charac- ter, is healthful and excellent. It imparts vigor to body and mind. An occasional ablution, by imparting cleanliness, gives a healthy condition to the skin, opens the pores of the flesh, and encourages perspiration — which is important for the main- tenance of health. Five-eighths of the food and drink taken into the system chimin-, when the health is good, through the pores of the flesh, in tho form of vapory wasto or effete matter. When the pores are closed by dirt, fevers, oils upon the skin, or in other ways, so that the wasto matter cannot escape in the natural way, it is thrown back upon the system, deranging the action of the heart, lungs, bowels, and kidneys. 170 TIIE FEOFLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Bathing in cold or tepid water, with the room at a comfortable temperature, is of much importance; but this, like other good things, should not be carried to e as is often the case. From one to three times a week is fully enough. After coming from the water, rub yourself well with a piece of flannel. The rubbing will much service as the bathiug. of the skin, as well as a healthy and vigorous action, are indispensable alike to moral purity and intellectual vigor. Vicious persons are generally tilthy in person, and one of the first steps to moral elevation is physical ablution. To keep the skin clean is as important as to supply food to the stomach. I would not recommend bathing daily to any person. It may be making too much of a good thing: it will weaken and dissolve the skin, and waste the flesh.: and if you bathe two or three times a day, the probable effect will be to give you a weak and watery blood, a clammy or slimy perspiration, general emaciation, feebleness and consumption. Never bathe too long at a time. Do not have your water too hot or too cold, unless it is used so for medicinal purposes, and is known to suit your constitution and condition. Avoid cold, shower or plunge baths, unless you are very robust and healthy, and even then rubbing with a coarse towel wet in water is to be pre- ferred. In bathing, every person must be guided by reason and the results of his ex- perience, with regard to the temperature of the water. No rule can be laid down which will be proper for every one to follow, any more than we can fix the amount of food a man requires. Be governed by common sense, comfort and agreeable feelings. Water, warm or cold, is a powerful dissolvent, and is of great medicinal value, when judiciously used. But there are extremes in its use, which all should avoid. Bathing, like dieting, has saved many lives, and it has caused many deaths. There are various methods of receiving a bath — use that which best agrees with you. A spouge is a poor thing to rub with — use a linen cloth, and rub the body well both before and after bathing. In the morning, or just before going to bed, are the most judicious hours for a bath, though it may be taken at any time except soon after eating. A bath after meals tends to a disturbance of the digestion. Cloths wet in cold or hot water are highly efficacious applied in inflammations, fevers, pains, sore throat, bronchitis, pleurisy, head-ache, rush of blood to the head, rheumatism, quinsy, croup, and many other complaints. They should not, how- ever, be worn if the person is out of doors, in the cold. I cannot recommend bathing as a cure-all, as some " cold-water doctors" do; it is absurd to suppose that every " ill that flesh is heir to" can be driven away by water simply. But I would by no means condemn its use. Water, used for cleanliness, and in the way of occasional baths, and by the application of wet cloths, is often a in ■ istant in the cure of disease, and in almost all conditions of the body it may b th good results, if used wisely, temperately, and with a correct knowledge of its i BE Bathing the head with cold water, and snuffing it into the nose, will be fouud to be good for weak eyes, and in the relief of head-ache, dizziness and catarrh. In cases of chill from cold water bathing, the German Ointment will be found excellent, when rubbed on the bowels or chest, to produce a reaction and necessary THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 177 warmth, and set the blood in active motion. Also in cases of croup, colic, and pains induced by bathing, it may be used with efficacious results. The first effects of the cold bath are to contract the body, raise the bulbs of the hair, and make the skin resemble a newly-plucked goose. Considerable debility and tremor ensue ; a sense of weight is felt in the head ; the respiration is quick and laborious. These appearances are followed by a very different series. A glow returns to the surface, the weight in the head is relieved, and every function is- carried on with increased activity. But if the person stay for a longer period in the cold bath, the glow will bo slighter and soon disappear, and every previous symptom of debility will return and continue. If the immersions are at due inter- vals repeated, and the stay in the bath be not improperly continued, the general health and spirits are greatly improved, the different necessary evacuations pro- perly carried on and supported, and the body and mind appear to act with increased vigor. But. according to the arrangement of this remedy, we may secure very differ- ent and opposite effects. A sudden change in the determination of the blood and nervous power, which the cold bath effects, will produce a very different result from the continued, and this again from the repeated application ; a distinction neces- sary to be attended to in treating the different diseases with the application of cold water. The repeated action of cold bathing affords numerous opportunities of relieving some of the most obstinate and troublesome diseases to which the human frame is subject. Every complaint arising from debility in its varied forms and numerous consequences often yields to this remedy. Bathing in the sea is preferable, as the heat is more uniform, the water more re- freshing, from its agitation, and the salt acts as a stimulus. One form of cold bath is the cold air batfi. This consists in exposing the body for a few minutes to the cold air, partly secured by a loose dressing gown. "With pru- dent precautions this practice may be useful, and even salutary. The effects will de- pend on the heat of the atmosphere and the temperature of the body when exposed. The custom of bathing, so essential to cleanliness, was undoubtedly first prac- tised in hot countries, and in the open air ; but the refinements of civilization, and the wants of man removed from streams proper for this service, have made it a household affair. The Egyptians, of the highest rank, were accustomed to bathe in tho Nile. Among the Hebrews, it was a civil law that the bath should be used; and with the Mohamedans, ablution is a part and parcel of religion. The Egyptians, the Greeks, and Hi they arose to civilization, erected public baths, some of which among the latter people were decorated with the greatest splendor. In Oriental countries, the place of greatest attraction is the summer bath. With thoso who can afford it, it comprises everything of seclusion, elegance and luxu- rious enjoyment. The bath of the Eastern man of wealth and taste, is a vast marble basin, or pool of pure water, through which flows a stream. This is sur- rounded by rose trees and shrubs of sweet perfume, which often east their . Thai millions of the fairest and most lovely of all the creations of God — His hist, best and most perfect work — have been carried to premature graves, the self-sacrificed victims of irrational fashions of dress, is a fact beyond dispute. And that still more millions of human beings have either died before or at birth, or have lived but a short time, the victims of the same folly in their mothers, is also a fact that no observing physician will for a moment gainsay. In this region of the world, the fashion of dress is in daily fluctuation ; and tho 180 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. ingenuity of the manufacturers is constantly taxed to develop some new phases in its appearance, as an incentive to the devotees to purchase. In the Eastern coun- here is and lias ever been, a greater uniformity in the style of dress, though it differs essentially in different nations. The greater part of their garments are long and flowing, loosely cast about the body, consisting chiefly of a large piece of cloth. The refinements of modern Western civilization would not tolerate such habiliments; but they are well adapted for use in hot climates, are more healthy, and have more dignity and gracefulness of appearance than belongs to the garments generally worn in this part of the world. The dress of the modern Arab corresponds very nearly to that worn in ancient times by the people of the Eastern countries. It is a blanket, usually six yards long and five or six feet broad, and serves as a complete dress by day and a covering by night. The women among the Turks and Arabs wear drawers: unmarried women are distinguished from the matrons by having their drawers made of needle- work, striped silk, or linen. When they appear in public, they fold themselves up closely in a kind of cape, so that very little of their faces can be seen ; and in addi- tion to this generally wear a veil, which completely hides the face from view. This veil, in some countries, reaches nearly to the feet. Thus are the ladies trammeled in their dress ; but not to the injurious extent practised in modern times among the nations of Christendom. Did space allow, we might give the reader particular accounts of the various extravagant, outlandish, and disease-breeding fashions of clothing that have from time to time prevailed in this country and in Europe. At one time there have been enor- mous head-dresses, that would distort the neck ; at another, high-heeled shoes, to turn the feet and ankles to deformity; at another, dresses with immense hoops at the bottom, so magnificent in point of circumference as to be an effectual barrier against the close approach of an admirer; at another, lacing of the waist to a wasp- like smallness ; at another, disfiguring rolls of cotton or bran, called bustles, worn with the folly of attempting to improve upon the beautiful handiwork of Nature ; at another, an enormous load of skirts, to weigh down upon the bowels ; end further, and among the worst of all fashions, and the most enduring, shoes of little better than gossamer materials, which afford scarcely the slightest protection against the mud, snow, and wet that prevail for a good part of the year in Northern countries; and with these, dresses, in the cold weather of winter, which, in the satirical lan- guage of Voltaire, are "cut off too late at the top and too early at the bottom;" and many other mischievous and unhealthy modes of dress have prevailed, too numerous to mention, and too pernicious in their effects upon the race to be worn without sin in the eyes of the Deity. The person should be protected and kept in uniform temperature by clothing of the right kind, and worn at such times or seasons, in such manner, and in such quantities as are best adapted to promote health ; and not as now, in obedience to the beck of fashion, or the law of carelessness. Disease should not be allowed to invade the system by means oftoo much or too little clothing, or through any other defect or imperfection; bul each person should wear just such clothing, at all times, as will involve the least risk, and produce the greatest vigor and personal enjoyment. But so far from taking pains to obey natural laws upon this subject, people labor di- rectly to the contrary, and wear and endure that style and cut of garments that they know to be injurious to health! THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 181 In an article on Consumption, alluding to the modern modes of female dress, Dr. Dixon, at page 112 of vol. i. of the Scalpel, says: — "When we reflect upon the in- sane adherence to fashion in our country, and the total want of that knowledge that would compel precautionary measures, why should it not be so ? It is a part of an American female's education to wear tight dresses and thin shoes ; she esteems her- self, at least temporarily, degraded, if she does not do it. What becomes of the blood — that is, of four or five pounds out of the twenty-five she has in her body — when it is driven from her extremities by cold upon the heart and lungs ? These organs struggle to overcome their bonds, and to pass it through the lungs fast enough to preserve the balance of the circulation, but they must fail; a dozen powerful hooks and eyes, if not a corset to boot — and one is just as bad as the other — resist the efforts of the muscles to raise the ribs, and the delicate blood-vessels lining the bronchia, tender from congestion, give way here and there, and she spits blood ; it is merciful she does ; it had better come out than remain in the substance of the lungs." On pages 250, 251, and 252 of the Scalpel, treating of the evils of fashion, a pointed writer says: — "The exposure of the neck and chest, so common in the ranks of fashion, is as injurious to the health of the body as to the purity of the soul. Dis- eases of the throat, the lungs, and the heart, are the necessary consequences, and thousands of the fairest of the fair are annuaUy the victims of consumption from this cause alone. " The practice of tight lacing, or dressing, obstructs the circulation in the muscles, and thus hinders their growth and development. The consequence of this is, that the whole of the trunk is weak, requiring support, and liable to give way upon be- ing exposed to the ordinary endurances of domestic fife. " To diminish the space for the movement of the lungs, (which tight lacing effec- tually performs,) is to deprive them of a part of their function. If the lungs are pre- vented from spreading out their surfaces to the action of the air, less of good blood is made than is required for the purposes of life, and the whole of the organization be- comes feeble, and the functions defective. Those portions of the lungs which are obstructed in their functions become debilitated and absorbed. There is, therefore, less lung than is natural, and that is diseased. Hence, there is a sufficient founda- tion laid for the supervention of consumption, dropsy, and diseases of the heart and lungs. " If the lungs have not room enough to play, they will force other organs out of their place in their efforts to obtain it. The heart, deprived of comfortable space for its movements, will palpitate, and be irregular in its action, and diseased in its sub- stance. The stomach will be pressed down out of its place by the superincumbent diaphragm, and the substance of the organ diseased, while its function of digestion will bo disturbed. Indeed, the whole of the viscera of the abdomen will be pressed out of place, ami disturbed, more or less. " There are, however, two parts towards which the pressure is usually most inju- riously directed — the womb, and the last portion of the bowel. The cavity in which these organs are placed, is covered in with muscles, which are capable of, and in- tended for contractiriL'- ami dilating. They resist pressure to a certain extent, but after that they give way and stretch, losingtheir elasticity. Is it extraordinary that so many cases of prolapsus of the uterus and rectum should occur? A fashionable pair of corsets will add to the weight of resistance in the abdomen from ten to thirty 182 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. pounds : what wonder if something give way ? It would be a wonder if something did not. " Upon the point of beauty involved in this matter, we may remark that the laws of beauty are the laws of nature. There is, therefore, no room for the argument, that the beauty of a woman requires this pressure, for this is to pass by unheeded the great principle that we are to learn from Nature, not to teach her. [See Frontis- piece — Man and Woman.] " A fashionable woman cannot have her maternal organs in a state of health, and therefore all the functions appertaining to those modes of her existence will neces- sarily be accompanied with inconvenience and pain. The functions of gestation parturition, and lactation, are performed with debilitated and diseased organs ; and from the necessity of the case, must be disordered and disturbed." The female dress of the present time, as it is worn among us, is not fitted for health, convenience, lightness, proper warmth, or the welfare of the offspring. Her skirts, coffee-sacks, and heavy luggage, worn to give what is styled beauty and graceful- ness, and her show of goods in the form of long dresses, are anything but produc- tive of health to herself and child. The lower extremities of females, in the preva- il i.r fashion of dress, are much exposed to cold; her garments, fastened about the waist, are generally cumbersome, and drag down the bowels. She indulges in thin Bhoes, thin dresses, thin bonnets, low-necked and short-sleeved outer garments in improper seasons of the year, — when the cold winds chill the blood, and predispose to consumption. And thus she becomes diseased and enfeebled, and is rendered in- competent to produce or nourish healthy offspring. Says Combe: " Female dress errs in one important particular, even when unex- ceptionable in material and quantity. From the tightness with which it is made to fit on the upper part of the body, not only is the insensible perspiration injudiciously and hurti'ully confined, but that free play between the dress and the skin, which is so beneficial in gently stimulating the latter by friction at every movement of the body, is altogether prevented, and the action of the cutaneous nerves and vessels, and consequently the heat generated is less than that which would result from the same dress more loosely worn." The health of the child being much more dependent, in most cases, upon the con- dition of the mother than of the father, greater care should be taken to have her such as would not induce ill health. But this is not the case. The reverse is The body and the mind are enfeebled and diseased by seeking the vanities of fashion, rather than obeying the laws of life and health. The richest gift of God to the race — the power of man and woman to procreate the divine image — is thwarted in its action, if not annulled, by obedieneo to the follies of fashion in tight lacing, wearing thin shoes, and other like contrivances for shortening the span of human life. As a striking evidence of the ill effects of the present female costume, we may point 10 the fact, thai the Indian women of our country, when living in their natu- ral state, are never troubled with those female weaknesses peculiar to the fashion- able lady. The back and bowels of the Indian woman are never subject to the dis- eases common to the ladies living in civilized countries; and what the Indian wo- man is in this respect, the white woman might be, if she would study and abide by the laws of life and health. The honor of the redemption of the world, through the agency of flesh and blood, is die to woman; and if woman can redeem a fallen world, can she not redeem her THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 183 sex from the evils of fashionable dressing, which hastens early consumption. A united action of the ladies could change or modify the female dress, so as to greatly promote the health and longevity of the sex. The most essential objection to be made by the males against a change in the present female costume, will arise from a supposition that a new style will encroach upon the fashion of the male sex so closely as to prevent detection of the sexes. Therefore, if the ladies change their style of dress, they should not fail to wear some external sign by which they may be always known. There cannot be too much cau- tion exercised about adopting such a fashion as would attract the too earnest gaze of the opposite sex ; and if the present dress should be shortened, the extremities should be so clothed as to afiord no extra attraction for the gazer. "Woman by nature is a source of great comfort and happiness to man. Her win- ning smiles, sweet songs, rosy cheeks, ruby lips, loving eyes, and beautiful form are to hirn fountains of exquisite enjoyment. "Why should she detract from her charms? why blast herself by consumption ? — why ruin her own prospects in life ? — why make broken-hearted mourners of parents, husbands, brothers, sisters and friends, for the sake of following in the footsteps of fashion ? But these she does, by im- proper modes of dress, which take health and strength from the womb and bowels, life from the eye, color from the cheek, elasticity from the step, vigor from the muscles, vivacity from the mind and loveliness from the spirits, and hasten her to the grave of the consumptive. A sickly, broken-backed, falien-boweled, hollow-voiced, sunken-eyed, sallow- complexioned, emaciated and consumptive nation of females, slaves to foolish fashions, is a grievous subject to contemplate ; for such are not only a curse to themselves but to those who shall come after them ; a libel on the original creation of God ; degenerators of the race ; a disgrace to a reasonable, intelligent, civilized and wise people, whose improvements in every work, save in that of caring for hu- man health, outshine all the past generations of the world. Our country is flooded with stays, abdominal and uterine supporters, &e., ribbing the woman around as barrels are ribbed with the hoops of the cooper — which serve generally to deform the frame, disease the parts, and make the condition of the wearer ostead of better. By the adoption of some different mode of dress, and by proper attention to health, these articles might be altogether dispensed with, and woman grow up in the original beauty and symmetry designed by nature and God. The effects of tight-lacing and wearing stays to compress the waist, and de- stroy both health and beauty of form, may bo seen in the following cuts, illustrative of artificial and inartificial waists. I£ ladies destroy their natural attractiveness, they cannot expect to hold control over or even to influence the men. It has been said that woman is the most pow- erful of all en ami, in a certain sense, this is true; at least it was so admitted by the king of the most powerful nation upon earth, who suffered a fair damsel to box his ears-— an act that certainly no man would have dared to do. When woman is in health and in full possession of her natural charms, man Ls her slave, tn solicit her favor, her smiles and her love; but when these depart from her, her power departs also, and her influence over man is lost to her for ever. In view of these eonaiderationSj I would suggest a modification in the existing modes of female dress. Let the garments be warm and comfortable about the neck in cold and damp weather ; the arms bo properly covered, in accordance with the 184 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. No. 33. — Artificial "Waist. Natural "Waist. changes of the season ; the dress sit free, loose and easy about the chest ; corsets and kindred contrivances be abolished ; the heavy and burdensome skirts thrown off, and those worn hung from the shoulders by the Suspender and Shoulder-Brace; no un- natural protuberances attached posteriorly to make amends for a supposed deficien- cy Lu the work of nature ; no weight or pressure be allowed upon the bowels ; the lower extremities be properly clothed and kept warm, and the feet properly protect- ed with thick shoes or boots. These improvements would save many from diseases of the genital organs — from falling of the womb; from ulcers, tumors and polypuses of the womb; from weaknesses in the back, spinal diseases and numerous other complaints, too numer- ous to be mentioned here, but by no means so unimportant that every means possible for their prevention should not be embraced with avidity and employed by all. EXPENSE AND LABOR TO PRODUCE CONSUMPTION. Thk extent and fatality of consumption have been subjects for investigation and comment since the first days of medical science; but the causes of it have been generally overlooked by writers, so that while physicians have labored for its eradica- tion, the people have been constantly engaged in various ways to propagate the dis- ease. Many of these ways I have snoken of in other parts of this work; I would now di reel your attention more particularly to the mode of inducing consumption by the wearing of stays ami . That you may have some id. a of the extent to which ladies are propped up by Stays and corsets, I will submit to you the statistics of the stay and corset making business in the city of Paris, The stay-making business is carried on by G52 prin- cipal establishments, which employ 3968 workwomen. The value of the mauufac- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 185 ture is five million francs annually; and 1,200,000 corsets are made in Paris annu- ally for exportation ! If to tins huge amount we add those made in other parts of the world — at home and abroad, — the sum total would be enormous. Of the extent of the manufacture of these articles in New York, I have not now at hand the means of informing my- self; but I know that it is greater than it ought to be, if the health of the people was considered. But we can see from the statistics of Paris to what extent these articles are worn, and I know that hundreds and thousands of females are voluntarily im- prisoned in them to the great detriment of their health and often to the production of consumption. A more ingenious method for killing women without exciting their alarm than the use of stays and corsets could not readily be devised ; and to their inventors, first that great enemy of life, King Death, should award one of his pre- miums. That such enormous sums of money and so much of labor should be expended in the production of articles to kill ladies by degrees, seems strange indeed ; but not so strange as that the ladies themselves should purchase and use the very articles that are their destruction, when their greatest happiness lies in the enjoyment of good health. For while the manufacturer makes money of the business, the deluded purchaser is spending her money to procure articles that enfeeble her, and inducing disease that will call for still more money to remove it from her system. The propriety of giving to the vital organization free play, cannot be too strongly enforced ; and yet, to-day in civilized life, enlightened people are con- tinually and systematically engaged in cramping the motions of the heart and lungs, and compressing the space in which the machinery of life performs its operations. This cut represents the bust and stomach of a well developed female, as she would be if nature were not thwarted. The next cut depicts her as she too often is, after being "cabined, cribbed, confined," by laces and whalebone, corsets and stays. Is it any wonder that we hear of heart diseases, consumption, dyspepsia, and female weakness, when there is actually no room for healthy pulsation and ' The blood made in such a contracted laboratory, must bo imperfectly made, and must, therefore, be impure. ild exhort you to leave these ptentS of deatb in the simps where they are for sale. Do not let them come nigh you; for forth from i ; "i'- embrao .'.ill Bpring pains, consumption and death, [f you oeed Buppor^ thai support must be had through a pure, rigorous and healthy blood, to obtain which, proper habits of living, exercise of parlous kinds, g I food and air, and restorative and invigorating medicines must be had recoi instead of compressing corsets and Imprisoning stays. [See articles on Air, Diet, Exercise, &c] No. 40.— Natural Chest. No. 41. — Comi'ressed Chest. 186 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. VACCINATION— ITS EVILS. In vaccination great care should be taken to obtain the vaccine matter from a person perfectly free from disease or humors of any kind, or evils of magnitude will arise. The worst cases of scrofula, erysipelas and salt rheum have been given by inoculating fir the kine pox; and syphilitic and cancerous humors are frequently OOmmunicated in this way, as is also consumption. The matter taken from the in- oculation of a person troubled with some disease is almost certain to infuse that into the blood of those upon whom it is used. It were much better to have the small-pox than suffer from some of the evil humors inoculated into the blood with impure vaccine matter. If you wish to vaccinate yourself or your children, be sure that the matter is taken from a ehdd who has a pure blood and healthy system. Adult persons being much more apt to be diseased than children, it is not advisable to take the iufectant from them. It is better to get it from the cow, if possible. Distempers in the blood contracted from vaccination are very difficult of eradication; therefore I would ad- vise all to use great caution in this matter. I have had many cases presented to me for examination, arising from this source ; and though generally succeeding in re- storing the blood to its proper and original state of health, I know that it is not so easy to be done that any one would desire to become diseased in the way I have alluded to. DISEASES OF TRADES. Man, in his several relations, is assuredly the most extraordinary and interesting being in the universe, for examination and reflection. His splendid and beautiful external form, and the number and complexity of his organs, their harmony and re- lationship, have from my boyhood up been a theme to me of never-ending gratifica- tion and study. But it has been one thing to view man as created by God, and another to exam- ine him in a morally and physically degraded state. Alas ! and whom are we to thank for such a melancholy change 7 His fellow man — he who should have been the lirsi to have cherished and supported his toiling brother — who should have Fed him when hungry, clothed him when naked, and given him drink when thirsty, is, all over the world, found to !"• bis greatest tormentor. In looking at the miracles of science ami ait ; in looking at the beautiful fabrics of the loom, the hammer, the graver, or the needle, we may forget the thousands in mines, ahttl from the lighl of day, and the air of heaven — we may forget the crowd- tories, the damp workshops, the empty garrets, the pestilential diseases inci- dent to the industrious. I have in my travels and my practice collected much in- formation connected with the diseases of Trades and Professions, and I will therefore proceed to gave a brief view of the agencies which are at work to produce them, hoping that (mm the inquiry, some improvement may result to those classes of our fellow-crea The BUTCHEB. — Either diseases are multiplied artificially, or they are not. If in- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 187 quiry proves they are, surely sell-interest, as well as benevolence, demands a full in- vestigation into the causes of the evil. If the negative, I shall rest contented, gratified with the belief that our avocations are not injurious, and that the increase of mor- tality is the infliction of the Creator, not the agency of his creatures. All who reflect on this subject, it is presumed, will admit that our employments are in a considerable degree injurious to health ; at the same time they believe, that the evils cannot be counteracted, and that an investigation of such evils can produce only pain and discontent. From a reference to facts and observation, I am clearly convinced that in many occupations the injurious agents might be removed, or, at all events diminished. Evils are suffered to exist where the means of correction are known and readily supplied. Apathy is the great obstacle to success. But where no adequate remedy immediately presents itself, observation and discussion will rarely fail to discover one. I might even say that the human mind cannot be fairly and perseveringly applied to a subject of this nature, without beneficial re- sults. However, when an evil is continually kept before the public attention, other investigations, or the march of science in other departments, often provide a remedy. Thousands of fives have been lost by explosions in coal mines, and thousands more would have been added to the list, if the property of gases had not been ex- amined. Yet the miner, doubtless, has often said, before Davy invented his safety lamp, " These explosions are very shocking events, but we cannot prevent them — they are insuperable from the nature of our employment." Such will ever be the sentiments of those who are either too distrustful of science, or too selfish to investigate the cause of an evil. I will commence my remarks with those employments whose operations allow .the greatest physical perfection. First those of active habits, and whose employ- ment is chiefly in the open air. Butchers claim a priority of position ; they five much in the open air, and take strong exercise. Most of the masters ride on horse- back to the neighboring markets, and are proverbially known to be fast riders, and good walkers. Butchers and slaughtermen, their wives, children and errand boys, almost all eat fresh meat twice a day. They are plump and rosy, and generally cheerful and good natured. They do not seem subject to such anxieties as the fluctuations of other trades produce, for meat is always in demand. They are sub- ject to few ailments, except those arising from the fulness of the system, or in New York, to the bad air of the markets. Consumptions arc rare among this class — while their diet subjects them much less than other businesses to dysentery or cholera. Out of 1000 patients, my average rate of butchers I find to be only about two per cent. Notwithstanding the favorable circumstances of the butchers, long life is not groater in them than in the majority of employments. In short, until our authori- ties erect better market stalls and slaughter houses, butchers will have to light with damp feet and bad air, also with too hiijh living, ami perhaps intemperance. CATTLE and HOUSE DBA1HB&-— Cattle and horse dealers, leading an active life in the open air, are generally healthy, and would lie almost, < ■ x < ■ i n j . t IV.. in ordinary maladies, were it not fur their hal.it-, of irrregularity or intemperance. Wet and cold would rarely produce temporary ailments, provided these individuals were careful t.> keep the blood deem ami cool, so much is their emploj tnent conducive to 188 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. health and vigor. But, on the whole, their appearance is at once indicative of a carelessaeaB, " r ignorance on this point, and I generally find them deranged about the liver, stomach and blood. Fishmongers, or fishermen, are of necessity, greatly exposed to the weather, and its consequences. They appear not to be subject to rheumatism or other in- flammatory maladies. Generally hardy, those who are temperate, enjoy health, and those who have some knowledge of physiology, live to a considerable age. Tery far different arc those who are addicted to intemperance— they are subject to catarrhal, liver and lung complaints, and as a consequence sickly and short-lived. Carters. — This class, though exposed to atmospheric vicissitudes and influences, are healthy in proportion to their regularity, temperance, and nourishment. Many of them however are poorly employed and of course poorly paid— many have their employment so very uncertain that it causes them to be improvident and intemper- ate. Consumptions and rheumatisms are not unfrequent among the poorer portion. Laborers.— Laborers in this country are better paid, and more healthy than in Europe. Nevertheless, many, being of European birth, are from their habits and imprudences of living, neither properly clad nor fed. They generally congregate in very ill ventilated and noxious apartments and streets, which, with drinking bad liquor, makes them the victims of indigestion, scrofula, ulcers, &f, Founders axd Ktkueotypers havo also unhealthy employments. The materials used in the manufacture of type and plates, poison the Longs and Bystem, and render these occupations far from healthy. The girls who rub type &1 the founders' suffer from the One particles of type dust. With stereotypers, their bent position over the plates, and close application, is highly injurious to the health. Smiths have an employment remarkably conducive to muscular power; theuse of the large, powerful hammer excites all the muscles, i specially those of the arms, 13 1«J4 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. throwing on them a large supply of blood, and consequently producing their eu- . like theirs, moreover, has a very considerable effect on the I circulation, and the functions with which it is connected. For youths of constitutions no labor is better than that of the smith, but for such as are naturally delicate, the exertion is far too severe; and whore there is any tendency fula in the constitution they are peculiarly liable to sink under that employ- Smiths are subjected to a \ iperature. also to frequent changes in it, yet it appears to have very little tendency to disease. The employment sub- jects the eye to the annoyance of smoke, and to the excitement from the glow of the lire and heated iron, consequently there is a tendency to ophthalmia, or eye- disease. Smiths could be easily kept in a state of good health. CABINET Makers, though employed in the house, are tolerably healthy — the labor is not severe, but there is considerable fine dust always flying ; hence there is a tendency to ossification and diseases of the head. On the whole, preventives against their complaints are always at hand when the real symptoms of their case are known. House Servants, from their confined situation in a smoky town and kitchen, very rarely enjoy good health — they often suffer from stomach diseases and head- Oiria from the country very speedily lose their rosy appearance, and suffer much more than the nati\ Kneeling produces in housemaids fre- quent tumors of the knee, often terminating in white swellings. Those, such as - or footmen, who have to stand long behind chairs, or at coaches, &c, often suffer from dropsy of the testicle. Every house servant should be requested bj- humane employers to wait upon some respectable physician at least once a month, as it must be unpleasant for such parties to be handling tbod, while, peri scrofulous or otherwise diseased. Colliers endure very considerable muscular labor, chiefly in the sitting or kneel- ing posture, with the head very much bent, sometimes to the greatest degree. They work in an unnatural atmosphere, and with artificial light; are exposed to change of air, and occasionally they work with their feet in water. Perspiration is at at times, as to induce them to work almost naked. Colliers are generally spare men, the spine is almost always curved, and the legs frequently bowed. The skin, ol I mded with dirt, and when this is removed, the complexion is sallow and unhealthy. Tli> u i.ill. and generally affected with chronic inflammation, and incapable of enduring full light Colliers also are subject to diseases of the head, muscular pains, particularly in ... Also to rheumatism and asthma. They are well known to be liah] accidents from the fall of parts of the mine, and to much more dreadful ef- fects from the e: The air they inspire is likewise impure. On the whole, colliers are unhealthy, and short-lived; and it is a real pleasure to me to be conscious how much I have done to nliev.' this class of men. Gold Diooeba are subjected to similar evils as the colliers, and more, on account afchan bad food, want of proper nigl The diggers uni- versally complain of colds, c curvy, &c. All who think of | THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 195 to the mines, would do well to consult me previously to taking passage, as by my Barometer I could guarantee their chances of life, and fit them out with the proper advice how to preserve life until their return. I have furnished many miners with medicines for their stay in California. Starch Makers are exposed to a fetid acetous odor, which arises from the fer- menting wheat, or more properly speaking, from the water in which the wheat has been steeped, — the rooms are wet and cold; nevertheless, the colds, headaches, and dropsies, can be easily cured, and as easily prevented. This I know from expe- I shall now examine the employments which produce dust, odor, or gaseous ex- halations. All employments connected with animal substances are subject to atmo- spheric impurities. Rectifiers of Spirits, and Person engaged in Spirit Vaults, are subject to vapor, which sensibly affects those whose blood is hereditarily or negligently im- pure. Nervousness is frequent amongst this class, and the best preventives are muscular exercise and pure air. Bricklayers, especially their laborers, are much exposed to lime dust, which excites opthahnia and skin diseases, which I have found many of them to labor un- der. They are not particularly affected with internal diseases, when temperate, — but in summer time are often sun-struck. Plasterers and White "Washers are likewise exposed to lime dust, but do not appear to be sensibly affected by it. They are, however, paler and less robust than bricklayers, which is attributable to a gas evolved from the glue, which very power- fully acts upon the nerves and the blood. Turners, when working on bone, are troubled with bronchial and lung affections ; they receive into the air-passages a large quantity of dust, which ossifies and chokes up their system, producing premature old age. All who feel symptoms of this cha- racter should call upon a skilful physician. Tobacco Manufacturers are exposed to a strong narcotic odor, and in the stov- ing department, to an increase of temperature ; and between the heat and the poi- sonous atmosphere, diseases of the head, stomach, and liver, and nervous system, are not unfrcquent. f-'xriT Makers Buffer much moro than the tobacco makers. Tho fino dust of the tobacco, combined wiili muriate of ammonia and other substances, produces also diseases of tho head, air-tubes, stomach, liver, &c. Rape and Mustard CBUSHEBfl inhale a very peculiar odor from these seeds. It appears to act as a stimulus on the nervous and circulating system ; for men u tin rm ploy, find their appetite and vigor much increased. This statement can only be reconciled with my belief only in the healthiness at pure air, on the principle that 186 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 08 agents sometimes counteract each other. To man in a healthful state, no substance which arises from manufacture can be beneficial; but men living in large :! Life, are generally more or less unhealthy ; and thus some peculiar funics may be decidedly beneficial in exciting languid powers, or in correcting a disposition to di£ Brush Makers have sedentary occupation, but the arms are actively exerted ; some dust, it is said, arises from the bristles, and carbonic acid gas from the lire which heats the pitch. The vapor from the pitch has, however, a curative effect on any tendency their trade might give them to disease; and brush makers generally do not suffer from asthma or C0U{ Grooms inhale a large quantity of ammoniacal gas, generated in the stables; and but for this drawback, those thus employed would enjoy more than the common amount of health and longevity. They suffer from congestion of the vessels of the abdomen and the head, but much of these complaints may be attributed to intem- perance. Glue axp Boxe Boilers are subject to a strong putrid and ammoniacal exhala- tion, from the decompositions of animal refuse. The stench of the boiling and dry- ing rooms is well known to 1 nsive to the neighborhood, and many and repeated have been the calls of our citizens to have such places removed to a greater from the city. Those employed, as well as all residents of the neighborhood, are subject to epi- demical diseases, to rheumatisms, blood diseases, fevers, and consumptions. Tallow Chandlers, &c, are exposed to the odor of the offensive animal matter, yet, nevertheless, enjoy fair health and long life. During epidemics, they suffer much less than others. Tanners work in an atmosphere strongly impregnated with the vapor of putrefy- ing skins, and this is combined with the smell of lime, 4c. They are constantly ex- posed to wet feet, yet there is no disease peculiar to this profession. Tanners are not at all subject to consumption, unless combining that business with shoe-making, a physiological fact which has •.■iveu rise to much discussion. I do not hear of many cases of consumption from a tan-yard. If tanners are temperate and regular in their habits, they may reasonably expect a long life. Millers breathing in an atmosphere loaded with the particles of flour, &c, suffer .. Millers are generally pale and sickly; must have a defective appetite, or sutler from indigestion; many labor from morning cough, some are consumptive, and all of them r choked up in the internal machin r I. those who Dieted pay in'- . Maltsters '. particularly in the grinding and drying departments, and to sulphurous fames from the coke. Both they and the millers suffer from inflammation of the windpipe, asthma, and consumption. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 197 Paper Makers suffer much from the dust arising from cutting the rags. Very few remain for many years at this employ. They become prematurely old. An in- vention, I think, might be discovered capable of cutting the rags in a box. and pre- venting much of the dust. Until this is the case, however, I shall warrant to pre- vent much of the evil consequences of the business, if called upon. Masons inhale particles of dust and sand, which arise from chipping the stone; they are often required to use great muscular exertion in lifting weights, and are ex- posed to vicissitudes of the weather. From inhaling dust the lining of the internal machine is frequently in a state of inflammation. Masons who have been dissected after death, from asthma, consumption, and other chest diseases, have been found to have lumps of sand in their lungs ; and in dividing the pulmonary substance, it seems to be cutting a sandy body. These symptoms are applicable to miners, rock blasters, lime burners, and scythe and axe grinders, and similar employments where dust is ground into small particles. Those so employed should consult my Barome- ter to know their real internal condition. The dampness of plastered rooms where masons are at work, and where perspira- tion is excited, renders them liable to severe colds, and tends more to the produc- tion of consumption than any other cause. Masons should be careful about remit- ting their exercise while in a newly -plastered room. And all persons should be equally careful about living or sleeping in newly-plastered and damp rooms. Ston"e Cutters. — The cases of consumption among stone-cutters are increasing to an extent quite alarming, from the great demand for cut stone in building. The grit flying from the stone is inhaled into the lungs, and produces inflammation of that organ. This grit can never be dissolved or extracted. The average length of life of stone-cutters is but about ten years after commencing the business. The stone dust fills the air-cells of the lungs, causing irritation, ulceration, and large cavities which fill with stone grit. Hence hoarseness, hectic fever, loss of voice, and consumption. How can stone-cutters expect to live long, when the air they breathe is filled with stone dust, and no precaution is made against its inhala- tion. Medicine may greatly relieve and comfort for a time, but where much stone dust has boon inhaled, but little hope of a cure can be entertained. MACHINE Makkks are divided into several departments. The founding produces only the slight and temporary annoyance of dust from the charcoal sprinkled on the mould. Turning, boring, and grooving, is so laborious, that few men can be found hardy enough to endure it through the day for any great length of tune. These men suffer from heated Mood, lung, and liver complaints. DbawftllinG CAST CBONisan injurious occupation; the dust is very abundant, and the metallic particles are more minute than in the tiling of wrought iron. The particles rise so copio blacken the mouth and noBe. The men first feel annoyance in the nostrils, the lining membrane of which discharges freely for some time, then becomes supematurally dry. The air tubes aexl Buffer, breathing be- comes difficult on any extra exertion being used, and an habitual cough is the re- Bulk These men are troubled with diseases of the digestive organs, and bronchia] ortuberculous consumptions. The frequency of the - fatal m thecauses of 198 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. their employment, require no explanation. Iron fillers are almost all unhealthy and Bhort-lived men. re nothing that can be done to prevent this melancholy waste of life? Can- mouth-pieces be used to attract the particles of iron, instead of letting them be inhaled ? While the strange apathy exists of both masters and men on this subject ; while man after man decays in the prime of life, and no warning is r effort made, to adopt some mode of staying the desolation — let all who :!1 upon me, and I will alleviate their position, besides arming them for with- standing the approach of disease in tho future. Braziers are subject to the noxious exhalations from the solder ; but their em- ployments are so varied, as to preclude much immediate injury from their influence. The proper care, and the periodical cleansing of the system, would make this class long fivers in general. Copper-smiths are considerably affected by the fine scales which arise from the imperfectly volatilized metal, and by the fumes of the spelter or solder of brass. The men are generally unhealthy, suffering from disorders similar to those of brass- founders. Tin-Plate Workers are subject to fumes from muriate of ammonia, and sul- phurous exhalations froni the coke which they burn. These exhalations would be easy of counteraction, and these men could be made healthy and long-lived, by blood-cleansing and temperance. Tinners and Plumbers are much exposed to the volatilized oxide of lead, which arises during the process of casting and soldering. The fumes frequently induce vomiting at the moment, and the working of the metal is generally injurious. A sweet taste is often perceived in the mouth during the heating of lead, aud noxious fames arise from the application of solder. They are also liable to accidents and burns. On the whole, operative plumbers are neither healthy nor long-lived. House Painters are most commonly subject to the same complaints as the plumbers. The effects felt of an injurious agency are from the process of flatting or finishing (he dead colors with turpentine. The exhalation produces at first diz- ziness; and next vomiting. Painters are unhealthy in appearance, subject to colic, pains in the bowels, and do not generally attain a full age. Their maladies are evi- dently the result of an impression on the nervous system, through the medium of membranes afti* nostrils, and the air tubes. "Working in paint and turpentine results also in oolic and palsy. ''mi. mists ami DEI I ntinually exposed to various odors and the evo- lution of gases, many ofwhich are seriously injurious. Eencethe men employed in laboratories arc frequently sickly in appearance, and subjeel to many affections of thelwigs. Few old men are found in la > the part of the men, and ventilation practised as much as possible, would considerably diminish the effect lanefol agents. The men employed in manufactory of THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 199 Gas for lights are not aware of the injury resulting from the process. Even the individuals engaged in the pumping department, and exposed, ' consequently, to abominable evolutions of sulphuretted hydrogen, say they are healthy. But I deny that this can be the ultimate effect. TVoolest Cloth Dyers axd Stovers are also exposed to the evolution of sul- phurous vapor, anything but beneficial to the human frame. Among the minor and less permanent causes of injury from prussic acid vapor, used by dyers engaged with Prussian blue, are inflammations of the lungs and tenderness to the eyes. Potters suffer much from the lead in glazing ; immersing their hands in a strong solution of tins mineral, they often suffer from colic ; and if kept long in this de- partment become paralytic. These men are remarkably subject to constipation ot the bowels; of seven individuals, taken indifferently, I found five affected with this malady. Could not the process be effected without the hands being immersed in the metallic solution ? The total disuse of lead in glaze is most certainly to be de- shed. Independently of its injury to the workmen, the consumers are liable to suffer from this mineral. The glaze of common earthenware is slightly soluble in animal oil, and copiously so in the acids of fruits, especially when the dishes are heated. My experience demonstrates that many of the obscure internal diseases of the poorer classes are chiefly attributable to this little-suspected source, and the tem- porary removal of the pain occasioned by them is one of the many motives which induce an habitual use of spirits. Hatters have their hands frequently immersed in a solution of sulphuric acid, which is employed in the process of felting, and hence the nails and outer skin of their fingers are often corroded and sore; this inconvenience might probably be the use of some oily substance, or at least counteracted by Blood ESS, having their hands in sugar, and other similar compounds, become affected With cutaneous eruptions. Lime produces similar diseases on the hands of bricklayers. Flour irritates the skin in Bakebs, ■■> nd occasions a scale, which is a variety of itch. All these unsightly appearances can be easily obviated and prevented by my Blood Purifying Remedies. Kxii ■ ■ . i ■•; i >Eits are notoriously engaged in an unhealthy employment, and are subject to every possible pulmonic disorder. So fatal i branch of this business thai I really cannol distinguish which one is entitled to the terrible pre-eminence. Knife, Fork, Needle and Axe Grinding are all to certain de- grees pernicious to health ami longevity. The dual flying from the metal in volumes ro minute in its particles as to defy vision, carries death to the lungs and other - Out of one hundred bo i ngaged in this business, whose bodies I examined, a1 Col- linsville. Conn., l found twenty-four affected with inflammation of the chest, thirty had hen, or were then affected with spitting of blood ; twelve complained o in the urinarj i en had unequivocal disease of the lungs, while the re- mainder had not been long at the business. The grinders do nol 200 TIIK PEOPLE'S MEDICAL lighthouse. of the Incipient Btages of pulmonary disease, and only complain when unable to pursue their occupation. Ii is frequently the case that the lungs become so filled with steel and st >ne dust, that it will dull a knife to cut them. The lungs are very heavy when thus loaded; often a loss of voice results from this cause. sumption is contracted by many mechanical operatives from the dust that is allowed to accumulate in the workshops, and which is raised every time the ma- chinery is set in motion. Frequently this dust is not removed for years; and it keeps the lungs of the operatives choked up through the day. Such treatment would wear out even cast iron lungs ; how, then, can it be expected that the deli- cate cells and membranes of the human being can withstand its effects ? A regular dusting and washing of all manufactories should be had daily, or at least once a week, and thereby the lives of thousands of the most enterprising and useful me- chanics would be saved to us every year. In dusting the furniture of rooms, there always arises a fine, smoke-like dust, Which gets into the throat and lungs, and causes coughing, and sometimes inflam- mations of the throat and lungs. Ladies should carefully guard against inhaling this fine dust ; also, in sweeping rooms, the same caution should be exercised ; and still more in the shaking of carpets and door-mats. These articles discharge a large amount of dust when shaken, and if taken into the lungs freely, the most delete- rious effects may follow. The above sketches are from my notes and observations from many years of travel and experience, and were originally intended to see how far they might bo conducive to alleviate the manner of working in the various employments; but my time has been so occupied by invention, and practice in the cure of disease, that I ooncluded to let them go forth like the Apostles, and do what good they are capable of I am anxious to impress, however, upon all trades and professions, that thoroughly understanding the nature of their employments, I am prepared to give them my advice and assistance on the most reasonable terms. INFLUENCE OF OCCUPATION ON HEALTH. The influence of occupation on health and longevity is worthy of consideration. Of the clergymen who lived and died in Massachusetts, prior to 1825, the ages of eight hundred and eighty-eight have been ascertained. Of these, the average age of 90 who died prior to 1700, was 61.77 years. 