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Heredity, 
 
 Health and Personal Beauty. 
 
 JOHN V. SHOEMAKER, A.M., M.D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF MATERIA HED1CA, PHARMACOLOGY, THERAPEUTICS, AND CLINICAL MEDICINE, AND CLINICAL 
 PROFESSOR OF DISEASES OF THE SKIN IN THE MEDICO-CHI RURGICAL COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA ; 
 PHYSICIAN TO THE MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL HOSPITAL; MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MEDI- 
 CAL ASSOCIATION, OF THE PENNSYLVANIA AND MINNESOTA STATE MEDICAL 
 SOCIETIES, THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF MEDICINE, THE BRITISH MEDICAL 
 ASSOCIATION ; FELLOW OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, ETC. 
 
 "The law of the wisi- is the fountain of life."— Proverbs. 
 
 Philadelphia and London: 
 
 F. A. DAVIS, PUBLISHER, 
 
 1890. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890, by 
 
 P. A. DAVIS. 
 
 In the office of the librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C U. S. A. 
 
 Philadelphia : 
 The Medical Bulletin Printing II 
 
 li'l Fillwri Street. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 CRITICS poke fun at authors by saying that the Preface is 
 the author's apology for his unsolicited appearance before 
 the public. But, why is it thereby implied that authors are 
 more than likely to be mistaken in their view that the} 7 "will 
 supply a public want, when we consider that wants follow 
 created, as well as existing, needs? 
 
 We begin the customary apology by remarking that there 
 is among educated persons a generally confessed need of popular 
 instruction as to matters of health, and of all things indirectly 
 appertaining thereto ; and this, in effect, is the concession of the 
 existence of a considerable public need. There can be no dis- 
 sent from the conclusion that the want arising from this need 
 can be increased by perceptions aroused by such treatment of 
 the subject of well-being as we have here endeavored to employ ; 
 that, in a word, supply will increase the public demand for in- 
 struction in this branch of knowledge. If, therefore, this work 
 prove satisfactorily to have accomplished the purpose in view, it 
 will be gratifying, not otherwise, to find it secure of a lease of life. 
 
 There are three points touched upon, the discussion of 
 which, it is hoped, may prove not uninteresting even to 
 members of the medical profession. These are comprehended 
 by the Introduction and the chapters on the complexion and 
 the hair. Consideration of the value of August Weismann's 
 conclusions touches at present the extremes of discussion by 
 scientific and agricultural societies, and those conclusions, 
 relating to questions as to the transmission of both healthy 
 and morbid conditions, deeply concern the physician. 
 
 1519 Walnut Street, 
 
 Philadelphia, October, 1890. 
 
 (iii) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface, jii 
 
 Table of Contents, v 
 
 Introduction, . 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The General Laws of Health, 13 
 
 Health and physical beauty dependent on observance of the laws of life. 
 The ultimate cause of the integrity of all organisms the health of cells. 
 The spendthrift tendency of mankind as to health. Exercise as re- 
 lated to the constitution of the individual and surrounding conditions. 
 Imprudence in physical exercises. Imprudence in mental exertion. 
 The yearning of the city-bred for the country, and the indifference of 
 the country-bred to the country. The difficulty of combining a good 
 table with country life. The superiority of city people in hygienic 
 knowledge over country people. The moderate deployment of all the 
 faculties, with intervals of rest, the secret of enjoyable life. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Regulative Law of Life and Growth, . . .29 
 
 The law of evolution. Popular errors as to the meaning of the law. 
 Erroneous impression given even in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." 
 General comparison between Lamarck's theory and Darwin's theory. 
 Darwin's own statement of his views. Brief history of the discussion 
 of evolution. Darwin's theory turns mostly upon the idea of a 
 struggle for existence, in which there is a survival of the fittest to 
 live under existing conditions. All races, nations, societies, indi- 
 viduals, are but evolutionary products. The moral as well as the 
 physical world is bound by the law. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Nature's Evidence of the Law of Life and Growth, . 43 
 
 Darwin's experiments with pigeons. The relations between varieties and 
 species. The adaptation of the eye in different animals to the require- 
 ments of their lh r es. Change shown by upland geese with webbed 
 feet. The introduction of the English sparrow into Philadelphia, and 
 one of its effects. Color associated with the constitution. Color 
 associated with the character of animals. The effects of sexual selec- 
 tion upon the constitution of animals. The courting of birds, and 
 how mates are won among the gallinaceous kinds. The rare case of 
 the female courting the male. The weapons of birds, and their ac- 
 quirement in different degress by the two sexes. Nature relinquishes 
 what is no longer of service to an animal, and hence we find rudimen- 
 tary structures remaining that have no function. The imperfection 
 of the geological record not sufficient to invalidate the theory of 
 evolution. The great miracle of universal, primeval law. 
 
 (▼) 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. PAoa 
 
 Man's SPIBITI u. PLACE in NATURE 63 
 
 hief obstacle to universal acceptance of the truth of the theory of evo- 
 
 . lution. The law ol evolution does not conflict with the teachings of the 
 
 Scriptures rightly read. The impossibility of acoepting some things 
 
 in the Old Testament Literally. The language ol the Scriptures was 
 
 i to men from the stand-poinl of the physical knowledge thai 
 
 they possessed. The presumption of the agnostic. The perfectcom- 
 
 patibilitj of belief in the Scriptures with the doctrine of evolution. 
 
 jwer to the supposititious question of a materialist. Spencer's 
 
 and Darwin's idea of the .•volution of the conscience aoi correct. 
 
 D u-win's singular incompetency in such discussions Bbown bj ;i <ju<>ta- 
 
 tion from his own writings. Dickens cited in support of the author's 
 
 view. Conscience to be regarded as a creation appearing at the epoch 
 
 man's physical existence when the attribute could subserve wise 
 
 pur] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Man's Physical Place in Nature, 11 
 
 The difference between the educated man and the savage. Strange 
 similarities and dissimilarities to be observed in all manifestations of 
 l i,-. The evident derivation of man from some type of being far 
 below the type that represents his present status in creation. Em- 
 bryonic traits. The likenessof the anthropoid apes to man. Different 
 types of brain conformation. Huxley's discussion of the similarities 
 between the brains of some of the anthropoid apes and that of man. 
 The human brain enormously larger than that of any ape. Dr. 
 Maudsley's remarks on some singular likenesses between the actions 
 of certain human beings with arrested brain development and those 
 of the lower animals. Darwin*.- conclusion from his examination of 
 the expression of the emotions by man and the lower animals Tt is 
 positively denied that man is descended from any existing type of ape 
 or monkey. The day will arrive when the subject will be examined 
 dispassionately, and man be glad to find himself the descendant of a 
 lower form, as giving the best promise for a glorious future in earthly 
 life. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Phenomena of Evolution i\ the Present "Era, . . 89 
 
 Man's insane pride clouds Ins reason. TTe makes his God like unto him- 
 self. Scientific knowledge the best teacher of humility. The dis- 
 proved theory of past ages, that everything was made for man. 
 Perception of evolution is obscured by lack of perspective. Some 
 of the niONtil evolution of modern times. The times of the French 
 monarchy contrasted with our own. The physical, moral, and mental 
 worlds are all alike controlled by the law of evolution. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Sentiment of the Beautiful, ..... 95 
 
 A beauty ? Sense of beauty differs only on account 
 
 of difference in mental and moral endowments. The picturesque a 
 
 ne-.'. senBe "f beauty as compared with many other Bpecies. What 
 
 nstitutes tin- picturesque a- contradistinguished from the ideally 
 
 beautiful. Final conclusions. 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. ,,„.,, 
 
 The Source of the Beauty of the Fair Sex, . . 103 
 
 Two causes chiefly concerned in producing the relative beauty of the fair 
 sex— the choice by men, to the exclusion of others, of the best-favored 
 women, and the sedulous manner in which the most, enlightened 
 nations guard their women against physically degrading toil. The 
 beauty-producing prevalence of romantic love. The cause of the 
 relative beauty of women to that of men is sexual selection. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Effect of Environment and Training on the 
 
 Physique, Ill 
 
 Comparison of the forms of army and navy recruits, to show that different 
 kinds of life have the effect of changing parts of the body. The Union 
 infantry marching as compared with the marching of the Confederate 
 infantry. The differences between the Sioux and the Apaches. The 
 change that takes place in men upon being subjected to military drill. 
 The effect of West Point drill upon the cadets. The desirability of 
 calisthenics for girls, if they have no opportunity of taking the natural 
 exercises. The use of the dancing-master. Change in physique in 
 California within a very short period after its occupation. Change in 
 the physique of the Englishman within quite modem times. Change 
 in the Frenchman. Changes in the immigrant shortly after landing at 
 New York. The Chinaman's walk and shoes. The little feet of 
 China. Conclusions. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Grace the Crown of Beauty, . . . . . 121 
 
 Form and movement together constitute the highest beauty. The poten- 
 tial movement of Greek statues as compared with the stolidity of those 
 of Egypt. Gracefulness among the lower animals. Only in the human 
 form do grace and symmetry combined reach the highest point of 
 beauty. The gracefulness of Rachel, the French actress, and of Miss 
 Terry, the English actress. The unity of effect in conjoined beauty 
 and grace. Grace depends primarily upon the co-ordination of the 
 nervous system with the well-shaped form. One of the best eriterions 
 of gracefulness found in its expression of ease. Curvilinear movement 
 the condition of gracefulness. The difference between the sexes as to 
 their respective aptitude for certain movements of the body. A foot- 
 ball match by some young girls. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 The Art of Walking, 127 
 
 Mr. Finck's book on romantic love and personal beauty. His errors as to 
 the art of walking. His quotation of Dr. Thomas S. Ellis, in support 
 of his views. Dancing-masters as teachers of the mode of holding the 
 body. The question as to whether the feet in walking should be par- 
 allel or the toes should be turned out. Marching discussed as a mode 
 of walking. Dr. Ellis's opinion as to the value of holding the feet par- 
 allel, as affording tbe most secure base for the body refuted by con- 
 sideration of the facts. The reason why the American Indian and 
 
Vlii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 other Bavagea walk with parallel Eeet. The proper degree to which 
 the feet should be turned oul Is dependenl upon a number of con- 
 ditions specified. The rolling gait of the sailor. Directions for walk- 
 ing. The grace of Little :jii Is a~ compared with their movements \\ lien 
 no longer little girls. The reason for the change for the worse. Blow 
 movements of the body the severest tests as to gracefulness of person. 
 Monl ligne'a confirmation of that view. Th<' carrying of water-jars 
 cm the head conducive to gracefulness of bearing. Dr. Thomas S. 
 Kiiis's monograph on the subject of the foot and walking. His idea 
 of the dome-like character of the two feet constraining one to adopl 
 the mode of walking with parallel Eeet. Sis idea of the best position 
 of the great toe for the backward thrust from the ground in propelling 
 the body. Test bythefacts observable in the movements of profes- 
 sional dancers. The military mode of marching. 
 
 CHAPTBK XII. 
 
 The Evolution or the American Girl, .... 143 
 
 Tin- motive in women's dressing for adornment. Tin' dressing of Ameri- 
 can women as compared with that of foreign women. Cases of want 
 of discretion in women, in not modifying fashions to suit their forms. 
 I a ; ..; the American woman as compared with that of the French 
 
 woman. Be ranger's comic old grandmother. Uarlyle tress. A 
 
 retrospect of fiftj years in the matters of fashion. The change in the 
 American from simplicity to luxury. The simultaneous improvement 
 in hygienic practices. What tie' Countess of Jersey says on the same 
 topic in the Nineteenth Century. The concomitant social change 
 among Americans. The main proportions of the female form. Kle- 
 ganee as shown by the characteristic Length of limb. The beauty of 
 the female bosom. The bosom as found among some low, savage 
 tribes. Warning against the pretensions of quacks to change the 
 bosom. Dressing with relation to the form. The vulgarity of tight 
 shoes and tight gloves. General disuse of tight-lacing. The per- 
 nicious effect of tight-lacing. Beauty of person and grace incompati- 
 ble with tight-lacing. The weaving of tight shoes prejudicial to grace 
 
 ami destructive id' the feet. The blonde and brunette types of female 
 beauty. The condition of Spain during historical times fully accounts 
 for the beauty and the particular gracefulness there existing. History 
 of the country from the earliest times of which we know anything 
 down to the present. The American has not yet a distinct racial type. 
 The conditions which will probably make of the American the hand- 
 somesl type of the world. 
 
 CHAPTEB XI IT. 
 
 The Sktn as ax Organ ok the Body, .... 169 
 
 Description of the formation of the skin. The sense of touch. The case 
 of I. aura Bridgmanj who knew all that she had acquired through the 
 sense of touch. The effect of the skin in imbibing oxygen and liber- 
 ating carbonic-acid pi> and many other products. The pernicious 
 effects of not attending daily to the evacuation of the bowels. Dr. 
 Franklin's air bath. < (dors given out by certain glands as t he effect of 
 
 abnormal secretion and disease, and Intensified by want of cleanliness, 
 
 or among the lower animals. Man should, by his personal habits, 
 prove that in- does not belong to them. The waste and repair of the 
 body. What is necessary to the health of the skin. 
 
CONTENTS. IX 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Skin as a Beautiful Tissue, 183 
 
 Briilat Savarin on the subject of plumpness. The relation between com' 
 plexion and obesity. The typical English milkmaid's complexion. 
 What constitutes the ideal complexion. The reputed complexion of 
 Madame Recamier. A word as to Madame Re*camier and Madamede 
 Stael, and their relations to each other. Discussion of the question of 
 why veins look blue through the skin. The causes upon which the 
 phenomena of complexion depend. A fine skin under the microscope. 
 The scarf-skin's horny layer the chief source of the brilliancy of the 
 Skin. Alphonse Daudet's description of the artificial blondes of the 
 Second Empire. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Bath as Promotive of Health and Beauty, . . 197 
 
 The motive of average mankind in bathing. Tendency to bathing having 
 certain relations to climate. The English boastfulness as to bathing, 
 and their charge that the French neglect it. The singular dearth in 
 the country of bathing appliances. Persons pass through life without 
 ever having had a full bath. Immigrants on shipboard. Exceptional 
 cases as to cleanliness even among people of condition. The public 
 bathing establishments. Girls in bathing on the sly in sequestered 
 places, when shielded by the friendly mantle of night. Adventure in 
 which the intruder was more astonished and dismayed than were the 
 surprised party. He leaves the scene promptly — no cards. Another 
 adventure, in which the sexes are reversed, coupled with less loss of 
 equanimity. The instinct of bathing the same in the two sexes, but 
 the practice more prevalent among women from their desire to please. 
 The exquisite cleanliness of the demi-mondaine, part of her stock in 
 trade. Fatal disregard after marriage of practices that have before 
 been the source of mutual gratification. The constant bathing of the 
 Japanese. The positive necessity of the bath for perfect health- 
 fulness. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Bathing as Practiced in Ancient and Modern Times, . 217 
 
 The different kinds of bathing as determined by the difference of the ob- 
 jects sought. Ordinary city appliances for bathing in the United 
 States. The proper kind of tubs. The question of soaps. The com- 
 position of soap. Shampooing and cracking joints. Our single ex- 
 perience of the Swedish-movement cure. The deliciousness of a real 
 Turkish or Russian bath. Suggested addition of a vapor bath for 
 household bathing. Description of American so-called Turkish and 
 Russian baths. The effect of water administered in different ways. 
 The French lady' s bath of milk and the people's breakfast. Medi- 
 cated baths, sand baths, mud baths, electric baths, briefly men- 
 tioned. Bathing among the ancients. Bathing in the early times of 
 Rome. Description of the Roman baths. Bathing among the Mo- 
 hammedans and among the Spaniards. The great gifts of baths by the 
 rulers to the people of Rome. 
 
X CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB XVII. PAOH 
 
 The Cleansing <>k the Face, 233 
 
 The liealthfulnesa <>i' the skin of the face, and the mode of promoting it. 
 The tonicity of cool water The use of delicate soap on the lace. Tho 
 Kind of water ill which lo wash the face. The proper u:iy In which 
 to cleanse the face. Black specks in the face. Hirsuties, or hair 
 abnormally situated. Remedy for this blemish. 
 
 CHAPTEB XVIII. 
 The Cosmetic Care and Treatment op tup: Face,. . 241 
 
 Shielding the face from the fierce blasts of cold wind. Heat, air, and 
 light required in abundance by the skin to Insure its healthfulness. 
 Blemishes, such as moles, etc., on the face, and how to remove them. 
 Recipe for freckles. Recipe for chapped lips. Recipe for cracked 
 lips and chapped hands. Pace-pow ders and rouge. The best mode of 
 applying the pastilles de Florence 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 The Hands 245 
 
 The expression of which the hand is capable. The expression of the hand 
 as indicative' of a highly-organized nervous constitution. The brain 
 largely dependent upon its servant, the hand. The difference in the 
 hand among different races and individuals. The hand performs the 
 humblest offices, and also ministers to the needs of the highest 
 expression of the mind. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 The Cosmetic Care and Treatment of the Hands, . 249 
 
 The hand is through earn to be made presentable. Beauty is conditioned 
 in it upon its appearance of serviceableness, and cleanliness is insepa- 
 rable Erom its elegance. The tapering fingers of tin- handsome hand. 
 Malformation Of the nails. Treatment of the nails. Assiduous atten- 
 tion the price of exquisitely refined hands. Excrescences should be re- 
 moved. Refinements connected with the beautification of the hand. 
 The nails of a Chinaman of high rank. Emollient washes for the 
 hands. The excellence of the now disused pate d'amande for soften- 
 ing the skin of the hand. Recipe for making almond-meal forwashing 
 the hands. Another recipe for the same purpose, from the Medical 
 Magazine of Phnrmac)/. Recipe for coaeoline. A recipe forehapped 
 hands. Glove-wearing at night as a cosmetic practice. The best modes 
 of carrying out the practice, including recipes for preparations that 
 can he combined with it. Treatment of white spots on the nail-surface, 
 l tangerous liquids to dabble in, if one wants to insure the integrity of 
 the nails. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 The Feet 259 
 
 The civilized foot, and the imposition that it hasto bear. Thesmallness of 
 the feet of American women renders any attempt to make them look 
 still smaller very absurd. The appreciation of the impecunious count 
 
CONTENTS. X 1 
 
 i'A a e 
 for tlio American rich girl. The general attractiveness of American 
 as compared with foreign women. The lowest type of loot,, and what 
 ' constitutes its lowness. Nothing except face and hands can be so 
 aristocratic as a well-shaped, well-dressed foot. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The Cosmetic Care and Treatment op the Feet, . . 265 
 
 How the foot has, in the course of time, been affected as to shape by the 
 practices of dressing it among civilized peoples. Errors as to excel- 
 lence in feet growing out of lack of knowledge as to symmetrical re- 
 quirement. The culpability of the owner of corns and bunions. How 
 to choose shoes, and to insure that they Shall hot hurt. The quack's 
 unscientific statement as to the roots of corns. How to remove corns. 
 The care of the foot by the Skillful chiropodist. The soft corn. Mode 
 of reducing the bunion. Recipes for the treatment of corns and bunions. 
 How to treat ingrowing nail. Excessive perspiration and fetid per- 
 spiration connected with the feet. Modes of treatment for their 
 palliation or suppression. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Constitution, Growth, and Diseases op the Nails, 277 
 
 The nail only a modified form of the scarf-skin. Description of the consti- 
 tution of the nail. The nail's mode of growth. Mechanical injury to 
 the great-toe nail very common. Treatment for affections of the nails. 
 Diseases of the nails. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The Constitution and Growth op the Hair, . . . 285 
 
 The different kinds of hair on the human body. The constitution of 
 the hair described. Comparison of different kinds of hair under the 
 microscope. The effects of light on the hair in modifying its color. 
 The muscles that make the hair stand on end. The question of hairy 
 races. The so-called hirsute freaks of museums. The beautifying 
 effect of white hair. What makes hair curl. Sudden change in the 
 color of hair. Dr. Erasmus Wilson on the subject. His views dis- 
 cussed. Dr. D. W. Prentiss on the subject. Some of his cases cited. 
 Some comment on Klein's views as to growth of hair. Mature and 
 immature and congenital baldness. Dandruff a normal product of the 
 scalp. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Cosmetic Care and Treatment op the Hair, . . 305 
 
 The need of cleanliness of the scalp. Too severe methods of treating the 
 scalp by brushing. The abuse of the fine-tooth comb. The best mode 
 of having the hair cleansed. The perfumes of the barber. The possi- 
 bility of the individual scalp raising a certain crop of hair, and uo 
 more. The charlatanism of some persons who pretend to be conver- 
 sant with matters connected with the hair. The best mode of proced- 
 ure to arrest a tendency to falling hair. Oil or grease a fertilizer, not 
 to be used for decorative purposes. The capacity of the hair to absorb 
 moisture, Strong alcoholic, tonic solutions used too frequently on 
 the head. How to dress the hair, and to keep it in the highest possi- 
 
X 1 1 CONTENTS. 
 
 l'AGE 
 
 ble condition. Theusi of the galvanic currenl to stop incipient loss of 
 hair. Abnormal presence of hair. Recipe for removing it. The cele- 
 brated Turkish Rusma, used for the same purpose. The electric 
 needle used for the same purpose with conclusive effect. Recipes [or 
 stimulating the scalp to promote the growth of hair. The peroxide of 
 hydrogen method of bleaching the hair. The utter inefficiency of the 
 bleaching process i" produce a natural effect. 
 
 CHAPTEB XXVI. 
 Parasitic [nvasions of the Scalp, Eair, and Body, . 323 
 
 Hallucinations regarding immunity from the presence of the bed-bug 
 without taking constant precautions. The itch, the pediculus capitis, 
 the pediculus pubis, the pediculus corporis. Substances that dislodge 
 the parasites. To get rid of bed-bugs. The flea, the sand-flea, the tick, 
 the mosquito. The bites of sand-flies, ants, barley-mites, spiders, 
 centipedes, etc. The stings of bees, wasps, and scorpions. Various 
 recipes for allaying the irritation caused by the poison of bites and 
 stings. 
 
 CHAPTEB XXVII. 
 The Cosmetic Cake and Treatment of the Teeth, . 333 
 
 The teeth as beautiful adjuncts of the body. The first and the second 
 ii. The composition of the teeth. The con 1 racl ion of the modern 
 jaw except as to talking. The causes of this change. Theeffectof 
 tartar in loosening the teeth in their sockets. Mode of cleaning the 
 teeth. Americans the best dentists of the world. The street-fakir's 
 rough treatment of the enamel of the tooth. Recipes for tooth- 
 powder. Recipes for tooth-washes. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 The Construction and Care of the Eye, . . . 341 
 
 The eye as a much-abused organ. The present reckless practice in the 
 United states with reference to the eye. Recommendation to 
 p<> to an oculist, not to an optician, Eor any first provision of glasses 
 ti.rthe eye. The abuse of belladonna bj foolish j^irls. What consti- 
 tute- beauty in the eye. Popular errors about eyes. The constitution 
 of the eye. How the eye sees. How we see color. The Young-Helm- 
 holtz theory. Good incidental practices in using the eye. Organicde- 
 
 bS of the eye. The a in nnnioilat ion of the eye. Some recipe- for 
 
 simple eye-washes. Recommendation to go promptly to an oculist 
 whenever the ailment experienced seems more than trifling. 
 
 CHAPTEB XXIX. 
 The Construction and Care of the Ear, . . . 353 
 
 The form and sense of hearing of the human ear. as compared with its form 
 ■ and sense of hearing in some of the lower animal-. The human ear well 
 adapted in the present status of man I'm- his purposes. The construc- 
 tion of the ear ami the philosophy of hearing. Objective and subjec- 
 tive sensations of hearing defined. The disorders to which the ear is 
 liable. Recipes for some simple lotions for earache. Affections more 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 serious than earache should induce the sufferer to go at once to a skill- 
 ful aurist. The bad practice of habitually wearing cotton in the ear. 
 Disturbance of hearing by the presence of hard wax. Recipe for a 
 lotion to relieve a simple case of undue amount of wax in the ear. 
 Recipes for lotions for the relief of inflammation and cracks in the 
 external ear. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 The Nose in its Physical, Mural, and Intellectual 
 
 Aspects, . . . . ■ 3G3 
 
 Justification of the author for the introduction of the subject of the nose 
 in this work. The nose associated with character, apart from intellec- 
 tuality. The nose as also indicative of intellectuality and refinement. 
 The big noses of great statesmen and generals and conquerors. The 
 usual significance of a pug-nose. The nose as the seat of violent in- 
 flammations. Lupus, popularly called cancer, of the nose. The toilet 
 of the nose. The unsanitary practices allowed in public conveyances 
 far greater than the forbidden smoking. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Eood in its Relation to Health, Beauty, and Pleasure, 369 
 
 The subject of food from a scientific point of view. The question of 
 the difference of taste in food among different nations. The dif- 
 ference between the traveler and the home-abiding in their re- 
 spective capacities for the acquirement of new tastes. A late change 
 in the rations of the Japanese navy, lessening the consumption of rice. 
 The singular openness of the Japanese to conviction of superiority in 
 other nations. Dujardin-Beaumetz on a question of dietetics. Inor- 
 dinate liking for that in which there has been continuous deprivation. 
 The slackness of country-people generally as to the improvement of 
 their tables by means that nature lavishly provides. Plain cooking is 
 the no-art of the cannibal. The expressed contempt of the English for 
 French cooking, and their real liking for it. The relation of the palate 
 to the capacity of digestion. Habit must be reckoned with in the ac- 
 quirement of new tastes. Man is so constituted as to be nearly omniv- 
 orous. Idiosyncrasies in certain persons as to certain foods. Good 
 cooking is in the interest of the poor. "Whence the cooking of the 
 United States is chiefly derived. What constitute in their entirety 
 the pleasures»of the table. How the pleasures of the table contribute 
 to health and beauty. What constitutes the true mode of having va- 
 riety in one's food. Expression of sympathy with the mistresses of 
 households, because they never can have the pleasant surprises of the 
 table that fall to the lot of the masters of the household 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Clothing in its Relation to Health, .... 383 
 
 Clothing, as the protective, healthful, and agreeable covering of the body. 
 The differences existing in different substances, that make them more 
 or less suitable for clothing. The fabric of which clothing is made 
 ought to be non-conducting to heat. The objectionableness of linen 
 for some purposes, and its suitability for others. Wool in some form 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Che best general wear. Cotton aa anderwear. The peculiarities of 
 silken underwear. Color in its relation to clothing. Borne thickness 
 of underclothing Bhould be worn at all seasons of the year. The 
 addiction of the world to going by the almanac as to the change of 
 clothing. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Ventilation with Relation to Health,. . . . 389 
 
 The value of fresh air. Neglect to have proper supply of it indwellings. 
 A popular notion confounds cool air with pure air. Tlie two kinds of 
 ventilation— natural and mechanical. The proper amount of air in 
 cubic feet demanded for the well and the sick. Hom to ventilate by 
 the natural method How to air the bedrooms. Prejudice againsl 
 night air. ramps as enjoyable and unenjoyable. The supply oi' air 
 for the cellar-furnace. The necessity of keeping the air of the cellar 
 pure, as well as that of the rest of the house. Surest ion as to places 
 on house-tops, built for the benefit of the population that is never able 
 to go to the country. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIY. 
 The Circulation and Digestion, 397 
 
 What constitutes respiration. The skin, as well as the lungs, respires. 
 
 How the 1 1 is converted into matter lit for the renovation of the 
 
 blood. The circulation of the hi 1, by which the products of diges- 
 tion are conveyed throughout the body. The circulation of man as 
 compared w ith that of some of the ldwer animals. The physiological 
 .significance of the higher modes of circulation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Cosmetic Treatment and Cosmetic Articles, . . . 401 
 
 A brief list of what are deemed some of the most elegant preparation- for 
 the toilet, with mention of the names of their manufacturers. Recipe 
 for Farina cologne. Recipe for bandoline. Prize recipe for cologne. 
 Jelly of roses. Japanese pot-pourri. Recipes for the removal of 
 dandruff. Hair-dyes. Recipe for preparation for the nails. Face- 
 powders. Tea hair-tonic. Toilet-vinegar. Strawberry pomade. 
 Three recipe- for almond-meal. Five recipes for Florida water. 
 Four recipes for brilliantine. Protest against the practice of "a 
 close shave." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXYI. 
 List op Medicated Soaps, . 409 
 
 List of twenty-nine medicated soaps, with mention of some of the pur- 
 poses for which they are used. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXYII. 
 Household Remedies, 411 
 
 Baldness. Bites of insects and eruptions. Blackheads of the skin. Pods. 
 Bunions. Hums. Burns and scalds. Carbuncle. Chapped and 
 cracked lips. Chapping of the skin. Chaps and rough skin of the 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 hands. Chaps or cracks at the corners of the mouth. Cracks and 
 irritation around the nose. Cracks or fissures of tin- skin. Cracks 
 or irritation inside of the nose. Corns or bunions. Dyspepsia. Falling 
 of the hair. Fever-blisters. Freckles and yellow discolorations of the 
 skin. Frost-bite. Hazeline cream. Inflamed or rough skin. Itching 
 around the bowel. Itching of the skin. Lanolin cold-cream, pomade, 
 and soap. Laxative. for children. Moisture of the hands. Mouth- 
 washes. Nettle-rash (hives). Pain or irritation of the skin. Perspi- 
 ration. (excessive). Perspiration (excessive or odorous). Perspiration 
 (odorous). Pigmented spots on the skin. Pigment-spots of pregnancy. 
 Pimples. Plugs or grubs of the skin. Poisoning from ivy, etc. 
 Prickly heat. Rough, pimply neck and limbs. Scars. Sores on lips, 
 mouth, tongue, or throat (canker sores). Sunburn. Thick skin on 
 hands or feet. Toothache. Warts. Whitlow— Felon. 
 
Heredity, Health, and Personal Beauty. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 WHEN we began to write tliis work we thought, as the text 
 clearly indicates, to impart some information strictly 
 limited to the non-scientific world. We aimed no higher than to 
 correct some popular errors regarding the theory of evolution, 
 and, in addition, to call attention to certain heretofore unnoticed 
 results of the law, the existence of which the theory affirms. 
 Little did we dream that, before we had long entered upon our 
 task, we should happen upon a recent essay of a member of a 
 learned society, in which it is implied that Darwin, in his par- 
 ticular theory of the causes of organic evolution, does not accord 
 full recognition to the inheritable effects of the use and disuse 
 of vital parts by an organism, and that, when scarcely recovered 
 from this surprise, it would be renewed by the statement of a 
 member of another learned society, who contended that only 
 congenital characters are inherited, because acquired characters 
 are not inheritable. 
 
 The second dictum, that only congenital characters are in- 
 herited because acquired characters are not inheritable, begs the 
 question in dispute, for the other side contend that characters, 
 perforce of their being acquired, become congenital. The first 
 dictum, in which it was implied that Darwin did not recognize 
 fully the effects of the use and disuse of vital parts by or- 
 ganisms as among the agencies of change in them and their 
 descendants, shows that he who holds that opinion has not read 
 Darwin with sufficient attention to know that not only are those 
 effects of use and disuse explicitly and often recognized b}' 
 
 1 (1) 
 
2 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Darwin, and more and more as lie advanced in life, but that their 
 affirmation pervades his whole theory of evolution by natural 
 selection as a minor but great and indispensable cause of the 
 change observable in organisms. 
 
 We must here preliminarily clear the ground of obstacles to 
 a correct understanding of the particular point which we have 
 in view for discussion, — the heritability of acquired characters, — 
 by describing the distinction made between the elfects in the 
 transmission of life in organisms, due to the pressure of external 
 circumstances under purely natural conditions, as compared 
 witli similar effects taking place in them through the agency of 
 man, or exceptionally arising we know not whence. The first 
 conception is derived from that view of life which regards it as 
 tending to perpetuate, while modifying, the characters of or- 
 ganisms through countless ages, presenting itself to our minds 
 as indissolubly linked heredity. The second conception is de- 
 rived (according to its advocates) from that view of life which 
 ascribes to characters, derived from changed habits and the use 
 and disuse of vital parts, through artificial selection (man's 
 agency mingling with nature's), obedience to the same law of 
 heredity. It is the second class of these conditions, assumed as 
 inducing change, which some persons deny as having the slightest 
 influence toward hereditary transmission. These latter condi- 
 tions are, nevertheless, those which are denominated by all 
 persons "acquired characters," although, as will appear later, 
 that is only for convenience of distinction, characters represent- 
 ing the change produced by purely natural selection having 
 been acquired, and universally admitted in various degrees to 
 have been acquired, by all who believe in any form of organic 
 evolution, — that is, of course, congenitally acquired. 
 
 This objection is made in the face of many contradictory 
 fact^, contained in the inclusive contradictory fact of all, that 
 every organism must be, at any given instant of time, the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 product, fundamentally, of natural forces constrained along 
 lines of development imposed by external conditions, no matter 
 whence derived, and capable of transmitting whatever it pos- 
 sesses, however acquired. It would seem that it should be 
 apparent, we insist, that it is the existing form, however acquired, 
 that must be transmitted, actually or potentially, to render pos- 
 sible the protean changes which organisms exhibit. Brief!}-, 
 Darwin's theory of organic evolution, aside from its features of 
 artificial and sexual selection, as is clearly to be seen by an}- one 
 who carefully reads his works, and, as is admirably set forth by 
 Herbert Spencer in his "Factors of Organic Evolution," recog- 
 nizes that the power of both natural and artificial selection to 
 accumulate variations would be neutralized, unless use and disuse 
 of parts by organisms so changing did not continuous!}' tend to 
 mold them, functionally and structurally, as associated with 
 environment, in directions conformable to the primary change. 
 He who accepts Darwin's theoiy of evolution, which involves 
 recognition of the strictest heredity through all the changes 
 wrought by natural selection, should logically also accept heredi- 
 tability for characters otherwise acquired. He sees, as the effect 
 of stress in purely natural environment, all change handed down 
 to posterity, and everywhere discarded forms dwindled to rudi- 
 ments in the adult animal, or lying latent in the embryo, and he 
 has no logical right to regard change be}'ond the apparent 
 limits of stress in natural environment as beyond the pale of 
 transmission to posterity. The demonstrable, systemic change 
 in natural environment is the cogent underlying ground for 
 belief that all change, regardless of the fact that an environ- 
 ment may not be purely natural, is transmitted, at least poten- 
 tially, even if it escape our demonstration in the individual case 
 as existing. This is the a priori deduction from acceptance of 
 the theory of natural selection as true, but it is, a posteriori, 
 supported by numerous facts that do not seem to reach the 
 
4 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 apprehension of the opponents of this view. This state of mind 
 is well described by Herbert Spencer, when, in speaking of the 
 dawn of discussion as to organic evolution, be said, "I look 
 back with surprise at the way in which the facts which were 
 congruous with the espoused view monopolized consciousness 
 and kept out the farts which were incongruous with it — con- 
 spicuous thougb many of them were. 1 ' 
 
 Considering that man is the summit of nature as we know 
 it on earth, in whom nature is completed and crowned, and that 
 the effects of his agency are, therefore, a part of nature; consid- 
 ering, too, that nature's deviations upon its sole responsibility 
 are not always explicable; considering all the facts we know, 
 it seems -blind to limit the power of evolution to lines beyond 
 which we may well ask, If it be not Nature there working, what 
 is working there? Yet it is denied, by such persons as we have 
 described, that characters are acquired except through natural 
 
 ction. The) - explicitly rule out as transmissible not only 
 characters arising from physiological, but also those arising from 
 pathological, change of function; that is, they dispute the exist- 
 ence of the hereditability of acquired characters, whether in 
 health or disease. 
 
 Let us, for the sake of obtaining a broader view of the gen- 
 eral subject under discussion, note in passing the difference 
 between the two existing doctrines of evolution. One side holds 
 that incorporate with the organism itself is the principle of its 
 life and growth, largely independent of environment. That is 
 to say, according to this view, environment represents only an 
 auxiliary principle in development. This view, it ought to be 
 seen at a glance, is untenable in face of the large adaptedness of 
 living things at a given instant of time to their environment. So 
 close is this relation of living things to their surroundings that 
 unscientific persons still regard them as having been created from 
 the beginning just as they now exist. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The other side to this controversy — which side, with what- 
 ever modifications, includes the mass of scientific men — is with 
 Darwin. It grants that the organism is, in fact, endowed with 
 a vital principle involving determinate tendencies as to size, 
 form, and habitat, but affirms that it is, through the character 
 of its environment, modified so as to be in accord with change 
 in the environment, or else is extirpated. In other words, it is 
 alleged by this side that the vital principle and law of growth 
 in an organism represent forces which encounter in the organism 
 other forces represented by the environment, and that, as the 
 organism must in consecpience either, live or die, or have well or 
 ill being, according to the suitableness or unsuitableness of its 
 environment, or its final ability or inability to conform to its 
 environment, the character of its existence at any given point 
 of time is the resultant of those forces, plus the concomitant 
 force of conformability in function and structure to the primary 
 change through the use and disuse of vital parts of the organ- 
 ism. According to this theory, in which we have implicit faith, 
 the principle with which the organism is endowed renders it, 
 with time, more or less adapted to its changed environment, 
 individuals incapable of variation dying off, and, if without 
 sufficient time, all paying the penalty of death from inability to 
 meet the new demand upon their vitality. 
 
 That the effects of use and disuse of vital parts are, in fact, 
 if not clearly, implied by the doctrine of the survival of the 
 fittest in the struggle for existence, ought to be seen when we 
 consider that, in the change of species through the ages, nature 
 could have given nothing directly out of hand, but onby indi- 
 rectly, as by parcels, through the medium of both environment 
 and habit acting on the organism. A variety issuing out of the 
 loins, so to speak, of its predecessors, to be perhaps fiually 
 represented by a species very unlike them, is subjected by nature 
 to what, to enable it to change? Fundamentally to changed 
 
6 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 exterior physical conditions. Bui the coincident effect to which 
 it is subjected, inseparable from those new conditions, is t he 
 tendency to the use and disuse of vital parts. The tendency in 
 this case means the actual use and disuse, however at first feeble, 
 of those \ital parts of the organism. Use and disuse of such 
 l>:uts could be the only efficient cause, relatively Bpeaking, of 
 Becaring stability of the primary modifications from natural 
 selection, (iiven variability, which is admitted, and variation, 
 whioh must be if variability is, and we find that use and disuse 
 of vital parts, internal as well as external, must accompany and 
 confirm primary change, or else it would prove abortive. How 
 otherwise can we understand that, in the course of ages, structures 
 have changed so as, without scrutiny of many intermediate 
 forms, to render animals hardly recognizable as the descendants 
 of their demonstrated ancestors, when at the same time we 
 recognize them as so well adapted to their present environment, 
 and the old form as less adapted to it, or not at all? 
 
 Hence we, for our part, contend that change of function is 
 inseparable from change of structure, that the}' are so intimately 
 linked in the bond of life that they change pari j)assu, and that 
 discussing them separately should be regarded only as a matter 
 of convenience. Hence, we believe in the transmission of all 
 characters, however acquired, for there is, a priori, no reason for 
 excluding the germinative plasm of organisms from the somatic 
 or bodily plasm of organisms, and,d posteriori, no reason for so 
 doing in the face of a multitude of confirmatory facts. 
 
 In the affection of the germinative plasm of the organism, 
 coincidently with the outward change of the organism, through 
 change of environment and all that that implies in changed 
 habits and food, and through use and disuse of vital parts and 
 consequent change in function and structure, all the effects 
 shown in the adaptation of the organism, through its reaction 
 to its environment, are summed up. Unless this be the process 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 of organic development it is subject to no law but that which 
 makes it the false seeming of a reality. Therefore, as law is 
 apparently omnipresent we can afford to say that, unless it be a 
 real law that we seem to see, there is no organic evolution ; but, 
 on the contrary, if that seeming be real, that the law involves 
 the transmission of all characters, those arising from the inter- 
 vention of man, those termed fortuitous, as well as those arising 
 in the stress of the most implacable struggle for existence, and 
 consequently in all these blended. 
 
 The reader is now better prepared to consider understand- 
 ingly the statements which, we said at the beginning, had 
 awakened our surprise. We will treat of them seriatim, with 
 somewhat more amplification than as there recorded. 
 
 The first learned gentleman attempted to show that, the vital 
 principle apart, all organic changes are, within the environment, 
 chiefly consequent upon the use and disuse of vital parts. This 
 is not, as we have intimated, a correct view. The use and disuse 
 of vital parts is a vera causa, but not the primary one. The 
 primary one, in order of importance and time, is the action of 
 nature, exclusive or inclusive of man, in producing the variation 
 which other agencies, even artificial and sexual selection in 
 the higher organisms, subsequently contribute to mold. If, in 
 the stress which nature puts upon organic life, disuse did not 
 follow diminished usefulness, and increased usefulness greater 
 use, and structure in conformity to both, change could not be 
 permanent, for variation in any part necessitates functional and 
 structural change in all, especially in co-ordinate parts. "What- 
 ever Darwin might have said, the effect of use and disuse of 
 parts must lie back of his theory of organic evolution as the 
 indispensable cause of permanent change ; not of mere change, 
 let the reader mark, but of permanent change in determinate 
 directions. Darwin, however, affirms the fact in some places in 
 his works and implies it in others. In the following passage he 
 
8 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 affirms it with singular conclusiveness, because he is repudiating 
 there the representation that had been made by his critics to the 
 contrary effect. In the preface to the second edition of "The 
 Descent of Man " he says: — 
 
 I may take tins opportunity of remarking that my critics frequently assume 
 that I attribute all changes of corporeal structure and mental power exclusively 
 
 to the natural BelectlOD of such variations us are often called spontaneous; 
 whereas, even in the first, edition of "The Origin of Species," I distinctly stated 
 that great weight must he attributed to the inherited eti'eets of use and disuse 
 With respect both to the body aud mind. 
 
 If natural selection stopped short at putting stress upon 
 organisms, even the forms most susceptible of correlated change 
 might not be capable of resisting death. But, assuming within 
 an exterior change at least temporary endurance of the new 
 conditions, no organism, without use and disuse of existing 
 parts, could rise or fall, in function or structure, above or below 
 the forms best adapted to survive at the time of the changed 
 conditions. The fittest at that time, if they survived, would 
 remain through their descendants, if the exterior conditions did 
 not again change, the fittest for all time to survive. There would 
 be no evolution, — that is, no development to higher or lower 
 forms : their status would be permanently fixed. An aquatic 
 animal could not have become a terrestrial one, nor a terrestrial 
 one, as in the case of the placental mammal, the whale, an 
 aquatic one. 
 
 Nature can modify nothing to the extent of making it a new 
 creation merely by putting stress upon it. Stress is more than 
 negative : it represents opposition where it does not represent 
 antagonism. Opposition does not of itself create b} r the slowest, 
 or any, process. Only, as from the effects of use and disuse of 
 parts in changing function and structure, is it possible to con- 
 ceive of organisms subjected to change in environment continu- 
 ing to live with different aspects under changed conditions. 
 
 We have already remarked of the second learned gentleman's 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 contention, that only congenital characters are inherited because 
 
 acquired characters are not inheritable, that it is a begging of 
 
 the question whether acquired characters do or do not become 
 
 congenital. As, however, his dictum comes within the lines of 
 
 what a much more prominent man, August Weismann, thinks, 
 
 we will examine some of the points made by the latter in his 
 
 work," Essaj-s upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems." 
 
 We quote from the late English translation of Weismann's work 
 
 (page 85) as follows : — 
 
 When the wild duck became domesticated and lived in a farm-yard, all the 
 individuals were compelled to walk and stand more than they had done previ- 
 ously, and the muscles of the leg were used to a correspondingly greater degree. 
 The same thing happens in the wild state when any change in the conditions of 
 life compels an organ to be more largely used. No individual will be able to 
 avoid this extra use, and each will endeavor to accommodate itself to the new 
 conditions according to its power. The amount of this power depends upon the 
 predisposition of the germ, and natural selection, while it apparently decides 
 between individuals of various degrees of strength, is, in truth, operating upon 
 the stronger and weaker germs. 
 
 This statement, whether or not Weismann saw the absurd 
 consequence, means that the prepotential force of the original 
 germinative plasm so overrides every other tendency of the 
 wild duck that the germ must contain in itself special reference 
 to the duck's becoming pedestrian in a wild state, or as belong- 
 ing to a farm-yard breed. 
 
 Weismann says, on page 189 of the translation mentioned : — 
 
 E. Roth has objected that in pathology we everywhere meet with the fact 
 that acquired local disease may be transmitted to the offspring as a predisposition ; 
 but all such cases are exposed to the serious criticism that the very point that 
 first needs to be placed on a secure footing is incapable of proof, viz., the hypoth- 
 esis that the causes which in each particular case led to the predisposition were 
 really acquired. 
 
 What is the question ? It is whether or not disease can be 
 inherited. Weismann says that it cannot be, unless the predis- 
 position, as having been acquired, can be demonstrated. This 
 slams the door in the face of the anxious inquirer after truth, 
 for, no matter how man}*- or few generations in a line of descent 
 
10 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 one might go back to find a point when the predisposition had 
 been acquired, the answer would be, despite all circumstantial 
 evidence proving the fact of such acquirement, IIow do } - ou 
 positively know that it was then acquired? Weismann's position 
 in this denial is a very safe one, for it renders, so far as he is 
 concerned, all prospect of a solution of the question impossible, 
 through evasion of the conclusions that are deemed legitimate 
 from recognized premises in similar investigations. Primeval 
 perpetuity, according to his statement, must be allowed to 
 predisposition, and its ever being an acquired character may, 
 therefore, be safely denied. According to this dictum, the 
 first man must have had a disease badly to have been able to 
 transmit it so far. 
 
 On page 269 of the translation, Weismann out-herods 
 Herod in this kind of argumentation, when stating that — 
 
 The children of accomplished pianists do not inherit the art of playing the 
 piano; they have to learn it in the same laborious manner as that by which their 
 parents acquired it; they do not inherit anything except that which their parents 
 possessed when children, viz., manual dexterity and a good ear. 
 
 Did any one ever claim that it is necessary to the doctrine 
 of hereditability of acquired characters that such a possession 
 as this should be proved to have been transmitted? This is not 
 an acquired character, — it is not a character at all ; it is an 
 acquired art. Weismann might as well have said that we do 
 not observe that the children of famous pianists are born with a 
 piano. He goes on to say in the same passage : — 
 
 Furthermore, language is not transmitted to our children, although it has 
 been practiced not only by ourselves, but by an almost endless line of ancestors. 
 
 Why, is it not known on all sides that articulation, without 
 reference to language, is but a faculty only secondaril}* combined 
 with organs whose primary function is for an entirely different 
 purpose, and that speech, as the existence of different languages 
 proves, is only a conventional mode of communicating thought, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 and constitutes merely an art? Who ever thought of claiming 
 that any art — music, speech, painting, or sculpture, or aught 
 else that is extrinsic to the body — could be affected by heredity ? 
 Such arguments as these make one lose all confidence in the con- 
 clusions of Weismann's personal microscopical investigations, 
 in which otherwise one would gladly look for instruction. 
 
 With one more citation from this work on heredity, we con- 
 clude the presentation of what we deem sufficient evidence to 
 prove the utter unreliability of Weismann's conclusions. It is 
 to be found on pages 95 and 96 of the work hitherto quoted 
 from : — 
 
 In my opinion, there is absolutely no trustworthy proof that talents have 
 been improved by their exercise through the course of a long series of genera- 
 tions. The Bach family shows that musical talent, and the Bernoulli family 
 that mathematical power, can be transmitted from generation to generation, but 
 this teaches us nothing as to the origin of such talents. In both families the 
 high-water mark of talent lies not at the end of the series of generations, as it 
 should do if the results of the practice are transmitted, but in the middle. 
 
 This proves nothing but that the intermixture of other 
 blood, not specially endowed in the same direction, diminishes 
 mental manifestation of the original talent. It has been proved 
 repeatedly by Galton and others that descent in the direct line, 
 despite this intermixture, has long shown hereditary qualities 
 of marked type, generation after generation of persons pecu- 
 liarly adapted to certain emplo3'ments being engaged in them 
 in numbers so great that it is impossible to suppose that those 
 employments were originally sought by all on account of their 
 special personal aptitude for them. If the increased speed of 
 the trotting horse within fifty years, from a mile in two-forty 
 to about a mile in two-ten, is not significant of change in the 
 animal, due to appropriate change in function and structure, in 
 addition to the effects of artificial selection of stock to breed 
 from, what else will account for it ? The gait, as a fast one, is 
 not natural to the horse ; the extreme development of what the 
 
I- HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 best liQrse could at first do with practice in the trot was soon 
 reached; artificial selection could find nothing better than was 
 at lii-t discovered in the way of stock to breed from. Whence, 
 then, can come what still remains to be accounted for in the 
 
 enormous increase, in fifty years, of speed in the trotter, but 
 from its having been modified in function and structure, and 
 the effects transmitted to the progeny? If men and women did 
 not mate for love and money and a thousand other motives 
 than with reference to the qualities of their descendants, but, 
 like the domesticated animals, were bred for various qualities, 
 we could make great musicians, painters, mathematicians, gen- 
 erals, or athletes, at pleasure, unchecked save by the occasional 
 effect of atavism. Although this will never be, we may yet 
 clearly perceive, if we but observe closely, with minds divested 
 of prejudice, the working of the indicated law, which, as it has 
 ever done, holds important sway at all times and in all places 
 on earth. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 
 
 IN entering upon the subject of health and personal beauty, 
 which are correlated, it is best to consider, first, what is life, 
 which includes them both. The obvious reason for this course 
 is that if health and physical beauty depend on the observance 
 of the laws of life, at least upon those of well-being, without 
 which life would not be worth living, then we can best under- 
 stand the production and maintenance of these attributes through 
 knowledge of their source. 
 
 The most ordinary observer recognizes everywhere the 
 difference between life, both animal and vegetal, and mere stocks 
 and stones. He sees that the crucial test of life is ability or 
 inability to produce after the manner of the kind, — animals, ani- 
 mals ; vegetables, vegetables. He knows perfectly well that a 
 block of red sandstone is derived from a stratum of the earth's 
 crust, but is not one of its descendants, while from the highest 
 animal to the lowest they are respectively the progeny of similar 
 beings. He sees this distinction as clearly as does the most 
 profound man of science, with one exception. This exception 
 is that he does not know, what is largely the revelation through 
 the microscope, of the existence of a world which has alwa} T s 
 been beyond his ken, in which animal and vegetable forms so 
 descend in the scale of life, or, more properly speaking, have not 
 risen in it, that they are sometimes scarcely distinguishable, and 
 sometimes not at all. In a word, barring this exception, the 
 most ignorant of men sees as clearly as the most instructed the 
 essential difference between the organic and the inorganic 
 world. 
 
 But that is only a small step, although, as being the first, 
 an indispensable one to comprehension of life in its various 
 
 (13) 
 
14 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 aspects. Until one has grasped and firmly holds the central 
 idea that all life is fundamentally represented by different kinds 
 
 of cells, which also produce after the manner of their kind, 
 through various transformations, he fails to obtain possession 
 of the clue which leads to perception of many of the conse- 
 quences which environ living things. The old doctrine of the 
 naturalist was that all life is derived from an egg. The doctrine 
 of the modern naturalist is that all life proceeds from a cell, for 
 an egg is nothing but a complex, or, as he would call it, a dif- 
 ferentiated cell. It is the germinal vesicle of the specialized 
 cell of the egg that fundamentally contains life. All else of the 
 egg, in yelk and albumen, is mereby concentrated proteid food for 
 the nourishment of its growing inmate, or shell for its protection 
 during the period of incubation. 
 
 In both animals and vegetables, from the lowest organisms, 
 consisting of a single cell, to the highest manifestations of life 
 in each, consisting of untold numbers of cells, the unit of life is 
 the cell, capable, in health, through unknown laws, of reproducing 
 its kind, and of changing its manifestations of kind in the for- 
 mation of varying products. Bones, marrow, cartilage, tissues 
 of all sorts in the human body are nothing but the final tempo- 
 rary resting-stage of cells which have assumed protean forms 
 and functions. Even the blood itself, through which the whole 
 organism is revivified, is to be regarded pl^siologically as a tissue. 
 A tissue more plastic than the others, its flow is through ap- 
 pointed channels, bearing with it cells consisting of red and 
 white corpuscles, the former of which, as they move along with 
 the curi'ent, have the power of renewing oxygen in the other 
 tissues, while the latter, known as leucocytes, or wandering cells, 
 with distinct power of motion, can become saprophytes, or cells 
 acting as the scavengers of the circulation. 
 
 From the cradle to the grave there is no absolute resting- 
 stage of life, whether in the single cell or in the organism as a 
 
THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 15 
 
 whole. Life is acting and being reacted upon by complex influ- 
 ences from the earth, earthy, and from far beyond, by those 
 derived from sun and moon, upon which the earth itself depends. 
 The body, through its tissues, composed of cells, is ceaselessly 
 wasted and repaired, as the fundamental condition of temporary 
 endurance in the struggle to which every organic being finally 
 succumbs through the law of death. It will therefore be per- 
 ceived what bearing these remarks have on the laws of life as the 
 condition precedent of health ; that is, unless we are so situated 
 by circumstances of climate and other surrounding conditions, 
 and at the same time obey the laws of life, we cannot, no matter 
 what the strength of the original organism, enjoy health. 
 
 We examine our canceled checks, add to them ones still 
 outstanding, and, by comparison of the sum-total with our de- 
 posits in bank, carefully cast the balance to find out what still 
 stands to our credit there. But in life, even in robust health, 
 how manj' carefully reckon up the income and outgo to ascertain 
 what is the balance of endurance left? So far are most reason- 
 able creatures from following such a course, it is generally 
 enough for man or woman to be robust for them to consider their 
 capital unlimited. Pleasure, vanity, and a thousand other frivo- 
 lous motives induce us to spend lavishly of the greatest of all 
 treasures. The old woman in the fairy tale, with her mumbling 
 jaws and rheum-streaming eyes, was eager to exchange all her 
 riches for the poor girl's blooming cheeks and rounded form, and 
 not less eager was the maiden, in ignorance of the value of her 
 priceless possessions, to seal the bargain on the spot. But, the 
 mutual transfer made, how immediately the maiden saw, from 
 her withered, living grave, that all the riches of the earth cannot 
 compensate for the joy that wells in the heart of youth, health, 
 and beauty. 
 
 Youth ought to mean health ; move's the pity that it does 
 not always mean it. In the nature of things, we grant, youth 
 
If) HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 cannot always mean it, for poverty, dimate, inheritance from 
 selfishness, which should never have left offspring, are common. 
 Even in human selfishness is an ineradicable cause of the 
 wretched lot of many human beings. But to the readily prevent- 
 able causes of ill health we may be permitted to refer those 
 arising from unhygienic practices and habits of life ; the reckless 
 squandering of vitality, because the capital seems unlimited ; the 
 deliberate shutting of the eyes to overdraft on vitality for 
 temporary gratification, whether from vanity, love of gayety, 
 pleasures of the table, artificial stimulation, or sexual excess. 
 
 It is astonishing to a physician to observe for what appar- 
 ently slight motives persons will sacrifice their health. \Ve 
 knew of the case of one man, who had been noted as a great 
 walker. Signs of unmistakable decadence, brought about by 
 addiction to this exercise in excess, otherwise most laudable, 
 were apparent to the most casual observer. Probably the signs 
 were evident to him also, but he did not impute them to, or he 
 closed his eyes to, their real source. Exercise, in the abstract, 
 being indisputably beneficial, he would continue to exercise 
 inordinately. Nature soon eliminated him by death. Some per- 
 sons said," How strange; he was such an athlete 1" Yet he died, 
 when he died, because he was such an athlete. His particular 
 constitution at the stage which he had reached could not stand 
 the strain upon it of further athleticism. 
 
 Rational exercise relates to the constitution of the individual 
 and the surrounding conditions. The strength of a constitution 
 can be determined by an examination by a competent physician. 
 Every intelligent person, however, ought to be able, for himself, 
 to reach conclusions in the main correct as to his own stamina, 
 but as ever}' intelligent person does not reach those conclusions, 
 and, in fact, very rarely does, we must conclude that the intel- 
 ligence is generally blinded by pride, or vanity, or some other 
 cause. We remember saying, several years ago, with reference 
 
THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 17 
 
 to a college notable then and now for its prominence in athletic 
 sports, that it was extraordinary the Faculty of the college did 
 not make it an imperative rule that none of its students should 
 take part in athletic sports, in which a final contest was con- 
 templated, without first of ajl being subjected to the most rigid 
 physical examination. At that time students came on the scene, 
 chosen b} r their fellow-students, simply with regard to muscular 
 development, without the slightest reference to stamina. Young 
 men who could not swim were actually allowed to take part in 
 aquatic contests, occupying the cockle-shell of a contrivance 
 represented by the modern race-boat. All this is changed now 
 in that college, but the change should have been made long pre- 
 viously, or rather a change should not have been requisite, for 
 from the first the rule should have been mandatory, that a phys- 
 ical examination should settle the admission or exclusion of any 
 collegian in the sports which require a course of severe phj-sical 
 training and final supreme effort. Only lately, in a collegiate 
 race, every man in the defeated crew succumbed to exhaustion, 
 and was put to bed, some of them in sorry enough plight. On 
 Lake Saratoga we once saw a man faint in his boat from sheer 
 exhaustion, a man whom we, from his mere appearance, should 
 at a glance have excluded as incapable of severe physical strain, 
 while in another boat, not far off, the whole crew, in mid-lake, 
 was thrown into confusion by a similar scene. 
 