123 " 1700 to 1750, " 65.00 " 303 " 1750 to 1800, " 62.55 " 372 " 1800 to 1825, " 64.47 " crerage, 63.62 " The average ago of 840 clergymen who graduated at Harvard University, and died prior to 1825, was 66.62 years — II in each 100 attained the age of 70. The I 1 17. who died prior to 1841, in that State, was 58.79; and of 169 in other New England States, in th was 56.64— which shows a decline in the Longevity of clergymen from the periods previous to 1825. Of physicians, 194 members of the Massachusetts Medical Society, who died prior to 1840, averaged 60.23 years; of these, 42 who lived in Boston, averaged THE PEOPLE'S MEDIC.il LIGHTHOUSE. 201 53.59 years, and 154 in other parts of the State, 64.04. For the seven years prior to 1S49, 95 members of the Massachusetts Medical Society died at an average age of 57.13 years. Of this class, there has also been a decline in the duration of life enjoyed by the physicians of earlier times. David Rennet, a physician, of Rowley, Mass., died in 1719, aged 103 years, 2 months, and 3 days. Edward Augustus Holyoke died in Salem, in 1829, at the age of 100 years, 7 months ; and Hezekiah Meriam, of Ward, who died 1803, and John Crocker, of Richmond, who died 1815, lived beyond the age of 100 years. Of lawyers, the reports of Massachusetts afford less material to judge of their longevity. The ages of 52 are given, whose average age was 46.68 years; of 53 others. 55.4*7 years. From this, it would appear that they do not live so long as clergymen and physicians ; though the number of observations is too small to found thereon a correct opinion. A table in Chambers's Journal gives the following as the average duration of life among a large number of 'professional men in that country : a and Lawyers, Physicians, Divines and Theologians, Musical Composers, . 69.5 Philosophers and Mathematicians, 65.5 68.0 Artists 64.5 67.4 Miscellaneous Literary Men, . 62.6 65.7 Poets, 59.8 Dr. Casper, of Berlin, Prussia, has calculated that in that country the age of 70 was attained by 42 clergymen in 100; by 29 lawyers; by 28 artists; by 27 profes- sors; and 24 physicians. Dr. Madon, of England, in comparing the average age of celebrated men of different classes, found that naturalists lived 75 years; philoso- phers, sculptors and painters, 70; lawyers, 69; physicians, 68; clergymen, 67. But these were probably select lives, and not the whole of the classes. I here introduce a table showing the average duration of life in several profes- sions, businesses and occupations, derived from a series of extended observations in the State of Massachusetts. Farmers, average age, . 64.89 Bakers, Batters, . 58.79 Cabinetmakers, . Coopers, . 57.39 Stonecutters, men, . 56.64 Papermakers, Lawyers, . . 55.47 Shoi makers, :ians, . 55.00 Laborers, . miths, . 54.49 ■ ii, Carpenters, . 51.16 Painters, . Merchants, . 50.73 Fishermen, Tanners and Curriers, . 49.90 Manufacturers, . Masons, . 48.45 Mechanics generally, Traders, . 46.79 Printers, . 46.69 44.80 44.46 44.29 43.41 42.79 42.47 42.36 41.63 40.48 37.20 36.91 The reader will perceive thai thi liow a difference in differen in- tries of the avei uen in the various departments of life; bul they will i r that will be both interests From these statistics it will also be observed, that excepting the (arming popula- tion and one or two trades, the liv< al men average longer than those 202 THE TEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. of the mechanics and poorer classes of people. This is easily accounted for by re- membering that professional men generally are much less subjected to bud attitudes continuously, as well as in a great measure removed from the deleterious effects of the dust of trades, and the impure air of workshops and manufactories, and let posed to accidents. It is believed, also, that the food of this class of people erally more conducive to health than that used by the poorer classes of peoi ecbanics and operatives. Poor people every where consume much more bread and potatoes than the wealthier classes. And as these articles contain more phosphate of lime (which is apt to induce bad effects upon the system by choking it up with earthy matter.) than animal food, fowls, fish, fresh vegetables, fruits, preserves, wines, and other luxuries, which are more used by the wealth}-, it is obvious that the average duration of their lives will be lessened in some measure by this cause. It has been proved, by Mr. Cobden and Mr. East, of England, from statistics, that in proportion to the paucity of a man's income, is the proportion of bread he consumes. For as his wages rise, he purchases meat, fruit, and vegetables, and diminishes his consumption of bread. Bread and potatoes constituting so large a proportion of the and containing so much earthy matter, inevitably renders them more liable ? premature old ago and death. And so it is found that the rate of mortality among the poor is much greater than among the rich, in proportion to their numbers. Bad ventilation (to which they are more exposed) as well as great- er carelessness of living generally, also operates to shorten the duration of the lives of the laboring classes. The unfavorable influence of poverty and its accompanying evils is admitted by all observers. Lombard estimates the proportion of deaths from consumption in those professions practised by the higher classes of society as only one-half as great as among the poorer classes. In Geneva, the proportion of deaths from consump- tion among those living upon their incomes is only 50 in 1000, in a given time, while the number in all classes is 114 in 1000, in a given time. The same ratio holds good in England, and in all countries where statistics have been collected, and it also applies to numerous other diseases as well as consumption. Statistics uni- versally show that the average age of the wealthier class of the population of any country is greater than that of the poor classes] The- in favor of legislators enacting such laws as shall protect the laboring people, which are the mass of every community, and to their welfare by giving them just compensation for their toils, and re- ward their untiring industry with moderate wealth through the medium of good prove that the health, the strength, the longevity, and the conse- quent happin d and moral greatness of a people depend in no incon- le d( gree upon the amount of their remuneration for sen ices rendered; and that if we would have them enjoj these they must be shielded from the power of selfish tyrants and oppressive capital and placed in the possession of true liberty of body and conscience. And herein is the safety of a nation: for once tyranny has obtained foothold and crushed the spirit of the people by reducing their p] condition, she rules with an iron hand, and only an appeal to arms and the God o' heaven can loosen her grinding grasp. And if our legislators do not do this, wo may look forward with oertaintj to the day when, as is now the ease in the vaunt- ed em] ill posses? the entire property of THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 203 the country, and rule it over the heads of the millions — to their degradation, mental- ly and physically, and starvation and diminished duration of life. As " wealth is power," it is a curse to any nation to have the wealth accumulated in the hands of a few. Only by a diffusion of wealth can the liberties of a people be preserved and the masses kept from subjection to the few : and to this end, it is required that the laborer should be protected and the workman receive such compensation for his toil as shall place him above the demands of necessity : for then his conscience nor his vote can be bought nor sold — he is independent to declare his views in the face of the world. PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS BY CONSUMPTION. To give the reader an idea of the ratio of deaths by consumption in various parts of the world, the following table is subjoined. It should be remarked, how- ever, that statistics of deaths in any place will show a difference in the numbers dying of any particular disease at different periods, as well as a difference in the ratio of deaths from aU causes in one place compared with another place. As, for instance, we may find that while in Boston in one year the number of deaths in proportion to the population is greater than in New York, both as regards all causes and a particular cause, the next year may show the reverse. Hence it is not al- ways to be inferred that one place is healthier than another because in a particular period the proportionate number of deaths is less. The deaths by consumption in proportion to the total number of deaths, is In Portsmouth, N. H. 20 in 100 Providence, 23 in New York, 20 in Philadelphia, 15 in Baltimore, 16 in Charleston, 15 in London, 15 in In all England, 16 in 10 Paris, 18 in ' Geneva, 10 in ' Hamburgh, 19 in ' Berlin, 17 in ' Stuttgard, 21 in " This tablo might be further extended, to show the prevalence of the disease in the milder climates of the "West Indies and on the sunny shores of Italy, and to demonstrate the fruitfulness of change of climate to exterminate the complaint. It is stated that "of 35 consumptive patients who went to Madeira for their health in 1821, two-thirds died at sea, three died in the first month after their arrival, five or Bix survived the winter, and about the same number survived the following spring; three or four lived to the second winter; but of the whole number, thero were but thirteen living in 1824. The -rave-yards of Rome, Naples, Marseilles, Pisa, Nice and Malta, bear ample testimony to the futility of seeking a foreign dime in the hope of recovery." Tho statistics of Massachusetts show that the proportion of deaths by consump- ilie western, inland and hilly portions of tho State does not vary much from i ho sea coast. OT in all parts of tho country — on tho mountains, m the valleys, and upon the sea coast. It does not seem to bo so much the climate 204 Till-: PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. that propagates this disease, as the evil customs, fashions and habits of the people; nor does climate counteract its fatal workings, but rather a return to the laws which govern health in connection with the use of proper medicines. It is by far the most fatal disi to encounter. Cholera, typhus, scarlatina, and yellow fevers, though terrible in themselves, aresurpassed by consumption in contributions to the realms of death. How important, then, that cwry means should be used to relieve those upon whom it has seized, and save them from the grave. I rejoice to think that I have been permitted to rescue from the tomb so many hundreds of my fellow beings, by the timely application of my remedies for this complaint. Age has a great influence iu modifying the operations of consumption, as appears from statements gathered in different places. In the state of Massachusetts, out of 13,711 deaths by this disease in the period of seven years, there were — Under 15 years of age, 1,355 15 to 20, 1,065 20 to 30, 3,3G8 30 to 40, 2,412 40 to 50, 1,049 50 to 60, 1,241 60 to 70, 1,239 70 to 80, 1,062 Over 80, 320 About the same ratio prevails in New York — in city and state, — in London and in Philadelphia. It will be seen that from 20 to 30 years of age gives a much larger number than any other ten years of life — 15 years, from 15 to 30 years of age, gives more than any other 20 years, though the period from 30 to 50 is nearly as productive as that from 15 to 30 years of age. The above table shows that this disease takes its subjects principally at the pro- ductive period of life, from 15 to 60 — the most precious and useful of seasons. In the ages 20 to 30 — "the beauty and hope of life" — far more die than at other ages. In advanced life, however, its victims are in nearly the same proportion from the same number of living individuals. Consumption is somewhat partial in its selection from the sexes. From the ages of 20 to 30, the number of females who die of this complaint is nearly double that of the males, in the country towns, and some larger in the cities. After 40, especially in the cities, the proportion is on the other side, so that in the aggregate the relative number of males and females does not greatly differ — though the females somewhat preponderate. To show the relative number of deaths annually in different parts of the world, from all diseases, the following table is appended. The remarks preceding the table of deaths by consumption should be read in connection herewith: — n Russia, 1 out of 42 dies annually, In Baltimore, lout of 36 Austria, 1 " 38 " " Leghorn, 1 ' 35 South America,! " 30 " " New York, 1 ' 38 Amsterdam, 1 " 24 " " Berlin, 1 ' 34 Vienna, 1 " 23 " " Paris, 1 ' 32 Boston, 1 " 38 " it Philadelphia 1 ' 31 Providence, 1 " 47 " " Naples, * ' 28 London, 1 " 46 " " Brussels, 1 ' 25 Geneva, 1 " 48 " " Home, 1 ' 24 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 205 TO RESTORE THE DROWNED. When the body is taken from the water, use it as gently as possible ; let no violence of any kind — such as rolling on a barrel, be permitted. Incline the head at first, that the water may run off; place the body in a warm bed — cover it with warm blankets — place hot bricks or bottles of water to the feet and hands. Press the chest suddenly and forcibly downward and backward, and instantly discontinue the pressure ; rub the body hard with the palms of the hands ; which requires one or two active persons ; let another person try- to fill the lungs with air ; to do this, close the nostrils of the subject, and fitting your mouth to his, blow steadily and for- cibly until the chest is full of air ; then press the bowels upwards that the air may be ejected ; this should be repeated a number of times, and if signs of life do not ap- pear, get as soon as possible a pair of common fire-bellows ; introduce the nozzle well upon the base of the tongue, surround the mouth with a handkerchief, and close the nose. A person should press firmly upon the projecting part of the neck, called Adam's apple, and use the bellows actively. Then press upon the chest to expel the air from the lungs, to imitate natural breathing ; continue this for at least one hour if life does not appear : keep the body warm ; everything is secondary to inflating the lungs. Warm injections may be thrown up the bowels. Gentle stimu- lants may be given on recovery. Be active and persevering, as persons have been recovered after hours' immersion in the water, but usually not many recover after being in one hour. HOOPING COUGH. Tins complaint is exceedingly troublesome, as well as often fatal among children. The German Ointment, bathed once or twice a day about the throat and over the lungs, and the Lung Corrector and Anti-Bilious Pills used, will be found of great value to both children and adults troubled with the hooping cough. They relieve the cough, gently move the bowels, and relieve all tightness or difficulty of cough- ing — so liable to rupture the blood vessels and induce bleeding from the lungs. If a child is ever to be pitied, it is when suffering from the hooping cough, for often the tightness is such that breathing is carried on with the utmost difficulty, and sometimes death is caused by stricture of the air-passages or bronchia. There were 180 deaths by hooping cough in New York in the year 1850, and 114 in 1851. Great numbers die annually by this distressing complaint, who might flies were given in season. Bathing the German Ointment all over the body and limbs will be found of utility in cases of this complaint. The effect upon the skin is to open tho pores, so that perspiration can bo carried on freely, and the impurities of tho body thus kept from passing to tho lungs. INOCULATION OF HUMORS. There is no humor but may be given to a person by inoculation. Bore eyes are often obtained by wiping the face on a towel where some one previously using it 206 TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. had left the poisonous matter from diseased eyes. Barber's itch is contracted by using the tools and soap used by another person in shaving; scald head by using a comb or brush, or wearing a hat used by one troubled with that complaint. Jipelas, salt rheum, cancerous humors and syphilitic and scrofulous infections are often contracted by touch or inoculation. The itch is frequently given to a whole school or a neighborhood by a single person having it. The inoculation of disease from sores and ulcers, by the use of "second-hand" boots and clothes is very frequent, and the small-pox and other contagious diseases are often earned in 3 and rags to paper-mills. The cholera and small-pox have been supposed to be taken by the reception of a letter written by a patient some thousands of miles distant. Care should be taken to guard against all contagious diseases by inoculation, either by coming in contact with a person or by receiving it through the absorbent vessels of the skin from a poisonous atmosphere, or by direct contact with the poison. Humors of all kinds are fruitful causes of early decline and consumption. Avoid them, if possible, and eradicate them from the system as soon as you discover their existence, by all means, ere you become a victim to cancers, tumors and con- sumption. To show how the air is contaminated and diseases communicated therefrom of a contagious character, the amount of deaths from scarlet fever, measles and small- pox in New York from 1805 to 1851, inclusive, is here appended:— Scarlet fever - . . . . - 3914 Measles Small-pox - 4369 6122 Total of these - - 14,405 The largest number of cases of deaths from scarlet fever in any one year was in 1837—520; of measles, in 1836—443; of small-pox, in 1851—562. The Blood Renovator, Anti-Bilious Pills, and German Ointment, are certain puri- fiers of the blood from all humors inoculated into the system. They may be had of the dealers in medicine, or can be obtained by them to supply the calls of the sick. [See notices of medicines.] NIGHT TURNED INTO DAY. Gon, in his abundant goodness to man, has formed his body and mind for alter- t, and appointed unto each a distribution of time— the day for tin- nighl for rest. With rest and undisturbed sleep at the natural and appointed times, the mind as uvll as the body a. -is with uniformity; without this there is fretfulness and decline of the powers of tin' b; Never allow pon the hours appointed for sleep. Let your bedchamber In- quiel^no boisterous noises should intrude, if it be possible to avoid them, [fyou are married, do not allow molestation of the refresh- ing hour- of sleep, or Chose ol connubial love. Fright, fear, and suspicion, derange iri of mind give sweetness to sleepi and prolong life. Retire early, rest quietly, and rise early, and you will have a moro vigorous body, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIQHTHOUSE. 207 and a stronger mind, than if making yourself a devotee of fashion, and turning the night into day ; spending the hours you should be asleep in the dissipations inci- dent to fashionable life, and then lying in bed till a late hour of the following day. The business of changing the seasons appointed by nature for the alternations of exercise and rest, is extremely hurtful to the system. Although the pernicious ef- fects may not be sensibly felt immediately, they will sooner or later develop them- selves in all who indulge in these infractions. Therefore I would advise all my readers to eschew them, and give heed to the natural laws of health. DIETETIC NONSENSE BY VOLUMES. " The highest cordials all their virtue lose, By too frequent and too bold a use ; And what would cheer the spirit in distress, Ruins our health when taken to excess." Now that the excitement of nonsense and fanaticism on diet has somewhat passed away, reason may perhaps guide us to a few facts important to health. Those who would not eat meat, and lived exclusively on vegetables, have mostly repented of their sin against the body, and now eat animal food, fish, or fowl, three times a day, almost to gluttony. Dr. Graham, the man who was to five everlastingly by eating only vegetables, died in September, 1851, while in early life — probably from the ef- fects of his system of diet ; at least he claimed that sickness was produced by ani- mal food, and that vegetable diet would ensure health and long life. AH the nonsense on diet that has blotted paper, from men who use their readers as though they would " Cram the words into their ears, Against the stomachs of their sense," no matter what its name or doctrine, has failed to overthrow God's great and eter- nal law and command to Noah, Moses, and the human family generally — " Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." — Gen. ix. 3. Mankind should be governed by reason and natural instinct, as to the kind, qua- lity, and quantity of tho food ; for what is pleasant and good for one, may be hurt- ful or offensive for another. All do not desire the same kind of food; and while s storehouse is filled with enough for all, why seek to make all eat one kind of food? Do not let fanatics on diet run away with your sense and reason, but be governed by observation, by experience, by temperance, and moderation; obey the calls of >mach in its natural desires; and you will be blessed in following the golden tablished by tho God of nature, and taught by men of inspiration, being so far wise as to remember that we may, if — " Wo give each appctito too loose a rein, Push every pleasure to the verge of pain." Our health, in a great measure, depends upon the choice of our food; so that it is of no small importance that wo understand the nature and properties of the va- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. ii we eat, that we may he able to select that best adapted to • 1, which is the life, in the several stages, from infancy to - of our bodies when exhausted by labor, or wasted Thia knowledge can be gained only by study and experience, joined with c. nation. The I 31 reliable writers upon this subject — as the celebrated Dr. Parr Dr. Andrew Combe, Dr. C. Cutter, and others of intelligence — agree with us upon this point. Nol one of them approves of the modern Utopian opinions upon diet, whose re- - with their lank, cadaverous countenances, and glassy eyes, are genera omments upon the folly of their own systems. They each and all take d of Nature, and agree and direct that mankind 3, as adapted to the various periods of life, con- ditions of health, employment, and climate; provided always, that they never eat nor (lii j They neither limit to an animal or a vegetable diet, exclusively; but allow the free, yet judicious use of both, as being adapted to the nature of man, and directly calculated to nourish and strengthen our bodies, and prolong our life. Their views also perfectly harmonize with the testimony of the sacred penmen upon this subject. It is undeniable that the use of flesh, as well as vegetables, is freely permitted, and nded by God himself in his Word: Lev. xi. 1, 2. "And the Lord 1 unto Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of these are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are nth." And they did eat of them, and were nourished by their flesh. From an attentive examination of sacred history, it is evident that the food of the Bebrews was of the simplest nature, consisting principally of milk, honey, rice, ve- getables, and Bometimes of locusts. Meat not being so palatable and nutritious in warm climati bread, fruits, olives, and milk, constituted their ordinary diet ; but tiny ate animal food as a divine ordinance, at the appointed festivals, or when they offered their feast offerings. We learn from Numbers xi. 5, the nature of the diet of the Hebrews during the bondage in Egypt. "We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, the melons, and the leeks, and t! 'e °" ; ili-.' How desirable such food is to those who have been ac- instance in the fact related by De Vitriaco, who d by the Crusaders in 1218, many of the more di licate Egyptians, although they had corn in abundance, pined away and died for want of 1 nits, and herbs, to which they had been ac- i The pottage of lentils and bread, which Jacob d, and which was so tempting to the impatienl Esau, Bhows the simplicity of the ordinary diet of ne diel is still in use among the modern Al ' :,, '-'■ I 'aac, in his old age, longed for savory meat, which was tparedfor him ! venison.— Gen. xxvii. 25.— "And he said, near to me, and I will eal of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee; and he brought it near to him, and he did eat; and he brought him wine, and ho drank." Thefeasl with which Abraham entertained the three angels, was a tender catf, m the earth, together with b milk. Gen. xviii. 6, 7. Abi- gails presentation of food to David, a chosen man of God, which he accepted, is THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 209 proof of the divine sanction of the use of both meat and vegetables for food. 1 Sam. xxv. 18. " Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs," &c. BarzeUai brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentils, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him to eat. 2 Sam. xvii. 28, 29. Meats are sanctified by the word of God and prayer. Prom Gen. chap. 18 and 41, and 1 Sam. chap. 16 and 28, we learn that venison and the meat of the " fatted calf" were peculiarly esteemed by the Jews, also fatted oxen. But flesh of the sheep and goat kind, particularly of lambs and kids, was esteemed choice dishes. The dishes of the ancient Egyptians consisted of fish ; meat, boiled, roasted, and dressed in various ways ; game, poultry, and a profusion of vegetables and fruits. For the benefit of the latter-day would-be philosophers and teachers as to delay- ing marriage, and as to the kinds of food we shall eat, to the exclusion of animal food, and to a diet exclusively vegetable, we quote what the inspired Paul hath revealed of their characters and hypocrisy, as follows — 1 Tim. iv. 1 to 4 verses : — "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a hot iron : Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth; for every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused." Thus we have the united testimony and example of both sacred and profane writers — the testimony of the greatest, the wisest, and the best of men, of our own and of former ages — that animal flesh, as well as vegetables, is calculated to nourish man and prolong life ; and this testimony is confirmed by an experience of nearly six thousand y^ar* — a pretty long period, and sufficient, one would naturally con- clude, to settle this question beyond all cavil. What would Hi"- nl would-be reformers, who deny the beneficial of all animal flesh in imparting life and health, say to these things? If animal food does no! imparl aourishment, and health, and vigor to our bodies, it iini-i be absolutely injurious; and this is what many advocates of an exclusively Le diel actually maintain. We 1> to seize upon whichever horn of the dilemma they may choose, [f any reliance can be placed upon the concurrent testimony of both sacred and profane history, supported by the experience of unnumbered and countless millions of earth's sons and period of nearly six thousand years, we maj safely conclude thai animal flesh, in common with vegetables, is directly calculated and designed of God to nourish our bodies and prolong our days upon earth, and as such we may, and ought, freely to partake of it. The i, road sea] of God's approbation is undeniably upon it, and no sophistry ot ingenuity of men or devils can gainsay it. The free use of both flesh and vegetables, was included by Jehovah himself in the original made to man at the birth of Creation, and wai renewed to Noah and his sons imm the Deluge. C1 was moreover re- 14 210 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. newed gain with the patriarchs and the prophets, as the sacred writings abundantly show, and as we have already proved But the Utopian view of the subject places the sacred writers, and even the Son of God himself, in a most sorry predicament ; for we must suppose, in this that they ]» rmitted and sot the example to others of an indulgence, which, as en- . ] inspired men, they must have known to bo injurious to mankind. They must have known, also, that fur them to sanction the use of animal . an article of diet, must have been wicked and wrung on their part, because injurious to mankind. But because God has ordained and sanctioned the use of animal flesh as an ar- ticle of i imon with vegetables, we are not to conclude therefore that man is to make a glutton of himself, or eat without regard to the dictates of reason and judgment, with which ho has been endowed by his benevolent Creator. The Divine permission is, doubtless, to be used with discretion, both as to the kind and quanta ij of flesh to be taken into the system. Sometimes it may be, and no doubt is, wis with its use entirely, and also that of vegetables. As for ex- ample : when a raging fever is coursing the veins, and inflammation is spreading its blighting influences over and through every part of our bodies. In extreme cases of dyspepsia, also, where the digestive apparatus is disordered and greatly enfeebled, both meats and vegetables should be used sparingly, if at all: and some kinds, ordinarily used, should be dispensed with entirely. To all I would recommend an occasional fast — omitting one or two meals, or eat- ing something very light, and different from the articles usually used. This gives the stomach an opportunity to rest and discharge its contents, by which it is in a great measure cleansed and purified. " Who never fasts, no banquet e'er enjoys." The Divine direction, in respect to the use of both meats and vegetables, is obviously predicated upon the condition of man in a state of health, and not in a state of dis- ease. This must, indisputably, receive the sanction of reason, and is confirmed by nenco of all mankind. The constitutions of the human race, since the days of patriarchal, prophetic, and apostolical simplicity, have, without doubt, undergone and are still undergoing very : so thai, to many, what would, otherwise, be strictly and truly bene- ficial in nourishing and strengthening the body, and thus warding off disease, feebleness, and death, would now be highly injurious. Bere, as in all ilen . to life and health, there is a call for the ea nient. our rule is, and we think it agrees with reason, physiology, Bible, and experience, that whatever of flesh, or vegetables, each can receive, and relish, and thrive on at any period of hi-. or him or her, and will go furthest towards the prevention of poor health, and the actual prolongation of his 01 life. The following table is from " Pereira on food and Diet." It shows the mean time of the dig) rent articles of diet in the stomach. Persons who know their own digestive powers should selecl therefrom those kinds best suited to their . and thoso who do not know what is suited to thom should make ii their they would i.e sick and always dosing and physicking. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 211 h. m. Rice, boiled, . 1 Pigs' feet, soused, boiled, . 1 Tripe, soused, boiled, . 1 Eggs, whipped, raw, . 1 30 Salmon trout, fresh, boiled, . 1 30 Do. do. do. fried, . 1 30 Soup, barley, boiled, . 1 30 Apples, sweet, mellow, raw, . 1 30 Venison steak, broiled, . . 1 35 Animal brains, boiled, . 1 45 Sago, boiled, . 1 45 Tapioca, boiled, . . 2 Barley, boiled, . 2 Milk, boiled, . 2 Beef's liver, fresh, broiled, . 2 Eggs, fresh, raw, . 2 Codfish, cured, dry, . 2 Apples, sour, mellow, raw, . 2 Cabbage, with vinegar, raw, . 2 Milk, raw, . 2 15 Eggs, fresh, roasted, . 2 15 Turkey, wild, roasted, . 2 18 Turkey, domestic, boiled, . 2 25 Gelatine, boded, . . 2 30 Turkey, domestic, roasted, . 2 30 Goose, wild, roasted, . 2 30 Pig, suckling, roasted, . 2 30 Lamb, fresh, broiled, . 2 30 .i and vegetables, warmed, 2 30 Beans, pod, boiled, . 2 30 Cake, sponge, baked, . 2 30 Parsnips, boiled, . . 2 30 : ■ id or baked, . 2 30 e, raw, . 2 30 Animal spinal marrow, boiled, . 2 45 Chicken, full-grown, fricassied, . 2 45 . baki d, . . 2 45 ;'n Ball only, broiled, . 2 45 Apples, Hour, hard, raw, . . 2 50 fresh, raw, . 2 55 resh, soft boiled, . . 3 d, broiled, . 3 Beef] fresh, [< an, rare, roasted, . 3 iak, broiled, . 3 Pork, rec raw, . 3 Pork, recently salted, slewed, . 3 Mutton, fresh, broiled, . 3 Mutton, fresh, boiled, Bean soup, boiled, Chicken soup, boiled, Aponeurosis, boiled, Apple dumpling, boiled, . Corn cake, baked, Oysters, fresh, roasted, Pork, recently salted, broiled, Pork-steak, broiled, Mutton, fresh, roasted, Corn bread, baked, Carrot, boiled, Sausage, fresh, broiled, . Flounder, fresh, fried, Catfish, fresh, fried, Oysters, fresh, stewed, Beef, fresh, lean, dry, roasted, Beef, with mustard, boiled, Cheese, old, strong, raw, Mutton soup, boiled, Bread, wheat, fresh, baked, Turnips, boiled, . Potatoes, boiled, . Eggs, fresh, hard boiled, Eggs, fresh, fried, Green corn and beans, boiled, Beets, boiled, Salmon, salted, boiled, Beef, fried, Veal, fresh, broiled, Fowls, domestic, boiled, . Do. do. roasted, Ducks, do. do. Soup, beef, vegetables and bread, boiled, .... Eeart, animal, fried, Beef, old, hard, salted, boiled, Pork, recently salted, fried, Soup, marrow bones, boiled, i iartilage, boildd, Pork, recently salted, boiled, Veal, fresh, fried, Ducks, wild, roasted, Suet, mutton, boiled, Pork, tiit and lean, roasted, Tendon, boiled, . Suet, bet -i; lush, boiled, . 3 15 3 15 3 15 3 15 3 15 3 15 3 20 3 30 3 30 3 30 3 30 3 30 3 30 3 30 30 3 45 3 45 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 30 5 30 LB 212 THK PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. We have here given our readers a feu important hints upon diet, and informa- tion upon digestion, in contradiction to modern Utopian doctrines. In the language of St. John — '• Blessed is he that readeth, and they that keep those things that are written therein." CONSUMPTION INDUCED BY CHAIRS AND BEDS. Tfik most lamentable effects follow from the use of miserably-constructed, hollow- backed chairs, sofas, settees, and divans sold at our fashionable furniture ware- houses. Why so much of our furniture is built in this bad manner, unless it be to crook the spine and cramp and contract the chest and lungs, and thereby increase tlie ravages of consumption, it is difficult to conjecture. Chairs, sofas and all other seats, used in houses, schools, churches, halls, cars, and coaches, should be so constructed as to aid in keeping straight the chest and spine, and open the chest, that the luugs may have full play for respiration and chance to expand. Invalids, when confined to the house, generally take to the crooked-backed rock- ing-chair for the constant seat during the day ; and often at night they are bolstered up in bed with large pillows in a position that keeps the spine in a bent condition, by which it often becomes badly affected, and the lungs so cramped that respiration and circulation cannot be carried on properly. In tliis manner, often the invalid is hwrried to the consumptive's grave. I know no change more needed to aid in counteracting the effects of and prevent- ing consumption than in the style of our seats. There should be a thorough reform in this business. At present the style of construction of these articles is alb wrong. Cabinet-makers should attend to this, and labor to suppress rather than cause consumption. Thick bolsters and pillows should never be allowed under the head and shoulders during sleep, nor should thick feather beds be much used. I much prefer the good mattress or a harder level bed. DUST IN CARS AND STAGES. Ox many of our railroads, it seems to be a settled point to take no care of the cars, to keep them clean and free from dust. There is a perfect neglect of dusting and sweeping. The dusl is allowed to choke tip and irritate the throats and lungs of tlie passengers, so that there is often a constant coughing of nearly all lor the whole journey. I have never been worse affected by dust in any place than when on a railroad; the throat and lungs an' often idled, while the track is so damp that no dust rises from them, only that hjl in the cars causing the trouble. Con- ductors and brakemen almost constantly suffer with sore throat, bronchitis, or irritated lungs, produced by (hi Railroad corporations should be as responsible for the life of a person dying from Inflammation of the Lungs, contracted by a trip over the road in dusty cars, as though he had heen instantly killed by any other neglect of duty. Many eases of death from inflammation thus induced have occurred within my knowl THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 213 "Will the officers of railroad companies aid rue in my war against consumption, by more properly constructing the seats in the cars and keeping them as free from dust as is possible to be done ? If they would do so, they would not only prevent many deaths, but add to the comfort of their passengers. Every locomotive should have a water sprinkler attached to it, to lay the dust upon the road. This invention has been used on some roads with most beneficial results to the health and com- fort of the traveler. Seats should be built that will not retain dust, and then give it out to fill the lungs of the passengers, as soon as the cars are put in motion. The same request I would also make of the proprietors of stage and omnibus lines. Great good might be effected by the action of those who have the manage- ment of affairs on railroad, stage and omnibus routes. I would also suggest to the various railroad companies, the propriety of fitting up cars, well ventilated, with berths and staterooms, to run on night trains, so that passengers can sleep on their trip, the same as on boats. There would be no difficulty in doing this, and it would be an accommodation "devoutly to be wished." With such an arrange- ment of cars as this, trains might be run entirely in the night season ; as for in- stance, a train could leave New York in the evening, after the business of the day was over, or even after the amusements of the evening were closed, and the pas- sengers be in Boston the next mornmg, enjoying on the way a comfortable night's sleep. If the traveling public should insist upon an accommodation like this, the companies on our principal roads would gratify the desire. SECOND-HAND CLOTHING AND BOOTS. There is a large business done in almost all places of size in the " second-hand" line, to the great detriment of the health of those who buy them. I would not say that boots or clothes could not be properly cleansed, but it is not done so as to make them safe for use. That the poisonous matter from a sore on one person has noculated into the blood of another by the use of both clothes and boots, cast off by the one affected, I know to be a positive fact Never allow yourself or your friends to wear the garments left off by persons out of the family, nor then if there are any diseases to infect them, until they have been thoroughly cleansed. The worst sore legs I ever saw were contracted from infections from second-hand boots. Scald head will be easily taken by wearing a cap or bonnet used by one troubled with that complaint, on which the infecting poison I Venerea] diseases are often contracted by sitting on the Beat of a privy where the poison has been left by a person who occupied it pre- viously. I know this to bo the fact from observation, and have often been con- sulted by persona who had become diseased in this manner, ami who could not so much as imagine how they had contracted it. Many families have been broken up by quarrel ies induced from this cause, when a knowledge of this fact, or a cleanliness of the privy, would have prevented discord and disunion. In large cities, second-hand boots and clothes an- taken from the houses and persons who died of small-pox, lues venerea, cholera and other com re, and oul o ■■•-. infectious diseases, in connection with lung, liver, and hearl complaints, and other affections, destructive to the human race. All the clothes of deceased persons are usually sold in the cities. In New 214 TTTE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGnTHOUSE. York, in 1850, there were lG.^S deaths, many from small-pox, cancers, ulcers, scrofula, fcc. Now, if there was sold one dress from the wardrobe of each de- i, (and this is a low calculation indeed) there would be 16,918 dresses, ami perhaps as many shoes, and as many hats or bonnets, from a great number of which there would be a strong liability of contracting disease to those who should purchase them. Look at upwards of 500 deaths from small-pox in New York, in 1851, and then think of what became of the garments of those persons! Think you there were none of them exposed for sale ? To believe there were not is to that men are less governed by cupidity than experience shows them to be ! Out of those garments, to say nothing of those dying of other diseases mentioned in this article, there would go poison enough to kill another 500 persons, who should buy and use them. And what becomes of the beds, and the bed clothes, on which these persons died? Think you none of them find their way into the shops of the dealers in second-hand furniture and bedding ? Most assuredly they do ; and most, assuredly those who buy and use them are rendered liable to be dis- eased thereby. Let me again say to you then, do not use second-hand clothing or goods unless you know from whence they came, nor until they have been thoroughly cleansed. Infectant diseases are also sometimes communicated with bank bills. Speaking of this, Dr. C. H. Buckler, of Baltimore, says: — "The inmate of a small-pox hos- pital generally keeps what little money he may chance to have about his person. If he wants a lemon, he sends a note saturated with the poison, and having, per- haps, the very sea-sick odor of small-pox, to a confectioner, who takes it, of course. It would be impossible to conceive of a better mode of distributing the poison of a disease known to be contagious and infectious. It could hardly be worse if so many rags were distributed from the clothing of small-pox patients." The Cincin- nati Enquirer says that the teller of one of the banks of Columbus contracted the disease and died of it, by handling a batch of bills which had been transmitted from Cincinnati, where the small-pox was prevalent. I make these remarks to put you on your guard, lest you should fall a victim to disease, and be obliged to call for my services, or those of some other physician — a matter which I would hare you avoid by preserving your health. But if you be- come diseased in this way, do not say I have not placed the danger before your eyes. I have endeavored in this work to warn you of this as well as many other evils — a task no other physician has attempted to perform — that you may be enabled to avoid them, and live in uninterrupted health. Read this book — treasure u]) ils truths — teach them to your children and your friends, that they too may avoid consumption. And then will millions be benefited, and saved from untimely graves, -whose faces 1 Bhall never set — of whose existence I shall never have cog- nizance. But in the pleasurable satisfaction of having performed my duty to my fellow-men, I shall receive my reward. FOOD OF INFANTS. As a duty I owe to my fellow-men, to prevent sickness of the infant, I would here make a few remarks upon the proper course to be taken by the married during the c seption of the woman and for a ti after the birth of the child. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 215 Parents should not sexually indulge after conception ; since the fruits of such indulgence will often be manifested by disease in the offspring. The transmission of hereditary complaints is inevitable where sexual intercourse is allowed during the months of conception and nursing — you cannot avoid evil effects to the offspring, unless you take some measures to prevent such a result, such as using the Male Safe. After the birth of the child, and when the mother is nursing, cohabitation should not be allowed without the Safe ; for often by this the natural food of the child is made impure, and thereby it is diseased. Keep the food of the child pure, is a command of God. Sexual intercourse during the nursing months is often injurious to the mother, since her system will be unable to withstand the waste of secretion and the milk at the same period ; and she will be liable to sink into consumption. As will be seen by reference to the article on infantile deaths, the number of those dying in infancy is truly alarming. In 1850, in New York, there were 6414 deaths of children under two years of age; in 1851, 8141. This is during the months of nursing ; and a great many of these deaths were produced by impure food of the child, derived from intercourse in those months : the mothers appearing to be ignorant of the evil effects, and nursing to prevent pregnancy. But while the ignorant destroy their children in this way, the wise find safety for them in the use of the French Male Safe. Some of the prominent causes of infantile deaths are, impure food, produced by sexual intercourse during the nursing months ; adulterated and staU-fed milk ; bad temper of the mother in the nursing season ; cohabitation with other men, while nursing, which is almost sure to cause the death of the child; eating poisoned can- dies, unripe fruit, improperly cooked foods, and too much food. The diseases in- duced by these causes are convulsions, consumption, apoplexy, croup, diarrhoea, dysentery, dropsy of the head, debility, scrofula, syphilitic humors, worms, and inflammations of the bowels, lungs and brain. In the respect of infantile deaths, I do not know that New York is worse than any other place, large or small. I have given the number of deaths here, because they can be obtained from reports, while in most places, particularly in the country, no statistics upon sanitary matters are kept. This is a fault which should be cor- rected : every town in tho country should keep an accurato list of all deaths, with eta, for its own benefit and the benefit of physicians who war with disease ing and pointing out its prominent causes. It being the object of this work to point out tho various causes leading to death, I have spoken boldly upon tho evils that send many infants to the grave, that parents may bo warned, and thus save themselves and their children from an untimely death. It is mostly through hat so many children die so young; parents should inform them- selves upon these matters, and teach their children as they grow up. Proper edu- will correct many of theso evils; a neglect of it will continue them ; who would aid in the banishment of disease, should learn the laws that govern life m, and bring up their children in tin; knowledge thereof. If my remarks upon this matter shall be the means of saving oven one innocent infant, I shall be rewarded for my toil. 216 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. COLD WITH MEASLES SOMETIMES CAUSES CONSUMPTION, And much care should be taken not to get a cold while sick with this disease. Many date their decline into consumption from taking cold at this period. Cases of consumption from colds contracted at the season of measles are very obstinate and hard of cure. Before the invention of the Lung Barometer, I found great difficulty in these cases; but now, guided by its infallible teachings, I seldom fail in effecting a recovery of the patient to health. Afh-r having had the measles, care should be taken to cleanse the system and blood, in order to a better enjoyment of health in after years. For this purpose, the Anti-Bilious Pills and Blood Renovator will be found excellent. In case of a cold existing, the Lung Corrector should be used in connection. These fail only in the most obstinate cases ; and in that event a full course of medicine should be taken, which will be prepared upon inquiry into the nature of the cases. POISONOUS GASES HASTEN CONSUMPTION; Axd they should be carefully avoided, especially by those consumptively inclined. There is no air so good for the lungs as the common atmospheric air in a pure state; it is the natural food of those organs, and through them purifies the blood. But gaseous airs destroy life. Breathe freely of the good pure atmospheric air, and your brain and body will receive strength therefrom. To those who have become debilitated by long breathing of unhealthy gases, I would recommend the Blood Renovator and Anti-Bilious Pills. These will remove from the system the impurities generated therein by an unhealthy atmosphere, will restore vigor to the blood, and bring back the lost strength and activity to the limbs. FROWY BUTTER AND LARD. The use of bad butter and lard is also a fruitful cause of consumption, as well as dyspepsia. The vast amount of these articles taken into the human stomach in seasoned foods, deranges the organs of the stomach, retards digestion, and induces Many persons and families are so fond of gain, or rather so fearful of loss, that they compel themselves, their children and friends, to eat all tho half-rotten apples, peaches and other fruits; the half-spoilt meat and fowls; and the frowy butter and lard, and stale eggs, and grown wheat, while they sell the good. But instead of saving by this, they lose ; for these articles induce disease, and the doctors reap a harvest from visits to restore the persons to health. While such persons wonder that God should afflict them with a visitation of sickness, the physician laughs at their ignorant cupidity, in not eating of tho best the earth affords, and thus receiving better chance of health. How many keepers of hotels, boarding-houses, and managers in private families, are guilty of tho sin of using corrupted foods, we may judge from tho millions of THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 217 dyspeptics, but will be known only at the day of judgment; when they will be held responsible for the miseries caused by their cupidity or foolishness. Different individuals have opposite rules regarding the disposal of corrupted arti- cles of food. "While some force themselves and their families to eat them, and sell. their good and wholesome articles, others peddle the bad off in the markets, to disease and kill purchasers, and keep the good themselves. But in either of these ways, there is sure to be injury done to some one. The first is a curse to then- own bodies ; the last is not " doing unto others as they would that others should do. unto them." Eat and drink only that which is fresh and pure ; nor render others liable to disease by palming off" upon them the articles that have become corrupted on your hands. You had much better waste a few articles of food, than to eat them and then have to send for the physician to restore your health lost by their use. THBUAT DISEASES OFTEN INDUCE CONSUMPTION. If the muscles of the organs of speech and the wind-pipe get diseased, and the power of contraction and dilation become imperfect, catarrhal mucus, food and dust descend the bronchial tube into the lungs, and create irritation, inflammation, tuber- cles and ulcerations. Catarrh often produces sore throat and bronchitis ; poisonous foods and liquors operate similarly ; and the same diseases are induced by dyspepsia and costiveness. The dust in shops, cars, stores, manufactories, and in streets, likewise creates many cases of sore throat and bronchitis : and all these often induce consumption. Public speakers — lawyers, clergymen, lecturers — and others who talk a good deal, who exercise their lungs and organs of speech in the heated and impure air of a crowded and ill-ventilated room, often contract throat diseases, hoarseness, and bronchitis, by going out into the cold. Such are also very liable to run into consumption in that way. Great care should be taken to keep the throat suitably and comfortably clothed. Thousands of females die annually of pulmonic affections, induced by wearing low-necked dresses ; and thousands of gentlemen, by improperly exposing the lungs to the cold air, after exercising them in an impure and heated atmosphere. Poisonous humors in the blood also often settle in the throat and on the surround- ing organs, producing cankers and other sores, which become fruitful causes of early consumption ; therefore these poisonous impurities in the blood should bo eradicated by some purifying and renovating medicines. If the tonsils of the throat become greatly enlarged, a portion of each may be cut off; also the palate may h [eeted to <■<• same treatment: but when enlargement is the effect of humors in tho blood, amputations will lie of but little service. A better way to effect a cure will be to bathe the German Ointment freely about tho neck, and wet the throat often witli cold water— wrapping a wot cloth about it at night, and covering this with a wrapper, to keep the throat warm during sleep: To effect a permanenl cure of sore throaty bronchitis use the Catarrh Snuff, Lung Corrector, Blood Renovator, Anti-Bilious Pills, and German Ointment ; and wash both inside and outside of the throal will' cold water ■■> num- ber of times a day, and keep the stomach clean and sweet. Before this treatment these diseases seldom stand ; but if they are s> > obstinate as no1 to yield after a fair 218 TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. trial, apply to me, and I will prepare medicines expressly that shall effect a speedy cure. [See cut of Bronchial Affection.] INDIA RUBBER MANUFACTURE CAUSES CONSUMPTION. M tvv consumptives attribute their decline in health to the weakening perfumes Bf turpentine and other substances used in the manufacture of iiidia rubber goods. I have had many patients who had been decidedly injured in this way; and I would suggest to the proprietors of these manufactories, and to those employed, the expediency of devising some means to prevent these injurious effects of the articles used. I think that ingenuity and study could obviate the difficulty, and place the workmen beyond contaminating influences from the business. No kind of india rubber garment should be worn next the skin; nor constantly on any part of the person, even over other garments. No edibles or liquids for use as drinks or medicines should be kept in india rubber sacks or bottles ; for they will become unfit for use if put in such receptacles. Never sleep upon rubber, unless you have blankets between it and your person ; and even then it may be doubted if it is healthy. India rubber shoes, whether lined or not, should never be worn constantly; the effects of this article being, when constantly kept on the person, to produce weakness and emaciation, and consequent poor health, often ending in con- sumption, unless remedial agents be resorted to, to counteract its pernicious effects. India rubber goods are excellent in their place — as to keep out water from the person while walking in wet streets, or when out in storms; but they should be used only for these purposes. ADULTERATED FLOUR— BAKER'S BREAD. It has been often said, " We know not what we eat." This is a truth which a little investigation makes apparent. In that most common of all articles, bread, it is generally supposed there is nothing either deleterious to the system or disgustmsr in its preparation. But a little knowledge may show us the contrary. From a little work recently published in this city, by Dr. Bostwick, entitled "An Inquiry into the causes of Natural Death," we quote that "flour is often shamefully adulterated by the introduction of ground chalk, whiting, gypsum, plaster of Paris, lime, bone ashes, and similar compounds. In using flour, therefore, of any form, bread or pastry of any kind, we probably consume many other injurious articles — for what care unprincipled millers or speculators whether the articles of trade are obtained from the bones of a butcher's store, or even the charnel hou en proved very lately in England, in a court of justice, thai las of flour had been mixed with gypsum at the rate of fifteen per cent I ] the earthy substances mentioned, there is a large amount [avoidably mixed with flour, arising from the friction of th< on eats lie swallows six pounds of sand every year! Flour and bread an' also adulti rated with groun : -. pota- iin, ammonia, ' potash. The use ol these various perni- cious substitutes for flour being found to have a consti] n the bowels, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 219 to counteract this, and to prevent suspicion, the use of jalap and other cathartics is introduced, in order to have a laxative effect upon the consumers. " In addition to the mischievous ingredients which are purposely mixed up with the flour and bread, there is a great deal of filthy, pernicious matter accidentally or carelessly introduced. In the store, for instance, where corn is binned up, it becomes contaminated with the dust of the room, with the urine and fceces of rats and mice, which are removed and ground up with it. In the bakehouse it is no uncommon think to see a man with scabbed and ulcerated arms and hands mixing up the bread ; others again using snuff and tobacco, as they lean over the troughs and benches, and the snuffy mucus and tobacco secretions are sent somewhere. In large establishments for making bread, the bakers knead the dough with their feet in a large trough, working and treading it like mortar. A baker has declared on his veracity that it is not unusual for men who have been walking about in shoes for several hours, and whose feet have acquired an intolerable stench, to jump at once into the paste without even cleansing themselves ! ! " Now and then we find in the bread purchased from a baker, a well-cooked cricket or black beetle, (or a cockroach, or a bed-bug,) which insects abound in bakehouses. To enumerate all the filth and deleterious articles combined in flour, would not only be tiresome, but loathsome." Thus we may see a little of the causes that act in the foods prepared in cities to produce consumption and other diseases. If our modern girls were brought up in the good old way, and taught to make their own bread and pies, instead of sitting in idleness in the parlor, and then buying their breadstuffs of dirty bakers, they would not only contribute much to the health of the family, but also be benefited themselves by the exercise, and be made more fitting as wives and companions for men. Besides these, our bread is often made out of a flour that has soured, or that was ground from " grown" and putrid grain, and sometimes even the sweepings of mills are used by unprincipled bakers, who care more for the filling of their pockets than for the health of the people. This being the case, is it strange that disease prevails or that the services of the physicians should be had in often requisition ? Otiikr Adki.terations. — But flour is by no means the only article adulterated and be-deviled. A good deal of the butter used in cities is mixed with tallow; the effect of which is often to cause dyspepsia, and make of those who use it con- firmed invalids until they relinquish the article and havo their systems purified by medicines — such as the Blood Renovator and Anti-Bilious Pills. It is well known that in much of tin.' common sugar, Band is mixed by the grocer; salt is put with the salcratus ; sawdust with the Indian meal, and peas and beans with Hie coffee. The article of "pure old ground Java coffee," which is advertised at every grocery, is scare dned; it is much like the " Orange County Milk," and if you would have the pure you must buy the raw coffee and burn and grind it yourself Coffee is often mixed with the burnt root of the dandelion. I have seen barre] after barni < »r peas mixed with coffee that was sold for, and "warranted to he pure." Teas are also mixed with various kinds of loaves, and milk is horribly treated. [Seo articles on these subjects.] Ginger is loaded with burnt corn. To my certain knowledge, a man in Connecticut used to sell ground ginger for a pure article which contained one half of corn. Sometimes capsicum is added to Savor it and give it the requisite warmth. The "best Durham mustard" is mixed with the common mustard seed, colored with turmeric and Bpiced with capsicum. Chocolate and co- 220 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTIIOUSE. ooa are mixed with ground sago, which is often unfit for sale in any other state. White pepper is manufactured out of black popper, starch and arrow root; and cay- enne pepper made with piper indica berries, colored with sawdust, vermilion and other ingredients. Of adulterations of wines and liquors I have spoken in another part of this vol- ume. Of tobacco, both for chewing and smoking, of which such vast amount is led, those who use it may be gratified to know that it contains a large i of copperas and other poisons, put in to give it flavor and mildness. Often the paper tobacco, which is so greedily "rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel" at all times, while at business or on the way to the abode of the delicate damsel to implant the sweet kiss of love upon the ruby lips of the "dewdrop," is made in part of the ends of cigars and the "old sogers'' discharged from the filthy spittoons of bar-rooms and hotels, and afterwards picked up by boys and sold to the manu- facturers of ' fine cut." Many a young man who has indulged in the " delicious sweets" of tobacco has found that his breath was seasoned with a perfume not quite so delicate as the spices spoken of by Solomon, and has learned after a few visits to the idol of his heart that thereby he had rendered his "room more agreea- ble than his company," and that though the love of his heart might be acceptable, the love of his mouth was disgusting. I state the above facts for the benefit of the ad- nnrers of " the weed ;" undoubtedly a knowledge of where then - quids have been and from what they have been made will add much to the sweetness of the deli- cious morsel. POISONED CANDIES. It is well known that many of the candies, of which loads are annually devoured, are tinctured with poisonous matter in the colorings that are put on to, and into them. Children should not be allowed many sweetmeats, and particular pains should be taken to keep poisoned candies from them. If you would have healthy children, let them have plain food, with very little high "seasoning," and let them have plenty of good air and playful exercise. These will keep them in health, and prove the best medicines for their use. DRUGS AND MEDICINES Are also basely adulterated. Th ducers, manufacturers and dealers, rate their artii li foi the American market, and vast quantities of such ;1I , intry. And our own people are not often outdone in this line ..f business by the foreigners; so that by the time the drug has reached the invalid, it is often quite different from what it is pretended to be. Bj careful study the properties and modes of operation of the various articles used as medicine have beau ascertained, and tl physician can estimate their j. But in order to do this, be must know the purity and the strength of th< j and if it baa been adulterated, as is often the case, disappointment will follow its administral patient will die, when by taking a pure article be would have recoverodl This result has often happened, un- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 221 der the advice of the best curative medical skill that the country can boast. Many a man has gone down to the tomb through some defect in the medical remedy used — a counterfeit of the article intended to be employed. In some of the governments of Europe, a constant supervision is exercised over all apothecaries, to prevent them from selling articles which may be injurious to health. The absence of all such supervision in this country has led many incompe- tent and fraudulent manufacturers and dealers to enter into the production and sale of drugs and medicines, and a system of evil and imposition is carried on to an ex- tent that excites our astonishment. In 1848, an act was passed by Congress to prevent the importation of adulterated and spurious drugs and medicines. Under this act, the examiner at New York reported that during ten months, ending April, 1849, about 90,000 pounds of various kinds of drugs were rejected and refused admittance at this port alone. Among these were 16,000 pounds of rhubarb, 3000 pounds of opium, 34,000 pounds of spu- rious yellow bark, 12,000 pounds of jalap, and 5000 ounces of iodine. And it has been said that " more than half of many of the most important chemical and me- dicinal preparations, together with large quantities of crude drugs, come to us so much adulterated, or otherwise deteriorated, as to render them not only worthless as medicines, but often dangerous." A mere statement of these facts will render obvious the importance of care in the purchase of medicines. For my own part, knowing the extent to which this busi- ness is carried on, and having seen its pernicious effects, I never send one of my pa- tients to a drug store to purchase medicines, but put them up for him mijself, so that I may know what he is taking, and be certain that he is swallowing no adulterated or deteriorated article. In many cases I should consider it nearly certain death to trust a patient to the prescriptions put up at many apothecaries' shops, since I should know that the chance was at least even that he would not get the article I sent him for in its pure state, and consequently the effect I desired to produce in his system by the medi- cine would not be produced, and he would be worse off than if he had taken nothing at all, and my reputation for skill would be injured. No physician can sustain his reputation who iiients to druggists generally for medicines; for the pub- lic never thinks of ensuring the apothecary in case of a failure to cure the invalid, but holds the pbysi iblej and bestows all the blame upon him, when, rated drug was in fault. To give some idea of the extent of the sickness and death induced by deteriorated and adulterated foods, drinks and medicines, improper eating, inattention to public and private cleanliness and purification, and other evils whieh might be avoided, J will quote from the report of the city inspector of New York, the following: — "It, is assumed b; that more than one-third of the mortality of all large oities might have been prevented, if the laws of life and health, the of prevention, were fully known and observed. "Hence we had ?340 deaths in the city of New York, in the year 1851, whieh might have been prevented, and, according to the investigation of Mr. Parr, the eminent Registrar-General of Great Britain, the rule has been established, 'that the proportion constantly i ick in a population, is double the annual proportion per cent. which the deaths bear to the living in that population.' "Ac© . 15,040 persons in New York were constantly sick dur- ing the past year (185J) unnecessarily, and wohave the lo a by unnecessary si 222 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. allowing one dollar and fifty cents a-day, to equal the cost of nursing, medical attendance and the loss of time and labor, amounting to $8,500,000 annually!" Dr. Lyon Playfair, of Lancashire county, England, (which contains the large cities of Liverpool and Manchester,) shows in a report that the loss of labor by premature deaths, (computed at $1 per day,) amounted to $4,100,000 annually; and the loss by the support of minors, who are cut off before becoming producers, $1,000,000. As the estimate of this county will offer a fair parallel to Xew York, we have a total loss of $13,000,000 annually which might have been prevented by proper sanitation. [For further remarks upon sanitary regulations, see under Street Dust and Street Cleaning.] Why will not the law-makers of our common country, and the people generally, of the different states and of the cities throughout the land, unite together in efforts for the banishment of these causes of so much unnecessary sickness and expense, and aid the philanthropic physician in his labors for the benefit of the human family ? Until they shall do this, it will be in vain that we look for decrease in the bills of premature mortality to that extent which could be wished ; for while all outward causes combine together to sow disease among the people, medicine alone can never eradicate it. Medicine treats the effects, and not the causes. It may, as it does, save many from untimely graves ; but constantly there will be arising new victims calling for its aid, till the axe of sanitary regulations is laid at the causes, and they be removed from among us. ADULTERATED AND DISEASED MILK. Of all things found upon the table for food and drink, perhaps none is so badly handled as milk ; and when we consider how much young children are dependent upon this article for a living, and how much they are fed upon it, the extent to which it is adulterated, and the sources from whence it often comes, should truly ex- cite attention and alarm. In the old country farm-house, where it can be had pure, there is nothing more healthful than milk ; but the stuff sold in our large cities as "pure country milk" is one of the most detestable compounds that can be put into the stomach of an infant. Milk is adulterated to an incredible extent in all large towns. The most com- mon, and a harmless way, is to ddute it with water. If nothing more than this were done, we mighl rejoice; but as water makes the fluid look blue, and thereby the cheat is rendered apparent, the expert m the art of "milk-making" use the yolk of (lour and warm water; also chalk is much used to correct the blue cast, and some scientific gentlemen use ochre, to give a creamy color, while others manufac- ture the article by a solution of annato with subcarbonate of potash and a little sugar. Cream is Bometimi s increased in itsquantity by boiling together rice-powder, arrow-root and starch. Often milk is put in vessels of lead, to make it throw up a larger quantity of cream ; and it has been found that the leaden particles which im- d the milk produce fchi disorders in children. Said the London Punch, speaking of milk in that metropolis, "Recent accounts of the milky ways of the London milkmen have tilled vis with a desire to have the good old days of chalk and water bark again. We knew that under the old system uur insides were simply white-washed with a clean if not a very wholesome prepa- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 223 ration ; but we shudder at the thought of what the London milk is now declared to be. It is said that the rich, creamy look of the mixture is obtained by the use oi starch, sugar of lead, and brains. Oh ! that we could ' dash out our desperate brains' from our milk jugs, and imbibe the thinnest of decoctions the pump and chalk-pit ever contributed ! We might not object to a dash of starch to enable us to get what might be termed a stiff glass of milk, but there is something so awful in the idea of brains, particularly as it is said they come from the knacker's yard, that our own brain reels, swims, and performs various other cerebral eccentricities that we koow not how to describe." In an unadulterated state, and when taken from healthy animals properly fed, milk is a most healthful and nutritious beverage. For thousands of years milk has con- stituted an important and valuable part of human sustenance, and in many coun- tries the milk of the cow or the goat has been and now is the chief support of the people. Being ready prepared by nature for food, it can at once be appropriated by the rudest savage, as well as more cultivated men ; and hence from the creation of the human race to the present day it has been among almost all nations an article of sustenance. Josephus, the historian of the Jews, tells us that " Abel brought milk and the first fruits of his flocks as offerings to the Creator." And of Abraham we read that when he was visited by angels in the Plains of Mamre, that "he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them." The spies of the Israelites that went into Palestine described it as a land " flowing with milk and honey," as the most proper words they could use to bespeak its richness and fertility. How different is the milk of to-day in the cities from that which feasted the men of old ; how different from that pure and healthful article, rich and unadulterated, that may be had in the pantry of the countryman. But it is not of adulterated milk that we have mostly to complain; for this is not half so dreadful in its effects as an unadulterated article from the cows fed on the slops of distilleries. Says Hartley, in his Essay on Milk : — " The manner of producing milk to supply cities is so contrary to our knowledge of the laws which govern the animal economy, that from a bare statement of the facts any intelligent mind might confidently an- ticipate the evils which actually result from it. The natural and healthy condition of the cows is for the most part utterly disregarded. They are crowded together in large numbers in filthy pens, which at once deprives them of adequate exercise and pure air. both of which are indispensably essential to their health. Instead of be- ipplied with food suited to the masticating and digestive organs of herbivorous and ruminant animals, they are most generally treated as if omnivorous; and their Stomachs are gorged with any description of aliment, however unhealthy, which can be most easily and cheaply procured, and will produce the greatest quantity of milk. Thus, in the vicinity of large cities, wherever grain distilleries abound, either in this country or in Europe, distillery slop is extensively used. Whero brewer* ■ obtained, thej are in great requisition for milk-dairies ; while in grape-grow- ing countries, tl the grape is used for the sami id with effects aicious as those produced by the dregs of the distillery, in other cases de- cayed vegetables, and .-our and putrid offals and remnants of kitchens, are gathered up :i- food for milch cows. Under this unnatural management, ihe cows heeume diseased, and the milk becomes impure, unhealthy, ami innutritious. Vet this milk is the chief alimenl of children in all places where the population is condensed in 224 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. great numbers ; it is the nourishment chosen and relied upon to develop the physical and impart vigor to the constitution during the most feeble and critical pe- riod of human life, when the best possible nourishment is especially necessary in order to counteract the injurious effects of the infected air and deficient exercise, which arc often inseparable from the conditions of a city life. " So few are the exceptions to these modes of producing milk, that they may be said to be nearly universal in this and in all other countries, where individuals have collected in large cities. Under the most specious pretences and disguises, this sys- tem has been secretly sowing the seeds of disease, preying upon the health of the people, and destroying the lives of thousands of children, while it was supposed to be ministering to our daily wants and necessities. Thus we buy death instead of life. By insidious and unnoticed processes, this vile business has silently extended itself, until it has become an important part of a formidable system, replete with mis- chief in all its ramifications and results. • I »istHlery slop, as food for cattle, is of little value. On such unnatural aliment they become diseased and emaciated. Cows plentifully supplied with it may yield an abundance of milk ; but it is notorious that the article thus produced is so defec- tive in the properties essential to good milk, that it cannot be converted into butter or cheese, and of course is good for nothing except to sell. " Alter careful inquiry, it has be hat about ten thousand cows in the city of New Yeik- ami neighborhood are condemned to subsist on the residium or slush of distilleries. This slush, after the ceremony of straining through the organs of sickly cows, and being duly diluted, colored, and medicated, is sold to the citi- zens at an annual expense of more than a million of dollars. The amount of dis- ease and death consequent upon the use of this milk, will only be known at the day of final judgment. It is extensively injurious and fatal to health and life. Nor does this evd stop with the milk alone ; for from these distilleries the market is supplied with diseased pork and beef, especially the latter ; for thousands of slop-fed cows having in a single year become so diseased as to be of little use at the dairy, they are slaughtered and eaten by our citizens. '• rare air and exercise are as essential to the health of the cow, and to the health- fulness of her milk, as to man. There exists in each the same necessity for pure air. suitable exercise, and nutrient food. But while this is allowed of man, (though he by no means always lias them.) our stall cows arc treated as if they were an excep- tion to the general laws of organic life. The effects of living in a foul air are mani- iii the animals as well as in man. and are nearly the same — debility, impaired digestion, depression of the vital functions, and often the generation of dise. the most malignant and fatal character, 'flic air being rendered impure by the breath and perspiration of animals crowded together in small and close apartments — the presence of excrements and stench, and putrifying animal and vegetable mat- ter, which, even with the strictest regard to cleanliness, unavoidably accumulates by no in confined ; a condition, in the absence of all other prejudicial causes, cannot fail to prove destructive to health and life." It is evidently also the design of nature that animals should enjoy that amount of exercise necessary to procure food by moving from one place to another. But this our stall-fed COWS do not have. And if their food be changed, they be denied pure air. and exercise not allowed to them, what may we expect but that they will be- come diseased? Whal would mi cirourastances ? And THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 225 what can we look for but that the milk from such cows should be pernicious and de- structive to human life ? Experiments have been made upon animals, which indicate that a loss of their open range and natural nourishment disorganizes and destroys. Dr. Bacon placed some young rabbits in a confined situation, and fed them with coarse green food — cabbage and grass. They were healthy when cooped up ; in a month, one died ; nine days after a second died, with tubercles on the liver ; the liver of a third, which died four days later still, had nearly lost its structure, so universally was it pervaded with tubercles. Two days subsequently a fourth died, with a considerable number of hydatids attached to the lower surface of the liver. The remaining three were then placed in another situation and given proper food, and they recovered their' health and lived. Results similar were obtained from experiments on other ani- mals. Continues ilr. Hartley — "That cattle fed upon still-slop diet become diseased, is 1 undeniable. The most healthy animals, put upon this unhealthy aliment, soon indi- cate an accumulation of diseases ; and their very appearance, as compared with that of those kept on natural food, is prima facie evidence of the fact. In a little time they become so thoroughly distempered as to be of no use ; and the dairyman, in order to prevent the loss of their dying upon his hands, is obliged to change his stock; at least every nine months, by sending his diseased and worn out cattle to the butch- ers. But in spite of thus precaution, the loss by disease is very considerable. A committee of dairymen, engaged in the milk business, reported that out of 1841 cows fed on slops in the vicinity of Brooklyn, 230 died in the course of a few months by disease ; and from the difficulties of obtaining information from proprietors, there is reason to believe that the actual mortality was far greater than reported. By collating the various estimates and reports of those in the business, the loss of cows, by disease may be set down at from 12 to 20 per cent. The animals being bloated. With slush, though apparently in good condition, will die as suddenly as unexpect- edly. After yielding the usual quantity of milk, they have been known to die the same day ! How extremely disgusting the idea of partaking of the milk, not merely of a distempered animal, but of one that is already dead of disease ! " Diseased meats, when eaten, every one knows, produce malignant fevers. But impositions of this kind, the law undertakes to protect the community, though not with success, since it is not only sold fresh, but is more frequently disguised by smoked meat Yet here is a cause incomparably more proli- fic of disease than any against which the law provides, that entirely escapes its cog- nizance. Then- cannot, however, bo a rational doubt but that the secretions of a i animal in the form of milk, especially when produced from unwholesome aliment, is, as unlit for food as is their flesh. Any other conclusion would bo as con- trary to the known laws of lifo and health, as to the common sense of mankind. "Who does: not know that the health of the infant is affected by the condition of the sustenance it receives from its mother ? that disease is induced by the noxious qualities of the infanl m sequent upon the deranged health of the mother? i diseased? — the virus generated in the vitiated secretions, taints f nourishment, and is communicated to the child." "Children," says Pereira, "may be salivated by sucking nurses under the ence of mercury, or purged by the exhibition of drastics, or narcotized by ministration ol nurse. These are facta of the greatest mom 15 2v>G THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. fcrcnoe to the frequency of disease in coics, and to the possible morbific character of their milk."' And if the child is thus affected by food received from its mother or other nurse, it cannot be doubted that it will likewise be affected by food from any other source. Lad aliment; no matter from where received, can never sustain the body of either child or adult in health and vigor; contrawise, it will induce physical suffering, and often death. In connection with the subject of infantile deaths, a comparison of statistics of Eu- ropean and American cities show some startling facts that should arouse our atten- tion. Statistics of London show that during the last hundred years, the diminution of infant deaths there has been from 74.5 per cent, to 31.8 per cent, and the same principle is true of other cities of Europe. But in American cities, so far back as information is to be had, there has been a constant and steady increase of infant mor- tality, in nearly an inverse ratio to the decrease in Europe ! So that at this time nearly two-thirds of the mortality of the city of New York is of children under five years of age ; and Philadelphia and Boston are but a small per centage better ; while, at the same time, the total mortality of the European cities is greater in proportion than that of the American ! ! ! To what is this startling fact to be ascribed, save in a great measure to the use of unhealthy milk, which breeds disease, and carries thou- sands of infants to the tomb ? And this is the more apparent from the fact, that in Europe the curse of still-fed milk is not allowed to the extent that it is carried on in free America. And hence the difference ! TTe would naturally conclude that every- body in America felt free to scatter death to the extent of his ability. No one looking at these facts can conclude that the unhealthy influence of bad milk is exaggerated. In New York, Brooklyn, and the places adjacent, it is proba- ble that at least 6,000,000 of gallons of milk is annually consumed. In these places there are some 30,000 children under five years of age to whom this milk is the principal food. At least 4,000,000 gallons of this milk is poisoned by base adultera- tions, or is the product of stall-fed and still-fed cows, and consequently fit only for the gutter. And when this, the chief support of infant life, carries death in its every drop, is it to be wondered at that the children perish like the leaves of autumn be- fore the blighting frost? Says Mr. Hartley, "There are many well-disposed persons, who are accustomed to ascribe this terrific waste of infant life to inevitable and fatal necessity, irre- Bpective of the observance or neglect of those secondary causes, through which Providence invariably fulfills its designs. But can such be the purpose of the bene- volent Creator? Is so large a number of his rational offspring born with such powers of vitality that life necessarily becomes extinct on the threshold of existence? [And can a divine, knowing of these evils, in his sermon at the grave of an infant, regard as a "divine dispensation" the death of thai infant, and say that God in his goodi a it away? Has it not rather been murdered by [She cam preach thus, with a clear conscience and a believing heart, liet him say on ; if not, lei him rise and call for the wrath of heaven to banish sneh iniquities from our midst. — Author.'] Such conclusions, being inconsistent with the teachings of bis Word and Providence, musl be rejected as impious and absurd. If this mortality was the appointmenl of a divine decree, independent of any agencies under human control, then mighl we 1. me indifferent, and fold our anus in in- rtions of ours to prevent it would prove as unavailing as our THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 227 regrets. But how are these views reconciled with the increase of infant deaths among us from 32 to 60 per cent., in the course of a few years, while in foreign cities in the same time the result is reversed ?" The truth is, our milch cows are shut up in close and filthy stables, deprived of air and exercise, and there fed on detestable compounds till both themselves and their milk is diseased ; this milk is peddled out to rear our children, and thus the seeds of disease are sown in the cradle, and the fountains of life poisoned at their source. In Europe, these things are not altogether so ; more scrutiny is exercised, and men are not so freely allowed to kill their fellow men in this way. Here, there is a species of lawlessness in these matters ; no inspection is instituted, no checks im- posed, and not only does every man " sit under his own vine and his own fig-tree with none to make him afraid," but he peddles death among his fellows with no restraint of anything but Lis caoutchoucy conscience. It would be well if we had less freedom and more law in these matters. The result would be beneficial to the mass, against the pockets of the few. And not only do infants suffer from this cause, but adults likewise; though their food being less of this kind, the effects of it are not so visible among them. To give the reader a correct idea of how matters are managed at the slop-dairies, we will condense a description from a memorial to the authorities of the city upon this subject. Says the memorial, (which I find in "Cause of Natural Death,") "I had occasion to walk through Fifteenth-street to the Hudson river. When I had passed the 9th Avenue, my olfactory nerves were shocked by a stench such as it would be difficult to imagine, and impossible to describe. I found it proceeded from the extensive cow stables attached to a distillery. Prom near the 9th Avenue to the river, I observed long, low sheds, occupying the entire space between Fif- teenth aud Sixteenth streets. On inspection, I found that each shed was occupied by cows, stalled close together, from eight to ten in a row, arranged cross- wise, and standing back to back so near that a man could scarcely pass between them. The stable appeared to be as free from filth as the nature of the case would admit ; but still the stench was horrible ! The animals were each tied by a short rope to a trough ; and I was informed that they are never taken out after being once stalled, until they cease to give milk, or become sick, when they are sold to the butcher ! The troughs are branches of a main trunk, connecting them with the distillery, from which they receive the smoking swill that makes their chief food. " The following conversation, which I had with several respectable laboring men in the vicinity of the distillery, will serve to enlighten the consumers as to the quality of the article which is so extensively distributed under the namo of milk : " Q. 'Are not these cows liable to disease from being confined so closely and fed on swill ?' " A. ' That indeed they are, sir. If you will take tho trouble to look into tho lots opposite tho stables, you may see from two to six of them staggering about, aud ready to drop dead. Sometimes six of them will die in a single day.' " Q. ' Do they continue to milk (hem after they are turned out to die ?' " A. ' Yes, sir. T have Been them do it frequently. T have seen them when they were so exhausted as to be unable to stand Long enough to be milked, and one man would hold them up while another would milk them.' " Q. ' Do they really sell that milk through the city ?' "A 'Yes, sir. They carry it round to their customers every day, under the 228 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. . couuty, or^Orange county milk. It is a very common thing intry milkmen to bring their cans into the city half full, and till them up at il'lishmciit.' " Q. ' What becomes of these sick cows which you speak of? Do they re- cover V ■A. 'I believe not a single case of recovery has been known. They appear to die sumption. Many have been examined alter death, and the lungs are always found to be badly diseased. When they stop milking the butcher gets them.' " Q. ' Is it possible that those diseased animals are sold for beef through the city ?' "A. ' Why, sir. that is no secret! They are carried off to some slaughter-house during the night, or they are taken out of town and cut up, and then brought back to the butcher shops.' " A gentleman who visited another of these establishments says: "As we ap- proached a range of stables, an open window induced us to draw near it, when, unobserved ourselves, we saw a man inside milking one of the cows, whose bag was evidently diseased, and extremely sore. After attentively noticing it, for a few minutes, we discovered that one side of the bag', and oue teat, were very much swollen, and that the bag on the swollen side had recently been lanced, and was in a most offensive state of suppuration. But the dairyman, unwilling to lose the milk, was carefully stripping three of the teats, whilst at every pressure of the bloody and yellow corrupt matter was forced from the wound, ran down over the back of his hands, and mingled with the mass of nndk in the pail, which btless afterwards sold and eaten by bis customers 1 "The cow stables are indescribably filthy, and so is everything pertaining to the milk arrangement. The milk room is in the midst of the steam and effluvium of the pens, and scarcely a whit purer, which is sufficient of itself to taint and spoil the best milk. The milk -strainers are used for dish-cloths, and then slapped up against the stable-door to dry. Sometimes a handful of straw is gathered from the stable tloor, and whisked around a pail or other vessel, when the vessel is put aside for use.'' In order to deceive the purchaser, the milk peddlers of New York and vicinity, as well as the grocerymen who deal in milk, hang out false colors upon their carts aud at their stores. When they know that the article they are selling is the pro- duct of still-fed cows, or is basely diluted and adulterated, they unblushingly make use of such labels as " Orango county Milk," or "Westchester," or "Essex,-" or "Long Island," or some other place, and these lying labels are generally accom- panied with the prefix of "pure." Pure! then is Lucifer himself pure in the sight of God! The truth is, that in nine times cut of ten this milk never comes from the country ; and as to the purity of it. there is not used in New York one gallon of pure milk to one thousand of adulterated I It wo were to believe these lying the counties about New York must he literally covered with cows, to produce the quantities of milk purporting to he brought from them. If we are to suppose that orange, Westcl im, and other counties around us, produce such a detestable article called milk as is sold in our streets, we must coj very poor opinion of them— in fact, thai their -oils must he In d Will Ha- farmers of those regions be contenl to Lave an estimate of them based upon the tillliy liquid that tS peddled in this city? That there is milk brought here from the country is very true; hut it is taken by the dealers here and manufactured ow THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 229 before it is sold ; first diluted with water to increase the quantity, and then charged with base ingredients to keep up the color ; or worse, it is taken to the distilleries and there mixed with the still-fed milk of diseased cows. Milkmen have various cows and qualities of milk, comparing in price according to the quality of the cow and their food. You can get the milk from the deep red cow, the black cow, the country cow, the stall-fed cow, the cow with one horn, or the cow with two horns, the cow with long horns, or the cow with short horns. As the butter is contained in the horns (!) of the cow, varying according to the number and length of the horns, so they say the price for milk must vary. In ad- dition to these you can get sheep's milk, or goat's milk; chalk, or ochre milk; watered, or not watered ^ from cows that are able to stand up, or those that have to he down ; from some fed on grass, or from those that cannot eat at all ; some that have teeth, and some that need a new set. In fact, a dairyman can furnish you with any quality of milk you desire ! but what is remarkable in the matter, he invariably supplies all the different kinds from one and the same can. That there is some good, pure milk sold here is undoubtedly true ; but to get it you must know the one who furnishes you, and you must pay him at least six cents a quart ; for good, pure milk cannot be afforded in New York at a less rate than this. Never buy milk at four or even five cents. Use less, and get that which is good. One quart of pure milk will contain more nourishment than a gallon of the diluted ; therefore, it is cheapest to buy the best. In view of these facts, is it strange that our bills of infant mortality are so large ? Is it strange when we look at these matters, and the other adulterations, and the infringements of the laws of health in various other modes, that consump- tion stalks in our midst with a haughty front and sweeps his thousands yearly to the tomb ? GOOD TEAS ORDAINED OF GOD. In the article of teas, there is also a large amount of adulteration carried on ; many baskets of beach-tree end clover leaves are annually cooked and rolled up and mixed in the favorite beverage of the ladies. A poisonous matter is also used in the coloring of some tea, to make the water look black and " strong" after it has i«'eped. In the beach and clover leaves there may be nothing deleterious to the system, unless they bo destitute of that bitter principle wMch operates as a corrective, upon the water and upon the secretions of the stomach, which is un- doubtedly the case ; bul then, its introduction is a fraud upon the purchaser. But of the poisonous colorings used, there cannot be too much care exercised to avoid tli'-m, for they are hurtful to the system. This work is generally done by the in- habitants of the "celestial empire," where the same principles of imposition seem to be in vogue thai are practiced among the "outside barbarians" Ed more enlight- ened and Christian countries. Whether tin; one learned the lesson from the other, I know not; and if so, which was teacher and which pupil, is beyond my power to decide; but I think neither: undoubtedly it is the product of "original sin," springing up abundantly and thrh K in all countries and in all dimes whithersoever the foot of man has trod, and the principle mdizement has been the foundation of society. 230 THK PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. There has been a great deal written by modem philosophers deprecating the use and pronouncing it injurious; but where an article can be had that is pure, I consider it as a healthy and excellent beverage. I would not deprive one of my lady friends of this innocent luxury. Indeed, it is not only not hurtful, unless taken u - but is beneficial in its effects upon the system. There is a custom in Egypt, in respect to the water of the Kile, which, though somewhat muddy, is rendered pure and salutary by being put into jars, the inside of which is rubbed with a paste made of bitter almonds. And we are all well aware, that something of this kind is almost always found necessary. Persons traveling, coming one day upon one kind of water, and the next upon another, would be made sick by this change, did they not correct the water with tea or some other article. And often we find a large region of country where the water will not be healthful to use, unless purified and corrected by the introduction of some bitter substance. And in every age it has been found necessary to find some corrective ; and for this certainly no articles are at the same time so useful, reliable and palatable as tea and coffee. The first account we have on record of the necessity of some purifying substance to remove impurities from waters and render them proper for the stomach, is that given in the case of the Children of Israel, after they had passed through the Red Sea and come to the waters of Marah, having traveled three days in the wilderness without drink. The waters of the river were bitter ; and the people murmured against Moses, saying that they could not drink of them I And Moses carried their complaint unto the Lord, who showed him a tree to cast into the river, by which the waters were sweetened that the hosts of Israel might drink thereof. Ex. xv. 23, 24, 25. Since then various vegetable substances have been used to correct waters in all parts of the world, and make them healthy and proper for the stomach. It is understood that the first inducement of the Chinese to the general use of tea, was to correct the waters of their ponds and rivers. The first discoverers of the Floridas are said to have corrected the stagnant and fetid water they found there by infusing in it the branches of sassafras. It is difficult to say whether the tea corrects the injurious properties of the water before it is taken into the stomach, or whether the secretions of the stomach, from a constant action in digestion, becoming like to the turbid waters of the Nile and the bitterness of Marah, require some cor- rective, like tea or coffee, to induce a healthy action in them. Probably both of these. Chemical analysis shews that many waters contain in them a solution of sulphate of lime, [nto -ueli waters, if any vegetable substance containing oxalic acid (of which there are several instances) is thrown, the lime in solution will be speedily precipitated, and the beverage rendered agreeable and wholesome. It is certain, and a fact well known to physicians and to the sick, that when the stomach, or the secretions, are out of proper older, even to nausea, a cup of good tea will ''settle" the stomach, create an appetite where none was before, and assist digestion and aid to the recovery of health. It serves to sweeten the waters of the stomach as the shrub' etened the waters of Marah. But how many a delicious cup pf tea and coll'ee have been taken 1 y the sick, without thinking of the wisdom of Cod in creating and revealing to the knowledge of man these delightful correcting bitters. In all ageeof tin' world there have been in use some correcting substances to render harmless deleterious waters. 