 We might go on indefinitel} r , multiplying instances to 
 prove how little regard is paid Irv the majorit}^ of persons to 
 the question whether a man is by constitution fit to withstand 
 the drain requisite for great muscular development, and the 
 final intense nervous tension of the contest for supremac}\ 
 The man lives not so strong that he may not be overtrained 
 and constitutionally impaired, from which it follows that, for a 
 given feat, the selection should be most rigid and exclusive, 
 especially for college students. What is feasible, too, at one time 
 
IS HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of li IV is not feasible at another. Did any one ever considerwhy 
 
 it is that Cornell must of necessity defeat other colleges in the 
 United States in boat-racing, and why it is that she has been 
 rigidly excluded from most competitions? Galton shows us 
 plainly in his work on " Hereditary Genius," where he proves 
 the transmission of mental traits, that even muscle for particular 
 kinds of exercise is inherited, the boatmen on the Thames being 
 generally the descendants, through a long ancestry, of other 
 boatmen. The men of Cornell are not general!}' the descend- 
 ants of boatmen, that is true, but the class to which man}' be- 
 longed, at least when Yale, upon being defeated by her, decided 
 against further competition with "country colleges," were the 
 inheritors of muscle, for many of them were men who had 
 worked at trades, and had been thereby enabled to take a 
 college course as the fruit of their previous exertions. Not 
 only were many of them thus muscularly descended, but the 
 circumstance to which we have just referred brought it about 
 that the age of very man}' was greater than that of an equal 
 number of persons at other colleges. Now, as the fact is 
 anatomically established that a man is not fully formed in 
 all parts until 25 years of age, it is easy to see that the 
 advantages of Cornell were then, with anything like an equal 
 number of students to select from, much greater for a racing 
 contest than are those of any other college in the country. As 
 between Oxford and Cambridge the contests are about equal, 
 and for the reason that, while the range of selection is numeri- 
 cally about the same, the class of men is also about the same. As 
 between Yale and Harvard the rowing contests are not exactly 
 equal, and for a corresponding reason, that, although numeri- 
 cally the students are about the same, the class of students, 
 if regarded as a whole, varies slightly. 
 
 The imprudences in exercise to which we have referred do 
 not cease with men. A few years ago it became the practice in 
 
THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 19 
 
 some parts of the country for young girls to take long walks. 
 It was so English, you know. Besides, every one who is or has 
 been young knows how fascinating it is to take long walks with 
 an ngreeable partner of the opposite sex. The trees wave, the 
 shadows fall, the blossoms peep in the spring, or the nuts rustle 
 through the twigs in the autumn, all the more pleasantby for the 
 chat and rippling laughter of a congenial partner in the ramble. 
 But, these being constitutional walks, duty must not be forgot- 
 ten, although pleasure be allowed full sway. And so, even girls 
 at the tender, turning age, when they should be so physically 
 discreet, would often plod weary miles in this climate, which, 
 however patriotic we may be, we are not bound to hold as par- 
 ticularly suitable, except during a very brief term in spring and 
 autumn, for long pedestrian courses. It was a fad, an inviting 
 fad, that led in some cases which came under our observation to 
 distinctly enfeebled health and constitutional impairment. The 
 skating mania among young girls, especially as exhibited in 
 closed rinks, was even worse in its effects on health, bj- the 
 immensely larger proportion of the infatuated who were the 
 victims of it. 
 
 The present evil in the same direction is lawn-tennis, but 
 that can never become so prevalent. It also solicits the free and 
 joyous intercourse of the two sexes in the open air, and is there- 
 fore doubly seductive. We have nothing to say against it as a 
 most innocent and exhilarating sport, nothing to say against 
 any innocent diversion in moderation. But, just as in England, 
 where, from being an essentially amateur game, amateur's came 
 to play it with almost professional skill, so here has emulation 
 led manjr a girl to exercise far more than was for her good. 
 Would that 3 r outh could learn some of the wisdom of years, 
 that the possibilities of pleasure flee from excess. Ah, " si la 
 jeunesse savait, si la vieillesse pouvait" — if youth had but 
 discretion and age were but capable 1 
 
20 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 But the physical overdoing of things by members of either 
 sox is not the only cause, among otherwise innocent things, of 
 depressed vitality. We have known many cases where half- 
 formed youth have racked their brains and shattered their ner- 
 vous systems by overstudy at a time of life when a better alterna- 
 te r would have been to saunter along through life picking 
 cowslips by the streamlet's brink. But no such single alternative 
 lies in the situation, for the true alternative is moderation, — 
 moderation, the guiding star of the wise, which even some of the 
 ancients followed as a beacon through life. We were once 
 acquainted with a young man who must needs know more Greek 
 than the capacity of man can property receive within a brief 
 college course. The college where he was a student, although 
 one of the first in the land, one capable of imparting as much 
 Greek to a man as he could well stagger under through life, was 
 not good enough because not Greek enough for him, for in an- 
 other college there was more Greek, and at the end of the vista 
 a splendid prize to be obtained by passing the highest examina- 
 tion in the language. He left his college and enrolled himself 
 at the other, and studied harder and harder as the fateful time 
 approached. The last part of his study was in bouts of eigh- 
 teen hours a day, with wet cloths bound about his head. He 
 won the prize, but what became of the man? We met him upon 
 his return, crushed under the spoils of victory. He asked our 
 advice as to his condition of health. We said : " Return to your 
 mother, Earth. There is meaning in the old classical legend 
 where it describes Antaeus, son of Earth, striving with Hercules, 
 and renewing his strength every time his foot touched the soil, 
 until Hercules mastered him at last by raising him aloft and 
 squeezing him to death in his embrace." We said to him : 
 " Return to the bosom of your mother, Earth ; she will restore 
 you if it be possible." We went with him for a few days, saw 
 him revive under the influence of her balmy breath, and his 
 
THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 21 
 
 spirits and love of life return. Then we were obliged to leave 
 him, and since we know nothing of his existence, whether he be 
 alive or dead. But if there was a chance for him, we pointed it 
 out when we bade him return to the bosom of the kindly mother 
 from whom he had so widely departed. 
 
 , Another case we knew, of a young man of decided mathe- 
 matical and astronomical talent, who, because he had such ex- 
 ceptional gifts, was stimulated to the top of his bent to climb to 
 the highest range of acquisition. Him, too, we saw at the end 
 of a long course of superlative effort bowed like an old man, 
 plodding listlessly along, evidently far removed from interest in 
 life, perhaps, as he seemed, even weary of it. Some of the great 
 monuments of Greece, although in ruins, still attest her ancient 
 grandeur, and with the best of her literature still survive, and 
 the stars pursue their courses as they have rolled since the crea- 
 tion of the universe. But what advantageth it them, the world, 
 or the universe that a man should wreck his mortal frame in 
 Greek and astronomical lore in seeking to reach emp3 T rean 
 heights? What accrued to these two poor young men, to whose 
 cases we could add a score, in advantage to themselves or others 
 from such self-sacrifice ? The measure of one's self one should 
 take with the measure of accomplishment. This is the plain 
 wisdom for every human being through eveiy act of life. 
 
 The celebrated Hufeland, German philosophic physician, 
 instructed all who might read, long before the daj^s of the 
 wondrous modern advance in physiological knowledge, that life 
 in the individual varies in intenseness, that its existence and 
 duration depend on draught upon it. The life of the old and 
 feeble is a faint flame that burns steadily low. Trim and stimu- 
 late too much the wick, represented b} - the failing body, and the 
 flame flashes up for a moment and then expires. But, no matter 
 what the strength of the individual, the same underlying law 
 obtains through the fact that everywhere, at all times, the body 
 
22 HKKKD1TY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 has relation to amount of exercise of function in its environ- 
 ment. Take the very strongest in brain or muscle, and exercise 
 these unduly, or in undue relation to each oilier, ami the vital 
 flame burns Lower and lower until it may be snuffed out with a 
 breath. What is rest cure? The discovery of a modern phy- 
 sician? Not at all. It is born of the instinctive knowledge of 
 every mortal wearied in body or mind. What is camp cure? Is 
 it the discovery of the* same physician? Not at all. It is at 
 bottom the instinctively self-prescribed cure by the physically 
 depressed, yearning for the pure breath of the fields and heavens. 
 One of the miracles in this world's strange and unequal dis- 
 position of its goods is their partial apportionment among the 
 unappreciative. It would really seem at first as if deprivation 
 were necessary to secure appreciation. The pent-up people of 
 cities long for the landscape and the air to which country people 
 never give a thought. But this is the superficial aspect of this 
 state of things, the truth of which cannot be denied. Below the 
 surface, at the true inwardness of it, lies the fact ,that depriva- 
 tion, although, as it always does, stimulating desire, is not the 
 sole or the greater cause of this difference. That lies in the 
 generally higher grade of education in cities raising the mind 
 to greater love of nature as well as of art, through which, in 
 turn, comes greater appreciation of nature itself. Show us the 
 village or little town, or farm-house, however endowed in its sur- 
 roundings by nature, whose inhabitants generally seek the fields, 
 woods, and hills for the sake of any beautiful prospect. Show us 
 any such place where the wretched pictures on the walls do not 
 betray the possessor's ignorance of nature as seen through art. 
 Is it the eye, through the picture thrown on the retina, that sees ? 
 Yes, in a measure, but in far from the larger measure. It is the 
 mind that sees through the agency of the eye as its instrument. 
 Hence, men see so differently, differently according to their 
 original constitution of mind, and differently according to their 
 
THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 23 
 
 cultivation. If some of our country friends, whose homes and 
 habits differ from those herein described, are inclined to think 
 our picture overdrawn of the striking difference exhibited in 
 culture as to nature and art between denizens of the city and 
 those of the country, we say with the poet, if you seek the 
 monument, look around you. If you present happy exemption 
 from the rule, thank heaven that you are not as other country- 
 men in that regard. But do not natter yourselves that your 
 happy condition represents the rule. Travel through the length 
 and breadth of the land, as we have, taking in its average farm 
 and country life, and j^ou will find that what we have said is 
 strictly true, that the country generally cares for neither nature 
 nor art. 
 
 Here, then, we have presented one of the standing anoma- 
 lies of civilization, that a great number of persons are constrained 
 to live in cities who love and are capable of appreciating the 
 country, while a large proportion of those living in the country 
 are destitute of the sense of the picturesque. We knew a young 
 girl of 17 years of age, of perfect leisure; idle, one might sa} r , 
 except when in attendance on a fashionable school. Around her 
 village home nature had lavished a profusion of gifts in gray- 
 blue rocks surmounted by foliage, brilliant in summer, and all 
 the more in the glowing autumn, while beyond, at a turn, about 
 a mile awajr, of the rock-parapeted road that led from the home 
 in which she had been born and reared, broke the glorious sea 
 with its everlasting roar. Yet she had never, as she mentioned, 
 unconscious of its strangeness, been even as far as that inviting 
 turn in the road, in plain view from the porch of her father's 
 house. The peculiarity of the case does not lie in its isolation, 
 for we have met multitudes of such cases, differing not at all in 
 kind, but solely in degree. 
 
 Here is a contrast, indeed, between the city maiden, who 
 would love to roam, if it were ever safe, on the outskirts of her 
 
24 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 city, and the average country girt, who habitually shrinks from the 
 exercise of walking, and cares not a straw lor scenery. Could 
 Ave transplant them it would certainly be well. We d<>. in a 
 measure, transplant one, as the yearly exodus to the country 
 shows. But here the city -bred meet a difficulty hard to under- 
 stand in a rich and luxuriant land. In real country living the 
 barbaric stage of fried cooking is, for the most part, found. 
 One cannot live on view alone; the mind refuses to lend itself to 
 the highest aesthetic enjoyment while the body grumbles for the 
 lost flesh-pots of Egypt. An Irish servitor of ours, who ac- 
 companied us on one of our tours, put it neatly when he said 
 one day to the hostess of our temporary lodging, " Ach, indade, 
 ye may talk about your fresh country vigetables and milk and 
 crame, but I find the}' come in the city much better to the 
 gate ! " 
 
 Where, too, is to be found the freshest air and brightest 
 light, there they are the most rigidly excluded. Who does not 
 know the stuffy, darkened rooms of the ordinary farm-house, the 
 subtle smell in the chambers of the painted window-shades, and 
 of the long-plucked feathers in the pudding bed ; the sitting- 
 room with its single ray of light, sparing the colors of the carpet, 
 by which one navigates toward a book; and the one room de- 
 voted to refreshments, where alone are light and air, and flies 
 hold high revelry? This is no fancy sketch of multitudes of 
 farm-houses we have visited. We have ridden day al'ter day 
 amid mountains, with knapsack strapped behind the saddle and 
 rifle resting athwart the pommel, dismounting to catch trout or 
 to draw a bead upon some startled deer. At night-fall we have, 
 with our companions, hobbled the horses to allow them to graze 
 with restricted liberty, and then, becoming a cook for the nonce, 
 have helped prepare viands in the style of Homer's heroes. 
 Then we have retired to our blankets with a profound sense of 
 comfort not experienced in man}' a farm-house. There was at 
 
THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 25 
 
 least fresh air. Oh, what a, boon is fresh air! And the sunshine, 
 perhaps, would greet us in the morning. What healing there is 
 in these two ministers to life! This is a savagely, but it is the 
 sweetest phase of savagery ; savagery without its famines and 
 its baleful passions ■; savagery with the sweetness of the earth 
 around, under the pure canopy of heaven with its twinkling 
 stars. It is the kind of savagery that only the highest civiliza- 
 tion can thoroughly enjo}'. Compared with the barbarousness 
 or the semi-civilization of life which shuts out by the walls of a 
 house what seeks entrance as some of the kindliest gifts of 
 heaven, it is luxury. Digestion waits on appetite; the whole 
 physical and mental being is exalted and in touch with some- 
 thing higher than ordinary life. 
 
 In cities the knowledge of hygienic living is far greater 
 than in the country. Despite the unfavorable surroundings for 
 health, which make the death-rate in cities much larger than in 
 the country, the checks are greater there against disease and 
 death. The city collects within its boundaries the ablest plry- 
 sicians of the land ; even poverty proves no bar to receiving the 
 best medical treatment ; general sanitary knowledge among the 
 educated is quite high ; the municipality sees to the drainage 
 and other salutary measures ; it guards against ignorance, care- 
 lessness, or recklessness, by demanding for the public good that 
 no one shall maintain an unhealthful nuisance; even neighbor 
 is watchful over neighbor for his own and the public weal, that 
 eveiy noxious condition or practice that may lead to disease or 
 pest shall be removed. Undoubtedly there is still room for 
 much improvement, and great improvement is being constantly 
 made through increase of general knowledge of sanitary laws. 
 The city's chief fault, at the present time of its generally rapid 
 growth in this country, is in not efficiently guarding against 
 dumping of improper matter in the process of filling and 
 grading at its extreme limits. Yet we cannot but admit, at the 
 
26 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AM> PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Bame time, that with such a periphery us many a city lms, 
 moderately policed :is all our pities are, the guardians of the law 
 must needs be Argus-eyed and nearly ubiquitous, always to pre- 
 vent the nuisance of improper dumping, especially as much oi' it 
 is stealthily done after night-fall. When, therefore, we consider 
 the intrinsic difficulties which a city encounters, from the na- 
 ture of the Case, in enforcing sanitary conditions, and the com- 
 parative ease with which they could be reached in the country, 
 the difference in sanitary knowledge and practice as between 
 cit}' and country is amazing. 
 
 We think that we have shown, although briefl}', without 
 unduly entering into details, that in both city and country the 
 ills which flesh is reputed to be heir to might be largely abated 
 if people generally were more conversant with the laws of life, 
 as to air, light, warmth, and exercise. There are, however, 
 many other points as to these laws upon which we shall have 
 occasion to touch when we come to detailed instruction in 
 reference to them in the following pages. The moral of what 
 has heretofore been remarked is that the law of life, which is 
 fundamentally that of health, is that the tissues of the body, 
 down to the ultimate cells of which they are composed, shall 
 freely bathe in oxygen, and the organism reject the carbonic 
 acid which represents its poisonous waste. Fresh, highly 0x3-- 
 genated air, is not merely the breath of the nostrils ; the nostrils 
 are but the channels for convening it to the tissues. The 
 organism craves oxygen in every tissue, craves the actinic or 
 chemical rays of the sun, and light and warmth. It demands in 
 moderation exercise of function, because, however admirably 
 parts were originally endowed, they cease, from neglect or 
 disuse, to preserve their pristine integrity. And so complex 
 and correlated is the mechanism of the system that one part 
 cannot be deranged without injuriously affecting others in an 
 ever-widening circle. Not less would we seek to impress upon 
 
THE GENERAL LAWS OF HEALTH. 27 
 
 the reader the fact that through the influence of mind upon 
 body health is concerned in the education and excitation of the 
 spiritual part of being, through all influences, including nature 
 and art, which raise the mind above the sordid cares of life. It 
 is, in fine, through the deployment in moderation of all the 
 faculties of mind and body that they receive the strength and 
 equipoise which represent perfect being. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE REGULATIVE LAW OF LIFE AND GROWTH. 
 
 IT is indispensable, for realizing the significance of natural laws 
 relating to health and beauty, that one should first of all 
 understand the regulative law of all life, that which makes any 
 manifestation of life what it is at any stage, makes all living 
 things, mankind included, what the}^ are, — the law of evolution. 
 It will therefore be necessary, before proceeding further, to give 
 the true interpretation of this law, which is not only popularly 
 misunderstood, but, despite all the discussion of it by scientific 
 men, is as to some points often misconceived and misstated in 
 quarters otherwise marked by intelligence and education. Why 
 this should be so is not easily solved, unless it may be ascribed 
 to the circumstance that very many persons have not examined 
 at first-hand the works which have striven to demonstrate the 
 existence of the law, but have received at second-hand the inter- 
 pretations, adverse criticisms, and ridicule of it engendered in 
 the heat of controversy. Certain it is, however, that although 
 the most prominent modern enunciation of the law was at first 
 received, save by a very few, with unbounded dissent, some of 
 its stanchest scientific opponents were gradually won over to a 
 recognition of it, which now includes, almost without exception, 
 save as to details, the whole generation of scientific men which 
 has arisen since its most remarkable modern affirmation. 
 
 But it is not, at least at first, intended to speak here as to 
 the truth or falsity of the alleged law. We will therefore revert 
 to the point of popular misinterpretation of its meaning, as 
 stated. In brief, divested of all that is extraneous, the popular 
 notion of this alleged law, as advocated b}^ Darwin, is that man 
 originates from a monkey. Charles Lamb, it will be remembered, 
 
 (29) 
 
30 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 spoke in fun, without a thought of anything else, of monkeys as 
 his poor relations. That is, however, we believe, the strictly 
 average popular notion of Darwin's scientific conception, with 
 not a particle of fun about it, but in sober, serious earnest. 
 Beyond that strictly popular view, through varying degrees of 
 misinformation, we find a large amount of what Darwin wrote, 
 either misinterpreted or else so inadequately stated as to give 
 the falsest of impressions. This is not matter for great surprise 
 to any one who has observed among mankind the tendency to 
 seek the lines of least resistance, the saving of trouble, by 
 adopting at second-hand opinions which can be obtained at first- 
 hand only b} T labor. There is, however, to our knowledge one 
 extremely surprising source of misinformation. The " Encj^clo- 
 psedia Britannica " stands pre-eminent among works of its kind 
 as embod}'ing the most learned and thorough information on all 
 important subjects. But, notwithstanding this, the reference to 
 Darwin, under the article " Lamarck," is most misleading. The 
 author of the article Bays : — 
 
 It is therefore only the sufficiency of the Lamarckian hypothesis to explaiu 
 the first commencement of new organs which is in question, if evolution by the 
 mere operation of forces acting in the inorganic world be granted ; and eun'ly 
 the Darwinian theory is equally helpless to account for the beginnings of a new 
 organ, while it demands as imperatively that every stage in the assumed heredi- 
 tary development of an organ must have been useful. 
 
 Just preceding that statement the author had remarked : — 
 
 Thus, for example, neither theory considers that it has to deal, not with 
 crude heaps of functional organs, but with exquisitely orderly forms, nor accounts 
 for the symmetrical first appearance of parts or for sex; nor, though Lamarck 
 tried hard, has he or any later writer reduced to physical law the rise of conscious- 
 ness in association with structures which In their physical relations are mere 
 mechanisms capable of reflex actions. 
 
 But, as generally understood, Lamarck's theory assumes that 
 structure may make its beginning through need and corre- 
 spondent reflex action simulating desire; whereas Darwin's 
 theory assumes no such thing, but that the structure, however 
 rudimentary, already exists. He illustrates his idea in one place 
 
THE REGULATIVE LAW OF LIFE AND GROWTH. 31 
 
 by citing the case of the eye, which in its simplest form is merely 
 a nerve surrounded by pigment-cells and covered with translucent 
 skin, but without any other apparatus, lens or anything else ; so 
 that, in consequence, it is capable of perceiving light, but not 
 form. Thus it is hardly fair to speak of Darwin's theory as 
 being helpless to account for a thing for which it does not attempt 
 to account, but expressly assumes in all cases to exist as the 
 condition of modification. Neither does Darwin speak of, nor 
 have in mind, " crude heaps of functional organs," but, as the 
 preceding citation shows, structures that are orderly, however 
 low in the scale of being ; structures that, whether high or low 
 in the scale, are susceptible of differentiation, which might, in- 
 deed, be retrogressive instead of progressive. Variability, de- 
 pendent upon external conditions, the capacity of change, is 
 always affirmed b}^ him, and that implies the existence of the 
 thing which can change. And so far is it from being correct to 
 say that he (for of course he is included under the expression, 
 "nor, though Lamarck tried hard, has he or any later writer y ) 
 does not try to account for the manner in which sex ma}* have 
 arisen, besides the pointing of a number of his remarks in that 
 direction, Darwin explicitly says, in " The Descent of Man " : — 
 
 In the dim obscurity of the past we can see that the early progenitor of all 
 the vertebrata must have been an aquatic animal, provided with branchiae, with 
 the two sexes united in the same individual, and with the most important organs 
 of the body (such as the brain and heart) imperfectly or not at all developed. 
 
 Finally, as to consciousness, Darwin assumes, as most men 
 do, that it is probably, in however dim a degree sometimes, co- 
 extensive with animal life. Some of the Neo-Lamarckians, the 
 disciples of the new school of Lamarck, now hold that there is 
 consciousness in the simplest animal protoplasmic forms, and in 
 truth, while watching the movements of infusoria through the 
 microscope, it is difficult to denj- them the attribute of conscious- 
 ness as interpreted through movement apparently with purpose. 
 Darwin seems to assume the existence of consciousness in at 
 
32 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 least very low animal organisms, and in one of its two highest 
 
 manifestations, as conscience, he discusses it in the following 
 
 passage in " The Descent of Man." He says : — 
 
 The moral nature of man has reached Its present standard partly through 
 the advancement of his reasoning powers and consequently of a just public 
 opinion, but especially from bis sympathies having been rendered more tender 
 and widely diffused through the effects of habit, example, instruction, and reflec- 
 tl"ii. It is not improbable that after long practice virtuous tendencies maybe 
 inherited. With the more civilized races the conviction of the existence of an 
 all-seeing Deity has had a potent influence on the advance of morality. Ulti- 
 mately man does not accept the praise and blame of his fellows as his sole guide, 
 though few escape this influence; but his habitual convictions, controlled by 
 reason, afford him the safest rule. His conscience then becomes the chief judge 
 and monitor. Nevertheless, the first foundation or origin of the moral sense lies 
 in the social instincts, including sympathy; and these instincts no doubt were 
 primarily gained, as in the ease of the lower animals, through natural selection. 
 
 It is quite pertinent to the above remarks to add an expres- 
 sion of Darwin's own. He sa3 r s : — 
 
 Great is the power of steady misrepresentation ; but the history of science 
 shows that, fortunately, this power does not long endure. 
 
 But, upon turning to the name of the author of the article 
 in question on Lamarck, which incidentally does such scant 
 justice to Darwin's views as represented by himself, we find it 
 to be that of a Scotch professor, and the reader need hardly be 
 reminded that many Scotchmen not only "jock wi diflicoolty," 
 but find it hard to receive new ideas without the surgical inter- 
 ference of which Sydney Smith spoke. 
 
 In the popular notion of Darwin's belief there are several 
 implied errors : 1. That Darwin was the first person to conceive 
 and formulate the theory of evolution. 2. That he confined 
 himself to the derivation of man from some lower form. 3. That 
 the form from which he believed man to be derived was some ape 
 or monkey, as we now know those animals. It is therefore de- 
 sirable here to notice these points in the order in which they are 
 named. 
 
 Aristotle, who lived nearly four centuries before the begin- 
 ning of the Christian era, left certain speculations on the subject 
 
THE REGULATIVE LAW OF LIFE AND GROWTH. 33 
 
 of modification in descent of organized animal forms, crude in 
 conception, but clearly indicating the idea that animals might 
 descend from each other in a series of gradual modifications. 
 Coming down to modern times, the same idea, although having 
 doubtless occurred to many men in the interval, first permanently 
 emerges from obscurity in the writings of the celebrated Button, 
 who was born in 1707 and died in 1788. Erasmus Darwin, the 
 grandfather of Charles Darwin, the man whose views we have 
 here under consideration, was the next prominent writer on the 
 subject between 1794 and 1796. The statement by him of these 
 particular views, however, in a book which was noted for its ex- 
 travagance, led to no impression at the time. It was not until 
 the writings of the distinguished Frenchman, Lamarck, appeared, 
 between the j'ears 1801 and 1815, that real interest was for the 
 first time awakened to the subject. From that time to the 
 present the question has hardly been allowed to slumber. 
 Geoffroy St. Hilaire published in 1828 a modified view of the 
 doctrine of evolution, recognizing previous instability of living 
 forms, but hesitating to believe that they are still unstable, and 
 in 1851 he again resumed the subject with greater boldness in 
 the affirmation of his conclusions. Several distinguished names 
 then intervene, too numerous, although really few, for mention 
 in a work like this, and then we come upon the names of Darwin 
 and Wallace, suddenly appearing upon the scene of this discus- 
 sion. Both were known as distinguished naturalists, but now, 
 in 1859, they first appear before the world as identified with the 
 discussions on the subject of which we are speaking. Their 
 conjunction and following career, in which their work touched at 
 so manjr points, is so remarkable that it deserves passing notice. 
 Darwin had been the naturalist of the British ship "Beagle," 
 in its celebrated voyage around the world, and for a little over 
 twenty years after his return had been collecting evidence in 
 favor of his theory, when Wallace, who was studying the fauna 
 
34 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 and flora, of the Malay archipelago, suddenly sent him a paper 
 
 containing an expression of the same views -which he himself 
 entertained, requesting him to forward it to Sir Charles Lyell, 
 the geologist. Here was an extraordinary complication. Had 
 not the persons concerned been high-minded men, the situation 
 might have led to most disagreeable consequences. Luckily, 
 Sir Charles Lyell and Dr. Hooker, the naturalist, both knew of 
 Darwin's labors in the direction in which Wallace was uninten- 
 tionally anticipating him in apparent priority of demonstration. 
 As the result of consultation between these wise friends of the 
 two parties most interested, the conclusion was reached and 
 carried into effect, of publishing, with Wallace's memoir, in the 
 Linnsean Journal, extracts from the manuscript which Darwin 
 had been laboriously preparing as the result of his experiments 
 and one absorbing thought for years. After that period, these 
 two men stood almost side hy side in the ensuing contest, diiFcr- 
 ing in particulars, but in complete accord as to generals. 
 
 Darwin's work, '' The Descent of Man," following that en- 
 titled "The Origin of Species," appeared first in 1871. He said 
 in the Introduction : — 
 
 The conclusion that man is the co-descendant with other species of some 
 ancient, lower, and extinct form is not in any degree new. Lamarck long ago 
 came to this conclusion, which has been lately maintained by several eminent 
 naturalists and philosophers ; for instance, Wallace, Huxley, Lyell, Vogt, Lub- 
 bock, Buchner, Rolle, etc., and especially Hackel. 
 
 He himself had thought so j^ears before, long before his 
 work, "The Origin of Species," had appeared, for therein is 
 plainly involved that what, in his estimation, applies to the 
 lowest animals, must apply to the highest one of all ; and besides, 
 in that work, " The Origin of Species," he had unequivocally 
 directed the reader's attention to this inevitable conclusion from 
 his expressed views there as to the lower animals and plants, by 
 remarking that, by the present work, "light would be thrown on 
 the origin of man and his history." 
 
THE REGULATIVE LAW OF LIFE AND GROWTH. 35 
 
 The theory of evolution was, therefore, not first cowr-ivcd 
 by Darwin, he himself expressly disclaiming nr^ such pretension. 
 
 In his work, " The Origin of Species," he did not broach the 
 theory of evolution except as, by the incidental phrase just 
 quoted, including man. It was, with that single exception, de- 
 voted wholly to the question of modification by descent among 
 the lower animals. Impliedly, however, as has been admitted, it 
 throughout included man, and in the passage just quoted it ex- 
 pressly included man. But it was not until his much later work, 
 " The Descent of Man," that Darwin devoted himself to the con- 
 sideration of man's evolution, all the wealth of illustration therein 
 contained confessedly centring on that attempted demonstration. 
 It only remains to add that, throughout his works, he never 
 indicates that man is derived from one of the existing types of 
 apes or monkeys. On the contrar}', he expressl} T denies it, as 
 expressly stating that he believes that man and some one of the 
 present existing species of anthropoid apes are linked together 
 b} r a remote common progenitor, from which they have widely- 
 diverged in traits. 
 
 The various grosser errors of statement regarding: Darwin's 
 views having thus been corrected, we can proceed to the consid- 
 eration of the lesser ones, gradually approaching and finally 
 reaching a clear view of the kernel of the matter as to what 
 Darwin really believed and taught. 
 
 In point Of fact, the whole tenor of " The Origin of Species " 
 and " The Descent of Man " proves that, if anything, Darwin was 
 less assertive as to the existence of the law of evolution than as 
 to the evidence of the modes by which evolution could be effected 
 through certain natural processes. Of course the two conten- 
 tions must needs go hand-in-hand, but what is meant to be 
 indicated is what has been acknowledged by himself, that he 
 could not claim priority over all the world in the discovery, or 
 the alleged discovery, if the reader will, of the law of evolution, 
 
36 HEREDITY. HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 but that lie could claim priority in the perceptioB of proc- 
 esses by which the effect is rendered possible. Does not every 
 
 one know what a barrier to investigation of the unknown is 
 previous conception of impossibility? Given that processes 
 were shown by which it could be conceived that forms might be 
 made capable of divergence, and then men were led to look into 
 the evidence as to the degree of divergence, assuming for the 
 Grsl time that sequence and degree of divergence might have, 
 conjointly, a history to tell. "Whereas, if some plausible method 
 had not been assigned by which men generally could conceive 
 that successive modifications had taken place, they might have 
 gone on till doomsday asserting that nature, whether living or 
 fossil, had no mystery of life to tell that was worth the unravel- 
 ing. 
 
 Darwin chiefly devoted himself to the establishment of the 
 existence of an agency which he termed " natural selection." The 
 consequence of the operation of this agency was described b} r 
 the term which he afterward adopted from Herbert Spencer, — 
 "the survival of the fittest." These statements of the action 
 and result of the working of the alleged law of evolution con- 
 stitute the points of departure for the lesser misinterpretation 
 of Darwin's views to which reference has been made. 
 
 Proceeding now on this higher plane, still profoundly in 
 error, it is first of all to be remarked that the popular notion as 
 to Darwin's belief is that natural selection works principals- 
 through what scientific men call cataclysm, — that is, violent 
 changes in exterior nature, — instead of through slow processes 
 of change in exterior nature. That, to begin with, is not correct, 
 as representing his views. He makes change in climate a factor 
 in his supposed agencies, but not sudden change, even if we 
 include in the change the coming on of the glacial period. The 
 principal factors by which he accounts for divergence among 
 animals are : Changes in continental and insular areas, produced 
 
THE REGULATIVE LAW OF LTFE AND GROWTH. ' 37 
 
 by the slow upheaval and subsidence of portions of the earth, with 
 consequent changes in climate; pressure of animal life, through 
 natural increase, upon the means of subsistence, leading in the 
 struggle for existence to many consequences, such as extirpation 
 of the less hardy and modification of the offspring in the remain- 
 ing elite ; migration to new regions, involving new external con- 
 ditions and the indirect contest for subsistence with other species. 
 
 But Darwin, in accounting for change in species, did not 
 rety solely upon the agencies especially designated by the term 
 "natural selection," but included another agenc} 7 coming within 
 the sphere of natural selection, but distinguished from it by the 
 term " sexual selection." The agencies, in sum, upon which he 
 relied as competent to effect change in species are natural selec- 
 tion (by which comes change of structure through new external 
 conditions), artificial selection (by which man modifies the lower 
 animals), sexual selection (by which minor attributes are ac- 
 quired), compensation of growth (by which vital growth, expend- 
 ing itself in one direction, is lessened or discontinued in another), 
 reversion to primitive details of structure (through what is now 
 called atavism), protective acquirement of similarit}" (called, for 
 .brevitj-'s sake, mimicry), and food. So, it will be observed that 
 Darwin summoned a number of agencies, agencies within the 
 fullest idea of natural selection, to account for variability of 
 species. 
 
 Continuing to rise to a still higher plane above the grossest 
 of the errors regarding Darwin's belief, which are now corrected, 
 we find that, among even educated people, the term " survival 
 of the fittest " is often misconstrued. It does not, as larger- 
 interpreted, mean the survival of those forms which, in the 
 estimation of any one or a number of persons, have an inherent 
 right, morally or otherwise, to survive, to be worthy of continued 
 existence ; but simply the survival of those which, either from 
 constitution or from plasticity in adapting themselves to new 
 
3^ HEREDITY, HEALTH, AM) PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 conditions, are enabled, under those conditions, to survive. 
 The expression, "survival of the fittest," in a word, relates 
 simply to ability, in the general environment, of the individual 
 to survive. If an arctic rigor were to cover an insular expanse 
 from which the lower animals necessarily could not escape, and 
 these animals had been habituated to a warm climate, they would 
 undoubtedly be all destroyed by cold. If, on the other hand, 
 the void were less rigorous, some might survive. If, instead 
 of the place being an island it were on the main land, many 
 would die during migration, but very many also would survive. 
 The same thing would apply to human life subjected to similar 
 change, although in that case men, as organized by civilization, 
 would not sutler as would insular savages, who would be utterly 
 swept away. The loss of human life would be deplorable before 
 any alleviation could occur, but large bodies of the inhabitants 
 of a civilized country, whether insular or not, would successfully 
 migrate to other regions. It is easy to see from this simple 
 illustration how many unworthy, from some points of view, of 
 living would continue to survive, while many, from the same 
 points of view, most worthy of living would certainly perish. 
 Nor does the law cease to be operative with the physical world. 
 Daily events prove, to every one who reads and sees and knows 
 the world, that, even in the social life of man, given certain 
 deficiencies of character and training, and that the environment 
 shall suddenly become seductive and full of snares and pit-falls 
 for the ignorant and unwary of danger, and the majority of 
 mankind go down and are swept out of existence as by a fiery 
 besom of destruction. 
 
 Rising still one more step to consideration of the least 
 flagrant of the errors as to the Darwinian theory, and, therefore, 
 to the last to be noticed, it should be mentioned that evolution 
 is not, as is often believed, intended to express necessarily an 
 advance. Understanding that it ma^' represent a retrogression 
 
THE REGULATIVE LAW OF LIFE AND GROWTH. 30 
 
 in particular cases is necessary to a full comprehension of the 
 meaning of the expression, " the survival of the fittest." The 
 expression implies, in the first place, that there has been a 
 change, and, in the second place, that the change has imposed 
 stress upon the forms of life subjected to it. This being so, 
 how is the idea reconcilable with it, that evolution always means, 
 in every case, progression to a higher t} r pe? The supposed 
 change may, in a given area, even destroy everything except 
 that which is representative of an inferior t} 7 pe. The change, 
 on the other hand, may be simply unfavorable to one or more 
 forms of life. Cope has lately shown, through comparison of 
 the fossil remains of certain batrachians (frogs) with living 
 species, that the ear of one species has, instead of improving, 
 retrograded ; in conformity, of course, with the later conditions 
 under which the animal has lived. 
 
 Change, in fine, may be favorable or unfavorable, and there- 
 fore there may or may not be progress to higher types of organs 
 or of beings. The meaning of the term " survival of the fittest " 
 does not teach that there is always necessarily progress at all 
 times and places. That which is otherwise taught is that, regard- 
 ing the scheme of nature as a whole, the progress of rise in tj'pe 
 is manifest and enormous. It teaches that, at times, there has 
 been and is retrogression. It is believed, upon good evidence, 
 that there are now savage tribes which represent people which 
 were once not so savage. Some of the great peoples who once 
 inhabited portions of the earth have left in those same regions 
 degenerate descendants. If we are not to believe this, contem- 
 plate the alternatives. They either all migrated or they left no 
 offspring. Which is the most likely of the three propositions ? 
 
 Having now, as briefly as possible, corrected the various 
 prevalent errors regarding Darwin's theory, first by statement 
 of what it is not and then by definition of what it is, it natu- 
 rally remains to add some of the evidence upon which Darwin 
 
40 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 bases his conclusions. The merest fragmentary outline must 
 Buffice for this, Beeing that lie wrote whole hooks on the subject ; 
 that, as he was am able man, it is presumable \tc did not write 
 more than was needful ; and, finally, that, whether he did or not, 
 we cannot take the benefit of his whole work. But, sketchy as 
 the outline must necessarily be, it will be sufficient to a fiord the 
 reader an idea of the cogency of the evidence by which he sup- 
 ports his theory, and of the entire relevancy of the topic to the 
 questions of health and beauty. Health and beauty are both in- 
 volved in the law, and the reader will perceive, as we proceed, 
 that its agenc}" is not overstated at the beginning of this chapter, 
 where it was designated as the regulative law of life and growth. 
 Fo'r. let it now be incidentally remarked that nothing which we 
 see around us but has been gradually evolved, the inorganic as 
 well as the organic world. Races, nations, societies, individuals, 
 however rated and classed at any period, are but evolutionary 
 products. Even man in his present most highly organized aspect 
 is not the sole arbiter of his destiny. All present social con- 
 ditions, including government itself, have risen from mere tribal 
 affiliations, and are still subject to the fluctuation, to the rise or 
 downfall, which the previous history of the world has shown. 
 The destiny of every living creature is, at every instant of time, 
 partly within and partly beyond its control. 
 
 Take, for instance, the moral world. The individual in a 
 community is but a unit. If he, in any degree, molds to his 
 wishes the community in which he lives, much more it has 
 molded and continues to mold and control him. Could he, 
 morally or intellectual^, rise to sublime heights above the com- 
 munity, the fact would be beyond appreciation. Does he, either 
 morally or intellectually, descend too far below the generally 
 established plane, the conduct which his thought shapes makes 
 society intolerant of him. Onl}' upon the condition that he shall 
 not rise too high above nor fall too far below the general sphere 
 
THE REGULATIVE LAW OF LIFE AND GROWTH. 41 
 
 of sympathy can he influence or be influenced by his fellows 
 within any social bounds. And thus it has been from the begin- 
 ning, and must continue to be, so long as men are men, having 
 the mental and moral traits by which we know them now as be- 
 longing to mankind. 
 
 Does any one suppose that the present high estate to which 
 individual men and women, and some large aggregates of them, 
 have risen in various portions of the earth was reached at a 
 bound ? Within historical times we know that it has not been 
 so, and the evidence beyond them, exhumed from the earth, 
 proves that it could never have been otherwise in prehistoric 
 times, through all geological change, since man first became a 
 denizen of this sphere. A savage he was, and a savage he re- 
 mains, in many respects, yet ; but an unmitigated savage he 
 originally was, and universally was, and is not now. All that 
 we see so admirable now in him is the result of an evolution, 
 advancing, retarded, checked, progressing, passing through end- 
 less vicissitudes, until we find him now touching, in some races, 
 upon the low intelligence and aspect of the brute, and elsewhere 
 so glorious as to awaken the hope that his final earthly develop- 
 ment may transcend our most fervent aspirations. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. 
 
 THE preamble constituting the last chapter was necessary, 
 lest the reader might not realize the intimate relation 
 which the law of development bears to every passing incident 
 of life. The evidence adduced by Darwin, Wallace, Spencer, 
 and many others, in support of the alleged existence of the law, 
 resolves itself in a general way into the categories of former 
 geological change and the comparison of living with extinct 
 forms of life, as known through living creatures and fossil 
 remains. This chapter will be especially devoted to exhibiting 
 some of the evidence upon which the existence of the alleged 
 law rests, coupled with such manifestly implied considerations 
 as to the importance of its recognition in the conduct of daily 
 life as will obviate the necessity of their formal presentation. 
 
 All the varieties of what we call fancj r -pigeons — carriers, 
 tumblers, pouters, fan-tails, turbits, and others — are derived from 
 the rock-pigeon, which is blue with black-barred wings. This has 
 been proved by breeding those pigeons together in such a manner 
 as to produce partial reversion to the assumed parent stock. 
 
 The results of the breeding of domesticated animals show 
 that horses, cattle, sheep, and dogs can be so changed within 
 their kind as to be hardly recognizable as derived from the 
 animals which formed the point of departure. The same thing 
 holds good of plants. The effect described is manifestly accom- 
 plished through artificial selection, as distinguished from natural 
 selection, but this throws great light upon the question of 
 natural selection. Artificial selection itself is naturally divided 
 into two classes, — conscious and unconscious. 
 
 The selection is unconscious when, as often happens, a 
 
 (43) 
 
44 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 person, not a breeder of animals or a cultivator of plants, effects a 
 change Ity selection in either, without any remote ulterior object. 
 Putting, for the sake of simplicity, plants out of consideration, 
 and confining ourselves, as heretofore, to animals, the case 
 referred to is illustrated by the occasional action of a person 
 breeding, for the assumed improvement of certain qualities, from 
 a pair (if individuals which happen to please him by their traits. 
 The selection, on the contrary, is conscious when, as with 
 skilled breeders, generation after generation of animals is bred 
 for the finest points of physical and mental traits, representing 
 generally useful qualities. Speed is thus developed in hordes, 
 milk-giving or butter-making qualities in cows, hunting qualities 
 in some dogs, size and ferocit}' in others, speed or household 
 qualities in others ; the qualities in some of these latter being not 
 at all useful, but fanciful, as are the peculiarities of the French 
 poodle, the King Charles spaniel, and the pug. But, whether 
 the quality be useful or useless, it is pi-oved that any amount of 
 divergence is seemingl}" producible from the parent stock. This 
 pursuit, even during an ordinary human life, suffices to produce 
 wonderful changes in domestic animals. When breeders thus, 
 through conscious selection, have pursued the same object, — that 
 is, definite direction toward the object through several suc- 
 cessive generations, — the gradually-accumulated differences make 
 at last in the animal under development a transfiguring result. 
 Imagine what could be produced in the way of divergence of 
 animal forms if men had the power and will, through continu- 
 ous living, to cany on their conscious selection indefinitely. 
 Imagine, then, the effect, if nature has been applying through 
 thousands of years, millions, peons, a rigid selection, through a 
 universal law of growth, life, and death, imposed by the Crea- 
 tor. We see it all around us, in our own persons, and in the 
 whole outlying world. The present is the growth of the past, 
 linked throuo;h endless series to the creation. 
 
nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. 45 
 
 When a genus, the last bounds within which classification 
 places species, consists of veiy many species and varieties, it is 
 found that, throughout, the likeness between many forms is 
 very close, and, moreover, that, grouped around special forms, 
 are congeries or clusters of species and varieties, more closed- 
 similar to each other than are to each other the species gen- 
 erally of the inclusive genus. This is a very striking fact, 
 awakening suspicion that such species, constituting the genus, 
 have been molded through similarity and dissimilarity of con- 
 ditions found in an extensive range, and, further, so as to form 
 under continued individual similar and dissimilar conditions, 
 continuously derived varieties, all of which may eventually be- 
 come true species. 
 
 Species which are most abundant in individuals, and at the 
 same time are most widely diffused in a single country, being 
 there what may be properly termed the dominant species, ex- 
 hibit the most numerous varieties. This phenomenon points in 
 the same direction as that which has just been noticed, and, 
 moreover, confirms its ultimate suggestion to the mind. That is 
 to say, if variation is producible and produced from anj^ cause 
 whatever, we cannot say that the same cause is incapable of 
 producing indefinite change; we cannot say that species may 
 not be produced from varieties, and that the final product in the 
 course of ages may not be quite dissimilar from the stock from 
 which observation has been supposed to begin. Therefore, if 
 natural selection as defined can produce change, it is impossible 
 mentally to limit the amount of change. 
 
 There is a singular and surprising relation between the simi- 
 larities and dissimilarities among animals found on continents 
 and on the neighboring islands, and striking relations among 
 animals inhabiting the islands themselves, pointing to primary 
 differentiation as between the continental and insular forms and 
 secondary differentiation as among the insular forms. 
 
46 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 It lias boon ascertained, too, that in Large areas which, there 
 is reason to believe, from geological evidence, have not been sub- 
 jected to invasion of new forms for many ages, the living and 
 fossil forms make a much closer series than the}' do in those 
 regions which geological evidence shows to have been open for 
 long periods to the invasion of species. The most marked ex- 
 emplifications of this circumstance are exhibited by the persist- 
 ence in Australia of the marsupial (pouched) type of animal, 
 such as the kangaroo, and in South America of the edentata 
 (sloth) type, like the armadillo, ant-eater, and others. 
 
 The stripes of the zebra are sometimes suggestively indicated 
 on the horse and the ass. Similarly, spots appear and disappear 
 on certain adult deer, only the young (the fawn) normally exhibit- 
 ing them at present. These are believed to be cases of partial 
 reversion to primitive characteristics, the common progenitor of 
 the zebra, the horse, and the ass being supposed to have been 
 some striped animal, and that of the deer tribe some spotted 
 and otherwise widely different animal from the present deer. 
 
 There is a whole succession of animals graduating off into 
 each other in functional adaptation of the e}-e, as the}' graduate 
 in space from light to twilight and then to total darkness, the 
 eye becoming of less and less efficiency and then of none at all, — 
 in structure, only the rudiment of an eye. Is it to be supposed 
 that these animals were separate creations for separate localities, 
 each having been endowed, if it can be so termed, with struc- 
 tures which sometimes have little and sometimes no relation to 
 use, — merely to suggest an idea of symmetry and system in 
 creation? Is it not rather to be supposed that in all of these 
 creatures the shamness of seeing could not be the result of special 
 creation, but that their e3'es once exercised more function than 
 the least imperfect of them now? that, in the course of time, 
 loss of function, through changed conditions and habits, led to 
 partial loss of structure? and that the present structures, which, 
 
nature's evidence of the law op life and growth. 47 
 
 when otherwise, once served a purpose, might, under changed 
 conditions, serve again the once discontinued purpose ? 
 
 The blind fish of the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky are the 
 most familiar instance of the rudimentary condition of the eye 
 to which reference has just been made, and crabs there have the 
 foot-stalks for e3 r es, without the eyes themselves. Rudimentary 
 organs, however, extend over an immense range among living 
 things. Tbe pouch of the marsupial is really the first form by 
 which the breast of land mammals is foreshadowed. In the case 
 of the male sex among mankind, phj^siologists are agreed that 
 the breast can hardly be regarded as rudimentary, its glands, in 
 certain cases, being known to secrete milk. It is therefore re- 
 garded simply as an organ which is no longer normally capable 
 of function. Minute anatomical examination of the body, known 
 as histology, shows that, even in so remarkable a connection as 
 that between the human spine and brain, there is a demonstrable 
 case near the upper vertebrae, where the fibres still exist, but are 
 functionless. In this part, therefore, they have been superseded 
 by other special adaptations, and in the course of ages may be- 
 come more and more rudimentary, and perhaps finally disappear. 
 
 There are upland geese with webbed feet. What possible 
 use can webbed feet now be to these geese ? Darwin remarks of 
 the frigate-bird, or man-of-war hawk, as often called in Florida, 
 that it has all its toes webbed, and that no one but Audubon 
 ever saw it alight on the surface of the ocean. We can person- 
 ally confirm this statement, having watched the beautiful float- 
 ing of thousands of these birds in their solitary flight through 
 the air, soaring in concentric circles on apparentl}- motionless 
 pinions. It is not uncommon for any bird which obtains food 
 from the water to flutter immediately over the surface, seizing 
 what it can peck up or grasp ; and this produces the effect 
 which, doubtless, Audubon perceived when he suspected that the 
 webbed feet of the frigate-bird aided it to support itself upon 
 
48 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 flie water. The bird is so extremely shy, and keeps at such a 
 distance from man, that, even with a telescope, it would be 
 impossible for any one to say that it uses its webbed l'eet as 
 support on the surface of the water. Their inefficiency for that 
 purpose is of itself presumption against their existence and use 
 for any such purpose. Observation of what happens in the case 
 of other sea-birds, and, indeed, for that matter, in the case of 
 fresh-water birds, confirms this presumption, and leads to the 
 conclusion that the webbed feet of the frigate-bird, as well as 
 those of the upland goose, represent structure which had been 
 useful in now discontinued habits of life. 
 
 The causes which ma}- determine the greater or less persist- 
 ence of a form, its extinction or its modification through migra- 
 tion and changed climate, food, and habits, are sometimes of a kind 
 beyond the knowledge of the ordinary dweller on the earth. The 
 pest of the tstse-fly, in the southern part of Africa, is so great, 
 so virulent are their attacks upon cattle, that to save those 
 animals from certain death it has been from time immemorial 
 necessary to cauterize the tail. The ch-culation near the end of 
 the tail being weak, and the vitality of the part there being in 
 consequence low, the venomous attack of the fly which takes 
 place there leads to rapid sloughing of the tail and the death of the 
 animal. The animals which are saved by the process mentioned 
 inc. of course, domestic animals, and therefore have no power of 
 migration independent of their masters. Imagine, however, what 
 might readily take place if tliej* were in a wild state, how many 
 would be destroyed, and how many would remain if nature had 
 not. as it has not, placed impassable barriers to their going. 
 
 What kind of a country must that be where the termites, or 
 white ants, make occasional inroads, swarming over the whole 
 of the ground, entering every hut and house, and devouring 
 everything before them, even down to paper? Certainly the 
 conditions of existence there are something frightfully unlike 
 
nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. 49 
 
 what most human beings are acquainted with, and involve 
 manifold untold changes besides that exhibited in the visible, 
 swarming ant-life of that region. 
 
 What ordinary observer would have supposed that so appar- 
 ently simple a matter as the introduction of the English sparrow 
 into Philadelphia would affect any other animal life? Yet Dr. 
 Le Conte, the entomologist, who, living in Philadelphia, had 
 ample opportunity of observing, said that before it had been 
 here very long it had so suppressed the particular worm for 
 whose destruction it had been imported, that a certain hairy 
 worm, which had before been scarcely noticed, and which the 
 sparrow would not touch, had multiplied inordinately. 
 
 Whether wild, or domestic, we find that there are individuals 
 among all animals which have, be3'ond others, the capacity of 
 resisting hardship. This capacity being often mysteriously 
 associated with color, it comes about, from the death of the less 
 hardy, that the preferred color is that which, as represented by 
 a beast, is the only one left to propagate its kind. Thus even 
 color can come to be associated with constitution, and remain 
 fixed, as representing the constitution best fitted in an individual 
 animal for conditions under which it has been evolved. Color 
 is also markedly associated with the kind of protection which 
 obscurity confers. Observe how protective are the colors of 
 fishes which, through weakness, need protection. The flounder 
 is white on one side, it is true, but observe that that is the side 
 which is toward the bottom. When fishing along various conti- 
 nental coasts one cannot help being struck with this phenomenon. 
 Observe the colors of the hare, the grouse, the partridge, and of 
 many other game animals. Even in form there is often so close a 
 mimicry by animals of inanimate nature as to require the closest 
 scrutiny to distinguish between the living and the not living. 
 The well-known leaf-insect so closely simulates the leaves on 
 which it rests in feeding that the nearest inspection is required 
 
50 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 to distinguish it from them. But there is also animal mimicry 
 of animate objects. There are certain species of butterflies 
 which have imitators so close as to require much effort in the 
 open air to distinguish one from another. It has been dis- 
 covered that the mimicked kind enjoy certain immunities from 
 danger and destruction, in which the mimickers participate. 
 Thus, natural selection finding the two originally alike in their 
 individuals, the likeness intensified through the destruction of 
 those of the mimicking species which were the least conformable 
 to the standard of the protected kind, and thus those which are 
 left to propagate their kind always tend to approach nearer and 
 nearer to that standard. 
 
 Color is associated even with traits of character. The white 
 horse is invariably mild in disposition, the black horse fier}\ 
 Gray in horses seems to be associated with strength. Color is 
 associated and identified with sex, of which the most familiar 
 instance is the color of the tortoise-shell cat, which is almost 
 invariably female, while the corresponding male is as invariably 
 of a dull brick color. 
 
 Not a hundredth part of the phenomena which form the 
 evidence of the existence of the law of development has been 
 given, or would be appropriately introduced here ; but surely 
 enough has been said to warrant the assertion that, be it much 
 or little, enough has been adduced to establish the claim to a 
 good standing in court for the probable existence of the law. 
 
 Sexual selection, which, as has been intimated, is really 
 within the general sphere of natural selection, although it is dis- 
 tinguished by a different name, is effective through the interac- 
 tion of the two sexes among all those animals, including man, 
 where individual preference • is exercised. It is perfectly well 
 established, that even among some of the lower animals, notably 
 among birds, the sexual instinct is not exhibited save in conjunc- 
 tion with individual preferences. It is hardly necessary to say 
 
nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. 51 
 
 that, among mankind, individual preferences are the most mani- 
 fest of the impulses which draw one sex toward the other. But 
 we will reserve for a future chapter the discussion of the rela- 
 tions of the sexes among mankind in the highest affection, known 
 as love, and confine ourselves here to the effect of the action of 
 sexual selection among the lower animals. 
 
 Just as in the spring-time the young man's thoughts, and for 
 that matter the young woman's, turn lightly to thoughts of love, 
 so among all the lower animals there are joyousness, assemblies, 
 the movements of courtship, rivalry, and strife ; all growing out 
 of the indefinable attraction of sex to sex. It is the awakening 
 time of all nature, of plant as well as of animal, when the re- 
 turning sun stirs the pulse of all life, and being, in renewing 
 itself, rejoices. 
 
 Fear has been called the strongest of the passions, but surely 
 that view, even if we accept as part evidence the ancient super- 
 stitious sacrifice of human life, is not tenable in face of the fact 
 that love conquers fear. Love, we may safety say, is the most 
 potent and widely diffused of all the passions ; so potent that it 
 even holds within its chalice all the rest. It holds not only what 
 is most beautiful, but jealousy, envy, hatred, cruelty, all that is 
 most malignant. It is, therefore, the master-passion, which, 
 working mainly for good, yet holds potentially such evil as may 
 assume the guise of either angel or devil. Among the lower 
 animals, to some, but, to only a slight degree constrained by 
 morality, the baser impulses which love has the power to origi- 
 nate find free vent. Stags and most other horned animals gore 
 and trample each other ruthlessly to death. Game-birds fight 
 and pierce and lacerate each other with the most savage satis- 
 faction. We have watched an alligator, fresh from a desperate 
 conflict for some most unlovely loved one, with part of its upper 
 jaw and a foot or more of its tail gone, and both fore-legs broken 
 at the shoulder, so nearly spent that it had barely enough 
 
59 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 strength left to push itself slowly forward for a few feet with 
 its hind legs and slump into the water. Darwin, after giving 
 an interesting account of the combats of many species of ani- 
 mals, remarks that he is not aware whether crustaceans fight. 
 We could have told him that duels among crabs are common in 
 the spring-time, and that, when the animals are fighting, they 
 are so much absorbed that then is the easiest time to catch them. 
 
 But here let us quit this line of description. It was entered 
 upon solely for the purpose of correcting 1 a very common belief 
 that the loves of most of the lower animals do not awaken evil 
 passions, and briefly to indicate that, for the most part, their 
 courtship includes within its gamut the enormous range between 
 every art to please and death-dealing fury. 
 
 It is, with few exceptions, the law throughout nature that 
 the male shall take the active part in courtship. It is not, there- 
 fore, to be inferred, as it often is, that the female does not take 
 an equal share. To think this is no more rational than to sup- 
 pose that the positive pole of a galvanic battery could, without 
 association with the negative one, transmit an electric current. 
 The simple truth is, as stated, that the male almost universally 
 takes the active part in courtship. The reason of this may lie 
 down deep in physiological differences between the sexes, leading 
 the male to greater impulsiveness and the female to relative pas- 
 sivity. But we cannot reach the cause: the fact, however, is 
 indisputable. This being settled, we find that fact to be a point 
 of departure for the demonstration of the effects of sexual selec- 
 tion among some of the lower animals. 
 
 In the lower animal life we observe, of course, types which, 
 from their slight development of intelligence, seem to show no 
 individual preferences whatever: an}' male is a male, and any 
 female a female, equalby delectable. But when we rise in the 
 scale among animals to higher grades of intelligence, we find 
 manifestation of preference in many ways similar to that of 
 
nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. 53 
 
 human beings. We find among birds, for instance, the most 
 marked evidence of preference for certain individuals of the 
 opposite sex. Pigeons afford an excellent opportunity for ob- 
 servation of this sentiment, for they are singularly faithful to 
 their loves. Yet, faithful as they are in that respect, the exist- 
 ence of preference among them is at times additionally exhibited 
 in the case of what is known among fanciers as a " coaxer," or 
 " g a y bird," a sort of rake of a pigeon, which is sometimes able 
 to seduce another bird from its allegiance to its mate. 
 
 Birds in their wild state can be and are watched from places 
 of concealment by naturalists, and their whole love-making can 
 be and often is recorded. The commonest observation shows how 
 productive courtship and rivalry are of music among songsters. 
 It seems idle to argue that the birds must be pleased with song. 
 If they were not, they would not sing. It seems self-evident, 
 and observation confirms the view, that songsters must be pleased 
 with song, — both singers and listeners. The singer, when caged 
 and entirely by himself, often prolongs indefinitely what seems 
 to human ears a joj^ous melody. Why, then, is it not certain 
 that to his ears it must be a pleasure, and, if so, to one of the 
 opposite sex that he may wish to mate ? In the wilds he seems 
 to sing not onby to excel a rival, but to please his female choice. 
 AH three must be critical in musical performance, else there 
 could be no rivalry through competition, and no love elicited 
 through the most unwavering song. That the suitor and rival, 
 or rivals, should make so much exertion as singing involves, 
 without any object to be obtained, is incredible. 
 
 The meeting-places of birds are, naturally, as various as 
 their habits. Among songsters, the grove is vocal with their 
 melody, and the}*- fly from spray to spray in delighted vagaries 
 of wooing. Among certain birds of another kind, which may 
 be generalized under the designation of game-birds, and which 
 resort to the ground for locomotion more than to the air, many 
 
54 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Bpecies are ootable For beautiful plumage and dangerous weapons. 
 Now, it is to be remarked that, as, with rare exceptions, a bird, 
 however game, is not called upon to use its weapons against 
 other Bpecies, the swoop of a hawk or other enemy giving it 
 tin- opportunity of using them only in the rare case where the 
 attacker lias become entangled with another quarry, it is evident 
 that the purpose of the weapons of the male is for service against 
 individuals of his own species, and, moreover, that these indi- 
 viduals are always males. 
 
 When, then, birds of these species gather together in the 
 open spaces where they love to congregate for the holding of 
 their love-feasts, and, by cries, struttings, and antics of all sorts, 
 display themselves before the assembled females, " peacocking 
 it. " as the French could say by the word pawner; when san- 
 guinary combats, injury, and sometimes death ensue therefrom, 
 it is not to be denied, when we find that it is only the females 
 which can excite to such manifestations, that the females are, in 
 their passive way, parties to and in equal degree responsible for 
 the consequences. If the ordinary prize-fight were concerned, 
 they would all be liable to arrest as aiders and abettors of the 
 fight. The motives which prompt these contests are therefore 
 just those which every human heart recognizes as perfectby com- 
 prehensible. They are fundamentally human as to inspiration, 
 having the closest relation to conflicting choice and mating. The 
 allurements are personal ornament and a sort of swashbuckler 
 gallantry. That color is both liked and disliked by animals the 
 simplest experiments prove. We have ourselves been unpleas- 
 antly near a bull's demonstration on a red flag, and we imagine 
 that there are few who do not know that the ordinary frog seems 
 to love a red rag as much as the bull seems to hate it. 
 
 Some of the lower animals, then, through displaying their 
 charms to the best advantage, evidently compete with each other 
 for the affection of individuals of their kind of the opposite sex. 
 
nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. 55 
 
 This indicates, not only on the part of the males, but also on 
 that of the females, the perception of relative desirability in 
 individuals, both male and female. Relative admiration, of 
 course, implies relative desirability. If there were no relative 
 admiration there could be no relative desirability perceived, and 
 then there would be no fighting. Not even birds fight for what 
 they do not desire. And, throughout the scenes which have been 
 described, perception of relative beauty, or, at least, belief in it, 
 based on generally agreeable attributes, is the fundamental cause 
 of the contention. If, then, beauty and gallant ways and 
 knightly strength and skill are recognized by these animals, and 
 recognized in the manner and with the immediate results de- 
 scribed, that is only to say that they are proved to be rational 
 (if our own human ways are rational) bases for choice and mat- 
 ing. Relative admiration, in all its phases, is clearly implied by 
 action exactly like what should be comprehensible to higher 
 beings possessing similar, if more exalted, sentiment. The per- 
 sonality of the suitor is presented, according to his knowledge, 
 in the most favorable light for his acceptance, and that he is 
 relatively acceptable upon the grounds upon which he counted 
 on being pleasing is proved by the event. So, whether a bird 
 sings, or does not sing, or is a thing of beauty and a fierce 
 fighter, it is pleased in the same way, if not in the same degree 
 or with the same nice discrimination, as human beings are with 
 form, color, music, and gallantry in fight and wooing. 
 
 It- is from this source that the effects of sexual selection 
 flow. The action of certain birds in wooing was chosen as the 
 best means of demonstrating that in nature gradual change must 
 flow from it, because birds, of all the lower creatures, afford the 
 greatest facilities for observation of sexual habit, are those 
 which have consequently been the most closely observed, and at 
 the same time are those which are the most highly gifted in the 
 directions that render changes in them readily comprehensible. 
 
56 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 But, wherever among animals individual preference is exercised 
 in the relations of the sexes, similar consequences to those which 
 
 we arc now about to examine must ensue. 
 
 Birds are attracted not only by the beauty of color, but by 
 tiie ruffling of feathers, strutting, dancing, and antics of the 
 male, as any one can testify who has ever observed them in the 
 state of nature. Remembering that among birds it is the female 
 which, however much the male expresses preference, generally 
 exercises final choice, guided by certain physical traits, such as 
 swelling display of form and color, and by admiration of superi- 
 ority in the moral traits of courage and prowess, that it is the 
 female which makes final decision in favor of an individual male, 
 it follows inevitably from the coincident fact that these males 
 which are favored being those which are generally the most 
 adorned and the best armed (else the}' could not be beyond 
 others successful), must leave the greatest number of offspring 
 of their sex as the best appointed descendants of the species. 
 The general tendenc}', therefore, is for the males of certain 
 species of birds to become more and more beautiful, and better 
 and better armed, and so the weapons and the plumage of a 
 species become indefinitel}' improved and beautified. 
 
 The gay colors and gallant ways of the barn-yard cock have 
 attraction for the hen, as any one may observe if he will but 
 look. Domestication does not cause either of them to lose the 
 impulses derived from nature. In the barn-yard it is observable 
 that the young cock comes sneaking around to gain possession, 
 and sometimes does gain possession, of a hen, to be relinquished 
 hastily with an affrighted squawk as the cock of the walk appears, 
 and the other takes to flight. So also in the state of nature we 
 ma}' observe, among the gallinaceous fowls, the fierce old cocks 
 battling in the arena for possession of a greater or lesser number 
 of the attendant hens, while some young cocks, unable to try 
 conclusions with the others, happen to please hens and elope in 
 
nature's evidence of the law of LIFE AND GROWTH. -)1 
 
 a barn-yard, or indeed, human fashion, leaving the old fellows 
 to fight it out for some of the prizes that have gone. This is 
 one way in which the female exercises choice. In another slie 
 has Hobson's choice, none at all, and becomes the captive of the 
 spear and bow of some supremely redoubtable master. In 
 another, however, in a far greater degree than the first, she 
 exercises choice among the victors. It is evident that choice 
 she has, and choice she exercises ; whereas, in the gallinaceous 
 tribe, what the cock chiefty battles for is no choice at all, but the 
 possession of as many hens as possible. 
 
 There are a few instances of the converse case, con- 
 firming the statement made as to the effect of the exercise 
 of final choice. There are a few species of birds where the 
 female, and not the male, is the active part}' to the courtship, 
 and the effect just described is then reversed. It is then the 
 female, and not the male, which is distinctively armed and 
 adorned, and which does the fighting and directs the familj*. 
 Whether or not this is a normal condition, resulting from the 
 fact that the species is deficient in number of males, is not known. 
 The fact, however, whatever the cause of it, serves equalh' well 
 to illustrate the concomitant effect of a reversal of the ordinary 
 course of nature, that is, the sex of the party to the nuptial 
 contract, represented by the individual chosen for exceptional 
 attributes, is that sex through which comes to the progenj" of 
 the same sex development of its characteristics. When the cock 
 is the defender of the family he wears the weapons and the 
 uniform of war. When the roles are reversed it is the hen which 
 wears the insignia of rank. The same thing is observable 
 among the women who are called strong-minded. 
 
 It will at this point doubtless be inquired \>y some reader 
 not conversant with the working of the laws of heredit}-, how it 
 happens that to the progeny should not eventuall}' be trans- 
 mitted equally, as between the two sexes, the attributes which 
 
58 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 are acquired through the maternal choice; why the}- should be 
 confined only to the male sex? If the reader can ask such a 
 question, perhaps he will answer, first, why it is only the male 
 which originally possessed the attributes which are alleged to be 
 susceptible, through sexual selection, of modification in the male 
 sex. If the male be chosen for certain characteristics by the 
 female, the characteristics for which he was chosen are neces- 
 sarily male characteristics, and, therefore, are necessarily con- 
 tinued in the line of descent to the male progeny. But, to a 
 certain degree, those attributes are transmitted to the female 
 sex ; not, however, as distinctively as to the male. 
 
 If certain physical attributes, such as weapons, are acquired 
 in high degree by the male sex of a species of birds, they will be 
 transmitted in some degree to the other sex, for the spur, for in- 
 stance, regarded simply as such, is not confined to the male bird. 
 Even the spur of the ordinary barn-yard hen is sometimes quite 
 well developed. But it is only exceptional^ as well developed in 
 the hen as in the cock. The hen requires spurs for the defense 
 of her young. The difference between the action of the two sexes 
 is that the cock tends to use his spurs for aggression, but the 
 hen hers for defense. When, however, as has been noted, certain 
 structures which, as the general rule, especially characterize the 
 male, are possessed by the female, corresponding physical and 
 moral attributes are also possessed by her. Although, for the 
 sake of brevity, the rare case of reversion of the ordinary rule 
 as to the relations of the sexes has been noticed only as happen- 
 ing in the case of birds, yet there are known cases of reversion 
 of a similar kind among some few other animals. 
 
 Nature ignores that which is useless to an animal in propor- 
 tion as it comes to be more and more useless, and more and 
 more augments that which is useful as it comes to be more and 
 more useful. Structure can increase more or less in function. 
 If structure is impaired, loss of function diminishes with it. If 
 
nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. 59 
 
 function decreases, structure proportionally declines. Structure 
 may suffer entire loss of function. Diminution of function may 
 lead to atrophy of structure. Long cessation of function ren- 
 ders once active organs rudimentary. Renewal of old function, 
 or creation of new, means growth of structure. Traits which 
 are distinctively male and female continue to be maintained 
 through differentiation chiefly within the lines recognized as 
 respectively male and female. Nature having declared through 
 her works that all development shall relate solely to the welfare 
 of the individual, through the relation of structure to environ- 
 ment, and increasing, diminishing, or withdrawing structure as 
 needs declare that it is more or less fitted for the conditions of 
 life, sexual selection, potent as it is, is thereby still subject to the 
 inclusive law of natural selection. That which is useful or use- 
 less, including the ornamental within sexual lines, finds no escape 
 from the universal law that, under any and all conditions, only 
 the fittest of everything for the benefit of the individual shall 
 survive. 
 
 The geological record is confessedly imperfect. That is to 
 say, that the archives of the past history of the earth, folded 
 aw r ay amid the strata of by-gone geological periods, do not pre- 
 sent such perfect sequence in the account of life as the theory 
 of development would desire. How could it be otherwise ? Some 
 remains are too perishable to last long under the most favorable 
 conditions ; fire has carried on a work of destruction, and the 
 upheaval and sinking of areas of continental size have been 
 concerned in their manifold disappearance. The delving, too, 
 of man is necessarily extremely limited in its efficienc}^ ; and so, 
 while millions of records remain beyond his power to reach them, 
 others, possible to reach, must forever elude knowledge of their 
 existence. Whole groups of intermediate forms are lacking to 
 series in the ordinary development of life, and other series seem 
 to have arisen spontaneously and left through their remains 
 
60 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 record- of their existence in some places. Yet, when we come 
 to consider all the destructive and concealing agencies ooncerned, 
 
 migration accounting for the sudden appearance of a certain 
 form, to the exclusion of one which might have been expected ; 
 the presence in other places of a close sequence of allied forms ; 
 the fact that, yearly, the differences between forms that were 
 once thought to be wide asunder is bridged over by some new 
 discovery ; the inevitable conclusions, for instance, from such a 
 case as that of discovery of the progenitor of the horse, showing 
 that that animal originally possessed toes ; we may truly say 
 that the record, although imperfect, through being fragmentary, 
 has left pages of such conclusiveness as to indicate the tenor of 
 those which have been lost. 
 
 When, further, we come to the study of embryology, with 
 the aid of the wonderfully perfected microscope of modern 
 times, and find that the embryo is a brief abstract and chronicle 
 in time of the history of the type of beings which it represents, 
 indicating its development in accordance with suggestions other- 
 wise derived, the conclusion as to these being the processes of 
 nature becomes more and more confirmed. Doubtless there is a 
 limit beyond which human investigation cannot proceed, even 
 with the aid of the microscope ; the theoretical limit of the in- 
 strument is perfectly well known, and does not pretend to reach 
 infinitude. 
 
 How much or how little the Creator ma}' permit man to 
 know, it is rash for man to decide. It is certainly permissible 
 for him to know all that his faculties render him capable of un- 
 derstanding. To deny this proposition would involve the con- 
 tention that man had been given understanding for less than its 
 fullest use. The agnostic who speaks of God as the absolutely 
 Unknowable is as arrogant as he who could think of Him as the 
 absolutely Knowable. Incomprehensible God must needs be, 
 else he were not the Creator; but knowable He is, in a certain 
 
nature's evidence of the law of life and growth. CI 
 
 degree, to every creature in whom lie inspires the expanding 
 moral sense, and who bows down before Him through his works, 
 His creation by one supreme law, through whatever source 
 mediate^ derived. True science sees in nature one continuous 
 miracle. Unscience looks for interminable special miracles, as 
 from the magician's wand. Knowing little of the general 
 physical laws of nature, it is ever ready to believe in continuous 
 special interpositions in their course, blind to the existence of 
 the all-pervading, greater, central miracle of their self-contained 
 perfect action. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 man's spiritual place in nature. 
 
 THE chief obstacle to universal belief in the capacity of all 
 animate things to change, and in their tendency to perfec- 
 tion, lies in the fact that with many it violates a preconception 
 of their special creation and of the origin of the soul. Never- 
 theless, truth is truth as to its essence, one truth differing from 
 another solely in the difference hy which one is relatively more 
 important than another through its consequences. If God is all 
 truth, then it should seem that what would be most agreeable to 
 Him would be the acceptance by His creatures of whatever 
 fragment of truth it had been given them to comprehend. If it 
 can be reconciled with conscience to reject at pleasure anything 
 whatsoever which is perceived as truth, because it is in apparent 
 conflict with some other truth, or for any other cause, there is 
 left no criterion for belief. At every step in daily life we recog- 
 nize as true that which not only conflicts with another concep- 
 tion, but seems positively to contradict it. Yet we do not recoil 
 from recognizing both as true, nor are ashamed to confess that 
 our inability to reconcile the apparent contradiction lies in the 
 weakness of our understanding. What we think is the truth to 
 us. Soul and body may be in conflict, — they often are ; but the 
 conscience, the individual capacity for truthfulness is not, how- 
 ever lowly organized, of dual nature. When its decisions, as 
 revealed by men's conduct, seem to conflict with one another, it 
 is not conscience that has spoken, and contradicts itself, for it 
 is the silent monitor, but fear or some other base motive which 
 is warping, suppressing, or in some other way constraining tacit 
 admission or utterance of conviction of the truth. 
 
 The question, however, arises whether there is any such 
 
 (63) 
 
04 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 single alternative offered :ts thai which the fears of many prompt 
 them to think necessitated by acceptance of the law of develop* 
 Hunt a> true; whether acceptance of the law as true is incom- 
 patible with belief in revealed religion, and means acceptance of 
 materialism. To him, doubtless, who believes that the Scriptures 
 in their entirety, both Old and New Testaments, are directly 
 inspired throughout, and therefore every jot and tittle therein 
 is necessarily true, the discovery that any part could not be, is 
 liable at any moment to shatter his faith to the foundation. 
 Such a one, however firm he deems himself, stands on most un- 
 certain ground. To one, however, who looks upon the Scriptures 
 as the work of men who, although inspired by the truth, still 
 necessarily uttered it with human limitations, through the 
 vehicles which they had, the conceptions which they possessed, 
 the language which they spoke, he perceives that it must bear 
 with it the stamp of the imperfections of its intermediate source. 
 One can readily conceive of men inspired to testify to such 
 truth as was committed to them, communicating it to others 
 with imperfections, and yet the essential truth remaining undis- 
 turbed. In fact, the very limitations under which such men 
 would strive to tell the truth would in themselves make it com- 
 prehensible to mankind. Thus, and thus only, could the essen- 
 tial truth come within the sphere of general recognition. How 
 otherwise can any truth be known unless it come within the 
 lines and grasp of human thought? The only inspiration which 
 could have been effective was that within human limitations, and 
 these include in both teacher and taught the general and special 
 knowledge possessed, and vary with every individual, nation, and 
 race, and through every age and clime. 
 
 To one, therefore, who, instead of believing that God created 
 man and all things by His omnipotent fiat, believes that he made 
 the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh, and specially 
 created Adam of the dust of the earth, and then, casting a deep 
 
man's spiritual place in nature. 65 
 
 sleep upon him, fashioned the first woman, Eve, from one of his 
 ribs ; who believes that He ever caused the sun and moon to 
 stand still ; who believes these and other similar things, believes 
 in the Bible in a sense which, if others were converted to it, 
 would sweep away forever from their vision the semblance of an 
 all-wise Creator. It is the infatuation which holds on with 
 tenacity to every useless, crumbling scrap of cement that entered 
 into the magnificent edifice and citadel of Christianity, that 
 enables its enemies to go on relentlessly sapping at its founda- 
 tions. Shall it be said, if one doubt anything here, upon how- 
 ever apparently good grounds, that it were safer to believe, for 
 the ways of God are past finding out ? Of a surety they are, 
 and such an account of them would seem to make them of all 
 ways the most easy of discovery. Can any one believe of Him 
 who created light that He would resort for any cause to a man- 
 date that the sun stand still? Is the standing still of the sun to 
 be literally understood? The sun, sweeping onward with the 
 whole solar system toward the bright star Vega, near the Milky 
 Way, has that proper motion and another, rotation on his axis. 
 Standing still as to either motion would not affect diurnal dura- 
 tion of light upon the earth ; therefore a mandate to the sun to 
 stand still cannot be taken literally. Shall it be taken as in- 
 clusive of allowance for the astronomical ignorance of the times 
 permitting men to believe that the sun revolved around the 
 earth, and suppose that, correctly interpreted, the mandate meant 
 that the earth should stand still? The earth's standing still 
 would mean arrest of both orbital and axial motions. The catas- 
 trophe that would have ensued to the armies both of Joshua and 
 the Amorites would have been appalling, in the indiscriminate 
 ruin that would have absorbed all question of victory or defeat. 
 The solid rock of the earth would have crumbled to its base, 
 and mountains toppling to their fall would have rushed wildly as 
 meteors into space ; the moon, supposed to have stayed to lend 
 
6G HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAT TV. 
 
 her light for victory, would have swept onward beyond her 
 orbit. If the Creator had for a transient purpose been willing 
 to interfere with His general laws, how impossible it is coin- 
 cidently for Him to have so interfered as to defeat his purpose 
 by wrecking a world, from which, still enduring, we worship 
 Him dwelling behind those general laws in majesty and power. 
 The ways of God are past finding out. Aye, else He were 
 not God. But, we can be very sure they are not such as these, 
 but, like those which we see working all around us, of most 
 magnificent simplicity, law within law stretching backward to 
 the supreme law of all, to the Law-giver. 
 
 Can any one deliberately say that God created the earth in 
 six days, and rested on the seventh ? Regarding the Biblical 
 account of the creation as an epithalamium, or song of praise 
 and thanksgiving for all the wondrous works of nature, it is a 
 most beautiful effusion, not exceeded by any thought that has 
 entered into the mind of man. The clays, as representing 
 periods of growth ; the resting at the end of the sixth period, as 
 representing simply the cessation of the processes by which the 
 earth came to be fitted for a world ; the creation of man as repre- 
 senting the advent of the most highly organized being, who was 
 to be the ruler on earth ; all these, as generalized in the account, 
 are of a truth represented by surpassing beauty of expression. 
 Taken literally, they sink the account of the creation to depths 
 from which all truth and beauty disappear. Nor is it simple 
 truth and beauty which thus disappear with the literalness of 
 such rendering. The truth is of that holiness which pervades 
 the mind with a sense of the infinite. It dwindles away with the 
 letter to insignificance. It is that sense of holiness which per- 
 vades all the Scriptures, amidst associated imperfections whose 
 very presence brings conviction otherwise unattainable. We 
 insensibly make allowance for the imperfection of the medium 
 through which inspiration came, and all impression of ulterior 
 
man's spiritual place in nature. CT 
 
 design among the authors of the writings disappears in percep- 
 tion of their steadfast thought and movement toward belief and 
 action working for righteousness. 
 
 There is nothing incompatible, in what has been said, with 
 the interpretation of the Scriptures by Him who, knowing the 
 law so well that when, in the Temple, He sat as a mere boy 
 amidst the assembled doctors, answering and asking questions, 
 later said, when He had proclaimed His mission on earth, "Think 
 not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets : I am 
 not come to destroy, but to fulfill." Is there an}' evidence there- 
 from that He, accepted by His disciples as the highest interpreter 
 of the law, regarded every word of the Old Scriptures as directly 
 inspired of God? On the contrary, we find Him, while affirming 
 certain things in them as true, putting aside others in a form of 
 speech which is far, indeed, from affirmation of their universal, 
 literal truth, impressing the mind with quite the opposite inten- 
 tion. For, said He not, to a concourse of Jews," And the}' [the 
 Scriptures] are the}' which testify of Me," but, in the same 
 breath, " for in them ye think ye have eternal life." The law 
 which Christ thereby affirmed was the law of the Old Testament; 
 but in those writings there is much else besides the law. There 
 is nothing going to show that Christ affirmed among them more 
 than the truth of the law and the prophecies of His coming. 
 Much of the rest, confirmed in the most wonderful way in the 
 discoveries of modern times, amid the ruins of Assyria, Baby- 
 lonia, and Egypt, relates to historical events seen through the 
 minds of primitive men, and bears the stamp of aboriginal 
 limitations. 
 
 Nor does this aspect of the Scriptures, although in far less 
 degree, cease to impress the mind, even in the new Scriptures, 
 there being no guarantee from Christ himself that the teachings 
 of the best human instruments which He could choose from 
 among men for His purpose would prove infallible. He himself 
 
68 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND TERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 said, as Bumming up the misconceptions of the world as to His 
 mission," I came not to send peace, but a sword, 1 ' and through- 
 out we see, as communicated through the medium of many 
 minds, that His spiritual meanings were constant^' misconceived. 
 He says, it is true, that after His departure "the Comforter, the 
 Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall 
 teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, 
 whatsoever I have said unto you." So, at this late moment, just 
 before the sacrifice of the cross, even those nearest to Him, His 
 chosen disciples, did not fully understand Him. He had pre- 
 viously said, " And I will pray the Father, and He shall give jou 
 another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, the 
 Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth 
 Him not, neither knows of Him; but ye know Him, for He 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in j-ou." So that it was inti- 
 mated to the disciples themselves that they were not, until after 
 the sacrifice, equal to the truth, and that the world generally 
 was incapable of seeing it. 
 
 But what is the truth which is referred to throughout by 
 Christ, from the time of His reference to the Scriptures as pre- 
 dicting the coming of the Messiah, down to the period when, 
 just before His death, He speaks in the most tender manner to 
 the specially loved ones from whom He is about to depart? It 
 was religious truth, the added fact to the prophecy, that God had 
 sent the prophesied Messiah to redeem the world b} r a higher law 
 and final sacrifice. 
 
 He had proved His mission by speaking as man had never 
 spoken, and by acting as never man had acted. It was this 
 central truth, with all its consequences, with which the Holy 
 Ghost was to imbue the disciples, from whom it was to radiate 
 in holy effluence upon mankind. Christ affirmed no other than 
 religious truth, the truth as to the living God, His own mission 
 as the Saviour of mankind, and the divine influence which thence- 
 
man's spiritual place in nature. 69 
 
 forth should illumine the minds of men. The world had to wait 
 for centuries before the true cosmogony was known. The 
 science of biology is of most recent growth, and that of geology 
 scarcely dates back to the beginning of the century. 
 
 If men look to the continued beneficent spread of the Chris- 
 tian religion, it would be well for them to cast behind them 
 all extraneous matter relating to truths that are independent 
 of each other, occupying entirely different spheres of thought. 
 It is the spirit in religious things which quickeneth : the flesh 
 profiteth nothing. Cling to the idea that belief in Christianity 
 is conditioned on belief in the literal meaning of every sentence 
 and word of the Scriptures, and at any moment faith in them 
 may be shattered. Believe that men cannot see bej^ond their 
 discernment, cannot correctly interpret and communicate what 
 they do not fully comprehend, but, notwithstanding, may be 
 possessed of some great essential truth, and then the Christian 
 religion is reconciled with every discovery of science, — not, as 
 upheld by many of its defenders, weakly shifting from one to 
 another untenable position. From this point of view the 
 promised enlightenment from the Spirit of God, which was to 
 comfort men, includes within it all that science may know and 
 discover, for science is but one path of reverential approach 
 to God. 
 
 Christianity, divested of the inevitable imperfection of the 
 medium through which, through a long period, it gradually ap- 
 proached and finalty reached mankind, rests within its own sphere 
 upon as irrefragable evidence as any which can bring conviction 
 to the mind. What if there are savage tribes which do not know 
 of God ? Is there not reason to believe that once such was the 
 condition of man over all the earth ? Is not the prospect most 
 hopeful now, when we regard the enormous mental range between 
 the extremes of men as represented b} r the savage and the civil- 
 ized ? What if the agnostic can speak of God as the Unknow- 
 
7(1 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 able? Does he not thereby grant the existence of God ? Granted 
 the existence of God, thereby is conceded His existence as the 
 Creator. If He is the Creator, then He cannot be indifferent to 
 the highest of His creatures on earth, — the crown and summit 
 there of his creative will, distinguished above all else by the de- 
 velopment of mind. If we are to regard mind as no more than 
 evolution of matter to high percipient consciousness, reacting 
 Upon the individual body, and, through utilitarian experience 
 rising to conscience, then " we are," as Saint Paul says, " of all 
 men most miserable." But if, on the contrary, we are to regard 
 mind as the afflatus of the Divine Spirit, which, by gradual evo- 
 lution, associated with corporal agencies fitted for the conditions 
 of earthly life, eventually places man in the position of a being 
 responsible through conscience to the Creator, we must deem it 
 the sanest conclusion of the most mature thought. 
 
 The heathen and the worshiper of the one God alike 
 yearned for a token of divine superintendence, prompted by the 
 instinct and reason which, at a certain stage of mental develop- 
 ment, looked bej'ond the earth for a token of an even grander 
 revelation of the significance of creation. As, among mono- 
 theists, man was believed to have been created in the mental 
 likeness of God, and to hold those relations with God which the 
 maturing conscience leads him to conclude exist, it was naturally 
 credited by millions of beings who dwelt on earth that, in due 
 time, He would indicate His presence and His will. Men's belief 
 that one might be so commissioned of God is, of course, no evi- 
 dence that there would be such an advent. It affords merely 
 presumption as to the probability that a sentiment so almost 
 universally experienced at a certain stage of mental development 
 represents an unrevealed truth. 
 
 Here, men, at a certain period of the history of the world, 
 entered upon another and entirely different phase of evidence, 
 the strength of which must be judged like that of any other 
 
man's spiritual place in nature. 71 
 
 human evidence, for the appeal is on no other ground than to 
 human reason, through evidence from human sources. 
 
 As has already been intimated, men being human, it could 
 fully reach their understandings in no other way. The fact that 
 the evidence is human upon which we are to believe or disbelieve 
 in the commission of Christ as divine, is therefore no disparage- 
 ment to its weight. Christ himself appealed to it as that which 
 proved its divinity. All that we know and can possibly learn 
 as to the earthly or divine must rest upon what can reach us 
 through the avenues to the human intellect. The conceptions 
 which at any time exist in the mind upon which perception can 
 be based, are all that we possess by which to judge of and to 
 accept or reject any new proposition. It is therefore only by 
 this means of reaching the sort of conviction which we denomi- 
 nate truth, that our conclusions as to the divinity of Christ's 
 mission must be reached. 
 
 That He lived and taught we must know, for, aside from the 
 narrative of His followers, both those indifferent and those in- 
 imical to Him have recorded His existence and teachings. Jo- 
 sephus mentions Him, and Publius Lentulus, a Roman centurion, 
 who happened to be stationed in Jerusalem, wrote to Rome a 
 description of His ways, and even of His personal appearance. 
 The fact of His existence, therefore, and of His teaching, and of 
 the character of His teaching, cannot be denied. He indisputably 
 lived, and, according to testimonj' of the most diverse kind, He 
 died upon the cross, reviled b}^ His persecutors, and sorrowed 
 over by His friends, as no man before or since. He had lived 
 and taught for years the way of life, which we now find em- 
 bodied in what is called the gospel. He lived in the broad light 
 of day as men have rarely lived. And in this time no flaw or 
 stain was to be found from the beginning to the end. The evi- 
 dence of this is more complete than that which any single man 
 can acquire from personal observation of any event. Christ 
 
72 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 is seen through the collective testimony of men of the most 
 diverse minds and leanings, throughout His whole career, some 
 of whom wrote of Him after His departure with such diversity, 
 that the aggregate of testimony brings greater conviction than 
 otherwise, because, while differing as to particulars, it never 
 conflicts in essentials, or deviates from presenting the same per- 
 fectly majestic presence. 
 
 Fanaticism has had no such knowledge, nor ever such life 
 and action. The ancients who had risen above the stature of 
 their compatriots had taught a morality of the reason, but here 
 was one who addressed men, compounded as they are of reason 
 and sentiment, and who taught them that the highest reason in 
 religion leads to the highest law of love. Christ spoke as one 
 having authority to speak, and so conclusively to those who 
 were not looking for an earthly king, that with a revelation of 
 goodness which the world had never seen He carried all before 
 Him in the triumphal advance which ended with His injunction 
 to His disciples to go and teach all nations. None the less, 
 because His example and teachings have been obscured by cere- 
 monial and strife, have they continued to advance and conquer 
 and rule the world to seeming perpetuity. Where would the 
 world morally be now, if at the period of Christ's coming it had 
 not been saved b}- His message from the condition into which it 
 was plunged? Whence, therefore, one may well ask, could such 
 a change as has overtaken it have come, except from God ? 
 Although the world was then, as the event proved, far enough 
 advanced to be receptive of the highest moral law, it would still 
 have gone on regardless of it if Christ had not appeared and 
 shed upon it His enlightenment. That one lowly born and bred 
 and educated should appear and prove himself the master and 
 king of men, swaying a world centuries after His death, is not 
 to be ascribed to any but divine commission. 
 
 The existence of God should be manifest through creation. 
 
man's spiritual place in nature. 73 
 
 It should again be manifest through the coming of Christ. 
 Only to him who denies the existence of God, should the mission 
 of Christ be doubtful. If it seem doubtful, then is evidence, 
 which in its cumulative force is equal to that on any other sub- 
 ject, rejected. Assuming the existence of God, and the implied 
 watchfulness over a creation which He has seen fit to make, 
 in no other manner so effectually could a way of life have been 
 shown to men as by the precept and example of one of whom 
 could be said, Ecce Homo. Not less comprehensible is it that 
 the coming of Christ should have been for the salvation of a 
 fragment of the universe, when we reflect that, if it had been 
 within the purpose of the Omnipotent, a Saviour might have 
 lived and died at the same or another time in worlds innumera- 
 ble, or that the purposes of the Omnipotent, being necessarily as 
 infinite as the universe, of which we see but a part, we, of 
 proved incapacity to understand fully what touches us most 
 nearly, need not explore beyond into the depths of the unfathom- 
 able. If it be asked by the materialist, if a divinely authorized 
 earthly dispensation would not, from what has been said, be as 
 .much an interference with natural laws as any that can be con- 
 ceived, the answer is that it has not been here implied that God 
 would never interfere with physical laws, but merely that He 
 would not interfere with them except for good cause. When 
 we see around us a moral world as well as a physical world, we 
 need for comprehension of its existence, as much as for compre- 
 hension of the existence of the physical world, to infer the will 
 of the Creator. 
 
 At a certain stage of mental development, the depth of 
 whose degradation may be estimated by observation of some 
 still-existing tribes, man was undoubtedly too low in the scale 
 of being to develop the idea of a Maker and Ruler of the Uni- 
 verse. But, with the development of the organ of thought, the 
 brain, came, among other attributes, the birth and growth of 
 
74 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 conscience. The first faint glimmerings of the religious sense 
 may have been produced, as Darwin, Spencer, and other writers 
 think, l>y tear of ghosts, of shadows, and of all the mysteries 
 that haunt the path of the untutored savage, leading to pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifices and rites of all sorts; and the pressure of rude 
 wants may have led to awakening of some perception of mutual 
 dependence, but not, as these authors think, to sonic experience 
 of sympathy, and thus to the first germs of conscience. These, 
 assuredly, were only adventitious aids to the development of 
 conscience from the first beginnings. Sympathy, with utilitarian 
 basis, might have seemingly gone on forever without producing 
 conscience. In fact, to think of such action, as mutual exchange 
 of offices from necessity, as awakening sympathy, when both 
 motive and action represent barter, is to form a false concep- 
 tion, for if conscience be anything definite it is, at its low r est 
 conceivable point, the reverse of utilitarian. 
 
 That Darwin was liable egregiously to err in discussing 
 these questions, which are so foreign to the domain in which he 
 supremely reigned, is proved conclusively by his remark in 
 " The Descent of Man," where he says, "M} 7 critics do not de- 
 fine what they mean by remorse, and I can find no definition 
 implying more than an overwhelming sense of repentance." 
 
 Yet, even in the ordinary acceptation, these two affections 
 of the mind are regarded as essentially different. Both repent- 
 ance and remorse, it is true, are fundamentally based upon 
 grief, but whereas the grief of repentance represents to the 
 mind of the sufferer grief capable of being assuaged, because 
 the cause of it is capable of redress, or of expiation by suf- 
 fering, or both, the grief of remorse offers no such flattering 
 prospect to the mind, for in it the grief is conditioned upon 
 belief in its being beyond the bounds of possible redress or 
 expiation by repentance. Can there be any two affections of 
 the mind more diverse than these, into one of which hope enters, 
 
man's spiritual place in nature. 75 
 
 and in the other of which the grief is so excessive as to 
 be centred less in the idea of the wrong done, than in that of 
 self-condemnation? That remorse may engulf even grief for 
 wrong-doing is proved by the fact that to fiends is imputed in 
 their despair the desire for the perpetration of further evil. 
 What is imputed to these is what the collective soul of mankind 
 is conscious of as representing the final outcome of hopeless 
 repentance. This is what distinguishes remorse from repent- 
 ance, and makes of it another sentiment and law of conduct. It 
 is the difference in thought and action as inspired by hope, as 
 contrasted with thought and action as inspired by despair. 
 
 Dickens evidently had no doubt of the difference between 
 the two passions, for we find him writing, with the instinct of 
 the born psychologist, in the description of the elder Weller's 
 last interview with the Rev. Stiggins : — 
 
 Mr. Stiggins, encouraged by this sound, which he understood to betoken 
 remorse or repentance, looked about him, nibbed his hands, wept, smiled, wept 
 again, and then, walking softly across the room to a well-remembered shelf in one 
 corner, took down a tumbler, and with great deliberation put four lumps of sugar 
 in it. 
 
 Observe that the sound uttered by the elder Weller struck 
 the Rev. Stiggins as indicative of remorse or repentance. 
 
 Conscience, even in its lowest estate, is to be regarded as a 
 creation appearing at a certain epoch of man's existence, subject 
 to growth and aberration while constrained along the lines 
 of evolution. To him, therefore, who regards mankind as 
 compounded of moral, intellectual, and physical elements of 
 being, each equally the endowment of the Creator through 
 supreme law, each developing side by side, each ascending from 
 inferior to superior tj^pe, it is not incomprehensible that grow- 
 ing religious perception should have instituted false religions, 
 or that a divinely-appointed exemplar should at last have placed 
 the seal upon a world fitted to profit through ages by the pre- 
 sentment of an unattainable ideal of human excellence. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 man's physical place in nature. 
 
 WE have now reached a point where matter extraneous to 
 the subject, constantly obstructing its fair discussion, 
 having been put aside, we can dispassionately examine the ques- 
 tion involved. The only remaining difficulty to be encountered 
 in discussing it is one which, owing to the constitution of the 
 mind, is unavoidable in the examination of any new proposition. 
 The mind, while searching for truth, and eagerly imbibing it 
 (desire to know the truth being, as John Stuart Mill thought, 
 the dominant characteristic of mankind), is nevertheless strongly 
 conservative in its tendencies. For proof, one has but to look 
 around to see how at the mercy of circumstances most conviction 
 is. The savage implicitly takes upon credit what he inherits in 
 belief from his progenitors. So he goes on, generation after 
 generation, making no advance. The civilized man, too, but 
 with a difference to be presently noted, believes what is trans- 
 mitted to him, because he, equally with the savage, must accept 
 the main stock of beliefs presented to him, for it would be as 
 irrational in his case as in that of the savage for him to reject 
 that which there is nothing to replace, and for each individual 
 thus to begin the world afresh, and because, from the beginning 
 to the end of life, as no one can learn everything for himself, he 
 is perforce obliged mainly to accept as true that which he finds 
 at hand. 
 
 Thus we see among men manners which they inherit, religion 
 which they inherit, and knowledge of nature which they inherit. 
 But there is this important difference between the civilized and 
 the savage man, that the mind of the former has become more 
 plastic than that of the other. He is open to conviction on sub- 
 jects in which his senses belie the facts. He knows that the 
 
 (77) 
 
78 IIKKKP1TY, HEALTH, AND rERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 senses alone are most fallible in their conclusions. lie uses 
 them only as avenues by which impressions reach him, and he 
 summons them as witnesses to testify before his intellect, to 
 contradict or confirm each other, and thereby make manifest the 
 truth. On the contrary, the crucial test of the savage is a single 
 one. — the visual test. "With him seeing is believing. He is un- 
 equal to the conception that seeing may be illusory. So also, 
 and for the same reason, it is to be observed in the uneducated, 
 among civilized beings, that seeing is the final test of right to 
 believe. 
 
 The educated, although they do, as admitted, possess a stock 
 of inherited beliefs, differ in sum from the savage and the un- 
 educated among the civilized in the important points, that they 
 are perfectly aware that a portion of their stock of beliefs must, 
 from the nature of things, be erroneous, that thej'are distrustful 
 of their powers of reaching truth, and that they are consequently 
 careful in arriving at conviction. This attitude of mind is the 
 only sure foundation for advance. The world can advance on 
 no other terms. The modern investigation into the nature 
 which we see all around us is, as was the ancient, with most im- 
 perfect means, prompted by an inherent desire to know and to 
 abide by the truth. The prompting has been called scientific 
 wonder, which term truly designates the feeling with which men 
 approach the mysteries of nature. To suppose that it is not 
 associated in the majority of the ablest minds with a reverential 
 attitude is to be ignorant of the glories that are unfolded, and 
 of the effect of their contemplation. 
 
 Love of the truth, from the lowest savage, from the virago 
 of civilization who, standing with arms akimbo, listens to gossip 
 about her neighbors, to the one who lives in the world of micro- 
 scopic beings as well as in his own, or the one who sits observant 
 of the marshalling of the stars, is a distinctively human attribute, 
 capable, as these extremes show, of infinite development for 
 
man's physical place in nature. 79 
 
 good. It is developed love of truth which is leading the present 
 great advance of civilization in science, literature, and the n rts. 
 It is this prompting which has led to investigation of the gene- 
 alogy of man, the sources of his earthly being. 
 
 When we survey the whole animal world a most remarkable 
 series of facts present themselves. We find individual life bound 
 up in a single cell, in colonies of cells, in animals composed of a 
 few cells, and in those composed of multitudinous cells. We 
 find cells in the same animal producing tissue, and, while so pro- 
 ducing, changing their forms to suit special purposes. We find 
 in the human organism, for instance, excluding the primary, and 
 from the first, somewhat differentiated cell called the ovum, or 
 egg, cells which seem capable of infinite differentiation, to form 
 bone, marrow, skin, and all other parts of the body. 
 
 Passing beyond these phenomena, we find in all the animal 
 kingdoms strange similarities, masked by dissimilarities, of struc- 
 ture as representing function. We find, referring now onby to 
 the vertebrates, that even skull and brain seem to be graduated 
 from vertebrae, one of the lowest, if not the very lowest of the 
 vertebrates, the lancelet (amphioxus), which was classed by 
 Cuvier as a worm, being without a head. 
 
 But now, confining ourselves strictly to the vertebrate sub- 
 kingdom, lest we become involved in considerations too extended 
 for our purpose, it is to be remarked that we find among them a 
 distinct graduation among organs. Just as before we saw that, 
 comparing living with extinct forms, there is reason to believe 
 that among animals there has been a continuous related transla- 
 tion of one form into another, these branching off at times from 
 some common progenitors into separate lines of descent ; so, 
 also, we find, among vertebrates, external and internal differ- 
 ences of structure relating to function, which seem to graduate 
 into each other. More than that, when we come to examine at 
 different periods of its development the ernbryo of the same 
 
80 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 animal, we find singular attributes to be possessed by it appar- 
 ently unnecessary to its present or prospective existence. 
 
 That all things which are known to ns should present in 
 every respect conditions the object of which is manifest, is an 
 untenable proposition. But that all things which are known to us 
 should not present contradictions between the main conditions 
 observed and the main purposes of life to be subserved, is a per- 
 fect 1)' tenable proposition, for, when there is a contradiction be- 
 tween those main conditions and the main purposes of the 
 individual life, we reject those things which are in opposition to 
 the main purposes of life, as having no relation to it. The dew- 
 claw of the dog is not only not of service to the animal, but is 
 of positive disservice to him, being frequently injured and 
 causing him uneasiness. We therefore reject it as having 
 any adapted relation to his present life, and recognize it as a 
 rudiment of what was originally useful. 
 
 Now, the human embryo, the foetus, does not respire 
 through the lungs. It could not breathe through its lungs, be- 
 cause it is submerged in a fluid called the liquor amnii until, the 
 period of gestation being past, birth begins. The first respira- 
 tion which the newborn child makes is accompanied by a sneeze 
 or a cry, showing the unwonted impact of air upon the lungs. 
 It respires, as do all placental mammals, or those animals which 
 have a placenta and suckle their j-oung. The placenta, a vascular, 
 temporary organ (the after-birth), conveys to the foetus, through 
 the umbilical cord, circulation derived from the mother, involv- 
 ing the oxj-genation of its blood and the removal from it of 
 effete matters. The umbilical cord, containing the proper 
 arteries and veins, which cord directly connects the unborn child 
 with the placenta, is the onl} r means by which circulation, res- 
 piration, and nutrition are effected in the unborn child by the 
 circulation of the mother. 
 
 Beginning with the mother herself, we see, through embry- 
 
man's physical place in nature. 81 
 
 onic development, that the whole vagina, and neighboring parts 
 are graduated from, and still rudimentarily contain, a lower form 
 of structure for the function of gestation and parturition. The 
 embryo shows at every stage remarkable progression from lower 
 forms of life, among the rest what are regarded as rudimentary 
 branchiae, or gills. All these, however, have, by the period 
 of birth, become completely aborted and transformed into 
 what we know as appropriate to man. The very same parts 
 serve for either male or female, depending upon what course 
 they take at a certain stage of development. What right have 
 we, therefore, if the same parts can develop into either male or 
 female organs, to say that other parts, having nothing to do 
 with difference of sex, do not, when aborted in certain direc- 
 tions, and taking definite lines of development in other direc- 
 tions, indicate structure which was pre-existent in the adult 
 being, and which must, therefore, although long discontinued, 
 represent some of the previous history of the organism ? 
 
 The majority of scientific men accept the conclusion indi- 
 cated. It is believed, and with reason, as was remarked in one of 
 the preceding chapters, that the embryo contains within itself, at 
 different stages of its development until birth, a brief abstract 
 and chronicle in time of the being concerned, an epitome, as it 
 were, of its previous existence. Like all epitomes, however, this 
 must necessarily contain a record, correct as far as it goes, but 
 lacking fullness. It cannot be supposed that the embryo itself 
 has not lost some of its original characteristics. "What has been 
 said elsewhere would conflict with the view that it has not 
 undergone any change. But the history of an animal should be 
 preserved for a far longer period, through the characteristics of 
 embryonic life, than through those after birth. For, whereas, 
 whatever in life after birth is not conducive to its well-being in 
 the struggle of existence, tends to be eliminated ; that which 
 does not so especially concern life after birth would tend 
 
82 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 to remain, unchanged and recorded in the embryo. When we 
 consider how enduring are certain post-natal useless charac- 
 teristics, when they are of no great disservice, as ill the ease of 
 the vermiform appendix in the human bowels, a small cul-de-sac, 
 we may well understand how, in an embryonic feature, nature 
 might permit the record in the embryo to remain indefinitely. 
 It -lands to reason, as was indicated, that the embryo should 
 retain certain characteristics of an original condition indefi- 
 nitely longer than the animal does after birth. But, besides, 
 the development of the embryo proves that it has retained 
 volumes of life-history of which the animal, just before birth 
 and ever afterward, scarcely shows a trace. We have, therefore, 
 in favor of this view, a probability, in this aspect of the case, 
 amounting to a certainty. 
 
 The general anatomical correspondence between man and 
 the highest of the anthropoid apes are such as to render concep- 
 tion of the graduation of man into his present form, through 
 some similar organism, not so improbable as might at the first 
 glance appear. But anatomy and physiology do not .glance at 
 the nature of things. They probe to the inmost recesses which 
 they can reach in pl^-sical life, and accept only those conclusions 
 which seem forced upon them by rigid reasoning. If we are 
 justified in reaching any impressions from superficial examina- 
 tion, it is undeniable that conclusions which do not rely merely 
 upon first impressions, but which are the fruit of long and 
 patient stud}', are entitled to consideration. 
 
 Titles of all sorts have been devised by which man can be 
 distinctly designated as entirely different from the lower animals, 
 such as the tool-making and tool-using animal, all relating to 
 perception of his vastly superior relative intelligence through 
 brain, and mechanical ability through the possession of a well- 
 organized thumb. When, however, we come to examination of 
 his physical characteristics, as compared with those of the 
 
man's physical place in nature. 83 
 
 highest of the anthropoid apes, we find that the difference be- 
 tween them and man shades away by degrees. Man walks erect. 
 They can walk semi-erect. They are hairy. So is the unborn 
 
 child. Adult man is in a certain sense hairless. But there are 
 among mankind very hairy races, and even among the highly 
 civilized of mankind there are hairy individuals. Moreover, 
 where hair is least conspicuous on the person it still exists in 
 what is called the lanugo form all over the body, except on the 
 palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, and the mucous mem- 
 brane openings to the interior of the body, such as the lips. 
 And to this fact may be added that the lanugo hair on the human 
 body lies as to direction on the different parts just as it does on 
 the anthropoid apes. 
 
 The anthropoid apes, equally with man. are tailless, but, in 
 being tailless, both evidence, in the os coccygis, the lowest of 
 the vertebra?, what seem to be aborted spinal processes repre- 
 senting another original constitution of the part. The internal 
 organs are sensibly alike, with only those variations which are 
 found among individual men. The brains are so similar as to 
 make the comparison between them not so much one of degree 
 as of kind. 
 
 Brain, being the organ of the mind, especially invites com- 
 parison between it. as it appears in man and as it appears in the 
 lower animals, because it is through brain-power chiefly that 
 man's pre-eminence in nature asserts itself. It is well, therefore, 
 to observe first what physically renders brain most efficient as 
 an organ, and, lastly, what are the chief differences as demon- 
 strated between man and the anthropoid apes. Bear in mind, 
 however, that man is not supposed to be descended from any 
 one of them, but from a common progenitor, and therefore to 
 have inherited through his descent certain traits by which he is 
 allied to individuals in collateral lines of descent. 
 
 Full description of the brain is to be found only in works 
 
84 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 on anatomy, and would find no appropriate place here. For- 
 tunately, however, the brain possesses certain large characteristic 
 features which arc obviously related to greater or less excellence 
 in its constitution. The great mass of the brain, the cerebrum, 
 consists of what are called the cerebral hemispheres, which physi- 
 cally represent the highest type of the brain-power of the indi- 
 vidual. The cerebrum, cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata, 
 continuous organs, represent, in sum, the nervous system relat- 
 ing to the special senses and the movements of the bod}'. 
 
 Low types of the cerebrum are characterized lry great S3 r m- 
 metry as to general and special conformation. The smallness of 
 the cerebellum, or more particularly the greater or less degree 
 by which it is overlapped by the cerebrum, is also another char- 
 acteristic of low type of brain. In man, the higher the intelli- 
 gence of the race or the individual, the less is the brain sym- 
 metrical, and the more does it lie in folds, or what are called 
 convolutions. The brain of the microcephalous idiot evidences 
 by its general symmetry and absence of highly convoluted form 
 its great inferiority. In the lower types of the lower animals 
 the cerebrum is distinctively smooth and symmetrical, while, 
 reaching man, it is not only highly variable in size and symmetry, 
 but is variously convoluted in the individual. The development 
 in the human embryo presents the same general sequences, and 
 through its testimony offers the same suggestions to the mind. 
 
 Other things being equal, size of brain is indicative of intel- 
 lect, but other things are very rarely equal, and hence the very 
 highest types of brain, those in which the greatest size and the 
 most highly convoluted character are combined, are very rare. 
 When such occur the person possessing them becomes, with 
 opportunity, great among his fellows. According to Dr. Mauds- 
 ley, one of the highest authorities on these subjects, quoting 
 from a paper by Dr. Thurnam, the average brain-weight of ordi- 
 naiy European men is 49 ounces ; of congenital idiots, 42 ounces ; 
 
man's physical place in nature. 85 
 
 and of microcephalous idiots, Z1\ ounces ; whereas the brain- 
 weight of 10 distinguished men named, among them Daniel 
 Webster, was 54 T 7 g- ounces. 
 
 As far back as 18G3, Huxley, one of the greatest of anato- 
 mists and biologists of any age, published a small work entitled 
 " E.vidence as to Man's Place in Nature," part of which was 
 effectively a resume of six lectures which he had delivered in 
 1860 to workingmen, and of two, delivered in 1862, before the 
 Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh. In that work, while 
 incidentally and provisionally accepting the Darwinian theory, 
 he, confining himself to his own special branch of science, gave, 
 after an ample discussion of the subject of man's derivation, his 
 conclusion that, while man differs enormously from the chimpan- 
 zee and the gorilla, yet the points of resemblance are so numerous 
 as to warrant us in believing that they are all derived from the 
 same primitive stock. He said : — 
 
 But, in enunciating this important truth, I must guard myself against a 
 form of misunderstanding which is very prevalent. I find, in fact, that those 
 who endeavor to teach what nature so clearly shows us in this matter are liable 
 to have their opinions misrepresented and their phraseology garbled until they 
 seem to say that the structural differences between man and even the highest apes 
 are small and insignificant. Let me take this opportunity, then, of distinctly as- 
 serting, on the contrary, that they are great and significant ; that every bone of a 
 gorilla bears marks by which it might be distinguished from the corresponding 
 bone of a man; and that, in the present creation, at any rate, no intermediate 
 link bridges over the gap between Homo and Troglodytes. 
 
 It would be no less wrong than absurd to deny the existence of this chasm ; 
 but it is at least equally wrong and absurd to exaggerate its magnitude, and, 
 resting on "the admitted fact of its existence, to refuse to inquire whether it is 
 wide or narrow. Remember, if you will, that there is no existing link between 
 man and the gorilla, but do not forget that there is a no less sharp line of demar- 
 cation, a no less complete absence of any transitional form between the gorilla and 
 the orang, or the orang and the gibbon. I say not less sharp, though it is some- 
 what narrower. The structural differences between man and the man-like apes 
 certainly justify our regarding him as constituting a family apart from them ; 
 though, inasmuch as he differs less from them than they do from other families of 
 the same order, there can be no justification for placing him in a distinct order. 
 
 This Huxley said, despite the fact that the brain of the 
 gorilla is only about half the size of the human brain. He 
 
86 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 shows that the difference in volume of the cranial cavity in dif- 
 ferent races of mankind is greater absolutely than that between 
 the lowest man and the highest ape, while relatively about the 
 same. The largesl human skull, be says, measured by Dr. Mor- 
 ton, of Philadelphia, the craniologist, had very nearly double the 
 rapacity of the smallest healthy human skull, — a far greater dif- 
 ference than that between the smallest healthy human skull ami 
 the skull of the largest gorilla. Ami he had found, in addition 
 to this, that, in the fact of the anthropoid apes possessing true 
 although imperfect feet, opposable th urn Its, similar dentition, and 
 similar internal organs to those of man, the belief is warranted 
 that they belong to the same order with him. 
 
 So convinced (.lid Huxley remain of the justness of his con- 
 clusions that, in 1874, he repeated them in these words: — 
 
 In view of these facts, I do not hesitate, in this year 1874, to repeat and 
 insist upon the proposition which I enunciated in 1863. So far as cerebral struc- 
 ture eroes, therefore, it, is clear that man differs less from the chimpanzee or the 
 oralis than these do even from the monkeys, and that the difference between the 
 brain of a chimpanzee and of man is almost insignificant when compared with 
 that between the chimpanzee brain and that of a lemur. 
 
 Dr. Maudsley remarks, in his work on "Body and Mind," 
 
 speaking of the action of an idiotic woman : — 
 
 Was it really the re-appearance of a primitive instinct of animal nature, — 
 a faint echo from a far-distant past, testifying to a kinship which man has almost 
 outgrown or has grown too proud to acknowledge ? No doubt such animal traits 
 an- marks of extreme human degeneracy, but it is no explanation to call them so; 
 degenerations come by law, and are as natural as natural law can make them. 
 . . . . Summing up, as it were, in itself the leading forms of the vertebrate 
 type, there is truly a brute brain within the man's; and when- the latter stops 
 short of its characterise development as human, — when it remains arrested at 
 or below the hvil of an orang's brain, — it may be presumed that it will mani- 
 fest its most primitive functions, and no higher functions We need 
 
 not, however, confine our attention to idiots only. Whence come the savage 
 snarl, the destructive disposition, the obscene language, the wild howl, the offen- 
 sive habits, displayed by some of the insane? Why should a human being, de- 
 prived of his reason, ever become so brutal in character as some do unless he has 
 the brute nature within him i 
 
 In Darwin's work, on the "Expression of the Emotions," 
 
 he shows that the mute expressions of man and of some of 
 
man's physical place in nature. 87 
 
 the lower animals throughout all the world are fundament- 
 ally the same. No matter how different the races or sub- 
 species of man, they all express emotion in the same manner. 
 And from this fact, taken in connection with another fact (of 
 the enormous divergence of those races in every particular, 
 — mental, moral, and physical), he justly deduces the con- 
 clusion that they must all be derived from some single stock, 
 which must have been almost human in structure, and largely so 
 in mind, before the races diverged from each other. That this 
 wondrous conformity among races so dissimilar could have been 
 acquired through independent lines of descent seemed to him 
 incredible. Yet, as he justly says, that very incredible thing 
 must have happened if the different races of men have descended 
 from several originally distinct species. 
 