'When the childreu of Israel murmured at the THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 231 bitterness of the river that was before them, the Lord remembered them in kind- ness, and pointed out to Moses the corrective substance which made Marah to be- come sweet and healthful. And so, knowing the wants of man, he has caused to grow the tea and the coffee, and other plants, to supply their wants. The China teas, ,coffee, sage tea, and many others are excellent when taken into a bitter and turbid stomach. There can be no doubt that they correct the deranged secretions. Sage tea is excellent for this purpose, as also to prevent worms in children, and promote health generally. I would urge its use in preference to the bad black, adulterated teas purchased at our stores. "We often rind the men, though perhaps quite as fond of tea as the ladies, footing up long columns of figures to show the money spent for tea. But if we can spend a thousand dollars for cigars and tobacco, why not a hundred as well for the better and more useful articles of tea and coffee ? We will say nothing of the thousands wasted on wines and liquors by the economical gentlemen. By reference to reports, we see that the members of the Common Council of the city of New York, in one month, expended $581,27 for their " Tea Room." It is not my business to say how much of this sum was laid out on tea exclusively; each one can judge for himself of that ; but certainly if the gentlemen can indulge in such expenses for the " ^ea room" abroad, they should not complain if the ladies wish a- small sum to purchase the delightful beverage for their tables at home. Experience teaches us that the stomach requires some gentle bitter to keep the bile in a healthy condition. For this, tea is good ; and as long experience has shown that it is harmless unless taken powerfully strong, (which should not be,) I would recommend its moderate use, as also the use of coffee, unless you find it does not agree with your system. But always get a good article of either of these. Do not drink decoctions of beach tree leaves or of dried peas ; for these possess not the virtues of pure "old Java" and good ;1 Hyson Skin." If our good old mothers and female nurses were prevented from carrying the cor- recting balm of tea, (which is to the sickened stomach like the breast of the mother to the infant,) to cleanse and soothe the heated ragings of the digestive secretions, they would be disarmed of half their medical skill and usefulness in the restoration of the aids to a statu of health. Such a thing can never be while intelligence in tin' human mind. But in drinking tea and coffee, moderation should always be consulted, as well as I good thing of the world. And in some instances, it will be found With these beverages, as with everything else, that every one's system cannot re- ceive tlnin without injury. Therefore, every person should understand their effects upon his or her system, and if they are found deleterious should dispense with (heir use. No rule can be laid down in this matter, since we all know that what ii excellent and beneficial for one person, and good as a general thing, will tie found ie pernicious and unhealthl'ul. I would add here, i ha! in cases of nervous persons, who are affected by drinking after it a cup of good new milk. This will remo badeffi .■, and restore the nerves and mind to their healthful and pleas* an! condition. 232 IHE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. IMPORTANCE OF GOOD WATER. Tin: importance of a full supply of good and pure water in all large cities it is impossible to overrate— not only as regards the convenience of the inhabitants and their greater power in the extinguishment of fires, but also in relation to health, both directly and indirectly. As I have before remarked, cleanliness is an essential of health, both as regards the person and the various things by which he is surrounded. Filthy houses filthy out-buildings, filthy streets, filthy garments, filthy food, filthy drinks, filthy persons- all these are so many propagators of disease and death. And these, unless there be a g,,ou supply of pure water, must ever abound in large cities in greater or less degree. '•Cleanliness in towns is of such importance," says a Sanitary Report of Massa- chusetts, '• that it should constitute an indispensable part of sanitary policy. Re- fuse matters, either animal or vegetable, are constantly undergoing change, and giv- ing out vapors and gases which, even in extremely small quantities, are injurious to health. Conclusive proofs of this fact exist. Wherever there is a dirty street, court or dwelling-house, the elements of pestilence are at work in that neighborhood. The cause of many and many a case of typhus fever, cholera morbus, or other fatal dis- eases, in our cities, villages, and even in the rural and isolated dwellings of the country, may be traced to vegetable matter, or other tilth, in the cellar, in or around the house, or in the water used. - ' The absolute necessity of water to remove pestilential filth is a matter so well understood by all persons of information, that it will be unnecessary to make any very extended remarks upon that point in addition to what has been said in other parts of this work. I would speak more particularly of the effects of water directly when taken into the system. In the first place, we should, so far as is possible, have soft water, for this is not only much more healthful, but makes a great saving to those who use it. It has been shown that the difference in the use of soap in hard and soft water, where the first contains 14 grains of earthy and saline substances and the latter but one, is at the least $2,*5 to every family of five persons annually. This would make a sav- ing h i ween the two kinds in Xew York of over $275,000 annually. This may seem Estrange to those who have never considered the matter; but it is nevertheless true. And this is merely in the use for washing. What the difference would be, taking into accounl manufactories, breweries, steamboUers, etc., it is difficult to Bay. Spring water, and many well waters, though cool and palatable, are not so as a pure, filtered brook or river water t)vc from lime. They generally con- tain a large amount of earthy Ingredients, which induce stone and gravel in the bladder, and other c»mplainte of a fearful nature. Although spring and well waters I tn this, it is calculated that on the average the] much carbonate of lime that persons taking the usual quantity every day tor Ihrly ill have drank down as much of this earthy substance as would make a solid pillar of the si/.e of the human body. From this arises stone and gravel in ,i "' bhdder, and kidni is well known to all physicians, and is proved by the fiurt that Binoe the introduction of the Croton water into Xew Sork, the deaths from stone havi , r 60 per year to only three in the last THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 233 five years ! To such an extent are many springs and wells charged with limy com- pounds, that their water should never be allowed for use in drinking, until the car- bonate is precipitated by the introduction of some foreign substance, as tea or some other shrubs of a bitter nature. TVere it not for the fact that the kidneys and other secreting organs throw off large quantities of this earthy matter, the water from most springs would soon choke up the system ; and even as it is, there is enough remains to produce serious and fatal effects. That these waters do thus often contain earthy and injurious matter, any lady will know who examines her tea-kettle. It will frequently be found covered on the inside with bard depositions from the water. Nor is the water freed from these impurities by boiling simply, since that which collects upon the kettle is only the earthy part of the water that has boiled away or evaporated. Nor does filtering answer to discharge this lime ; because it is held in solution by the water, and not in separate particles. The only way in which it can be rendered pure and right for a drink is by distillation. Some river and brook waters are liable to the same objections ; hence, of late years, in obtaining supplies of water for cities, care has been taken to ascertain the quality of the article. The inhabitants of London use the water of the Thames, to the extent of 40,000,000 gallons daily; and this quantity, according to Prof. Clark, contains 25 tons of chalk ! In addition to this, we are informed by the Edinburgh JRevmv that " the refuse and dirt from two millions of individuals — the enormous accumulation of waste and dead animal and vegetable matter — the blood and offal of slaughter-houses — the outpourings from gas-works, dye-works, breweries, distil- leries, glue-works, bone-works, tanneries, chemical and other works — and a thou- sand nameless pollutions (agents for the propagation of disease), all find their way into the Thames. The mixture is next washed backwards and forwards by the tides, and having been thoroughly stirred up and finely comminuted by the unceas- ing splash of 298 steamboats, is then pumped up for the use of the wealthiest city in the world." Fortunately, in respect to water, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities in our country, are supplied with an article in abundance that is as pure as can well be obtained. New York has its Croton, Boston its Cochituate, Philadel- phia it- Schuylkill — each brought many miles, and at an enormous expense, but one justifiable and wise Analysis of the water of the river Thames shows it to contain 19*400 graioB of solid matter held in solution to the gallon, and 0-258 of mechanical impurities, being a total of 19*638 ; while the Croton has btft3*t0 6f solid in solution, and 0*46 mechanical, or a total of 4*16. Analysis of the Schuyl- kill shows thai it contains a little less of solid impurities in solution than the Croton. Of the Cochituate I have aol an 1I3 -i- a1 band, but it does not differ but a trifle from the Croton. From these wo may Bee how much better is the water afforded in the three large cities mentioned in this country than that, had by the Londoners, Bind how much preferable to the generality of spring and will waters, as regards the health of tin- inhabitants, Th< re can in; found hut very little undistUled water containing less of impurity than the waters ol tin,' Sehu_\ lkill, ( 'oehituate, and Croton. Of the deadly effects thai often arise from drinking water filled with mecJicmicai impurities to any extent, we are all aware. As an illustration of this matter. I would state hero (gathered from illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct), that on a 234 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. trial at Nottingham, England, in 1S36, it was proved that dysentery of an aggra- vated form was caused in cattle by the use of water contaminated with putrescent vegetable matter, produced by the refuse of a starch manufactory. The fish and frogs in the pond through which the brook ran were destroyed, and all the animals winch drank of the water became seriously ill, and many of them died with symp- toms of dysentery. It was, moreover, shown that the animals sometimes refused to drink the water — that the mortality was in proportion to the quantity of starch made at different times — and that subsequently, when the putrescent matter was not allowed to pass into the brook, but was conveyed to a river at some distance, the fish and frogs began to return, and the mortality ceased among the cattle. There are many instances on record where individuals and bodies of soldiers have sickened and died of putrid fever and dysentery, from drinking the water of stag- nant pools and ditches, or rivers which have received the contents of sewers from houses. From these, out of many other facts which might be adduced, we may see the necessity, if we would enjoy health, of not only having a plenty of water to insure cleanliness, but of possessing an article not injurious to the system. From analysis it has been shown that the milk of cows who drink water from muddy pools a} ponds is not so good as when having pure water — in- deed that it is rendered unhealthy by such water; and in like manner, nursing mo- thers who make use of bad water will render the food of the child more or less impure, and often induce in it dysentery or other disease. This will be apparent to all when it is remembered how quickly the milk of the cow is affected by eating garlics or onions, and that if one aliment or drink thus affects it, another must, also, of necessity. Of the necessity of a sufficiency of pure water, many ancient as well as our modern cities seem to have been aware. In aqueducts, ancient Rome surpassed all the modern world, as in all works of greatness and utility in those times known to men. Pure streams were sought at great distances, and conveyed in artifi- cial channels, supported by arches, many of which were more than a hundred feet high, over steep mountains, deep valleys, and dangerous morasses. Not less than twenty of these stupendous structures were raised during the days of the Roman power, which brought such a supply of water that rivers seemed to flow through the streets and sewers. At the present day, when only three of these aqueduets remain, after the lapse of centuries, the neglect of rulers, and the ravages of barbarians, nu city in Europe has a better supply of wholesome water than Rome. In the day.- of the Emperors, Rome boasted sixteen public baths, built of marble, and furnished with every convenience that could be desired; and from the aque- ducts a prodigious number of fountains were supplied, many of them gorgeous in architectural beauty. And it is well known that in the locations of tribes of ancient times, as well as among the native Indians of our own country, the first object in view was a stream of water that would give a healthy drink, with good fishing and hunting. LEAD POISONS. Unuku this I shall give the reader an idea of the diseases and deaths caused to workmen in various trades \<, I in their busin THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 235 It should be a duty of all laborers in any employment, whether mechanical or. manufacturing, to make themselves fully acquainted with the effects of the occu- pation and the articles used, upon their health. Ascertain the nature and effects of the substances handled, the gases inhaled, the dust and smoke taken into the stomach and lungs ; and by thus possessing a timely knowledge, you may be able to protect, at least partially, your bowels, stomach, brain, liver, kidneys, and lungs, from the evil results. In glancing over the annexed table, the reader should call to mind the persons once his acquaintances, who were healthy, cheerful, and happy, with loved friends and companions about them, but who, from the want of knowledge of the baneful effects of their occupations, were carried to untimely graves, the victims of colic, consumption, and other diseases, leaving behind them sorrow in the hearts of wives, parents, brothers, sisters, and other friends. The following table from the British and Foreign Medical Review, will put this great subject at one glance before the reader : — " The preparations of lead which have been known to give rise to the lead colic, are — 1. Metallic Lead. 2. Lead in combination with oxygen; the sub-oxide, mi- neral orange, litharge and minium or red lead. 3. Combinations of leads with various acids ; borate of lead, sub-carbonate, cereuse or white lead, phosphate, chromate and nitrate of lead, the acetate or sugar of lead, and Goulard's extract. 4. Sulphuret, chloride, cyanide, and silicate of lead. 5. The alloys of lead with tin (solder), antimony, copper, silver, and gold. " The following is a list of the occupations of 1213 persons affected with lead colic, and is stated to be drawn up from actual observation of the cases during a period of eight or nine years (from 1831 to 1839), all, with the exception of nine, having been received at the Hospital of La Gliarite. To this list we have added, for the convenience of comparison, those of the persons suffering from other forms of lead disease, subsequently given by the author in different portions of his work. Colic. Other Diseases. Total. Manufacturers of White Lead . . . .406 220 31 9 25 691 „ Red „ . . . . 63 104 6 3 5 181 „ Massicot (Mineral Orange) .12 7 — — — 19 House Painters 305 168 29 6 20 528 Coach Painters 47 33 4 — — 84 Ornamental Painters 33 25 5 — — 63 Porcelain Paiutcrs 3 — — — — 3 Gilders 1*- — — — — 1 Painters or Varnishers on Metal . . .2 — — — — 2 Colored Paper Makers 2 — — — — 2 Color Grinders 68 43 6 — 3 120 German and Glazed Card Makers ... 19 7 1 1 3 31 Bwoxd Belt Makers 2 — — — — 2 Perfumers 2 — — — — 2 Earthenwaro Potters ... . 54 33 5 — 2 94 Dutch Ware Potters . . .-. .7 ____ 7 Carried forward— 1026 640 87 19 58 1830 236 )PLE'S MEDICAL UGHTHOTJSE. Brought forward, Co'ir. 1026 Othtr Diseases G40 87 19 58 Total. 1830 Refiners 25 14 3 — 44 Plumbers Tinmen (ctcmears) Putty Makers 14 8 4 10 3 3 1 3 31 11 4 Block Tin "Workers Jewelers, Goldsmiths, Trinket Makers Copper Founders 4 4 2 1 1 - - 5 4 3 Bronze Founders Type Founders .... 1 38 4 — 2 1 9G Printers 12 8 3 — 1 24 Small Shot Manufacturers Lapidaries Cutters and Polishers of Crystals Plato Glass Workers Manufacturers of Acetate, Nitrate, and CI mate of Lead iro- ) 11 . 35 3 2 10 6 27 5 3 1 4 1 2 2 3 20 70 4 2 19 1213 752 109 23 71 2168 " It will be noticed that the four columns between ' colic' and 'total' seem to refer to four diseases besides colic. The second refers to diseases of the joints: the third to paralysis ; the fourth to delirium and other disease of the brain ; and thc- fifth to complicated cases not so distinctly marked as to be accurately classified. This explains the seeming addition of another disease." The principal ways which lead poisons enter the system are in the form of dust, gases, vapor with small particles of lead, breathed through the nose, mouth, and eaten with food, through want of cleanliness. The blood becomes poisoned ; the Lungs, brain, liver, stomach, bowels, and kidneys lose the mucous coating of their orifices, which become dry, cankered, and sore ; and severe and agonizing pains, colic, emaciation— violent pains in the limbs, joints, and abdomen— loss of motion una sensation of the limbs, paralysis— various affections of the brain, insan- ity, delirium, stupor or lethargy, and loss of one or more of the senses, follow. Dr. Samuel L. Dana, of Boston, has written a work, with extensive chemical investigations as to lead poisons from lead service pipe, both in Boston and Lowell. showing the danger of persons becoming poisoned by using lead water pipes. Dr. Chilton, of New York, has fully proved the poisonous influences of lead pipes through which the Croton water was passed for family use: but he says that a Bpecies of block tin manufactured in New York is perfectly free from all mineral for water pill] The New Jersey Zinc Company, of 51 Liberty-street, X. Y., took the first prize at the World's Fair, in England, for a zinc paint, which is far superior to any English artiele. The z.ine paint IS desfrned to be wholly used for paint, it being more dur- able, neater, and without poison to the painters. : poisons can* gnat pain under or about the navel. They appear to affect (be bronchi of printers, andcausesore or cankered throat, obstinate constipation, with greal inability to pass the contents of the bowels. Often bloody urine, with THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 237 great difficulty to pass the water, is observed. The only preventive to colic pains and lead consumption is to leave the business which produces the cause of the disease, then apply to a skillful physician to free the blood from all poison. Xo preparations of lead should be applied to sores, cuts, braises, or blisters where the skin has been removed ; for persons are thus frequently poisoned. All house- hold furniture or cooking utensils, having lead, tin, or painted glazing, should be kept from any acid fruits, vinegar, or oily substances, likely to remove lead paints, or form oxides of lead. All cider and vinegar faucets should be made of wood, as metallic faucets are poisonous. My extensive practice has led me to personally treat great numbers of individuals from the above trades, having nearly fallen victims to consumption and death by mineral poisons. SEA VOYAGES AND SEA FOOD. The aid of a sea voyage in the relief of the consumptive, or a removal to some different climate, though once generally considered great, has, after considerable experience and observation, become to be regarded with but very little favor by the best of our physicians. The statistics of Massachusetts show, in this respect, a fact which would not have been generally believed, namely : that the ratio of deaths by consumption is about the same in the western and hilly parts of that State as on the seaboard. Accurate observations have shown, also, that the chances for consump- tion in the Southern States of our Union are as great as in the North, though thousands from here have made visits to those parts to escape from the destroyer. By reports from the armies of Great Britain and the United States, it is shown that in England the ratio of attacks from this disease is annually about 1 out of 1000 inhabitants ; in the "West Indies, Leeward and Windward Islands, 12 ; in Jamaica, 13; in Bermuda, 9; in Malta (Mediterranean), G; Gibraltar, 10; on the United States Coast, from Delaware to Savannah, 13; Southwestern stations, 11; Lower Mississippi and East Florida, 9 ; Posts on the Lakes, 9 ; Canada, C. Localities but little distance apart seem sometimes to differ; but it is extremely difficult to point out to a consumptive patient where he shall go with any hope of eluding con- sumption by a change of climate. And with regard to the voyage or the trip itself, so many die v. hen at sea, or when on a journey to some other place, that it is rendered doubtful that if in the main inland or ocean trips are beneficial. That in many instances they are productive of good is undoubtedly true ; and that in others it would have b : the patient to remain at home, is no doubt true. Some (think themselves compelled to remain at sea, and feel Biok, or imagine themselves sick when on shore for a short time; others cannot bear the sea air. So that no rule ran be laid clown in this matter for the governing of consumptive invalids, nor either in regard to their food. With my pal rally prefer to let them follow their own inclination, with reference to a voyage at sea, a trip into the hilly countries, ora residencel >re, at certain Beasona of the year; always giving them appropriate medicines, and taking advantage, BO far as possible, of the situation. Many consumptives who have been a1 sea Baj they should have been buried thereout for my advice and medicines, and many others have said the same who have traveled by land in 23S THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. various countries. A wise man takes his overcoat and umbrella for fear of a storm • so should the consumptive invalid take his healing remedies with him in case of need. Continuity to swampy lands and marshes is bad, not only for consumptives, but to almost every class of patients. The evaporations from these places are more to be dreaded than the effects of climate. Where a section of country is low and marshy, we may look for consumptions and other complaints. Men, as well as animals, will be more healthy on the uplands of any climate, where the soil is dry, and the air and water pure, and trees and grains productive, than in the lower lo- calities. Therefore, low places should be avoided, by others as well as consump- tives. In this matter, we might learn wisdom of the American Indians, who never follow the muskrat into swamps to make their camp, when they can avoid it, but choose a high, warm, dry soil, by swift, pure waters, with dry, gravelly banks,' and NEYER NEGLECT A COLD, But use gentle and persevering means to rid yourself of it as soon as possible. Avoid all sudden exposures of the person to cold air and to cold dampness. Summer colds seem to be more productive of consumption, owing probably to the more opeu state of the pores, and the profuse perspiration when a sudden draft of cold air checks it. Passing from a warm, dry room into a damp one while in a state of perspiration, either in summer or winter, is dangerous, unless you be securely clothed. Females going out of heated manufactories after their meals, when fatigued with the labors of the day, soon become victims to leucorrheeal weaknesses, and to suppressions of menstruation, which are productive of congestion of the lungs and liver, and of consumption and colds; and diseases of the lungs and liver check the natural wastes of the body, whereby impurities are collected to form tubercles and ulcers, ending iu death of the person by consumption. It is strange that girls, and even women, who it might be thought had arrived at the years of discretion, should, when about to have a regular menstruation, resort to the rash and fatal step of immersing their feet i-n cold water, to prevent the regular flow, in order that they may be able to »me 1 -ill or party; thus designedly checking the operations of nature, and insulin- to themselves a deranged menstruation, leading to inflammation and con- sumption. Mothers should never allow a daughter to perpetrate this enOrmoti ' and against the health of her future offspring: for not only does a woman by this practice expose herself to disease, but, bringing on derangement of '■" :i1 organs, the -MM afterwards coi ived is thereby rendered unhealthy in and brings that onhealthiness with it into the world. Cold after cold, at any season of the year, will effect an increase of irritation, until at last the oough and the expectoration will not leave at all; the cough will increase, the menses cease, inflammation will supervene, and, unless the proper remedial agents be applied, consumption will soon seal the fate of the sufferer. E pennyroyal or catnip tea, drank warm, with soaking the feet, and getting up a good perspiration, and then taking one of the Anti-Bilious Pills, and lying warm in bed till the morning, is almost sure t<, produce a return of the menses when they have been suppressed by taking cold Hut should these fail, do not relax efforts, either THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 239 by your own knowledge or by consulting a physician, until the menses are set right ; for sickness soon follows a suppression, and causes a quick decline and death. Cough does not always indicate a cold. It is sometimes caused by catarrh, tuber- culous throat or lungs, and ulcers and grub in the lungs or liver. The causes of cold are so numerous that no rule can be laid down to avoid it other than to dress comfortably, and with attention to the state of the weather, the condition of the body and of the places where you are to go. Extremes of cold should always be avoided when the body is warm. In this respect, every person should learn to be his own physician. Calomel, blue pills, acids, and tartar emetics, have been given so copiously to mankind, that susceptibility to colds and disorganized blood have become so great, that consumption and general derangement of the system threaten to afflict the entire race; and until they are abandoned for vegetable remedies, there can be but little hope for a long continuance of health. BLEEDING LUNGS EASILY CURED. Bleeding at the lungs is generally produced by strains, or by a rush of blood to those organs. Congested or bleeding lungs are much more frequent among females than among males, owing to tight lacing, wearing bodiced dresses, corsets, whale- bones, etc., which lessen action of the heart, and prevent a free circulation of the blood. A bleeding at the lungs sometimes gives a temporary relief to a patient, and is as good as a bleeding at the nose. Many physicians pretend that the lungs can never get well after bleeding ; but such a statement serves only to expose their ignorance ; for, as I have before men- tioned, there is not a day passes but the lungs of some one are torn by the intro- duction of some foreign substance, and caused to bleed ; and yet, the persons recover from the effect oftentimes, and live to a good old age. General Jackson had a rifle ball shot through a part of one of his lungs, which soon healed. He was President of the United States after that occurrence, and lived for many years. Ids, at Washington, so renowned in the Mexican war, now an active Senator from Illinois, had, during his brave efforts, Mexican lead, from the mouth of the Mexican rifle, pass through one of his lungs, which soon healed ; but he being bullel proof| now fights the national battles in the Senate chamber, where we hop", by the blessing of God, he may live for manyyears, to be alike unextin^uisha- ble bythe deadly arrows of despotism. I never think a case of consumption less curable because the lungs are bleeding. I have had many cases where the patient had bled from a table-spoonful to a pint at a single time, and have euivil sin!, per- sons; and have lately examined a lady who could lift scarcely any weigh.1 at all without blood running from the tangs, but who is now, under my treatment, fast. recovering. pattern is practised by some physicians in attempts to cure < sump- tion; but it is productivo of evil. Beware of the "prostrating" Byste I' pn for it kills ten wla-re it cures one. If you are consumptive, also keep blisters and plasters off the chest. The respiration is hindered by them, and they exhaust the nervous system, and produce wmkness by the drain upon the body. A cloth wet with cold water and applied to the part, is mucth better than blisters and p 240 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Avoid all reducing, as far as possible, from any cause ; health is what you want, not emaciation an -'•• fool can make sick; but it must take a wise man to re- store the victim to health. Bleeding at the lungs should receive the earliest attention; it will not answer to let it run long. Many persons have bled to death in a very few minutes from a rup- ture of the blood-vessela in the lungs. The grub, when in the lungs, often causes bleeding, with an uneasy, crawling pain in the lungs and chest. Grub in the head, liver, or spleen, causes bleeding from those parts, cither by the mouth in coughing or vomiting, or by the nose. Grub in the ovaries, kidney, or uterus, produce flooding or bleeding from those organs, dis- charged through the front passage, and create a gnawing pain in the back, side, or Womb. By killing and dislodging this animal, the pain and bleeding is stopped, and consumption cured, tho same as the killing and disdodgnient of worms cures the worm sickness. [See Grub Consumption.] It is my intention, at some future time, to reveal the secret of reaching and de- stroying the grub, as also to make public the medicines that will surely kill him ; but for the present I shall not do so. Meantime, any troubled with disease from the presence of grub in their system, can find speedy relief by applying to me only, and taking my medicines, which will restore them to health. CATARRHAL CONSUMPTION. The head is the seat of a great many diseases, which reduce the invalid to a skeleton, and send him to the consumptive's grave. Yet the head is rarely exa- mined after death to ascertain the nature of the disease, even when no cause of death is found by dissecting the other parts. Catarrhal discharges are often very copious as well as offensive, contaminating with an acrid and poisonous matter, which extends over and inflames the membrano lining the nose, mouth, palate, throat, larynx, trachia, and air-cells and tubes of the lungs, and the inner parts of the eyes and ears — coating all these parts with a thick mucus, which, hi the case of the lungs, prevents the action of the air upon the blood ; by which means the blood is left unpurilied, to produce consumption and humors of lands. Catarrh causes cough, with expectoration of white and yellow matter ; pain, tight- ness, and Btricture dfthe lungs, with ulceration and canker of the passages it covers. It causes dulhi ing, discharge from the ears, and sometimes partial loss of Bight. H produces roaring and buzzing noises of various kinds in the ears, floating objects before the Bight, pain in the eyeballs and nerves to the eyes, with numerous aches of the eyes, ears, ami head. Catarrh is also a frequent cause of pulmonic con- sumption. This disease is caused by humors in the blood, by frequent colds, and breathing dual ami impure air. it lias produced thousands of eases of insanity, idiocy, inflam- mation, deafhi iption, ami has sent many victims to tho tomb. Catarrh is perfectly curable under the proper treatment. A use of my Catarrh Snuti; Lung Corrector, Blood Renovator, Anti-Bilious Bills, and German Ointment, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 241 will eradicate it. These medicines, when taken in connection, cleanse the head, re- gulate the lungs, purify the blood, open the bowels, and remove obstructions from the various orifices, each performing its own particular office, — and all placing the system in a healthy state, under which catarrh can no longer exist. RELIGION" AIDS IN THE CURE OE CONSUMPTION. To the stricken sufferer, languishing upon a bed of pain, how cheering is the oft- returning thought that he is a child of God, an accepted son of Him who created the heavens and the earth, and filled them with the works of His wondrous power. How cheering the thought that through Christ, who tasted death for all mankind, - he shall be enabled to pass fearlessly through the " dark valley of the shadow of death," and stand at last upon the banks of the heavenly Jordan, where flow in abundant streams the milk and honey of divine love — where he shall find new life in Jesus, and be welcomed by the angels of God with the enchanting music of Pa- - radisian melody. The true Christian, though suffering upon a bed of pain, can rejoice in heart at thought of the happiness that awaits him beyond the tomb ; and trusting in God, can. be cheerful hi the midst of tribulation. But with the sinner, who has not the bright hope of heaven before him, there must ever be an instinctive dread of death, which will harass him in the midst of his bodily suffering. Pure and undefiled religion in the heart makes life sweet, and lightens the pains of death, in view of happiness above. Job, during all his afflictions, could praise God and adore the hand of Him who afflicted him. Death is no terror to the real child- ren of God, although they may wish to live for those they so dearly love. Religion calms the troubled mind. Christ is the healing physician for all the iUs of the soul. Look to Hun, for He often afflicts, but if ne will, He never fails of a cure. I have little fear about curing the worst eases of consumption when the invalid is a true child of God, and implores the aid of Christ. The greatest and best men of every age, whether in sickness or in battle, often prayed to the God of Hosts for de- liverance. Job prayed for deliverance from disease ; Daniel prayed God to shut the :' the linns, when cast into their den : and the Lord heard and answered their of faith by .putting the evil away from them. Shadrach, Meshaeh, aad Abednego, when cast into the fiery furnace, prayed unto the God of their fathers for deliverance ; and they came forth from the flames without even so much as the smell fires upon their garments. M d by the child- . [srael, prayed unto the Lord his God. and he wasled in safety by the arm of the Almighty for forty years in the wilderness. And at the bitter waters of Marah •■ Lord, and his prayer was answered, and the waters made And our ov> I* illustrious Washington, in the darkest days oft lie I {.evolution, and in the han it, the freedom of our country, often went aside to pray to God for deliverance from oppression. And his prayer was not turned away unan- swered In all your afflictions and neglecl aoi to | ince in the strong arm of Jehovah, to lift you from the bed of pain ; for by this will your mind be calmed, and you be more liable to recover. In this manner] have een many, very many, aided t0 a r wry of health, who. bad they trusted not in God l(> 242 Till- PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGIITIIOUSE. and given themselves up to despondency and fear, would have gone down to the tomb. It is indeed a privilege to be a child of God, an heir of heaven and of eternal Bui it is a privilege we may all enjoy, for Christ has said, whosoever will come may partake of the waters of life freely, and he that drinketh thereof shall never thirst. God is able and willing to provide; and he asks all to put onthewed- irment of righteousness, and come unto the supper of the Lamb. And what ring thought is this to the consumptive ; often it lifts him from the bed of dis- 1 pain; and if it fail in that, through the wisdom of Him who doeth all things well, there is the blessed satisfaction of reposing at last in the arms of Christ, is sweet peace and unending rest, and where sickness and pain shall never come. LOSS OF MECHANICAL EQUILIBRIUM. Tins is the deforming, in whatever way, in the size, shape, or location of any or- gan of the body, a derangement of the natural mechanism of the system, which, more or less, powerfully tends to disease and death. Each bone and muscle, and every vital organ, must have its own proper place, without a contraction, hindrance or obstruction in any way, if we would have a state of perfect health. There is no part of the body but may be disorded by the loss of the mechanical equilibrium therein. To -ee the effect of a loss in the equilibrium of the neck and chest, for instance, let us look at those persons who are in the habit of carrying large weights upon the head. They are enabled to do this by preserving an erect position of the head and neck particularly, and of the person generally; but if this erect carriage .were' lost, the persons would be instantly crushed down under the weight of their loads. A well-formed figure is a beauty to any person ; and in all positions, whether ly. ing down, sitting, walking or laboring, care should be taken not to derange the mechanical equilibrium and thus produce distortion, to be followed by decay and premature death. The first great cause of feebleness, bodily suffering, and premature death, is the disturbance of mechanics] equilibrium. By mechanical equilibrium, wo here mean that just poise or balance of the human system by which all its parts are pt and properly preserved and supported, as nature designed, so thai the whole remain linn in their proper place. This equilibrium of the human body is the first great guarantee of Nature's God for tin- preservation of life and health. Man, in distinction from the beasts, vras him walking "upright" in harmony with the original of his Creator. Any deviation from this design must manifestly lie injurious to him. No wise design can be infringed with entire impunity. But this glorious law of vprigMneas has been and is constantly being infringed. Henc ore prevail The human body may aptly be compared to a machine perfectly adapted ■" B ad never t- fail, except through viol nee or accident, until those end- an' SCCOmplishod So the human body, with its various, complicated, and wonderful parts, is a ma- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 243 chiue pre-eminently adapted to accomplish important ends, and not to fail, except through violation of the great law of mechanical equilibrium by which it is sustain- ed, until it has accomplished those ends. Then, and never till then, did nature design that " the dust should return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it." The mechanical equilibrium of the human body may be disturbed or destroyed by submitting to a stooping or bending attitude in the pursuit of any occupation. Habit, and not necessity, makes people stoop and bend in their occupations. By these habits, thousands annually ruin their health and destroy their lives, in follow- ing their occupations. In all healthy and well-organized constitutions, the habit of stooping is formed ; it is not natural. It begins on the floor at home ; from thence it extends to the in- fant school ; and, as soon as may be, from thence to the common schools, where it prevails universally. [See article on Erect Carriage.] Mechanical equilibrium may be destroyed and poor health induced by wearing the clothing too tight around the waist. This is always attended with danger, and especially when the size of the waist is thereby diminished, as is the case in millions of instances. This is one of the most fruitful causes known in our world for the wide-spread havoc which disease, in its varied and multiplied forms, is making among the fairest and brightest part of creation. Close dressing, or "tight lacing," as it is sometimes called, is not exclusively practiced by the ladies. Many of the male sex, particu- larly young gentlemen moving in the more fashionable circles of life, carry this prac- tice to nearly as great an extent as the ladies themselves, though it is generally less known, they being somewhat more private about letting the secret of then- wasp- waists get abroad. From this cause millions of both sexes are constantly suffering inexpressible in- juries. By contracting the chest unnaturally, the heart and lungs are prevented from easily discharging their office, and these, in their turn, by sympathy, affect the organs of the lower bowels, and thus the foundations of life and health are all dis- turbed and thrown out of their equilibrium, and hence a large share of the physical evils and Buffering which we everywhere behold. It hat asked wli.it mean those sallow complexions, and languid eyes, and pallid lips, and hollow cheeks, and hurried breathings, and trembling nerves, and sepulchral voices, that abound in every community? Derangement of mechan- ical equilibrium, by tight lacing, is the answer. What mean the untold multitude of spinal weaknesses, and pains in the side, and kidney affections, and falling of the bowels, and hacking coughs, that meet us where. Derangement of mechanical equilibrium and support, by tight lacing, in connec- tion with weak and impure blood, must be the answer. It is impossible here to enumerate' bul a few of the many evils that follow in the train of too tight lacing of the waist. The evils are extremely deplorable, Hundn nil- from this cause annually descend into untimely graves. And still new victims are constantly multiplying to take their place. Shall there be none to pity ? none to warn ? A voice seems to come up from 244 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. the grave, and sound in our ears the note of alarm, which the living are slow to give. The mechanical equilibrium of the human body may be disturbed and deranged by accidents, so called. It would be utterly impossible for us here to particularize the numerous ways in which the just equilibrium of the human body is constantly being disturbed and accidents, and thus producing all the evils which we have enumerated. Neither their number nor extent can ever be told; yet we know they are frightful of shattered health and untimely graves. Xo people, nation, or kingdom un- der heaven is exempt ; no age has ever been free. They vary from the slightest disturbance of mechanical equilibrium and support to the most perfect annihilation, and are productive of the evils to mankind in pro- portion to the nature and extent of the disturbance. Intentional violence is another fruitful and terrific cause of disturbance and de- struction of mechanical equilibrium, inducing the loss of health and life. How vast and shocking is the field here presented to the eye of the philanthro- pist ! How dreadful to the contemplation even of a stoic or a barbarian ! It embraces within its limits all the murders that have ever been committed: all the mutilations, carnage and death of every private encounter, and of every battle- field of maddened and desperate men, throughout all time. Let the carnage upon the bloody battle-fields of the world bear witness to this. Let the mutilated and shattered frames, and broken constitutions of thousands from those fields of strife, bear witness. Therefore, let those who value health, and who would enjoy the world in comfort to a ripe old age, take good care that they do not, in any way, destroy the mechanical equilibrium of the body; for, as shown here, and in the article on "Erect Car- riage." the loss of this is the loss of health and the cause of premature decay and death. But if the equilibrium of the body is already lost, and you are suffering from any weakness of the spine, chest, loins, shoulders, &c, recollect that these de- fects must be remedied as speedily as possible. To this end, you should se- cure one of my celebrated Shoulder Braces, which prevents the shoulder blades from spreading apart, and keeps them in their regular position ; opens and expands the chest, and gives large lungs, with free respiration; braces the loins, and strengthens the small of the back; and, when used in connection with medicines for removing pains in those regions, and purifying and strengthening the blood, will give y un an ereel and handsome figure, vigorous with elasticity and strength. [See articles on Shoulder Brace, and Erect Carriage, and notices of Medicines.] LIVE YOU MUST, AND DIE YOU CANNOT, Until old age takes down your body of clay, provided 3'ou obey the moral and physical laws appointed for your governance, and moderately and temperately gratify; your nature in the legitimate way. Excess in anything con- tain, will induce disease and bring on death prematurely ; but gratification in moderation and temperance, will prolong life and give health and happiness. Keep the blood pure and healthy, and do not lose the mechanical THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 245 equilibrium of the body, and you will remain long in the land given you to inherit ; but if you choke up the system with earthy matter,' and suffer the blood to get thick and humory, death will soon take down your tabernacle of clay. Let all the powers of the body be naturally and moderately indulged in their instincts. Be men and women of wisdom, given to observation and instruction, rather than children of ignorance, given to disobedience. Obey the laws of health, and you may long and pray for death, but it will be far from you. Be cheerful, be happy and contented, yet patient and persevering: never given to idleness or licentiousness ; study purity of body and mind, and length of days will crown you with success and plenty. CONSUMPTION OP THE LIVER. This is caused by imprudence in eating and drinking, by compressure in lacing, by imperfect menstruation, caustic bile, gall stones in the liver, humors of the blood, worms, and grub in the liver. A person troubled with consumption of the liver often has a great change of the countenance, alternately pale, yellow, blue and spotted; has sometimes enlarge- ment of, or pain in, the right side, cough, expectoration, attended often with vomiting, raising the food, costiveness, and hot flushes; also, frequently a weak, pale or blue blood, with small veins and weak and slow pulse, with more or less pain and soreness in the region of the liver. Grubs in the liver often produce a copious discharge from the bowels of a bilious, watery substance, frequently accompanied with a quantity of the vermin. They also give a constant uneasy crawling or gnawing pain, indicative of the live animalculse which inhabit the liver. Sometimes an issue or running sore is formed on the side, by which the grubs matterate or are discharged in great quantities. I have known from a pint to a gallon of grubs, with secretions, burst into and be dis- charged from the bowels in a short time. The grub often cause running issues or fistulas in an extremity of the system, remote from the organ they inhabit. Grub in the spine or muscles of the back or hips, often cause running issues about or near those parts, which are frequently mistaken for white swellings or scrofulous sores, yet may be easily detected by a competent physician. [See Grub Consumption.] Consumption of the liver is often mistaken for pulmonary consumption by most physicians. And no man is properly capacitated to treat invalids suffering from this disease until lie first learns to accurately distinguisli between the two. He must do this before lie can cure either. The first grand secrets in curing consumption are to ascertain the nature of the disease, the location and the cause. But this Cannot bo accurately done without the aid of the Lung Barometer. Thousands of invalids who had consumption, induced by the presence of grub in I he system, have said to their physicians, "Give me something that will stop this sickening, gnawing pain." But the physician, not knowing the cause, could not remove the vexatious feeling. I never fully understood the sufferings of invalids troubled with consumption by grubs till I discovered and dislodged them from (he Bysti m of a patient Then l no longer wondered at his stl . Had I known of the existence of this 246 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. viper in tho human system years before I did, I might have saved thousands who have gone down to »he tomb. But now I am ready to say, Come one come all, and find delivery from the foul destroyer. KIDNEY CONSUMPTION. The office of the kidneys is to secrete from the blood the watery portion thereof, or the urine. Consumption of the kidneys may be caused by humors of the blood, falls or strains, masturbation, venereal taint, scrofula, excessive sexual intercourse, gravel, mercurial poisons, imperfect menstruation, wearing heavy skirts, tight-lacing, colds, and grub, or kidney snake. Grub in the kidneys causes dropsy, bloated legs and feet, enlarged abdomen, gleet and seminal discharges, in both sexes ; a white mucus gleet in ladies, offen- sive urine, and a grumbling pain in the region of the kidneys. The kidney snake causes similar symptoms, but the pain is more intense— the snake being more powerful and deadly than the grub. The kidney snake varies in length from four inches to three feet, and in diameter from one-eighth to one inch. This reptile is often found in animals. I have frequently taken them from domestic animals by dissecting, that I might study their nature and habits. The presence of the kidney snake often produces a weak back, as if the back were broken ; so that there is no use of the body below the small of the back. The effect of this is to give a bed-ridden invalid, who finally ends his days in con- sumption. Grub, or kidney snake, also cause a sore or a curved spine, pain in the back of the head, idiocy, insanity, convulsions, spasms, fits, and paralysis. To cure these diseases, when caused by the presence of these reptiles, they must first be de- stroyed and dislodged from the system. No description of symptoms can be given to determine whether or not the grub or kidney snake exist in the system, from the fact that the symptoms closely re- semble those in inflammation and chronic diseases. Experience and practice are the only safe guides to detect the presence of these animals and their location ; as they are as difficult of detection from other diseases as common worms or tape worms. I have cured many cases of kidney consumption, both when induced by the grub and by other causes; and in the few instances of kidney snake in the system of my patients, have succeeded in expelling them also. So that I feel no hesitation in saying that any troubled in any manner as above indicated, and who will apply to me for relief, shall be restored to health, unless their disease is of such long stand- ing as to be past all relief bj In all ordini tions of the kidneys, tho Water Regulator, the Anti-Bilious Tills, and Blood Renovator, used in connection with the German Oint- ment, applied over the Beat of the disease, will give relief and effect a cure withour. further treatment. In addition to these, it may be useful to occasionally applv electric power from the galvanic battery, or make use of the Magnetic Compass. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 247 ENLARGEMENT OF THE SPLEEN. The office of the spleen seems to be to act as a reservoir for the retention of the blood when there is an abundance in the system, and to discharge it when the blood in the veins gets low. The spleen is often enlarged by tumors and diseased by cancers, and is a favorite location for the grub, he delighting to live where he can drink the purest blood and drain the vital sweets of life. The grub is found in great numbers in the spleen, clustering in bunches like grapes. When located there, there is great pain and a gnawing sensation in the left side, a little below and to the left of the heart. Grub in the spleen cause emaciation, pain and ex- haustion, shortness of breath, and consumption, as in other organs. The grub is dislodged from the spleen in the same manner and by the same me- dicines and treatment as from other organs; and he being removed, and the system properly renovated, health ensues to the patient. SEXUAL LOVE A HAPPINESS TO AND STIMULATOR OF MANKIND. " A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband ; but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones." — Prov. xii. 4. ■Without the existing differences of man and woman, how dull, tasteless, gloomy, unloveable, unrefined and worthless would life be to both sexes! God Baid, " It is not good for man to be alone," Gen. ii. 18 ; and if alone, it is easy to see how little pleasure there would be in life to either sex — how poorly would life be worth the living. The youth looks forward with jo3'ful anticipation to that day in the future when, by acts of kindness and attention, he shall win to himself the object of bis greatest affection, and take her, with her sweetness and sympathy, to his bosom, to be the partner of his joys and sorrows, a soother in the hour of affliction, a com- forter iiir his days upon the earth. of all tin.- creations of God, woman is to man the dearest and the best. To win and enjoy the society of the female who has captivated his heart is the highest and the holiest ambition of the man; and that day in which she places her hand in his to be thenceforth bis devoted and loving wife, is the happiest of his earthly existence. How noble an- the acts of youthful level How forgetful of self is lie who exerts his everj at rve to give pleasure to the idol of his affections! How sweet the hour when tin- first kiss of confiding love from ruby lips is placed by the beautiful girl upon ill- I'ht-ek of him who is to be her stay in life — her comfort and hope of earthly happiness ; about whose heart the tendrils of her sweetest affections shall twine as the clinging ivy grasps the sturdy oak! o ed lover, the day of marriage is the happi for then o bim the gates of connubial bliss, and that joy which is the greatest of earth — the joy of a life of wedded lov< — has its hallowed com- ment. To attain to this there is no hardship be will aot encounter, no care he will not bear, no toil he will not endure, no tempest he will not brave, no thorny path of life he will not tread, no ocean but he will plow, no land but he will Ira- 248 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. verse, no mountain he will not climb ; for over, and through, and by these, he is to reap the reward of - nd gentle, loving words, and kind attentions, and endearing sympathies from the one adored object of Ids heart. And when enjoyed in its purity and holiness, this connubial love — this joy of wedded life — is at once the greatest happiness of man, and the greatest possible of all stimulants to lauda- ble ambition and exertion. But there be many who enjoy it not— many more to whom it does not come in the fullness of fruition. And why ? What is it that often tears asunder the loving hearts of man and woman ?— that invades the peace of happy families ? — that stings with the venom of the serpent the hearts of the fondest ? — that snatches from life that cup of connubial joy. in which, as it were, is a foretaste of the delights of heaven? Prostitution and its concomitant evils ! And if it remain unchecked for a few more years, spreading its foul diseases and blight- ing influences over the land, what will become of the sweet happiness of wedded life ?— what of the health of our people ? The marriage bed will become desolate in dishonor, and the once pure blood of the whole human family be filled with the seeds of consumption and premature decay ! Disease and Death, and Pollution and Harlotry, will reign upon the earth ! Health and Virtue will desert the land, and the race become miserable victims of sin ! Shall an evil of this kind continue unrcbuked? Shall sin sap the foundations of life and virtue ? Shall lust triumph over wedded love, and the desire of the devil prevail? All men know of the existence of this evil; they may be apprised of its magnitude ; they may behold its blighting effects upon health and upon religion. Be they divines, or physicians, or laymen, their eyes cannot be closed against the hideousness of the sin that stalks in our midst at noonday, and revels untrammeled at midnight And jet, they do not wrestle against it, as did Jacob of old with the angel of God. The medical shepherds have gone to sleep in drunkenness on the gains of sickness; they have feasted on the ignorance of those whom they should have warned from evil and taken the last dollar from the unwary victim of disease. What will be the fate of those men, in the day of judgment, who, being in trust upon earth, did not perform their duty to their fellow-beings by warning the youth of the land against the great evU of prostitution, and so instructing them that they should escape its snares ? And what will be the punishment of those parents who rear their children in ignorance, and warn them not of this evil, because of foolish delicacy or of indifference ? Against the spread of this monster vice, and to the furtherance of health and happiness of man and woman, the grand prescription is rational indulgence of the richest gift of God to man, in early marriage, where is purity of both sexes and happiness; unalloyed. To this should parents and teachers give countenance, that the evils of libertinism and prostitution may be suppressed, and health and happi- ness be the reward of all. WEDDED LOVE PREVENTS CONSUMPTION THE greatest and best object of life being attained, and happiness enjoyed in con- nubial love, the mind is j,l: ii partakes of a species of contentment that operates to bestow health a] a. It is not difficult to see how happiness in the wedded state bo opera iduce health, or at least in great degree to THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 249 prevent sickness. "Who does not know that often sickness is induced by the mind ? — that the mental so works upon the physical as to breed disease where none before existed, and often to carry its victim to the grave ? Every physician of ex- perience will tell you that in case of sickness the mind of the patient must be kept quiet, and, as far as possible, from anxiety and trouble upon every point, inasmuch as trouble of mind not only retards recover}'-, but often prevents it. And surely if mental anxiety retards recovery in sickness, mental repose and contentment will keep disease, in a measure, from invading the system. Disappointment in love is a fruitful cause of disease, physical and mental ; and particularly is it a friend of consumption. It is also an aid to prostitution. Look back upon the acquaintances of your younger days, and how many of you will recollect of this one who was carried to the grave of the consumptive through dis- appointment in love, or to the retreat for the insane from the same cause, or to the life of the courtesan. There have been thousands who have fallen victims to these and other evils, because of a disappointment in love, who, had they wedded the choice of their hearts in early life, would have become happy and shining ornaments in society ; aud there be thousands more who have been saved from untimely ends by participation in the joys of connubial life. Diseases having then origin in a disappointment in love matters, or in deception with regard to marriage, I have found to be the most difficult of cure of any class that the physician encounters. Indeed, consumption arising from this cause almost always baffles human skill, when there is no hope that the invalid will ever be re- ceived into the bosom of that object whose indifference or duplicity has caused the decline of health. If the party giving offense chances to die, the invalid from dis- appointed love is more likely to recover health, than if the person lived and married another. And in case the disappointed or deceived one chances to find another object of love, equally captivating and kind, on which the affections of the heart can be confidingly fixed, the probability of recovery is rendered almost certain. The healing remedy is in giving to the afflicted heart the first, or another object, around which the tendrils of love can twine. But where tins cannot be done, and no marriage with which the soul can be satisfied can be brought about, a disease having its origin in disappointment in love, no matter what form it may take — insanity, consumption, or other complaint — is most difficult of cure. I have a dread of undertaking cases of consumption arising from this cause, more than any other. Were the antidote required in the shape of a medicine, I could feel confident of suc- cess; but where it is in the shape of a stubborn man or sinful woman, who will not yield, and give a return of love, I can claim no skill in the cure of disease. Could I influence the estranged party to prescribe himself or herself as an antidote (as 1 have many times done), there would be but very few eases that would baffle the power of the treatment, more especially if full faith and confidence between the parties could bo restored. No individual, of either sex, should make promises regarding a mani- mptoms that will give token of an existing love for another party, when marriage is not fully and heartily intended. To tamper with the affections of another is a most gi ource from whence often Bows sorrow, sickness, and untimely death. Coquetry in eil picable and unpardonable. Surely, no man or woman would like to look back upon an insane, a dissipated, or ghastly consumptive person, brought to that state through their instrumentality, especially 250 TTTE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGIITIIOUSE. if there had been no cause for offense on the other side. Let those who would not look upon such an object of their own making, beware of trifling with the affections. Iu general, those who many the first love, and take a partner in early life, in whose heart is friendship and esteem, enjoy the greatest happiness in wedded life. Late marriages are very apt to be faulty ; too often there has been previous decep- tion, previous love, disappointment, perhaps sexual gratification, frequently self- pollution, and less of undivided love. At least, there is much greater probability of one or several of these, than in cases of early marriage, as will be obvious to all ; since f time gives more and more opportunities, and presents more and more temptations. The woman of twenty-five to thirty years of age, who has been " in company'' ten to fifteen years ; who lias passed through a dozen seasons of balls and parties ; who has danced with one, and rode with another, and been on excur- sions with a third, and to a watering-place with a fourth, has sung and read with a fifth, been waited on to concerts by a sixth, has practiced on the piano with a seventh, " set up" with the eighth, had her hand squeezed by the ninth, and her foot gently trod on by the tenth, and her lips kissed by the eleventh, and her waist encircled by the arm of the twelfth ; and who has been through and done a hundred other things, must be something more or less than woman, with a woman's soul and a woman's passions, if the thirteenth man find her heart whole, and her virtue untarnished. It is almost beyond the nature of things that goods so long and so often handled— that have been so many years in the market to be gazed at, and perhaps admired, and sought alter by we know nut how many, should not become tarnished in greater or less degree ! And what is true of one sex in this respect ia true also of the other. Therefore, in the very nature of things, it is easy to see how much more probable it is that happiness will follow a marriage consummated in youth than one brought about in later life. With those authors who encourage protracted celibacy, as being better for the health of the married, and better for their oflspring, and as more likely to give de- voted love and true happiness in after life, I beg to disagree. Neither reason, na- ture, inspiration, or experience sanction their views; on the contrary, they are con- tradicted by all these, as I have fully shown in other parts of this work. To give the reader a faint idea of the effects of disappointment in love— which parly marriage would have in most cases prevented— I will add a few statistics from reports of insane asylums. Hospital for the Insane reports 32 cases of insanity from disap- pointed love out of L806; Worcester Retreat, 94 out of 2326; and the Utica Asy- lum, 60 on, of 2376. I., addition to these, it should be recollected that thereifl number the cause of whose insanity is not known; and, could we get at the truth, it would be found that a much larger number of the insane than these figures indicate are the victims of misplaced afiection. Let those who have been in the habil of trifling with the love of those whom they meet in their society. I, these facta and be restrained, leal they also cause irreparable evil. Of the number of Consumptives annually sent to the tomb by this cause, it is impossible to give anj ,ll persons dying of consumption are re- ported as victims to that disease, without the cause of the disease itself 1 "■'" , "'' 1 - 1:,il ,1 "' number very greatly exceeds those made insane in the same vrey; md. were it possible to see them paraded, the sum total would be such as, I am sure, would restrain every man and every woman from foolish and premeditated THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 251 trifling in matters of love and marriage. These remarks I make for the purpose of showing to you a great cause of sickness and insanity, in the hope that a knowl- edge of the causes will lead many to guard against them and thus save much of misery to their fellows. That you may all profit from the reading hereof, is the sin- cere wish of the author. DOMESTIC QUARRELS. "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." — Pro- verbs sv. 17. Domestic quarrels are a prolific source of misery, of disease and death. Where there is quarrelling in the married state, we may expect evil to flow forth, if not to the parties themselves, to their offspring. Of the causes of domestic quarrels I will mention a few of the more prominent: intemperance, loss of property, infidelity, difference of religious views, abuse by words or acts, bad government of the children, spendthrift habits, disappointments by interference of the other party, use of snuff or tobacco, marrying to please friends or to get money instead of for true love ; dissimilarity of tastes, and likes and dislikes of pleasure ; jealousy, with or without cause ; venereal disease in either party ; deformity, or inability to cohabit, kept secret till after marriage ; and a host of others, any of which not only breed discord and turn what should be a paradise of peace into quarrelling, but often produce insanity and consumption, and operate in greater or less degree banefully upon offspring. The most of these might be avoided by candor, obedience to the laws of health and morality, forbearance, pru- dence, and consulting the heart in marriage. The number of cases of insanity arising from domestic afflictions are reported at the Pennsylvania Hospital as 53 out of a total of 180G ; at Worcester, 311 of a to- tal of 2326 ; at Utica, 92 of a total of 2743. Besides these a large number of pa- tients are reported of whose ailing the cause is '* unknown," and a good propor- tion of these, undoubtedly, are the victims of domestic difficulties. The number of deaths by consumption induced by domestic quarrels, it is as im- possible to give as to give those iuduced by disappointments in love, and for the same reason. It is greatly to be regretted, for the benefit of coming generations, that more particular statistics upon the causes of disease, as well as the causes of the death, immediately, are not kept in everyplace. Such statistics would be of Immense value to the physician, and to mankind generally. They would greatly enlighten the minds of the people, and would open means of instruction by which health and length of days would be greatly promoted. A vast amount of domestic unhappinese is caused by persons marrying without reference to the desire of the heart — for wealth, or station, or to phase friends. In order to the enjoyment of that perfect happiness which God designed Bhould ac- company the marriage state, there must be between the parties confiding and un- bounded love, sympathy of soul, anion of interest, similarity of taste, mutual desire to do all for and be all in all to each other, with disposition to yield, and forbearance, and forgiveness of trivial faults, the birth or moments of irritation. Whcro such ! , there will be afflnily of souls and reciprocation indeedsoflove that will insure such happiness as is to be enjoyed only in the married stato. As two 252 TIIK PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE drops of water when brought in contact will mingle into one in perf so will two souls, when fitted for cadi other as I have described, be mingled I er in i of a wedded life. But where love is not found — where - not union of interest, affinity of spirit and reciprocation in the offices of affection, the souls united at the altar will not i ler; they will bo like unto oil and water, which mix not, but forever remain at enmity. And though the world may judge them happy as man and wife, the world will be deceived; for happiness is not their lot. Persons deceived by, or dissatisfied with, their com- panions, may put up with their lot; they may bear their chains in silence, rather than that the world should have knowledge of their misery. Where there is no real love, and when blind passion has given way to sober reflection, or where there has been nothing wedded but gold, there will be repulsion if not disgust, and the final effects are unhappiuess, consumption, or death, or departure from chastity to revel in the waters of unhallowed lust. But when true loving souls are united, there is harmony and bliss, that in a great degree aid to health and long life. Life in the one case is rendered most miserable ; in the other, it is the nearest approxi- mation to perfect happiness that can be attained upon the earth. RESTORATION OF SEXUAL LOYE, "Where it has been lost, is a comforter and cause of domestic happiness. Where true love reigns, sorrow has no permanent abiding place, and Inured can never come; each soul is a delight unto the other; each person is a fountain of happiness to the partner of life. Where there is true love between the her will tire of the other, nor grow weary in providing each for tin; otbj ad hap- piness. By sexual love is the whole world stimulated for good and baptized into virtuous deeds, directly or indirectly. Through the influence of this, the one sex is willing to labor day and night to gather that which shall give happiness to its companion of the opposite sex. Sexual love has greater power than is contained iu all other forces of the uni vers mbined. Destroy lawful sexual lose by propagating prostitu- tion, and the virtue, the happiness, and all the choicesl of earthly blessings would be obliterated from among men. Pure and uncorrupted connubial love is the prime mover for joy and happiness upon earth toman and woman ; audit must not be gof- fered ; d by prostitution, or deteriorated by unlawful impressions with other persons, for thereby unhappiness, disease and death would come to make miserable the whole human i Sexual bliss ifi the fountain of happiness for man in domestic life ; it is the ruling power of all animal creation. And if in this mankind obeyed tin 1 obvious 'I of God, and married young and kept themselves pure in the matrimonial state, con- sumption and many other diseases would soon lie banished from among US, and the whole race would become healthier, happier and wiser. Shame upon the and the rulers of the land, thai they d t put forth their power for the su sion of harlotry, and thereby gave thousands from disease. Shame upon the mem* the medical profession, thai they do not instruct the people of the evils of Magdalenism, instead of enriching themselves from the pockets of the ignorant. upon the divines, who should be bold teachers of the people, that they do THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 253 not cry aloud against the continuance of this evil in our midst. Why should they be dumb to the interests of man and of heaven ? Why not come forth, clothed in the armor of God, and speak the truth unto the people, even though it cut right and left, like the two-edged sword of the angel of God? Shame upon those who pronounce harlotry " a necessary evil," (when there is one of the opposite sex for all) and thus discourage early marriage, virtue and purity of the sexes ; from which discouragement come disease and degeneration. Woe is unto these, for by them have offences come. Upon the women of the country I would call — upon the mothers and daughters of the land — to come out and uphold the purity of their sex and labor for the re- generation of the fallen ; to strive to banish the sin of harlotry, and so use their in- fluence that the amorous desires of nature, the passion which is holy and pure, shall be quenched in the sacred waters of connubial love. If they will do this, they will receive the thauks of millions yet unborn, and find laid up for them in heaven a crown of glory, for saving thousands from sorrow, sickness, pain and early death. LOYE HAS ITS MAGNET. The magnetism of true love is wonderful: the electric fires of this passion have led many and many a person over sea and land to unite in the sacred enjoyments of connubial bliss with the attracting magnet. Truly has it been said that " love is strong as death." — Songs viii. G. True love is an offspring of God : for God himself is love. And when the soul of man or woman has found its counterpart — its own attracting magnet — and is joined to its fellow in the bonds of matrimony, the very angels of heaven will smile a smile of gladness and joy. But if the soul find not its magnet, the true breath, and essence, and spirit of the marriage relation cannot be enjoyed. How often do we see the magnetism of love operate to carry a man thousands of miles away, that he may unite his soul to the soul of her who seems to have been appoint- ed for hi- brj !.-. How often do we see the maiden refuse many offers of marriage, feeling within herself that she has not yet found the counterpart of her heart — that her atti et has not yet drawn her soul away into the soul of another. The man and woman feel within them an instinctive longing after the magnet of their souls, and are not satisfied until they feel the magnetism of another soul and are drawn irresistibly to the bosom where the longing of love is quenched in mat- rimonial bliss. As the soul of the godly man searches ou1 the soul of another like onto itself, or as tin; soul of the ungodly searcheth for another ungodly soul, so does the love of man or woman go forth to find and meet its attra tin magnet. And when, finally, the heart has found its magnet, and two earnestl] loving spirits are united tog ther, there peace and happiness will abound; there health will be much more likely to in- found than where two dissimilar and unloving hearts arc joined together; there will be better tempered, more lovely, more intelligent, more health- ful offspring. Bui where marriage has taken place without, this afllnity of soul, dis- and contentions come, breeding unhappiness and longings for what is aol i essed, which in their turn generate often declines and consul ■ that lead swiftly to the tomb. 254 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. SECTARIANISM A CAUSE OF CONSUMPTION. It is often the case that we find in a family a great diversity of opinions upon what may well be termed the non-essentials of religion ; and see the husband be- longing to one church, the wife to another, the son to a third, the daughter to a fourth. Each of these will be set in his or her way, and will generally consider that only by the particular road he or she has chosen, can heaven ever be attained— be- lieving that the others are astray from religion and from God. The results of this diversity of opinion upon religion, or rather this sectarianism, are often lamentable in a high degree. The; give rise to disputations, to bickerings, to discords ; and of- ten by them love is turned into hatred. Such a state of things is not only to be deplored as doing much to the injury of religion, and the cause of christianizing the world, but also as a source of sickness in innumerable instances. While the members of different churches are at heart at war with each other— while the wife cannot partake of the sacrament at the same table with the husband, nor the son at the same with the daughter, or the children with the parents; all are to go down into the same grave, and each one hopes to arrive at last in the same heaven. But instead of doing that which shall earn heaven, by having charity one towards another, they let animosities rankle in the heart. True religion knows no hatred, or jealousy, or envy, or uncharitableness ; it is filled with affection towards mother, lather, husband, wife, son or daughter, brother or sister. It scruples not to bend the knee in worship of Jehovah at the same altar With those who differ in non-essentials; it prays alike with its own church member and the member of another church; it is filled with love to all and for all, and wor- ships God not after forms, but out of the truth of its heart, and from pure love of God and Christ ; it sees one God for all, one Saviour for the redemption of all. Sec- tarianism is not of God, but of man; nor will God, in the hour of judgment, judge men as the members of a church, but by the righteousness or wickedness of their hearts. Sectarianism is a fruitful cause of consumption and early death ; therefore I would warn my readers against indulgence in the feeling that it too often breeds. The seeds of disease once planted in the system from this cause, the person is much ely to recover health than if some bodily difficulty gave rise to the complaint. The healthiness of the mind should be preserved by purity of religion, and harmony ofworship, as well as the body protected from disease. For the benefit of the it would be well i;„- us to have a union church, where all the children of God could under the shadow of the cross, by the love of Christ,— a church all could be united ; when, they could pray with souls in unison, and partake Of the Supper of the Lamb together; where baptism should be in accordance with the dictates of their own conscience; where husband, wife, son, and daughter, could unite in supplication unto the Lord of Hosts, as well in the church as at the family altar ; where there would be one God, one Saviour, one religion, one love, with unity and harmony. Pure religion is a love of God for all, heaven for all. earthly commu- nion and happiness for all. Sectarianism is love for a part, God for part, hatred for part, church for part, communion for part, heaven tor part, and hell for part. The seeds of consumption should no1 be sown in the body by sectarianism. But in the way these matte- are often managed, thi frequently happens. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 255 Strifes arise, discord and hatred come, and these are followed by consumption, by insanity, by sickness, and disease. Again, then, let me warn you against this in- dulgence of ungodly sectarianism, which is from the aspirations of men, and not of God. The reports of the Utica Lunatic Asylum, show 250 cases of insanity from reli- gious anxiety and excitement, out of a total of 2743 ; "Worcester 248, out of 2326 ; Pennsylvania 67, out of 1806. Of the number of cases of consumption from the same cause, we have no means of knowing ; but certain it is that there is a great number every year, (far exceeding the lunatics,) the victims of sectarian discord and trouble. If our readers would examine the lunatic reports throughout the country, they would see at a glance the evils of sectarianism as a fruitful cause of insanity, (as it is of other complaints,) and strive not to let it breed discord among them. THICK BOOTS AND SHOES Are excellent as guards against consumptive diseases. The habit indulged in iu fashionable society, and especially among the female sex, of wearing thin shoes, through which the water penetrates as easily as through a piece of brown paper, is very destructive to health. Thousands by this means are every year hurried to the grave. In fashionable society it is considered exceedingly ungenteel to wear a shoe or boot sufficiently thick to exclude the water met with at every turn in wet weather. A patent leather, or a cloth gaiter, or very thin calf-skin, must be worn in all wear thers ; and through these the water penetrates the instant the foot touches it, and the cold from damp ground ; and then, often, the person remains through the whole day with his feet in this damp or wet situation. The effect is generally a severe cold, followed by a cough, and suppressed menstruation, and consumption, ending in untimely death. Many and many is the man and the woman that can trace decline directly and unmistakably to this source. In respect to this evil, the ladies suffer more than the gentlemen. It is notorious that the pale and delicate woman, who looks as if a breath of wind would blow her away, or a severe frost nip her down as easily as a leaf, will wear shoes in the cold- est of weather that are no more protection to the feet than paper ! And if you sug- gest that they should use something else, they will seem horrified at the idea of it! They wear a thick boot! — they would as soon think of wearing a basket upon the Now, why a woman, who has been tenderly reared in all the enervating re- finements of modern civilization, should be able to enjoy health with Less protection to her extremities than i- required by a robusl mini, passes my ability to understand. It is not to be wondered at that many of them become consumptive from this cause; and they will continue !<■ become consumptive, and will bring unhealthy offspring into ttn- world, until they abandon such pernicious habits. Wear good thick shoes that will koep out tho wet, and keep the feel from chills on going imo the cool air. 1 do not mean by thick ahoeE I tuld put on a pair of clumsy and Uncomely shoes, but use your own sense ; see what Shi i ofa shoo will protect your foot, and then wear it, despite of fashion. And when you go out doors in cold, wet weather, use rubbers; and although with these you may nut receive so many complimeuts of owning a pretty foot as you walk the street, you 256 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. will have the better satisfaction ofpossessing a rosy cheek, a sparkling eye, a lively countenance, and of enjoying good health as a reward. AIR-TIGHT STOVES. Amoxg the inventions of modern times to destroy health, we may reckon the air- tight stove, which is being brought into use in many places. This article is decid- edly injurious to the consumptive person, as well as often aiding to induce the dis- ease. I would advise the discontinuance of their use. Though you may save by them a few dollars in fuel you will lose many more by having yourself or some one in the family made sick by them. Air-tight stoves operate in all rooms where there is not a fresh circulation of the air, to destroy the oxygen or vital principle of the air. And thus the air is made impure and unfit to breathe, and becomes the medium of disease and death. Also, there not being any draught whereby the gases generated by the combustion of fuel are. carried off through the pipe, they find their way into the room, filling it with a poisonous atmosphere that no man can breathe and remain in good health. And as this bad atmosphere is continued hour after hour, and day after day, and often through the night, in rooms where persons sleep, it will be obvious to any one that ill health must be produced thereby. If these stoves are to be used, they must be allowed a free draught through them, the same as others, or no person consumptively inclined and living by them, can expect to get better. I have but little hope of the power of medicine to cure any one living in the room with an air-tight stove. [See Arti- cle on Air.] As I have shown in other parts of this work, no man can continue in good health who is constantly breathing an impure atmosphere. It is often the case that persons sit day after day in a room where an air-tight stove is consu min g nearly all the oxy- gen of the air that is admitted, and filling it with gas. And if they do this, it is not at all strange that they become sick. Illness after such treatment of the lungs, is but the effect of an obvious cause ; and those who see the cause, and do not endea- vor to guard against it, cannot in reason expect to escape consumption. If you would not precipitate yourself into the tomb, you must discard those articles, and abandon those practices, which lead thereto. THE DEATH OF A RELATIVE OR FRIEND Often- breeds a consumption, under which the victim is carried to the grave. That sorrow " which will not be comforted" is extremely injurious to health, and often fatal to life. Whatever the cause of a great sorrow, if the sorrow bo not put away in a certain degree, it will eat upon the body, and carry its victim to the tomb. An unrestrained indulgence in anguish over that which has passed, or which is in- evitable, is both irreligious and unphilosophicaL is forewarned against by God, and should be banished from even- person. If it has been the choice of Provid remove from us a beloved husband or wife — a dear child, or a fond parent, it is our duty to receive such i of resignation, and not bow down in utter subjection unto sorrow. Or if any other afflictions have come upon us, it is in opposition to true piety or to sound philosophy, to give up wholly in sorrow. To THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 257 have sorrow for the death of a near friend is both right and natural ; but to let it prey upon the spirit, and wear out the body, as is often done, is neither right or na- tural ; not right, because it doubts the power of God to raise to new life ; not natu- ral, because it becomes a feeling of morbidness and irreligion, rather than a godly sorrow of submission. The victims of undue sorrow are many. The loss of friends, the loss of property, defeat in the attainment of some desired point, the sickness or sad fate of children, disappointment in love — these and many other tilings generate in sympathetic na- tures a sorrow so lasting and poignant as to wear out the person. Young females who have been disappointed in love, are particularly the subjects of this. Having lavished upon the idol of the heart all the richness and sweetness of their love and affection, and then being deserted, they fall into what sometimes proves an incura- ble sorrow, and often pine away and die. This is at once wrong, foolish, and sin- ful ; wrong, because it produces evil effects upon the body unnecessarily, and which work no good to any one ; foolish, because indulgence therein can neither mend nor restore that which is broken or lost ; sinful, because it brings anguish and sorrow to others also, and is in opposition to that godly piety and resignation which should dwell in every heart. Besides the victims to consumption from grief, numerous persons are thereby made insane. The Report of the Pensylvania Insane Retreat gives 268 cases of insanity from sorrow, induced by loss of friends, loss of property, disappointed affec- tion, disappointed expectation, and domestic difficulties, out of 1806 cases in total ; at the Worcester Retreat 645, of a total of 2463, are referred to the same cause ; and at the Utica Retreat 855, of a total of 2143, are similarly reported. As an antidote against disease, cheerfulness is excellent ; but undue sorrow is the reverse ; therefore it is the part of wisdom to " take trouble by the smooth handle " — to lay not up sorrow in the heart, but to feel, even though affliction settle around you, cheerful and resigned. Troubles taken thus become less difficult to be borne ; their weight is sensibly diminished ; and under their presence neither soul or body feels so acutely the burden as if they were met by either a complaining or a sorrowing spirit. To preserve health, and to live to a good old age in enjoyment of the world, learn to take " trouble by the smooth handle," and, however much you are afflicted, to look upward and ahead with a hope unending, and that cannot be overcome. CONSUMPTION, A CHILD OP FASHION. " Then why thuu fade the loveliest flowers ? Oh, why do the young and the beautiful die, Ere they drink, of the rapture of summer's sweet hours, Ere the brow huth a cloud or the bosom a sigh 7" Consumption is, in a greal degree, a child of Fashion, though H is found in almost all parts of the world. As I have shown in different places in this work, the fashions of dress, of eating, of drinking, of turning nighl into day. of delaying ige, of marrying without love, and numerous others, are the causes of many il consumption, as well a.s of other diseases. To show how much v. made victims of consumption by our fashions and habits, we may look at the North 17 PE( (PUB'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. American Indians, among whom this disease is of very rare occurrence. Although they are subject to the vicissitudes of all sorts of weather, they seldom become weakly and run into decline. They have no health-destroying fashions. They are not brought up in the enervating and destructive habits that prevail among civilized : and therefore when meeting accidental causes to disease that would produce a fatal eflfect upon the enervated citizen of the fashionable town, their systems aro able to withstand these effects, and they escape the colds and the consumptions so prevalent and so fatal among us. And the deleterious influences of our fashions maybe shown in other respe comparison of our fashionable women with the Indian women, and those of other uncivilized nations— as in parturition. Every physician, and every mother, knows of the pains and the labors in child-birth among us. But how is it in this matter with the Indian woman? Says Stephenson, in his "Twenty Years' Residence in South America" " Among the Araucanian Indians, a mother, immediately on her delivery, takes her child, and going down to the nearest stream of water, washes herself and it, and retires to the usual labors of her station." And Lawrence, in " Lectures on the Natural History of Man," observes—-' The very easy labors of native Americans, and other women in the savage state, have been often noticed by travelers. This point is not explicable by any prerogative of physical formation, for the pelvis is rather smaller in these dark-colored races than in the European and other white people. Simple diet, constant and laborious exertion, give to these children of nature a hardiness of constitution, and exempt them from most of the ills which afflict the indolent and luxurious females of civilized societies. Analo- gs, from the like causes, may be seen in the animal kingdom. Cows kept in towns, and other animals deprived of their healthful exercise, and accus- tomed to unnatural foods and habits, often have difficult labors, and suffer much in parturition." These facts are sufficient to show that in a great degree the ills of civdized life are fairly chargeable upon the habits and fashions of the people. If we would discard the pernicious practices which I have labored to point out, and would obey the laws of liil- and health, there would be for us all a much larger amount of physical strength than we now enjoy ; we should improve as a race, consumption would become a rare disease, and we should be mentally and physically superior to whal we now are or ever will be while pernicious fashions rule. It is found in the history of the American Indians, once inhabiting the whole of this continent, where consumption now prevails, and occupying the very lo ^population now inhabit, that a case of pulmonary consul -in while living in their savage state! But when they are brought intowhiti ts, and civilized, and. ts prevalent among us. tiny become as liable to consumption as the whites! Now, wrhal are the physi tics of the Indian in his wild woods? He i.i in hi- figure; his chest is full and symmetrical, in- ' ''"• Ill "" s ; ! and shoulder-blades are laid flat i ' 1 " '■ 1 "-'- : "" 1 ""■ whole weighl ofhisarms, shoulders, and shoulder-1 '" &a<* of the chest— this always operating be is much out of doors, and breathes freely of a pure, I never in his walk; he pursues no avocations that have a tend, i - t the and he indulges in athletic ■ THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 259 animals ; for they do not hare consumption in their wild state, but when brought under unnatural habits, frequently suffer therefrom. This shows how much con- sumption is a child of fashion. ASTHMA, A CURABLE DISEASE. This painful disease is an affection of the lungs or bronchial vessels, and generally of a spasmodic nature, occurring in paroxysms, which take place usually at night. Under its influence there is a short and difficult respiration, wheezing, stricture of the chest, and a cough ; all of which are worse when lying down than when sitting. It is more general among persons of a full and plethoric habit, than with others ; more common among men than among women. Asthma having once manifested itself in a person, it usually returns periodically, especially if excited by certain causes, such as a sudden change from cold to warm weather — from a heavier to a lighter atmosphere ; severe exercise, which imparts a quicker circulation to the blood ; an increase in the size of the stomach from over- eating or from a collection of air in the stomach ; exposure to cold, obstructing perspiration, and causing an accumulation of blood in the lungs; irritations of smoke, dust^ and other noxious particles in the air; disagreeable odors; and violent excitements of the mind. There are two species of this disease — the humid, and the dry., or spasmodic. When there is a free discharge of mucus, it is termed humid ; when there is little or no expectoration, it is designated the spasmodic asthma. The fits of asthma are brought on by almost anything which increases the action of the heart, and stimulates and fills the vessels of the mucous membranes. In- tense heat, lightness of air, severe exercise, full meals, stimulating drinks, exposure to cold, effluvias, and strong mental emotions, produce the asthma in many persons. Congestions of blood, or of serous humors hi the lungs, sudden changes of temper- ature, rheumatic, gouty, scrofulous and scorbutic taints, dyspepsia, irritation of the . organs of respiration, suppression of accustomed evacuations, frequent catarrhal attacks, water in the chest, aneurisms, general debility, polypi, concretions of gruin- ous blood in the large vessels — all these are causes from which this disease may arise in different individuals. In many cases it results from a malformation of the a defect at birth, or brought about by bad habits of dress; and in man; moi salt of an hereditary predisposition. The patienl is generally forewarned of the approach of an asthmatic paroxysm by heartburn, indigestion, languor, flatulency, itching of the skin, sleepiness, and pain ,,<. i be attacks are commonly at night, and often wake the per- son from Bleep. Frequently the tightness is so great, as to threaten immediate toppage of respiration. For a considerable time will bo hut gasps, slowly, and with a wheezmg noise — speaking diffi- cult and painful, and a propensity for coughing. Commonly the paroxysms will subside bj morning; breathing and speaking will be easier; generally there will expectoration, on which the patient will feel easier. These fits com- oighl for three or four nights in succession; they will then gradually yield, and the paroxysm will terminate, till some cause or causes induce a return. During a fit of asthma, the pulse v. ill be weak, irregular, or quick, indicating a 2G0 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAX LIGHTHi disturbance of the h face of the body will be pale, the muscl shrunk. [] be a copious flow of limpid urine. Wh< 11 thi ; to asthma is strong, it may be brought on at any time ] '}' '■■■ ■■ hut if it be weak, it will recur periodically. illy there will always need more or less difficulty of breathing il. or if running. Wheezing i . with a morbid accumulation of mucus in the bronchial tubes. often the case that persons suffering from this disease acutely cannot lie down in bed; and many sleep in a chair year after year — the constant prey of dif- ficult respiration and fear of sudden death * n l;i iffieiently dilated with air. the pas- blood through the puhnona i ,t free; hence the face will appear full and bloated, and the .yes unnaturally turgid. During the fit, the patient has a I fresh air, which often revives him. A close room, with a lire in it, ad forthe astl . :,, n internally. In asthma, BOmetimesthe patient will Lave a lit, and then remain free for mi jular intervals of ten days or a fortnight, or once a. The reason why the fits so often occur first in the night, is supposed to be owing to the heat of the bed. and the horizontal position of the body. b> lapses in this disease an ith an increase of the sympl vigor of the constitution is impaired, till finally a chronic weakness is im The difficulty, of breathing ie s asation of at the patient will feel as if he were bound with cords. His anxiety is inexpressible, and he labors in i . momenl would be hi ;, 1]1(ls "■' cokL ;11!t l be an d fabtings. Cool, fresh air becomes absolutely necessary. While thus laboring for bra rise from his bed; he cannol I | clothes upon him. The shoulders are elevated to give the . i power of action in nosing the ribs in inspiration. When the violence of and the respiration I i , the patienl begins ■ often mixed with blood. This affords relief; I m the vessels wliich have been obstructed. Tl one of the most certain Bigns of the abatement of the complaint ; par- lv if a moisture and softness of the skiii, and a sediment in the urine, make their appearance. The bJood spif up generally comes from a rupture or dilatation ofbl 1 vessels in the lunga Semi times the quantitj ,le; bul all live discha from the lungs, though they afford relief; are unfavora - they denote disease. Thi ill sometimes gush out blood d I the blood through the puhm a nicle of the heart, asthma generally increase in violence and d ration from the muc Of mucus greater than natural. By (his the air vessels are fa, with phlegm; the respiration is rendered difficult, and the patienl breathes with great difficulty, even in the absence of the asthmatic fit. Thus the humid or THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 261 humoral asthma is united with the spasmodic or convulsive, and both exist together in the same patient. The humid asthma is a disorder of the mucous glands of the lungs ; the discharge being too copious, the respiration is obstructed. This kind of asthma is more con- stant, but not so violent as the spasmodic. Both these are generally less trouble- some in warm than in cold weather ; but in some cases this is not so ; and in a/ew, the irritability of the constitution and the rarefaction of the blood are so much in- creased by warm weather that the fits are more frequent and severe than in cold. After the convulsive asthma there is often soreness in the breast, partly from the muscular exertion, partly from the cough. Sometimes there are shooting pains in the sides. The frequent returns of asthmatic fits cause sometimes obstructions in the lungs, producing tubercles. These are most liable to be generated where the chest is contracted, and the lungs do not have free play. They occasion a continu- ance of cough, ending in inflammations, attended with internal pains, difficulty in breathing, and hectic fever. The humoral asthma often supervenes on the convulsive; and the convulsive sometimes attacks those previously afflicted with the humoral. Persons subject to catarrhs and coughs, expectorating large quantities of phlegm, are sometimes sud- seized with the spasmodic asthma. It may last but an hour; perhaps a day or two; and then leave them suddenly. The old cough or humoral asthma will continue ; and finally another fit of the spasmodic will come on, generally more violent than at first: it goes away again, but is repeated, till it finally becomes habitual ; and the patient finds himself laboring under a complication of two dis- eases ; the one aggravating the other, and both growing worse. The stomach and bowels are liable to be affected in the convulsive asthma; they are often seized with colic pains, and burning heats, are distended with wind, and i >ns motions, which give a sensation as if something were moving and fluttering within. The appetite is impaired, and sleep prevented or disturbed, and nnrefreshing. The menses are sometimes obstructed; sometimes brought on before I when the patient is plethoric, that discharge is accompanied with relie£ The .inns, shoulders and other upper parts of the body are often affect- ed with an uneasiness. In bhe lasl state of the disease, it is common that the pa- tient has hectic fever, coldness of the extremities, swelled legs, diarrhoea, faintings, palpitations, vomitin cms dropsical symptoms, arising from weakness, re- laxation, and obstruction of the circulation of blood in the lungs. The c mi- Mines combined with pleurisy, peripneumony, catarrhal and consumptive disorders. Asthma may mani ' my age, but generally it does not appear till after the prim- of life is past thmatic patients is a matter of great importance. In general they cannot breathe easy in elevated situations ; too great, a proportion of o in the air irritates their weak lunge. An easterly wind is considered injurious, but why, v- , ■... a id more irritating. In some instances, latics And relief by resorting to warmer climates, but this is not always tho [haveknov i oatic persons going from New England to the Bonthern parts of the United States, and beinfj free from tl omplaint for four or five years while there, but feeling it immediately return on coming back. In 262 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE other cases, it has returned to individuals after they had become accUmated at the South. The- patient suffering from asthma should have regular exercise. Walking is the best that can be employed. Sailing has been found advantageous. If carriage or horseback exercise is taken, the feet should be kept warm. Moisture should be avoided, and if the clothes get wet they should be immediately changed. The night .id be shunned, and flannels worn next the skin. Generally, this disease, like consumption, is considered incurable; nevertheless, many persons suffering from it have been restored to health. When taken in season it may 1 ie overcome. In most cases, the Blood Eenovator, Anti-Bilious Pills, Lung ■, and German Ointment, administered according to directions, will afford relief: and if taken before the disease becomes too far advanced, they will effect a cure. But in obstinate and difficult cases, a thorough course of medicine, expressly prepared, will be required. The intervals between the fits are the periods when me- dicines may be most successfully employed to eradicate the disease; for though we iebility, and in Borne degree prevent organic derangement by mitigating the severity and shortening the duration of the fit, yet it seldom happens that a paroxysm proves fatal. An asthmatic patient should not content himself with be- ing relieved from a fit of the disease: he should persevere to obtain a radical cure. nerally the case that asthmatic patients discontinue the use of medicines so soon as they are relieved from the paroxysm. They labor underthe impression that the disease Mice upon them, there is no getting rid of it, just as many consumptives do; and foolishly and sinfully resigning themselves to what they would call their fate, float down the stream of life into the realms of death without making a single proper effort for recovery, "tt'hile life remains there is hope of health; and he who does not remember this and strive for a cure, commits a sin against himself and : his God. To effect a cure, the patient must persevere in the use of the pro- per remedies ; unless this is done, no one can reasonably hope to get well of any dis- ease whatever. EXIT SHIRTS HASTEN CONSUMPTION. WITH reference to the articles of clothing worn next the skin, it is proper that a (i w remarks should be submitted, showing their effect in some cases. The health ■ u depends no little upon the clothing worn; and in some cases of this is a matter of the most vital importance. tents furnish but little information. Their uniformly woolens, and probably washed but seldom, though the t this was not at all a good custom. The clothes, as well as the body, should be The interior clothing i f the preseni day is of linen, or cotton, or flannel. The first of these, when worn nexf the skin, should lie frequently changed, in order to keep up perspiration. The only real objection to linen is, thai it absorbs the mois- ture slowly, and except in warm weather, is too great a conductor of heat from the body. For the purpose of absorp erspiration, cotton or calico is better than THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 263 linen ; and for shirts or bed gowns it is on this account preferable. Eor children, on many accounts, it is the only proper article of shirting. Flannel is a still better article for absorption of the perspiration ; and if only this is to be considered, it is preferable to any other cloth. The application of different kinds of clothing to different diseases, is a subject which should receive the investigation of every physician. On a person of thin, emaciated habits, the use of flannels next the skin has been thought by eminent men to be injurious ; because by creating a perspiration they have a tendency to exhaust the system to a greater extent than it can bear. In cases, however, where it is worn, the person should admit air to the skin at least once a day ; and those who have been accustomed to this internal dress should dispense with its use with great caution. Calico should in the summer be substituted for flannel, and the pe- riod of its wear protracted annually : while in spring the flannel should be earlier left off. In general however, flannels create but little debility if free air be allowed. When the object is to produce and continue a free discharge of sweat, flannel is essentially necessary. Flannel shirts should be frequently changed and washed. They should never be worn above two or three days without being rinsed in cold water, and hung in the open air. Emaciated persons, with weak blood, and slow circulation, should not wear silk under-shirts, as they conduct away too much of the animal heat, leaving the ex- tremities to grow cold. In warmer climates, or in the hot weather, or on persons of fuller habits, they may be used, as they are cooler and more agreeable. Next to silk lor coolness in summer is linen, then cotton. In general, woolens cannot be re- commended in warm weather, unless the person is subject to frequent changes of atmosphere, or is made to sweat profusely by his employment. A mixture of cotton and wool is preferable for under-shirts in warm weather. The whole person should be exposed once or twice daily to the air, and should be rubbed briskly with the hand, or a flesh brush, or with a linen or woolen rag or towel. As in the case of animals, so with man ; the body will be apt to be " hide- bound" unless this be done. Rubbing softens the skin, opens tho pores, loosens the flesh, allows a freer escape of the perspiration, and creates a brisker circulation of the I • My objection to the article of knit shirts for an under-dress is, that it fulls up quickly, contracts tightly upon the skin, excludes all air, and retards the escape of the waste of the body through perspiration, and deadens the force of tho circula- tion of ill'- i' 1 2 nervous irritability, disturbed sleep, and bad dreams. ugh tli" contraction of a knit shirt about the body may not be so much as rosses upon the skin to a greater or less de- nd thereby Impedes a proper action. Of this fact I am assured by my own observations; and I have met hundreds of instances where the use of this article was working injuriously Upon the system, and aided the increase of consumptive Symptoms, by contracting the chest and organs of respiration. [Therefore, 1 would lance of Its use as an article of under-clothing. Knit drawers Contract in the same way, and impede the circulation, making the limbs sleepy, All drawers should sit looso, so as not to hind upon the skin, and to admit the air. A- a general thing, people in this country do not wear a sufficiency of clothing in the cold seasons; and in the summer they wear too much. Manypersona a J MED] :. : : same ' •"• round, which should never be practised There is not sufficient attention paid to the changes of climate. Comfort should always be in those eases where perspiration has been freely induced by exercise or from other cause; and in such cases, the sense of any individual shou1 '' . comfort is not to bo the rule for governance. Persons going on journeys, or even on short excursions, sliould always be provided with with umbrellas, and in wet seasons with rubbers, to be pre- in the weather and for storms that may arise. This precaution ;• a fit of sickness, and prevent numerous cases of consumption. BRONCHITIS. Tms disease is an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes, through which the air is conveyed to the lungs. It may be either chronic or acute. Its most general cause is the ap- plication of cold to the body, sud- denly checking the perspiration. Sometimes it is brought on by over-exertion in speaking, sing- ing, or playing on wind instru- ments; by grub, and by other causes mentioned heretofore in this work. It is very frequent in cold and variable climates. • : ^ Acute bronchitis generally com- mences like a common cold or ^ catarrh, with cough, oppression and tightness of the ches tude, chilliness and some fever. ^ II is generally attended with - hoarseness; respiration is more difficult when lying down than when erect. As the disease in- creases, the severity of the symp- toms becomes greater, and in breathing there is a wheezing, This rut pnnnt, a view of the bronchial tube laid ^^ S0UDd fr ° m ^ t,iryat > open, to expou its tuberculous nn.i ulcerated appear- ^ ^ l ' K ' au " were forced through ance in a case of bronchitis. The expanded wings at u small aperture clogged with a the bottom an the two division* ol the tube, running thick fluid. A1 first the OOUgh is No. 42.