 That man is not supposed by any naturalist to belong to the 
 same species as does the chimpanzee or the gorilla must be evi- 
 dent to everybody. "Where does he belong in the animal king- 
 dom ? No one can deny that he belongs to the kingdom of ani- 
 mals, to the sub-kingdom of vertebrates, and to the class of 
 mammals. Why should he then object to go into the next 
 division, — the order of primates, — with the anthropoid apes and 
 other forms, and demand, as a solitary genus, an order all to 
 himself for his representation in nature ? 
 
 His preference is simply a matter of prejudice derived from 
 education, which will be entirely removed before mai^ 3-ears 
 elapse. Man has so looked upon and worshipped himself as a 
 demigod, in his be-crowned, be-gartered, and otherwise decorated 
 conditions, down to the very people, which regards its voice as 
 the will of God, that he finds it hard to descend from his throne. 
 Yet reason, the highest throne which he can ever occupy, should 
 tell him that whence he came is of little moment compared with 
 what he is, whither he tends, and what is to be his destiny. What 
 difference, except for the better, does it make to him if he 
 
88 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND TERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 believes that be is derived not from dust, but from some low form 
 of life? Dust forms no term of comparison between a pristine 
 and a present state of existence. All things being possible with 
 God, man could :is well have been created out of nothing as out 
 of dust, and might have been created thus, such as gradual 
 development might otherwise have formed him. If, however, 
 lie did but know that what most comports with his dignity 
 is recognition of the truth, and if it be given him to perceive 
 in at least one point the grade from which he has risen, he 
 possesses a term of comparison which may well entitle him to 
 look forward to the future of the race as of relative splendor 
 almost inconceivable. 
 
M 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PHENOMENA OF EVOLUTION IN THE PRESENT ERA. 
 
 AN has long been known as an anthropomorphic being, 
 one who has fashioned God after his own mental and 
 moral attributes, who, according to a doctrine which may now 
 be considered beyond resurrection, doubtless growing out of 
 literal construction of words in Genesis, once even went the 
 length of believing that God is of human form. Yet it ought 
 to be evident that man can be in only a very different and in 
 an infinitely remote sense made after God's image and likeness. 
 
 The degree to which man has shown his anthropomorphism 
 has never been partially realized until the present centuiy, when 
 science for the first time showed that even the limited part of 
 creation around him on earth was not made exclusively for his 
 delectation, but that the lowliest animals are organized, not as 
 ministers to his needs and pleasures, but with reference to their 
 own well-being. Even the insects, the aphides, which seem to 
 be the veriest slaves to their ant-masters, who milk them of 
 their nutritive juices, are really so organized that it is as 
 agreeable to them to be milked as to their masters to milk 
 them. 
 
 The theor} r , accepted for ages, that all things on earth had 
 been made for the behoof of man, would have received a rude 
 shock if it had been pushed to its logical conclusion. Wild 
 animals drew for a long period quite a large amount of suste- 
 nance from his capture. Within easjr recollection the tiger in 
 India, and the lion in North Africa, have depopulated whole 
 districts, while the death-rate in India from poisonous snakes 
 reached, in 1877, the frightful number of 16,777 persons. The 
 familiarity of insects, too, with the delicate cuticle of man was 
 
 (89) 
 
90 HEREDITY, IIEALTII, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 not conducive to his claim to being sole lord of creation, seeing 
 that the insignificant creatures drive him out of sonic parts of 
 the world, and that his precautions must he ceaseless to keep 
 them even out of his bed. Unavailingly, however, was all this, 
 as patenl :is it is now, until science proved conclusively that 
 every creature had been created solely for its own good. Now, 
 despite the fact that some books on natural history for the 
 young si ill maintain the old point of view, as that the bee, for 
 instance, was made to place in hives along hedge-rows, as the 
 producer of food for man, the fountain-heads of knowledge How 
 in other directions, and will soon leave dry these stagnant pools 
 of information. 
 
 Man stood at one time, in his own estimation, in the centre 
 of all things. Not only did the sun and moon, according to his 
 wa}' of thinking, roll around him, to give him light by day and 
 night, but the whole starry firmament, containing suns which 
 dwarf our central luminary b}^ comparison, also rolled around 
 him, to shape the horoscope of his natal da3 r s, and to charm his 
 fanc}^ with imaginings of music of the spheres, while comets 
 and eclipses sen r ed no other purpose but that of portents and 
 presages of his fate. Science has, certainly, if it has done nothing 
 more, accomplished a good work in taking man down a few pegs 
 in his own estimation. He is still, even in the midst of a level- 
 ing civilization, sufficiently pulled up in his own estimation; but 
 he is now modesty itself compared with his former self, although 
 he is far more worthy. It is comparatively a mere trifle to cul- 
 minate as he now does in mutual admiration societies, in Eng- 
 lish, French, German, New England, and other dinners, where 
 he worships himself through his forefathers. At least, he has 
 happily lost the supreme arrogance with which he once perched 
 on the summit of things, and crowed his contentment at having 
 reached the pinnacle, for he has now set himself to learn what 
 he thought he knew. 
 
PHENOMENA OF EVOLUTION TN TIIK I'RESKNT EltA. 91 
 
 The perception of evolution of all existing things is ever 
 obscured through lack of perspective. Happy would it l>e, 
 however, if such parts as are faintly visible could be viewed and 
 described as they seem, without the everlasting suspicion that 
 its portrayal indicates desire to praise at the expense of the 
 present the times that are past. To declare any one a praiser 
 of by-gone times is supposed by the unthinking to constitute an 
 unanswerable argument, praise of anything that is past being 
 supposed to convey disparagement of everything in the present. 
 Of such airy nothings are the words which often present them- 
 selves as reason. But let it be noted that, to deride one who 
 praises things of the past, as compared with certain phases of 
 the same things within the present, implies that, in all things, 
 at every period, the world has progressed up to that point in 
 everything, and never has in anything retrograded, and this is 
 an untenable proposition, as can be proved by the single in- 
 stance of the Dark Ages, covering a multitude of retrogres- 
 sions. A bird's-eye view of present civilization, while it shows 
 us an aggregate of wide-spread liberality of thought, and of 
 tenderness for the weak and oppressed and suffering, and of in- 
 dividual and organized effort for succor and relief, shows us 
 also at the foundation of society a weakness of principle in finan- 
 cial matters unknown within historical times, and simultaneously 
 a loosening of the family tie, associated with an erotic license 
 with which, whether as cause, effect, or concomitant, it goes 
 hand in hand. If it be ever possible to reach perception of 
 effect as derived from cause, it would seem here as if the 
 greatest of all the agencies at work, amid the multifarious ones 
 that go toward producing any effect, is the sudden influx of 
 wealth and luxury to thousands of persons, who, reared in 
 penury, or in the most modest circumstances, could not safely 
 reach at a bound suddenly changed conditions. Although 
 not generally recognized, here is plainly to be seen the working 
 
92 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of the law of the survival of the fittest, for luxury has its 
 victims from prodigality of all sorts, in health and money, who 
 go down in the hattle of life as surely stricken as in war. 
 
 At a time when the greatest general sense of justice that 
 has ever been exhibited is engaged in ameliorating the condition 
 of the poor, declaring that the laborer is worthy of his hire, and 
 philanthropy, going beyond this, seeks to educate him, and to 
 succor him when needy and when sick, the laborer himself, in 
 instances so numerous as to tend to repress the sympathy which 
 has gone out toward him, makes claims and demonstrations of 
 force which have on occasions paralyzed the industries by which 
 he lives, and withdrawn from the coffers of the State moneys 
 for whose reimbursement he must contribute from his scanty 
 stock. In this country, America, where the shoes in which 
 men walk freety are so big that they never pinch, even organized 
 anarchy has presumed to take disruptive part against a gov- 
 ernmental scheme which it had not part nor lot in framing, — a 
 governmental scheme which professes to permit to every man to 
 become that to which he is entitled by nature and his own 
 deserts. 
 
 In this democratic America, where only a few years ago the 
 tail of the British lion used to be twisted on the Fourth of July 
 and other high-days and holidays, and the public prints never 
 tired of descanting on effete European monarchies and the ab- 
 surdities of titular rank, valuable invoices of American girls 
 yearly go to supply foreign needs, so that the day may come 
 when the New Zealander, sitting on the broken arch of London 
 bridge to view the ruins of St. Paul's, ma}' find among the 
 neighboring drift a stratum rich in specimens of an extinct 
 female American type, associated with collapsed mone3 T -bags, 
 while the opposite shores of the Atlantic may show contempo- 
 raneous deposits of banjos and microcephalous dudes. These, 
 mingled with crania evidencing a highly-intellectual status of 
 
PHENOMENA OF EVOLUTION IN THE PRESENT ERA. 93 
 
 present dwellers on the soil, will be the puzzle and despair of 
 the future geologist to account for their presence in the midst 
 of an evidently advanced civilization. 
 
 The family which, in modern society, is the pillar of the 
 State, weakens, while the State, democratic, republican, or what 
 not, goes on toward centralization of power, and tends, by be- 
 coming more and more paternalby protective to the individual, 
 to render him less independent, and consequently less free. The 
 unthinking masses, while clamoring for all that government can 
 give, little think that they are bartering away their birth-right. 
 This is a recession from better principles, and looks backward 
 toward Greece and other ancient countries, where the individual 
 was merged in and had no other existence than for the State. 
 It is difficult to see it as a healthy sign in the State, when gov- 
 ernment is like a gambling scheme, where in defeat or victory 
 the chief gain is not for the people, as against the owners of the 
 bank. The times of Louis XIII were not pleasant for the 
 people ; the king was really the State long before Louis XIV 
 proclaimed it ; but they were, at least, consistent in not pretend- 
 ing that government signified anything else than that the people 
 should be despoiled. If one must be ruled b}^ tyrants, instead 
 of hj the people for the people, better than a bloated tribune is 
 kingly prerogative amid the pomp and elegance of a court, for 
 nothing is more terrible than vulgar tyranny. 
 
 It is thus seen that it is absurd to say or imply, at any 
 period of the human race, that all things are everywhere, in 
 every respect, better than thej 7 have ever been. We must be able 
 to recognize the fact that, in the moral world as well as in the 
 organic and inorganic worlds, evolution is an unrelenting process, 
 and, as represented in any individual place, may be progressive 
 or retrogressive. 
 
 All that we can intimately know of the effects of evolution 
 is comprehended by earth, and here we perceive general progress, 
 
04 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEA1 TV. 
 
 not only in the intellectual and the moral, but also in the physi- 
 cal, world; but it* we are observant Ave ought also to see retro- 
 gression and apparent pause, according to the rhythmical law to 
 which all things are subject. The great moral advance, regarded 
 as a whole, that has been made on earth is to be frankly acknowl- 
 edged. But do not, therefore, let us stultify ourselves through 
 self-satisfaction, by proclaiming, in the face of facts, that we are 
 better than we are, in all respects better than our immediate 
 progenitors. Let ns, however repugnant to our self-love, recog- 
 nize that if Ave have got rid of some of their vices, they possessed 
 some virtues in which we hardly equal them, while at the same 
 time it is permissible to us to take credit to ourseh'es for a com- 
 prehensiveness in the lines of our advance which they never 
 approached; 
 
 It is thus perceived that not in the physical world alone, but 
 in the mental one also, as represented Iry the individual, family, 
 social circle, and nationality, development in infinite directions, 
 in the present era generally upward, continuously influences life. 
 The foi - ce at work acts in obedience to an unremitting natural 
 law, controlling all physical, mental, and moral affairs, not only 
 on earth, but, as we kaA^e reason to belieA'e, throughout the whole 
 universe. The only apparently modifying influences to its action 
 on earth are the intelligence and the will of man ; but these are 
 not antagonistic influences, for the}', too, are factors in the grand 
 total, contributing their quota to the consequences of the work- 
 ing of this universal law. Controlling all being, it necessarily 
 includes health and beauty, and all else that appertains to 
 mankind. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SENTIMENT OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 HALF the arguments in the world arise and persist, because 
 each side does not know exactly what the other is driving 
 at, and very nearly the other half, because one does not itself 
 know. With this solemn warning before us, an instant's thought 
 will be well taken to reach an agreement as to what is to be here 
 understood by the term beauty. In this best of all possible 
 worlds one can never tell, unless personally acquainted with his 
 interlocutor, at what tangent he may go off. It has even hap- 
 pened, when the question of beauty was on the tapis, that some 
 one has asserted that the supremely good is the supremely beau- 
 tiful. This is worse than puerile, for we know nothing of perfec- 
 tion of any sort except as a transcendental idea, and our notion 
 of perfection in morality, as expressed in terms of the beautiful, 
 is only figurative, a notion derived from our constant comparison 
 of objects of beauty in the sensuous order of things. To do 
 this, therefore, is to be guilty of the absurdity of attempting to 
 define the unknown in terms of the unknown, and not only that, 
 but the unknown in terms of the unknown in an entirely different 
 category, confounding the sensible with the supersensible 
 world. 
 
 What is here intended to be understood "by the term beauty 
 is the beauty that is recognized by the senses, sensuous beaut}'; 
 and although the touch has had its share in educating that per- 
 ception, reference is here to be made soleby to the beauty which 
 is perceived by the eye. The limitation must be made still more 
 strict, and therefore it becomes necessary to say that, although 
 occasion will presently arise for using illustrations which do not 
 
 apply to personal beauty, yet it is to personal beauty, as our 
 
 (95) 
 
96 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 ultimate objective point, that the attention of the reader is 
 directed. 
 
 Here one without experience would suppose that all possible 
 stumbling-blocks to agreement would have been swept away; 
 but not so, tor there are persons who have contended that beauty 
 does not exist in any object, but is in the eye of the beholder. 
 The argument used in favor of this view is that the taste of indi- 
 viduals, from the savage and barbaric to the civilized, varying so 
 enormously as to what constitutes beauty, proves, by the absence 
 of a general criterion for excellence of the thing, that the thing 
 itself cannot exist. But as a parallel argument in other matters 
 would be regarded as entirely fallacious, it is strange that this 
 should ever have been advanced as a valid one on this subject. 
 For if there is anything which is recognized by the enlightened 
 races of mankind it is the difference in quality of mentality in 
 range from the civilized and enlightened to the savage and bar- 
 baric races. Would any one presume to say that there is no 
 difference between the music of a Beethoven, a Mozart, or a 
 Wagner and the tomtoming and banjoing of a savage composer ; 
 that the difference lies merely in the ear of the listener? Why, 
 Helmholtz has shown not only the cause of the difference be- 
 tween a musical note and a note that is a mere noise, but has 
 also shown what it is among musical notes themselves that 
 makes difference in the quality of sounds ! 
 
 All educated persons are agreed that that being which is 
 physically most highly differentiated, that being in which there 
 is the greater division of physiological labor, is, relatively to 
 another being not so highly differentiated, the superior. The 
 principle is the same, whether we consider the structure repre- 
 sentative of a faculty, or we consider the faculty which may 
 elude revelation in the mechanism of a structure. The principle 
 declares broadly that that which is most highly organized has 
 the highest perceptions. The Germans, to continue our illustra- 
 
THE SENTIMENT OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 1)7 
 
 tion, possess, as a race, the highest musical faculty among man- 
 kind, and next come the Italians. Other civilized peoples have 
 enough to enable them to appreciate the fact, but the savage 
 cannot rise to the perception of even the lowest civilized form 
 of the manifestation of the faculty. Is there no sensuous 
 beauty because a man born blind cannot see it? Is there none 
 because the. mentally purblind, through only partial recognition 
 of it, differ in criterion from those who are mentally more 
 advanced ? 
 
 It has been truly said that no one can see Greece unless he 
 takes Greece with him; that is, unless his mind is so imbued with 
 the ancient literature and life of Greece that he thus has acquired 
 an insight which no ordinary man can possess. So, too, we may 
 say of all perception in nature and art. Race, mental ability, 
 culture, opportunity for comparison, all that goes to make dif- 
 ference between man and man, goes also to make difference of 
 taste in beauty. Beauty remains the same, while taste differs 
 indefinitely. But taste does not differ more than does mankind. 
 Given similar faculties, physical, mental, and moral, and the 
 same surrounding conditions, and taste in the beautiful would 
 be similar among mankind. It would never be exactly the same, 
 even in any one community, for every man brings to his feelings 
 and his judgments his own identity and life experiences, which 
 can never be exactly like those of any one else ; but the criterion 
 would be essentiall} 7 the same, which is all that is contended for 
 in attempting to show that the absence of a world-wide criterion 
 is no valid argument against the intrinsic existence of beauty. 
 It is not that beaut}'' does not exist that men differ about it, but 
 because the} r themselves differ in organization and in all sur- 
 rounding conditions, that there is no universal criterion for it. 
 One of the best evidences of the correctness of this view is that 
 the world, assimilating more and more through modern travel, is, 
 despite its complexity, becoming more and more uniform in taste. 
 
93 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY., 
 
 Observe the bearing of another consideration upon the truth 
 of this conclusion. The earth lias evidently not changed in 
 scenery since ancient times, and yet it is admitted by all com- 
 petent judges that love, and therefore presumably knowledge, of 
 
 the picturesque belongs only to the moderns. The view is doubt- 
 Less correct, although there is a tendency to exaggerate it. It is 
 
 difficult to believe that the Greeks, a race which peopled every 
 lakelel and stream and wood with nymphs; which had its 
 grottoes, groves, fountains, and nvysterious caves; the race in 
 whose contests the gods themselves took part, the canopy of 
 heaven, the earth, and the Plutonian regions the scene of their 
 exploits, should not have been gifted with some love for the pic- 
 turesque, as we know them to have been supremely for the beau- 
 tiful. And coming closely in their footsteps on earth were a 
 people who are seen in the sunburst of art which shone from 
 Christianity to be so highly gifted with the sense of the pic- 
 turesque, that we cannot suppose them to have been suddenly 
 endowed with it as a concomitant of the new faith. All that can 
 be said with certainty is that the love of the picturesque, to the 
 degree in which we now perceive it to be manifested, is an essen- 
 tially modern development. Whence comes the fact, nature hav- 
 ing remained essentially the same, that nature must contain the 
 beautiful independent of the seeing eye. Certain grand expres- 
 sions in nature have been, as the record shows, appreciated from 
 the earliest times, when men left their impress in literature. Yet 
 it remained until quite modern times for men fully to perceive 
 the picturesque, — one of the phases of the beautiful. 
 
 "What constitutes the picturesque has long been fruitful 
 matter of discussion. Ruskin ascribes it to ruggedness of line 
 and surface, and some other writers to perception of decay. 
 That neither of these views is tenable can easily be settled by 
 any reader for himself by many illustrations that can be sum- 
 moned from his own experience. That the picturesque is often 
 
THE SENTIMENT OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 99 
 
 associated with broken lines and surface, and also with ruins, 
 taking decay in that sense only, is undeniable ; but that these 
 elements are essential to it can be disproved by the commonest 
 observation. A pretty girl may be highly picturesque, and 
 surely she has nothing about her like broken lines and surfaces, 
 or ruin and decay. We have ourselves seen, in an old orange 
 grove planted by the early Spanish settlers in Florida, and grown 
 wild with arching and interlacing boughs, a high exemplification 
 of the picturesque, when surely the lines and surfaces were not 
 markedly broken, and the luxuriance forbade the idea of ruin or 
 decay. 
 
 In fact, despite what Ruskin says of himself, — that he never 
 enjoys nature so much as when perfectly wild, remote from sug- 
 gestion of the presence of man, — it is not clear that he does not 
 deceive himself when we recall that scenes in which the idea of 
 the picturesque plays the greatest part are suggestive of the 
 presence of life. It is to the point of the picturesque as a phase 
 of the beautiful that reference is made. Undoubtedly, there are 
 many scenes on earth in which soaring, snow-clad mountain-peaks 
 blend with the sk} T in amethystine tint, where the beautiful is 
 engendered in association with the grand, the awful, or the sub- 
 lime. But it is not of the beautiful or of blended effects that we 
 are speaking, but strictly of the picturesque. It would be well, 
 in passing, however, to note that even in these it is still life that 
 is summoned before the mind, only that, in this case, it is not 
 life animal but life spiritual that rises into view. 
 
 The picturesque, on the contrary, relates only to earthly 
 life, — the pleasant highways and byways of human existence. 
 One could not extract a sentiment of the picturesque out of a 
 landscape on the moon. "Wide expanse of plain would set off 
 cva SSJ escarpments of mountain ranges in the portentous light 
 and shadow of a region without atmosphere. Over the whole 
 waste, blasted by alternate heat and cold, would be no sign of 
 
100 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 life, nor blade of grass, nor smallest living thing. But suppose-, 
 instead of that, we choose for our Bcene the Rhine. Project into 
 it a bold promontory, rising high above the stream. It presents 
 form and color, light and shade, and yet something is wanting to 
 the completely picturesque. Crown it with a castle, a monastery, 
 or with a simple hut, and it becomes more picturesque, because 
 the association with life becomes more extended. And so it will 
 be found true of the whole sphere of the picturesque. Why 
 should the Rhine be more picturesque than the Hudson, but that 
 its shores have been associated with the life of barbaric and 
 civilized man for centuries ? 
 
 If the picturesque has now been satisfactorily demonstrated 
 to exist, from having been shown to be a discovery of compara- 
 tively modern times, no one will be prepared to deny the real 
 existence of that which must include it — the beautiful. 
 
 The beautiful, being an ideal, excludes the presence of criti- 
 cism. But as, of course, there is, in reality, so far as human 
 experience goes, nothing ideally beautiful, we are constrained to 
 speak of that which w r e know as the nearest approach to our 
 ideal as the beautiful. With this understanding we may define 
 the beautiful as that which gives to contemplation unalloyed 
 pleasure. 
 
 The average human being, adult or child, has far greater 
 capacity for synthesis than for analysis, and hence it follows 
 that he is constantly mistaken as to the character of his emo- 
 tions. In point of fact, so difficult is it from the complexity of 
 feelings to analyze them, that the majority of the world is con- 
 stantly deceiving itself about what it imagines itself to know 
 best. Pictures of weirdness, power, awfulness, or sublimity are 
 constantby supposed to be revelations of beauty pure and simple, 
 whereas the emotion experienced is often shown by its source to 
 be highly complex, compounded, on some occasions, far less of 
 beauty than of other elements. The imagination is excited by 
 
THE SENTIMENT OF THE BEAUTIFUL. 101 
 
 many things besides beauty, and the mind often experiences 
 under the stimulus an exaltation derived from sources in which 
 beauty is quite subordinated. Nowhere is this error of judg- 
 ment so palpable as when shown in expression of admiration for 
 the beauty of the dead. Death is so repugnant to life, that the 
 dead cannot be beautiful. The emotion excited in the mind, 
 especially by the dead who have been loved, clouds the judgment 
 as to the character of the emotion experienced. With the lost 
 lines of petty care, the face sometimes assumes an expression of 
 nobilit3 r , nay of majesty itself. But the satisfaction thence 
 derived is not from the perception of the beautiful ; it is because 
 the sublime has entered upon the scene. Needless it ought to be 
 to say that this awful sublimity is incompatible with expression 
 of the purely beautiful. The real character of the sentiment 
 awakened by the presence of death was never better expressed 
 than in the lines of Burton : — 
 
 Here lies a common man. His horny hands, 
 Crossed meekly as a maid's upon his breast, 
 Show marks of toil, and by his general dress 
 You judge him to have been an artisan. 
 Doubtless, could all his life be written out, 
 The story would not thrill nor start a tear ; 
 He worked, laughed, loved, and suffered in his time, 
 And now rests peacefully, with upturned face, 
 Whose look belies all struggles in the past. 
 A homely tale ; yet, trust me, I have seen 
 The greatest of the earth go stately by, 
 While shouting multitudes beset the way, 
 With less of awe. The gap between a king 
 And me, a nameless gazer in the crowd, 
 Seemed not so wide as that which stretches now 
 Betwixt us two, this dead one and myself. 
 Untitled, dumb and deedless, yet he is 
 Transfigured by a touch from out the skies, 
 Until he wears, with all-unconscious grace, 
 The strange and sudden Dignity of Death. 
 
 In short, the beautiful is that which, whether in nature or 
 art, possesses perfection of parts harmonized by unity. The 
 picturesque, on the other hand, is that lower degree of beauty 
 
102 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 which, although lacking unity, still possesses such pleasure- 
 giving elements as to gratify the eye. Is it not undeniable that 
 the picturesque [a more soft and tender in its action upon the 
 sensibilities than is the purely beautiful ? Is not the beautiful, 
 as marly ideal as we know it, still a thing so cold and lofty that 
 it does not affect to tenderness as does the picturesque? Pain- 
 less perception must be, as little complex as is possible, for them 
 to represent truly the beautiful and the picturesque. 
 
 Having now discussed the principal traits of the beautiful 
 and the picturesque, it will be the most gallant thing to reserve 
 for the following chapter the subject of the beauty of the fair sex. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE SOURCE OF THE BEAUTY OF THE FAIR SEX. 
 
 WE wonder if it has ever occurred to the reader to imagine 
 why the female sex happens to be the fair sex. If, how- 
 ever, he or she has read attentively the second chapter of this 
 work, at least a shrewd suspicion must have been awakened that 
 the difference might be derived from the continuous action of 
 sexual selection. 
 
 It may be asked why it is not the male, as shown in that 
 chapter with reference to the lower animals, but the female, 
 among mankind, which is the handsomer individual of those 
 representing the sexes ? To answer that will require study 
 of the differences in the lives in question, and in the conditions 
 by which they are surrounded. It was shown in that second 
 chapter, through a sketch of the amatory lives and habits, 
 principally of gallinaceous fowls, that the law of combat chiefly 
 determined the most successful mating, and therefore, incident- 
 ally, the transmission and enhancement of certain male attributes 
 to the males of the brood. Health and strength, as was indi- 
 cated, are the necessary bases of courage and beaut} r . It was, 
 therefore, remarked that, in the long run, these latter must 
 necessarily predominate in the broods of successful suitors, who, 
 in turn, in the competition with others not so highly endowed, 
 would be more certain than the}^ to transmit their attributes in 
 increasing excellence to their progeny. 
 
 The preference by females among these animals is not exer- 
 cised in the same way as among human beings. The male, as 
 belonging to a species of the lower animals, is, as he is not 
 among the higher races among human beings, unrestrainedly 
 impulsive in sexual attraction. Through that impulsiveness he 
 
 (103) 
 
104 11KKK1HTY, 11KA1.TII, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 i-. in the state of nature, the chooser of one or more females, not 
 so much as Individuals as belonging te the aggregate of females 
 whose presence excites him to jealousy and battle for the pos- 
 session of what may, so to speak, be culled the female element 
 of nature, irrespective of individuality. In a word, the male, in 
 a state of nature, takes ;i female or females, largely as such, and 
 cannot, in the highest sense, be said to select them. As among 
 the males, however, there is the sternest competition for females 
 as such, leading to fighting, to the wounding, defeat, or death 
 of adversaries, and as preference among the females for the at- 
 tributes possessed h\ the victors is inseparable from their falling 
 to the victors as the reward of their strength, skill, and prowess, 
 any beauty which is in the individual victor, associated in varying 
 degree with his pugnacious capacity, conies to be more at- 
 tractive to the female, appreciated, and reproduced by her. It 
 is transmitted by her chiefly to the male portion of her brood 
 (for it is of male attributes of which we are speaking) and be- 
 comes intensified from the same causes in successive broods. 
 And hence it becomes apparent how the female among such 
 birds, and relatively among animals generally, remains com- 
 paratively unadorned, while the males among them constitute 
 fair sex. 
 
 Now. analogous causes have been, under entirely changed 
 conditions, instrumental in bringing it about that, among 
 mankind, the female, and not the male, sex is in many places 
 the fair sex. The female sex is not invariably, even among man- 
 kind, the fair sex. Among savage peoples the women are, save 
 a favored few belonging to a king or chief, repressed to such 
 a degree that the men are invariably better favored in lace and 
 form. With all the physical disabilities of the sex, savage 
 women do the drudgery of the tribe, and, even when the men are 
 on the march, are compelled to bear a full share of exhaust ing 
 labor. Child-bearing and the cares of maternity, added to this 
 
THE SOURCE OF THE BEAUTY OF THE FAIR SEX. 105 
 
 weary life, leave no margin for the acquisition of beauty. They 
 are even without the stimulus of the tenderness that gives 
 strength. It is the testimony of African travelers that they 
 never saw a negro caress or bestow the slightest endearment 
 upon a woman. The women, bought and sold, are mere beasts 
 of burden, and, without being always slaves in name, are so in 
 effect to their lords and task-masters. Among the Indians of 
 this continent the same conditions have prevailed from time 
 immemorial. The men have been, as they are in Africa to this 
 day, warriors and huntsmen, disdaining labor, who have shifted 
 the toil of daily life upon the shoulders of their women. Hence 
 it has come about, from two causes, that the men are physically 
 superior to the women. Athletic exercises taken in the open 
 air, especially when not pursued as such, are the most conducive 
 of an}' to physical development and lustiness. The women 
 naturally accept the protection of the strongest and bravest of 
 the tribe whom they can secure, and as these would not accept 
 any but the most desirable, this, with the other cause, combines 
 to make the men who survive as the fittest, the superiors of the 
 "women in physical endowments. Savage women, therefore, 
 with the exception noted, never are nor can be, relatively to the 
 men, regarded as the fairer sex. They are quite in the position, 
 with regard to the other sex, of the lower animals. What is so 
 touching about Millet's peasant women? — the revelation of 
 grinding toil b}~ their rounded shoulders and resigned faces. 
 This same pathetic thing represents the lot of most savage 
 women, except in those parts of the earth where nature has 
 been so bountiful, amid strife which is not constant, as arnply to 
 supply the simple wants of the people. 
 
 The complexity of civilization represents conditions radi- 
 cally different from these. Amid them, the agencies described 
 reach apparently, but not really, fundamentally different re- 
 sults. The multiplicity of details obscures perception of the 
 
106 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 fad that, the causes at work being the same, the effects will 
 be the ones to be expected under the modified conditions. 
 
 Among the higher races of mankind the female sex has become 
 the fair Bex simply because men have combined to make it the 
 fairer. Wherever possible these races have sought to relieve 
 
 women almost entirely of labor. Whole classes of women 
 among them have nothing to do that can be called labor, let 
 alone toil. Many individuals among them are mere human but- 
 terflies, flitting from flower to flower, with no more exercise 
 than suflicient to enable them to sip in quickest succession the 
 sweets of life. That this is for their best good, without some 
 ballast for their airy flight through life, is not the question here; 
 it certainly is conducive to beauty. Fresh air, exercise, the 
 best food, and the revivifying influence of constant change, they 
 have ; and while these directly promote beaut} 7 , the absence of 
 care is the greatest cosmetic in the world. 
 
 In this complexity of conditions represented by the highest 
 civilization, the pure and simple attraction of the sexes for 
 each other is dominated by man}' causes known in but slight 
 degree, if at all, to primitive men. Even in the United States 
 the conditions of sexual relations are becoming more and more 
 complex, as time goes on and the country matures. The time 
 was when the}' were almost of pastoral, bucolic simplicity. The 
 time was, only about fort}' years ago, when rich men, as rich 
 men for their day as other men are rich for the present day, 
 lived and died unknown. Now, almost the world over, no 
 matter what an old hunks a man may be, it is enough for him 
 to be rich, to be great. The idea of wealth, the idea of the 
 desirability of wealth, has more or less pervaded all ranks. 
 The resulting social condition reminds one of the replies of 
 Dumas's Jew to the questions of the High Chancellor of France : 
 " What is your name?" " I am worth twelve millions." " What 
 is your age ?" " I tell you I am worth twelve millions." '' Your 
 
THE SOURCE OF THE BEAUTY OF THE FAIR SEX. 107 
 
 profession?" " Why, do you not understand? I repeat, I am 
 worth twelve millions." 
 
 This commercial spirit of the times, or rather the contempt 
 for the shop associated with love of its profits, has affected 
 nothing more in civilized countries than the relations of the 
 sexes, has introduced considerations of money into marriage, 
 and has intensified that condition abroad. Even collegians and 
 school-girls may be heard nowadays calculating their material 
 chances in the monej r market. Worthy considerations as these 
 are, when kept within bounds, they have now reached a point 
 where they are often too influential in determining choice. 
 Despite all interests, however, romantic love sometimes seizes 
 two creatures in a whirlwind of passion and raises them to the 
 skies. 
 
 In addition to the signal and undeniable fact of the change 
 mentioned, is the other, more potent, overruling, and perennial 
 fact, which more largely than an} r other influence determines 
 marriage and the increasing beauty of the female sex, through 
 the selection by men of those most agreeable in person, to the 
 neglect of others. The love of the beauty of the female sex by 
 the opposite sex is proved not only by choice being more 
 largely determined by that than bj r smy other element; it is 
 proved also by the sedulous care with which men of civilized 
 races guard their women against the hardships which are preju- 
 dicial to beauty. On the contrary, the normal woman, ad- 
 vanced beyond the bread-and-butter age, cares little for male 
 attributes, except such as indicate strength and courage, such 
 as constitute manliness. The men of the higher races have, 
 from the earliest times of which we know anything, worshiped 
 the beauty of the other sex, and that sex has complacently ac- 
 cepted the tribute to its charms, as why should it not? Men's 
 preference, therefore, having always been for those individuals 
 of the opposite sex whose beauty was greatest, the result has 
 
108 HFUKD1TY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 manifested itself not only in wooing and wedding, but in the 
 inheritance, in ever-increasingly greater and greater degree, by 
 female offspring of those physical attributes which made the 
 mothers attractive. All this implies romantic love, relief from 
 burdensome Labor, and freedom from the care of providing sub- 
 sistence for the family; all of which, as has been shown, are 
 conditions favorable to the creation and conservation of beauty. 
 
 The dissonance produced l>3 r absence of beauty-producing 
 conditions, when the forces just described are in abeyance, is 
 exhibited by the characteristics of strong-minded women. 
 With them the natural play for the instincts and emotions and 
 energies of the softer sex having been denied, they make an 
 order of beings apart from the attributes of either, but pertain- 
 ing more nearly to the male than to the female sex. Sexual selec- 
 tion has generally stood them aside from relation to posterity. 
 They are, for the most part, like the exceptional species of which 
 mention has been made, where the female is the pugnacious 
 element of the conjugal bond, wears the comb, spurs, and 
 hackles of the opposite sex, and the}' are, when wedded, like 
 similarly situated individuals of that species, in being followed 
 by a crest-fallen mate, distinguished by feminine traits, who 
 brings up the rear of all things in the battle of life. 
 
 It follows from what has been said that, if the character of 
 the higher races does not change, and the physical conditions 
 on earth do not change, and it is improbable that they will 
 change for at least some millions of 3 r ears, the beauty of women 
 will go on increasing for a long time to come. Ease and com- 
 fort, as a whole, enjoyed by civilized peoples, have greatly in- 
 creased all over the world within a hundred years, and as they 
 are likely still further to increase, beauty will, through men's 
 admiration of it, combined with these favorable conditions, go on 
 increasing in amount and degree, and become proportionally 
 prized. Summing up all the agencies at work among the higher 
 
THE SOURCE OF THE BEAUTY OF THE FAIR SEX. 109 
 
 races as fruitful of increase of female beauty, we may well 
 assume its further great development. These influences are 
 men's devotion to it, women's lessened labor and care, tlieir 
 higher education, and their social development. These con- 
 ditions must produce in turn romantic love, vigor of body, and 
 maintenance of youthful appearance, amiability of expression, 
 and the intellectual and spiritual graces of the countenance; all 
 of which, in the aggregate, will mean increased beauty for the 
 future. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT AND TRAINING ON THE PHYSIQUE. 
 
 IT will probably appear to the reader as if it would be impos- 
 sible for any marked change to take place in the human form 
 during the short space of even the longest life-time. But, hap- 
 pily, the fact can be readily established by examination of prob- 
 ably the largest body in existence of accurate statistics on anj' 
 one subject. 
 
 After the great civil war in America was over the govern- 
 ment of the United States made a compilation of remarkable 
 surgical and other matter, and collection of interesting and useful 
 military material used in the war. Only one class, however, of 
 that statistical information is that with which we have special 
 concern. It must be remembered that, as the information was 
 derived from investigations relating to a bocVv of men numbering 
 over a million, the idea is precluded of the error involved in 
 generalizations from a few cases. The object of the introduction 
 of the obtained information here, and some other which will 
 follow, is to show that, if certain existing but not imposed con- 
 ditions have produced determinate results on the body, then we 
 have it in our power, by voluntarily imposing the same or similar 
 conditions, to reproduce like results. 
 
 It was ascertained that, although the sailors enlisted in the 
 war were, as a class, shorter than the soldiers as a class, their 
 legs were longer than those of the soldiers by over T 2 o inch. 
 Their arms, on the other hand, being over an inch shorter than 
 those of the soldiers, were disproportionately short as compared 
 with the soldier standard, even after making due allowance for the 
 difference in stature between the two classes. The sailors meas- 
 ured more around the neck and less around the waist and hips 
 
 (111) 
 
112 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 than did the soldiers, and the sailors had higher insteps than the 
 Boldiers had. It was also discovered that men who had been 
 
 bom and bred in the Western Stales were taller than those horn 
 and bred in the Eastern States, and that residence in cities was 
 prejudicial to height. 
 
 Some of our renders may he of sufficient experience to be 
 able to make reflections for themselves on the basis of the points 
 which have been noted. But, assuming that all have not that 
 experience, it will be well here briefty to discuss some of them. 
 The differences between the sailors and the soldiers could not 
 have arisen from changed conditions during the war, for measure- 
 ments are made upon enlistment. The facts are very striking, 
 however, taken as the}' stand, showing that difference of occu- 
 pation, with a slight infusion of heredity, can produce such dif- 
 ferences. AVe sa}- a slight infusion of hered^adviscdl}-, because 
 such is the shifting of occupation in modern times of son from 
 father that there are rarely now, as formerly, occupations engag- 
 ing even two successive generations of a family. The son of a 
 sailor or of a soldier may he anything else, and is more likely to 
 follow some other occupation than that of his father. The sol- 
 diers of whom we are now speaking were, at the time when they 
 enlisted, not soldiers at all. At that period of time they repre- 
 sented merely landsmen drawn from a wide extent of countiy, and, 
 to a certain degree, from different nationalities. The comparison, 
 as it stood, was therefore simpl}' between sailors, who are neces- 
 sarily professional, and landsmen, who at that period were not 
 soldiers nor at any subsequent period professional ones, though 
 many became veterans as fine as any in the world. Each class 
 therefore had acquired, more especially during the youth of its 
 component individuals, characteristics wdiich represent, in a gen- 
 eral way, the aggregate effect on the bod}- of occupation on land 
 or sea. 
 
 It was observed by every one during the war that, excepting 
 
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT AND TRAINING ON PHYSIQUE. 113 
 
 where the Confederates were pitted against Western men, their 
 infantry generally outspeeded the Union infantry in marching. 
 Now, although one obvious reason of this was Unit tliey marched 
 with less baggage, there is still a large margin to be accounted 
 for by the assignment of some other cause. It seems to us that 
 familiarity with the physique of the Southerner as compared 
 with that of the Northerner explains the difference, the former 
 being long-limbed and spare compared with the latter, and on 
 that account being able to beat the soldiers of the East in inarch- 
 ing ; while he found his match, in that respect, in the soldiers of 
 the West. 
 
 The difference between the Sioux and the Apaches in the 
 character of their development has such relation to their physical 
 surroundings and habits, that it makes one of the best possible 
 illustrations of difference of form produced by different con- 
 ditions. The countiy of the Apaches is not adapted to riding: 
 the country of the Sioux is. The Apaches have but few horses 
 and are not known as riders, while the Sioux are among the finest 
 riders in the world. The Apaches are long-legged, spare, and 
 lithe, and indefatigable on their feet ; while the Sioux are com- 
 paratively short-legged, are not addicted to pedestrian exercise, 
 and ride like centaurs. An officer of the regular army once de- 
 scribed to us a fight which his company, guarding a supply-train, 
 had had on the plains with some Sioux seeking to capture it. 
 The train, closing up to make as short as possible the line to be 
 defended, passed slowly and steadily along, the soldiers taking 
 shelter in squads within and without the wagons, while from 
 various directions troops of savages came thundering down upon 
 them, discharging their missiles, receiving the volleys in return, 
 rescuing their wounded, and wheeling away only to renew their 
 onslaught. On the wide sea of the plain, under the glittering 
 sun, the slowly moving, stubborn!}' defended train, the masses 
 
 of horsemen whirling around it amid the crack of rifles, pre- 
 
 6 
 
114 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 sented a ravishing spectacle of contrasted movement, in which 
 circled the splendid horsemanship of a thousand mounted 
 warriors. 
 
 Generation after generation these braves had ridden, so that, 
 like the Arabs, horse and rider had come to be almost as one. 
 On the other hand, the Apaches, generation after generation, 
 have wandered afoot through the fastnesses of their region, some- 
 times on forced marches of almost incredible severity, in which 
 women ami children as well as men share. Hence, Sioux and 
 Apaches have acquired physical attributes strictly in accordance 
 with the physical conditions surrounding them. The Sioux, big- 
 chested, robust, and comparatively short-legged ; the Apaches, 
 long-legged and wiry in form, illustrate the chief differences of 
 those conditions. 
 
 A striking change in physique, accomplished within a brief 
 period, always ensues in the average man after having been for 
 some time subjected to military drill. If at the point of de- 
 parture he happens to be a veritable rustic, he becomes a dif- 
 ferent being. The bumpkin is a slouching, shambling, round- 
 shouldered wight. He is not, as are generally the city-bred, 
 constrained by a certain degree of public requirement ; nor is he, 
 like them, rigidly subjected to a large amount of insensible imi- 
 tation. Nevertheless, he has in him the making of a man, and 
 generally of a physically better man than the city born and bred. 
 What he needs to make him look like, as well as be, every inch a 
 man is simply to be " set up " by drill and discipline. In coun- 
 tries where the relations are just between officers and men, he 
 there, as the common soldier, often undergoes through drill a 
 favorable change in physique and a higher tone through disci- 
 pline. The results produced bj these combined agencies is trans- 
 forming. From a shuffling lout, who does not know how to use 
 the limbs which nature has provided him with, a man issues forth 
 whom his nearest of kin can scarcely recognize. 
 
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT AND TRAINING ON PHYSIQUE. 115 
 
 Where discipline and drill are not obtainable, some kind of 
 manual and evolutionary movements are always possible, and for 
 the latter dancing is far better than nothing. One need not be 
 a specialist in anatomy and physiology to see that the great 
 changes indicated are not produced without profound alterations 
 in the structure and functions of the body. The rounding 
 shoulders are thrown back, the shoulder-blades disappear, and, 
 the chest expanding, the lungs inhale deeper draughts of life- 
 giving air. The limbs, especialty the legs, move with greater 
 freedom Avithin their natural bounds. The hands become more 
 pliant, adroit, and serviceable. Bej^ond all that can be thus 
 specified as acquired, is co-ordination of parts in prompt obedi- 
 ence to the directive mind and will. This makes the distinctive 
 difference between the halting hesitanc}" of mind and bodv in 
 the bumpkin, and the alertness of mind and of bodily action in 
 the city -bred. 
 
 An officer of the regular army once told us that when he 
 first went to West Point he was a strapping, awkward youth, so 
 knock-kneed that, standing, he could not put his heels together 
 by 2 or 3 inches. In the course of a year or two, however, he 
 said, his legs had become perfectly straight through the influence 
 of foot and horseback exercise. We can, from personal obser- 
 vation, vouch for the accurac} r of his observation that his legs 
 had become straight, for their symmetry was so admirable as to 
 be remarked. There once came under our direct observation, 
 in a boy of from 12 to 14 years of age, such a change from being 
 awkwardly high-shouldered, to his shoulders being rightly placed, 
 that the change seemed marvelous ; but it was only a phenome- 
 non of development under favorable conditions. ■ 
 
 Of course, similar influences to those which favorably affect 
 the form in the male sex affect it also in like manner in the 
 female sex. Not only are the acquirements of each, except 
 those which are distinctively sexual, transmitted through 
 
116 gEREDlTY, BEALTH, AND PERSONA! BEAUTY. 
 
 progeny to both sexes, but the general conditions which pro- 
 duce peculiarities in the individuals of one sex occupying a cer- 
 tain locality produce them also in members of the opposite sex 
 occupying the same locality. In the last, paragraphs the figure 
 and shambling gail of the bumpkin have, boon spoken of exclu- 
 sively, because, in connection with him, it. was desirable to illus- 
 trate the effect of drill and discipline. But, whatever applies to 
 him ami to others of his sex applies in essentials also to corre- 
 sponding individuals of the female sex, although in loss degree, 
 because the love of pleasing leads among women of all ranks to 
 some abatement of the condition of partial or complete indiffer- 
 ence to attitude and movement. 
 
 In the first chapter we have spoken of the singular absti- 
 nence among country people in America from exercise afoot. 
 In the present connection it is in place to emphasize the fact that 
 all that applies to the men in regard to posture and movement, 
 as being conducive to health and beauty, must apply to women. 
 As, however, the next chapter is to be devoted especially to the 
 movement of women under the appropriate idea of grace, it is 
 necessaiy here only to remark, before resuming the theme of 
 change of form within limited periods, that the sole difference 
 in the applicability of what is said on these topics lies in the 
 necessary modifications in practice appropriate to sex. If men 
 drill, so should girls drill, through calisthenic exercises, includ- 
 ing especially the cotillon of various kinds. All calisthenic 
 movements executed to music necessarily have a rhythm which 
 cannot otherwise be obtained, the bodily movement being the 
 visible presentment in time and motion of the unseen influence. 
 Description of what constitutes good walking is also deferred to 
 a subsequent chapter. Walking, to be good, requires practice, 
 as we see in drill, not with the object of getting over ground, 
 but of getting over it properly, so that locomotion shall eventu- 
 ally become through habit more graceful and ell'ective. One of 
 
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT AND TRAINING ON PHYSIQUE. 117 
 
 the best methods for women to learn to stand and move grace- 
 fully is in the drill effected by such dances as the minuet, for- 
 merly called the minuet de la cour. The modern dancing- 
 master, descended from the high authority whieh he once en- 
 joyed, teaches little but his inefficiency. If he can get two 
 young people to jiggle and tumble around a room together in the 
 waltz, he flatters himself and his pupils tiiat mortal man can do 
 no more for social grace. The old-fashioned dancing-master 
 taught them to walk, to bow, and how to enter a room. His 
 only omission was in not telling them how to get out of it, which 
 is a feat so much more difficult, that hosts suffer to this day from 
 its inadequate performance. Although a person would be as 
 great a fool to abide implicitly by the teaching of a dancing- 
 master as to dress by the taste of his tailor, and good society 
 never did nor will do either, yet it is only by exaggeration of 
 movements that the true eventual movement can be learned, the 
 " goose step" leading to good marching, and the strutting of the 
 minuet to the graceful movement of a lady ; for, as Pope says, 
 " they move easiest who have learned to dance." They cannot 
 move easily unless they hold themselves well, and hence posture 
 is indispensable to the art of dancing, which, in its two branches, 
 posture and motion, is. intended to pervade the future life in 
 healthful ease of movement. 
 
 To resume the theme of change of form, intermitted during 
 this necessary digression, we would remark that one of the most 
 striking illustrations of which we know, of rapid ph}'sical 
 change, brought about by changed conditions, was that witnessed 
 soon after California began to be settled by the people of the 
 United States. In 1859, San Francisco was removed only ten 
 years from a time as celebrated as the Argonautic search for the 
 golden fleece, from the time when the men who still proudly 
 call themselves " the forty-niners," were in the ascendant in 
 California. At that time San Francisco had scarcely departed 
 
118 11KKKIHTV. HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 from the aspect of those very modern 1 mt apparently remote 
 
 days which Dana described in his " Two Years Before the Mast." 
 It had been burned down twice, and had arisen from its ashes 
 each time improved. By some few years it had become, in 1859, 
 a city like any other of America, as well paved, lighted, and 
 otherwise appointed for comfort. There adventurous spirits of 
 all sorts, from men who had money to invest to those who had 
 aothing but muscle, had congregated. There, on the streets of 
 San Francisco, the lavish Southerner, the penurious Yankee, 
 jostled each other, while the Chinaman scuttled along, only too 
 happy to escape to his quarter unmolested! An entirely new 
 condition of affairs surrounded most of the denizens of the place. 
 Views were enlarged, sympathy and helpfulness were unstinted, 
 generosity was unbounded. Men who had been brought up in 
 the narrowest way expanded, body and soul. The new genera- 
 tion showed the greatest possible physical improvement. Under 
 an equable temperature, in the enjoyment of out-door air and 
 exercise, the young generation had such arms and legs and 
 trunks as their progenitors had never dreamed of, and this, the 
 blood being the same, came about from simple change of condi- 
 tions. The changed conditions were numerous, it is true, but so 
 it is alwa}'S, change of only one or two conditions, with change 
 of region and climate, being inconceivable. 
 
 All observers agree that it is absurd to think of the English 
 as being in physique as they were personally well known to our 
 forefathers to be, and through pictures almost equally well 
 known to us to have been. The broad-visaged, bluff Englishman 
 is a variety of man which has rapidly disappeared. The exigen- 
 cies of modern times, with their requirements upon the nervous 
 S3 T stem, have made and are continuing to make of him a type 
 more nearly approaching the American than any other. The 
 same effect, from the same and additional causes, is to be seen in 
 France. The t3 - pe of the haute noblesse has almost disappeared, 
 
EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT AND TRAINING ON PHYSIQUE. 119 
 
 and with it the air of distinction. The tendency in expression 
 everywhere is toward that of the bourgeoisie. Except in the 
 remote and exclusive atmosphere of the Austrian court, distinc- 
 tion of air and manner has largely disappeared. It is notorious 
 that it does not exist in Prussia, except in the military form. It 
 is everywhere disappearing, if indeed it is not gone already, 
 engulfed in the commercial activit}' engendered by the demo- 
 cratic spirit of the age. 
 
 Look at the case of the prognathous, or projecting-jawed, 
 emigrants who often land in New York. They represent the 
 last term of a long struggle for existence, in ignorance, dirt, 
 foul air, ill-housing, and overworking for generations. They 
 find themselves in quite changed surroundings. The law of 
 natural selection does not work by set times for a given 
 result, an age being sometimes required for a change which at 
 other times a few j^ears may effect. The reaction of the 
 organism to the surrounding conditions must be taken into 
 account. In this case the relation of the organism to the 
 external conditions results in rapid change. It takes place with 
 marvelous strides. Such emigrants often become within the 
 remainder of their life-time so bettered as to be hardly recog- 
 nizable, and leave to their children an inheritance of good-looks 
 which never had previously appeared in the stock. 
 
 We see the Chinese mostly as laundiymen, and elsewhere in 
 this country they are known as that and also as the pickers-up 
 of unconsidered trifles, and in all places are seen with somewhat 
 changed habits. Where, how<vver, the Chinaman is of a rank 
 not to go bare-foot, he generally wears the Chinese shoe. That 
 shoe on the sole is about half an inch thick, with no more bend 
 to it than has a pine board, ability to walk in it being secured by 
 a change of the angle of the sole about two-fifths of the way 
 from the toe. In consequence of this, Chinamen who have worn 
 their native shoes for generations have scarcely any develop- 
 
120 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 nu'iit to the calf of the leg. Going slippered and booted as, 
 among the lower classes, they are largely doing in this country, 
 is for the fust time enabling all those heretofore destitute of 
 calves to procure them. 
 
 The most fearful thing in nature, a writer once said, is a 
 ballet-dancer's leg and foot, with their stumped toes and abnormal 
 muscular development of the calf. But there is one thing 
 more fearful than that, in the change of nature by art, in the 
 high-caste Chinawoman's foot. We once picked up on the 
 parlor-table of a gentleman, who had lived twenty-live years in 
 China, an ebony, life-size model of the foot of a Chinese woman 
 of rank. A question regarding it led to an account by him of 
 bow he once, by means of bribery, had obtained sight of the 
 horrible reality. A little girl's toes, except the great toe, are 
 broken and turned under the sole of the foot, which is by that 
 treatment and the following procedure arrested in growth. That 
 procedure is swathing the foot with bandages, tightly com- 
 pressed, with* which the child pays agonized tribute to fashion 
 for having been born highly aristocratic, continued by the 
 further tribute of stumping on short stilts through life. The 
 description of this horrible practice is mentioned here, for the 
 bearing which it has upon the disease now known among us as 
 " Morton's toe," and upon what is to be further said on the sub- 
 ject of feet, when we come to the discussion of feminine grace. 
 
 Enough cases have now been presented to elucidate the 
 statement with which we set out, that change in the human 
 organism may be so rapid as to be conspicuous even within the 
 space of an ordinary life-time, and, therefore, that it often lies 
 largely within our power to control its direction and amount. 
 Upon the basis of matters which we have duly considered, — 
 those relating to structure, — we can now best study those 
 belonging to function, as exhibited by easy movement, and 
 especially that form of it known as feminine grace. 
 
M' 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GRACE THE CROWN OF BEAUTY. 
 
 OYEMENT may be in itself beautiful, and when so, and 
 appropriately combined with beauty of the human form, 
 it constitutes the highest conceivable beaut}'. So associated in 
 the mind is living form with movement, and symmetry of the 
 living form with exquisite movement, that a sense of deficiency 
 is experienced if the movement does not correspond with the 
 apparent requirements of the form. So intimately are they 
 associated in the mind, that we feel the absence of due relations 
 between them, even when the idea of movement convejed is, as 
 in the statue, only suggested by the counterfeit presentment of 
 life. The colossal statues of Egypt sit grandly erect with their 
 Atef crowns, but stolidly, and wholly unsuggestive of move- 
 ment through all eternity. The Greek statues, on the contrary, 
 be the portrayal of the human form never so reposeful, from the 
 massive-shouldered, resting Hercules to the elegantly-limbed 
 Apollo, through all the intermediate delicacy of womankind, 
 everywhere suggest form energized by potential action, read}' to 
 deploy itself in manifestations of strength and grace. 
 
 It is movement that makes grace. When we say of a figure 
 that it is graceful, it is not the figure itself which is properly 
 thought of as graceful, but the effect which would be exhibited 
 if only it should move. This proves how closely our ideas of 
 form and movement are associated, when we actually transfer 
 the complex perception of moving form to form alone. The 
 conception from a perception is instinctively transferred to and 
 identified with the figure itself, as its exclusive attribute. 
 
 If the reader desires to seize and hold firrnly the principles 
 underlying grace, it will be well, first of all, to consider that it 
 
 (121) 
 
122 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 is not the exclusive possession of human beings, nor even of ani- 
 mate things generally, and that it is an element of beauty which 
 
 may be absent from form otherwise beautiful. Everywhere, 
 however, that it manifests itself, it is found associated either 
 with life or with that which is life-like through presenting the 
 appearance of life. Thus, we witness it in the gracefulness of a 
 yacht under full sail, bounding over the sea. We need not goto 
 Byron's line, " She walked the waters like a thing of life," to 
 know, if we have ever seen it, how full of apparent life and pur- 
 pose is the careening craft among the billows. Even the move- 
 ments of a kite are manifestly life-like and graceful, resembling 
 the soaring of birds. We find among the lower animals several 
 kinds which are exquisitely graceful; witness, for instance, 
 certain species of antelope and deer, and the species of birds to 
 which allusion has just been made, as affording the high standard 
 by which we judge of the movement of the kite. The horse, too, 
 not as he sometimes appears, trained even to tricks, but free as 
 nature itself, is of almost unsurpassable gracefulness, in his 
 gathered form, arching neck, flaming or fearful eye, when he 
 sometimes becomes an embodiment of grace and picturesqueness 
 difficult to match. 
 