— Case of Bronchitis. lung, and branching in every direction. The section of a bronchial tube at the Bide represents it in its natural state. dry; but after a time a of transpar* nt mucus is tin-own up copiously, and the vio : the inflammation terminates without suppuration, the matter THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 265 coughed up becomes mixed with yellowish, white or greenish masses, which: more and more till they form the entire of the expectoration. There is generally a severe pain in the forehead, made worse by coughing; the tongue is white and covered with transparent mucus ; and the skin is dry. Chronic bronchitis is often the result of the acute, but it more commonly arises from a neglected catarrh. Sometimes it is the consequence of measles, hepatic dis- eases, and of protracted disorders primarily located in the digestive organs. Some- times it comes directly from exposure to the vicissitudes of heat and cold, and from inhaling irritating vapors or particles of matter from the air. It occasionally occurs in consequence of whooping cough, especially if cold be taken. Chronic bronchitis is accompanied with troublesome cough, attended with copious expectoration. There is an uneasy and oppressed respiration, sometimes a wheezing, weight and uneasiness at the pit of the stomach, loss of appetite, furred tongue, irregu- lar action of the bowels, quick and irritated pulse, red and scanty urine. The cough- ing will be generally in fits. Sudden changes of air increase the violence of cough- ing; and the same effect will be produced by the inhalation of vapors, dust, and sometimes by the act of swallowing. BronchitLs, both acute and chronic, is often a secondary affection. There are but few diseases of the lungs in which it does not play a more or less important part. It constantly occurs in tuberculous diseases, in cancer in the lungs, influenza, and in pneumonia and pleurisy. It is also of common occurrence in heart disease. The persons most liable to bronchitis are those who inhale metallic dust, such as needle and edge-tool and gun-barrel grinders ; next those who inhale animal or ist, as sawyers, millers, starch-makers, and flax-dressers; thirdly, those exposed to sudden changes of temperature, as glass-blowers, bakers, brewers, brass and iron-founders, and the like. After these wo have persons of sedentary habits, as tailors, clerks, shoemakers and jewelers. Bronchitis, in its acute form, is seldom fatal; but when it has become chronic and is induced in connection with acute diseases, it is more liable to cause death. The number rded in New York, in 1851, from bronchitis, was 25-1. ich sometimes induce an attack of bronchitis are curious. Many persons cannot visit a certain locality withoul fei ling an attack of this com- plaint. In some cases, a change of Locality will affed a cure where medicines have produced bui little good The city residenl is ofti a bi ai Sted bj a visit to the country, and the country residenl by going to the city ! Bronchitis, and ol of the throat, cause pulmonary consumption. In- flammation of tin- wind-pipe, and ulceration of tin' vocal ami respiratory organs, leading t" tl e consumption, by Like vigorous dng, which is necessary for the proper purification of the blood and to keep the lungs in a bealthy condition. This di prevalenl than am other n of the pulmonary organs, and is ofti □ mi taken for consumption. Gene- rally, it is neglected in it-- earlier stages, ami therefore often results fatally. In all I tor, Blood ] Lnti-Bilioua Pills, Catarrh Snuff] and German Ointment, should be u ad until B cure is effected. These will effect acure in aJ barelj le, if bronchitis does not yield to them, a nril] ivenon application ton or in person. 266 TEE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. WOMB AND OVARIAN DISEASES Ft* ' Womb. — These difficulties have become so common of ■ us country, that it is estimated by a physician that one-fourth part of the married women in cities are subject to the last ; how many to the other we known.it. Of the causes producing these c iplaints, we have spoken in articles on Abdominal Supporters, Shoulder Braces, Customs of Dress, Corsets ami i ed Dr. Meigs, of Philadelphia) "hundreds of poor i bled and cupped, mercurialized, blistered, and antimonated, under . - tion of liver complaint, or inflammation ol the kidneys, who have really committed the small and venial fault of letting the uterus tall dowu a meagre half inch perhaps." From this statement of Prof M.'. may be able to judge something of the skill of many of the regular medical fraternity. The subjoined cut represents? sectionally, the internal organs of the female in the abdominal re- gion. 1, is the bladder; 2, the womb; 3. the vagina; 4. the rec- tum, or large bowel; the bone back of the rectum is the prolon- gation of the vertebral column or spine, known as the sacrum and coccyx; above the bladder and womb are shown the smaller in- testines. From this representation the reader will be able to see how the top of the womb may fall forward upon the bladder, taking the position shown at figure 2 at the top of the cut, or back upon the rectum, taking the position shown at figure 1 at the top; in the first instance producing a desire to evacuate the water very often, and inflammation of the bladder; in the latter causing constipation. .Also, it can be seen how the top of the womb may fall to either side; and also how, as is often the case, it can fall directly down into the vagina : also, how tin- bowels may fall down upon the womb After conception has taken place, tin 1 w b enlarges in size, and consequently idder in front and the rectum behind. But at about four and a-half months of conception, the womb rises entirely out of the vagina, and above the bladder, ai as until the period of parturition. A cartful study of the above cut willgivo the reader a correct idea of the various the " falling of the womb." A gi Jling of the womb is leucorrhea, combined with other causes. No. 43.- -Abdomen op thk Fkmai.e — Ixtehxal \'n w. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 267 Leucorrhea is induced by the fasliions of town life, and by indolence ; by exhaus- tion ; bad and watery foods, with too little meat and bread : often use of those de- troyers of health, fashionable rocking chairs ; and by over-excitements. Combined with leucorrhea is bad habits of dress and ill-chosen foods, to effect falling of the womb. Dress, as I have shown, weakens all the muscles of the system, and pro- duces a state of general debility, so that they are not able to hold the womb in its proper place. If the waist be bound about by a lot of heavy skirts, bearing down the bowels constantly ; if a peeked bodice be also thrust down upon the bowels, and if the chest, in which are those vital organs that must have perfect action in order that the muscles may receive the strength necessary to a proper discharge of then office, be crippled with a tight dress or a pair of corsets, there cannot be healthy action in any part ; and if the muscles lose their strength from these causes, as is the case in thousands of instances, they cannot possibly hold the womb in its proper place, particularly while these causes are kept constantly in existence and at work against the muscles. No organ or part of the female frame is so liable to get displaced as the womb, and the affection of no other organ will sooner prostrate and break down the person, Unless speedily remedied. If the muscles that support the womb retain their strength, and the bowels do not fall upon it from above, it will remain in its proper place. The most universal immediate cause of the falling of the womb is the pres- sure of the bowels upon it, from above, induced by the causes I have mentioned ; though it is possible that it may be displaced by falls sideways on the hips, or flat on the back, or on the stomach. Sometimes the womb becomes congested and en- larged, from miscarriage or other cause, and in that case it may fall down by its own weight. The top of the womb maybe thrown backwards, upon the back pas- sage ; or forwards, upon the bladder. Sometimes it falls to one or the other side of the upper part of the pelvis, or false pelvis, but the most common change is where it falls directly into the front passage, sometimes protruding externally. The annexed engraving represents a ell in at the top, and protruding into rina; making a very distressing case, the like of which I have frequently been called upon to prescribe for, seldom failing \. and in most cases bet cure. When the top of the womb falls back- kes upon the back passage, the female will experience an acute pain in hi of the back — with inability to sit, stand, walk, or lit; down, without enduring illy, in this con- dition, the only position that will afford tho relief, is that of Bitting on the bed. Eysteric fits not unfrequent- ly arc produced by the pain from the derangement of the womb in this direction. When the top of the womb Calls forwards, it impinges on the hack part and top of the bladder, causing an inability to retain the urine. There are groat pains in the bladder and in the Jtomach. The best position for relief is lying on tho back. No. 44. — "Womb fell in at toe top. 2G8 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSES. When the womb falls directly down into the front passage, it gives a weakness, and heat, and pain in the small of the back; inability to walk much, especially to go up stairs ; the patient is very easily fatigued, with the smallest amount of exer- cise ; nervousness is induced ; there are tremblings all over the body, if unusual cxerci- listlessness and languor prevail, and the person is inclined I much of her time in bed. Sometimes there is excruciating pain at the very end of the backbone, with numerous other disagreeable and distressing feel- ings ; of which a ''bearing down" — a feeling as if everything were coming out of the body — is the most common. Tin.' falling of the womb often produces difficulties in the bladder, diseases of the spine, and fluor albus, — the last very debilitating in its effects, and tending to con- sumption. Barrenness is also induced by the same cause. The falling of the bowels often induces a miscarriage, from which many a woman dates her decline into consumption, besides the danger arising at the time from floodings and inflammation of the womb. Also, floodings, without a miscarriage, are often referable to the same cause. When we consider the various dangerous and painful difficulties ensuing from the falling of the bowels and womb; when we note their effects upon the health and life of woman, and through her upon the succeeding generation ; who does not feel astonishment that if the causes of these effects are known, those causes are not universally abandoned ? To lay the causes before that portion of the commu- nity — male and female — which I can reach through the medium of this work, I have deemed a duty incumbent upon me. And I would call upon those who read, and upon those who have suffered, and are still suffering, to aid the cause of health, by abandoning the bad habits of dress, and other evils which I have labored to point out. By thus doing — by giving up those practices and habits which induce the diseases, we may not only be able to recover health, but may often escape In all cases of falling of the bowels and womb, it will be imperatively necessary to lay aside the pernicious habits which induce most instances of these complaints, if the patient would be restored to health. While they are continued, there can be lint a remote hope that any means whatever will avail to effect a cure. If a person wished his system purified from the effects of mercury, and should still continue to rcury every day, we should hardly expect that his wish could be gratified. And so, if a female desires to be relieved of the afflictions caused by falling of the womb, and still perseveres in the use and exercise of those customs and actions that induce the complaint, we can hardly hope that she will be restored to health. But if she will give these up — if she will hear to the advice of the most eminent medical men in this and in other countries upon this point— and will take the proper remedial agents to strengthen the muscles and the system generally, and renovate and invigorate the bl 1, Bhe is by no means past recovery. Thousands have been restored to pi rfecl health by thus doing; thousands more may he, if they will. Polypus cf the Womb. — Occasionally there will appear growing by a narrow to the inside of the womb, a tumor, commonly called polypus. Son grow to a size almost incredible; and in manj eases the symptoms to Which they give rise are mistaken by the ignorant or careless practitioner for somo other com- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 269 No. 45. — Womb and Appendages. plaint, and the patient is dosed with medicines utterly inadequate and often injurious. Cases of polypi are often mistaken for uterine enlargement. The annexed engraving repre- sents the womb or uterus, with its appendages. The vagina, or passage leading to the womb, is laid open, exposing a polypus therein. Some- times these polypi appear in the womb itself, where they are often mistaken for a foetus, as if preg- nancy existed. At the sides of the womb are seen the ovaria. In this engraving, one of the ovaria has grubs growing in it ; in the other maybe seen the ovum or eggs of the female, which, being impreg- nated with the semen of the male, are developed into the human being. A polypus in the vagina or womb, and grubs in the ovaria, seldom ap- pear at the same time : but this en- graving will convey an idea as they exist separate. When any of the organs of generation are affected as here described, child-birth is difficult, and dangerous to the life of the woman ; and wherever they exist, pregnancy should, if possible, be prevented. The polypus generally arises from the presence of humors in the blood, and while amors remain, it will continue toin- It may be overcome in many instances by the use of internal medicines, rgical operation will bo found ; : ry. In all cases, however, medicines 1 to purify the blood, so as to of the tumor. Ufa ations oj th< Worrib. — The neck of the womb is liable to be afflicted with ulcers of various kinds — originating sometimes through the vie ution and kindred evils — sometimes by misfortunes of a dif- ferent characti r. When these are of a ius order, they present very alarming symptoms. i f thai the physician should understand the nature of the 'i ; -' ase, in order that, if he have skill in the preparation of mi ISTo. 4G.— Cancerous and Ulcerated Womb. •270 TIIE TEOrLF/S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. lie may cure it, with ease. All cases of ulceration of the -womb may be said to be perfectly curable. When the womb is in the condition represented in cut No. 46, cohabitation should lUowed by the woman, nor indulged in by the man, without the use of the i Male Safe. trib. — This is a complaint of very frequent occurrence. In my remarks upon cancers generally, I have spoken of their often appearing upon the organs of generation — particularly upon the breast. It is the purpose in this placo to speak more particularly of those appearing upon the womb. The supposed origin of cancers in the womb are various. In some cases they have been claimed to be hereditary; and there are certain facts going to support this theory, in many cases. But, as a general thing, it will be found that this theory does not explain their origin. Where there is a humor transmitted in the blood from one generation to another, of a character that develops itself in cancer in the first instance, it is easy to see that it will also be manifested in the same way in the next and succeeding generations. In this light it may be called hereditary. But in the majority of cases, cancer of the womb is believed to arise from a slow inflam- mation of that organ. And, as inflammations in this organ are kept alive by impurities of the blood determined to that point, we are brought back, in the con- templation of this affection, to the original theory of my practice, — that from the blood do all these affections find their chief support ; and that, if the blood be puri- • patient may be relieved. Cancer of the womb often appears after the natural cessation of the menses, and S where there is difficult and scanty menstruation. The period at which it moro generally occurs is between the fortieth and fiftieth years — or on cessation of uses ; winch shows, that the impurities of the blood not being any longer thrown off through the medium of menstruation, they remain in the system to break out in cancers and other kinds of sores. Two distinguished French writers have given the following as the results of their observations on the time of appear- ance of cancers, which agree with observations made in our own country. Of 409 cases of cancer of the womb, 12 occurred under 20 years of age. 83 " 20 to 30 years of age. 102 " 30 to 40 " 201 " 40 to 50 " 7 " 50 to GO " 1 " GO to 10 " Married women are much more tion than single. The cases to twenty of the married. Cancer may any part of the womb, but generally it appears upon the lower part or neck. It is not unfrequeiitly the case that a lady bears children while I waiting for the birth of the child to manifest itself. It would seem that the irrita- tension oi the parte in child-birth precipitated the appearance of the this Kind. of often occurrence, and may be either p chronic. The acute inflammation may bo induced by a blow on the abdo- m ii. a foil, mechanical irritation of any kind, irritating injection ilent me- nrocure orrhcea. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 271 cold bathing of the lower extremities when warm, iced chinks during the period of menstruation, violent exercise of any kind, heating and stimulating foods and drinks, wounds, or mental disturbances, such as to stop the flow of the menses, vio- lent labors in childbirth, retention of the after-birth, and attempts at abortion by mechanical means, and by dresses pressing down upon the bowels, and thus irritat- ing the membranes where parts are brought in contact. This disease is often called child-bed fever. Every female troubled with it should seek immediate relief. Chronic inflammation often follows the acute. It is also induced by the fashions prevalent in large towns, heretofore alluded to — idleness, effeminacy, sedentary life, excess in fashionable amusements, studies that give too great activity to the ima- gination in a particular direction, reading of pernicious books, artificial puberty, con- centration of the mind on subjects that keep the genital organs in a constant state of excitement, &c, &c. Under the effect of inflammation of the womb, the patient becomes nervous, fret- ful, and capricious, even though before her temperament was equable and happy. This chronic inflammation is the cause of many cases of bowel derangement, that often prove obstinate ; also it induces nervous affections, characterized by loss of appetite, sleeplessness, sudden starting, and great irregularity of feelings. I have known this nervous sensibility manifested in cases of inflammation of the womb, very often. "Where chronic inflammation exists, there will be pain in the lower part of the ab- domen, increased by standing or exertion ; the menses may be regular for a time, and then disappear entirely. After a while there will be an uncommon flow, con- tinuing for some days, and leading to emaciation and exhaustion, and giving a dull look to the countenance. Sympathetic enlargement of the breast will often be no- ticed, — there will be loss of appetite and vomiting. In all cases of inflammation of the womb, acute or chronic, and in enlargements, a cure is without difficulty effected by the skilful physician, if he be allowed to ob- tain fuli knowledge of the case, and the patient will follow his advice. Otherwise, as I 1;.-' iider ill" head of Falling of the Womb, there will be but little use in giving medicinea It is absolutely necessary that the physician should un- boroughly, and the patient should follow his advice. I have inflammation, and other diseases of tho womb, and have often wondered at the uncharitableness manifested by li-icnds and physicians, (who do not understand the complaints,) in attributing the changes of the mind to which they or hysterics, or foolish notions. Certainly a woman suffering from any of these complaints, has sufficient to endure without being accused of being otionaL Tin; Ov USIA. — These bodies aro situated one on each side of tho womb, and are connected with it by two tubes, through which the ovum passes into the womb. In a healthy Btate they are placed very low down in the groin, and even into the pelvis. When either of the ovaria b iseasedand larged, il rises above the groin, prominence of the abdomen on thai side where it is situate. An in- flammation "fan ovarium will often close up the tubes leading to the womb, so that the inaiter from the affection will remain therein, and produce an enlargement! bringing on fever, which will require the in, medial.- attention of a physician. Tumors of the Ovaria. — These are of frequent occurrence, generally arising from an inflammation, and are of slow growth. Both the married and the' single are ha- 272 TTIE PEOPLE'S - LIGHTHOUSE. ble to them. They are of a fleshy character, and usually solid. The uterus is occa- sionally affected with a like tumor at the same time. They have been known to attain the enormous size of one hundred pounds in weight, and to cause sudden death where good health had theretofore been enjoyed, by pressing upon the lungs and stopping respiration. Generally they give no pain, from which circumstance they may be readily distinguished from cancer, and from their hardness may be known from dropsy. The subjoined cut represents a case of ovarian tumor ; the tumor is seen behiv the head of the child, and has been driven into the va- gina by the head of the cliild de- scending, in parturition. In a case of this kind, a living child could not be born, and the life of the woman is likewise endangered. Hence, we may see the necessity, when a tumor is suspected, of pre- venting conception by using the French Male Safe, or the Preven- tion Powder. The removal of tumors from the ovarium by surgical operations, has been attempted, and in a few in- stances with success. But the far greater number of cases that have died under the operation, and the fact that the patient under the ef- fect of proper medical treatment, may attain the allotted period of life in comfortable circumstances, even if the tumor be not displaced, would forbid a resort to surgical operations. And in most cases a perseverance in medical treat- ment to purify the blood, by which the food of the tumor is taken away from it, will Check its growth entirely, and cause it to wither away. I have rarely failed in at- • this affection, applied to in season. Cancer of ' ih- Ovaria. — A. cancer on an ovarium is usually of very slow growth j often it is many years in coming to maturity. It attains to a greater size than the uterine cancer, and frequently affects the uterus through the connection of the ova- rian tube. It occurs with the single and married, but is much inure frequent with the later. This disease rarely attacks but one of the ovaria, so that menstruation is not af- fected at the commencement. The tumor is hard and irregular in shape. Its causes, symptoms, an amilar to those of cancer of the womb. Surgical opera- tions t' tors; and as they may be ex- terminated, when taken in season, by internal remedies, operations should n< perfora e them. In most cases of cancer of the womb, or ovaria, the l Eradicator, Bl 1 Renovator, Anti-Bilious Pills, and German Ointment, will effi cl a cure, if their use is pi reev< red in, and they are taken iii ll a euro No. 47. — Ovaetax Tumor. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 273 cannot be looked for with certainty, unless a full course of medicine be used, pre- pared expressly. Dropsy of the Ovaria is of very common occurrence. It may occur in either the' married or the single state, but is most frequent in the former ; it usually appears from the twentieth to the fortieth year. The disease consists in the formation of one or more little sacs within the ovarium, filled with fluid, which gradually en- large from the size of a pin-head, until they fill the whole abdomen, giving all the appearances of common dropsy. They have been known to grow to the size of containing ten gallons ! In cases of large collections of water, both ovaria will generally be- found a fleeted. Dropsy is frequently accompanied with a cancerous state of the sac, but this is not always the case. The symptoms of this disease are very obscure at its commencement, and it is often thought to be pregnane}-, from producing enlargement of the breasts and abdomen, and from causing sickness and caprices similar to those generated by pregnancy. This illusion is dissipated by the enlargement continuing beyond the season for par- turition. In cases where but one of the ovaria is affected with dropsy, it is possible for the woman to bear child without serious difficulty ; but conception in cases of this dis- ease are not advisable. Indeed, in all the complaints I have treated of in connection with this, if cohabitation is continued, (of which there is no difficulty very often,) the French Male Prevention Safe, or Powder, should be invariably used. When only one of the ovaria is affected with dropsy, menstruation may be con- tinued ; but if both are diseased, either by dropsy or cancer, it must cease. In some cases the sacs in this complaint have been known to burst, and the water being thrown into the abdomen and absorbed, the patient has recovered. Also it has been tapped and drawn off with fortunate results. Operations for the removal of the sac should never be performed. Tapping ought to be resorted to in extreme cases, where the size of the sac threatens to produce suffocation. The ovaria are often inhabited and affected by grub. [See Grub Consumption, and cut of Grub in the Ovaria, Xo. 45.] I would observe here, that cancer may attack other portions of the pelvic viscera, — as the passage leading to the uterus, the rectum, and the outlet of the bladder. The treatment proper in these cases is the same as in cancer of the womb and ovaria. PISTULA. "It is owing to our ignorance that there is any necessity for instruments to cure disease."— *1btrrnetlty. Fistula, is a kind of ulcer resembling a pipe, and is generally the consequence of abscesses. The seat of a fistula is in the cellular membrane. It is known to be pre- sent when there is an aperture on tho surfaeo of the body from which any mattei either flows, or may be pressed out. When left to itself, it runs upon the bone, and produces a caries of the bone. When BO situated as to opes into the neck of the bladder, or when attended with a caries in the adjacent bone, particularly the os sa- crum or coccyx, (lower parts of the spine, or vertebral column,) it is a very di ous complaint. Fistula in Ano. — No part of the body is more subject abscesses than that im- 18 ■274 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. mediately surrounding the lower part of the rectum ; it is much exposed to pres- sure and to externa] injuries, which impede the free motion of the blood; the circu- : nguid, obstructions soon occur, and purulent matter is formed As the skin is thick about the rectum, the pus will insinuate itself into the soft neighboring B, which degenerate into fistulae. This kind of fistula is called complete when there is an opening into the gut, and another externally ; incomplete when there is no external aperture. The symptoms of the incomplete kind are analogous to those of the piles, and not readily distin- guished from them ; the complete kinds are more readily distinguished Fistula in ano may also be caused by costivencss, relaxation of the bowels, derangement of the liver, high living, and piles. It generally commences with swelling near the rectum, attended with great pain, fullness and inflammation ; it advances slowly to suppu- ration, and matter is formed. In the commencement of the disease, the adjacent parts are generally sound, but when it is of long duration, they frequently become diseased The most common form of the fistula in ano, after inflammation has taken place, is an opening or orifice extending from the verge of the anus, and running ob- liquely, and penetrating it or the rectum. Sometimes there are two or more of these openings, near to each other, or far apart. They appear in different directions about the anus. The common way of treating a fistula is by a surgical operation ; but this should never be resorted to. Although it is practiced by the so called Solons in surgery and medicine, no person should ever submit to the operation ; because it is exceedingly painful ; it is dangerous and often fatal; it seldom or ever effects a cure, even where Beveral operations have been performed; and it may he cured without the use of the Ignifo — effectually and radically. I have been applied to by many persons who had submitted to operations — in some cases as many as five times; but I have never met a case where a radical cure had been effected in this barbarous way ; but the cases in which operations have caused death in a short time are innumerable. And often operations, if they do not result in inflammation and death, produce the most deplora- ble results in consequence of severing the arteries. The sphincter ani is often cut in these operations, and the patient is thereby rendered unable to retain the feces, which pass off involuntarily I That Burgical operations have sometimes afforded a temporary relief, is true ; but they do not effect a radical cure. The practice is pain- ful and unnecessary; and if the physician has more regard for his patient than love for old forms and the use of the knife to display his skill, he may learn how to treat the disease efli Ctually by medical instead of surgical means — without confining the patient to the house or keeping him from his business. A few candid and careful physicians (who have abandoned the knife and taken to medical treatment) have been aful in the permanent cure of fistula in ano, and others might if they were ,„,, |»o egotistical and stubborn to learn. I have had the most perfect sue. many cases of this di By n ason of its inveterate nature, fistula in ano is not a disease that canbecured in a day or with a single dose of medicine, particularly if it is of long standing. A permanent cure mu I derable time. In some cases it may he effected in a few weeks' in others, Beveral months of pi rsevering attention to advice and the !i,,n and use of medicines will be required. But if the patient wM pi lie may infallibly he cured of this i loathsome and distressing complaint. Is is a complaint which should n< THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 275 extensive, and become fatal. In some cases the inner portion of the rectum be- comes completely denuded as far up as can be seen. In others it destroys the parts from the anus to the testicle, as well as for a great distance around; and in women it extends into the vagina and destroys the adjacent integuments. TThen the disease becomes seated, there is apt to be an absorption of the matter which it generates into the system, causing disturbance and general constitutional debility. Frequently this virus matter is translated through the blood to the lungs, and induces consumption ; and this is the most general way in which the disease re- sults fatally. Fistula in Perinceo consists in an opening in the skin, corresponding with one in the urethra. Through this the urine is sometimes passed. A fistula from the urethra runs in various directions before it reaches the external opening of the skin ; so that when the latter is near the anus it may be mistaken for a fistula in that part, unless the urine be observed. The fistula does not heal of itself, but continues to discharge for years, unless it be attended to. These abscesses are sometimes produced during child-birth, by the pressure of the child's head causing communications between the passage leading to the uterus and that of the bladder, or the rectum. The treatment of the fistula in perinajo is the same as that of fistula in ano ; and the remarks on the latter with re- ference to the use of the knife, may be applied here with equal force. Fistula Lachrymalis is a disorder of the canals leading from the eye to the nose, which obstructs the natural passage of the tears, so that they trickle down the cheeks. In its first stage an inflammation on the part is alone observed ; in the next, matter is discharged, which flows with the tears ; and in the last and worst degree, the matter of the abscess corrodes the subjacent bone. The symptoms are frequent dropping of tears, and of purulent matter, especially in the morning, with- out any manifest external inflammation. In this disease also the knife is brought into often use, and unnecessarily. By it ten times more hurt has been done than good ; and though partial relief may be afforded in an occasional case and no permanent injury done, it is much wiser, and fax less, painful, to obtain a cure by medical treatment. In :ill cases of fistula the Blood Renovator and the German Ointment will be found efficacious; and in its earlier stages these alone often stop the progress of the ■ure ; but in other cases nothing short of a thorough and regu- lar treatment will overcome the complaint. In these instances, I prefer to have the patient where I can attend him daily. HEART DISEASES. Enlargement and Palpitation of the Ileart. — Enlargement of the heart may present i various forms, and may 1)0 general or partial. Sometimes it is confined to one side, at others not Sometimes the muscular structure i eased in size; in other cases the cavities of the heart become enlarged, while the muscular [altered; but in the majority of cases, the two are combined. Enlargement of the heart is met with at aU periods of life. The almost constant lieved to be a rheumatism of the heart. Generally this disease is manifested by palpitation, and by pain in the precordial region; there is 276 THE I EOPLFS MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. shortness particularly from exertion; pain, and a sensation of tightness of the chest, and pain over the region of the heart ; difficulty of lying in a recum- bent position; the feet begin to swell, the strength fails, the pulse sometimes stops, the countenance has a pale and haggard appearance, and there are very distressing pain, in which the patient is liable to be suddenly taken away. By g the hand over the heart in this complaint, usually it will be found to be ■ avily. Whatever weakens the heart may bring on these symptoms; the disease may induced by great excitement of the mind, venereal excesses, and intemper- ance in eating and drinking. , in the Heart is quite frequent. This disease (rheumatism) it is known may locate in almost any part of the system; it is a species of traveling disorder, i from one place to another. When driven from one organ, it will frequently appear immediately in another ; and the heart is liable to its attacks. When trans- lated to this organ the patient is seized with acute pain and great anxiety over that region, palpitations and partial faintings. ammaUon of the Heart. — This is an inflammation of the membranous bag or sac which surrounds the heart, to secrete ami contain the vapor of the pericardi- um, by which the heart is lubricated. The symptoms are similar to those in en- largement of the heart. Softening of ttu Heart sometimes occurs, as a consequence of inflammation. In these cases the impulse becomes feeble, and the heart flutters and beats irregularly. of the Heart. — In this ots within the sheath of the muscular fibre arc changed to fatty matter. Under this effect, the power ol the heart is weakened, and the consequences of obstructed circulation ensue. The conditions under which this form of disease mostly app dated with a general tendency to corpulency. Popularly, corpulency is supposed to be an index of good health, but this is an error. It is by no means an evidence — often the re- yerse. Usually persons of corpulent habits are deficient in both mental and physi- cal energy ; and they are much less capable of endurance under fatiguing action than men of the "bony.'' muscular order. Tubercles and Cancers, as I have before stated, are often found in the muscular substance of the heart, or in the false membranes of the pericardium. Also grub, serous cysts, and apoplectic effusions. [See articles on Cancers and Grub.] Dropsy of the Heart, or of the pericardium, though not a disease of often occur- rence, sometimes occurs, generally accompanied with enlargement of the heart. The symptoms of this disease are the same as those of enlargement. Polypi in the Heart. — These arc found in many instances, on dissection. Un- doubtedly they arise from an impure state of the blood. They are usually elonga- ted, with on extri lie tendonous chords of the heart — some- e lining membrane by cellular tissue. The extremity that is loose, lies in one of the cavities of thi tends into an orifice. VJca oj tfu Heart ofton appear, arising from the presence of tubercles, acting me as in the Lung . Thou] popular notion that consumption uever appears except in the Lungs, post mortem examinations have shown that tu- bercles are frequently termed in the la-ait, and in ether organs, finally numing into ulcers, and causing death I a, As has before been remarked in this THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 277 ■work, consumption may be manifested in other organs — as the liver, the bow- els, etc. In all cases of heart disease mentioned above, the patient should abstain from every exciting cause — as anger, or any kind of violent emotion, or of hard exercise. Never overload the stomach, or take exercise immediately after eating. Avoid late suppers, and crowded houses. Besides these, he should endeavor to counteract obesity. There have of late years appeared from the press empyrical works upon consumption, setting forth the absurdity that enlargement of the heart is a favora- ble symptom in pulmonary diseases, and in fact that it aids in the cure of con- sumption. Than this, nothing can be more irrational or absurd — less reasonable or true. The reverse of this theory is correct, as will appear obvious to any one who will consider the absolute necessity of a healthy state of the heart in order to a pro- per circulation of the blood — upon whicb, in great measure, the health of the lungs must depend. Besides this, an enlarged heart will press upon the lung, keep- ing out the air from portions of it, and impeding the circulation therein ; and if this is done, it will be obvious that the lung itself will be much more liable to become diseased than if correct action be allowed in every part of it. An imperfect circu- lation will produce a stagnation of blood in the lungs, under the effect of which those organs must become diseased. The theory that a diseased heart will cure pul- monary complaints is too irrational for any sensible man to entertain for a moment'. In addition to the diseases of the heart above mentioned, this organ sometimes becomes hardened or ossified, in the same manner as ossification of the bones takes place in growth. In diseases of the heart, use should be made of the Heart Eegulator, Blood Ren- ovator, Anti-Bilious Pills, Water Regulator and German Ointment. These usually restore that organ to a state of health ; but there may be cases of long standing in which specific treatment will be found necessary. In all such, medicines will be expressly prepared on application to me in person, or by letter stating the disease. FITS— CAN BE CURED. The term fit or convulsion is applied to all kinds of spasmodic affections, such as \ hysteria, kc Generally fits assume no specific character. They occur in proceeding from some acrid matter in the intestines or stomach, BUCh as various kinds of poisons; from teething, worms, flatulence; from sudden emotions of the mind, as anger or fear; from recessions of some kinds of rash, or the retreating of some kinds of eruptive disease, as small-pox or scarletina, diabetis, and kidney affections, and from consumption in the bowels. Previous to a lit, there is often great debility, and an unnatural appearance of the md countenance, At other times the convulsion comes on -uddenly; the pa- tient is seized with s i of the whole body; ho trembles violently and suddenly falls down, and remains insensible for a time, with involuntary twitcbings, clenched teeth, a discharge of saliva from the mouth, and contracted pupils of the i Sometimes lit- recur in a patient year after year. In these cases, tin' cause : be definitely ascertain! d, before there will be much use to give medicines to a radioa' cure. There La often a fatal mistake made in cases of flta; the pa- 278 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. tient is medicated for a long season to relieve him from their recurrence, when per- haps he is continually in the indulgence of some habit, or his system is under the effect of a cause not in the least suspected, which induces the fits. In this case, it is not to be thought that he can ever get over them. Often fits in children are in- duced by the presence of worms ; but worms not being suspected, the patient is treated altogether different from what he should be, and the least unfavorable re- sult is that both the worms and the fits continue ; in some cases the life is lost by not understanding the cause of the convulsions, and so administering medicines which should not have been given. I may remark here, that every physician should, in a great number of cases, un- derstand the cause or causes as well as what is the disease itself. In a variety of complaiuts this is absolutely necessary in order to meet with success; for there be those cases in which there is no kind of use to treat the effect and leave the cause alone. Thus if there be worms, and these produce convulsions, it is necessary to treat the worms or cause in order that the convulsions or effects may be overcome. In some cases, as perhaps in worms, the cause only need be medicated for; mothers, as where wetting the feet has induced a cold, the effect only is to be treated, the cause being removed ; and in others, as where humors in the blood have produced cancers or other eruptive sores, both cause and effect must receive the attention of the physician. In cases of fits which recur one after another, perhaps for a long season, a cure can almost always be effected, if the cause be properly understood, and the patient will persevere in the use of medicine. In many instances, a very brief period only will elapse before the worst kind of convulsions will entirely disappear, simply by removing the cause. In these eases, the system will often be found to be material- ly disordered and weakened by the great number of convulsions that it has under- gone ; but if the convulsions are overcome, we can generally build up the system by proper blood medicines, and correct diet and exercise. In those cases where a single fit occurring in adult life has nearly overcome the vital powers of the system, just leaving the patient alive, a cure is not so readily to be looked for ; but even these are susceptible of successful treatment. It would, however, have been much better for the person it he had paid proper attention to his health previously, and eschewed those practices leading directly to an almost total paralysis, (if not a sud- den death.) in a fit. In many cases of tits, the cause of which could not be ascertained by other phy- sicians, 1 have found, by examination with the Lung Barometer, that they arose from a peculiar disease of the heart. The patient being relieved from his heart dis- ease, the lits did nut ivnir, and he was restored to health. I have met with but very few eases of recm ring tin in ii hire the heart was not more or less In cases of fits generally, where specific treatment cannot be had, use should be made of the Eearl Regulator, Blood Renovator, Anti-Bilious Pills, Water Regulator h rman Ointment These almost invariably effect a cure. But in many cases, a course of medicine is necessary. This can lie had by applying in person, or hy letter, carefully desci age, ap] irance, and symptoms shown in tin- patient. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 279 DYSPEPSIA. " What's rank or title, station, state or wealth, To that far greater worldly blessing— health ? ; What's house, or land, or dress, or wine, or meat, If one can't rest for pain, nor sleep, nor eat, Nor go about in comfort ? Here's the question : What's all the world without a good digestion ?" Dyspepsia is a derangement of the digestive functions, the immediate cause of which appears to be a diminished quantity, or unhealthy quality of the gastric secretion of the stomach. It is brought on by intemperance in eating and drinking, want of proper exercise, intense anxiety of mind, depressing passions, superfluous svacuations, intense mental application immediately after eating, excessive venery, use of mercury, obstructions in the liver and spleen, and improperly masticated food. These, and various other causes so weaken the coats of the stomach that the latter becomes incapable of performing its office. From the close sympathy existing between the stomach and every other part of the system, people suffering from dyspepsia or indigestion, are often troubled with distressing affections in parts remote from the stomach. The symptoms manifested are these — nervous debility, sick head-ache, costiveness, scanty and painful evacu- ations, piles, jaundice, depression of the mind, oppression after eating, female ob- structions, flatulency, distension of the stomach and bowels, heartburn, furred tongue, sickness at the stomach, dizziness, loss of appetite, pain in the side, and torpor of the liver and bowels. » Persons troubled with dyspepsia should leave every exciting cause which may have given rise to the disease ; strict attention should be paid to the diet, late hours and indolence should be dispensed with; exercise taken regularly in the open air ; intense study not pursued ; excessive cohabitation guarded against, and proper medicines perse veringly taken. It is too often the case with dyspeptics that they consult a dozen physicians in as many days; and if they do this and are dosed by all, they may not expect to recover. Of tl of regular exercise to the due performance of the functions of nach, every one is fully sensible; walking, sawing wood, shoveling, &c, are good. They can never be compensated for by the passive exercises of the indolent and luxurious, who are often the victims of dyspepsia. The sofa and parlor excr- f ladies in the fashionable world will not keep oil' this complaint ; nor will an occasional stately walk up and down the thronged streets of a crowded city, to make a display of the outward trappings and of the elegant artificial bust. The fashionable ladies of out cities, who lounge luxuriously in the parlor from morning iili night, and i ; -I Incapable of the smallest exertion, and who are, therefore, troubled with indigestion, would find an excellenl medicine in the loose dresses and the old spinning-wheel of their grandmothers ; or, in lack of that, by giving atten- tion to their household matters. They should not be afraid of work. Bj this I do not mean thai they should become slaves to toil. There is a long difference between fifteen hours of hard labor In the kitchen by "Bridget" and the fifteen hours of sheer idleness of the mistress in the parlor. The lady would find that a i~aw steps 2S0 TIIK MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. on her part, which would give the servant a trifle less of toil, would be of great service to the health of both. To those dyspeptic ladies who may read this, (and the number will be large, for such cases are in abundance,) I would submit this hint as worthy of their attention, and good to be followed. Next to fashionable ladies, there come in the class of dyspeptics, students. Many young men in our colleges, if they do not plunge into all species of pernicious practice that they can find, settle down to confirmed idleness in all matters but study. This is essentially wrong. I know not which we may class as the worst — the practices of the "rattle-head," or the folly of him who pays attention to nothing but his books. The c^er-studious young man, unless he has a con- stitution like iron, soon injures himself by close application and neglect of proper bodily exercise. In this way, hundreds of the most talented young men of the country bring themselves to the tomb. If they would attain to the summit of their ambitions, they will find that the body as well as the brain will require attention. Volumes of law, of theology, and of medicine, will not keep the functions of the body in proper order : and though the student swallow ever so many, he will find them neither food, drink, or exercise. Dyspepsia is a prevalent disease in this country. This fact is owing mostly to the habits of the people, and has been in great measure attributed to the injurious practice so common of "bolting" the food. Says Combe, "Nowhere does man hurry off to business so immediately as in the United States, and nowhere does he boit bis food so much, as if running a race against time. The consequence is, that nowhere do intemperate eating and dyspepsia prevail to such an enormous extent. Rapid eating almost invariably leads to overloading the stomach ; and when to this is added a total disregard of the quietude necessary for digestion, what can be ex- pected to follow but inveterate dyspepsia ?" In this case the stomach has to per- form the office of the teeth, and it becomes deranged in consequence. No man or woman may expect to be free from dyspepsia who does not labor some in one way or another. The human system is not calculated to sit down in luxurious indolence and idleness. Under such a state the stomach will not perform its func- tions properly, neither will the muscles have their healthful elasticity and power. In short, the whole system will become debilitated and enervated, and the mind will lose its strength. In cases of dyspepsia or consumption, invalids will be much more likely to recover health who give attention to some species of manual labor or of exercise ; for these are the medicines of Nature, carrying off the waste of ig to it new vigor and power. The idea that persons troubled with dyspepsia or consumption must lie down and take medicine, is absurd, for in this condition neither nature or the medicine can operate to the favorable extent that they would if proper exercise were taken. :.i;i:A. OHOLBRA MORBUS, CHOLERA INFANTUM, DYSENTERY AND DIARRHCEA. The Asiatic Cholera, which has swept over the Eastern continent two or three times ■ wistiitiun. and also prevailed in various parts of this country, were borne upon the ill unknown, although much THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 281 investigation has been expended upon it. It generally appears like ; or malignant type of the common cholera morbus, with looseness of the bowels. Sometimes the patient is carried off by it in a very few hours ; in other cases its effects are comparatively light. Its symptoms are very similar to those of the cholera morbus. It prevails mostly in cities, and almost exclusively in the latter months of the summer season, carrying off thousands in a few weeks, and then nearly disappearing, perhaps for years. Occasionally it will appear in some of the smaller cities, often nearly depopulating the place. The cholera, like many other diseases, is governed in great degree by the clean- liness or the filth of a locality. Its power is derived chiefly from the circumstances which attend it. Usually it will pass house after house where cleanliness and the other laws of health are attended to, and alight with virulence in the abodes of filth and impurity, among subjects fitted for its approach by intemperate and irre- gular habits. Iu the year 1849 the cholera prevailed extensively in this country. The deaths in New York that season by the disease were 50^1. Many towns in "Western United States were nearly left destitute of inhabitants under its sway. Upon the first indication of cholera, or any unusual evacuation of the bowels, use should be made of the Anti-Bilious Pills, to cleanse the stomach and intestines, after which take the Dysentery Specific to check the discharges. For this purpose these articles should be kept always on hand. If the case runs into a cholera, a physician should be called. Cliolera Morbus is a disease of the stomach and alimentary canal, characterized by vomiting and purging, severe griping pain, cramps in the stomach, abdomen, and extremities. It is very prevalent in hot weather. The immediate existing cause of the cholera morbus is believed to be the action and stimulus of an acid secreted in the liver, or formed in the stomach and alimen- tary canal, and which produces an irritation of the mucous membrane of those parts. There are many predisposing causes — indigestible and irritating articles of food and drink, unripe fruit, all articles that contain much acid, and liquids that quickly fer- ment. But these are not likely to produce the disease unless the system is predis- posed to it by a debilitated state of the digestive organs, or by general relaxation baustioD from the influence of great heat. Cholera Morbus is a common and dangerous disease, often fatal in twenty-four hours or less. It generally comes on suddenly, commencing with nausea and pain in the stomach, griping and distress in the abdomen, followed by vomiting and purging. The evacuations are thin and watery, then bilious. As the disease ad- vances, vomiting, purging, and pain, are severe and incessant; there is a spasmodic affection of the abdominal muscles and extremities, and the patient is drawn up ou al : the pulse becomes small and feeble; i he extremities cold; the countenance pallid; a cold Bweai comes on, and greal prostration follows. In cases of cholera morbi tiould be made of the Dysentery Specific. If this does not check tl take a dose of the Anti-Bilious Pills, aud then em- ploy again the Specific. This will be certain to overcome the complaint ra Infantum is a cholera of infants, resembling thai in adults, and differin pects. it is very prevalent among children during the summer i, and prevails mostly in cities, where il produces frightful mortality. The annual average of deaths from this complaint in New York city is 2S2 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. nearly one thousand! In the country, where the air ia salubrious and pure the disease is much less prevalent. The cholera infantum is induced by a great degree of heat, by the impure air of cities, by teething, by eating unripe fruit, diseased meats, and by the use of that abominable article called milk, peddled in large places ; and may be induced by a Check of perspiration, causing the blood to retreat from the surface to the internal parts, and deranging the liver and mucous membrane of the intestines. The complaint generally comes on gradually, with more or less diarrhoea, accom- panied with fever, soon followed by nausea and vomiting. The evacuation is nearly a colorless watery fluid. If the disease is not checked, the child begins to waste ; the extremities grow cold, the skin shriveled and dry, with great heat in the head and 1 .owels : the face full, eyes dull and sunk, pulse weak and irregular. If no remedy is administered, the child sinks into insensibility, with great prostration, and soon dies. The continuance of the complaint is various, depending upon air, nurs- ing, diet, medical treatment, etc. It is often fatal in a few hours, or it may last for months. When the disease continues long, the membrane of the stomach and bowels becomes ulcerated. The complaint sometimes assumes a chronic form, in which case the child is re- duced to a living skeleton ; the tongue and cheeks break out with canker ; the face and other parts bloat In cholera infantum, if the stomach is overloaded, give a little salt and water, to induce vomiting and to cleanse the stomach; if the child is taken with cramps and cold chills, wrap it up in a woolen sheet, wet with water as warm as can be borne, to induce a sweat, until the cramps cease. At the same time bathe the German Ointment on the stomach and bowels. Take off the wet sheet before it is cold, and then wrap the child in a dry woolen sheet. If the child is taken with fits or spasms, give a small dose of the Eeart Regulator, in a little water, and repeat it, if necessary— which will revive life and action. When the child is restored to quiet, if there are evacuations of the bowels, give a dose of Anti-Bilious Pills, or of castor oil, to move the bowels, and follow with the Dysentery Specific, until discharges are regular and natural. While the child is vomiting, it should be held with the face downwards. Never lay it on its back, lest the vomiting produce strangulation, and cause death. This treatment is for immediate use; it has saved the life of the author's little child in two instances. Hut, in all cases of this disease, where the symptoms are at all aJarmin , I ile to call in the services of a physician. Dysentery.— This complaint is an affection or inflammation of the alimentary canal. Ii is attended with nausea, brain fever, and fetid or bloody evacuations, and IS nil, >, The dysentery is a mosl virulent and fatal complaint, and, often, is as intractable as the Asiatic cholera. It prevails in both city and country, sometimes in the form of> isol ' ; 'thers attacking great numbers in a place, while adjacent towns will be free from it. [n Borne instances, the inhabitants of the most healthy country towns are attacked by it in -real numbers, and many of them die off. If it is not ""••■ 'd often assumes the form known as Bloody Dysentery, and be- comes highly dangerous. It prevails throughout the year, but with greatest viru- 1' nee in the months of July, A.ugus1 and September. The deaths from this disease in New York city annually fall but a very little below one thousand I Dysentery may be caused by whatever has a tendency to obstruct perspiration. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 283 Morbid humors retained in the circulation, mixed with the blood, and thrown upon the intestines, causing irritation and inflammation, often result in dysentery. Unwhole- some diet, wet clothes, night air, damp beds, sudden changes of weather, etc., arc predisposing causes. In jails, hospitals, ships and camps, it is often caused by con- tagion, becoming epidemic. Dysentery is generally preceded by a bad appetite, flatulence, costiveness, sickness at the stomach, vomiting, and chills, succeeded by heat in the skin. When evacua- tions commence, the inflammation begins to occupy the lower part of the intestinal tube. Evacuations are preceded by severe griping, and a rumbling noise. Some- times pure blood is voided. The acute dysentery sometimes runs into the chronic form, arising from ineffectual struggles in the system to excite a healthy action ; or from errors in diet, check of perspiration, &c. In all cases of dysentery, give the Dysentery Specific, until the stools become natural, and the inflammation is subdued. If there is no blood evacuated, a dose of the Anti-Bilious Pills, to cleanse the stomach, may be taken ; then use the Specific. Diarrhcea. — This is characterized by frequent evacuations of the bowels, with a pressing down, or desire to discharge their contents. This disease is also very pre- valent, and universal, existing chiefly in the summer months, and more general in the city than country. It is also often fatal. About five hundred die annually in New York of diarrhcea. Anything which increases the action of the intestines may induce this disease, such as improper food, or irritating substances ; and it is sometimes occasioned by bile of an acrid or vitiated quality ; by a suppression of perspiration, by worms, and by crude and unripe fruits. In some persons there are a great variety of agents that will bring on a diarrhoea. In this complaint, the discharges are generally preceded by a murmuring noise in the intestines, flatulence, and uneasiness in the lower part of the bowels. The ap- pearance of the evacuations is various ; generally thin and watery, especially after the first discharge. As the disease advances, sickness, nausea, and vomiting some- prevail ; the countenance turns pale ; the skin is dry and rigid ; there is more or less emaciation, and great weakness. Dropsy of the lower extremities is some- times induced. pie diarrhoea often becomes chronic in its character, and will continue for a loug time ver ..iih continual preternatural discharges from the bowels. Foi diarrhoea, u ethe Dysentery Specific, with an occasional dose of the Anti- Pills, until tl checked. The Pills are used to purge the system Bf the impurities that induced the disease ; and until these are removed, it is not always advisable to check the evacuations, If we do so, the diseaso will soon return. But if the system be first cleared out, and then evacuations checked, wo have Effected a cure. Cholera, Cholera Morbus, Dysentery and Diarrhcea, may bo prevented by taking a dosed tl." Ami -I:m tnight, and Dysentery Specific two or three times a week, especially in the season when these complaints prevail, and particu- larly if the person be inclined to looseness of the bowels. This course will koep tem purged of all those impurities which render it liable to attacks of this character, and will save- much expense and misery, and preserve many lives. The 284 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. great waste of life by bowel complaints is altogether needless (since it might be prevented), and is an unnecessary tax upon human existence. OFFICES OF THE SEJN. The skin is the organ of feeling; it is that part of the body through which, as an organ of sense, we hold a large share of our communications with surrounding ob- jects. Through it we are warned of contact with other bodies. It maybe regarded as the peculiar seat of feeling ; and it is by knowledge communicated to the brain through this and other mediums, that we are warned of danger and often shielded from harm. In order that the faculty of feeling shall remain unimpaired, cleanliness should be enforced, and garments of an irritating character not be used. The neglect of either of these rules will have a more or less powerful tendency to thicken the skin, and render insensible, in some degree, the delicacy of feeling. Those persons pursuing a rough occupation, or who are exposed to the violence of the weather, lose the acute sensibility of feeling possessed under other circumstances. Feeling is useful in conveying a knowledge of temperature. It indicates the degree proper for health; and for this purpose is much better than any mechanical instru- ment. The feeling with reference to temperature should always be regarded as a rule for health in the relation to the clothing ; particularly should this be regarded by all persons of delicate constitution. Besides this office of feeling, the skin has another important one — that of carrying off by perspiration, through its pores, a large portion of the natural waste of the human system. The pores of the skin are numberless; and through these, when the body is in health, there is constantly escaping a waste of the body in perspiration, and in other forms unseen. "When the pores of the skin become closed, the body is sure to be infested with disease ; for the wastes of the system being debarred escape, they remain to render the blood impure, from which spring numerous complaints. The necessity, therefore, of keeping the skin in a healthy condition, by cleanliness (as I have remarked previously), and by other means, is at once made obvious. It is on this account, as one reason, that all compressions of the clothes should be avoided ; thai the body should occasionally be thoroughly aired, and that no means whatever should be taken to prevent a free passage through it of waste and per- spiration. Indeed, we may consider this as one of the essential laws of health, for whosoever allows the pores of his skin to bo closed up will soon repent it in sick- ness and suffering. Throuirhout its whole extent, the skin consists of three layers, one over the other. The outermost, or cuticle, is an exceedingly thin substance, which maybe observed to peel off when the hand is accidentally frayed, or when it is raised by a blister; the next is a layer which contains the coloring matter, giving, as the ease may be, B shad" from the slightest tan to the sootj black of the negro : and the third or low- ili.' true skin, a thick layer, which, when taken oil' animals, is tanned inio lea- Hht. the skin is much more thin and deli. 'ate atone part than ano- ther, thai upon the Boles of the feel and palms of the hands being;, by constant use, the thickest and most durable. An unthinking person would suppose that the sur- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 285 face of the body, from its general smoothness, was so close in texture that neither air nor liquid could pass readily through it. Such would be a mistake. The whole membrane may be likened to a sieve. Throughout its entire extent, externally and internally, there are a multitude of small holes or outlets, so closely set together, that we could not anywhere puncture the skin with the point of a needle without touching one of them. These holes, called pores, communicate with the ducts be- neath, and these ducts terminate in glands or receptacles in the muscle. Through this medium portions of the fluids no longer required in the system are conveyed to the surface of the body, when they escape into the atmosphere usually in the form of vapor, but sometimes as perspiration. In the extreme heat of sum- mer, or when engaged in hard work, this liquid exhalation is very apparent. Not being observable in ordinary circumstances, it is styled the insensible perspiration. In this office of an exhaler, the skin acts as an auxiliary to the lungs, which throw off more copiously the waste hquid of the system in the form of vapor and deterio- rated air. The largest quantity of insensible perspiration from the lungs and skin together amounts to thirty-two grains per minute, three ounces and a quarter per hour, or five pounds per day. Of this the cutaneous constitutes three-fourths, or sixty ounces in twenty-four hours. The smallest quantity amounts to eleven grains per minute, or one pound eleven and a half ounces in twenty-four hours, of which the skin fur- nishes about twenty ounces. The medium or average amount is eighteen grains a minute, of which eleven are from the skin, making the cutaneous perspiration in twenty-four hours about thirty-three ounces. As seventeen ounces of water at an ordinary temperature are equal to about a pint, it appears that a man in good health and in general circumstances exhales through the skin nearly two pints of liquid daily. That such a large quantity should escape unnoticed, seems indeed strange ; but when the extent of surface which the skin presents, calculated at 2500 square inches, is considered, these results do not seem extravagant. But even admitting that there may be some unperceived fallacy in experiments, and that the quantity is not so great as is here stated, still, after making every allowance, enough remains to demonstrate that exhalation is a very important function of the skin. And although the precise amount may be disputed, it is quite certain that the cutaneous exhala- tion is more abundant than the united exertions of both bowels and kidneys; and that, according as th< xjmea warmer or colder, the skin and kidneys al- ternate in the proportions of work which they severally perform, most passing offby the skin in warm weather, and by the kidneys in cold. The quantity exhaled in- , leep, in dry warm weather, and by friction, or whatever skin; and diminishes when digestion is impaired, and in a moist at- mosphere. ions, the pores and other minute organs in the -kin are from tho atmosphere, though less actively than the lungs, and are thi refore inlets as well as outlets to the system. When the pores are in a state of greal openm tion from beat, the power of absorption is mate- rially increased. Hence, contagious disea wight by touch when dy is warm and moist, than when dry and cold. A pure and bracing atmo- sphere is well known t<> lie mere conducive to health than one which is heavy and relaxing. "When in a perfectly healthy condition, the skin is soft, warm, and covered with a 28G TIIE PBOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. gentle moisture ; the circulation of the blood is also in a state of due activity, giving it a fresh and ruddy color. The degree of redness, as, for instance, in the cheeks, is usually in proportion to the exposure to the outer atmosphere; such exposure, when not too severe, causing active circulation of the blood not only throughout the bod}-, but to the most minute vessels on the surface. Hence the pale and unhealthy hue of persons confined to the house and close sedentary employment, and the rud- dy color of those who spend much of their lives in the open air. "When the expo- sure is too severe, or more than can be conveniently counterbalanced by the animal heat, a chill, as already stated, is the consequence, and the skin assumes a pale ap- pearance, the forerunner, it may be, of bodily indisposition: the insensible perspira- tion has been suppressed, and the lungs have got into a state of serious irritation, which the Lung Corrector readily relieves. The German Ointment, warmth, and other remedies, restore the healthy functions of the pores ; but when the cold is ne- glected, inflammation of the bronchia?, or air-tubes communicating with the lungs, or some other j)ulmonary affections, ensue, the lamentable issue of which may be death, except the proper remedies are used in season to remove the disease. Says Dr. Beach — " Evacuations from the skin invariably lessen the force of the heart and arteries, by taking from the circulation every agent which is useless or in- jurious ; and, bj- relaxing the constriction of the surface, they remove congestions by a determination of blood to the extreme vessels; and, in a word, lay the axe, as it were, at the root of the disease. " No sooner does perspiration break out in a fever patient, than there is s. miti- gation of all the symptoms ; the dry, pale, and husky state of the skin is removed ; the balance in the circulation is restored, and very often a violent attack of fever is cut short as soon as free sweating takes place. The object then should be imme- diately to restore perspiration, and continue it throughout the course of the fever : not violent sweating, but moderate perspiration, or a gentle moisture of the skin. It is by this moisture, or the dry and parched state of the skin, that we form a favora- ble or unfavorable opinion of the fever. If natural perspiration cannot be produced, we predict danger. On the contrary, if it can be promoted and kept up, we predict a favorable issue." In all cases where the pores of the skin have become closed, whether to a small or a great extent, so that the function of perspiration cannot be carried on, exter- nal use should be made of the German Ointment, in all parts where perspiration is Led. This will open the pores, and allow the waste to escape. Also, use the Water Regulator, which will carry oil' all deposits made in the kidneys ; also the Anti-Bilious Pills, which relieve the stomach and bowels; and if there be an;- tion of the Lungs or throat, or catarrhal difficulties, use the Lung Corrector and Ca- tarrh Snuff In some cases it may not be necessary to use more than one of these; but where there is a general suppression of the natural waste, they will all he re- quired, and, acting together, will restore the system to its equilibrium and to health. DROrSY. DROPSY is understood to be a collection of water from the blood in some part of the Bystem. i the wat< ry pari of the Mood not being carried off' through the usual places of its evacuation, as in urinating, perspiration, &c, and left to ooze THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 287 through the veins, and collect in some part of the system. This collection may be formed in the head, in the chest, in the abdomen, in the ovarium, in the womb, or may be diffused through the cellular membranes of the system. Dropsy of the head is almost peculiar to children, being rarely known to extend beyond the age of twelve or fourteen. Sometimes it will be found to affect nearly all of a family of children at a particular period of life. In some cases the amount of water collected in the head is enormous, and the head becomes swelled to a pro- digious size. Tapping has been attempted in this disease, but it generally proves fatal. When water has collected, the only proper method of treatment is to evacu- ate it through the medium of the perspiratory and urinating organs, by stimulating them to a healthy action Dropsy of the abdomen is a collection of water in the cavity of the abdomen, either in the cavity itself, or in sacs connected with some of the viscera. For this com- plaint tapping is generally resorted to ; but, though it afford temporary relief, the water is certain to collect again, and thus the patient may submit to a dozen opera- tions, and no cure be effected. Instead of this, the proper remedies should be given to assist the watery portions of the blood to pass off in the natural way. This done, the dropsy would not return. In cases of females, it is often not easy to distinguish between a dropsy of the abdomen and a state of pregnancy, or a case of polypus in the womb; and there have been cases (how common I will not say,) where unmarried females enciente have persisted till a very late day, in declaring they were subject to dropsy, when in truth such was not the case. When deception is intended, and the patient will not submit to an examination, the physician is liable to imposition. This im- position should never be attempted, for it may lead to most disastrous and fatal re- sults. Often has the trocar been plunged into the pregnant uterus, with fatal result to the patient. In all cases of pregnancy, whether the lady be married or unmarried, she should have no hesitation in informing her physician of her true situation, if he is a man in whom confidence can be placed ; and if he is not. it is better not to seek his advice. In dropsy of the abdomen, the water should first be evacuated, after which its re-accumulation should be prevented by restoring the system to a healthy state. Dropsy of the Ohest is a collection of water in the membrane that surrounds the heart, or in the cavities of the thorax. Sometimes it is diffused into the cellular f the lungs; occasionally the water is contained in membranous cysts or sacs. In some instances it exists without any other kind of dropsical affection, but more generally prevails as a part of universal dropsy. Bleeding and mercury often id this complaint; by the debility and effusion they produce; also it may arise from inflammation of the lungs, liver, or neighboring organs, or from the use of malt liquors and ardent spirits. [Of Dropsy of the Ovaria, see under head of Womb and Ovarian Diseases.] Dropsy nf th> Wmnh sometimes occurs. It, is distinguished from dropsy of the Qen by being confined to the region of the uterus; a tumor will appeal Che region of the womb, resembling in slmpe the figure of thai organ. This disease soon runs into a general dropsy. Its treatment must be the same as for dropsy of the abdomen. TILE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIfJIITnOUSE. Cellular Dropsy, or Dropsy all over, is a col- lection of water in the cellular membrane, which is extensively diffused tliroughout the body. It usually commences in the lower ex- tremities ; by degrees ascends, and finally oc- cupies the whole trunk of the body. When the effusion has become very general the cellu- lar membrane of the lungs partakes of the affection. Sometimes the legs and ankles will become so distended that the water will ooze through the pores of the skin, or elevate it in the form of small blisters. It is probable that the first cause of every species of dropsy exists in the kidneys, in con- sequence of their ceasing to perform their office or failing to secrete the urine. "When this oc- curs, it is re-absorbed and taken into the circu- lation, when the exhalents pour it out faster than the absorbents can take it up ; the conse- quence of which is a watery collection, called dropsy. It is known that a diminution of urine is the characteristic of dropsy, and that those medicines which stimulate the kidneys to healthy action and cause them to secrete or separate the urine from the blood, relieve or cure the disease. This is the explanation of its cause. Instead, therefore, of resorting to the inefficient means in general vogue, we should seek that which will effect a radical cure, by restoring to health the kidneys, aud by opening free evacuations of the watery parts of the blood through all the natural modes of escape. To this end, we may make use of the Water Regulator, the German Ointment, the Anti-Bilious Pills, and the Blood Renovator. Persons wishing to treat themselves for dropsy, will find these the best remedies they can obtain. They seldom fail to effect a radical cure, unless the case be very obstinate ; in which event, a more particular course of medicine can be had, on application by letter or in person. No. 48. — Dropsical all over. JAUNDICE AND LITER COMPLAINTS. Jaundice is a disease consisting in a suffusion of bile to the surface of the body, whereby the whole skin is discolored — generally yellow; but there is a species of the disease called the black jaundice. The immediate cause is an obstruction of the bile in its passage into the duodenum. Jaundice first shows itself by a I ad want of appetite; the patient be- comes dull, oppressed, and generally costive. Soon the skin grows yellow, and the urine becomes high colored, with a yellowish sediment. As the disease ad- vances, the color becoi ins deeper, and the internal membranes, the bones, and the brain itself become tinged All tl i ire affected with the yellow color of the bile; the spittle low and bitter; and even the blood is sometimes tinged Finally, the blood acquires a tendency to dissolution and putrefaction. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 289 Bleeding from various parts of the body ensues ; and the patient frequently dies of an apoplexy ; though in some cases jaundice degenerates into dropsy. The liver is the seat of various disorders — inflammations, consumption, abscesses, scirrhus, &c, and is often troubled with the grub, and subject to enlargement. In cases of jaundice, or of the various complaints of the liver, use the Anti- Bilious Pills, Blood Renovator and "Water Regulator, which are remarkably effica- cious in these diseases — removing the obstructions, regulating the bile and the water, cleansing the blood, and removing the yellowness from the skin. INHALATION FOR PULMONARY CONSUMPTION AND THROAT DISEASES. The treatment of pulmonary affections, and diseases of the throat and lungs generally, by the inhalation of some single article or some compound, has been fre- quent, if not general, for many years. The fact that the lungs and the throat are peculiarly open to this method of treatment, by reason of the air being immediately conveyed to them, without interruption, undoubtedly first suggested the method. But, unfortunately for the patient, the manner in which the inhalation has been generally practiced, has made this method productive of more injury than good. It is well known that persona exposed to chemical fumes or to dust of any kind, like that in cutlery establishments, (of which I have elsewhere treated,) experience a greater or lesser degree of irritation in the throat and lungs, inducing cough, and after long exposure, often running into consumption. The delicate membrane of the throat and lungs will not boar the irritation of dust, or of chemical fumes, or of smoke, without disturbance, and the production of disease. The effluvia from vege- table substances sometimes causes an attack of the asthma, and the aroma of flowers • \ n to produce like effect. From these facts, it becomes obvious that, in case of lung or throat disease, remedies may brough the medium of the air, by inhalation. The leu,..!.-! parts of the lungs, and the most deep-seated ulcers, may be immediately I in this way. Proceeding upon this knowledge, many physicians made use of inhalation in the msumption, by means of fumigation. But, as I. have beforo stated, it l more evil than good, by causing an irritation, which was more powerful for ill than were the proper! i The BmaD particles of whi their way into the air cells of the lungs, cause rritation there, ami thus, by smoking tobacco or stramonium, for asthma al ; temporary relief may be afforded, the final effect is injurious. So with fumigation with tar j and, in short, all Other articles used in this way. Bow, th'-n, is inhalation to be conducted without producing injury and counter' . r, in the form of vapor. In this, all cause of irrita- tion is removed, and all the benefits of inhalation may to derived, withoul the evils resulting from fumigation. Water ' irmed in the lungs, and those organs being always bedewed with vapor, it \sill be obvious, after consideration, thai in- halation of remedies through Of vapor of water is the most natural, proper and effi- Whatever remedies may he applied to the throal and lungs by breathing, should lie administered in th , >r from water, the articles being dissolved 19 THE MEDICAL LIGIITil. rein, so as to obtain their strength ; and then, if the remedies them- ut or injurious effects will follow. In case.* of common catarrh, in its first stages, the vapor of pure water, in con- nection with the use of my Catarrh Snuff, will be found highly efficacious. In the forming stage of a mild influenza, the vapor of water may bo used with great advan- in acute bronchitis, where the inflammation has been mostly subdued by other remedies, inhalation of the vapor of pure water is of service. It is par- ticularly useful when the throat is dry and expectoration scanty. The vapor may be inhaled through a tube, fur which glass or porcelain is to be desired. But in all these affections, as well as in all others where the inhalation of vapor is made it should not be relied upon to the exclusion of other remedies, such as I have mentioned in speaking of the various diseases of the throat and lungs. In chronic bronchitis, and in debilitated states of the air passages, the vapor of bal- copaiba, fir, Venice turpentine, Canada balsam, or tar, may be used. A small quantity of either of these may be put in a vessel of boiling water, and the vapor inhaled when the water has become sufficiently cooled. These articles, however, must be used with caution, and their effects carefully watched, and then a selection made to suit the state of the patient A very good way to inhale them is to fill a room with the vapor from a large kettle. Benzoin is also made use of in chronic bronchitis; but as it is likely to produce coughing, it must be administered with care, and not breathed through an inhaler, but more indirectly and diluted. Balsam of tolu - ' and may be taken into the throat through an inhaler. In a relaxed state of the membrane lining the lungs. I tonic vapors are required. Use may be made of oak bark, pure green ten. or tannin. "When it is desired to increase expectoration, pure distilled vinegar may be used — but no other, as common vinegar will generally contain sulphuric acid. To allay the paroxysms of spasmodic asthma, the vapor of tobacco or of stramo- nium may be inhaled. But these, articles, and particularly tobacco, should be em- ployed witli great caution. In sore throat, the vapor of pure water, vinegar, chamomile, and hops will give relief. But in none of the above named <' inhalation be relied upon to effect a cure. It is to be practiced in connection with taking proper medicines, and thus may be beneficial. Id pulmonary consumption, where there is great prostration, and but little hv flfttnmation in the affected put. the vapor of tar. balsam of tolu, etorax, balsam of Peru, benzoin, and myrrh may be used. calculated to useful only in the state above mentioned. Where less stimula- tion is needed, the vapor from elecampagne, or squills, maybe employed. In vio- lent coughs, sedative inhalations should to in. or stramonium, tl ill' a drachm inhaled every twelve hours. The vapor of alcohol has been used with the most benefici . breathed from an inhaler, or the chest of I - athed in cloths kept ith some kind of alcoholic spirits, and the body kept sufficiently warm to evaporation. In the application of any of th( condition of tto u : for. if carelessly or injudiciously employed, and the for the existing particular state of the lungs be not used, an article ■ xpi diency of an cxaniina- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 291 tion in order to ascertain the condition of those organs. And in all cases where an examination cannot be had, and the patient is desirous of employing inhalation, commencement should be made with remedies of the mildest and least irritating character. "When the condition of the lungs can be known, and when, from know- ing their condition and the state of the patient, articles can be selected suitable for the case, the most beneficial effects will follow from the inhalation of vapor. The articles mentioned to be employed in inhalation can be obtained in almost any place, and may be procured by the patient. But as many of my patients have desired me to prepare a compound for this purpose, to be used in connection with my other remedies for the complaints mentioned in the foregoing, I have combined from the best articles for inhalation an Inhaling Fluid, which is varied to suit the various diseases of the throat and lungs, and the various stages of those diseases, and is included in my course of medicines in all cases where it is needed. In hun- dreds of instances I have found it a valuable aid in the treatment of consumption. Indeed, there are some cases where it could not with safety be dispensed with ; although alone, not this, nor any other article for inhalation can be relied upon to effect a cure. [See notice of the Inhaling Fluid.] THE STREET DUST. The dust of the streets of a large city is a most horrible compound of a great number of ingredients. Of how many different articles it is composed, it would be impossible to say ; but we may give some of them. City street dust contains common sand, powdered stone, manure and urine of va- rious animals and of men, dried plaster, pulverized brick, ashes of all sorts, decayed vegetables of all kinds, slops of kitchens, filth of drains and sinks, old quids of to- bacco and stumps of cigars powdered up, the contents of spittoons, mucus from the throats of diseased men and animals, venereal poisons from prostitutes and libertines, evacuations from the stomachs of inebriates, matter from running sores, glandulous matter from the noses of horses, putrid emanations from manufactories of all kinds, expectoration of consumptives, BCabs from old sores, poisonous matter from small-pox, leather clippings, saw dust, iron and brass filings, rust, and, in brief, everything filthy thai can be thought of. These are well powdered, then nicely mixed up iu the gutters, there dried, and then left to be raised by the feet of men and the wheels of carriages, to be inhaled by every one who goes out of doors to breathe the air. Aslhave Bhown, the brick, pulverized stone, plaster, iron-filings, etc., of this compound, irritateand inflame the throats and lung of pei onsj the more filthy ingredients operate upon the inflamed parts to poison them, and thus is directly prdduced ulceration, pulmonary consumption, bronchitis, sore eyes, blindness, ca- tarrh, and vai asea Thisstreetd ovil ft is the cause of thousands of deaths year. It lays the foundation for the mosl fatal complaints ; and besid [ng almost intolerable al the time it is inhaled, it is an enemy from which fto man who enters the stn until by public action it is extirpated. The phy- sician advises bis improving patienl to walk or ride ou1 and take the air for healtb and luxury — but such air] il is death to breathe it, and the patienl had betl 202 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. the risk of d; a1 home than venture into the streets of our unclean cities. If deadly vipers were curled across the sidewalks, to sting the pass with to d tongues, the whole multitude would cry out to the rulers — " Away with them ! away with them I" And they would soon be removed, or the people would become enraged and rise up to take the power into their own hands, t dusl of New Tork is not a viper in the animal form ; but it comes in a more deadly shape, and its poisons are inhaled where people are not prepared to resist or them. This death-dealing nuisance should be abated. It is a matter not difficult to be done; and the cleanings of the streets will, in general, sometimes more than pay the cost of gathering and removal. It should be required that every house deposit its waste matter, sueh as ashes, vegetable remnants, &c, at au early hour in the morning ; these should be removed in carts by seven o'clock in the morning in the summer season, and by eight in the winter in the large thoroughfares, and during the day from the less frequented streets. The streets and side-walks should be thorough- ly swept every morning by the owners or occupants of property adjacent, the dirt collected in piles, and these removed in public carts, before the working and busi- ness hours of ordinary occupations ; or else the whole business should be made a public matter, and promptly performed. The dust around piles of brick in the streets should be collected up in a neat manner, and when an old house is pulled down, the rubbish should not be allowed to till up the street, and scatter about the neighborhood, but the owner should be lied to keep it cleared up. By introducing aud enforcing sueh a system as this, our Btreets, instead of being receptacles for the breeding of diseases and the generation of death to the inhabitants, would become comparatively pleasant, and infinitely More healthy than they now are. Another cause of consumption throat diseases, would have been annihilated, the bills of mortality diminished, and we should be much advanced in the scale of sanitary regulations for the promotion of health. But such steps as these are objected to on the score of expense. It would cost so much, say people. But let us look at it in the pecuniary light, and see if there is not more bst by neglect of this and similar matters than it would cost to practice them. The inspector of the city of New York, alluding to this matter, says: "The loll, .win- extract from Dr. Lyon Playfair, of Lancashire, enforces this in an able manner. It is quoted verbatim, with the exception of the name and fig- ures applying to New- Fork, instead of Lancashire. ' There are every year in New York 7340 deaths, aim 220,000 cases of sickness, which mightbe prevented !— and 6000 of the deaths consist of aduU □ productive labor. Further, every individual in New York loses L9 years, or nearly one-half of the proper term of his life, and even adull loses more than ten years of his life, and from premature ojd d sickness much more than that period of working ability. Without taking into considerat ;,,,, , Qe rgi( a of the survi- yotb from sickness, and other cau 3; without estimating the loss from the substitution of young and inexperienced labor, for that which is skillful and productive; without including the heavy burdens incidenl to the larj preventive widowhood and orphanage; without calculating the loss from the ex- ting from the excess of deaths, or ; ! of an infantile population, nearly one-half of which is swept off before it attains THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 293 two years of age, and about sixty per cent, of which never become adult productive laborers ; and with data in every case much below the truth, — I estimate the actual pe- cuniary burdens borne by the community in the support of reiioveaele disease and death in Xew York alone, at the annual sum of thirteen millions of dollars! This amount saved yearly, would equal in twenty-four years the total value of the real and personal estate of this city, and would doubtless double its value in a much shorter time. The inference is just, that it would be true economy for a communi- ty to allow its government to carry out every plan of Hygiene, to enforce sumptu- ary laws as regards hurtful articles of food and drink, to remove every nuisance, open broad avenues through every crowded block, complete the city sewerage, provide healthy dwellings, gratis, for the poor, establish hospitals in every ward, and fur- nish physicians and teachers of Hygiene for all.' " Prom this we may see, that though we appropriate some $300,000 or $400,000 annually to clean the city, (by many considered lost.) we lose an amount about thirty times as large, by not having the business done thoroughly! If we properly expended a couple of millions yearly to enforce cleanliness, undoubtedly it would save us seven or eight millions. So much for the pecuniary view of this matter of removing all causes of disease, of which dusty and filthy streets are one. It is sad to reflect that the greater part of streets in large cities are given up to tlie destroying demon of dust. Slop, offal — everything is cast into the public high- way to form a combination of impurity that spreads death on every side. A more inexorable pest than that of the sixteenth of an inch of dust on the sidewalks and in the streets of New York, to be blown about by every wind, and kicked up and inhaled by the throng of people, can hardly be imagined. In a windy day, it is impossible to live in our business streets, by reason of the dust that fills the • ic nose, the mouth, the ears; that spoils the coats of the gentlemen and the - of the ladies ; that blows through every open door and window, and dam- rniture ; that whirls into stores, and spoils thousands of dollars worth of goods; that forces th< their faces beneath thick veils, to keep the eyes from being put oat; and which is an expense and a nuisance in various other ways too numerous to mention. And surely there is enough money appropriated for this purpose, to have it done. 1 thousands are annually paid out in this city for keeping the Streets '•Kan. Hut still it is not done ! And why is this? It would seem that the money goes inl Iders and speculators, while the dust is left into the throats of the people, to take them t>> Greenwood or the Potter's field. While beggars Infest the corners and importune the passers, on the score thai th Pork, would it not be well to set them to the cleaning of the m paid out of th*' money that now goes to speculators? Thus ils would be happily abated ; while now, notwithstanding the large appropria- tions, bi ud tin' streets axe nol cleaned once in six months. SUPPRESSION OF INTEMPERANCE Ok the manifold evils thai arise from excessive use of intoxicating drinks, we are era! well aware I propose a (few remarks upon the subject in connection with the matter of health. 294 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. The • use of spirituous liquors of any kind art- lamentable; but an indulgence to any extent in the vile compounds in this day poured down the throats of men is prejudicial to health and destructive of thousands of lives annually. articles inflame and eat up the coats of the stomach, they poison the blood, bloat the body, derange the system generally, deaden the intellectual faculties, making of a human being often a worse than beast ; they breed bad habits of various kinds; engender a quarrelsome and devilish disposition ; reduce the individual and the family to poverty; lead to the commission of crimes, aud greatly injure society generally, as well as finally killing the drinker, and leaving baneful effects to be transmitted to succeeding generations. The man accustomed to strong drink be- comes reckless; he neglects regular meals; often he is out of doors drunk and exposed to the weather, where he takes cold and is led into consumption ; and fre- quently he is seized by that terrible demon, delirium tremens, and goes in anguish and misery to the grave, leaving a family in poverty behind to be supported by others. Than a man given up body and soul to alcohol, a more loathsome object can scarcely be met with upon the earth. The passion for intoxicating liquor is often hereditary. Dr. Gall makes mention of a Russian family in which the father and grandfather fell early victims to drunk- enness ; the son, though he saw the consequences of the habit, continued to aban- don himself to it, in spite of every resolution to the contrary; aud the grandson, at the early age of five years displayed a most decided inclination for strong drink. A peculiar state of the organization, giving rise to the mental peculiarity, was in this case transmitted to the grandson. Dr. Caldwell considers an irresistible desire for intoxicating liquors a symptom of cerebral disease, with its seat in the organ of alimentiveness. As long as this dis- ease exists, the desire is strongly felt, and every appeal to the understanding of the repentant and unhappy patient is in vain. And he says it can be cured " by the same means which are found successful in the treatment of other forms of insanity. where the cerebral excitement is pretematurally high. These are, seclusion and tranquillity, bleeding, puking, purging, cold water, and low diet. In this prescrip- tion, I am serious; and if it be opportunely adopted and resolutely persevered in, I freely peril my reputation on its success. If interrogated on the subject, the resi- dent physician of the Kentucky Lunatic Asylum will state that he finds no difficulty in curing mania apotu by the treatment here directed." Dr. C. thinks that only recent and acute cases can be speedily cured; the old ones are less tractable; and, as in all other diseases, there are instances where the patient is past cure. Dr. C. expresses the opinion, in which 1 agree, that nothing would tend more to diminish the prevalence of habitual drunkenness, than to have it deemed and proclaimed a form of madness, and dealt with accordingly. " Hos- pitals erected for th'' reception of drunkards with authority given to confine them there, would be among the mosl important institutions that could be established, and would effect an immense Baving of life, health, property and reputation" Of the transmission of tins tendency for strong drink. Dr. Caldwell observes: " Every constitutional quality, whether good or bad, mi bj inheritance, from parent to child. And a Ion- continued hal.it of drunkenness beco ■ dly constitutional as a predisposition to gout or pulmonary consumption. This increases, in a manifold degree, the responsibility of parents in relation to temperance. By habits of intemperance they not only degrade and ruin themselves, THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIG-HTHOUSE. 