 It is, however, only when" we reach the human form that 
 symmetry and grace can be so conjoined as to be beyond com- 
 parison. This is said, of course, with due regard for the fact 
 noted in the preceding pages, and to be kept in mind, that we 
 are constrained to speak of that which most nearly approaches 
 our highest conception, as the ideal, although, of course, the ideal 
 is a conception be3'ond anything that we perceive. Even the 
 Apollo Belvidere has been discovered by modern anatomists to 
 be defective in the delineation of the muscles of the chest, and 
 the equally celebrated, in its way, group of the Laocoon exhibits 
 in the brow of the distraught father imperfection in delineation 
 of the muscles which there represent the corrugations of despair. 
 
GRACE THE CROWN OF BEAUTY. 123 
 
 With this continued understanding, therefore, it may be 
 said that there are seen occasionally certain embodiments of 
 perfect grace. It is almost impossible to conceive anything 
 human more nearly reaching perfection than the symmetry and 
 grace which Rachel presented in"Phedre." Every step seemed 
 to now naturally out of what preceded, her every gesture moved 
 in rhythmical accord with the verses that flowed from her lips, 
 while, robed in the superbly ample peplum of the Greeks, this 
 high-priestess of the histrionic art moved a goddess on the 
 mimic scene. In an entirely different sphere of grace, Ellen 
 Terry, in " Much Ado about Nothing," where the line occurs, 
 " Look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, moves close to the ground 
 to hear our conference," thrilled the spectator by the sight of 
 her agile flight across the stage. 
 
 Grace is fundamentally, then, beauty of movement in living 
 or life-like things. It gratifies in the mind the associated ideas 
 of accordance with each other of form and movement, and that 
 condition best satisfies the mind which harmonizes the two 
 elements concerned in the greatest unity of effect. We 
 experience great pleasure at the sight of gracefulness, and 
 corresponding uncomfortableness at the sight of intense 
 awkwardness. 
 
 Looking at the effect from a mechanical point of view, and 
 it is from that point of view which we must examine it, if we 
 wish thoroughly to understand and promote gracefulness, it 
 depends upon close co-ordination between the nervous system 
 and the trunk and limbs of the booty. Extreme deficiency in 
 that co-ordination may be illustrated by citing the case of one 
 who has St. Vitus's dance, and moderate deficiencj^ b}- that of 
 one who is muscularly well developed, but does everything 
 awkwardly. Grace, on the contrary, represents the complete 
 adaptation of movement to the mechanism of the body. It 
 presents ocular evidence of the smallest expenditure of force 
 
124 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 for a given effect. When its constituent qualities are analyzed, 
 it is found to be manifesting itself by curvilinear movement 
 ■within the bounds associated with mechanical effectiveness and 
 the appearance of perfect ease. Hence the superiority of "women 
 over men in gracefulness. 
 
 Let not the reader, however, for a moment confound the 
 concomitant of ease with the constituents of gracefulness. An 
 athlete may raise from the ground, hold at arm's length, or 
 otherwise handle with what may be called ease, a very heavy 
 weight, but that does not make any of his movements necessarily 
 easy in the sense of their being graceful. Even if he -were able 
 to perform all his movements with the curvilinear differences 
 that would be inseparable from female deployment of the same 
 muscles, he would not thereby become more graceful, because 
 the resulting action would not be appropriate to the masculine 
 form. Nothing is more open to observation than that to each 
 sex difference of physical conformation assigns difference of 
 movement; for we find that women, *when they approach the 
 masculine type of form, are exceedingly awkward and unat- 
 tractive, and that men, when they approach the feminine type, 
 become thereby positively emasculated in appearance, and re- 
 pulsive. There are certain well-defined bounds within which 
 gracefulness can be exhibited by individuals of the male sex, as 
 in the Spanish and some other national dances, but no bounds 
 can be assigned to individuals of the opposite sex within which 
 action must be confined to insure gracefulness. The premiere 
 danseuse is admirable, but the premier danseur is abominable. 
 Beyond the simpler order of movements, the latter degenerates 
 into an exhibition of pure athleticism, while, with the former, the 
 most pronounced exhibition of athleticism is completely veiled 
 by the quality of feminine grace. 
 
 The appearance of ease is, as has been indicated, the effect 
 of curvilinear movements. First in the sequence of causes and 
 
> GRACE THE CROWN OP BEAUTY. 125 
 
 effects comes co-ordination of the nervous system with the body 
 and limbs Next in order of importance comes symmetrical 
 development in accordance with sex. The product of these is 
 the individual of either sex who represents a good organization 
 for the ordinary purposes of life. Beyond that is the highest 
 possible co-ordination of the nervous system with a form of the 
 highest symmetry. These conjoined, with physical education, 
 lead to the highest possible manifestation of the special physical 
 aptitude and grace appropriate to each sex. Anatomical differ- 
 ences between the sexes causing the movements of women to be 
 executed in lines more curved than they are when executed by 
 men, it comes about that when, according to their type, w r ornen 
 are beautiful in face and form, and nervously highly organized, 
 and are at the same time physically and socially well trained, 
 they present the highest possible example of development, for 
 thejr, the fairest of creatures, are thus endowed, in grace, with 
 nature's final embellishment. 
 
 It is easy to see why certain movements executed by indi- 
 viduals of one sex are not equally well performed by individuals 
 of the opposite one. It would follow from what has been said, 
 that those movements which are least curved would be best 
 executed by men, and observation bears out the statement that 
 they are. Men strike horizontally straight from the shoulder, 
 throw with admirable precision, and kick and run with the 
 utmost directness of movement. Women, on the contrary, that 
 is, typically well-formed women, cannot execute any of these 
 movements with either ease or grace. "Woman's arm is articu- 
 lated lower at the shoulder than is that of man, because it is 
 placed with reference to the position of her more slanting 
 shoulders, and the arm itself is not so straight as his, and she 
 cannot in consequence throw a stone well, or, to save her life, 
 hit a straight blow from the shoulder. She is, too, if well- 
 formed, what would be called in a man slightly knock-kneed, 
 
12t'. HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 and in consequence she cannot, on the run, avoid a lateral move* 
 menl representing a waste of energy for the purpose to be 
 accomplished. The cancan, performed by young, slim girls, 
 instead of being available as the basis of an argument against 
 the view that women are unable to kick effectively, is confirma- 
 tory of it, for one of the prominent elements in the dance is the 
 ridiculousness of the kicking. But if we, personally, could have 
 any doubt of feminine kicking being ridiculous, through 
 unadapted physical conformation, it would be removed by the 
 revival in our mind of a, scene which we once witnessed at a 
 countiy-seat, where four young ladies from the city, visiting one 
 afternoon, and finding a Rugby foot-ball on the lawn, were 
 inspired to have a game, and were instigated thereto by the host 
 and hostess and two or three guests who occupied the porch. 
 The spot was so sequestered as to be entirely beyond the possi- 
 bility of observation, and so, the newcomers taking sides of two 
 against two, the game began. So painful an exhibition we have 
 never before or since witnessed. The ball was mounted b} r one 
 of the girls missing it on the run and kicking herself into the 
 air, whence she descended collapsed, to be tumbled over by her 
 partner in an indiscriminate heap. And so the game went on 
 for twent}' minutes, with the players half the time on the ground 
 making revolving efforts to rise, while the people on the porch, 
 from being suffocated with laughter, roared with most inelegant 
 shouts, wept, and became weak and h} T sterical, while they 
 besought the equally-exhausted lawn-party to desist. Painful! 
 — there were moments when we were so sore and aching all over 
 that we would have given anything to be miles away from the 
 extraordinary fascination of that sport! 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE ART OF WALKING. 
 
 IN a very interesting, work which appeared two or three years 
 ago, entitled "Romantic Love and Personal Beauty," lately 
 supplemented by the author, Mr. Henry T. Finck, in an article 
 in which he descants admiringly on the beauty of Spanish 
 women as enhanced by their singularly graceful carriage, he 
 incidentally makes some erroneous statements in regard to the 
 art of walking, all the more remarkable as coming from an ob- 
 server and connoisseur in the charms which he depicts. Inci- 
 dentally, however, to noticing this error, we feel bound in honor 
 to say that, with the exception of only one other, which we shall 
 have occasion to notice in the next chapter, — that as to his view 
 of the future virtual extirpation of the blonde Iry the brunette 
 type of beauty, — Mr. Finck's work is most instructive, and to 
 be cordially recommended to every one desirous of closely 
 studying beauty as influenced bj* romantic love. To the demon- 
 stration of this hitherto much-overlooked source of beauty, his 
 work is especially devoted. The present state of physiological 
 knowledge fully supports the conclusions which he reaches by 
 ample discussion and illustration. If, as undoubtedly they do, 
 drunkenness and other causes which have a deleterious influence 
 upon the human organism, and, on the other hand, all that con- 
 duces to its health, impress themselves upon offspring, it is im- 
 possible that it should be otherwise than that the sexual congress 
 which is necessary to the extension of life, by which, in effect, 
 parents are perpetuated in their children, should not, when asso- 
 ciated with romantic love, in creatures so highly endowed as are 
 human beings with the faculty of ideation, produce the happiest 
 effect upon health, vigor, and beauty of offspring. 
 
 (127) 
 
128 HEBEDITY, HEALTH, AM) PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The wry pictures of Spanish women, by Fortuny and others, 
 with which Mr. Pinck's article, <>n the beauty of Spanish women, 
 is illustrated, refute his statements on the art of walking, in liis 
 work on " Romantic Love and Personal Beaut}'." He there 
 remarks that — 
 
 It is a mooted question whether the toes should be slightly turned out- 
 ward, :is dancing-masters insist, or placed In Btraight parallel lines, as some 
 physiologists hold. For the reasons indicated in the hist paragraph, physiologists 
 are clearly right. With parallel, or almost parallel, great tors a graceful walk is 
 
 more easily attained than by turning out the toes. Even in standing, Dr. Tin mi as 
 S. Ellis argues, the parallel position is preferable. When a body [he says] stands 
 on tour points, I know of no reason why it should stand more firmly if those 
 points be unequally disposed. The tendency to fall forward would seem to be 
 even increased by widening the distance between the points in front, and it is in 
 this direction that falls most commonly occur. 
 
 Gracefulness of walking is so essential to elegance of pres- 
 ence, and so dependent upon the proper position of the feet with 
 reference to the body and the line of advance, that one cannot 
 do better than take the preceding statement as text for the dis- 
 cussion of the subject, which cannot properly be omitted in a 
 work like this, and which finds its most appropriate place at the 
 point that we have reached. 
 
 First of all, before proceeding farther, certain ambiguities 
 in the statement must be cleared up. It is to be observed that, 
 after the author hud spoken of the feet being placed in " straight 
 parallel lines, as some pli3 r siologists hold," he subjoins that 
 "physiologists are clearl}' right." Now, the most that can be 
 claimed is that some physiologists advocate the practice de- 
 scribed; but that of itself has no weight, for there is no ques- 
 tion, great or small, upon which members of any profession are 
 all agreed in opinion. Authority that compels acceptance of 
 views can come only from overwhelming majority, individual 
 distinction, or demonstration, and all these are wanting to the 
 statement. It is our conviction that authority for the opposite 
 opinion is represented by enormous preponderance in the num- 
 
THE ART OF WALKING. 129 
 
 bers and prominence of its advocates over those who hold the 
 opinion cited. 
 
 It is to be considered, with reference to the citation of 
 dancing-masters as having exaggerated notions of how the feet 
 should be placed, that they represent only a certain kind of drill, 
 and that all drill, as has been elsewhere intimated, is excessive in 
 formal teaching, in order to allow ample margin for lapse in actual 
 practice. The soldier is taught, in the manual of arms, in march- 
 ing, and all that appertains to drill, what is to serve him in stead 
 in his military life, but what does not so formally there appear. 
 It is notorious that, in the assants d'armes, the small-sword prac- 
 tice with foils, when they take place as competitive contests, the 
 academical style, as it is termed, largely disappears in the heat 
 and exigencies of the contests. So we may say of boxing and 
 of any other athletic exercises, that there are formal positions, 
 always in excess of those which are to be observed in actual use, 
 and still more in emergencj^. In close contest, nature declines 
 to be strictly academical, and yet the practice which is born of 
 the school and the academy better fits the possessor than 
 otherwise to use the powers with which he has been gifted by 
 nature. 
 
 We reach the consideration as to what degree of turning 
 out of the toes is permitted by the expression quoted : " With 
 parallel, or almost parallel, great toes a graceful walk is more 
 easily attained than by turning out the toes." The angle at 
 which, in our estimation, the toes should be turned out is that 
 at which the ball of the great toe, as well as the great toe itself, 
 can best act, not only as the fulcrum around which the body is 
 moving, but as giving the most considerable repeated force in 
 propulsion. This angle is not to be arbitraribv determined, but 
 should depend upon and be fixed hy what constitutes the most 
 effective movement of the body. The rigid march of Frederic 
 the Great's soldiers was the model first adopted by our arrnj\ 
 
130 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The whole world imitated it on parade. It remained for the 
 French (among the most practical people on earth) to discover 
 tint i-veii the arms have, through their momentum, a function in 
 marching. Hence, was to be seen among the French, forty j ears 
 ago, the firsl true military marching, where the body sways with 
 an easy carriage. 
 
 Now, neither in marching nor in walking — for they are es- 
 sentially the same thing, marching being only formal walking 
 (and hence those persons walk best who have been taught to 
 march) — can the bod}- move best with parallel feet. The most 
 perfect freedom possible of movement of the whole bod}' in the 
 walk should, as we have indicated, determine the angle at which 
 the feet should be turned out, and this will slightly differ in 
 different persons, with breadth of shoulder and length of leg. 
 So adjusted as to angle, the movement of advancing is accom- 
 panied by shoulders alternately thrown back, and corresponding 
 expansion of the chest. Observation of any one walking with 
 turned-in or parallel toes will prove that the shoulders alter- 
 natch' describe smaller arcs, and that the whole effect is con- 
 tracted and ungainly. 
 
 Dr. Ellis's advocacy of parallel feet, quoted with approval 
 by Mr. Finck, is entirely untenable from the point of view of 
 geometry and physics. He says : — 
 
 When a body stands on four points, I know of no reason why it should 
 stand more firmly if those points be unequally disposed. The tendency to fall 
 forward would seem to be 'even increased by .widening the distance between the 
 points in front, and it is in this direction that falls most commonly occur. 
 
 If Dr. Ellis would take a jointed doll, place its feet parallel, 
 and stand it up on a table, he would find that it is in a position 
 of most unstable equilibrium. If he would then, without re- 
 moving it, turn the doll's toes slightly outward, he would find it 
 firmly placed. As it is not alone the area of the soles of both 
 feet upon which the human figure stands as its base, but the 
 
THE ART OF WALKING. 131 
 
 area bounded by the outer edges of the feet and imaginary lines 
 drawn respectively from toe to toe and heel to heel, the base 
 upon which the body stands when the feet are parallel is repre- 
 sented by a small parallelogram. After the feet have been so 
 placed, let the toes be turned slightly outward. One side 
 of the area remains the same (the line from heel to heel); 
 one side becomes considerably longer (the line from toe to toe) ; 
 and the two sides represented by the outside edges of the feet 
 remain, of course, of the same length. The area representing 
 the base upon which the body stands is slightly contracted from 
 front to rear, but that is more than counterbalanced by the in- 
 crease of the area from side to side. 
 
 Dr. Ellis's opinion as to the direction in liability of falling 
 being based upon false premises is,x>f course, equally in error 
 with them. We fall forward more frequently than otherwise, 
 not from relative lack of base to prevent falling in that direction, 
 but because we are plrysically better fitted to fall forward than 
 to fall in any other direction, because we seek to so fall, in order 
 to avoid the likelihood of greater injury from falling in other 
 directions. But let us go to the root of the matter as the shortest 
 way of coming to the end. The progression called walking is 
 effected automatically, after the first step, by the bod}^ being 
 thrown slightly forward beyond its centre of gravity, the foot 
 behind advancing to support it in its new position, whence the 
 operation is resumed by the same action of the bodj^ while the 
 other foot advances to support it. The habit of life in walking 
 is automatic. Except as to learning originally how to walk, and 
 later in life, as to initiating and arresting the movement, it is 
 entirely stimulated and maintained, not b}^ the brain, but by the 
 reflex action of the educated spinal cord. This perfected habit 
 makes us instinctively endeavor when falling to place ourselves 
 as nearly as possible in the position in which immunity from 
 harm most lies. That position is forward, because habit has 
 
132 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL HEAUTY. 
 
 enabled us to calculate besl for that direction the effect of loss 
 of centre of gravity, and because for that direction the hands :ire 
 besl placed to enable us to save ourselves. The preferable 
 positions for falling are, first, for ward, and, second, backward; 
 because in both the hands are most advantageously placed for 
 protecting us from injury. If Dr. Ellis were right, the best 
 I jition in which to fall would be sidewise, which is the most 
 helpless of all directions in which to fall, because no instinctive 
 calculation can be made for the effects of the loss of the centre 
 of gravity; we are powerless to modify the direction of our fall, 
 and only one hand is so situated as to be able to diminish the 
 shock. 
 
 Let us now consider the aesthetic side of the question. 
 Persons who turn their to»s in, or turn one in and hold the other 
 straight to the front, are notably ungraceful in bearing. The 
 parrot- and parallel- toes of the American Indian represent a 
 most ungainly walk, acquired through thousands of generations 
 in the exigency of following trails through the wilderness. Simi- 
 lar walking among civilized people represents the child status of 
 progressive movement, unmodified b} r family or other training. 
 It is as much a reflection upon original birth and breeding as is 
 left-handedness. The dancing-master's dictum represents nothing 
 but excess in what all polished nations have adopted as the best 
 practice in standing and walking, while the American Indian and 
 other savages have been, to a man or woman, constrained by the 
 necessities of their existence to do otherwise. Go where one 
 will, the world over, and it will be found that the higher classes 
 have reached this conclusion, and among all exemplars of the 
 truth and beauty of the practice there is none higher to be found 
 than in the gait and splendid port of Spanish women. 
 
 Subject to due modification, with reference to the height, 
 length of leg, and breadth of person, the toe of each foot should 
 be turned out about three inches. Breadth of person enters 
 
THE ART OF WALKING. 133 
 
 into consideration, as well as height, because a short, stoat per- 
 son, with a given amount of movement at the feet pointed out- 
 ward, sways at the shoulders more than a taller person does u it li 
 the toes turned out to the same degree; not actually more, but 
 disproportionately with reference to height and breadth, and 
 therefore to effect produced. Hence, the marked rolling motion 
 of the shoulders, appropriate to the gait of a sailor, but not 
 compatible with a graceful walk, is to be avoided by modifying 
 the position of the feet with reference to individual physical 
 conformation. 
 
 The length of the step should be proportioned to the length 
 of the leg. If the foot is thrown too far forward for the natural 
 stride, or the ankle-joint is not allowed play, when the foot 
 reaches the ground it strikes stiffly, with a jar, on the end of the 
 heel. The length of the step and the flexure of the ankle should 
 be such as to allow the parts of the sole to touch the ground 
 almost simultaneously. 
 
 The toes must never be turned out so much, nor the foot be 
 so placed, as to allow the foot to rest on the outer edge. Neither 
 must it be allowed to rest on the inner edge, but in all positions 
 be firmly planted on the ground. The first position gives a 
 simian, or ape-like, effect to the foot, and degrades the whole 
 movement of the body. The second has the effect of what is 
 known in surgery as splay-foot, in which the inner part of the 
 ankle actually touches the ground, and has a most ungainly 
 appearance. However, short of deformity, this position is, with 
 the toes turned out, difficult to assume. 
 
 There is no more awkward appearance in walking than that 
 produced by the toes excessive!}' turned out, so that the side of 
 the leg is seen in a person advancing presented to the front. 
 Under these circumstances the movement of both leg and body 
 is most unsightly, not to be exceeded by, if less vulgar than, the 
 effect produced by turning the toes in, the essential vulgarity 
 
134 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of which is recognized by its being the invariable attitude of the 
 circus clown. 
 
 In brief, turn the toes out slightly, graduate the step so that 
 the parts of the Bole of the foot shall reach the ground as nearly 
 as possible simultaneously and squarely planted. Make the 
 whole movement elastic ; avoiding, on the one hand, the appear- 
 ance of stiffness, and, on the other, that of springiness at the 
 knees, — the first a sign of muscular weakness, and the other an 
 old buck's ill-advised protest against encroaching senility. 
 When going at a moderate pace, let the arms, when unincum- 
 bered, swing gently in unison with the movement of the bod}', 
 and the side, not the back of the hand, be to the front. When 
 going at high speed, let the arms move vigorously at the sides 
 in aid of the movement. In all movement of the arms, when 
 walking, be careful not to let the forearm pass across the body 
 as seen from the front. This action characterizes the rapid walk 
 of the bumpkin, the hoodlum, and of all untrained persons. 
 Examine the soles of your shoes occasionally for evidence of 
 what you have been doing as to proper planting of the foot on 
 the ground. If the heel is jammed, and the outer edge of the 
 sole unduly worn, you turn your toes out too much, that is 
 certain ; and either your step is too long for the length of the 
 leg, or your ankle-joint does not flex enough as the foot is about 
 to be placed on the ground. Perhaps both causes are operative 
 at the same time in effecting the wear and tear of the heel., and 
 hence, full evidence being procurable by you, it is in your power 
 gradually to modify and correct the error. 
 
 One thing is primarily necessaiy to grace, as well as to 
 beauty, — form. But, even given form, beauty of the highest 
 order cannot exist without grace. Grace, in turn, cannot exist 
 without freedom of action in every part of the body. Nothing 
 so mars it as constriction of the trunk and feet. Why do the 
 movements of little girls dancing give so much pleasure to the 
 
THE ART OF WALKING. 135 
 
 spectator, but that they exhibit the natural freedom of move- 
 ment belonging to youth? There may not be present any 
 particular physical beauty, and yet this endowment alone is 
 ravishing. Observe only a few years afterward the movements 
 of the same girls when similarly engaged, and see how the grace, 
 which should by education have increased, has largely departed 
 or entirely vanished. Whence does this arise but from the habit 
 of constraining dress having- reduced vigor and suppleness of 
 body? The trunk, arms, and legs have lost the habit of subtle 
 turns of beauty, which glide into each other with rhythmical 
 flow. Stiffness pervades the whole carriage, whether in sitting, 
 walking, dancing, or running ; which last has come to be well- 
 nigh impossible. Thousands of women who have within them 
 infinite capacity for grace, always move constrainedly through 
 life, in their stifling and circulation-impeding corsets, their 
 excruciating shoes, and, when fashion so wills, in sleeves so tight 
 as to restrict them to the gestures of a kangaroo. Look on at 
 ball-play, or at any pastime where young men are congregated, 
 and see their athletic pose and movement and unconfined grace, 
 and what a contrast do we find between them and the majority 
 of 3 T oung women in ph}sical development and the highest being 1 
 So it often comes to pass that manj^ individuals of the fair sex, 
 which nature has most distinctively endowed with- capacity for 
 grace, deliberately abdicate with their rights their fullest empire 
 over men. 
 
 If we were instructing girls and } 7 oung women in calis- 
 thenics, we would surely take advantage of the effects produced 
 in the bearing of the whole person by the carrying of objects 
 like water-jars upon the head. No one who has ever been in 
 climes where women thus habitually bear such burdens can have 
 any doubt as to the excellence of the training for securing 
 graceful attitude. The arms, too, as they are sometimes raised 
 alternately at intervals, to re-adjust the burden or to insure its 
 
136 HEREDITY, lll.Al/ril. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 safety, touching with the finger-tips the poised jar or other ob- 
 ject, come in for a share of training in gracefulness. The first 
 meeting of Jacob with the beautiful Rebecca at the well was 
 singularly adapted, from the setting- in which she appeared, to 
 bring about the love at first sight that ensued. 
 
 Montaigne remarks in one of his essays, that — 
 
 Those mean fellows that teach to dance, not being able to represent the 
 presence and decency of our nobleness, are fain to supply it with dangerous Leaps 
 and other -strange motions and fantastic tricks. And the ladies arc less put to 
 
 it in dances where there are several coupees, changes, and quick motions of the 
 body, than in some other of a more solemn kind, where they are only to move a 
 natural pace, and to represent their ordinary grace and presence. 
 
 This is but equivalent to saying that twinkling feet, leaps, 
 and pigeon-wings may but serve to conceal total lack of grace. 
 The movements which approach most closely to the habitual 
 ones of life are the crucial tests of inherent grace, the rarest 
 of all graces being the pose and movement of the head on well- 
 turned shoulders. The physical elements, the machinery, are 
 often present, but not the movement which should be associated 
 with them. To produce this special gracefulness, nothing is 
 more efficient than the exercise of carrying on the head a light 
 burden, high enough to require balancing. Women, it is true, 
 are in some countries obliged to carry burdens so great as to 
 degrade, instead of improving, form and movement ; but we have 
 alread}' pointed out that any kind of labor pushed to the point of 
 toil is destructive, instead of promotive, of physical well-being. 
 It must be remembered, therefore, when we speak of the bene- 
 ficial effect on gracefulness of carrying burdens upon the head, 
 that we exclude exercise involving toil, and even wdiat might be 
 called labor, and refer exclusive!}- to exercise which, as deter- 
 mined by the muscular force necessary to accomplish it, and by 
 the time required for its performance, any one w r ould consider 
 light. Calisthenic exercises look to the improvement of the 
 physical condition, as representing vitality, and to rounding 
 
THE ART OP WALKING. 137 
 
 muscles, as representing beauty of form and one of the first 
 conditions of gracefulness. The kind of exercise just recom- 
 mended as especially conducive to gracefulness, whether grow- 
 ing out of the habits of the country or undertaken for the sake 
 of its special effects, makes excellent training for co-ordinating 
 different parts of the body, from the crown of the head to the 
 sole of the foot. The centre of gravity of the burden requiring 
 to be maintained, the most perfect accord in the movement of 
 the bearer is necessitated. The head erect, neck and spine 
 acting together, all must harmonize exactly with the pace. One of 
 the most charming sights that ever gratified our artistic sense in 
 a foreign land was the lithe, vigorous figure of a young girl clad 
 in a single garment, with a basket of limes poised gracefully upon 
 her head. After a little practice, the effort necessary at first to 
 balancing an object of some height, such as a water-jar, entirely 
 ceases, and the sense of ease with which it can be done is 
 pleasurable. The burden seems to have become part of the 
 bearer, and when relieved of it the educated spinal column 
 ceases not to assert its gain, especially in the gracefulness of 
 the pose of the head. 
 
 Only in April last, Dr. Ellis, whose views on standing and 
 walking Mr. Finck so approvingly quotes, appeared in an elaborate 
 article, in Wood's "Medical and Surgical Monographs" (William 
 Wood & Co., New York), entitled " The Foot." The writer is Dr. 
 Thomas S. Ellis, Consulting Surgeon to the General Infirmary 
 at Gloucester, England. As this is Dr. Ellis's last word on the 
 structure of the foot, standing, and walking ; as the exercise of 
 walking is the most general of any among mankind ; and as 
 upon the proper execution of it much of the development 
 and nearly all grace of person depend, the subject is one of 
 such great importance that we here pursue it in the most 
 effective of all methods bj' challenging the accuracy of Dr. 
 Ellis's conclusion. That a monograph of one hundred and one 
 
133 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONA! BEAUTY. 
 
 well-written, well-printed, and well-illustrated pages should 
 have been devoted by a man perfectly conversant with the 
 anatomy of the foot, and having, through a personal accident 
 to that member, had his attention directed to it in a way seem- 
 ingly sure to be productive of the most valuable results, but 
 should have reached what may, with literal precision, be termed 
 a lame and impotent conclusion, would be marvelous to any one 
 who does not know what constant experience teaches, that the 
 imagination, like the vaulting ambition of which Shakespeare 
 .-peaks, frequently o'erleaps itself and falls on t'other side. Facts 
 Dr. Ellis gives us in plenty, — facts excellently well stated. It is 
 not with reference to his allegations as to these that we quarrel, 
 but with his conclusion. 
 
 Dr. Ellis sets out by saying that each foot is the counter- 
 part and complement of the other. We reply that the human 
 body having only two feet, if one is the counterpart of the other, 
 it is necessarily its complement. But let us consider the special 
 feature which, in Dr. Ellis's eyes, makes one foot peculiarly 
 complementary to the other. The foot is, he says, on its inner, 
 under aspect, a semi-dome, from which circumstance arises 
 the fact that if one foot forms a semi-dome, of course the other 
 also forming a semi-dome, the two together form a dome. 
 
 These are facts, but the conception was a most unhappy 
 one for Dr. Ellis's conclusions, for, having once adopted it, the 
 idea of the strength inherent in the dome subordinates all other 
 fact- thenceforth, and we have the position of both standing and 
 walking regarded by him as referable to this dome-like form of 
 the two feet in conjunction. Xow, one should think that, of all 
 things palpable, the fallacy in this conclusion would be self- 
 evident. It would really seem, when one remembers how sub- 
 sidiarily the feet act with reference to each other, as compared 
 with their action with reference to the exigencies of the move- 
 ment of the trunk of the body, all idea of joint dome-like 
 
THE ART OF WALKING. 139 
 
 construction relating to their acting in conjunction for the sup- 
 port of the trunk would be swept away. What becomes of the 
 dome when a man is running, when he is hopping, when he is 
 dancing, when he is practicing at savate — aye, when he is mod- 
 erately walking, or even standing in an ordinary position ? The 
 feet are acting in concert, but the concert with which they act 
 never fulfills the demands of the dome structure, for one semi- 
 dome is in one place while the other semi-dome is in another. 
 Hence, Dr. Ellis's conclusion, that one walks to the best advan- 
 tage with parallel feet is not deducible from the proposition 
 stated, for, even in walking, the two semi-domes are alternately 
 passing each other, not combining for dome strength. 
 
 Dr. Ellis indicates that, just as one walking with parallel 
 feet thus best propels the body with the rise and backward 
 thrust of the great toe, so also the ordinary dancer rises and 
 falls best on the great toes of parallel feet. We think that 
 propulsion of the body can be best effected by the line formed 
 by the great toe and the ball of the foot when placed in the 
 position secured by turning the feet slightby out, because then 
 one combines the spring of the great toe with that line in a more 
 effective position for thrusting. But even were this not so, 
 equally important with the means of propulsion of the body, are 
 those of maintenance to the best advantage of its equilibrium. 
 A crucial test of what should be the position of the feet with 
 reference to equilibrium, and consequently with reference to the 
 best control and action of the body, ought to be, and is, the 
 effect of that position in which the feet touch the ground with the 
 minimum of surface capable of supporting the body, as we ob- 
 serve practiced in some of the movements of the ballet-dancer. 
 Now, such dancers do not, in tip-toe passages of the ballet, stand 
 or move with parallel feet, as any one ma} r see from the parquet or 
 boxes of a theatre, for the curve of the sole of the foot is visible 
 from the front. If, as any one with a quick eye can detect, the 
 
140 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 dancer, whether standing, walking, or dancing on the points of 
 
 the toes, allows the heels to subside until they touch the floor, 
 the toes are proved to have been well turned out. In fact, when 
 tlu- weight of the dancer is resting on the points of the toes, it 
 is only upon condition that the foot, and consequently tJie 
 inside of the leg, shall be slightly turned out, that graceful 
 movements, or indeed any but those most insecure and awkward, 
 can take place without losing the balance. Hence, if this be so 
 under the great disadvantage of the tip-toe position of the 
 dancer, it must be also true for the position where the feet are 
 plaeed as in walking, that by turning the toes slightly out 
 equilibrium and graceful movement are best secured. 
 
 Dr. Ellis asks ironically whether it is really the fact, as has 
 been alleged, that the body stands on a broader base with the 
 toes turned out than it does when the feet are parallel. It seems 
 to him. he says, that with parallel feet the body would, as the 
 poet says, stand on a broader base, 
 
 Like a tower that stood four-square to every wind that blew. 
 
 Dr. Ellis does not state the case fairly, for when he makes 
 the suppositious tower of the human body stand " four-square" 
 he assumes that the heels are apart, but when he makes this 
 same tower stand in angular fashion he assumes that the heels 
 are touching. Now, neither in walking nor in standing, except 
 in ''attention" at drill, in bowing, and in "positions" in 
 dancing, are the heels placed together. To make the comparison 
 fairly, therefore, it is necessary to suppose that in both cases 
 the heels are at the usual, or at least the same, distance apart, 
 and that being done, the base of the body, as we have previously 
 shown, is larger in area with the toes slightly turned out than 
 it is with the feet parallel, and therefore the equilibrium of the 
 body more stable. 
 
 Dr. Ellis takes direct issue with the military for their mode 
 of marching. It follows from what we have said that we think 
 
THE AttT OF WALKING. 141 
 
 their views correct. Now that everywhere in the world the 
 absurd Prussian drill originating a century and more ago has 
 been gradually discarded, of carrying a free arm as if it were a 
 lifeless appendage of the body, there is no ground for criticism 
 of .military marching. On parade there will always be some 
 stillness, as the men are en grande te?iue, but the present 
 instruction is in the right direction, and, when it comes to real 
 marching in the field, nature asserts itself and supplements 
 the drill. 
 
 We cannot but regret that Dr. Ellis has spent so much 
 erudition, time, and labor in reaching a conclusion which 
 observation and experience do not justify. That his work is 
 well done from his point of view is the only reason why we have 
 noticed it at length, fearing that it might to the inexperienced 
 convey false impressions. The highest compliment that we can 
 pay Dr. Ellis, short of agreeing with him, is in thus pains- 
 takingly altogether dissenting from him, for the meed of 
 excellence of demonstration, whether right or wrong, is to invite 
 opposition, while mediocrity and weakness inevitabhv suffer 
 neglect. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 
 
 ALTHOUGH, as Judge Haliburton remarks in " Sam Slick," 
 women always look out for the becoming, it should be 
 admitted that they do not always find it. < They are, it is true, 
 through organization and education, more generally desirous to 
 please than are men, and therefore they are on that account more 
 anxious to adopt the becoming in dress, but that they have any 
 higher sense of and liking for the becoming, as some women 
 think, is a claim that can be disproved by numerous facts. The 
 autocrat of the world in feminine attire has been for decades a 
 man, represented the world over by minor masculine poten- 
 tates within their humbler domains, and the universal ciy of 
 well-dressed women is that they find among female mantua- 
 makers so little taste and skill. 
 
 As women dress, in the adoi-nment sense, either directly to 
 please men, or, indirectly, in rivalry of each other with reference 
 to pleasing men, as one would be blind not to see at a watering- 
 place, who observes the change that takes place in the dress of 
 women as soon as the men begin to appear in numbers, it is 
 conclusive that men are pleased with form and color as having 
 functions in the natural attractions of the sexes, and that 
 women well know and utilize the fact. It is therefore certain, 
 also, that women of sense recognize men as having discernment 
 in form and color equal to that possessed by themselves. The 
 statement about women being gifted with finer taste than men is 
 belied by the history of every decorative as well as higher art. 
 Physiologically, the sexes ought to be, and experience shows 
 that they are, adapted to each other in mind and taste, — in every, 
 physical and mental attribute. The society condition and aspect 
 of men and women in all civilized countries are the joint product 
 
 (143) 
 
144 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of individuals of both sexes, more attention to dress appearing 
 in women than in nun solely because such is the wish of the 
 men as well as of the women themselves. The day was when 
 men were quite as fastidious, fanciful, and fantastic as women in 
 their dross. Now they otherwise satisfy their pride and vanity 
 by making birds of paradise of their mates, and taking to them- 
 selves some of the credit for their choice and taste. The Lon- 
 don Daily News said, not long ago, when discussing late attempts 
 in England to change the costume of gentlemen for dress occa- 
 sions, " Black makes a suitable background for anything. • It is 
 characteristic of the abdicated lordship of man that he now 
 dresses only to show off his wife's clothes." 
 
 The standard of the da}' in taste in dress, no matter what 
 the era of the world, represents little beyond love of variety. 
 Being, up to a certain point, imperative, it introduces, on account 
 of the existence of ill-adapted physical traits, an immense amount 
 of incongruity with every change. But, accepting it for what it 
 is, with its greater than of old but still small latitude, it is onl}- 
 just to say that American women are given b}' the fashionable 
 centre of the world the palm among foreigners for general good 
 dressing. It must be remembered, however, that for every thou- 
 sand who go abroad a million stay at home ; that of the thousand 
 less than a hundred may enter circles of society competent to 
 judge of what they speak; and that a still further allowance 
 must be made for the influence of the late undisguised foreign 
 opinion of American feminine charms in money. But, with all 
 these allowances, taking in sum the expression of opinion abroad, 
 the expression of opinion by foreigners traveling in this country, 
 and the opinion of our own countrymen, wdio tr*avel in Europe 
 as well as over the length and breadth of our own land, the fe- 
 male population in this country is better dressed than any other 
 in the world, and the dressing of its female fashionable society 
 compares with any to be seen in Europe. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 145 
 
 One thing, even if there were no other, would, after making 
 all due allowance for the imperiousness of fashion, confound with 
 men the claim of unthinking women to greater taste for their sex 
 as compared with the taste of men, — that multitudes of women 
 do not take advantage of even the little latitude allowed by the 
 mandates of fashion, in adaptation to the demands of individual 
 requirement of what must in the main be accepted. A girl is 
 tall and narrow, let us sajr, as well as square in the shoulders ; 
 then, if the fashion be high-shouldered, many such will wear ex- 
 cessively epauletted puffs on seal-skin and other coats, and what 
 is wrong in nature is thus made doubly wrong by art. If they 
 are long-waisted, — one of the greatest blemishes in female form, — 
 then thousands of girls exaggerate the exaggeration of the 
 fashion, until, from armpit to hip, the body looks like a post. 
 Given a dumpy or a fat woman, whether tall or short, and she 
 will be often found caparisoned in seal-skin or in velvet of the 
 deepest pile. Let some one be framed bj' nature to move Avith 
 elephantine mien and tread, and she will often wear, drawn in at 
 the waist, with consummate assurance of superlative grace, an 
 India shawl or gauzy fabric at eventide that would make bewitch- 
 ing the figure of a willowy girl. Why do they not see, if femi- 
 nine taste is universal, that back of design, execution, and richest 
 fabric must lie a profound sense of congruity, if one would se- 
 cm*e the effect of dress ? Suitableness to station, place, occasion, 
 age, weather, and other conditions cannot be ignored. 
 
 As Paris accords to American women of society a rank equal 
 to that of the native Parisian in the art of dressing, and the just- 
 ness of the view is confirmed by other evidence, we are entitled 
 to plume ourselves on account of this exalted praise, from which 
 Englishwomen are rigidly excluded as representing the lowest 
 grade of refined inelegance. But the question here arises, — and 
 it is the important one for which we set out to speak upon eventu- 
 ally, — whether there are not, for beauty, better things than its 
 
146 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 accessories. In the fundamental attributes of attractiveness 
 American women far excel the French. Where American women 
 excel tlic French is in beauty and greater breadth of mind, :in<l 
 where Frenchwomen excel the American is in elegance and grace. 
 The American has the better part, for elegance and grace will 
 grow in lier, l>ut the Frenchwoman is distanced beyond recovery 
 in the field of beaut}'. Beauty in the Frenchwoman of the cen- 
 tury is as rare :>s it is common in the American during the hist 
 twenty years. Modern observers, with one accord, note the de- 
 ficiencj' of both male and female beauty in France. The men 
 are generally short and hirsute, and the women rarely handsome, 
 their charm consisting in their elegance and vivacity. Mark 
 Twain long ago put on record his opinion of the beauty of the 
 renowned grisette. But, perhaps, of all plainness in France, 
 that of the middle-aged Parisian bourgeoise is the most marked. 
 Brought up in a social atmosphere where the idea of sexuality 
 lies less dormant than anywhere else in the world, finding it next 
 to impossible renoncer a plaire, as she calls it, she frequently 
 makes herself to unaccustomed eves hideous in her antique 
 youthfnlness. To grow old gracefully is not given to any one 
 who tries to seem, not younger than one is, but younger than one 
 feels in hod}' and mind, for age is not strictly conformable to 
 years. The verses in which Beranger describes the frisky grand- 
 mother, enlivened with a glass of wine, and become confidential 
 to her minx of a granddaughter on the subject of her youthful 
 love-passages, is not so far-fetched as it might appear to the in- 
 experienced. At least, an old Frenchman with whom we were 
 acquainted must have thought the picture life-like, as he once glee- 
 fully recited to us a verse of the song, ending with its refrain : — 
 
 Combien je reprette 
 Mon bras 6i dodu, 
 Ma jambe bien faite, 
 Et le temps perdu. 
 
 It is, then, to he concluded, if we have so far written to any 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 147 
 
 purpose, that in the person of the wearer there is something 
 more admirable than in mere clothes themselves. The kernel 
 ought to be more valuable and attractive than the husk or shell. 
 Sensible women seek to make more than clothes-racks of them- 
 selves ; but, alas! how many there are who care not what lies be- 
 neath, and are oblivious, if they ever knew, that the Queen of 
 Sheba's wealth of attire would not compensate for a carriage 
 which makes its richness grotesque ! The most seductive of (by- 
 goods, even though they be supported by the shaping of the 
 finest cotton-wool, do not represent female grace and beauty. 
 The wise matrons and virgins will not be provoked if we speak 
 feelingly in the interest of the whole of the adorable sex. Espe- 
 cially would it be ungrateful to hold us responsible for plain 
 speaking, when our whole intent and aim are to indicate ways 
 and means hy which the results generall}* desired, and never suc- 
 cessfully sought otherwise, are the likeliest of attainment. 
 
 Before the glance of an anatomist, or even of a connoisseur 
 in female beauty, all art of dressing not based on natural gifts, 
 is the flimsiest artifice, the most transparent disguise. The 
 cotton-fields of the world have not within their bursting pods 
 the witching grace and beauty that lie in the individual moods 
 of nature- in the female form. Suppose, for a moment, that an 
 artist were to fill out eveiy lacking roundness, and the best 
 Parisian corset-shapes were to compel too great exuberance to 
 yield, still standing in the way would remain the .stalwart fact 
 that artificial figure and constraint to the explosive point 
 cannot imitate the subtle lines of beauty, or, more than all, 
 impart to movement the slightest grace. jS"o stern mentors we, 
 or we should be moralizing on the dangers of female beauty. 
 instead of seeking to improve it. We do not forget the sound 
 observations of the Herr Professor Teufelsdrockh, when he says, 
 " Thus in this one pregnant subject of clothes, rightly under- 
 stood, is included all that men have thought, dreamed, done, 
 
148 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 and been; the whole external universe and what it holds is but 
 clothing; and the essence of all science lies in the philosophy of 
 clothes." And again, " Is not the lair fabric of society itself, 
 with its royal mantles and pontifical stoles, whereby, from 
 nakedness and dismemberment, we are organized into polities, 
 into nations, and a whole co-operating mankind, the creation, as 
 has often been irrefragably evinced, of the tailor alone?" On 
 the contrary, well do we know besides, with that cynical 
 professor, that clothes are the invention of the arch-enemy of 
 mankind, or, at least, that his interference in earthly affairs led 
 to their introduction, and moreover, that so originating with the 
 father of lies, the}' cannot be expected to be perfectly truthful. 
 But, therefore, our aim should be all the more, while accepting 
 the inevitable, to demonstrate that woman in this present era is 
 more worthy than her clothes, and by improving the truthful- 
 ness of her form and the untruthfulness of them, to shame the 
 very devil. 
 
 'Retrospectively going back just fifty years, and confining 
 our attention to this country, w r e shall find that evolution in 
 politics, society, and clothes have been coincident in time. 
 Politics having no relation to clothes in the {esthetic sense, 
 being more often found in compan}" with seediness, tl*e last two 
 conditions, which are intimately associated, alone invite our 
 attention. Just fift}' years ago California was not thought of, 
 Chicago w r as only three years old, Dickens was describing New 
 York as a long, flat, straggling city, Avhile Philadelphia had been 
 built only about half-way across from the Delaware to the 
 Schuylkill. Scattering F. F.V.'s represented, in the North as 
 well as in the South, the cream of society. Only the three 
 hundred (leaving out the Thespians) of Therinopjdce were 
 known to fame, the six hundred had not charged at Balaclava, 
 and the four hundred had not emerged from the hoary ancestry 
 of New York. The nouveaux riches lived and died unknown. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 149 
 
 Society in all ranks plodded on from year to year with scarcely 
 any but the local excitements of a schiitzen park or of a volun- 
 teer-fireman's fight ; the universal plethora finding at last some 
 relief in the blood-letting of the aggressive Mexican war. That 
 over, the humdrum of national and social existence returned, 
 tempered by the ever-present social sentiment of all communities 
 as to how we apples swim. 
 
 Then came the first event since the Revolution which 
 profoundly stirred the pulses of the people. Amidst it, all 
 social lines were swept away, and out of a heterogeneous people 
 living under one government came to the great majority a deep 
 sense of nationality. Fused and welded in the fierce heat of the 
 war, the diverse elements, and even the side which finally broke 
 away, shattered under the momentum of the advancing hosts, 
 learned to recognize and admit that, after all, blood is thicker 
 than water, and that it now, more firmly than ever before, 
 cements the bond of union. Destruction untold there was, of 
 course, during this fearful time, blight of all sorts, but from 
 them has emerged a nation feeling in almost every individual 
 man that its destiny lies within itself to be the most favored and 
 powerful upon earth. 
 
 What social phases had been exhibited during that quarter 
 of a century! The population at the beginning (1840), of not 
 quite twenty millions, was, by the end of the war, about twice 
 that amount, dispersed over an immense territory, its greatest 
 densit}^ still upon the Atlantic sea-board. The primitive times 
 from the Revolution, lingering in 1840, when many children still 
 attended the public schools of the cit}^ bare-foot, had been 
 gradually disappearing, b}^ the beginning of the war had almost 
 gone, and by the end of it had finally departed. Ideas of 
 comfort, luxury, manners, dress, had become, however correct 
 or otherwise, common property. Dwellings there had been 
 plenty in 1840, architecture scarcely airy. The wood-fire, so 
 
150 HEREDITY, HEALTH, .\\l> PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 delightful now to tin" fancy, was in 1840 still lingering in old- 
 fashioned houses, having roasted the preceding generations in 
 tin- face while it left their backs to freeze. The beginning of 
 the century bad seen people not even properly shod for inclem- 
 encies of weatber. Our grandfathers and great-grandfathers got 
 along pretty well, for, about the beginning of the century, 
 except for dress occasions, they had given up small-clot lies 
 and adopted the much-ridiculed pantaloons. When they went 
 abroad in rain, hail, or snow, they put on stout hoots ; but their 
 helpmates, as late as 1840, were still wearing paper-soled slippers 
 over their white-stockinged feet, crossed by laces which passed 
 behind the ankle and were tied in front. If they must, needs 
 brave the weather, they had no other resource than to drag on 
 primitive round-toed rubber shoes, which, if cold, required 
 thawing out before the}' could be got on even at the expense of 
 exertions which would have cost a, saint his canonization. 
 Underclothing was not so suitable or profuse in quantity as it 
 is now, and we much fear that the heirlooms of ivory hands on 
 ebony staffs betoken that the skin at the beginning of the 
 century was not in so 113-gienic a condition as it is at present. 
 Despite the fact of the existence of the sturdy souls that history 
 depicts as the almost invariable possession of the women of the 
 Revolutionary period, and the sturdy bodies which portraits 
 often represent them to have had, it is the fact, that after the 
 beginning of the century, up to about 1840, American women of 
 the better classes did not give evidence of anything like exuber- 
 ant health. First of all, it is not to be expected that any people 
 can in a few generations become reconciled to the entirely new 
 conditions which cease to manifest themselves in the S3 r stem by 
 what we call acclimatization. They were in the cities, as. 
 countrywomen generally are now, too much housed, took too 
 little exercise, had too little amusement, and were not health- 
 fully clothed. The year 1840 saw the remnants of the decaying 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 151 
 
 practice of excruciatingly tight-lacing, of which a concomitant 
 was an occasional fainting fit in company, associated with much 
 sympathy among women for such sweet sensibility, although 
 some of the ungodly did titter as they snipped the laces of the 
 guiltily refractory stays. Albums were indispensable adjuncts 
 as safety-valves of sentiment among girls, where platonic friend- 
 ship luxuriantly flourished. The tendencj- of the times was 
 humdrum, narrow, and lackadaisical, toward nervous constitu- 
 tion, and to t3'pes physically far inferior to those which are 
 familiar to us now. 
 
 A new era set in about 1850, of which the dawn was scarcely 
 perceptible ten years before, and steadily advanced in the phys- 
 ical and mental culture of women, in which the progress since 
 has been truly astonishing. Much as remains to be clone, vicious 
 as are the relics of the former unl^gienic life, in need of air, exer- 
 cise, and healthful dress, women stand, as it were, on a mountain- 
 top of freedom compared with their condition only fifty }^ears ago. 
 Those most favored of fortune, who are at the same time en- 
 dowed with good sense, leave in their behalf scarcely anj-thing 
 to be desired. Most seem to be in some degree advancing. 
 If we see many stragglers, it must he recognized that such must 
 ever be present in the march of progress. They serve at least 
 to make conspicuous the merit of those who lead the van. 
 
 The chief rule for the promotion of beaut}' are the seeking 
 of fresh air, cleanliness of person, moderate exercise, nutritious, 
 palatable, and varied food, unfettered body and limbs, regular 
 work, with occasional amusement, and regularity of habits in 
 walking and sleeping. Of all else, subservient to these, we shall, 
 as in duty bound, speak when we come to details, in their proper 
 place. We repeat that the present generation is far superior in 
 health and beauty to those generations which have preceded it. 
 The same improved conditions which have led to this consum- 
 mation are still operative to raise future generations to a still 
 
152 llKUKltl TV. 11 h.A 1. I'll, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 higher plane of being. The Countess of Jersey Baid lately, in 
 mi article in TJie Nineteenth Century, repudiating the idea that 
 in England village-girls are not so robust as they wen' : — 
 
 Granting, however, as beside the present question, that village-girls are 
 imt >.> Bturdy as tiny used t<> 1m-, is it |»>s>iMr for anj <• with tin- most elemen- 
 tary powers and opportunities for observation to deny that the majority of girls 
 •• in society " are not only as strong us their predecessors of, Bay, thirty years ago, 
 but that tiny tin' finer ami taller than these were, and possess a greater air of 
 health and vitality? .... The young lady, with fur around her boots, 
 ami her charming companions stand Bhivering on the brink of the pond, 
 ami never think of assuming the skates of which Mr. "Winkle is 60 Bternly 
 deprived. To have possessed any boots at all must have hern a considerable ad- 
 vance on the practice of earlier days; as both the text ami illustrations of old 
 novels represent the heroines as walking about in the country in thin Bhoes. 
 Miss Edge worth 'a Angelina, in L'Amie Inconnue, wanders on the Welsh mount- 
 ains in slippers " of the thinnest kid-leather," and we are not surprised to learn 
 that, when she hist her way, one fell on' and the other was cut through by the 
 
 Stolli-S. 
 
 If these things are true of the England of to-day, how much 
 more wide-spread the favorable change of which the Countess 
 speaks is in this country, where prosperit}' is far more widely 
 diffused than in England. If, by taking thought, it is not possi- 
 ble within a life-time to increase one's stature by a cubit, it.is 
 at least, as experience is proving, possible and certain, by the 
 observance of hygienic laws to strengthen and beautify the 
 person, and to leave the precious gift to posterity. 
 
 The concomitant social aspects of the war-times were not 
 less striking in their way than were the political convulsion, up- 
 heaval, and recasting of outgrown conditions. Social barriers, 
 as was noted, were completel}' broken down ; rich men, as such, 
 first appeared prominently upon the scene of affairs; society re- 
 organized upon a more liberal, more luxurious, and less virtuous 
 basis. The demi-moiidaine, far more influential than the Greek 
 hetaira had ever been, imposed her laws of dress across the 
 ocean. Some American women could even copy her lines of 
 languor that mean debauchery, while all, more or less know- 
 ingly or unknowingly, were chained, under penalty of ridicule, 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 153 
 
 to demi-mondaine fashion's chariot-wheels. So it has remained 
 to some degree even to the present day, the victories of the 
 Germans working only partial emancipation. But the day is 
 not far distant, as it seems to us, when the American woman, 
 then the most educated, beautiful, and graceful of her sex upon 
 earth, will no longer he in leading-strings to Paris or any 
 other place, but, by the right of her superiority in mind and 
 body, will, if there be any law to be imposed, lay it down for the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 French dressing is the most highly artificial of any that has 
 ever been devised. It recognizes no national costume, no 
 •ethnic growth of garb. It would, if it were able, take from the 
 lovely Spanish maid her enchanting mantilla, and in place of it 
 bestow upon her a Parisian hat. All times and peoples seen 
 through it become blended in what Mr. Mantalini would call one 
 demnition body, in which we at the present period see our Biddy 
 wandering in bewildering richness of attire to the portals where 
 she expects to save her soul. Sooth to say, no better is to be 
 expected of the utter want of taste and originality among 
 thousands of our countrywomen. For who, after all, must be 
 excluded from the title of our countrywomen? All must be 
 classed as such who have arrived as immigrants Irv ship-loads, as 
 well as those who have, generation after generation, lived among 
 refinements not to be exceeded by those of Europe. Can the 
 woman who steps out of sabots or brogans on our shores, who 
 had never at one time more than a single linse}r-woolsey gown, 
 who had never enjoyed variety of food, who had all her life 
 been stinted in mind and body, be expected to see that silks and 
 velvets and feathers, pitchfork-piled, and meat three times a day, 
 do not constitute the sum of human bliss ? How few there 
 are of such who sometimes throng the streets of our large cities, 
 who are as modest as Teresa Panza, and could possibly suspect 
 the truth, as she did, when she thought that people might say 
 
154 1IEHKDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of her as countess, " See how proud the slattern goes; yesterday 
 she was spinning of tlax, and went to church with her petticoat 
 over her head, and now to-day she goes in a cloak with brooches, 
 puffed up so big thai she cannot see us." 
 
 There arc in the female form, as well as in the male, certain 
 main proportions from which there can be no great divergence 
 without entailing blemish. It is in consequence of this fact that 
 un femininely -formed women, but never femininely-formed ones, 
 look well as pages upon the stage. These main proportions are 
 the length from the top of the head to the top of the shoulder, 
 from the top of the shoulder to the waist, from the waist to the 
 hip-joint (the hip-joint, not the hip-bone), and the length from 
 the hip-joint to the sole of the foot. It ought to be obvious, 
 however, that the length from the top of the head to the top of 
 the shoulder may, with reference to the other dimensions, be 
 proportionally correct, and yet that the shoulder itself may be 
 unfemininely square. Besides that, the curve from the jaw-bone 
 to the extreme end of the shoulder, which is one of the most 
 lovely of the typical curves in woman, may not be correct. 
 Therefore it is that these and other proportions are not to be 
 assumed as correct because those which we have noted as the 
 main proportions chance to be. The main proportions may be 
 correct and the details wrong. All that is intended, b} r speaking 
 of the main proportions, is to indicate that these are indispens- 
 able as the basis of fine form, and that without them no correct- 
 ness of form in single members can compensate for the defect. 
 
 In all the higher, as compared with the lower, races of man- 
 kind the length of the leg is greater and that of the arm less. 
 This was so well known to the Greeks that their statues of the 
 gods and demi-gods (and it must be remembered that those 
 st at ues were always intended to represent ideal human form) are 
 given great length of lower limb, so as to suggest greater grace 
 or dignity of carriage. There is among women, as compared 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 155 
 
 with men of the same race, no essential difference in the relative 
 length of the upper and lower limbs ; but, inasmuch as the thigh 
 of woman, unlike that of man, gradually expands from the knee 
 upward, without appreciable break in the curve, until it flows 
 into the rounding hip, reversing the curve only at the waist, the 
 effect of relatively greater length of the lower limbs is produced, 
 and is one of the characteristic beauties of the sex. It i-. per- 
 haps, the effect produced by this cause which Tennyson had in 
 mind when he wrote # "A daughter of the gods, divinely tall, 
 and most divfnely fair." The effect of height in women beyond 
 the actual stature is, of course, produced by the relative, not the 
 absolute, length of lower limbs. 
 
 All artists and competent critics, the Song of Solomon, and 
 amorous verses of all ages are in accord as to the special femi- 
 nine beauty of the bosom, women themselves evidencing, through 
 their universal habit of dressing, appreciation of the fact, some- 
 times within and sometimes beyond the bounds of modest}-. It 
 would therefore seem, at the first glance, as if every individual 
 woman, of all races and countries, would know what constitutes 
 beauty in the bosom. Yet, that this is not the case is clearly 
 proved by the fact that women sometimes congratulate themselves 
 upon their ability to dress low because the bosom happens to be 
 low. A low bosom does not, by airy means, represent a high, 
 civilized type of female conformation. The lowest type of bosom 
 is to be found onby among savages, whose women sometimes have 
 breasts so elongated as to be passed, like flaccid bags, over the 
 shoulder or under the armpit, for the purpose of suckling their 
 children. No such deformit}*, however, is to be found anywhere 
 among the higher races of mankind. The condition represents 
 an extremely low physical type, not common even to all savage 
 race 
 
 Among the higher races, an inferior type of bosom goes no 
 farther than to be extremely low or flat, and these conditions 
 
15G HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONA! BEAUTY. 
 
 conjoined evidence little vitality. The highest type of bosom, on 
 the contrary, is not only placed well up on the chest, but can be 
 best described as of slightly pine-apple form. The female chest 
 is normally more prominent than man's, and the bosom, to be 
 beautiful, should occupy its most salient portion. In passing, 
 it is well to utter here a caution against the aesthetic char- 
 latanism which sometimes professes to develop the bosom by 
 mechanical means. The glandular structure, determining its size 
 and contour, forbids the possibility of attaining success in any 
 such way. Unless its glandular constitution can* be improved 
 in nutrition, by which the glands themselves would undergo 
 increase of tissue, nothing can be done for modification of the 
 bosom either as to its size or shape, and the veriest quack could 
 not pretend to change its position. 
 
 It follows, from what has been said as to the main propor- 
 tions of the figure, that all modes of dressing should carefully 
 avoid excess. Whatever may be the fashion, such subtle modi- 
 fication of it should be adopted as cannot possibly serve to in- 
 crease natural defects, or to exaggerate beauties which, having 
 reached their natural limit, would become by exaggeration de- 
 fects. This latter mistake represents an unfortunate tendency 
 among mankind generally. It does not follow, because a huge 
 waist or foot is unsightly, that the smaller the waist and the foot 
 the prettier. Waists are to be seen now, even in the diminished 
 practice of tight-lacing, that make one fairly creeble, and feet so 
 pinched and stumpy that they look more like hoofs than feet. 
 What looks unnatural, whether natural or artificial, conveys dis- 
 satisfaction to the spectator. A wasp-waist, violating the con- 
 ception of well-formed womanhood, elicits not only disgust at 
 the vulgarity of it, but abolishes sexual attraction. Tight shoes, 
 always evident as tight, bear the impress of vulgarity, and make 
 graceful movement impossible. Even gloves too small for the 
 band of the wearer are abominable. Few things can exceed the 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 157 
 
 vulgarity of a, pudgy hand crimped in a short, tight glove, 
 whence at the top it bulges like a plucked partridge-breast. 
 
 Probably nothing that has taken place in the revolution 
 
 which has changed women's dress and bodily habits during the 
 last half-century has been more conducive to their well-being 
 than their general disuse of extremely tight-lacing. The practice 
 is inconsistent with health, inconsistent with beauty and with 
 grace, and inconsistent with gentility. The pressure exercised 
 to the injury of the internal organs of the body, upon whose 
 healthy action the tone of the whole system depends, ceases in 
 injurious effect onby with the skeleton itself, whose deformity 
 under such treatment is shown by specimens in our anatomical 
 museums. The very vital air, the free gift of heaven, is not 
 used as nature intended. Look at the face and walk of any 
 tight-lacing girl or woman, for the unhealthy index of the trav- 
 est} r of nature through artifice, which but degrades the form. 
 There is no healthy breathing for mankind unless it proceeds 
 from the depths of the lungs of an unconstrained thorax. 
 Rabbits breathe from the upper parts of their lungs, for it is 
 their nature so to do, but not that of human beings, and in conse- 
 quence they seem to be nibbling at the air, as some women really 
 are without so. seeming, unless they are betrayed by being called 
 upon for some sudden exertion while still confined in the 
 strait-waistcoat of tightly-laced corsets. 
 
 How any one can expect to possess beaut} 7 of person without 
 freedom of movement, or to retain beaut} 7 of face, which is, as a 
 finality, simply irradiation of health and beauty of form, or to 
 exhibit grace, while hampered and fettered by dress, is a mys- 
 tery. The practice among women of wearing shoes too tight is 
 decreasing, but it is still far too prevalent. How, otherwise, 
 will one account for it, that women, the roundness of whose feet 
 gives them, in the wearing of shoes, great advantage over men 
 in their rugged, muscular development of foot, are so often lame 
 
158 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 nt in years of age, while men generally pass through life with 
 only an occasional twinge? How, otherwise, can one account 
 for the fad that dealers in shoes tell us that they often find it 
 
 politic to mark women's shoes a number below what they really 
 are? How, otherwise, shall the fact be accounted for that, when 
 we personally, before bathing-shoes and stockings came into 
 fashion, made an inspection of a sea-beach where hundreds of 
 fair feel were disporting themselves in the intervals of a dip in 
 the water, we observed so many marks exceedingly like those 
 produced by tight shoes? 
 
 As we have elsewhere mentioned, the Chinese commonalty, 
 who wear their peculiar shoes in which the foot is rigidly held, 
 lose the symmetrical contour of the calf of the leg. All tight 
 shoes of European make have the same effect, through not allow- 
 ing free play to the muscles of the leg. They have some ill 
 effects which even the Chinese shoe has not, for it is roomy. 
 They impede the circulation in the foot, thereby impair the 
 nutrition of the part, and cause it in winter to suffer greatly 
 from cold. They deform the foot itself, injure the development 
 of the leg, and prevent the easy carriage of the body. 
 
 In the work by Mr. Finck,from which we quoted in the last 
 chapter, he expresses, as was there mentioned, the opinion that 
 the brunette type of beauty is to supersede all other types in 
 the Caucasian race. We, on the contrary, think that the future 
 will find room for all t3*pes of beauty, from the delicately-tinted 
 blonde to the richest brunette tinge, through all the intermediate 
 grades, from the skin belonging to golden locks, to that through 
 every shade of chestnut and brown, through the hues of Titian 
 to the deepest black. Nature has within her power infinite re- 
 sources, and as variety is one of her most signal, ever-pleasing 
 charms, it is not to be supposed that she will limit it in the 
 attributes of the fairest of her productions. All types of 
 female beauty have their male admirers, mostl}' bound exclusively 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 1">9 
 
 to one; find the law which this work has sought clearly to 
 define renders it impossible that this admiration, which involves 
 sexual selection, should not for all future time result in llie 
 maintenance and enhancement, and perhaps increase, of various 
 types of female beauty. 
 
 This we say and believe, despite the fact that a theory has 
 been broached within a few years that, in the white race, the dark 
 type of complexion must, as representing greater stamina than 
 the light type of complexion, gradually supersede the light type. 
 This is equivalent to asserting that, through the force of natural 
 selection, the dark type of complexion, as representing the more 
 vigorous constitution as compared with the light type, will en- 
 dure, to the exclusion of the other, as the survival of the fittest 
 in individual and aggregate human life in certain latitudes. If 
 this theory represented fact, then it would have to be conceded 
 that sexual selection could not, in that event, contend against 
 natural selection, pure and simple. But, in the first place, it may 
 be cogently replied that complexion, so far as it signifies consti- 
 tution (and it indisputably does indicate traits of constitution), 
 indicates it only with reference to its relative adaptedness or un- 
 adaptedness to climate ; in the second place, that the statistics 
 so far accumulated in support of the theory are, to the best of 
 our knowledge and belief, chiefly confined to the British Islands ; 
 and, thirdly, that they are even there regarded as not by any 
 means conclusive. We shall, therefore, until otherwise informed, 
 continue to believe that, in the white race, within the general 
 range of the temperate zones, dark and light complexions are 
 equally fitted to existing exterior physical conditions, and that 
 therefore their relative proportions are entirely controllable by 
 sexual selection. 
 
 Examining into the conditions of Spain existing through 
 the period which is historical, we shall see reason for the preva- 
 lence there of grace and beaut}* at the present time, and looking 
 
160 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 beyond, into the conditions existing in this country, we shall 
 also see, through apparenl dissimilarity of causes, that similarity 
 in them really exists, leading to the conclusion that the future 
 promises for this country a diffusion of the higher types of 
 development, not to be exceeded, if equalled, in any other 
 portion of the world. 
 
 The Phoenicians, of course, as mariners, first became ac- 
 quainted with the southern shores of Spain, and there they 
 planted some colonies. To the Greeks, when for the first time 
 these settlements became known, they were, as was all else in 
 that direction, regarded as at the end of the earth, the all- 
 encircling ocean flowing beyond the Pillars of Hercules. When, 
 later, the countiy came to be to some degree really known, it 
 was discovered to be occupied by numerous fierce, warlike, and 
 intractable tribes engaged in ceaseless struggles with one another. 
 Carthage, being of Phoenician origin, naturally affiliated with 
 the people of the Phoenician settlements on the Spanish coast, 
 and thus, about three centuries before the Christian era, having 
 secured lodgment there, gradually obtained dominion over that 
 portion of the country, and eventually, in a precarious way, over 
 most of the remainder, the tribes in the extreme northern parts 
 maintaining their independence in their mountain fastnesses. 
 
 Spain soon thereafter became the battle-ground in the rivalry 
 between Romans and Carthaginians, the former supplanting the 
 latter in the occupation of the countiy. The task of subjugation, 
 however, had to be again and again i*enewed,and it was not until 
 the reign of Augustus Cnesar that the countiy became finally 
 pacified. In the third century of the Christian era it was rav- 
 aged b} T the Franks, who made an irruption there, but did not 
 remain. At the beginning of the fifth centuiy, the Suevi, 
 Vandals, and Alani invaded the country, and fqr some time 
 maintained a foothold there, often warring among themselves. 
 About this point of time, however, the Visigoths, allied through 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 161 
 
 their leader, Ataulphus, with the Emperor of Rome, Honorius, 
 entered Spain, and chiefly under Walia, the successor of Ataul- 
 phus, who had been murdered soon after his coming, the invading 
 Suevi, Vandals, and Alani were driven into remote corners of 
 the country. 
 
 Soon shaking off the dominion of Rome, which was in its 
 decadence, the Visigoths maintained their power in Spain for 
 three centuries. Three hundred years of comparatively peace- 
 ful rule seem, however, to have enervated them. They were 
 Christians, having accepted that faith in the latter part of the 
 sixth century, and the Mohammedans, separated from their 
 territory only by the narrow Straits of Gibraltar, looked 
 longingly upon their possessions. With a feeling of unwarrant- 
 able security, they left the entrance to the kingdom unguarded. 
 In consequence, in the year 711, a small army of Saracens 
 crossed over from Africa and invaded the county. The 
 history of Spain thenceforth for centuries represents constant 
 turmoil, Saracen princes fighting against each other, Christian 
 princes fighting against each other, and Christian and Saracen 
 princes often in alliance with each other to secure ambitious 
 ends, regardless of race or creed. For centuries all thought of 
 relief from Saracenic occupation of the countiy must have been 
 abandoned, for successive levies of infidels from Africa flowed 
 into Spain, until at last the occupation became more distinctively 
 Moorish than Saracenic. 
 
 Finally, however, as the event proved, through the continued 
 dissensions of the Moorish princes and the lessening of clashing 
 interest among the Christian princes, the occupation became of 
 more uncertain tenure. The Moors were gradually driven 
 farther to the south, so that by the year 1266 they retained no 
 territory except Granada in all Spain. Here, however, the con- 
 quering arms of the Spaniards paused, and the Moors retained 
 
 possession of the province of Granada for over two centuries. 
 
 11 
 
162 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 We are now called upon to observe, not only how many 
 different types had become blended, to make what we know as 
 the Spanish type of form and face, whether of ugliness or beauty, 
 but further, a certain coincidence which cannot be a mere acci- 
 dent in the result observable. Leaving out of consideration the 
 necessarily small influence to be ascribed to the infusion of the 
 scattered and eventually dislodged barbaric tribes which have 
 been named, we have left that due to the greater or less occupa- 
 tion of the country for over a century by the Carthaginians, the 
 Roman occupation of five centuries, the Yisigothic occupation 
 of three centuries, the Saracenic and Moorish occupation of five 
 centuries and a half, and, including the retention of Granada, 
 seven and a half centuries. 
 
 The occupation of the countiy b} r the Carthaginians must 
 have produced comparatively little result, because it was 'very 
 gradual, never thorough, and always intermittent. The occupa- 
 tion by the Romans, Visigoths, Saracens, and Moors was of a 
 very different character. The Romans, according to their usual 
 practice in colonization, largely intermarried and identified them- 
 selves with the inhabitants of the countiy. The Carthaginians, 
 too, had done this, but with far less general opportunity. So it 
 was with the Visigoths, who represented only another phase of 
 Roman rule. The Saracenic invasion and occupation of the 
 countiy were accompanied by the seeking of favor by thousands 
 among the Christian populations, through renouncing their re- 
 ligion, and becoming what is known as renegades, leading to 
 intermarriage with the Moslem. In a word, b}- the time that the 
 Moors, after five and a half centuries of occupation, evacuated 
 all Spain but Granada, there must have taken place a large com- 
 mingling of Roman, Visigothic, Arabic, and Moorish blood. 
 Even with the recoil of the Moors upon the southern coast, 
 leaving only Granada in their possession, their presence in the 
 country for some time afterward did not entirely cease. 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF TfFE AMERICAN CURL. L63 
 
 We know the Roman type, the Saracenic, and the Moorish. 
 We may leave out of question the Carthaginians, because they 
 occupied Spain so transiently and ineffectually. Both Eastern 
 and Western Goths, although so dominant in places, left little 
 trace but the memory of their existence. Ethnologists, how- 
 ever, declare them to have been tall, blonde, and high-featured, 
 with light hair and eyes. Charles Kingslej", the reader may 
 remember, describes, in his " Westward Ho," a distinguished 
 Spaniard of this type. But it is evident that, if there be Spanish 
 sangre azul, or blue blood, in existence, it must be that derived 
 from the aborigines of Spain, even if we include among them 
 the Celts who had burst through the northern frontier and settled 
 in the heart of the country. Upon the supposition of its exist- 
 ence, the only possible source of it would seem to have been the 
 extreme north of Spain, where the mountaineers long held out 
 against all invaders. Yet, as against this supposition, we must 
 consider the fact that, as early as the times of Augustus Caesar, 
 he so completely broke the spirit of the tribes there, as to reduce 
 them to submission, or at least to quiet and harmlessness. 
 Therefore, although there may be Spaniards of blood unmingled 
 with that of Carthaginian, Roman, Yisigoth, Saracen, or Moor, 
 they must form a very small minority of the present population 
 of Spain. 
 
 It is to be observed that the present race in Spain is dis- 
 tinguished among men as well as among women by beauty of 
 form and gracefulness, the elegance of Spanish dancing being 
 proverbial. As we descend from north to south, this sj^mmetry 
 and grace are found to increase, so that when a lady of Anda- 
 lusia is spoken of, we feel as if a synonym for grace and beauty 
 had been used, and this is so tacitly conceded in Spain that a 
 lady of the north feels complimented when thought to be an 
 Andalusian. After allowing due weight to the fact that all 
 southern, as compared with northern, climes produce greatei 
 
 
164 HEREDITY, HEALTH, A\l> PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 elegance of form, there is still a large margin left, in considering 
 the case of Spain, to be accounted for by difference in blood. 
 Moorish occupation was rolled bacl< gradually to the Mediterra- 
 nean, and there it stayed, as has been mentioned, for two 
 centuries in Granada, which occupies on the coast of the 
 Mediterranean the very centre of Andalusia. It is in Andalusia, 
 accordingly, that we find the frame and limbs of almost unrivaled 
 symmetry, hands of exquisite mold, and arching insteps of 
 exquisite delicacy of curve. Roman, Teuton, Saracen, and 
 .Moor have, with the original inhabitants of Spain, been fused 
 into a type athletic and elegant. The physical attributes of 
 Roman legionaries, Visigothic warriors, and the vigorous clans. 
 nun of Spain have through the centuries been softened as a 
 linalit3'by the symmetry of the East, which brought to the prod- 
 uct elegance of form and the languor, dignity, and romance of 
 the present race. 
 
 There would seem to the superficial glance no analogy what- 
 ever between the conditions existing in Spain during the period 
 when it was passing through the phases by which its inhabitants 
 became at last a homogeneous people, and the conditions exist- 
 ing in this country prior to and succeeding the Revolution. Yet 
 the conditions are essentially similar as to the elements which 
 prove effective in the direction which we are tracing out. The 
 unessential differences lie in the fact that, whereas the conquests 
 and occupations of Spain by successive peoples of comparatively 
 advanced civilization were effected by force of arms, continually 
 resisted with varying degrees of resulting intermixture of races, 
 the conquest of America was, and continues to be, by peaccfid 
 occupation of the country by peoples on the same general plane 
 of civilization as those to whom they come to join their fortunes. 
 Proud of the triefl capacity for self-government which seems to 
 be eminently characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon, tested in a 
 political fiery furnace through the inheritance of slavery, and 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 165 
 
 coming forth apparently unscathed, we vaunt ourselves upon our 
 Anglo-Saxon heritage as if we were an Anglo-Saxon people, 
 when we have no claim whatever to the title. What chiefly is 
 Anglo-Saxon in the country is that minority and element which 
 represent laws, traditions, and language dominating the nation, 
 and welding it into a coherent whole. But to say that we are 
 an Anglo-Saxon people in blood is to ignore the fact of the 
 French and Spanish elements of Louisiana, the Huguenots of 
 South Carolina, the German and the Celt, who in sum represent 
 the great majority of our population. 
 
 It is a law of physical and mental, in fact, of all being, that 
 like organizations of equal excellence in different spheres produce 
 by their fusion higher types. The law holds good even in. 
 language. Strict barriers to its native growth, or increase by 
 the introduction of foreign elements, maintenance of its rigid 
 purity at any point, restrict the bounds of expression. New 
 thoughts require new symbols, and each tongue has its special 
 excellences. The English language is the strongest of all, be- 
 cause it is what philologists call a jargon, — that is, of the most 
 composite character. It has reached a higher type by embodying 
 so many excellences of other languages. So also, but in a far 
 greater degree, do individual and racial life experience, embodied 
 in the life itself of individuals or races of equal elevation in the 
 scale of being, come to be, when blended, productive of higher 
 types. Hence has come about the improvement of races always 
 following the conquest of one people by another not essentially 
 different in the scale of being. 
 
 If any of our readers happened to hear, or hear of, the very 
 interesting lecture which Dr. D. G. Brinton delivered last winter 
 in Philadelphia, at the Academy of Natural Sciences, on the 
 subject of ancient and modern Spain, it will be perceived that 
 what has just been said regarding the pure blood of Spain is 
 contradictory of his statement in the lecture that there is sangre 
 
166 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 a:"/, or pure Spanisb blood. Even admitting, for the sake of 
 
 uncut, what is more than doubtful, that there is in any part 
 of the civilized world pure racial stock, let us first of all ask 
 ourselves, What *is meant by the expression, or rather what 
 ought to l"' meant by the expression, pure Spanish blood? 
 Undoubtedly, it ought t<> mean the blood of the Iberians, the 
 ancient inhabitants of Spain. But when Dr. Brinton came to 
 demonstrate the present existence of pure Spanish blood, it \v:is 
 found that his attempted demonstration looked t o the proving 
 of the present existence in modern Spain of pure Visigothic 
 blood. But. obviously, whether or not it has been maintained 
 over many centuries, it certainly is not original Spanish Mood, 
 as we have seen from the brief history of the original and subse- 
 quent condition of the country within historical times. In a 
 woid. great as Dr. Brinton undeniably is as ethnologist and 
 philologist, and much else in different branches of learning, and 
 highly as we among thousands of others respect his talents and 
 acquirements, he has in this instance of an attempted demon- 
 stration, that Visigothic pure blood is Spanish pure blood, fallen 
 into wdiat lawyers call a no/i sequitur. 
 
 The American has not yet a distinctive racial t} r pe, as has 
 the Englishman, the Scotchman, the Irishman, the Frenchman, 
 the Russian, the German, or the inhabitant of any other country 
 but this. Time is to produce it by the fusion and prolonged life 
 through generations of representatives of many races. The work- 
 inn' of this law we are witnessing on the grandest scale upon which 
 it has ever manifested itself. Into this, our country, of magnifi- 
 cent extent, extremely fertile, and rich in almost every mineral 
 treasure, has poured, apart from riffraff, some of the best blood 
 of Europe, in multitudes of industrious, law-abiding Germans, 
 energetic Irishmen, Swedes, Norwegians, and individuals of 
 many other nations. Among these, as among people of all 
 nations, we recognize national traits of character, which, differing 
 
THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN GIRL. 107 
 
 from each other, cannot all be virtues, and some of which must 
 therefore be deemed faults. These, not being essential to the 
 organization, in the course of the intermingling of races disap- 
 pear by neutralizing each other, while, the higher qualities 
 remaining, a higher type is evolved. It is from the concurrence 
 of a fine population represented by various races, amidst unusual 
 affluence of nature, with unprecedented general prosperity, and 
 such relations between the sexes as more than elsewhere lead to 
 the gratification of romantic love, that there is good reason to 
 believe in a future of the races here, blended into the unity of a 
 higher type than elsewhere in the world, which shall exhibit a 
 general diffusion of health and beauty such as never until then 
 had been approached. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE SKIN AS AN ORGAN OF THE BODY. 
 
 THE skin is to be regarded from two points of view, — as an 
 organ of the body, and as its finished exterior. The Qrst 
 of these relates to the health of the whole body, the second to 
 its final touch of beauty in a surface soft, pliant, and exquisitely 
 delicate in color. Health and beauty, therefore, the two topics 
 of this work, being both concerned, and beauty being (as cannot 
 be too earnestly impressed upon the reader) entirely dependent 
 upon, although not constituted by health, the natural order in 
 which to consider the skin will be, first, as it is subservient to 
 health, and then, as it is conducive to beauty. Accordingly, the 
 present chapter will be devoted to an examination of its relation 
 to health, and the one immediately following to that of its 
 relation to beauty. 
 
 The skin consists of the subcutaneous connective tissue, 
 the corium, and the epidermis. In the subcutaneous connective 
 tissue originate the most deeply seated of the structures which 
 have relation to the skin, — arteries, capillaries, lymphatics, 
 nerves, sweat-glands, and the bases of the roots of the hair which 
 penetrate deepest. The blood-vessels there are large, and after 
 supplying the nutrition of the hair, the sweat-glands, and the fatty 
 lobules that are present for the nourishment of the parts, branch 
 into the corium. The subcutaneous connective tissue some- 
 times, as on the seat, which is quite a thick cushion, blends with 
 the corium by means of little fatty columns, which there reach 
 the base of the roots of the finer hair. Passing through the 
 skin are involuntary muscles sometimes accompanying these, 
 which muscles, under the influence of sudden chill of the surface 
 of the body, or of fear or other great cerebral excitement, erect 
 
 the hair. 
 
 (169) 
 
170 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The curium is termed the true skin. It corresponds to 
 what, when tanned, we call in the lower animals leather. It 
 consists of two layers, the only difference between which in 
 character is that the upper layer is the more compact. It is 
 richly nourished with blood-vessels and lymphatics, and as the 
 , greater Dumber of hair-roots are there, so also arc present the 
 greater number of sebaceous glands, which are glands secreting 
 for the benefit of the hair and skin an oil}' liquor called sebum, 
 similar in constitution to suet. 
 
 The epidermis, or scarf-skin, consists of four distinct layers. 
 These are, in the descending order, the stratum corneum (the 
 horny layer), the stratum lucidum (the transparent layer), the 
 stratum granulosum (the granular layer), and the stratum 
 mucosum (the mucous layer). The epidermis means simply the 
 top skin, the outermost portion of which is, as stated, the horny 
 layer. When, as is often seen, a blister detaches the upper from 
 the lower skin, it is the whole of the four layers just described 
 which have been separated from the corium, or true skin. It is 
 therefore apparent that the layers are very thin. 
 
 Without proceeding farther in investigation of the epider- 
 mis, it will suffice to say that, through its four layers, cells 
 graduate from the corium, gradually changing in constitution 
 and shape as they ascend, until, in their final transformation, 
 they become the scales of the horny layer of the scarf-skin. We 
 regret, in the interest of the reader's memorizing, that there are 
 so many layers to the epidermis, but the fact being that there 
 are, and the}' having been enumerated, it will suffice for the 
 purpose here in view to consider the skin as simply formed of the 
 subcutaneous connective tissue, the corium, and the epidermis. 
 
 The sweat-ducts, proceeding from the sweat-glands, in the 
 subcutaneous connective tissue, pass through the corium and 
 epidermis, and debotich on the outside of the latter with 
 trumpet-mouthed orifices. Thus are discharged from the body 
 
THE SKIN AS AN ORGAN OF THE BODY. 17 L 
 
 its perspiration, with many humors, carbonic-acid gas, and oilier 
 noxious matter, as well as the oily products by which the skin is 
 lubricated, which find their way to the surface through the seba- 
 ceous ducts, but, to some degree, through the sweat-gland ducts. 
 When a person has been unwontedly exposed to the ardent sun's 
 rays, nature comes with a profusion of oil to the aid of the 
 parching skin. Hence, if such a person as suddenly ceases to 
 be exposed, the skin assumes a glistening appearance, especially 
 on the cheeks near the outside flaps of the nostrils, — the wings 
 of the nose, as they are anatomicalty designated. Such has been 
 ■within our experience the superabundance of oil under these cir- 
 cumstances, that it made the face look as if it had been greased. 
 If no further exposure to the sun is to take place immediately, 
 reduction of the oiliness of the skin to its normal amount should 
 be effected bj r means of a saturated solution of borax, applied 
 with a fine sponge. 
 
 The sebaceous glands are either free or attached in clusters 
 to the roots of the hair. When free, their ducts deliver sebum 
 directly at the surface of the skin ; when associated with hair, 
 they deliver it directly at the roots. According to Dr. Erasmus 
 Wilson, these ducts also act as sweat-ducts. 
 
 Upon the corium stand an immense number of minute, 
 elongated teats, of exquisite sensitiveness, for they are furnished 
 with nerves, which, passing upward through the papillae, as these 
 teats are called, reach the under surface of the horny layer of the 
 scarf-skin. These in the skin constitute the seat of feeling, pro- 
 ducing what, related to the hand, we call the sense of touch. 
 The papillae rising, as has been said, to the under side of the 
 hornj' layer of the scarf-skin, receive its protection from friction 
 and contact with the atmosphere. It is from the circumstance 
 that the stratum mucosum of the epidermis thus becomes riddled 
 bjr these upright papillae that it derives its other name of the 
 rete mucosum, its appearance under the microscope being 
 
172 HEREDITY, HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 reticulated, or having the appearance of net-work. How ex- 
 quisitely sensitive these papilla- are i' very one realizes who, From 
 a burn or other cause of abrasion, loses a small portion of the 
 BCarf-skin, and exposes them to contact with the atmosphere. 
 
 These are only some of the details of this wonderfully or- 
 ganized membrane called the skin. A description of it, con- 
 densed for the benefit of the general reader, might be given as 
 follows; It consists of the subcutaneous connective tissue, the 
 COl'ium, and the epidermis. It is supplied with sebaceous glands 
 and their ducts, sweat-glands and their ducts, hairs and their 
 erecting muscles, pigment which gives it color, lobules of fafi» 
 which nourish it, and, in the thickest parts, interlacing fatty 
 columns, which support other structures and contribute largely 
 to its elasticity. The scarf-skin, being partially horny in char- 
 acter, is only slightly elastic, but the corium is highly so, and 
 the subcutaneous connective tissue so organized as to allow the 
 whole thickness of the skin to play freely on the parts which lie 
 immediately below, — the muscles and the fasciae. 
 
 The skin is therefore of exquisite organization, and, as com- 
 plexity and delicacy of structure imply complexity and delicacy 
 of function, we shall not be surprised, upon pursuing our inquiry 
 farther, to ascertain that, upon the condition of the skin and the 
 vicissitudes to which it is subjected, the health is more dependent 
 than upon any other agencj' in life over which we have some 
 control. Even this statement conveys but a faint notion of the 
 relations of the skin to the higher order of beings, for it is only 
 the higher order of beings which possess true skin. 
 
 It is at the skin that man ends and the outlying universe 
 begins. He is there in the most intimate of all his contacts with 
 the universe. The judgments formed by vision itself were origi- 
 nally educated by the sense of touch. Through speciall}- organ- 
 ized portions of the skin the senses of touch and smell become 
 agents in producing distinctive impressions on the brain. Through 
 
THE SKIN AS AN ORGAN OF THE BODY. 1 '■' 
 
 the contact of its extended surface with the conditions existing 
 around us we come into most intimate rapport with air, light, 
 heat, and electricity. It is continuously conveying to the brain 
 the information of well- or ill- being. Dr. Maudsley does not 
 state the case too strongly when he says, in speaking of certain 
 insane hallucinations, " Were a sane person to wake up some 
 morning with the cutaneous sensibility gone, or with a large 
 area of it sending up to the brain perverted and quite unac- 
 countable impressions, it might be a hard matter, perhaps, for 
 him to help going mad." 
 
 So intimate, in fact, is the relation of different parts of the 
 bod}' presided over and governed b}^ the nervous system, that 
 man}' physiologists, notabl}' the eminent Dr. Carpenter, have 
 insisted that concentration of thought upon a portion of 
 the body determines action there. What kind of action,- — 
 voluntary? Certainly not, for voluntary action, being volun- 
 tas, . depends upon the will's directly setting up the action. 
 The action set up in the brain and transmitted thence to 
 the point upon which the mind is concentrated, affects the 
 circulation and the involuntary muscles at that point. There 
 is much evidence that this is the fact, but any one can see the 
 probability of the truth of the theory by reflecting that, as periph- 
 eral disturbance, even if it proceed no farther than itching, is 
 transmitted to the brain, translated there as to its nature into 
 psychical terms, similar means of communication are also open 
 for producing effect in the opposite direction, even if it does not 
 reach the degree sufficient to make it vise into consciousness. 
 Where there are afferent (conveying) nerves to bring information 
 into consciousness, there are also efferent (returning) nerves to 
 transmit a message in the reverse direction. 
 
 The celebrated Laura Bridgman, blind, deaf, and dumb, lay 
 like a wreck on the shores of time until communication was 
 established with her through the sense of touch. How limited 
 
174 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 her range of thought must have been when shut out from the 
 world through the non-existence of two avenues of sense, and 
 
 before she had slowly learned the language of the touch! There 
 is an aphorism that, " nihil in intellectu quod not erat priusquam 
 in sensu" — that is, the intellect can conceive nothing which 1ms 
 not reached it through the portals of sense. This is not strictly 
 
 true, ns the case of Laura Bridgman, if there were no other, 
 would show, for she was found, when communication was 
 established with her, to be possessed of thought and of high 
 intelligence, and, of course, these did not come into being at a 
 bound. What, however, is true, is that without the channels of 
 communication with the outside world, called the senses, certain 
 orders of conception are impossible, because the}' necessitate 
 previous perceptions. Beethoven composed music after he had 
 become deaf, but if he had from birth been deaf he would not 
 have been able to compose after losing his hearing, because he 
 could not have learned the relations to each other of musical 
 sounds. Their mathematical relations within themselves are 
 fundamental laws of their being which can convey no impression 
 of their sensory effects. So far as conceptions derivable from 
 sensory data other than feeling were concerned, Laura Bridgman 
 was dead, and so remained. By communication with her own 
 and other minds, she eventuall}' lived in all matters in which 
 the pure intellect is concerned. The instrument of thought Mas 
 there from the first, in the brain ; thought itself within certain 
 limits was there, much potential, not actual, much for all time 
 impossible. Had the sense of touch, as well as the other senses, 
 been absent, she could have barely been said to exist. That 
 sense not having been denied her, she awaked to knowledge 
 with the thrill of life under the patient teaching that she 
 received. 
 
 To this added illustration of the range of capacity in the 
 skin, we add that the day is past for physicians to regard it, 
 
THE SKIN AS AN ORGAN OF THE BODY. 175 
 
 even in disease, as though it were an independent organ. Noth- 
 ing in the body is independent. It is now well known that the 
 skin, as well as all other parts of the body, depends for its in- 
 tegrity upon the general nervous sj-stem. The skin is pervaded, 
 except at the horny layer, by an infinite number of nerves in 
 direct communication with the central nervous system of the 
 bod}'. Disturbance anywhere in the body acts upon the skin, 
 and, conversely, any disturbance in the skin acts upon the central 
 nervous system. A simple case of indigestion often manifests 
 itself over considerable areas of it. A person badly scalded or 
 burned frequently dies on account of the whole nervous sj-stem 
 sympathizing through the inflammation of the skin ; dies thus 2 
 of shock. Lesser agencies produce lesser effects ; but remember 
 this, that the skin is always being acted upon by the general 
 health of the system, and that the general health of the system 
 is always being acted upon by the skin. If a prize-fighter is to 
 be fitted for his task, he is fitted for it largely through processes 
 which involve the healthy action of the skin. If a horse is to 
 race, similarly he is put in the best condition largely through 
 the treatment of his skin. Equally is it true, whether the case 
 be man, woman, or child, that bodily health and vigor are 
 inseparable from a health} 7 condition of the skin. 
 
 To enable the reader to realize the facts mentioned, it will 
 be well now to set forth some of the work which the skin per- 
 forms in the animal economy, by specifying what the organ effects 
 in eliminating from the S3 - stem injurious products, and in im- 
 bibing the life-giving principle of oxygen. 
 
 The skin has been shown to be an organ of sensation, and to 
 some degree one of protection, the horny layer of the scarf-skin 
 not only shielding the sensitive papillae, but preventing too rapid 
 escape of heat and moisture from the tissues. It is also an organ 
 of secretion, excretion, and absorption. It forms various prod- 
 ucts, and expels them with those formed in deeper-lying tissues. 
 
176 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 It takes up, to some extent, matter in solution. Far more im- 
 portant, however, than that particular kind of absorption is its 
 capacity oi' respiration, of imbibing oxygen, and Liberating car- 
 bonic acid. It is true that its liberation of carbonic acid amounts 
 in the adult, on the average, to only 10 grammes in the course of 
 twenty-four hours, but the amount is extremely variable, depend- 
 ing upon how well certain internal organs of the body are 
 performing their task of eliminating effete matter, and upon 
 temperature, exercise, and other conditions. It is, however, a 
 function of the skin which can be stimulated to increased activity 
 by diaphoresis, or artificially induced profuse sweating, and thus 
 the skin may be called upon in emergency for relieving stress in 
 internal organs caused by disease. 
 
 If, however, it is true that the amount of oxygen imbibed by 
 the skin and the amount of carbonic acid liberated by it are both 
 small, this cannot be said of the skin's power of excretion of 
 matter in the watery solution of the perspiration. The skin is con- 
 tinuously engaged in expelling, in connection with sensible and 
 insensible perspiration, salts, acids, including urea (and some- 
 times offensively as to that), sugar, proteids, bile, pigment, and 
 sometimes broken-down blood-corpuscles. The amount of solid 
 matter in solution thus expelled by the skin actually exceeds 
 that expelled by the lungs, in the proportion of eleven to seven 
 parts. The lungs are more effective than jt in ridding the body 
 of the noxious gas called carbonic acid, for they liberate daily 
 in the adult several hundred grammes of it, in return for about 
 the same amount of oxygen, while, as we have said, the skin 
 liberates in the same time only about 10 grammes of carbonic- 
 acid gas. But it is to be observed that, when it comes to matter 
 in watery and oily solution and suspension, the skin's capacity 
 for eliminating it from the system exceeds that of the lungs in 
 the proportion already mentioned, of eleven to seven parts. 
 
 As of intimately associated interest, it is well here to 
 
THE SKIN AS AN ORGAN OF THE BODY. 177 
 
 amplify slightly the statement as to the work which the lungs 
 perform in absorbing oxygen and liberating carbonic-acid gas. 
 Carbonic-acid gas is composed of two equivalents of oxygen 
 and one equivalent of carbon. Ordinary air is composed of a 
 mere trace of carbonic-acid gas, with its main constituents, 
 oxygen and nitrogen. The adult hotty absorbs oxygen in respi- 
 ration by the lungs to the extent of a little over b\ per cent, of 
 the sum-total volume of air inhaled, and returns, in the form of 
 carbonic-acid gas, with traces of other gases, a little less than 
 5^ per cent, of the sum-total volume of air exhaled. The poison- 
 ous products of the bod} r in the form of carbonic-acid gas are 
 therefore liberated, and the life-giving oxygen is absorbed, the 
 oxjrgen which has disappeared having gone toward nourishing 
 the blood and tissues of the body. 
 
 It will readily be perceived from what has been said that, 
 simply from unhygienic habits, the skin ma} r , even in health, 
 become the vehicle for offensive matter. In the early part of 
 the century some printed advice to school-girls in England 
 appeared from a well-known female authorit3 r , aimed at correct- 
 ing in them the pernicious practice of neglecting the daily 
 prompting of nature to defecation. One of the remarks made 
 was, that any phj'sician could detect in such girls the fact of the 
 neglect, simply from the appearance of the complexion. The lady 
 could have said more, that any one, plrysician or not, can detect 
 the neglect by the color and odor of the skin. Happily this 
 neglect has, through greater diffusion of hygienic knowledge, been 
 largely abated. It is almost incredible, and yet it is true, that 
 it had arisen and been promoted by the false notion that such 
 offices of nature are unworthy of the attention of the refined. 
 What a commentary on the general intelligence of the period 
 among the sex represented by the better classes ! What delicate 
 consequences these, thus invited to place themselves in clearest 
 
 evidence ! 
 
 12 
 
118 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Dr. .Franklin somewhere describes the wakefulness thai 
 occasionally overtakes one in lied, in the night-time, in hot 
 weather, when the skin erratically itches from head to foot, 
 restlessness takes possession of him, and he reaches the des- 
 perate conclusion that sleep is indefinitely postponed. The 
 Doctor prescribes for relief, rising and taking what he called an 
 air-bath, seated in a chair, covered only with a loosely-flowing 
 sheet. The remedy is good, the details of the application excel- 
 lent, and the wished-for relief generally obtained. But why 
 should this condition ever exist it' cleanliness is present (and 
 the Doctor and thousands of other sufferers could not be accused 
 of want of that), and why is it relieved by so simple a process? 
 The consideration comes within the line of what we are discuss- 
 ing. Lying covered in lied, if only with a sheet, in the heat of 
 summer, the whole skin is seeking to respire vigorously, — to im- 
 bibe oxygen and give up carbonic acid and other ellete matter. 
 But a third of the bod}' is in contact with the bed, and thus 
 shutting that surface out from ample supply of the ox3 r gen in the 
 air. and at the same time impeding the liberation of carbonic 
 acid there, the covering of the sheet producing the same effect 
 only in less degree. So the nerves of the skin, and through 
 them the general nervous system, drive away sleep, precarious 
 in summer's heat. The scale has turned against it, and it flies, 
 until either the cause of the evil is removed, or weariness tips 
 tin- scale in the opposite direction. 
 
 The sweat-glands, it will be remembered, originate in the 
 subcutaneous connective tissue, the lowest of the three layers 
 of the skin, and their ducts debouch in trumpet-mouthed 
 tubes, called ducts, at the surface of the scarf-skin. These 
 elands are effectively composed of several convolutions of the 
 duct. They are the very largest in the armpit, where they arc 
 sometimes T ' ff inch in diameter. Krnuse has computed the 
 number of these ducts for a grown person of ordinary size 
 
THE SKTN AS AN ORGAN OF THE BODY. 179 
 
 to be nearly 2,500,000. Their length, if joined end to end, 
 would be over 9 miles. Their communication with the atmos- 
 phere is essential to the maintenance of life. During the 
 French Revolution, on an occasion when a procession was in 
 preparation, a little boy was gilded all over his naked body us a 
 part of the spectacle, his death in consequence rapidly ensuing. 
 
 Glands in different localities have specific odors intensified 
 by neglect of cleanliness. A person may take a thorough bath, 
 and 3 T et, by using friction with the hand, the odor peculiar to the 
 part may be evolved so as readily to be perceived by smelling 
 the hand. Not only is this true, but there are variations in the 
 odor of the same part in the same person at different times, de- 
 pending upon different conditions of the S3*stem. Bej-ond this, 
 there are specific differences in general odor among different per- 
 sons, so marked that, when, by absence and lapse of time, a person 
 has been forgotten, his specific odor sometimes revives memory 
 of him. Some persons have comparatively little odor at any 
 time, others have it pronounced at certain periods and not at 
 others, and, again, some persons always have a ver}- perceptible 
 odor. For all these variations an equal degree of cleanliness is 
 assumed. Yet, such is idiosyncrasj^ of constitution that, even 
 under this sameness of conditions, differences in qualit}' and de- 
 gree of odor are clearly recognizable among different persons. 
 
 Generally, far beyond any individual differences of odor, as 
 caused by specific differences in constitution, are the differences 
 brought about by the great range in cleanliness among different 
 persons, from exquisite neatness to utter neglect. The fearful 
 odors that assail us in miscellaneously crowded street-cars on 
 rainy days, when everything reeks with moisture, are not from 
 carbonic acid alone, but also from unclean clothes and skin. 
 Imagine the effect in persons of any, but especially of certain 
 bodily constitution, who neglect, let us say. ablution o*f the arm- 
 pits, whose glands 3-ield a much thicker fluid than that which 
 
1 SI > HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY, 
 
 exudes from the smaller glands, constituting quite n viscid 
 secretion. 
 
 It is believed by naturalists that odor among the lower*.ani- 
 mals, even that which we regard us fetid, baa relation to sexual 
 attraction. But the lower animals are, after all, the lower ani- 
 mals. In tin- lowest, not in all of them,.as we have .shown at the 
 beginning of this work, they have been recognized ms indifferent 
 to relative good looks, cleanliness, or any other attribute which 
 betokens refinement of taste. But odoriferousness in human 
 beings has never been deemed attractive. Love of strong arti- 
 ficial perfumes in some persona, and disgust for them in others, 
 have the same basis from different points of view in refinement. 
 No one of whom we have ever heard, except the eccentric Walt 
 Whitman, ever sang the praises of the delicious aroma, of the 
 armpit. That this is a normal prompting is to be denied in the 
 light of the terrible picture by Zola of the feeble debauchee 
 shilling at the slippers of his not overnice inamorata. Compare 
 such a taste as that with love of the perfume of a pure infant's 
 skin, or that which the French call the bouquet de johe femme, 
 which is nothing but the sweet odor of pure skin and fresh linen. 
 One tells of exhaustion of life ; the other, of its enduring, keenest 
 relish. 
 
 When we reflect upon the facts here presented, — that the 
 body is really in process of waste and repair all the time; that 
 repair cannot proceed well unless the waste is constantly re- 
 moved; that nature has provided us in the skin with an organ 
 largely under our control, which discharges a portion of this 
 waste and imbibes, to a certain degree, oxygen, one of the 
 principles of animal life, — it becomes evident that we do not 
 properly attend to our welfare if we neglect using this means 
 toward health at our disposal. Cleanliness is one of the con- 
 comitants'of self-respect. It is next to godliness because it is a 
 species of godliness, and may, in turn, through stimulating self- 
 
THE SKIN AS AN ORGAN OF THE BODY. 181 
 
 respect, cause godliness to rise to greater heights. Cleanliness, 
 clothing, warmth, friction, exercise, food, arc chiefly concerned 
 in the healthiness of the skin, and the first, the most important 
 of these, is the most neglected. We will not, however, here 
 trench upon the subject of the bath, which will be treated of in 
 its proper place. Here we pause temporarily as to the subject 
 of the skin, with the end attained for which we set out, — to prove 
 how important is its condition as an organ to the healthiness of 
 the body. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE SKIN AS A BEAUTIFUL TISSUE. 
 
 A DISTINGUISHED French author tells us that " to have 
 just enough plumpness, not a whit too much nor too little, 
 is with women the study of their lives." Being- a Parisian of 
 good society, literary, a bon-vivant, who had had fear for himself 
 of the encroachment of obesity, a fatherly adviser of ladies of 
 his acquaintance as to the course to pursue to check tendencj' to 
 it, and, lastly, a connection of Madame Recamier's, the most 
 beautiful woman of her time, he may justly be deemed to possess 
 a combination of advantages entitling him to judge of beauty, 
 and of all that can increase or mar its attractiveness. This 
 author, Brillat Savarin, with whom the reader had better make 
 acquaintance if he does not already know him, discourses elo- 
 quently on the devastating inroads which obesit}^ makes in female 
 beaut}\ Better by far is it, in our opinion, too, for a woman 
 possessed of any physical attractions, to be as thin as a rail rather 
 than for her to descend to the commonplaceness of fat, destruc- 
 tive of every line and eveiy hue of beaut}*. Yet thousands of 
 women would seem, through their addiction to the eating of 
 sweets and other food conducive to obesitj^, and their avoidance 
 of exercise, deliberately to invite and welcome its inroads. 
 Savarin saj-s of its effects in the fair sex : — 
 
 There is a sort of obesity which is confined to the stomach ; I have never 
 observed this among women. As they are generally of delicate fibre, when 
 obesity attacks them it spares nothing. ... I belong to the other class. I 
 have none the less regarded my stomach as a redoubtable enemy. I have con- 
 quered it, and fixed it at the majestic type. 
 
 We can claim the advantage over Savarin of having seen in 
 women the t3pe of obesit}^ which he says he never met with, but 
 it is, undoubtedly, very rare. He is right in his observation that 
 
 (183) 
 
I s ( HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 when obesity attacks womeu, it. does, owing to their less com- 
 pactness of fibre as compared with that of men, tend to involve 
 the whole person. 
 
 ( >besity and complexion arc inl iniatcly related to each other. 
 A tat person of cither sex has losf the contours which produce 
 delicate cilecis of light and shade, and art- indispensable not only 
 to delicacy of form, hut to subtle play of color. All is tense, 
 rigid, suffused with the same tint on a rounded surface, without 
 the slightest fineness of modeling. The expression of a fat lace 
 is ns distinctive as is the expression of a dwarf or a giant. The 
 surface, being rounded, and uniformly suffused with color, not 
 broken up into tints with delicate transitions, has ceased to be 
 attractive from the point of view of beauty. The best that one 
 can say of a complexion of the sort is what is often said of it, — 
 that it is a nice, clean, fresh-looking skin. It produces that im- 
 pression through its excessively tense smoothness of appearance, 
 but that impression is not one of beauty. If cleanliness is de- 
 sirable, the appearance of it is desirable; but the freshness that 
 
 suggests cleanliness is not beauty, for cleanliness itself does not 
 
 * 
 constitute beauty. At best, the fat face affords the humblest 
 
 gratification to the sight from perception of ruddy smoothness, 
 destitute of distinction ; and it is frequenth r coupled with vul- 
 garity of expression. Fat equally debases the figure, destnrying 
 all its lines of beauty, suggesting incapacity of motion without 
 effort, besides diminishing the feeble power of locomotion pos- 
 sessed by human beings, and rendering the simplest movements 
 painfully devoid of ease and grace. 
 
 Putting undue plumpness, amounting to fatness of face, out 
 of consideration, it is to be remarked that mere clearness and 
 redness of skin do not constitute a complexion of the highest 
 order. If that were the case, the typical English milkmaid's 
 ruddy hue of health would be the most beautiful complexion in 
 the world. But pink and white, merely as such, especially if 
 
THE SKIN AS A BEAUTIFUL TISSUE. I 35 
 
 they have very distinctly marked boundaries, are always desti- 
 tute of the distinction which marks the ideal complexion. 
 Neither, although it has lately been the fashion, is the colorless, 
 creamy-tinted complexion the highest type. It is, however, as 
 to its effect, the very opposite of that of the milkmaid pink and 
 white, giving rare distinction. It lacks transparency , however ; 
 so that, while it escapes wholly the vulgarity of the other, it 
 does not possess its inestimable advantage in clearness. 
 
 The inference to be drawn from observation of all types is 
 that what constitutes the ideal complexion, whether blonde or 
 brunette, is the fineness of the outer skin, the disposition of its 
 blood-suppby, and its translucency. Of all Madame Recamier's 
 traits of physical beauty, none seem to have struck her contem- 
 poraries so much as the wonderful effect of her complexion. It 
 stood the severe test of the closest inspection as she appeared in 
 open caleche, or face to face with the throngs that surged through 
 the public halls and promenades of Paris in the rebound from 
 the terrible days of the Reign of Terror. It stood even the test 
 of jealousy and envy, and remained unscathed. Because we 
 could not elsewhere find so authentic an example for our purpose, 
 we shall continue to cite the case of Madame Recamier as a well- 
 known and accepted queen of beauty, by way of exemplifying 
 wdiat we have to say of complexion of the highest type. To this 
 effect we quote here the testimony of another beauty of that period 
 as to the effect that Madame Recamier's appearance alwa}"s pro- 
 duced. The speaker is Madame Regnault de Saint-Jean-dAn- 
 geby, at a time when she, no longer young, had retired from 
 the gay w r orld. She says : " I was at an entertainment where my 
 appearance attracted and captivated all present, when Madame 
 Recamier arrived. The brilliancy of her eyes, which, neverthe- 
 less, were not very large, the inconceivable whiteness of her 
 shoulders, eclipsed, crushed everything ; she dazzled. At the 
 end of a moment, it is true, good judges returned to their 
 
186 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 allegiance to me." Probably the world never heard that they did 
 except through this phrase. The testimony as it stands from a 
 celebrated beauty is convincing ; wecan make our own allowances 
 for the weakness of vanity. • 
 
 Translucency of skin, indispensable as it is to a perfect 
 complexion, may, however, reach a point where it becomes a 
 defect, as -we sometimes see in the wasting of consumption, 
 where t he veins show in the temples and elsewhere as if painted 
 in blue water-color on the outside of the skin. But, in an other- 
 wise fine skin, translucency to a proper degree is indispensable 
 to the most perfect manifestation of its beaut}'. In sickness the 
 skin is not as it is in health. It becomes either dull, opaque, 
 and lustreless, or else, in certain diseases, shrunken to a vitreous- 
 looking, transparent membrane. With health, its due translu- 
 cency and brilliancy return. To what degree it is capable of 
 transmitting light, one can ascertain by placing any child side- 
 wise, so that the light from a near window shall show back of 
 the ear. We well remember a picture in the Dusseklorf gallery, 
 in New York, where this feature of beauty Avas exhibited in a 
 figure of Desdemona seated with her back to a casement, listen- 
 ing to the Moor, the ear through which the light appeared being 
 illuminated like a pink-tinted shell. So, in a delicate ear, we can 
 see light through a thickness of cartilage and two thicknesses 
 of skin. 
 
 We yield to the temptation to speak here further of Madame 
 Recamier, in view of the base uses to which her name has been 
 put in connection with cosmetics, leaving the popular impression 
 in this country that she was little but an animated, pretty doll. 
 To the best of our knowledge, Brillat Savarin never mentioned 
 her at all in his writings. The only occasion in which he seems 
 publicly to have appeared with her was that on which General 
 Moreau, with various other persons, was on trial for conspiracy, 
 Napoleon being First Consul, when she caused a sensation by 
 
THE SKIN AS A BEAUTIFUL TISSUE. 181 
 
 appearing in court because General Moreau had missed ber us 
 one of his sympathizing friends. The time was not devoid of 
 terror, although the Reign of Terror had ceased. Borne, even 
 of the partisans of the First Consul, reprobated the murder of 
 the Due d'Enghien. 
 
 Madame Recamier, escorted by Brillat Savarin, made her 
 appearance in court, in total disregard of what she knew would 
 be the displeasure of Napoleon at her appearance there. From 
 first to last of his career, all efforts to induce her to identify her- 
 self with the new regime were fruitless. The key-note of her 
 whole life was devotion to her friends. Chateaubriand, and others 
 almost equally eminent, received the benefit of her profound 
 knowledge of the world, and indulged in the charm of her inti- 
 mate friendship. Her salon in Paris was the ground where 
 clashing interests could meet without warring, where she presided 
 calmly indifferent to Napoleon, until her devotion to Madame de 
 Stael led to her own exile. Madame de Stael stands to the world 
 as the strong mind on which Madame Recamier relied, when the 
 truth is, that in all crises Madame Recamier bore herself with 
 infinite courage and discretion, and Madame de Stael it was who 
 in her own time of greatest need leaned on her. 
 
 With all her gifts of mind and character, Madame Recamier 
 possessed, in addition, great personal beauty — so great that the 
 renown of it has led in the public mind to the overshadowing 
 by it of her other claims to admiration, in superior judgment, 
 great amiability, and an almost unrivaled unselfishness. An 
 observer of her time painted her portrait as follows: — 
 
 Her figure was supple and elegant, with fine neck and shoulders and a 
 gracefully-poised head. She had spare, but charmingly-modeled arms ; wavy, 
 chestnut hair; a small, well-shaped mouth, fine teeth, and a delicately-formed 
 nose of the French type. Lastly, she had a brilliancy of complexion which 
 threw everything else into the shade. The general expression of her face was one 
 of candor, with just a tinge of mischievousness, the whole effect being irresistibly 
 attractive. 
 
 This was the woman who, without being distinctively intel- 
 
1^ HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 lectual, like her friend, Madame de Stael, was of the finest mold, 
 wise, courageous, patient, sympathetic, pitiful, and faithful be- 
 yond compare; who, even upon the verge of old age, when she 
 died, retained lier influence over all ages and conditions of men 
 and women, after her youth, beauty, and fortune had passed 
 away. 
 
 It will have been noticed that, in the description just given 
 of Madame Recamier, it is said that the brilliancy of her com- 
 plexion threw everything else into the shade. The supreme 
 beauty of such a complexion, it should be understood from all 
 that has now been said, is not derived from mere pink and white, 
 or red and white effects. It is born of nothing less than blood 
 mantling, with a certain subtlety of distribution, in a skin of 
 superlative fineness and translucency. All may be accorded to 
 a skin in fineness of texture and in color, but without a certain 
 adjustment of vascular supply and great translucency it cannot 
 produce the highest elfect as complexion. It is almost needless 
 to repeat that general healthiness of body and skin is indis- 
 pensable to the beauty of the skin, which in the face we speak 
 of as the complexion. It remains, then, only to consider the 
 remaining source of the vivid effects with which we are ac- 
 quainted, as exhibited in the complexion. This subject is the 
 more inviting, because the source of subtle effects of the com- 
 plexion seems to have escaped the attention of all writers on 
 the skin with whom we are acquainted. We venture to sa} r that 
 the unpremeditated popular answer to the question as to wdiat 
 produces them would be that they are derived from the charac- 
 ter of the skin, as shown by reflected light. And that reply 
 would contain a certain measure of truth, although the concep- 
 tion back of it would be wide of the mark as to the cause. The 
 peculiarities which we see in the complexion are not made by 
 reflected light. They already exist, to render it possible for 
 them to be conveyed to us by reflected light. Reflection of light 
 
THE SKIN AS A BEAUTIFUL TISSUE. 139 
 
 from them is merely the condition under which their previous 
 existence is brought to our knowledge. We should, in fact, 
 understand that just as incident, light contributes to constituting 
 those peculiarities, reflected light is merely the agency by which 
 we perceive them. In a word, flesh and blood and incident light 
 are the two agencies that are concerned in their production. 
 There is, then, a something else besides flesh and blood which is 
 contributory to those effects, since they cannot be created by 
 their reflection to us, which only enables us to see what already 
 exists. That something else is the refraction and reflection of 
 incident light pervading the tissues of the skin. 
 
 The blood is red ; the veins, as seen through the skin, look 
 blue. Their blueness cannot be derived from the color of their 
 coating, for that is a dingy white, with a trace of red. It has 
 never occurred to thousands of persons to investigate the cause 
 of this apparent anomaly, or, indeed, to thousands, that there is 
 in this fact any anomaly. Yet the blood in leaving the left side 
 of the heart, after it has been oxygenated b}' the lungs, is crim- 
 son, and after making the tour of the body is, when about to 
 enter the right side of the heart, the color of claret. Nowhere 
 does it appear through the skin as even tinged with crimson or 
 claret color, but everywhere as blue. Always remaining of some 
 reddish hue, it is, therefore, only apparently blue. It is clearly, 
 then, a phenomenon of light with which we are called upon to 
 deal in investigating the peculiar effects observable in the com- 
 plexion. The general reader is not alone in haA T ing remained 
 unobservant of this main fact, and even of the matter of detail 
 just mentioned, for many physicians are equally in the dark on 
 the subject, as we have ascertained by careful inquiry. 
 
 The reader is now, after having read the preceding chapter 
 on the constitution of the skin, in a position to understand, with 
 the addition of a few more facts, the cause of the phenomenon 
 of great beauty in the complexion. 
 