295 but transmit the elements of like degradation and ruin to their posterity. This is no visionary conjecture, the fruit of a favorite and long-cherished theorj r . It is a settled belief resulting from observation on inference derived from innumerable facts. In hundreds and thousands of instances, parents, having had children born to them while their habits were temperate, have become afterwards intemperate, and had other children subsequently born. In such cases it is a matter of notoriety, that the younger children have become addicted to the practice of intoxicatiou much more frequently than the elder — in the proportion of Jive to one!" At the present time there is a general movement in several states to suppress by law the evil of intemperance, by prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits except for medicinal or mechanical purposes. Of the expediency and the constitutional right to prohibit the sale of liquor there are conflicting opinions; but that, if the sale were prohibited, and men could not obtain the means of intoxication, it would result in an invaluable benefit to mankind and to society, would save much of poverty, misery, sickness, crime, personal abuse, premature death, and expense to the state, by liquor now engendered, there can be no manner of doubt. ~No man, however much he may be opposed to legislation upon the subject, can deny the truth of this statement. And this being'the case, it certainly is a question worthy of the most serious consideration of the physician and philanthropist, if it would not be both wise and proper to suppress the evil by legislation. Without this it may well be doubted if the monster folly of intemperance, with its long train of miseries, will ever cease to exist. If good and pure liquor could be used with discretion, and as it ought to be used, it would be a useful article ; but as experience shows us that this is not always done, and that much evil results from its abuse, an experi- ment in the form of legislation against its sale might with wisdom be made, as a part of general sanitary regulations. This would soon give us the whole matter in a light where the benefits and the evils of liquor could be pronounced upon statisti- cally, and thereafter the subject would be less open for question. EFFECTS OF WEALTH UPON DISEASE. THE effects of wealth upon the health as well as upon the happiness of the univer- sal people of any nation, is a matter worthy the attention of the philanthropic physician, the enlightened theologian, and the profound philosopher. By wealth, T would !>■■ understood a- meaning thai sufficiency of money, or of other worldly goods, which shall provide to every individual and to every family not only the bare necessaries of rtain amount of luxuries, and of ease, at proper interval-', and of leisure tor recreation to mako merry and bo glad; and in place i far beyond watri at all times, that there shall he no danger of corruption by their politi llo1 bi coming marketable g Is to be purchased ! tyranny and despotism. To this extent did God in his wisdom in- tend thai all me,, should enjoy of the world; but by the seeking out of many : contrivo \s by the cunning, and by the establishmenl of systems of so- ciety wherein tii" laborer does not in one case of an hundred receive the jusl and full rewards of his toil, the intent of the Creator Is rendered poid, and the conse- quence i j an enormous addition to the sum total of human misery : to the murders, the suicides, the Bicknesses, the premature deaths, and tiic countless evils that sin- 296 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. round us, as punishments therefor; and a corresponding diminution in the total of the happiness, e, ai d the health of the mass of any nation. It is commonly promulgated that wealth is the parent of the great bulk of all crimi s, whether of nations or of individuals; and that its opposite is the father of the vast majority of virtues and the mother of the happiness that is among men. I boldly deny the truth of this doctrine; and do so not only by the sanctions of com- .!il reason, but under the teachings of the invariable experiences of the past from the creation of man to the present hour. The commonly preached doctrine upon this point is fallacious and without good foundation — the practised one is correct, and has been so acknowledged by the actibns of mankind through all ages, notwithstanding his hypocritical tongue may at times have denied the truth. Of the effect of wealth upon the general health of a people, any candid observer will admit that it is in the main beneficial. That evils in many cases, both in a moral and a physical sense, arise from it, is true ; but these are the results of the foolish abuse, or tyrannous use, of it by men, and not of its judicious investment under the directions of wisdom. That in the wealthier classes there is a greater average duration of life than among the poor, is a truth that careful statistics have proven, as I have shown in the articles on Lung Consumption, and in Occupation on Health, and elsewhere in this work. This fact is undeniable ; and it is easy to see why it should be so, since we know that the poorer class of people are ne- cessitated to eat worse kinds of food, to live in worse tenements, to breathe more impure air, both in their abodes and in their business, and that they enjoy less of almost everything that contributes to health. "Who does not know that all epidemic diseases manifest themselves more powerfully and deadly among the poor class of the people, and this for the reason that the poor class is obliged to dwell in localities and houses which breed disease, and to cat foods often which do no better. x Saj-s a report on the cholera in Boston, in 1849, speaking of the abodes of that class of people among which it mostly prevailed : " Some of these (cellars) are divided off into one or more rooms, into which hardly a ray of light, or breath oi air i Kisses, and where, notwithstanding, families of several persons reside. How the lamp of life, under such circumstances, holds out to burn, even for a day, is, perhaps, as great a wonder as that such a state of things should, in this community, be suffered to exist. That such residences become the permanent abodes of fever, in some of its forms, is well known to the medical men who visit them ; and that they tend to shorten life we may already infer from the statistical tables of Mr. Shattuck, who states that the average of Irish life [the class mostly inhabiting these places] in Boston does not exceed fourteen tears," while the average du- ration of life of the entire population is about forty years! ! This one fact is suffi- cient of itself, especially when we remember that the same proportion holds every- where else under like-circumstances, to establish the truth of the point I would claim: since we know that it is the poverty of these people that keeps them inhabitants of such vile abodes. A committee of the Massachusetts Medical Society, in a report made in 1849, present the following remarks upon this subject: " There is a very common notion that the privations and discomforts of poverty arc at least compensated by health. The robust strength of the laborer is of ferred to as an example of this compensation. The children, especially of the poor, who are often neglected and uncleanly, in want of proper clothing, and exposed to THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 297 the severity of the elements, are quoted as proofs of the uselessness of attending to many of the rules of health. But all inquiry into the condition of the poor shows the fallacj' of these opinions and the evil consequences of following them. " Mr. Chadwick's report on the sanitary condition of the laboring classes, shows that, within the reach of his inquiry, the average age at death of ah persons, in- cluding father, mother, and children, in the families of the most prosperous classes was 42.6 years, and in the families of the poor only 20.4 years ! [A difference of more than one-half.] Among the prosperous only 20 per cent., and among the poor 50 per cent, of the deaths were of children under five years. " According to Benoistan du Chateauneuf, among 10,000 persons living at each age, and in each class, in Paris, there died — Age. Rich. Poor. 30 to 40 108 157 40 to 50 117 213 50 to 60 199 359 60 to 70 360 750 TO to 80 804 1456 " An analysis of the bills of mortality of the town of Dorchester for more than a quarter of a century showed that those who had died within that period in the families of the poor had enjoyed an average longevity of only 27.4 years, while those who died in the families of the prosperous had lived, on an average, 45.6 years. Among the poor, 31 per cent., and among the prosperous only 12.4 per cent, of all the deaths were of children under two years of age. Among the poor only 9 per cent., while among the rich 27 per cent, lived to the age of threescore and ten years. " Wherever this inquiry has been made a similar result has been obtained : the revelation of a lower degree of health, and a shorter life among the poor, and a higher degree of health, and a longer life, among the more prosperous classes." Under this point I may quote from Combe, who says : " It has been very common to eulogize the .simple food and hardy habits of the poor and laboring classes as eminently conducive to health, when contrasted with the debilitating effects of the ind luxuries of the rich. Experience unfortunately reverses the picture, and shows, by arithmetical arguments, that the excess of work, and the privations to which the poo aally exposed, produce a much higher rate of mortality them, especially in seasons of scarcity or commercial depression, thanamong the richer cla fcy. And the same thing is further proved by Hi-' fact, that i.i the ai d navy the officers almost invariably suffer less than the Aeu from changes of climate, and from the fatigues and calamities of war. In France. tin' mortality among the mfanta of the poorer classes is said to be nearly double thai occurrii"/ among those in more affluent circumstances; ivhile, in the wealthier depart- ments tlui average of lift- is TWB&VE years greater thorn in those which ; ""l for o ir children? .'.!• live and be d nl '! Eschewing all the luxuries and the pleasure tries? Finally, could \\c give either lib to relieve the i nslaved nations of the earth from the chains of despoti from i 1 - id ignorarfee of that heathenism which bows its knee in v unto false gods? * * * That philosophy which teaches that wealth is a curse i poverty a blessing, is false. * ::: :: it is a philosophy than which none more to 1 TIIH PI DICAL LIGH1 untenable, and unchristian, ever emanated from the brain of man, or originated with the devil It is a very spawn of hell ! This philosophy, practicalized amoi would render a man with his wife and children miserable. It would reduce him to a level with the most ignorant and degraded of all the most miserable and op- I inhabitants that flee from the bogs and the famines of Europe to our shores — and his children with him ! Under it his sons must be reared in the cursed darkness of ignorance, and his daughters in the damned degradation of filth and rags: and himself, if he have in his breast ono spark of refinement above the bruto beasts of the held, be driven to despair, and to the ending of his sorrows by the death of the suicide.' Wealth is the abundance of God given to man, to add to his happiness upon earth; but poverty is the net of the Devil for the enslaving of mankind. MATURITY AND DECAY. For the benefit of those who would wish to know of the average maturity and ratio of decay of the human body, in reference to years, as judged of from the weight and height at different periods of life, the following table from a long series of observations is appended : — MALES. At birth, 1 year, 5 " Feet high 1.64 2.29 3.24 10 " 4.18 15 " 5.07 20 " 5.49 25 " 5.51 30 " 5.52 40 " 5.52 50 li 5.49 GO " 5.38 70 " 5.32 80 " 5.29 90 " 5.29 FEMALES. Pounds weight 7.06 20.84 ;;4.7S 54.08 96.40 132.46 138.79 140.38 140.42 139.96 136.07 131.27 121.54 127.51 It will be observed there is at all periods of life an average greater height and weight of males than females, though it is known to us all that in individual cases there are exceptions to this general rule. It will be remarked, also, that ti. uii increase in height in the males till 40, after which they de 6 males attain their full height at 30, remain stationary till 40, and then descend; that sales increase in weighl till 10, de< age; but the females : reach their full weight till 50. The increase in weight of females be- I 50, and the marked docrea ■ in height between those ages, is some- what remarkable and curious. And it will be further observed, that the cor- reBpondence in maturity of both weight and hi tea, with the je duration of life, is marked and palpable. To the rer, it Bhould be reo in individuals, in all hi It is pro- Feet high. Pounds weight. At birth, 1.61 6.42 1 year, 2.26 19.39 5 " 3.20 31.67 10 " 4.09 51.89 15 " 4.92 89.04 20 " 5.16 115.30 25 " 5.17 117.51 30 " 5.18 119.82 40 " 5.18 121.81 50 " 5.04 123.86 60 " 4.97 119.76 70 " 4.97 113.60 SO " 4.94 108.88 90 " 4.93 108.81 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 305 bable, indeed, there is no instance recorded to the contrary, that all persons of the male sex attain their full height before 40, and all of the female by the age of 30. And in regard to weight, it may be observed, that wherever we find an increase after the ages of 40 or 50, that increase cannot be said to be either a natural or a healthy one, unless previous to that time the person had been laboring under the effects of some disease, and had then recovered from it. The increase of weight after 40 and 50 is almost always the result of a species of disease induced by over- eating or over-drinking; it is far from natural, and in ninety-nine of an hundred cases is detrimental to the general health of the individual, if not producing positive and specific complaint of one kind or another. So that, these things being con- sidered, we observe that the age of 40 years is in both sexes the average of matur- ity of the body, and that from thence there is a gradual descent as before there had been a gradual upward inclination. And thus we see, that though life may, as it should be, be prolonged by obedience ' of the laws of health, there is finally death appointed unto all. " The last character," «ays an author, " by which the living body is distinguished, is that of terminating its existence by the process of death. The vital energies by which the circle of actions and reactions necessary to life is sustained, at length decline, and finally be- come exhausted. Inorganic bodies preserve their existence unalterably and forever, unless some chemical force, or some mechanical agent, separate their particles or alter their composition. But in every living body, its vital motions inevitably cease, sooner or later, from the operation of causes that are internal and inherent. Thus, to terminate its existence by death, is as distinctive of a living being as to derive its origin from a pre-existing germ." Says Combe : — " Death appears to be a result of the constitution of all organized beings ; for the very definition of tho genus is, that the individuals grow, attain maturity, decay, and die. The human imagination cannot conceive how the former- part of this series of movements could exist without the latter, as long as space is necessary to corporeal existence. If all the vegetable and animal productions of nature, from creation downwards, had grown, attained maturity, and there remain- ed, the world would not have been capable of containing the thousandth part of them. " Or s live as long as health and vigor continue; but they are sub- jected to a process of decay, which impairs gradually all their functions, and at last terminates in their dissolution. In the vegetable world, tho effect of this law is to surround us with young trees in place of everlasting, stately, full-grown forests, standing forth in awful majesty, without variation in leaf or bough; with the vernal bloom of spring, changing gracefully into the vigor of summer and the maturity of autumn; with the rose, first simply and delicately budding, then luxuriant and lovely in its perfect evolution. In the animal kingdom, we find that, the same Funda- mental principle prevails. Death removes the old and decayed, and tho organic law introduces in their place the young, the gay, and the vigorous, to tread tho stage with renewed agility and delight." However sweet life may bo to us, however groat tho joy experienced in our wealth or in the presence of our friends, or however much we may wish to accom- plish in life, we should remember that death is appointed unto all, and that God will one day call us home to give an account of our stewardship. Therefore, whe- ther in sickness or in health, he ready when tho angel of death shall come, which may bo in an " hour that ye think notof." Lot your business be I very day in a pre- 20 306 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. pared condition ; let your conscience be free and your heart pure and spotless from sin — " washed in the blood of the Lamb" "that taketh away the sin of the world." Remember that the richest and sweetest pleasures of this earth are scarcely a fore- tho bliss prepared above for the pure in heart and the lovers of Christ. Experience and revelation alike teach us the shortness of life and the certainty of death. " For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." — Gen. iii. 19. But if we die, shall we not live again? Most assuredly. Read what the Scripture saith — " For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Christ died and was buried, and rose again on the third day. — 1 Cor. xv. 4. Christ was seen after his resurrection by Cephas and the twelve Apostles, after that he was seen by 500 of the brethren at once; after that he was seen by James, and last of all he was seen of Paul — 1 Cor. xv. 5 to 9 verse. The dead in Christ shall arise first. — Thess. iv. 16. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth; for the things of this world are but the preludes to a higher sphere of action. But if we are Christians — if our hearts be pure — if we are accepted of Christ, all is well. Whether we are to die or to live, let us be cheerful, as children in God, knowing- that Jesus is able and has promised to raise us up from the grave and regenerate and make us now in him. He has passed through death and is in life ; the way is made straight for us, with a mighty arm that can defy all the powers of the adversary, and place us in a heaven of bliss, free from all pain and sickness, woe and sorrow of the heart. INCREASE OF THE POPULATION. Among modern would-be philosophers there has of late become prevalent a doc- trine used by them against early marriage, and in impeachment of the wisdom ot Deity, to wit: that according to the present rate of increase of the population of the world there would in a time not far distant arise such an immense number of human beings that the world would not afford sustenance for them. A more foolish con- clusion than this, if arguing from correct premises, could not well be arrived at. With these men it is customary to take the increase of population in some family or fast-growing place, and arguing therefrom, they people the earth to overflowing in a comparatively few years. They seem not to remember, or they purposely avoid allusion to the fact, that while one portion of the earth is increasing in population, another is decreasing. Thus, at the present time, while the United States is (bfll growing in the number of its inhabitants, many parts of Europe are being thinned by emigration to this country. And it is by no means an impossible matter, that the Jay may come, when, this country being well filled, the tide of emigration will set hack again and the population of America decrease. Of the increase of the population of the universal world in the last one hundred or one thousand years, it is quite impossible to speak with exactness; but it is by no means so great as to put the most fidgety upon tins point in fear that the doc- trine of the famous Malthas will have to be put in practice, nor so great as to be any argument against the peoplo embarking in marriage at the proper age. Even in this country, where the increase of the population is greater than at present in any other part of the world, thero is no immediate call for the application of any Malthusian theories. THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 30? Taking the city of New York, which increases in population very fast in propor- tion, we find that in the year 1805 there was a population of 75,770; in 1850 there was 515,394; increase 439,624. In this time — from 1805 to 1850 — 45 years — the number of deaths has been 127,671. So that in 45 years there has been an in- crease of only about 3£ times the number of deaths. This rate, it is very true, would soon give us an immense number of people ; but the question immediately arises, bow much of this increase was natural ? Of this we may gain some idea from the fact that in the year of 1851 alone, there were nearly 300,000 emigrants landed in New York from foreign countries, besides a large number of in-comers from the country places of our land — which is always larger than the out-goers to the country. The number of deaths cf children under ten years of age in 1851 was about 13,000 ; and as it is known that much less than two-thirds of those born ever arrive at the age of ten years, we shall see that the number of births in New York is not larger (and in truth it is not so large, the number of emigrants making the deaths here more in proportion to the births than in places where there is no emi- gration,) than the number of deaths. And from this we infer, that though the growth in population of particular places is sometimes great, the increase in the population of the whole world is by no means so extensive that men and women need fear to "increase and multiply and replenish the earth," though modern phi- losophers in their much-pretended wisdom do place them on their guard. It is true that the population of this country is increasing rapidly, mostly by emi- gration. But it may go on increasing at the same rate as heretofore for many years before the country will become unable to find food for the hungry, if it be properly tilled. The valley of the Mississippi is alone capable of raising provisions to sup- port 250,000.000 of people ! It will be some years before our population is that large. And if it should ever arrive to that number, and three times greater, the earth would yet support them, if tilled scientifically and every inch improved ; for as yet the science of agriculture, is in its infancy in a certain sense : but a small portion of the earth is tilled at all, and that but miserably. A society which should give to labor its earnings, and a population so dense as to require the utmost capaci- ty of the earth scientifically and chemically tilled to support, would develop in the soil a power of production such as but few men have ever thought of; and did this state of tilings exist, a man would get a better living off of ten square rods of ground than do many now off of a mile square. "Why then should modern philoso- phers urge people to live out of the divine institution of marriage, and to disobey reason and the injunctions of the Deity, by holding up before them the bug-bear of over population.' Snch doctrine is the sheerest nonsense, fit to be promulgated only by the reriesl fanatics. The lank, cadaverous countenances and glassy eyes of this class of philosophers, who see horror in every being that comes into the world, is the beet of comments on the folly of their teachings. DEGENERATION That a degeneration of the human race is at present speaking fast going on, there can be BO cloul.t. The habits of dress, tho unhealthy fashions, protracted celibacy, prostitution, abortion, masturbation, excessive sexual indulgence, and other evils, which breed insanity, idiocy, consumption and other degenerating diseases, bid fair 308 TIIE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. to reduce the race of mortals far below the standard which it has held. By these evils the vigor and strength which should be in man is in great measure taken from him. By reference to figures in other parts of this work, showing the beneficial effects of sanitary regulations in all cases where they have been introduced, it will be seen thai where people have been brought under the influences of scientific physicians and philanthropists the average duration of human life has been increased. But, unfortunately, the numbers of those who have not been brought under those influen- ces to the extent of abandonment of bad habits is so large in proportion to those who have, that, notwithstanding the improvements in medical science from the intro- duction of the vegetable remedies in the last fifty years, and notwithstanding the fact that, from the obliteration of numerous predisposing causes of disease in the country itself (such as pestilential marshes, &c, that always produce many deaths in a new land), the natural liabilities of disease are decreased — the reports show that the proportion of deaths to the population is about the same now as fifty years ago 1 As for instance, in the city of New York, the proportion of deaths in 1805 was 1 in 32.98; in 1850, 1 in 33.52; and in 1851 the proportion of deaths was greater — there being in 1850 but 15,377 deaths, while in 1851 there were 19,23-1, which, al- lowing a reasonable increase of the population that year, would make the propor- tion of deaths to the population greater than it was in 1*805 ! That the natural predisposing causes to disease are much less than they were fifty years ago, because many of those causes have been removed, there can be no doubt ; and that, by the introduction of vegetable remedies, and by the improvements in medical science, the same disease is more generally mastered than it was fifty years back, is also doubt- less true. These premises being admitted, (and no one pretends to deny them,) to what can we attribute a continuance of the same ratio of mortality, but to the bad habits that have become prevalent in civilized, refined and fashionable society ? There can be no other reasonable cause given. It is to the evils growing out of protracted celibacy, (more common now than half a century back,) to bad fashions in dress, turning night into day, indulging in licentious habits generally — and in short, disobeying the natural laws of health, which induce a degeneration of the pres- ent race and will make the succeeding ones worse and worse — that wo must attrib- ute a continuance of the same ratio of deaths as prevailed here at the beginning of the century. Therefore, I say, the race is degenerating; and it will continue to degenerate, in spite of improvements in medical science, and in spite of obliteration of natural predisposing causes of disease, until those pernicious habits alluded to, which war continually against science and labor, are abandoned by the universal people and they return to nature and the better habits of their progenitors. Gould we at this day have a people living in the homespun and temperate habits that moro generally prevailed half a century back, and bring that people under the influences of the improvements in medicine and destructions in great measure of local causes of disease, wo should see, that instead of a ratio of deaths of about 1 in 32 annually, wo should not have more than 1 in 50. And this is found to be tho caso wherever the modern improvements and tho olden habits exist together. But whero improvement is compelled to war against new fashions tho contest is and ever must bo about, equal, il indeed fashion does not obtain the mastery; and the race must continue to degenerate. This condition of things, when viewed with reference to the health and happiness THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 309 of the future generations, calls loudly upon us for a reform and a return to the laws of nature and of God. And be assured, that if reform does not take place, it will be found that the " sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generations," as certain as those generations arise ; and finally our peo- ple become degenerated and pass away, as have the nations of old, for disobedience of the laws of God and nature. OLD AND YOUNG SLEEPING TOGETHER. The practice of old and young persons sleeping together should never be allowed ; as in all cases, it will be found to act injuriously upon the health of the young. It is not an uncommon tiling in families to put a young girl to sleep constantly in the same bed with an aged grandmother, aunt, or some relative, or a boy with a grandfather or uncle. The practice is reprehensible. The effect of it is that the young person is often made sick ; and, if not that directly, it imparts an unhealthy tone to the system that will be felt sooner or later. A young and healthy person should no more be put to sleep with an old and decaying one than with a diseased person. It is remarked by acute observers, that where a young person sleeps with an old one, the old is benefited at the expense of the young. So well has this been un- derstood that in many cases wealthy people have hired young persons to sleep with old ones, that the old might be strengthened. In some instances young females have been procured to sleep with old men, so that the latter might be strengthened thereby, as they generally are, though the young suffer a loss by it. Such practi- ces are generally discountenanced now, though it is by no means rare that we hear of a young woman placing herself in this position by marrying an old and broken- down man of seventy or eighty years, for the sake of getting his property ! In many cases where children have slept with old persons their death has been induced thereby in lingering consumption, without the cause being suspected. The explanation of this fact, upon true principles, is easy. It is well known that all living bodies are constantly throwing off a part of their substance through the pores i u \ u> . , 'tion. [See article on Offices of the Skin.] The substance so thrown off, is in the same state, with regard to ago and health or disease, as the per- son from which it comes. Also, the body is constantly absorbing, by the lungs and through tli'.- skin, whatever comes in contact with the body in a form that permits f it- b bed Now as the emanations from the bodies of young and healthy people in the form of insensible perspiration are comparatively fresh and wholesome, and those from old and diseased persons arc the reverse, it follows, that by an absorption of the healthy emanations from the young by the old, the old will be beneSted ; and by an absorption of the unhealthy emanations from the old by the young, the young will speedily decay and become likewise old. Also, the old body being deflcienl in animal electricity, and less warm than the young, receives Warmth, new life and energy from the young— conducting away the animal elec- tricity, which gives to the body its vigor and healthy youthful tone. Thus the young person loses an amount of animal electricity necessary h>\- the healthy con- ■ . i 'der that the old one may be benefited by absorbing it. Than this nothing can seem more probable and rational. When once explained, the blindest will be able to Bee the philosophy of the matter. 310 THE PEOPLES MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. Tho practice of hiring young married females to attend at certain places, for a number of hours in a day, to associate with superannuated old men, has obtained to some extent in London and Paris. Not only do these young women associate with aged patients, but also act as wet nurses! This they are in a manner compelled to do to obtain a living. Fortunately for the people of this country we have not yet arrived at that point of poverty where women are compelled to this unnatural and degrading purpose; and it is to be hoped we never may: for when a man has be- come so aged and superannuated that he cannot be longer kept in life without re- course to such a means, it is better that he should die peacefully than to attempt the elongation of his existence for a few weeks at the expense of the health of a more valuable and useful person. In all cases where the health of a young person has been injured by sleeping with an old one, it will be found that the system generally has become contamina- ted with the waste thrown off from the old and decaying bod)'. This being the case, the course to pursue is plain, — take immediate measures to purge the system of the unhealthy matters it has absorbed. This can be effectually accomplished by the Anti-Bilious Pills, operating in the stomach and bowels ; the Water Regulator, operating upon the kidneys, to take off impurities through the urine ; and the Blood Renovator, which will cleanse, renovate, and renew the blood. ART OF EMBALMING— BURIAL GROUNDS. Embalming, a process which consists in filling dead bodies with spices for the purpose of retarding or preventing decay, is of frequent mention in the Scriptures. Though originating with, and best understood by, the Egyptians, when that nation was in its glory, the practice of embalming was not confined to them ; for the Jews, Persians, Arabs, and Ethiopians possessed the knowledge of the art. In the New Testament we read that Nicodemus carried myrrh and aloes to embalm the body of Jesus, and to envelop it in linen with aromatics, after the manner of the Jews. The art of successful embalming was long since lost by the Egyptians, and is unknown to any nation of the present day ; but by knowledge gained from interesting re- searches, and by referring to ancient writers, numerous particulars of the various processes may be given. Diodorus Siculus speaks of three modes of embalming. The first cost the equiv- alent of about $1000; the second about $400 ; tho third a much smaller sum, which is not mentioned. It has been thought that the bodies must have been put into stoves or kept at a warm temperature in convenient vessels, to incorporate intimate ly the resinous substances with tho animal matter. After this, the bod) frequently (jilt over, and sometimes wrapped in sheets of gold. Among the Egyptians, there was a set of persons who engaged to perform the whole service of embalming for a certain sum. With a sharp stone an incision was made in the left flank of tho dead person. This task, as seeming to imply dial and cruelty towards the dead, was bo hateful and degrading as to obligo tho dis- sector instantly to fly, as if he had committed a crime. Tbe embalmers then earn.- forward. These men seem to have belonged to a caste hereditary in Egypt, held in high respect, looked upon as sacred, and per- THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 311 mitted to have access to the temples and associate with priests. They removed from the body the parts most susceptible of decay, washing the rest with palm wine and fining the inside with myrrh, cinnamon and various sorts of spices. After this, the body was put in salt of nitre for about thirty days. After swathing the body in fine linen bandages, glued together with a thin but powerful gum, they spread over it the richest perfumes. It was then returned to the hands of the relations, and by them frequently kept in the house in an open case, they not thinking it right that the features of their dead relations should be unknown or forgotten by their own kindred. For the prevalence of tins custom at a certain period we have the authority of Diolorus Siculus and of Lucian, the latter of whom mentions having been present when mummies were placed at table as if they had been alive. Generally, however, the bodies were swathed in cloth strong- ly saturated with asphaltum or a bituminous pitch, placed in the coffin and con- signed to the tomb. The perfection of the embalming may be judged of by the condition of the hair. It has been found measuring two feet four inches ; and on the head of a female mummy at Thebes, the hair was found plaited and turned up over the head in three distinct portions. The manner in which the plait was made corresponded exactly with that adopted by females of the present day. By the side and at the feet of the mummies are often found the emblems of the trade or profession of the deceased, such as the net of the fisherman, the razor and stone to sharpen it of a barber, paints and brushes alongside that of an artist, instru- ments of surgery by the body of a physician, a bow and arrow by the side of a hunter, a lance by the soldier, and the style and receptacle for ink by the side of the clerk. Sir John Gardiner "Wilkinson, who examined the mummies of Egypt, is of opinion that the embalmers were members of the medical profession, since the knowledge required for that purpose appears to be connected with their peculiar studies ; and it is also said by Moses, " The physicians embalmed Jacob." Bekoni conceived that the balsam employed by the Egyptians in embalming consisted of powdered colocynth, commonly called bitter apple. The mention of aloes in embalming frequently occurs in the Bible, but there is no positive authority of its use by the Egyptians. Besides the record of St. John of myrrh and aloes brought by Nicodemus to preserve the body of Christ, aloes is mentioned as a per- fume in other parts of Scripture. " I have prepared my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon." — Prov. vii. 17. "Spikenard and saffron; calamus, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices." — Cantic. iv. 14. The skull and body of the Egyptian mummy is found to be Oiled with the dust of woods having an aromatic odor— the brain and the bowele and stomach having iplaced Attempts numerous, but unsuccessful have been made In modern time- to discover and restore to being in its ancient perfection the url oftheoldan in embalming. Many Bubjecte have al different times undergone processes, but only with a partial BUCCess. Bodies have been preserved for a few months or years; but there is on record oo account of any lasting embalmenl in modern times. de St. Fond, in his "Travels through England and Scotland," gives an in- teresting relation of tho method Mr. Sheldon employed to preserve the body of a young lady. Tho vessels wre Injected in different parts with alcohol saturated with camphor, mixed with a small proportion of turpentine, The skin was pre- 312 THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. pared with finely powdered alum, rubbed on with the hand. The intestines and all the internal parts were taken out and covered with a varnish composed of a mix- ture of camphor and yellow resin, and afterwards rubbed slightly with alum. The Viscera wire then replaced, and the crural artery injected with a strong solution of camphor in rectified spirit. To imitate the color of the skin of the face, a colored injection was thrown into the carotids. The body was then placed in a case of Virginia cedar, on a layer of calcined chalk, enclosed in another, and not again opened (or five years. It was then found perfect, without having experienced any injury from insects. The French chemists have labored assiduously to discover some method of em- balming; and recently one M. Surquet has succeeded in preserving bodies for a time ; but how long they will keep is not known. This process is as follows : — " A current of sulphurous acid gas is passed through a solution of carbonate of soda, of the strength of from twenty to twenty-two degrees Baume (sp. gr. 1.160 to 1.180), until the whole of the carbonic acid is displaced, and the solution contains a slight excess of sulphurous acid. The fluid should then have a specific gravity of 1.200. It is next placed in a vessel containing clippings of zinc, and allowed to remain in contact with the metal until it has become sensibly neutral — the blade of a knife dipped intqit not turning brown on exposure to the air. From four to six litres (about a gallon or a gallon and a half) of this preparation are employed to in- ject a subject. This solution is thrown into the carotid arteries by injection. After twenty-four hours dissection may be proceeded with, and continued without any in- convenience, for twenty, thirty, or even forty days. One of the great advantages arising from the employment of the sulphate of soda consists in the beneficial influence it exerts in cases of the accidents to which the operator is subject in the dissecting-room." " Another preparation, which will succeed equally well with the above, is the fol- lowing: — Throw clippings of zinc into muriatic acid until the liquid ceases to effer- vesce, and will no longer stain a knife blade, and then inject as before. "Animal matter subjected to the action of cither of these preparations will no longer decompose when exposed to the air." To many of the present day it would appear that the ancient Egyptians took especial pains for the preservation of the dead; and it may seem that in this respect they went beyond reason in their labors and expenditures to this end. But aside from the fact, that only upon the highest classes was the process of embalming practised, it will not appear at all strange, if we will but remember our men feelings at the loss of a near friend — a father, mother, husband, brother, sister, or child en- deared to us — that they should have felt an earnest desire to preserve in entirety of person the forms of the departed. The art of preserving tho body for any length of time having been lost to modern nations, tin; civilized now manifest their feelings for the dead by tho location o 1 beautiful sites for burying-grounds, and by erecting over the ashes of the departed such monuments or tombs as shall perpetuate their % memory. The custom which prevailed a century or half century ago, both in Europe and America, of burying the dead in yards in the very centre of a. populous town, from whence the effluvia filled the air, has not only been found to be offensive, but destructive to health. Innumerable cases of disease have been engendered by this cause; and it is with pleasure 'hat the philanthropic' physician hears of the passage of laws forbidding the THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 313 intermeiit of the dead in the boundaries of populous towns. Within a few minutes' walk of the thick-settled parts of New York Island, there is now a place of public burial known as the "Potter's Field," the which, if burials be continued therein, will, in a very few years, become a prolific source of fevers and other complaints. I speak of this here to suggest that this spot be no longer used for this purpose — that some other place, away from the city, be procured, for the interment of the poor that die among us. And to whatever place this work may go, I would say to the people of that place, see that your burying-grounds do not contaminate the air around you, and generate sickness : see that the dead are buried sufficiently deep to keep any effluvia from decay arising to the surface. Burying-grounds should be selected in a somewhat secluded place, and should be combined with such natural scenery as will tend to inspire those feelings of solem- nity and decorum which should ever surround the place. A spot should be sought never liable to be encroached upon for any purpose, and where the tenants may remain forever undisturbed. In cases where a city has grown up around a burying- ground, it may be well to remove the bodies to a more secluded place. In the careless manner in which burial places have been selected, it often happens that the coffins are dug up to make room for the cellars of houses and for the track of a .railroad. Says' a London writer: " When the living body is exposed to putrid emanations in a highly concentrated state, the effects are immediate and deadly; when more diluted, they still taint the system, inducing a morbid condition, which renders it more prone to disease in general, but especially to all forms of epidemic disease, and which further predisposes it to pass into a state verging upon if not actually that of putrefaction. The recent examination of the grave-yards of the metropolis appears to us to show that they contain putrefying matter enough to communicate this putrefy- ing process to those who are exposed to it. * * The placing of the dead body in a grave, and covering it with a lew feet of earth, does not prevent the gases generated by decomposition, together with the putrescent matters which they hold in suspen- sion, from permeating the surrounding soil, and evaporating into the air above and the water beneath. Under the pressure of only three-fourths of an inch of water, gas rapidly makes its way to the surface through a stratum of sand or gravel several feet in thickness. The evolution of the gases of decomposition takes place With BO much force, that they often burst the coffin in which the body is confined — oven if a lead one; and when, as in a common grave, they pass without restraint into the snrroanding earth, they are only in part absorbed by the soil, but arc dif- fused in every direction, chiefly upward, thus directly polluting the air. These gases will find exit even from the depth of eight or ten feet. I have made several exam- inations, which Bhowed that tho gases were not thoroughly absorbed by the soil. I know church-yards from which most foetid gases are evolved; and gases with Similar odor are emitted from the sides of sewers passing in the vicinity of church- yards, although they may lie more than thirty feel from them. In old grave-yards, the ground is absolutely saturated with carbonic acid gas, bo that when a deep grave is dug, such an amount of it is rapidly collected that the workmen cannot descend without, danger. From the law of the diffusion of gases, it may be seen how this death-laden gas will spread through the atmosphere of a '■ town, and contaminate, to a | b, the health of the people." I may add, that I havo passed many burying-grounds from which tho odor of de- 314 THK PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. caving bodiee was perceptil In some instances, where a side-hill is - interments, I have noticed that by repeated washings of rains, the grass at the foot of the hill would be killed by the power of the putrescent matter washed down in the BOill Side-hills should never be used for burial purposes. Nor should churches be built over vaults where dead bodies are deposited, as is sometimes duiir. Disease may be bred in this manner in the congregations. Of the two modes of interment practiced in this country — graves and tombs — the former is to be preferred. Dangerous gases often escape from tombs, when they are insecurely closed, or when opened to deposit new coffins. It is gratifying to notice that within the past few years the attention of our peo- ple has been directed to the subject of procuring proper places for the burial of the dead, and of keeping those places in a condition worthy a civilized nation. Among these "Mount Auburn," at Cambridge, for Boston; "Greenwood Cemetery,'' on Long Island, for New York and Brooklyn; and ''Laurel Hill," for Philadelphia, are worthy of note, and conspicuous. Besides Greenwood, several other cemeteries, as that of the "Evergreens," and "New York Bay," and the "Cypress Hills," have been laid out in the vicinity of New York. In all these there is prevalent a spirit of beauty, a holy quiet, a refined cultivation, a tasteful adornment, a subdued, appropriate and beautiful natural and artificial embellishment, speaking of respect and love lor the departed, such as no man can view without feeling a humanizing influence upon the soul, and being thereby made a better being. Though it may not be possible that every city in a country can vie with the cemeteries mentioned in extent and elegance, there is no place but should pattern thereafter, in a degree, and prepare proper resting places for the ashes of the departed. That the ancient art of embalming should have been lost to man, seems to have been wisely brought about by the Creator, in order that man should not make of himself an idol to absorb the affections and prevent the mind from a proper contem- plation of, and preparation for, death, the judgment and eternity. God claims the whole heart of his every reasonable being ; and when man attempts to rob him of that honor by seeking to give immortality to the material body, the Creator strips from him his idols, that he may the more readily turn to the contemplation of the Deity and His w r onderful goodness, and trust in Him as the rock of his future ex- istence and salvation. PROSTITUTION— SUPPRESSION OF MAGDALENISM. Of all the subjects that at the pivsi-nl time can interest the people of this coun- try, and which should receive attention from the fathers and mothers, the brothers and Bisters, tin' husbands and wives nf the land, there is none of such vital import, whether considered with regard to health or morality, as that of harlotry. Of tli he pen] ili • with reference i" this subject, and of the importance of early marriage as the greal power for its suppression, I have spoken in other parts of this work ; but will endeavor, avoiding reiteration as far as possible, to present i this plane. Of the numbers of abandoned women in large cities, statistics give some infor- mation. In London, inlSLM, there W&n reported to be 00,000 prostitutes, two-thirds of THE PEOPLE'S MEDICAL LIGHTHOUSE. 315 whom were under twenty years of age ! The average duration of the life of these women, after entering upon the career of the harlot, is about five years ! Paris has probably a still greater number, in proportion to the population, of those who carry on the trade, of the courtesan. And what shall be said of the chief city of the United States in this respect ? — of moral, religious, enlightened New York ? Will it be credited that this city affords a prostitute for every six or seven of its adult male population ? And yet, if reports be true, such is the fact ! Alas, for the re- ligion and the morality of the place that affords such a demonstration as this of its depravity ! Not less than 100,000 harlots are at work nightly in the cities and large villages of the United States to rend asunder the sweet bond of marriage, to torment with venereal diseases and scrofula the sinful and the innocent alike, and to corrupt the virtue and the blood of the people. Mostly they practice their traffic boldly and without the fear of law before their eyes. They walk the streets with brazen faces, flaunting in silks and jewels, and glorying in their shame. Prostitution obliterates the sentiment of connubial love from the bosom of the woman ; and the indulgence in promiscuous intercourse removes it from the breast of man. The love and esteem the male sex have for the female, aside from the mere animal gratification, has its foundation in great degree in the virtue of the woman The female being greatly dependent upon the male for protection and maintenance, is blind to its own true interest when it suffers prostitution to come into its ranks. Promiscuous indulgence destroys connubial love and attachment of the wife to the husband, or the husband to the wife. It crushes the purity and sanctity of the marriage covenant, and makes of the household altar a temple for sacrifices to false gods and to deceitful lust. By harlotry, that most sacred temple of the body, the first house of the immortal soul, is turned into a den of pollution and filth, unfit to bear the image of God. By it the nobleness of woman is cast down ; and she, the fairest, loveliest, most useful work of creation, becomes a tenement of sin. disease and death. Prostitution has also the effect of depriving many virtuous women of husbands and the delights of married life ; for often, by attracting to herself several young men, the prostitute keeps them from matrimony and the company of the pure and good There be /»"/