190 HEREDITY, HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Light, as we see it proceeding from the sun or electricity, 
 which latter is the purer form of it. consists of an infinite 
 number of colored rays blended in one kind of ray, which is 
 called white. Eence, we call the light of the sun white light. 
 The phenomena which we are about to examine can, it is true, 
 be partially observed even by a single imperfectly homogeneous 
 light. We witnessed one of them by accident only the other 
 evening, as shown in the pearly inside coat of an oyster-shell 
 illuminated by gas-light reflected from a bright-red shade. Never- 
 theless, the assumption of white light is the most proper one in 
 the discussion of the present question. 
 
 Light tends to proceed in a straight path, but, as is well 
 known, it is susceptible of being diverted from that course, 
 when it is incidentally found to be broken up into rays of differ- 
 ent color, called primary, secondary, tertiary, and so on, to a 
 point where they evidently continue beyond the range of our 
 vision, whether aided or unaided by the most delicate instru- 
 ments. All light proceeds with the same velocity in the same 
 medium. But, on the other hand, each differently-colored ray 
 has its own specific wave-length, the mean Wave-length of dif- 
 ferently-colored rays visible being one fifty-thousandth of an inch. 
 
 There are various ways in which matter interferes with the 
 tendency of light to pursue a straight course, — through reflec- 
 tion, refraction, diffraction, and polarization. It is, however, 
 onlj' with refraction, diffraction, and reflection that we have to 
 do here. "When light is refracted, it is by passing from one 
 medium to another. This alters its course so as to produce in 
 rays relative retardation and acceleration, the velocity of all 
 depending upon whether it passes into a more or less dense 
 medium than the one which it has left. Refracted light is 
 changed not only as to its course, but as to the time of its 
 passage. "When light is diffracted it also is diverted from its 
 course, and its rays relatively retarded or accelerated, but it is 
 
THE SK.TN AS A BEAUTIFUL TISSUE. 191 
 
 not, as a whole, modified in velocity in passing, the phenomenon 
 of diffraction taking place in the atmosphere, and not by Light 
 passing from one medium to another of grosser matter. Diffrac- 
 tion takes place through light, in its straight course, striking the 
 sharp edge of an object in its path, which action causes it to lie 
 broken up into colored rays. The visual consequences of this 
 behavior of light are of infinite complexity. Two rays of equal 
 intensity, coinciding by a difference of onl}' half a wave-length, 
 extinguish each other and produce darkness. Rays, by super- 
 position, re-in force each other in the production and modification 
 of color. The whole of the phenomena involved result from the 
 interferences of rays of light of different wave-lengths. Origi- 
 nally of the same wave-length in white light, light becomes, 
 when broken up into colored raj^s,- of an infinite number of wave- 
 lengths, and produces infinite complexity of color-effects. 
 
 It is with the interference of rays of different wave-lengths, 
 not to the point of obliterating each other, but to that of infi- 
 nitely modifying the color with which they are inseparably asso- 
 ciated, that we are concerned. 
 
 It has been shown that the skin consists of six layers of differ- 
 ent character. Throughout them the cells themselves are different 
 in form in the different layers. Moreover, the coats of the veins 
 have three layers, as have, with some modifications, the venules ; 
 and these la3 r ers are of different cellular formation and ultimate 
 general structure. It has been shown that the skin is translucent 
 to a degree enabling us to see light through two thicknesses of it, 
 in addition to a thin cartilage. It follows that, when light, espe- 
 cially white light, falls on any part of the skin, it cannot proceed 
 without being subjected to myriads of refractions through the 
 various media in the skin. What takes place when it impinges 
 upon the face, which represents the skin in its highest delicacy, 
 is analogous to what occurs when white light penetrates thin 
 sheets of isinglass in contact with each other, or the thin layers 
 
19:2 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of an opal. It is easy enough 1<> say that the eil'ects are caused 
 by refraction, but really to understand the cause of them is to 
 know, besides recognizing that the fundamental cause is refrac- 
 tion, that the consequences in color arc due to the refracted in- 
 terferences of tin' ra\s of Light. Analogous effects t<> those 
 produced by Light in isinglass, the opal, and other substances, 
 and in instruments specially devised for exhibiting them, are 
 produced by the same cause in the depths of the translucent skin 
 by its different layers: in sum, by refraction and interferences 
 of ravs, the resultant effect, through reflection to the observing 
 eye, being that which we know as individual complexion, de- 
 termined, as to final effect, by individual constitution of the skin 
 of the face. Further consideration will render the points in- 
 volved still clearer. 
 
 Not only are thin plates penetrated by white light capable 
 of breaking the light up into innumerable colored rays, but stri- 
 ated and corrugated surfaces have the same capacity under cer- 
 tain conditions. A fine skin has, to the naked eye, an appear- 
 ance of perfect smoothness, but by optical tests to which it can 
 be subjected it is seen to be far from smooth. It is not so smooth 
 as represented in diagrams of magnified portions of it showing 
 the cells of the scarf-skin. The eye, viewing the representation 
 from above, receives no correct impression as to the vertical 
 eccentricities of the surface, and, of course, it receives no impres- 
 sion at all as to the color of the skin or the reflection of light 
 from it as exhibited by the skin itself. Neither does the descrip- 
 tion "horny layer of the skin" convey an}' just idea of the 
 appearance of its surface when highly magnified, because the 
 horny quality is so exquisitely fine as to violate preconceptions 
 as to applicability of the term. 
 
 It will be best, therefore, to describe here the appearance of 
 a fine skin as it looks under the microscope, magnified, say, fifty 
 times. It will then become evident to the reader that some of 
 
THE SKIN AS A BEAUTIFUL TISSUE. 103 
 
 its color may be due to striation and corrugation of the surface, 
 as well as to tlie presence in the skin of the numerous thin plates, 
 differing in constitution, of which we have already spoken. 
 Incidentally, it will also become evident why the skin is so 
 luminous, and therefore how a complexion can be so brilliant as 
 to justify the use of the term " dazzling." 
 
 Under the magnifying power of fifty diameters there is no 
 penetration of sight below the surface. We see merefy the im- 
 mediate surface of the horny layer of the scarf-skin. Imagine 
 a piece of ice about an inch in thickness, not appearing as 
 transparent nor even as translucent, because having a backing 
 to it, but as seen entirely by reflected light; and this piece of 
 ice to be broken up into facets without dislodgment of them, 
 leaving them with slightfy defined outlines, and placed at slightly 
 different angles with reference to the general surface. This is 
 the general appearance of the skin as seen magnified fift}* times, 
 but only the general appearance of it under those circumstances. 
 To convey a true conception of it, we must now speak of the spe- 
 cial effects of light as seen reflected from the skin as thus magni- 
 fied. In many places, particularly on the crests and ridges formed 
 by the slightly angular position of the facets with reference to 
 each other, which facets are, of course, in the case of the skin, the 
 scales of the scarf-skin, the effect of the reflected light is more 
 intense than can be realized by likening it'to the glinting of 
 broken and pulverized ice. The light on the crests and ridges 
 between the facets is comparable in lustre only to polished silver 
 highly illuminated. These facets, being the horny layer of the 
 scarf-skin, are the surface which receives light into the skin, so 
 that the light must, even at its entrance, be subjected to refrac- 
 tion. Additionally, the striation of the horny laj'er at the junc- 
 tions of the scales, and the corrugations produced by their 
 angular position with reference to each other, must be in them- 
 selves productive of color. 
 
104 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The outermost layer of the skin being formed, as described, 
 of silvery-white facets, is of the besl possible constitution to re- 
 flect light. We see best by reflected light when the light is scat- 
 tered. A plate-glass mirror can be so placed as not to be \ isible, 
 as it sometimes is in the tricks of magicians on the stage. If 
 the glassof which the mirror is made were crushed to fragments, 
 it would instantly become visible, because the light falling upon 
 the glass would be scattered. Just so, polished facets, such as 
 have been described, scatter light in all directions. The com- 
 plexion, therefore, is summed up in the natural fineness, color, 
 and translucency of the skin of the lace, as modified by the laws 
 of light and their combined effects reflected to the eye by the 
 bright outside surface of the skin. Hence, we perceive how 
 appropriate are our terms for a complexion such as Madame 
 Re'camier's, — brilliant, radiant, dazzling, the whole effect start- 
 ling, — and how impossible it is by artifice to improve upon 
 nature, to do more than mask with an imperfection another 
 imperfection, which may sometimes not be the greater. 
 
 When an artificer in cosmetics shall he able to change an 
 ordinary skin to one fine in texture, color, translucency, and 
 hrightness, then, and not till then, can he make a fine complexion. 
 If complexion were derived from a dense, mat surface, art would 
 lie adequate to tint it so as to look like nature. But, as com- 
 plexion is the result of the comhination of natural qualities, — 
 fineness, color, translucency, — modified by the afllueuce and 
 effluence of light acting under divine law. it is impossible suc- 
 cessfully to imitate its effects. Carried to the extreme, the result 
 of the attempt is ghastly. Alphonse Daudet, in his " Froment 
 Jeune et Risler Aine," vividly depicts, on their way to the races 
 at Longchamps, those artificial blondes whom the Third French 
 Empire produced. "Carriages," he says, "as they passed, 
 grazed, driven by women with painted faces squeezed into narrow 
 veils, motionless, holding their whips upright with the pose of 
 
THE SKIN AS A BEAUTIFUL TISSUE. 195 
 
 dolls, nothing alive about them but their charcoaled eyes fixed 
 on the horses' heads." This is the cosmetic art become Satanic, 
 and yet it has appeared to some extent even in this virgin laud. 
 What can be seductive about it, except to the lowest of men, and 
 to them only in default of better exemplars of the fair sex, it 
 were hard to sa}^. Nothing living so much resembles the whited 
 sepulchre, where dead men's bones lie within. The fashion is not 
 of the earth earthy, but of the devil devilish. It does not sug- 
 gest life, but death, — vice in its last agony of body and mind. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OP HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 
 
 WE may rest assured, judging by the present general tend- 
 encies of mankind, that, although bathing must be of 
 the highest antiquity, it was resorted to of old, as well as now, 
 b}' the multitude only for the sake of its directly pleasurable 
 effects, instead of from motives of cleanliness and promotion of 
 good physical condition and beauty. As in duty bound, in this 
 era of demand for reasons for all assertions, we proceed to give 
 those for the faith within us, as shown by our conclusion. 
 
 The physician is, of all men living, the one who has most to 
 do with the literally naked facts in the case before us. He it is 
 who is called upon to make physical examination of applicants 
 for enlistment in the military service, and many others rendered 
 necessary by accident or sudden invasion of disease, which in 
 sum } T ield him on this subject ample fund of information. Xo 
 such witness can conscientiously say that more than a fraction 
 of the cases so presenting themselves evidence due regard for 
 the social and hygienic demands of extreme nicet}' of person. 
 He knows that examinations for enlistment are generally fol- 
 lowed by grateful ventilation of the rooms where they have been 
 held. Such, however, is the effect of military instruction in per- 
 sonal habits, and of military discipline in the promotion of self- 
 respect, that in the vast majority of cases they result in per- 
 manent change in men previous^ negligent of cleanliness. He 
 has similar experience, through the fact that he is often sum- 
 moned to go to the assistance of persons who have met with 
 some serious accident, or who, without time for adequate prep- 
 aration, perhaps in dense ignorance of their shortcomings in 
 the matter of neatness, are suddenly compelled to seek him for 
 
 (19T) 
 
198 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 medical advice, [f the whole male population of a country could 
 at any eai'ly period of life be temporarily enrolled, with the solo 
 object of establishing cleanliness as a habit, the effect would be 
 to raise the standard of health among the people. 
 
 It is notorious that, as among different nations, some are 
 more than others addicted to the practice of bathing. This is 
 frequently ascribable to climate. One would scarcely expect of 
 an Esquimau that he should bathe as frequently as the inhabi- 
 tant of a more genial climate, seeing that he has not always even 
 water plenteously at his disposal, to say nothing of its tem- 
 perature when procurable in large quantities. But. this duly 
 recognized, it remains true that, irrespective of climate, certain 
 peoples more than others practice bathing. As we all believe that 
 Englishmen's talk about " tubbing," by which they mean virtually 
 a sponge-bath, is an exaggeration of their recognized relative 
 virtue in respect of personal cleanliness, as compared with other 
 nations generally, it is thus admitted to have a basis in fact. It 
 does not rest on so firm a one, however, as it would, if they did 
 not favorably contrast themselves with the French especially, 
 the popular English prejudice as to whose general remissness in 
 this department of manners Punch satirized on the occasion of 
 the Crystal Palace Exhibition by a caricature representing two 
 puzzled Frenchmen gazing earnestly at a pitcher and basin, one 
 saying to the other, " Qu' est-ce que c' est que cela, Alphonse?" 
 
 To state the case unqualifiedly, as the English do in their 
 own favor, as against the French, is very misleading. It thus 
 signifies nothing less than that all Frenchmen are dirty, and all 
 Englishmen clean. But it must be remembered that the English 
 are far greater travelers than are the French, world-wide travelers, 
 while the French nationally are no travelers at all, and that the 
 traveling and writing class belong also to the bathing class of 
 any nation. Thus it happens that the tin tub of the Englishman 
 has penetrated the jungles of the world, astonishing even the 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 199 
 
 tiger lurking in his lair to watch the passing caravan ; and thus 
 it happens that Englishmen, who are most imitative of all that 
 originates with Britain, have, to a man, come to associate their 
 tub with the glories of England, and to embalm its virtues in 
 the story of their countless wanderings through a "nasty " world. 
 The English thus, in part fortuitously, in part by design, have had 
 their bathing more en evidence than have the French, and there- 
 fore it would be unsafe to infer, because the writing class among 
 Frenchmen seldom mention their personal habits in bathing, 
 that they or their compatriots are universall} 7 neglectful of it. 
 
 We shall, perhaps, come as nearly as possible to the truth, 
 so far as it can be contained in a general statement, if we should 
 saj r that the English, as compared with the French, are a cleaner 
 people, but that the higher classes in both countries stand in 
 that respect more nearly on a par than the English would lead 
 us to believe, with whom tubbing and talk about tubbing is 
 somewhat of a fad. We think that, if the reader knows an}-- 
 thing of the great facilities for private bathing existing in the 
 principal cities of this country, he can have no doubt of the 
 general and constant use of the bath among all but the lowest 
 classes, and yet we never hear Americans boasting of their 
 tubbing or bathing, although thousands upon thousands of them, 
 both men and women, take a bath of some kind, generally of 
 total immersion, eveiy day of their lives. 
 
 We have appealed to the prevalence of the private bath in 
 our cities as the best possible evidence of general bathing here 
 among even people in the humbler walks of life. If we chose, 
 we could go on to demonstrate, from personal observation, that 
 these baths are habitually used. But if the}' exist, that ought 
 to be sufficient evidence that they are used. People would not 
 go to the expense of having tubs and paying extra water-rates 
 if they derived no advantage from the bathing-facilities. And 
 just as we deem the prevalence of the bath-tub and of water- 
 
200 BKREDITY, BEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEA1 DT. 
 
 facilities in our cities to be good evidence of general bathing 
 among all but the lowest classes, so we find the general absence 
 of these in farm-houses to be equally good evidence of gene nil 
 neglect in the country of the social and hygienic practice of the 
 bath. We can remember in our experience but one veritable 
 farm-house where sucb facilities existed. They were secured by 
 means of a tub in one of the upper stories, for whose supply 
 water was pumped into a reservoir by means of an hydraulic 
 ram in a neighboring rapid brook. It would be in vain to answer 
 that the latter opportunity is not a Horded by every situation. It 
 can be readily granted, when replying that there are scarcely any 
 situations where the construction of a small tank to receive the 
 rain-fall from the roof would not be feasible. There arc man} 
 farm-houses where a small windmill is used for the delivery of a 
 supply of water to cattle, where not a drop is devoted to a reser- 
 voir for purposes of ablution. The city-bred look dejectedly 
 around them when inducted into their farm-house bed-rooms, as 
 the}- catch sight of the Lilliputian towel, pitcher, and basin, rarely 
 of a foot-tub or larger receptacle for bathing purposes. If the 
 length of their stay necessitates a bath, it is only by superlative 
 efforts, perhaps the expressage of a tub to the scene, that their 
 intention can be accomplished. If the visitor be a man, the time 
 be summer, and some kindly stream flow or brook brawl in the 
 neighborhood, the difficulty is solved. Otherwise, the unfortu- 
 nate sojourner in the land is forced to content himself with the 
 bountiful supply of water that the wash-hand basin will hold. 
 
 It is to be hoped that, in the course of time, this neglect, 
 evidenced by the dearth of bathing appliances in the country, 
 will be remedied by increased knowledge of their desirability 
 for comfort and beauty, and appreciation aroused as to the 
 practice of bathing as a social obligation in the interest of 
 personal agreeableness and immunity from sickness and disease. 
 Habit in the individual becomes confirmed. It is transmitted 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 201 
 
 by example to descendants. So, generation after generation of 
 people go on, year after year, either with personal habits of the 
 strictest cleanliness, or with habits not much better than those 
 of the commonest emigrant class. So confirmed are these latter 
 in their neglectful ways, that we have often known kind recog- 
 nition of their sad estate, taking the form of constant pro- 
 vision of pleasant bathing facilities, to prove abortive. The 
 consideration proved utterly wasted upon the intended recipi- 
 ents of the kindness, for all the change in habits that followed, 
 incorrigible as thejr were in their wretched practice of dabbling 
 with a rag wrung out in a quart or two of water. How many 
 of the refinements and gratifications of civilization which are 
 within the power of persons living within its pale seem to elude 
 their knowledge, and, by a strange contradiction, fall to the lot 
 of some of those whom civilization has not touched even with 
 the hem of its garment ! On the northwestern shores of North 
 America, in the Straights of Fuca and thereabouts, the Indian 
 women are to be observed retiring to some lonety spot, dis- 
 robing, and bathing in the pure water of the coast. Poor 
 creatures, they are compelled to dress themselves again in the 
 squalid garments of which the} r had been temporarily divested ! 
 But can there be any doubt as to which to choose, between their 
 clean, health} 7 skins, in their miserable apparel, and those which 
 amid civilization are sometimes covered with the fashions of the. 
 prevailing mode, and scented to the distraction of the more 
 refined ? Ben Jonson says : — 
 
 Still to be neat, still to be dressed, 
 
 As you were going to a feast, 
 
 Still to be powdered, still perfumed ; 
 
 Lady, it is to be presumed, 
 
 Though art's hid causes are not found, 
 
 All is not sweet, all is not sound, 
 
 It is the province of the physician to make himself acquainted 
 with the habits of people as being more or less conducive to 
 
202 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 their health, With that end in view, we have, both at home and 
 abroad, never ceased to avail ourselves of all opportunities of 
 obtaining information <>n the subjecl of persona] cleanliness, 
 among the various other subjects which invited our attention. 
 It might give an appearance of presumption on our pari, to 
 Bpeak here of what we cursorily observed abroad. On the other 
 hand, to omit all such mention opens us to the suspicion of 
 avoiding it. unless we say, as we explicitly do, that we should 
 attempt to compass too much, were we to allow our treatment 
 of the subject to range over the wide field of comparison between 
 ourselves and other peoples. Therefore, as our purpose relates 
 particularly to our own country, with which, as dermatologist 
 and traveler, we may claim without immodesty to be quite 
 familiar, we shall confine ourselves chiefly to remarks regarding 
 it, with the preliminary understanding that there is no intention 
 to speak to its disparagement in comparison with other coun- 
 tries. This ought to be evident from what has already been 
 said, but that it may not be left in the least doubt, we add our 
 conviction that in proportion to the population, among all the 
 peoples of the earth, there are none, except the Japanese, so 
 cleanly as are generally the native-born people of this country. 
 "When, as a physician, we here preach the social and hygienic 
 obligation of the bath, it is because we deem that general recog- 
 nition of its salubrity has not yet reached the point which our 
 national prosperity and culture in other respects seem clearly to 
 indicate, if we would regard ourselves in that particular equal 
 in civilization to the ancient Greek and Roman. 
 
 It will doubtless he shocking to many, to whom the most 
 assiduous care of the person is habitual, to learn that there 
 actually are persons who pass through life without ever having 
 had the body wholly immersed in water. We once received from 
 a girl of the humbler classes the confession that she had never had 
 a bath of immersion, nor knew of any of her companions who 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 203 
 
 had been so blessed. It was evident, however, that sli<; and 
 they craved the boon from which unkind fortune had debarred 
 them from the realization, and the} r were to be commiserated. 
 Individuals of even the lowest type seek on occasions the solace 
 of the bath. Some years ago we witnessed on the small-pox 
 quarantine island, in the harbor of New York, the bathing of 
 some emigrants of that type, there detained upon suspicion of 
 possible contagion to the city. Poor, ill-clad, and unkempt 
 creatures, who had been mewed up in crowded quarters aboard 
 ship, they fully enjoyed the luxury of that hot daj T 's refresh- 
 ment That very class of emigrants, however, once fairly 
 landed, away from the close contamination of shipboard in 
 reeking steerage quarters, easily recognizable at any time among 
 our population by their elf-locks and dirty appearance, resumes 
 its habitual holy horror of pure water. 
 
 It must not be imagined, however, that the indigent and 
 unfortunate of mankind alone are those who are invariably 
 squeamish about the use of water. There are persons in contact 
 with the highest culture, who, through lack of earby instruction, 
 or innate indifference, seem to be possessed with almost an 
 aversion to it. We knew a case where a famiby of condition 
 and means came to visit another which, down to its smallest 
 member, was devoted to Avater, and betraj-ed through their 
 abstinence in the midst of exceptionally lavish resources for 
 bathing, habits of life of an entirely different cast. As we 
 intimated at the beginning, the multitude bathe for enjoyment 
 of one kind or another, in swimming or breasting the breakers 
 or relief from heat, but only the refined for the pure and simple 
 satisfaction of perfect cleanliness. It is perhaps for this reason 
 that it is ordained that the rain shall be sent equally upon the 
 just and the unjust, that all men may be sure of getting an 
 occasional wetting. 
 
 No criterion whatever is afforded, by the statistics of the 
 
304 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 public battling establishments, as to the relative tendencies 
 of the two sexes t<> bathe. It will be seen, from those sta- 
 tistics, thai the number of men and boys is out of all pro- 
 portion to the number of women and girls enjoying the benefits 
 of those baths. It is at the same time observable that boys 
 preponderate, that then come men, then girls, and lastly 
 women. These numerical relations of sex and age, and the 
 degree in which they obtain, tally exactly with the relative 
 habits of life among the participants. Boys have a special pre- 
 dilection for swimming, and often have in the summer but two 
 garments to embarrass them, so that their undressing and dress- 
 ing is almost instantaneous, and they also have a freer foot to 
 please themselves than has any other class in the community, 
 and therefore they are the most numerous and assiduous patrons 
 of the public bath. Men of the laboring class, needing the 
 refreshment, accept the trouble for the sake of the gain of the 
 bath, but, having less opportunitj" than boys to indulge in it, 
 they are not to be found so numerously there. Young girls are 
 restrained to a certain degree from availing themselves of the 
 public baths by shyness, parental guardianship, and domestic 
 duties. Many women are entirely debarred from making use of 
 them b} - the demands of domestic duties, and, for the same 
 reason, many others can avail themselves but rarely of the 
 privilege. 
 
 We were lately much surprised to see, in an article by a 
 female writer, the statement that women are less fond than men 
 of sousing themselves in plenty of water. The statement is 
 contrary to all experience of which we have ever heard, or have 
 personally acquired, except as it might have some flimsy basis 
 in fact from the false notion of some exceptional women, that 
 water used lavishly upon the face is injurious to the complexion. 
 If sometimes there is any appearance of men being more than 
 women addicted to the use of the bath, it must arise from the 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 205 
 
 facts just mentioned, and that hitherto, for certain classes, the 
 large Turkish and Russian bathing establishments have not 
 generally included apartments for women. Now that some of 
 these are so doing, it is to be observed that women are availing 
 themselves of the facility. But a barrier will always remain to 
 general acceptance, by women of certain social rank, of baths 
 where they ma}' meet they know not whom, secure neither of the 
 privacy of solitariness nor of that which belongs to entire 
 publicity. This kind of bath, therefore, affords no test as to 
 the proclivity of women as compared with men to the enjoyment 
 of water in lavish quantities. But the private bath does, and in 
 that women indulge more than do men generally, parti}' because 
 of greater opportunity, and partly because of greater tendency 
 to neatness. The sea-beaches of man}' parts of the world prove, 
 too, that the women are quite as enthusiastic about bathing as 
 are the men of the same class. In fact, so fond are they of this, 
 the most energetic kind of bathing, that they cannot always be 
 kept within the bounds of prudence as to the frequency or the 
 duration of baths. 
 
 It would not be a stretch of imagination to assume, upon 
 the basis of our experience, that girls and women would be just 
 as much given as boys and men are to disporting themselves in 
 puris naturalibus in open water, were it not for the prevalence 
 of so many descendants of Peeping Tom of Coventry and the 
 usages of polite society. In primitive places, they sometimes 
 steal away, kindly veiled by the mantle of night, and enjoy a 
 plunge from the free gift of nature. At such an entertainment 
 we once unintentionally assisted, unknown then and forevermore 
 to the bevy of actors in the scene, unless perchance the eyes of 
 one of them should scan these pages. 
 
 Arriving near night-fall, by a long stage route, at a quiet 
 hamlet, near which now passes the roaring steam-cars, we supped 
 pleasantly at its only inn, and, lighting our cigar strolled 
 
206 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 enjoy.uMy forth into the summer night, committing to chance the 
 direction whither our footsteps should lead. We concluded 
 afterward, upon reflection, that we must have been in a very 
 brown study when we were awakened to our surroundings by a 
 scream and the sound of :i splash into a brook bordering our 
 path, followed by the murmur of female voices in alarmed con- 
 sultation. The situation did not admit of an instant's doubt, 
 as we dropped with sportsman-like promptness behind some salt- 
 vats which providentially lined the border of the stream. Here, 
 within ear-shot of the whispered colloquy, we had time to 
 determine that our action should be based upon the initiative 
 of the other side. If we were to play mora in this fashion, we 
 were determined that the other side should show its hand first. 
 They were at present at the disadvantage of being disrobed, but 
 we were a stranger in town, and on the morrow might be left 
 without a shred of reputation. Most persons, we reasoned, 
 concluding that their unwelcome presence was positively known, 
 would run. We made up our minds that we were not one of 
 those persons. If we should beat a hasty retreat, it would be 
 imputed to having been there with ulterior motive. So we 
 quietly awaited events, merely raising our head over the edge 
 of the salt-vat behind which we were concealed, and command- 
 ing a fair view of the scene. We saw clearly the edge of the 
 bank and some bushes near where the bathers Avere immersed, 
 but nothing more. The increasing loudness of their voices gave 
 us assurance of growing belief that it was a false alarm. At 
 last there was a dead silence. "The cry is still — the}- come!" 
 In all human difficulties there is a sacrifice, the innocent are 
 offered up, the scape-goat atones for the sins of the people. 
 They did not come, but a girl about 12 years of age quickly 
 emerged over the sharp edge of the bank, and stood about 
 20 yards away with the most sublime confidence of bearing. 
 Here was an additionally pretty state of things. This was 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 207 
 
 evidently the chief sceptic us to the belief that any intruder 
 was about. Now, as she gave immediate assurance by gesture 
 and word that they were wrong, suppose they should all swarm 
 up the bank and the discovery be inevitable. The last state of 
 that man would be worse than the first. But, the policy of 
 masterly inactivity never had a more signal triumph. The 
 successful scout regained the water, triumphant shouting began, 
 and crouching behind the line of salt-vats, we raced like a 
 partridge along a furrow back to the hamlet, having made the 
 narrowest escape in our life. 
 
 Under other skies, there are other ways not so retiring. In 
 Japan, for example, the bathing of the sexes is promiscuous. 
 There is not a thought of harm in it, so potent is habit in the 
 affairs of mankind. And yet, taken in connection with the high 
 civilization of the Japanese, it has justl}* been considered the 
 greatest anomaly that enters into modern social relations. But, 
 that the practice which, with the Japanese, has grown into a 
 social habit is not actually contraiy to nature, but solely 
 dependent upon social conditions, whether the growth of a 
 country or belonging to inferiority of class, would have been 
 clearly evidenced to us by a single experience that we had, even 
 if every season at some watering-places certain people did not 
 take, in this respect, the fullest liberty that the law allows. At 
 a lonely sea-side summer-resort where business once called us 
 just before the influx of city guests, there arrived, as we sa£, 
 solitary and alone on the porch of the little hotel, contemplating 
 an expanse of bajr and sea, four light wagons containing as 
 man}- pairs of young men and girls from a neighboring town. 
 The horses duly cared for, after the exasperating search for the 
 amateur hostler usually employed at such places, the girls took 
 seats upon the porch, and the young men sauntered away 
 toward a salient point about three hundred yards oft' along the 
 beach where the}" were lost to sight. Much to our astonishment, 
 
208 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 however, soon appeared from the bushes an animated forked 
 
 radish skipping down the beach to the water's edge, soon 
 followed by three similar apparitions, completing the tale of the 
 male visitors. But were these objects the male visitors, who 
 might, for all we knew to the contrary, be calmly strolling out 
 of sight behind the point? All doubt, however, was set at rest 
 by one of the girls, who exclaimed, " There goes Bill, "just as the 
 phrase occurs in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." "No it 
 isn't. " said another, "its Bob." "Why, don't I know Bill?" 
 was the rejoinder. " Why, so it is," was the final conclusion, — 
 " There goes John." And there seemed to be no doubt about the 
 rest. These points being settled to the satisfaction of all the 
 parties concerned, I deemed that they ought to be equall}' satis- 
 factory to me, so, as a philosopher, I meditated on the variability 
 of mankind. Here was a new experience in our own country, 
 of which we thought we had exhausted the experiences. 
 
 Enough has been said to disprove any assertion that, as 
 between the sexes, there is any difference as to the instinct of 
 bathing. We feel justified in repeating, in addition, that early 
 training or absence of it makes the chief differences observable 
 in the habit as between different classes of societ}', that although, 
 as a general rule, refined surroundings in the earl} - part of life 
 tell favorably in the majority of cases, exceptional ones are to 
 be found despite the greatest advantages, and that, with the 
 mass of mankind of both sexes, comfort and pleasure in bathing, 
 not cleanliness, are the chief inducements, the world over, to 
 the practice. 
 
 There is one aspect of bathing which, although inferential 
 from what has been outlined with reference to the practice, is so 
 important that it has been reserved for separate consideration. 
 This i> it- relation to sexual selection. There are many degrees 
 below actual offensiveness of odor, the presence of slight odor, 
 or even the absence of odor, where the degree of neatness may 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 209 
 
 still fail to attract, and this, again, is far removed from that 
 which positively attracts and charms. 
 
 Women sometimes marvel at the attractiveness which the 
 demi-mondaine often has for men of the world. " The horrid 
 creatures, what can any decent man see to admire in them?" 
 Well, it is " wondrous pitiful," but the secret is not far to seek. 
 They never cease to try to please. They neglect none of the 
 means of pleasing. They carry neatness of person to perfection. 
 The casket of their riches in influence contains no stronger 
 chain to bind men's souls. It is their business to understand 
 men, and they understand their business. It is a slave-trade 
 which they ply, of which we know not the beginning nor shall 
 ever know the end. It is wondrous pitiful that this should be 
 so. Summon the clergy, advance them to the front with bell, 
 book, and candle, to exorcise the enemy of mankind. But if 
 they would expect to cope with him 'let them adopt his hygienic 
 practices. 
 
 Instead of the cry of a year or two ago, " Is life worth 
 living ?" we have now instead, the inquiry, " Is marriage a 
 failure?" One question is sometimes largely involved in the 
 other. Marriage, as an institution, is certainly not a failure, as 
 our civilization, which is founded upon it, clearly attests. But 
 from causes too numerous to mention here, cases of it may be 
 failures. Even a husband's or wife's relations sometimes make 
 it a failure. Religion sometimes does ; contention over propert}', 
 over the training of children, over personal preferences. But if 
 any one can show us a cause more potent than neglect after 
 marriage of observances which before marriage were constant, 
 we shall be surprised. 
 
 After making ail due allowance for the fact that in this 
 workaday world two people cannot expect to go on forever 
 junketing, that men must generally return seriously to bread- 
 winning, and women to feminine occupations, a great chasm 
 
210 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 possible to be bridged over is often left to yawn in the paths of 
 pleasantness leading to those of peace. Thousands of young 
 men and young women have very little education, no fixed 
 tastes, no ideas, no society. They bave exhausted each other's 
 soil of the little that had there grown, and upon marriage they 
 begin to lie fallow to each other for the rest of their lives. The 
 eye, which of the mere senses, longest continues capable of being 
 pleased, ceases to have home resources. The girl who before 
 marriage has often been most attractive by her neatness and 
 plumage, now often put on her fine feathers only to go abroad, 
 while she is the veriest jackdaw indoors. At home she wears 
 frowsy hair and broken-out shoes, because there is no one there 
 to dress for. Her helpmate, who ought to know, does not think 
 that she looks a bit like the girl that he married. He has 
 become equally remiss in his wa} r s. It is true, that as society 
 does not demand of a man that he shall be a thing of beauty, 
 and his daily duties abroad constrain him to some carefulness in 
 dress, he has not quite so high a heaven to descend from as has 
 his partner, and does not. He comes to find " the fellows," a 
 club, a restaurant dinner, more attractive than home. 
 
 Neither probably began it. How foolish those conventions 
 are which tell us that the sexes are not capable of equal de- 
 pravity and equal excellence ; that one sex is not fitted for the 
 other, as if they had not been created for each other and molded 
 each other to their liking; that the world would be changed for 
 the better, the best, and bliss, if only women had it all their own 
 way ! The common case is simply one of a destin}- very rough- 
 hewn indeed, because the judgment was not sharp. To attribute 
 the fault exclusively to one sex, and to exonerate the other, is 
 the fruit of the poorest observation and philosophy. In the 
 first place, the sexes are not involved in the question, save as 
 related to a small minority of individuals of both sexes. When 
 individuals, as representing one or the other or both, either for 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 211 
 
 cause or no cause, cease to exercise after marriage the attrac- 
 tions which have conducted them to the altar, they cannot in 
 concert meet the trials inseparable from the struggle for 
 
 existence. 
 
 It follows that, whether relatively faulty or not, if women 
 especially, who by instinct, training, and formal profession of 
 their recognition of the elements in which their influence re- 
 sides, neglect in any way the habitual care of their persons, 
 whether as to cleanliness of skin, neatness of dress, or adorn- 
 ment, they deliberately relinquish their power over men, no 
 matter what the social relations may be between them, for by 
 that act the}' neglect one of the chief sources of their power, 
 and begin to descend the steps of their throne. Woman herself 
 it was, who, conjointly with man, defined the terms upon which 
 she should share his destiny. A consenting party to the act 
 defining her status, by which she has become all that she now is, 
 she cannot maintain it if neglectful of clearly defined obligations 
 to her willing subjects. A part of her mission on earth is not 
 necessaril} 7 to be beautiful, for nature has the final word to say 
 as to that, but to he as attractive as nature will permit. The 
 worldly wisdom of the unscrupulous class, to which we alluded 
 not long since, smiles contemptuous^ at the frequent blindness 
 of good women to the silken strand by which the liking and 
 affection of some men maj' be securely held. 
 
 One may be very certain, we repeat, that with the multitude, 
 the comfort and pleasure of the bath are the chief incentives, the 
 world over, to the practice of bathing. Therefore it is that 
 it is so desirable to inculcate the practice in earty youth, 
 that it may become the habit of life. Given the heat of summer, 
 the suffering that always and the sleeplessness that sometimes 
 ensue, and few there are who do not gladhv bathe. In fact, the 
 wish to bathe, under these circumstances, is truly instinctive. 
 But we looking at the matter as a physician, know that, for 
 
212 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 health and beauty, bathing is necessary at all seasons of the 
 year, if practiced according to rules that are perfectly well 
 established, recognizing all conditions present, — temperament, 
 age, state of health, digestion completed, the temperature of the 
 air where the bath is taken, and the temperature of the water. 
 
 The promiscuous bathing of the Romans did not take place 
 until the time of the decadence of the empire, and even thru did 
 not involve the matrons and daughters of the higher ranks of 
 the people. The change was one of the notes of the depravity 
 of the times, being a new departure in manners involving morals; 
 Not so, however, is it with the Japanese. All travelers -wc 
 agreed that, with them, up to the very present time, when they 
 are assimilating themselves more and more to European ways, 
 the government discountenancing the continuance of the prac- 
 tice of the promiscuous bathing of the sexes, it had no relation 
 whatever to morals. Even so late an observer as Mr. La Farge, 
 the artist, indicates this in one of his articles on Japan, where 
 he, incidentally to describing his arrival at the town of Utsun- 
 oniya, and taking a refreshing bath after a hot day's journey, 
 says that he saw "a whole family, father, mother, children, file 
 down to the big bath-room at the corner, whose windows were 
 open to mine. I heard them romp and splash, and saw their 
 naked arms shining through the steam. Meditating upon 
 the differences which make propriety in different places, I joined 
 my friends at dinner and listened to what the doctor had to say 
 upon the Japanese indifference to nudity ; how Japanese morals 
 
 are not affected by the simplicity of their costume 
 
 Then came the question whether this be a reminiscence of Poly- 
 nesian ancestry and simplicity, or born of climate and cleanli- 
 ness. And, indeed, all Japan spends most of its time washing, 
 so that the very runners bathe more times a day than our fine 
 ladies." By day-dawn Mr. La Farge w:is awakened by the 
 various noises of the courtyard, in front of his -window. " Our 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 213 
 
 Japanese family," he says, " I could hear at their ablutions." 
 And in the course of the day's journey toward the mountains 
 he saw Japanese runners washing by pouring paili'uls of 
 water over each other. 
 
 So it is in Japan; bathe, bathe, wash, wash, all the time, 
 from morning until night. No one who has ever witnessed it 
 ever thinks the various processes anything but beneficial to the 
 skin. The scarf-skin, being albuminous,. is slightly thinned by 
 the use upon it of water and the alkali which goes to the forma- 
 tion of soap. Even by friction with water alone, it becomes 
 more and more constantly renewed b}' the layers beneath it. It 
 becomes, by combined ablution and friction, soft, pliant, and 
 finer than satin in the appearance of its texture. Besides this, 
 bathing has upon the corium, or true skin, a revitalizing influ- 
 ence, and thence upon the general system, and thence, by reaction, 
 upon itself. Combined with the proper kinds of soaps, avoiding 
 the irritating ones, bathing removes from the skin all effete oily 
 products, scarf-skin scales, crusts, and everything that may 
 impede the performance of its natural functions, or afford a 
 lodgment to disease. 
 
 To give the reader an idea of how far below the civilization 
 of the Japanese many Americans are in these matters, we will 
 take no extreme case by way of illustration, but that of a very 
 respectable man in a distant State, who once freefy expressed to 
 us his views on the subject, without the slightest suspicion of 
 how wofulfy ignorant he was about it. He decided that it is 
 wrong to bathe a baby every day, lest something may be removed 
 that nature had intended for the protection of the skin. That 
 was the way in which he expressed his objection. We gathered 
 from his reply to our question as to what was the nature of the 
 substance to which he alluded, that he meant the oil of the skin. 
 Here was a case where knowledge and ignorance were so com- 
 fortably wedded, and reliant upon the opinions of preceding 
 
214 HEREDITY, HEALTH, A\l> PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 generations, as to make it impossible to shake the conviction ; so 
 we did not attempt the impossible. 
 
 It is true, as we have already shown in the chapter on the 
 skin as an organ of the body, that nature secretes and excretes 
 oil for the protection of the skin, even to the point of meeting 
 emergencies, as we had occasion to indicate in the same connec- 
 tion, li is also true that we can use such caustic soaps, or excess 
 of borax, as to remove the oil in quantities so great as to be 
 detrimental to the healthiness of the skin. But there the half- 
 truth which the objector urged ends with the unwisdom of his 
 conclusion. The body may be bathed daily, with the use of the 
 more delicate soaps, with no undue removal of the oil of the 
 skin, and with perfect maintenance of its fine condition. Nature 
 does not cease to yield its store of lubricating material because 
 the scarf-skin is kept cleansed. But the oil, which, having- per- 
 formed its purpose, remains on the surface of the skin in a 
 degraded form, clogging the pores and preventing the freest 
 issue of the eli'ete products of the body, requires the combined 
 detersive influence of pure water and good soap for its removal, 
 and should have them. From its pure source of supply wells 
 up, as nature requires it, whatever the skin in health demands 
 for its best condition. Can any one imagine, and yet this objector 
 must have done so, that any skin can be fragrant if the oily 
 product of the sebaceous glands be retained upon it? Much 
 more probable is it, however, that he had never seen a thoroughly 
 well-conditioned baby, or, if he had, that his sensibility was not 
 acute enough to detect the difference between it and one of the 
 kind to which he had been accustomed. It is the very best 
 practice, adopting the precautions of a warm room and tepid 
 water, a short immersion, a brisk towelling, and quick dressing, 
 to bathe an infant every morning of its life, when it is well, just 
 before it takes its second meal of milk or other food for the day. 
 Only upon these terms can it be perfectly healthy and sweet in 
 
THE BATH AS PROMOTIVE OF HEALTH AND BEAUTY. 215 
 
 person, and it will be, if healthy, fragrant as a rose. If, as is 
 true, this delicate creature is by constant bathing benefited, its 
 vitality increased, its greatest immunity from disease secured, 
 the process is one which cannot harm, but must improve the 
 physical condition of any grosser being. And so we find, where 
 there is knowledge of its efficacy, the process applied equally 
 to relieving a lowered tone of the system, and to the increase 
 and maintenance of great vitality and strength. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 
 
 A FULL account of bathing as now practiced, independent 
 of the history of bathing in ancient and modern times, 
 would in itself fill a volume. We are therefore confined to such 
 general and special considerations, in both branches of the 
 subject, as may be treated of within moderate limits. 
 
 Bathing may be regarded as divisible into four kinds, as 
 determined bjr the motives prompting and the objects sought to 
 be accomplished by the practice. These are, for recreation 
 and comfort; for cleanliness in the interest of general health and 
 agreeableness ; for increasing vigor and beauty of person ; and, 
 lastly, for medical treatment. 
 
 As to the last object, it is to be remarked that, only very 
 recently has the regular medical profession accorded an}^ large 
 measure of acceptance to hydropathic treatment in disease. 
 Hydropathy, so-called, for a long period, and even yet in some 
 degree associated with a visionary pathology, which fitted treat- 
 ment to nearly all the ills which flesh is heir to, generally repelled 
 regular physicians. A similar consequence ensued from a similar 
 cause in the case of electropathy. The beginning and end of 
 the affair in both cases are not anomalous. From the times of 
 Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, down to the present era, the 
 main bod}' of physicians found to its hand, or had proffered to 
 it by the laity or some of their own brethren, procedures which 
 it, as a wisely conservative body of men, was not willing at a 
 moment's notice to accept. The duty of such men, besides being 
 pioneers in discovery, is to prove all things and hold fast only 
 that which is good. 
 
 The day has now arrived when the regular profession will 
 
 (217) 
 
218 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 accepl hydropathy and electropathy within due limitations. 
 Under the names of hydro-therapy and electro-therapy, the most 
 advanced physicians of the day now frankly accept in them 
 whatever facts have been ascertained as to both, regardless of 
 their source, and have themselves made greater strides in dis- 
 covery in the department of electro-therapy than can he dis- 
 cerned in its history during the whole period there of the reign 
 of quackery. It is most natural that this should ever be the 
 tenor of events, since physicians work from the basis of sound 
 pathology, unmodified to suit the exigencies of any special treat- 
 ment, and upon that of a fund of the greatest general scientific 
 knowledge of the day. 
 
 But here, with this brief mention of the present status of 
 hydropathic treatment, a word as to which could hardly be 
 omitted in an account of the application of water to the surface 
 of the human body, we dismiss the topic as only indirectly 
 connected with the subject of this work. Hydro-therapy relates 
 to the cure of disease by means of water, whereas bathing relates 
 to the maintenance and increase of health. One point, however, 
 within hydro-therapeutic treatment should be mentioned in con- 
 clusion, as not unduly trenching on our necessarily assigned 
 limits, because it should be known in every household. This is 
 as to the calming effect of the tepid bath. Knowledge of the 
 fact can be utilized for many home purposes. So sedative to the 
 nervous system is the tepid bath, that, in a properly-heated 
 atmosphere, children taken screaming from their beds, in a 
 paroxysm of colic, and, plunged into it, have been instantly and 
 permanently relieved of pain. 
 
 With the permission of the reader, we will begin our de- 
 scription of bathing facilities with those of the ordinary city 
 appliances for household bathing. These, at their minimum, are 
 a '.rood-sized metal-lined tub, with a sloping back, — all good 
 features of the construction. The only household addition to 
 
BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 219 
 
 this is the cold and warm shower-bath, — a very useful appliance 
 if not abused. Cold shower-baths should be taken with strict 
 reference to the capacity of reaction in the individual bather. 
 We have known persons to come blue-lipped from a five-minute 
 immersion in the ocean. Some delicate constitutions cannot 
 bear the combined salt- and cold-water stimulation. So, also, 
 there are some persons who cannot bear cold fresh water, 
 whether in quiet contact with, or falling in a shower upon, the 
 body. The supreme test of whether good is being done has 
 *back of it the opinion of all the physicians of the world. It is 
 contained in the answer to the question, Is there a good reaction? 
 A good reaction is that in which, when the skin is rubbed 
 vigorously with a towel, the blood freely rushes to the surface. 
 If, upon being rubbed, the surface becomes instantly red and 
 tingling, there is the most beneficial effect; if not, not. Injury 
 lies on one side of the line, benefit on the other. .To some 
 persons health may lie on one side of the line and death on the 
 other. All the persons whom we have known who boasted of 
 breaking a film of ice to take their morning baths have died 
 early. As was declared in ancient times of oratory, that it 
 depends upon action, action, action, we say, of good to be derived 
 from bathing, that it depends upon reaction, reaction, reaction. 
 The towels used should be rough as to their surface. Hucka- 
 back toweling is good, and Turkish best of all. 
 
 It is important that a bath-tub should be lined with what 
 becomes readily heated by conduction, and can easily be cleansed. 
 Beauty should be the last consideration in its construction. The 
 justification of a bath-tub's being is first use and then beauty. 
 Use prescribes avoidance, for a bath-tub, of a material whose 
 specific heat is low. The most beautiful tubs for bathing that 
 we ever saw were in the St. Charles Hotel, in New Orleans. 
 They were made of Carrara marble, and handsomely sculptured 
 outside. But stone does not conduct heat well, and its specific 
 
220 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 heat is low. It is not agreeable to have one's bare back 
 supported by marble. 
 
 There is a rage now for tile bath-tubs. Tiles have their 
 decorative uses, but not legitimately Tor bath-tubs. Their 
 
 specific heat is not so low, nor their power of conducting heat 
 so poor, if we mistake not, as those conditions are in marble; 
 nevertheless, for the same and other reasons, one of which is 
 that they cannot, at the tile junctions, be kept so clean, they do 
 not make proper bath-tubs, and whatever does not naturally 
 fit a purpose cannot be handsome as applied to that purpose,' 
 whatever may be its intrinsic beauty. 
 
 A porcelain lining conducts heat well. Its cleanliness for 
 a bath is a great charm. A porcelain bath-tub is, however, 
 quite expensive as compared with the ordinary kind. Cellu- 
 loid could be adapted to the same purpose. But we confess 
 that, if we were a millionaire, we should have a silver-lined 
 bath-tub. Silver is an extraordinary conductor of heat, as 
 an}' one can determine for himself, if he will put a teaspoon 
 into a cup of hot tea, and soon feel the top of its handle. 
 In the open air silver does not tarnish at all. In house 
 air it tarnishes only slightly, from the presence there of 
 a trace of sulphuretted hydrogen. If a tub lined with it 
 were wiped out daily, as all bath-tubs should be, the film of 
 sulphide of silver would be inappreciable to the sight. On the 
 other hand, the silver surface, as silver is susceptible to the 
 smallest trace of sulphuretted hydrogen, would make a super- 
 lative test for normal house purity of air in the. bath-room, which 
 in so man}' modern houses is associated with a water-closet. 
 
 The only additional appliance which we could suggest for 
 household bathing, for the case of handsomely -appointed dwell- 
 ings, would be one enabling a person to take a pure-vapor or a 
 medicated-vapor bath. Only a very small amount of room is 
 necessary for the purpose. A suitable device for it will be 
 
BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 221 
 
 described biter, under the head of Turkish and Russian baths. 
 In a household, such a device would prove most convenient upon 
 man}' occasions. Violent colds can be reduced with the utmost 
 certainty by a vapor bath, if followed by the warm wrapping up 
 of the person in bed. Cutaneous disorders are often excellently 
 treated by sulphur and other medicated baths. 
 
 There are soaps and soaps; some good, some bad. Some- 
 times the cost that should have entered into them to secure 
 goodness has gone too largely into advertising. Lubin's we 
 regard as the best toilet-soap in the world. But it is too ex- 
 pensive to be used for bathing purposes by persons of ordinary 
 means. For the face and hands, however, if used economically, 
 not allowed to waste by hying in water, it cannot be regarded 
 as uneconomical. Pears's soap is good, but by no means the 
 wonderful creation represented, the beauty of the most lovely 
 of professional beauties depending upon it. There is nothing 
 better than pure castile-soap for general washing purposes, — real 
 castile-soap. If one can get pure-white castile-soap, one cannot 
 do better for healthy application to the skin. It is always sought 
 for in its purest form for the skin of infants. 
 
 The public seems to imagine that there is something 
 mysterious in the production of soap. They seem to regard 
 every new, well-advertised soap as an essentially novel discovery 
 of some highly-gifted inventor. As a matter of fact, the best 
 qualities of soap are rather negative than positive. Soap is 
 simpty a detersive or cleansing compound, which acts, in com- 
 bination with water and the oily products of the skin, in form- 
 ing an emulsion, which the mass of water constituting the bath 
 readily dissolves, carrying with it the whole of the effete sweat 
 and sebaceous products of the skin, scales of scarf-skin, and 
 extraneous dirt. That combination, therefore, which best repre- 
 sents the ingredients of soap in their greatest purity makes the 
 best soap. Through such qualities one is enabled to cleanse the 
 
2±2 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEA1 TT. 
 
 skin with the most pleasantly soothing application adapted to its 
 
 Soup-; liL'iiiix made simply of an alkali ami oik and addi- 
 tionally sometimes scentod.it follows that, the finer the alkali, 
 the oil, and the perfume, the liner will be the soap. The differ- 
 ences in the qualities of these substances is immense. Our 
 knowledge in such matters is far beyond that of the ancients, 
 and even that of our immediate ancestors. The Greeks and 
 Romans had no true soaps, the substitutes used for them being 
 oils and ointments and the flour of lentils. The civet-scented 
 beau of even a couple of centuries ago would not be more wel- 
 come in society now than would be the presence of a billy-goat. 
 
 We remember that, as a boy, we read a book on foreign 
 travel, intended in places to be funny, but funny only in an ac- 
 count of how the writer, as bathed in Turkey, had had every 
 joint in his body cracked in succession, the performance closing 
 with a painful attempt on his backbone. There are baths where 
 the process also includes being switched. We determined that 
 we would be switched rather than that anybocby should try to 
 crack our backbone. In fact, we were so sure of our anatomi- 
 cal make-up, that we were confident that if anybody should 
 succeed in cracking our backbone, there would be no object in 
 proceeding. But, shortly afterward, when we were grown-up, 
 the work of Dr. Erasmus Wilson, than whom we do not know of 
 a higher authorit}- on bathing and cognate matters, destroyed 
 our theory of the impracticability of cracking backbones, b}' 
 quoting a trustworthy witness of the performance. However, 
 he was not referring to our backbone. We have resolved 
 to draw the line of cracking bones at that point. There we 
 should stand to fight, unless it were attempted by such a person 
 as one of whom we had experience in the Swedish-Movement 
 Cure. Wishing to investigate the merits of that system, we 
 once presented ourselves at an establishment where it was prac- 
 
BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 223 
 
 ticecl, and were received by a little man, who placed us on a 
 table and performed various antics with us. At lasl lie mounted 
 upon the table, and partly upon our shoulders, remarking that 
 the system prescribed, among its movements, resistance to the 
 muscular force of the operator. The absurdity of the per- 
 formance reached its climax when we found him perched Like a 
 sparrow on our shoulders, trying - in vain to force them one way 
 or another, calling upon us to resist. " Resist," quotha ! Why, 
 there was nothing to resist that the vis inertise did not amply 
 suffice to overcome. That is the only kind of person that we 
 don't object to for cracking our backbone. "We, therefore, upon 
 second thoughts, draw the line there, instead of objecting to the 
 mere abstract cracking of it. 
 
 If, in our American so-called Turkish and so-called Russian 
 baths, they do not attempt to crack our backbones, the}' cer- 
 tainly do try our patience. In them, " every prospect pleases, 
 and only man is vile." Instead of their having thoroughly 
 trained attendants, who understand what they profess to know, 
 and who are aware that they do not understand what they 
 cannot possibly know, we find indifferent shampooers with 
 astonishing knowledge of the therapeutic value of the just 
 sequence of bathing processes, of heat and time and all things 
 else adapted to suit every different organization and special need. 
 All that our baths require to make them excellent is skillful 
 shampooers who know and mind their business. Turkish sham- 
 pooers would make them perfect, for we have the water, the 
 heat, the vapor, the toweling, the soap, the coffee, the segars.the 
 mineral waters, all the requisites for enjoyment but the presence 
 of skillful masseurs who do not presume to think, but rnereby 
 know their trade. A Turkish or a Russian bath without skillful 
 shampooing puts one in the position of the Peri at the gates of 
 Paradise, without the final bliss ; for, after all, besides the de- 
 licious end of securing perfect cleanliness, the luxury of the 
 
224 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 bath consists in its entire abandonment to the sensuous enjoy- 
 ment of absolute rest in re-created being. All pleasurable senti- 
 ments blend in the delight of perfect cleanliness, vaporous 
 languor, gentle somnolence, dry warmth, revivifying freshness, 
 and renewed life as the final magic touch. The whole world and 
 his wife stands aloof for a while. Dark care may ever sit 
 behind the horseman elsewhere, but he does not join one in a 
 Turkish or a Russian bath, at least for an hour or two, by which 
 time one has had his coffee and segar, and is ready to meet and 
 defy him. Then, why should we not have skilled shampooers to 
 make perfect this great boon of the hath? Why not send for 
 heathen Turks to instruct us, and willingly pay their port-dues, 
 and let them shampoo us skillfully and crack our Christian 
 joints, even to the backbones of those who like it? 
 
 One improvement we should recommend in the baths them- 
 selves. It is that to which we referred a i\>w pages back, in con- 
 nection with the statement that it would be applicable to highly- 
 appointed dwellings. According to our judgment, the inhala- 
 tion of vapor in the ordinary Russian bath forms no part of its 
 hygienic, and certainly none of its detersive value, and often has 
 objectionable features for the special object in view. Yet only 
 in tin city of San Francisco did we ever see a construction for 
 administering the vapor bath, such as to admit of having the 
 head free of vapor. A friend, however, informs us that he has 
 seen a similar one in Detroit. The appliance that we saw and 
 used in San Francisco was of the simplest construction. It Con- 
 sisted of a box of a little less height than that of a person seated. 
 This is vertical on its sides and back, and closed with folding- 
 doors in front, which slant back at such an angle as to leave, 
 with the top of its back, just space enough to accommodate the 
 neck. After the entrance of the bather, and the shutting of the 
 folding-doors when he is seated, the rectangular slit thus left 
 open at the top of the box is closed by two short pieces of plank 
 
BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 225 
 
 cut out semicircularly at the ends so as to close around the 
 neck. The bath-attendant then inserts a towel gently around 
 the neck, so as to prevent the egress there of the vapor from the 
 box, and the bather is read}^ to turn on the vapor from a faucet 
 conveniently placed near his hand. He is entirely inclosed 
 without being fastened in the box. There he can sit pleasurably 
 for half an hour, adjusting through his sensations the heat of the 
 vapor, and feeling the condensed cloud trickle down in great 
 drops from his person. When sated with the enjoyment, he 
 summons the attendant and is well washed off under a properly- 
 tempered shower-bath, is rubbed down, packed in blankets, and 
 readily falls asleep for a few minutes, awakening wonderfully 
 refreshed. Thus can be given plain-vapor or medicated-vapor 
 baths, and the method is represented by an appliance which 
 certainly could easily be added to bathing facilities of private 
 houses of the highest class. 
 
 We must not, in the interest of persons who have never seen 
 one of our American Turkish and Russian bathing establish- 
 ments, omit some description of them. They consist of various 
 apartments devoted to different purposes. In the reception-room 
 the visitor commits his valuables to the attendant there and re- 
 ceives a check for them in return. He then undresses in an alcove 
 devoted to his exclusive use, and curtained from the apartment 
 in which it is situated. Emerging thence, with a towel for kilt, 
 he goes to the hot rooms, which are generally two, sometimes 
 three in number, following each other in a sequence of gradually 
 increasing temperature. The last room is frequently so hot that 
 it is avoided by the bather. The temperature there frequently 
 reaches 200° Fah., which is certainly too high for persons liable 
 to congestion of the lungs or those predisposed to apoplexy*. 
 Having induced a profuse perspiration, by subjecting the body 
 to a high temperature, the bather now puts himself into the 
 hands of the shainpooer, who places him horizontally on a 
 
 15 
 
226 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 marble slab, and soaps and shampoos him. He is then rinsed 
 off under a shower-bath, and may incidentally go into a room 
 densely filled with hot vapor, immersion in which forms the 
 chief characteristic of the Russian bath. Thence some persons 
 who are swimmers dash into the swimming pool, which among 
 the Romans was called the piscina, or fish-pond. For our own 
 part, we confess that, alt hough Loving a plunge in the river or 
 the sea . t lie preliminaries which have been described impart to us 
 a certain agreeable temporary lassitude averse to any active ex- 
 ertion. Then, too, there is all the difference in the world be- 
 tween the suggestion of water sparkling in sea or river, and that 
 -ecu in the dark pool of a bathing establishment illuminated by 
 faint natural or artificial light, and black and dreary-looking as in 
 a cave. It is at this stage of the proceedings that the ordinary 
 bath-attendant is most annoying. He is certain that you need a 
 plunge; it will do }'OU good. But we resemble an old Quaker 
 friend of ours, who once said in our presence that he generally 
 knew what he liked. Both causes mentioned doubtless conspire 
 to make us omit the plunge and betake ourselves to the crypt 
 where one is duly rubbed down until a pleasant glow is gener- 
 ated all over the body. Thence one proceeds to a moderately 
 warm apartment, where, reclined on an easy lounge, he sips his 
 coffee and smokes a segar, if he is wise, and after that dresses 
 himself quietly, feeling, as he leaves the portals of the bath, that 
 he has not left hope behind except to come back again, and 
 ready to meet the world and find life worth living. 
 
 Besides the effect produced upon the skin, and through it 
 upon the nervous system and general organization, by water 
 simply as a vehicle of temperature (cold water causing combus- 
 tion of fatt}- tissue and lessening the weight, and hot air and 
 vapor promoting perspiration and lessening the weight), there 
 are other effects due to its application to the surface of the 
 bod} r . The force of the impact of water falling on the skin has 
 
BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 227 
 
 a stimulating effect upon the general nervous system. Water, 
 too, as well as other fluids, can enter the system through the 
 skin, that integument being slightly hygroscopic ; that is, having 
 an affinity to moisture. It is true that the capacity of the heal! hy 
 skin to absorb moisture is small, owing to the existence of its 
 horny layer. But that the capacity does exist in some measure 
 has been amply proved. Any one will observe that, after lying 
 in a warm bath for some time, the nails become pliant and the 
 skin macerated, so to speak, to a certain degree. It is especially 
 owing to this belief that milk baths have sometimes been taken, 
 with a view of imparting softness and beauty to the skin. We 
 have heard of such Sybaritic practice in one case latebv, but the 
 most famous instance on record is that of a French lath', who, 
 about the time of the French Revolution, indulged in a daily 
 milk bath, and afterward had the milk sold. Perhaps that was 
 her way of looking at Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, or as Mr. 
 Jefferson jokingly phrases the sentiment in his autobiography, 
 when speaking of theatrical squabbles in his early youth, " Let's 
 all be equal, and I'll be king," for the lady to whom we have 
 alluded certainly had the cream of the thing. 
 
 That the skin does not readily absorb fluids is proved by an 
 electrical experiment that a friend of ours lately tried. It is 
 well known that fluids in closed tubes move in correspondence 
 with the galvanic current, and some persons have gone so far as 
 to say that they have proved that fluids can be driven by this 
 instrumentality through the bocty. It was to test the truth of 
 this statement that our friend took starch and iodine, which in 
 moist contact produce a beautiful blue tint, and placing them, 
 properly dissolved, on opposite sides of the hand, satisfied him- 
 self that, if there were any penetration of the skin b}' the sub- 
 stances, such portions as entered must become at once absorbed, 
 for on neither side of the hand was the well-known blue tint 
 produced which follows the contact of starch and iodine. At 
 
228 BEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 the same time, it must not be inferred that such a fluid as warm 
 milk would unt penetrate to a considerable amount over so large 
 a surface as that afforded by the body, for* in fact, drink can be 
 imbibed and thirst quenched or alleviated by this process, and 
 milk or other liquid food be sufficiently absorbed to nourish 
 the hotly. All that we s:iy is, that the skin, on account of the 
 presence of its horny layer, is not highly absorbent. The 
 mucous membrane, on the contrary, is highly absorbent, as 
 many facts in medicine and surgery attest. 
 
 It thus becomes apparent why medicated baths, such as 
 sulphur, may prove beneficial in certain cutaneous diseases, and 
 also why it is highly probable tliat for skin impoverishment, in 
 consequence of disease or old age, a bath of milk or other emol- 
 lient fluid would have a renovating effect upon it. Shrunken, 
 wrinkled skin indicates a condition of progressive atrophy, 
 represented otherwise by a number of associated changes in its 
 structure, in sum representing lowered vitality in the whole 
 body. These associated changes are lessened vascular and 
 nerve supply, and consequent absorption of parts, particularly 
 of the fatty portions of the subcutaneous connective-tissue. 
 
 Sand baths, readily obtainable on the sea-shore, and from 
 time immemorial indulged in by children for sport, are very 
 beneficial for rheumatism and some other ailments. As, how- 
 ever, sand consists chiefly of pellicles of silex or flint, in- 
 cluding comparatively little vegetable matter, the benefit occa- 
 sionally received from a sand bath must be chiefly derived from 
 it- constituting a slightly moist pack, excluding the air, the 
 effect of which is to promote copious exudation from the skin. 
 Wet soils, on the contrary, found near mineral springs, some- 
 times efficacious in the treatment of cutaneous disorders, are, 
 of course, composed in varying proportions of vegetable and 
 mineral substances more or less in solution. These, in sum, 
 represent chemical combinations that are frequently beneficial to 
 
BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 229 
 
 the skin when diseased. In the legend of the r.-itlier m \1 IiwmI 
 Prince Bladud, who is supposed to have first appreciated the 
 medicinal virtues of the mineral springs' of Bath, England, 
 although, according to the legend, it was his wallowing swine 
 that first expressed their approval of the spot, we find evidence 
 that, at a very remote period, the curative qualities of moist 
 earth were known. The belief has, indeed, been traditional, with 
 varying degrees of information, from that of medical and surgical 
 knowledge of the antiseptic adaptability of clay in treating 
 certain malignant conditions, down to that which goes no further 
 than the boy's record of the fact that moist clay relieves the 
 inflammation from a wasp's sting. We ourselves have always 
 remained under the strong impression that Christ, in anointing 
 the blind man's eyes with moistened clay, did not perform a 
 meaningless ceremony, but thereby recognized the existence of 
 an inherent curative virtue, perhaps perfectly well known to the 
 Jews. 
 
 A very pleasant, and, on occasions, useful electric bath can 
 be self-administered by anj' one who possesses a small faradaic 
 battery, which costs only five or six dollars. Lying immersed 
 in a warm bath, the battery -poles passed over the edge of the 
 tub, the bather can apply them with ease to an}' portion of the 
 body. Constipation is readily relieved b}^ this process, the best 
 mode of administering the current for the purpose being to keep 
 one sponge-covered pole stationary on the body, while the other 
 is passed over the belly in a curve beginning on the right, then 
 going upward, then across, then downward, and so on in the 
 same manner, thus following the course of the ascending and 
 descending colon. 
 
 "Written records speak of bathing among various peoples of 
 antiquity, — Egyptians, Hindoos, Persians, Jews, Greeks, and 
 Romans. Those relating to the practice among the Greeks and 
 Romans are naturally the fullest, and, of these, those concerning 
 
230 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 the Romans transcend in importance those concerning the 
 Greeks, the difference between them, as representing the high 
 development of the practice, being probably otherwise well 
 indicated by the fact of the absence of ruins of great Greek 
 bathing establishments, contrasted with that of the existence of 
 Roman buildings for the same purpose, whose magnificent ruins 
 st the prodigality of wealth and art lavished on them for the 
 sake of the healthfulness, enjoj'ment, and refinement of bathing. 
 In the early times of Rome, when she was at the zenith of 
 her military glory, and art and refinement of all sorts were un- 
 developed, of course bathing mostly took place in open streams, 
 or in the ocean. Upon the basis of this fact we find Shakespeare 
 representing Csesar as swimming with Cassius in the Tiber, and 
 crying out to him," Help me, Cassius, or I sink." Two hundred 
 years, however, before his time there were swimming-pools in 
 Rome. Claudius. — not the Emperor Claudius, who lived at the 
 beginning of the Christian era, and finished the two most splendid 
 aqueducts of Rome, begun b} r Caligula; but the censor, Appius 
 Claudius, who was born three hundred years before the emperor 
 — constructed the first aqueduct leading into Rome, although the 
 one built forty years afterward was always known as the old 
 aqueduct. This was what led immediately to the establishment 
 in Rome of the piscinae, literally fish-ponds, but technically cold- 
 water swimming-pools. 
 
 Public bathing establishments sprang up in Rome immedi- 
 ately upon tin- introduction by Claudius of water into the eit\ r 
 from Prseneste. They were, however, during the Republic, com- 
 paratively poor establishments, called simply balnea 1 , or baths. 
 It was not until the time of the Empire that the institution of 
 the bath flourished. The baths then became thermae, or warm 
 baths, although they contained facilities for both cold and warm 
 bathing, and some persons frequented them for cold bathing 
 alone. There were also private baths, and great patricians had 
 
BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 2ol 
 
 them attached to their villas. Not Rome alone, but other Italian 
 cities, adopted the institution. Successive emperors vied with 
 each other in providing them for the people, erecting for the 
 purpose buildings of stupendous size. These sometimes con- 
 tained halls supported by magnificent columns, lined with 
 precious marbles, and adorned with line mosaics and statuary. 
 Theatres, libraries, and places for athletic sports were sometimes 
 included in the same pile that afforded beautiful colonnades open 
 to interior blooming courts, provided with seats, where philoso- 
 phers or men of affairs could rest or stroll about at pleasure. 
 
 In -the Roman bath of the most sumptuous kind there was 
 the apartment in which the bather disrobed ; the tepid apart- 
 ment, that in which the body was sprinkled to remove perspira- 
 tion ; the apartment in which hot-air and hot-vapor baths could 
 be taken, where there was a. warm bath ; and the cool apartment, 
 in which was the swimming-pool. This pool, in the baths of 
 Diocletian, was 200 feet in length and 100 in width. The Mo- 
 hammedans long subsequently adopted this kind of bath from the 
 Romans, and through them it spread into Spain and various 
 other countries. The reader may remember that, in the " Arabian 
 Nights," Aladdin first sees the Princess Balroubadour as she 
 goes attended to the bath. 
 
 The process of bathing in the Roman thermse was like that 
 with which we are acquainted in our similar baths, except, as 
 already mentioned, that some persons took only the cold bath of 
 the swimming-pool. The Romans, however, did not possess 
 soap, and used the strigil, or sharp scraper of bone, ivory, or 
 metal, for the same purpose for which we use the much better 
 adapted flesh-brush or flesh-glove. As compared with us, how- 
 ever, the}- more than made up for these disadvantages by the 
 frequency of their bathing. The most magnificent of their baths 
 were those of Agrippa, Nero, Titus Domitian, Commodus, Cara- 
 calla, Diocletian, and Constantine. 
 
232 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTT. 
 
 If demagogiam in Rome sometimes degraded the people 
 by giving them magnificent bribes for their liberty, in the case 
 of the baths good certainly came out of evil. Demagogueism is 
 not yet dead in the world, but unselfish generosity was never so 
 
 much alive to the good of the people as in the present era. It is 
 not too much to say thai it could not have a worthier task than 
 the institution of public baths for all seasons of the year, scat- 
 tered at proper intervals over the area of our great cities, — such 
 baths as London and even little Glasgow can now boast, in con- 
 nection with which the best laundry facilities can be procured 
 for a trifle by the poorest women. A philanthropist who should, 
 at the present stage of our civilization, supply this need of 
 cleanliness, and additionally, in the form involving the health- 
 ful exercise of swimming, would do more for the souls of the 
 people than his expenditure of an equal amount for any other 
 good purpose could accomplish. The gift would yield in return 
 wide-spread increase of health and comfort, and afford legiti- 
 mate vent to pent-up nervous energies, which, in the life of a 
 large city, are somewhere always verging upon dangerous 
 explosion. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE CLEANSING OF THE FACE. 
 
 IT may, without due reflection, seem to some persons prepos- 
 terous that any one should need instructions as to the care 
 of the face. But experience shows that there is nothing which 
 has not escaped the observation or the opportunities of learning 
 of some people. In ancient Rome people were taught to chew 
 and otherwise eat properly, — a line of instruction which would 
 not be amiss at present, if many only knew their deficiency in 
 the matter. We have seen in the course of our travels instances 
 of disgusting eating, the most egregious of which was at a 
 respectable hotel, where a man, with a bib made out of his nap- 
 kin, dripped soup over it from the eaves of a huge un trimmed 
 moustache, which he occasionally combed out with his fork. We 
 occasionally see girls, tricked out in the height of the fashion, 
 affectedly laugh so as to let one see down their throats. Yet 
 eating and laughing are two natural movements in which super- 
 ficial observers suppose that no human being can possibly need 
 instruction. 
 
 In the first place, in regard to the proper care of the face, 
 it is to be observed that no beauty of it can be based upon any- 
 thing short of the healthfulness of its skin, and that no health- 
 fulness of its skin can be secured by face-powders or face-lotions, 
 or anything short of the detersive effects of good soap and water 
 and mild friction. Simple, however, as this statement is, it needs 
 amplification to make sure of no misconception arising from it. 
 If one were to wash the face and hands in very warm or in hot 
 water, and then expose them to cold air, both would become red, 
 roughened, chapped, and coarse, as we see every da}-, in an exag- 
 gerated form, in the effects produced on the hands of servant- 
 
 (233) 
 
234 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AM) PERSONAL BEAUT7. 
 
 girls who wash outdoors with a bucketful of steaming-hot water, 
 with the temperature of the air at or below the freezing-point. 
 If, on the contrary, the temperature of the room in which the 
 face and hands are to be washed is high, and there is to be no 
 exposure of them for some time to the cold air, one can wash 
 them with impunity in warm or even in hot water. With im- 
 punity, we Bay, but not preferably, for very warm or hot water 
 has not upon the skin the desirable tonic effect of cool water, 
 which tends, through its action upon the nerves and capillaries, 
 to improve it in health and beautify it. 
 
 When we wish to remove from the skin some mass of foreign 
 matter, we use warm or hot water, but why ? Not because they 
 are as good as cold water for the health of the skin, but because 
 the foreign matter is more soluble in warm or hot water than in 
 cool ; because, under the influence of heat, the interstices of the 
 skin where the matter has securest lodgment are expanded ; and 
 because the skin itself, being more macerated by warm than by 
 cool water, readily yields up some of the foreign matter with 
 the albumen of the skin itseif. In a word, our object is different, 
 when we ordinarily wash, from our object when we are trying 
 to get rid of a mass of adherent foreign matter. The con- 
 ditions being different, the object becomes different, and, corre- 
 spondingly, the means to be adopted. 
 
 It is only by the use of cool water that we increase the 
 health and beauty of the skin. We use warm water in the bath, 
 but we should not prefer it but for the fact that we should be 
 chilled by the use of cool water in a bath of some duration. If 
 the circumstances were those of nature, enabling us to take exer- 
 cise in the bath, if we could swim there, we should find the cool 
 bath even more agreeable than the warm, — more tonic, and re- 
 freshing. The adoption of warm water instead of cool for the 
 ordinary bath is a very judicious recognition of the fact of the 
 difference between ability and non-ability to keep up the circula- 
 
THE CLEANSING OF THE FACE. 235 
 
 tion of the blood by exercise. The best bath, therefore, that 
 can be taken under the conditions of house-bathing is one of 
 
 tepid water, followed by a shower-bath of the same temperature, 
 gradually cooled down to one giving a feeling of decided cold- 
 ness, followed immediately by a brisk rubbing down with towels. 
 By this means the tonic effect of a river-bath, without the exer- 
 cise, is obtained with even a greater detersive effect. There is, 
 however, in the exhilarating influence of a bath, accompanied by 
 exercise in the open air, one tonic effect upon the sj^stem which 
 is necessarily lost indoors. 
 
 Now, the same considerations that cause us to adopt for a 
 bath, when no exercise is taken, a certain degree of warmth, to 
 compensate for the absence of exercise, do not apply at all to 
 surfaces so small as those represented by the face and hands. 
 Hence, for the face and hands we ma} 7 always avail ourselves of 
 the tonicity of cool water on the skin for promoting their health 
 and beauty. The immediate effect, especially in winter (when 
 the skin as well as the whole body has its winter temperament), 
 of applying warm or hot water to the skin, is to engorge the 
 capillaries and make the parts turgid. The blood being invited, 
 b} r the expansion of the capillaries through heat, to flow to the 
 surface, without any correspondent reflex tendency being given 
 to it, they for some time afterward remain relaxed, distended, 
 and engorged with blood. Observe the very different action of 
 cool water, and it will be perceived why its application should 
 be followed by a positively tonic effect. The blood moves rapidly 
 in two directions, awa}- from and toward the surface. In this 
 case, therefore, while the parts have not been temporarilj 7 altered, 
 their functions have been agreeably stimulated ; whereas in the 
 other case the parts have been temporarily altered, and their 
 functions temporaril}- disturbed. It is readily seen that from 
 one set of conditions the effect must be tonic, and from the other 
 depressant. 
 
236 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 There can, therefore, be no question that the proper tem- 
 perature of water with which to wash the face and hands, if one 
 desires to have a healthy and handsome complexion, is a de- 
 cidedly cool one. The degree of coolness is to be determined 
 by each one's individual judgment guided by the feelings. Water 
 so cold as to be painful is too cold for the purpose of washing 
 the face and hands, but the determination of what is too cold 
 will depend upon individual differences, — health, habit, sensitive- 
 ness of skin. Again, if water is too cold, it makes one hasten 
 to finish the operation, which, at its longest, a short one, never- 
 theless requires thoroughness in its performance. 
 
 No face-powders, lotions, or any cosmetic preparations can 
 impart beauty to the complexion ; they can merely cover and 
 leave some film upon it. Many such things fill up the pores and 
 give a pasty look to the skin, leaving their effects in a disorgan- 
 ized tissue. Not so with the cosmetic effect of water, soap, and 
 air, combined with a brisk toweling with a moderately soft towel ; 
 not hard, nor soft, nor stiff, nor thin, but with ample absorbent 
 quality and a surface that gives by friction neither the effect of 
 a rasping nor of a smooth surface. Water and soap cleanse, the 
 oxygen of the air gives life to the skin. One who will not let 
 pass from the face what nature declares should go, and prevents 
 entrance to that which nature declares should have free access, 
 presumes to teach the wise mother of mankind what is best for 
 her own children. 
 
 There is a belief among women, wdiether prevalent enough 
 to be considered a popular one we do not know, that soap is not 
 good for the complexion. This is based upon as sound reason- 
 ing, if it has any reasoning at all back of it, as is the belief of 
 persons that homoeopathic treatment is the best for children and 
 other treatment for adults. The skin does not cease to be the 
 same on the trunk of the bod}', as it is when the skin of the face. 
 Exactly what is beneficial for the skin elsewhere is beneficial for 
 
THE CLEANSING OF THE FACE. 237 
 
 the skin of the face. From the fact of the greater exposure of 
 the skin of the face, it is, even when most carefully protected from 
 air and light, not so delicate as the skin of some other parts of 
 the body. Whether or not, therefore, it is proper to wash the 
 faee with soap depends entirely upon what kind of soap is pro- 
 curable with which to wash it. Coarse soaps are undoubtedly 
 injurious to the skin anywhere. But supposing that we are 
 speaking of toilet-soaps of the most elegant kind, or merely of 
 soaps of good constituents, then nothing is so beneficial to the 
 complexion as washing the face with such soaps. An excellent 
 variety is Lubin's almond-soap, the oil of almond itself having a 
 peculiarly happ3 r , emollient effect upon the skin. 
 
 Choose soft water, or at least avoid very hard water, and 
 then wash the face as follows: After soaping the hands, pass 
 them gently over the face, well up, with the finger-tips upon the 
 temples and with the thumbs under the chin. Then bending 
 over the basin, wash the face copiously with water, going over it 
 in the round just described. Bending over the basin, with the 
 palms of the hands placed on the cheeks, it will be found that the 
 thumbs are in the position most favorably placed for running 
 them back of and in the interstices generally of the ears. Use 
 them, then, thus, at the» conclusion of canying every double- 
 handful of water to the face, first simultaneous!}' back of both 
 ears, and then around the interior of the ears. While this opera- 
 tion is proceeding, it will be perceived that there are two parts 
 of the ear which the thumbs are not so well adapted to search as 
 are the tips of the fore-fingers. These are the opening into 
 the ear, and the inner part of the fold at- the top of the ear. 
 These parts, therefore, should be washed by the insertion of the 
 wet tip of the fore-finger, revolving it gently in the opening, and 
 running it carefully around inside of the fold of the upper part 
 of the ear. A Turkish-toweling wash-rag serves well for washing 
 the ears and back of the neck. Drv the face without violence 
 
238 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 from undue severity of friction, aiming merely to give the skin 
 a gentle stimulus incidentally to removing the effete products 
 ami dirt which the soap and water have dissolved. 
 
 The hand is the best instrument for washing the face, 
 Guided by its exquisite sense of touch, especially in the tips of 
 the fingers, it almost instinctively dues its duty in searching 
 out the intricacies of the numerous folds and crevices of the 
 face. When, however, we come to the less intricate and differ- 
 ently placed area of the neck, we find a wash-rag of about 
 eight inches square (made preferably of Turkish toweling) the 
 most convenient thing for washing it, and, if desired, the 
 shoulders. The wash-rag should have a loop on one corner of it, 
 and, after being rinsed out, be hung up to air on the towel-horse 
 or rack for future use. 
 
 A very great blemish in the face is sometimes to be observed 
 as a black speck, which can be squeezed out in a form resem- 
 bling a little white worm. Shakespeare speaks of " a round little 
 worm pricked from the lazy linger of a maid." Whether he meant 
 this kind of a worm or not, which is no worm at all, although it 
 contains in large numbers a microscopic parasite, called Demodex 
 follicuIorum,we do not know. When such a point is present in 
 an otherwise healthy skin, it is caused l>3 r the torpidity of the 
 skin in that particular spot, and is merely a blemish which can 
 easily be removed by gently pressing a watch-key tube placed 
 over the spot, when the mutter will exude. When, however, the 
 points are numerous on the skin, they amount to a disease, 
 known as acne punctata, which requires medical treatment, both 
 local and constitutional, and all interference with the spots by 
 squeezing and pressing on them leads to inflaming them and in- 
 tensifying the disease. These black points are the dirty outer 
 ends of plugs of sebaceous matter filling up sebaceous ducts. 
 Unless they are derived, as they are when the}- amount to a dis- 
 ease, from some profound constitutional disturbance, their pres- 
 
THE CLEANSING OF THE FACE. 239 
 
 ence suggests need of the hygienic habit of applying good soap 
 and water with gentle friction to the face, and, not to mince 
 matters, means neglect of cleanliness. 
 
 In the case* of the presence on the face of what are c:ill<-<l 
 hirsuties, or development of hair in unusual, and therefore un- 
 sightly, positions, there is one sure and painless remedy which 
 leaves eventually no trace of its application, and only for 
 a short time any trace at all. This is the application of the 
 negative current of the galvanic battery, administered with a 
 very fine needle. The needle, being exquisitely fine, does not 
 give a sensation equal to that of the prick of a pin ; and the 
 very moderate galvanic current used does not produce much 
 more. The papilla of the hair, which later we shall have occa- 
 sion to describe, is destroyed by the current, making it impossi- 
 ble for the hair which grew from it ever to be renewed. What 
 are called depilatories, substances for removing the hair, tem- 
 porarily denude the skin of hair, only to let it renew itself with 
 a more vigorous growth than before, just as the hair is affected 
 by shaving, the length of the individual hair becoming less, but 
 the thickness oreater. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE FACE. 
 
 THE face should be shielded from fierce, inclement blasts of 
 cold air, and also from rays of a sun so hot as to blister. 
 Excepting fungi, every living thing requires for health and 
 beauty profuse heat, air, and light, and the skin requires these 
 abundantly, but for beauty within certain fixed bounds. The 
 complexion of an old sea-captain is healthy, but butternut in 
 color, and tough as to integument ; yet one may have quite as 
 healthy a skin without those characteristics. 
 
 In the case of any blemish on the face, such as is produced 
 by the presence of inappropriate hairs, small moles, or naevi, 
 commonly called " mother's marks." they can be easily removed 
 without scarring by means of the electric needle. When they 
 there amount to an aneurism by anastomosis, or intricate 
 blending of blood-vessels, scarring sometimes following their 
 removal, it had better then not be attempted. Elsewhere, even 
 such nsevi ought to be removed, for, if injured, they often, 
 with increase of years, form an ugly, sloughing sore. On the 
 face, nrevi, if small and superficial, ought to be removed by the 
 electric needle, and can be, without the result of scarring. Mr. 
 W. Beatty, of London, has lately claimed great success in their 
 removal by the application of arsenic. The preparation em- 
 ployed is the ordinary liquor arsenicalis of the British Phar- 
 macopoeia. The naevus is painted with it, with a camel's hair 
 pencil, every night and morning, until it ulcerates, a cure being 
 effected in from three to five weeks. 
 
 Incidentally, we wish to impress upon the reader that moles 
 and other abnormal skin surfaces sometimes become the seat of 
 papilloma which may degenerate into epithelioma, — a malignant 
 growth. It is, therefore, advisable for every one having such a 
 
 16 (241) 
 
242 BEREDITT, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 growth to watch it carefully, lest, as often happens, some trifling 
 
 injury to it may cause serious disease. The physician is the 
 proper person to whom to submit the case for treatment. Often 
 these growths need immediate extirpation, which is quickly 
 accomplished by the electric needle. 
 
 Sunburn, and freckles, if not of long standing, are quite 
 amenable to treatment with tincture of benzoin and water, 
 one teaspoonful of the tincture to a cupful of cold water. 
 Carefully avoiding getting the mixture into the eyes, bathe the 
 parts for ten minutes morning and night. Let the face then 
 become almost dry after bathing it, and while it is in a slightly 
 moist condition dry it gently with a piece of soft, old linen. 
 
 A good preparation for the removal of freckles is the follow, 
 ing paste : — 
 
 Oxide of zinc, 3 drachms. 
 
 Subiodide of bismuth, % drachm. 
 
 Dextrin, 2'4 drachms. 
 
 Glycerin, 3 
 
 Apply the mixture at night, before retiring, and remove the 
 residue in the morning' with a little powdered borax and sweet-oil. 
 The following recipe is useful for chapped lips : — 
 
 Quince-seed, 3 drachms. 
 
 Water, ]4 pint. 
 
 When mixed, boil them down to the volume of \ pint, 
 and then add to the mixture 2 ounces of glycerin, scenting with 
 2 or 3 drops of oil of roses. 
 
 This preparation is good, not only for chapped and cracked 
 lips, but for chapped hands. It also makes a very good dressing 
 for the hair. 
 
 The following is a convenient preparation, because it takes 
 a solid form, and can be used in small quantities, as needed: — 
 
 French gelatin, 120 grains. 
 
 Glycerin, V-i ounces. 
 
 Water, % ounce. 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OP THE FACE. 243 
 
 To prepare it for molding from these ingredients, cut the 
 gelatin up into little bits, in a wide-mouthed vial, and, after 
 adding to it the ^ fluidounce of water, melt the mixture in a 
 hot-water bath (the receptacle holding the mixture placed in 
 another receptacle containing the water, to which heat is applied;. 
 When the mixture is melted, add the glycerin, previously warmed. 
 Then shake the mixture thoroughly up, add to it a drop or two 
 of oil of roses, pour it into molds, and put it away in a cool 
 place until it sets. When removed from the molds, wrap it up 
 in paraffin-paper, such as the confectioners use. In using it, first 
 moisten the skin with water, and then apply it. 
 
 We have indicated from the first, that the most cosmetic 
 things in the world for the skin are fresh, cool water, bland sonp, 
 and gentle friction, and have expressed our disapproval of arti- 
 ficial modes of beautifying the complexion, or, rather, not of 
 beautifying it, but of concealing it from view. We have care- 
 fully pointed out that a wholesome, handsome complexion can 
 come only of the aggregated effects of fresh air, exercise, good 
 food and clothing, and generally good habits of life. At the 
 same time we recognize that there are occasions when one has 
 need of suppressing summarify the glistening of the face from per- 
 spiration, and also that, do what we will, there are persons who 
 will not heed our words of wisdom. Recognizing these facts, 
 we philosophicalfy resign ourselves to communicating such 
 information as to safe artificial cosmetics as will include those 
 of which the reader ma} r desire to know. 
 
 The following, it will be seen, is composed of very simple 
 ingr-edients, with whose nature every one is acquainted. It forms 
 a powder for the face, which, if desired of flesh color, can be so 
 tinted by the addition of 3 grains of powdered carmine : — 
 
 Prepared chalk, 1 ounce. 
 
 Carbonate of magnesia, J£ " 
 
 Pulverized chalk, '„ " 
 
 Scent with rose. For flesh color, add 3 grains of carmine. 
 
^44 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The best rouge <>f which we know, for fineness of quality 
 and for facility of application, is that contained in Madame 
 Lowenberg's pastilles de Florence. The pastilles are sometimes 
 dissolved in rose-water, and the lotion thus made is applied to 
 
 the face. This mode of using i limn produces the vulgar eliect of 
 a painted face, which, it need hardly be said, is an effect far from 
 respectable. To avoid this, the pastille should be powdered,' a 
 piece of fine flannel clipped into the powder, and the face treated 
 a- follows, a la franqais: Pass the flannel gently over the fore- 
 head and temples, avoiding the eyebrows, then over the nose, 
 then over the upper lip, then over the chin and around the 
 mouth, omitting throughout to touch the cheeks or the parts 
 under the eyes, the two points which do not need re-inforcing 
 with color, and, if so re-inforced, revealing its presence as 
 being artificial. After having delicately passed the flannel over 
 the parts described, pass over the same parts a soft piece of fine 
 linen. The etfect will be far more natural than that produced 
 by powdering the substance on the skin, or smearing it dissolved 
 over the skin, both which modes of using the pastilles, especially 
 the latter, produce a highly unnatural appearance. Flecks of 
 powder that may have fallen on the eyebrows or the eyelashes 
 can be removed with a piece of moistened linen. A brunette uses 
 the pastilles of a creamy-pink tint, and a blonde of a roseate 
 one. For bare neck and shoulders, Lubin's violet powder is a 
 famous preparation. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE HANDS. 
 
 NEXT to the face the hand has, of all the members of the 
 body, the most expression. And like all things capable 
 in action, it has expression even- in repose. Its physiognomical 
 traits, so to speak, may or may not have been developed by 
 education ; they are apparent and significant without it, almost 
 from the beginning, from nature alone. Its range of expression 
 in repose is great, and its range of expression in activity ex- 
 ceeds all but the artist's capacity to depict. Sulby used to say 
 that, such was the beauty, grace, and diversity in the hands of a 
 number of figures in a certain foreign painting representing the 
 calling of St. Matthew, he had for his own instruction re- 
 peatedly copied them. 
 
 Of two pairs of hands of which neither has ever done a 
 stitch of work, a good observer recognizes which are the capa- 
 ble ones. And when we say work, we do not mean mere work, 
 except as special work performed in conformity with the par- 
 ticular quality of brain. If any one choose to consider the fact 
 significant merely as to relative muscular endowment, let him ob- 
 serve beyond, that, independent of the capacity of brute force 
 exhibited by any hand, it reveals the presence of a more or less 
 highly gifted nervous organization. One does not find, even be- 
 fore toil has marred symmetry, elegantly-shaped hands as the 
 possession of a clodhopper, nor such hands as his as the posses- 
 sion of a statesman. Nature is harmonious in her works, from 
 the masses of her sculpture, down to the pettiest details. 
 Pinched nostrils consort with imperfect lungs, as full nostrils 
 consort with fine breathing apparatus. Refinement of organiza- 
 tion, without special muscularity, is conjoined with delicacv and 
 
 (245) * 
 
246 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 refinement of traits throughout, and so also the opposite con- 
 ditions harmoniously prevail. Function is everywhere repre- 
 sented by appropriate Btructure, down to the big mouth of the 
 orator and the big Toot of the pedestrian. 
 
 The nervous system dominates the man ; in fact, the nervous 
 system is the man. When we think of the brain as dominating 
 t hat . we should so think qualifiedly, for the brain is a part of that 
 system. If over there were a sovereign ruling by consent of the 
 governed, the brain is thus dependent upon its subjects. It 
 rules only upon the condition, not that the body politic, but 
 that the body corporate, shall be sound. It is absolutely de- 
 pendent upon the well-being of its subjects, from the highest to 
 the lowest. That their fundamental constitution shall not be 
 violated, that their labors shall not be excessive, that they shall 
 have, under law, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness, stun themselves up in the ruler's own possibilit}' of 
 pleasurable existence and life itself. The brain, without its 
 prime minister, the spinal cord ; without its cabinet of advisers, 
 the special senses; the afferent and efferent nerves, without in- 
 tegrity, may make the brain absolutely helpless to have a com- 
 mand executed, or, if affected in some lesser degree, unable to in- 
 sure an}* measure of sane rule such as we recognize as emanating 
 from mind. 
 
 Thus the brain being informed, prompted, or rest mined by 
 every part of the body, and in turn informing and controlling 
 it. dominant only upon condition of its own dependence, prime 
 ruler of the general nervous system only upon condition of the 
 soundness of both, is also harmonized with reference to the 
 mechanical means by which it deals with outside nature, and 
 chiefly as to this by the possession of the hand, :i servant char- 
 acteristic of and by which we may judge of the character of the 
 master. Through the possession of this, the chief mechanical 
 attendant of the mind, man has acquired his present high status 
 
THE HANDS. 247 
 
 in the animal kingdom. But man is enormous]}- differentiated 
 as to different races and individuals within the confines of the 
 species to which he belongs. With this differentiation, back of 
 which is infinite differentiation in the nervous system, lies 
 corresponding complexity in the character of the. hand as 
 well as of other parts of the body. The hand, as the principal 
 mechanical executor of the will, representing the individual 
 brain, the chief daily agent of the nervous system in the 
 struggle for existence, has originally, and by education comes 
 to have still more, affinity with the individual brain, and to 
 present a specific type of expression by which we recognize it in 
 repose or in action as a member determined in character by 
 individual organization. 
 
 All that has been said may be condensed thus. Struc- 
 ture and character of function being inseparable, the indi- 
 vidual nervous system being everywhere harmonious, and 
 the brain being the chief seat of the system, of which the 
 hand is the principal mechanism, the hand must plrysically 
 express the general character of the brain as representing 
 character of mind , and we appeal to observation to show that it 
 does. This member of the body, although performing the most 
 menial offices, takes part also on the highest state occasions. 
 Its pudgy contours lie on the mother's breast, characterless 
 until life and experience have given to it traits which they will 
 with time surely impart ; but thenceforward it has its life to live, 
 and its joint history with its master or mistress to tell. It wars, 
 or points the moral, turns to love, or in the wildest flights of 
 oratory rises supremely over the scene. It betrays in action or 
 repose the helpless imbecility of a torpid mind, and equally 
 reveals the mental vigor that is latent, not deployed. That it is 
 what it is, the most active physical representative of the per- 
 sonality of every human being, entitles it to a regard and care 
 which it amply repays. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HANDS. 
 
 THE hand, being the important member of the body described 
 in the las£ chapter, every rational being will endeavor to 
 make it presentable. The first of negative qualities in its pre- 
 sentability will, of course, be cleanliness. But, unless doomed 
 by toil to hardness of skin and stiffness of joints, it should have 
 also the positive virtues of gently pronounced muscularity and 
 suppleness, as thus best adapted to the large range of duty 
 which fitness for the plastic and mechanical capacity of mankind 
 demands. And not less are these attributes of the hand aestheti- 
 cally than they are usefully requisite to its excellence. Its dis- 
 tinctive attributes, of usefulness and beauty, stand on an equal, 
 although on a different, footing. Beauty in it is conditioned 
 upon its appearance of serviceableness ; a meagre, undeveloped 
 hand being not more surely incapable of fine action than of 
 presenting any appearance of capacity. Such a hand gives dis- 
 satisfaction to the mind from perception of deficiency, which is, 
 in a sense, a deformity. A foot that cannot walk, a hand that 
 cannot act, is a defect, not only from the point of view of use- 
 fulness, but from that of beauty. Aurora, although a goddess, 
 the gracious, the glorious, and refined, the rosy-fingered Daughter 
 of the Dawn, does not scorn deftly to draw aside the sable cur- 
 tains of the night. 
 
 It is universally agreed that the handsome hand has tapering 
 fingers, and nails of the form called almond-shaped. "We do not 
 remember ever to have seen the fingers too tapering to be grace- 
 ful, but the almond-shape of the nail is occasional!} 7 found in 
 excess. This term, almond-shape, refers to the shape as looked 
 down upon from immediately above the nail. Referring to the 
 
 (249) 
 
250 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 true shape of the nail, as Been from another point of view, side- 
 wise, it should curve slightly from side to side, but scarcely 
 perceptibly from front to rear. When it curves markedly from 
 root to tip it becomes extremely unsightly, ami this defecl may 
 reach a point in which it amounts to a disease, which will he 
 described in the chapter on the subject of the nails. Reaching 
 that degree of malformation, it presents the appearance of a 
 modified talon. If beyond the smallest degree it curves from 
 root to tip, that formation represents a defect, and the nails 
 should he kept most carefully pared to avoid exaggerating its 
 appearance. 
 
 The paper-nail is caused by a congenital defect in the 
 nutrition of the nail-suhstance. When such nails occur they 
 should he carefully trimmed down to the most restricted dimen- 
 sions, for when allowed to grow, as we have seen them, with the 
 corners appearing well above the end of the finger, they are not 
 only unsightly, but are liahle to be painfully torn. In such cases 
 the advice of a physician should he taken, Avith the hope that 
 some palliation of the disease may he effected, and the nail he 
 made to assume a more serviceahle and more sightly condition. 
 
 As we intend to devote a separate chapter to a description 
 of the structure and growth of the nail, which will, of course, 
 apply equall}' to the nails of the hands and the feet, we shall not 
 here enter more deeply into the suhjeet than to describe in 
 general terms the treatment which the nails, as the most distin- 
 guished portion of the hand, require to insure their present ability. 
 Be the shape of the hand and the nails never so handsome, if a 
 person is not especially fastidious as to the nicety of the latter, 
 the hand loses its social position, and damages its owner's repu- 
 tation for keeping good company ; whereas, on the contrary, be 
 the hand never so homely, if it he cared for, the fact will be 
 evident, and it will be recognized as the associate of a gentleman 
 or gentlewoman. 
 
THE COSMETIC CAKE AND TREATMENT OF THE HANDS. 251 
 
 It is by constant, assiduous, not intermittent, attention to 
 the hand that it is kept in proper order. A little box of mani- 
 cure instruments aid the process, hut are merely conveniences 
 with which one can dispense. For the regular routine of the 
 toilette of the hands, one should, in washing them, never fail to 
 press gently back with the towel, as they are being wiped, the 
 delicate selvedge-like edge-around the root of the nail. There 
 are little ivory, spade-shaped instruments that are purchasable 
 for this purpose, which come in all manicure boxes. The 
 effect of the nail is wonderfully enhanced by the appearance 
 of the lunula, or little whitish half-moon at its base. When the 
 selvedge-edge is pressed back, it reveals this pretty feature of 
 the part. The edge of the skin, being pressed back when the 
 hands are damp, grows symmetrically, and makes a delicate set- 
 ting for the nail. Neglected, the nail in growing becomes laden 
 with some of the surrounding skin, covered with whose flakes it 
 presents a most unsightly appearance as it continues to push 
 forward. Some persons are so obtuse to the beauty of this deli- 
 cate edge of skin at the base of the nail that the}* actually trim 
 it away, leaving an ugly red rim around the nail, like the edge 
 of an inflamed eyelid. 
 
 Of course, all excrescences, such as warts, must be remoA'ed 
 from the hand ; also such things as agnails, or hangnails, as they 
 are popularly called, ragged pieces of skin caused by the forward 
 growth of the nail. With constant care in keeping the skin at 
 the base of the nail pressed back, these latter, however, do not 
 occur. The most common treatment of warts, with nitrate of 
 silver (lunar caustic), is quite painful, and has to be frequently 
 renewed. A high authority, Kaposi, suggests the following ap- 
 plication for their treatment : Paint delicately, with a camel's 
 hair brush, on and around the base of the wart, once daily, 
 with a solution of 1 part of bichloride of mercury to 30 parts 
 of collodion. 
 
252 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Fowler's solution of arsenic, from 1 to 3 minims, twice 
 a day, taken internally, has been known to effect the cure of 
 warts. 
 
 Warta can be summarily removed by the action of the 
 electric needle. 
 
 There are many refinements connected with the beautifica- 
 tion of the hand which some persons would not find it possible 
 to practice. All, however, are able to accept and pursue the 
 following course as the basis of any possible amplification of the 
 process. 
 
 "Wash the hands frequently with soft water and bland soap, 
 avoiding the use of warm water except for the removal of an 
 exceptional amount of foreign matter on the skin. In wiping 
 the hands, press backward in all directions the skin around the 
 nails. Trim the nails neatly with a sharp penknife (if } T ou can, 
 use the knife instead of the scissors), so that the}' shall be 
 slightly rounding at the ends, and not project beyond the ends 
 of the fingers. Then round them off to the greatest nicety with 
 the delicate kind of file to be found in the manicure boxes and 
 elsewhere. Daily employment of this filing process enables one 
 even to dispense with paring the nails. Some persons, few we 
 are happy to say, are like Miss Bets}' Trotwood, who, being 
 afraid of fire, always -went to a hotel in London where they had 
 a marble staircase, and, to secure more marble staircase, took a 
 room at the top of the house. They cherish the nails as if they 
 were exotic plants that ought to show their luxuriance of growth. 
 We have even known a man to have a single pet nail, which was 
 the cherished Joseph of the family of brethren, to the point of 
 having a coat of many colors. 
 
 The nails of a Chinaman of exalted rank, grown long to 
 show that he is above the possibilit}' of manual labor, propped 
 up with bamboo sticks, grooved, tawny, friable, are disgusting. 
 In only lesser degree, nails grown distinctly beyond the end of 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HANDS. 253 
 
 the finger resemble claws, and, to whatever point the practice is 
 pushed, are to that degree repulsive. Only those nails are hand- 
 some which, in themselves handsome by constitution, are con- 
 stantly changed by new growth, and so pared as to project no 
 farther beyond the end of the finger or the toe than to subserve 
 nature's purpose of protection. Back of a certain kind of 
 beauty there is no utility ; it is an independent existence. Back 
 of a certain other kind, as we have shown, must be demonstrated 
 utility. Without the recognition in practice of this fact, beauty 
 which might exist is often suppressed. It is not we, but nature, 
 that lays down these laws. 
 
 Going back to the times of our grandmothers, when things 
 in this country were much more primitive than at present, 
 it was a common thing to find bran upon the washstand, to be 
 used for imparting softness to the skin of the hand. It was em- 
 ployed either in the form of flour or as compounded with soap. 
 It is none the less now a serviceable substance for the purpose 
 named. The flour has, before becoming saturated, a certain 
 moderate roughness, which fits it for polishing, and, after becom- 
 ing saturated, for an emollient agent, some small amount of 
 which is doubtless absorbed by the skin. 
 
 A piece of smooth pumice-stone is well adapted for the 
 removal of any callosities or hard parts on the palm of the hand. 
 Then follows the hygienic treatment with water and bland soap, 
 accompanied, if one please, by the use of bran-flour. Added to 
 this one can very much increase the delicacy and beauty of the 
 skin of the hands by putting upon them, and rubbing well into 
 them, by revolving them within each other, some preparation 
 like the oil of almonds. There was in this country, man}' years 
 ago, a very elegant preparation of the kind, in the form of a 
 pomade, but inquiry for it lately among pharmacists and per- 
 fumers has gone to show that the article is no longer in the 
 market. A speck of this, no bigger than a small pea, well 
 
254 
 
 HEREDITY. HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 rubbed into the skin of the hands, imparted to it a sensation of 
 delightful softness and pliability, and to the sense of smell the 
 most pleasant gratification. 
 
 [fthe hands be first of all washed in almond-meal dissolved 
 in warm water, and rubbed when dry with lemon-juice or with 
 Rhenish cologne, and then bathed with the preparation of ben- 
 zoin mentioned in the chapter on the treatment of the face, they 
 are much benefited. "We here give the ingredients of a prepara- 
 tion for the same purpose, as compounded b} r one of the first 
 pharmaceutists of Philadelphia: — 
 
 AMYGDALINE, OK FLOUB OF ALMONDS. 
 
 Best almond-meal, 4 pounds. 
 
 Powdered orris-root, 1 pound. 
 
 Powdered castile-soap (white), .... 2 pounds. 
 
 Oil of bergamot, y 2 ounce. 
 
 Oil of bitter almonds, 1 drachm. 
 
 Extract of musk, y, ounce. 
 
 Mix thoroughly, sift, and keep in a dry place. 
 
 The following recipe for the same purpose is derived from 
 the Medical Magazine of Pharmacy : — 
 
 ALMOND-MEAL. 
 
 Almond-meal, in fine powder, prepared from 
 blanched bitter almonds, after the oil has been 
 
 extracted, 6 ounces. 
 
 Orris-root, in fine powder, 4 " 
 
 Wheat-flour, 4 " 
 
 White castile-soap, in line powder, ... 1 ounce. 
 
 Borax, in fine powder, 1 " 
 
 Oil of bitter almonds, 10 drops. 
 
 Oil of bergamot 2 drachms. 
 
 Tincture of musk, 1 drachm. 
 
 .Mix thoroughly, and pass the mixture through a fine sieve. 
 
 A third recipe for the same purpose is also introduced here, 
 in order that the reader may have some range of selection. It 
 is prepared by the same pharmaceutist just alluded to, and is 
 especially grateful to the skin when suffering from irritation 
 such as that induced by shaving : — 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HANKS. 255 
 
 COCOALINE. 
 
 Butter of cocoa, jounce. 
 
 Oil of fresh, sweet almonds, K " 
 
 Glycerin, 1 " 
 
 Finest-powdered, white castile-soap, . . • X " 
 
 Oil of roses, 2 drops. 
 
 Oil of neroli, 4 " 
 
 Oil of hitter almonds, 5 " 
 
 Rose-water, sufficient to make up to . . .8 ounces. 
 Make an emulsion. 
 
 The following will be found eminent^ soothing and cura- 
 tive for cases of chapped hands : — 
 
 Glycerin, 2 ounces. 
 
 Egg-albumen, 2 " 
 
 Oil of roses, 2 drops. 
 
 Rub the mixture gently into the skin several times a day. 
 
 The delicacy and beauty of the skin of the hands may be 
 increased by wearing gloves at night. The mere wearing of 
 gloves under these circumstances has a good effect. This may, 
 however, be much increased b^y moistening the hands with one 
 or another of the three preparations of almond just given above. 
 The gloves used should be loose, and made of chamois-skin, 
 beaver, or kid. Any such leather gloves, especially such as, 
 from having been worn, are soft and roomy, serve the purpose 
 well. 
 
 This process of glove-wearing at night may be made more 
 elaborate. Preparatory to all attempts at refinements, there 
 must be, however, the true basis for refinement already de- 
 scribed. If such has been reached, gloves ma}' be worn at night 
 to advantage, in connection with certain preparations which 
 have been devised for the cosmetic treatment of the hands. 
 Supposing that the hands have been duly cared for by the em- 
 ployment of fine pumice-stone on the palms, and that of bland 
 soaps, such as almond, glycerin, lettuce-oil, white castile; the 
 skin of the fingers properly rubbed away from the lunula of the 
 nails, and the nails themselves polished (never scrape them) 
 
•_'>, HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 with a composition of line emery-powder and cinnabar, using 
 an instrument such as one finds in the manicure boxes (chamois- 
 skin barked with wood); then the hands are ready for 
 ultimate refinement. 
 
 You can use large, soft, leather gloves three or four sizes 
 too large. Rip them open and spread the inside with one of the 
 following- preparations. The simplest, and therefore the hast 
 troublesome to make, are the three following ones : — 
 
 1. Ground barley, the white of an egg, a teaspoonful of 
 
 glycerin, and 1 ounce of honey. ' 
 
 2. Home-made soft soap, }4 pound. 
 
 Olive-oil, 1 gill. 
 
 Mutton-tallow, 1 ounce. 
 
 After boiling these together, remove them from the fire before 
 adding — 
 
 Spirits of wine, 1 gill. 
 
 Ambergris, or some other perfume, to an amount to suit the 
 taste, always being on your guard not to seeut things 
 too highly. 
 
 3. Refined pine-tar, 1 teaspoonful. 
 
 Olive-oil, 1 pint. 
 
 Melt in a water-bath, scenting with rose-water or some other perfume. 
 This is a preparation which does not spoil. 
 
 The following two preparations, for use with cosmetic 
 gloves, are slightly more elaborate : — 
 
 1. Myrrh, 1 ounce. 
 
 Honey, 4 ounces. 
 
 Yellow wax 2 " 
 
 Rose-water, 6 " 
 
 Melt the wax in a water-bath, and add the myrrh to it while it is hot. 
 After beating them up together, add the honey and rose-water. Beat all up, 
 and add glycerin by the teaspoonful until you secure a paste which will spread 
 nicely. 
 
 2. Oil of sweet almonds, 2 teaspoonfuls. 
 
 Glycerin, 1 teaspoonful. 
 
 Rice-flour, 1 " 
 
 Fresh eggs, 2 yelks. 
 
 Rose-water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Tincture of benzoin, 36 drops. 
 
 Beat up until the mixture forms a paste. 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HANDS. 257 
 
 Occasionally unsightly white spots appear on the nail- 
 surface. These can generally be removed by the following 
 preparation, put on at night, and the residue removed the next 
 morning with some little oily substance, such as butter, cream, 
 or other things to be found in every household, — some refined 
 pitch, with a little myrrh, and, after mixing them together, lay 
 the mixture over the nails for the night. 
 
 There are certain substances so powerful in their action on 
 the root of the nail as to injure its constitution for a long time 
 following frequent contact with them, perhaps in some cases per- 
 manently. We had, several years ago, an experience of this kind 
 in connection with using sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) for cer- 
 tain experiments which we were making with galvanic batteries 
 charged with the acid dissolved in water. The nails became 
 ridged, and some of their individual cells raised above the general 
 surface, and it was not until several jears had passed that these 
 effects ceased to be visible. Deceived by a name, persons often 
 innocently use an article of which they would be very war}- if 
 they only knew of its real character through the name with 
 which they are familiar. Vitriol has a much worse significance 
 to the mind of the laity than has sulphuric acid ; so also they 
 have of aqua for-tis a dread which they do not alwa}^s feel in the 
 case of nitric acid. A case of this kind came not long ago to 
 our notice, where a lady, following out a recipe for cleaning 
 marble, which she had happened upon in some book, bought 
 quite largely of what she did not think of as a particularly 
 dangerous liquid, and was shortly afterward horrified at learning 
 that she had been buying aquafortis under the (to her) innocent 
 title of nitric acid, an article which she then recognized as most 
 undesirable to have about a nursery. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE FEET. 
 
 NO portion of the body is more imposed upon than is the 
 civilized foot. It alone, including in lesser degree, be- 
 cause numerically much fewer, the waists of some silly women 
 who have no appreciation of what in feminine attributes pleases 
 the eye of man, leads a life of durance vile and wretchedness 
 that degrade and transmit evidence of previous servile condition 
 to posterity. We do not, as that expression implies, place the 
 two kinds of bondage in the same category as to degree of 
 iniquity. We cite the two cases together, merely as represent- 
 ing the only two in which the human body is in civilization con- 
 strained to its manifest injury and degradation. The gartering 
 of some women below, instead of above, the knee is not a hy- 
 gienic nor a beautifying mode of securing the stocking, for it 
 impedes circulation in the part and vulgarizes the contour of 
 the calf of the leg ; but that practice is a trifle, not in comparison 
 worth mentioning. 
 
 An excessively small waist may be a sign of maidenhood, 
 but suggests sexual deficienc}^, and in lessening sexual attrac- 
 tion defeats the end of its constriction. Ex pede Herculem, 
 from a mere fragment we can judge of the whole person, says 
 the Latin proverb, and no woman with a wasp-waist will ever 
 persuade a man that it can merge into the grand contours of 
 bosom and fine hips, any more than he can think of a rill as 
 directly related to the ocean. Similarly we may say of the feet, 
 that they, as well as the hands, symbolize the whole person. 
 Their undue constraint results in destroying their natural accord 
 with the person, and at the same time in lessening grace through 
 restricted liberty of movement. There are men who lace, but 
 
 (259) 
 
260 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 very few,and men who wear tight boots, but comparatively very 
 few. It is civilized woman, of not the highest type of the 
 civilization by which she is Burrounded, who is the sinner in 
 these respects. 
 
 We Americans are the greatest inventors of the world. 
 Even Dickens, who was no lover of us nationally, although fond 
 of our ducats, conceded that only Americans had discovered 
 what to do with the small of the back, — " they sit on it,' r he said. 
 But, while we are the greatest inventors of the world, we are 
 also the most servile imitators. Thousands of men, while pre- 
 tending politically to look down upon the Britisher, anxiously 
 copy his speech, his accent, and clothes. The fair sex, to a 
 woman, without, any similar pretense, frankly yields allegiance 
 to Parisian rule in dress. It is not the Britisher, however, who 
 has changed within a decade or two, his conceit pointing as 
 steadily as ever to himself, as points the needle to the pole; nor 
 the French either, wdiose self-satisfaction in supremacy within 
 their own domain could not well be less than it is as undisputed. 
 But, if we can be so original as we have proved ourselves, why 
 cannot we stand in all respects more confidently alone? Grant- 
 ing the claims of fashion, yet there is a point where reason would 
 seem to he more capable than it proves to he in dealing with 
 fashion's follies in the interest even of the object of fashion. — 
 to increase attraction. Has it never struck American women 
 who have been addicted to wearing the most damaging of French 
 shoes, in which a Parisian never thinks of walking, but reserves 
 for the house or carriage, that the native-born type to which they 
 belong is so singularly endowed with small hands and feet, in 
 some parts of country verging on the danger-line of beaut}', 
 which we have indeed seen overpassed, that they have no need 
 of affecting this elegance as if they had it not? If this be true, 
 as can be proved by statistics, what an absurdly it is for them 
 to pinch and screw their feet into shoes too small, when all they 
 
THE FEET. 201 
 
 have to do is to be handsomely and comfortably shod, and still 
 as to their feet be far below the standard of size with which 
 their foreign sisters step complacently on our shores. 
 
 Much has been said regarding the late barefaced way in which 
 bogns, non-bogus, exhausted, ruined, impecunious foreigners 
 have purchased American girls with their bogus or non-bogus, but 
 always impecunious, offers of rank, and the humiliating phase of 
 American girls being willing to transfer themselves for this 
 titular vanity, when it is notorious that in no country has 
 woman, whether as child, girl, or matron, so high a place as in 
 this in chivalric love and respect. But, whereas the girls so 
 disposing of themselves are palpably only " pleased with a rattle, 
 tickled with a straw," sufficient credit has not been awarded 
 to their captors for the good taste which they have evinced, 
 their sole motive having been deemed mercenaiy. But let us 
 look for a moment at the thing in the glass of fashion, by which 
 to judge the mold of form, and see if Ave have done these 
 foreigners the fullest justice. Be thej- real or spurious, lords or 
 lordlings, counts or bogus counts, it will be seen upon scrutiny 
 that the}^ have an eye for other things besides the main chance. 
 
 The action of these girls has been characterized as outrage- 
 ous from the point of view of morals. But we shall not be so 
 severe in our thoughts, remembering that, for the most part, in 
 the feminine mind, the mere practice, without the religious 
 theory of matrimony, covers, like charity, a multitude of sins. 
 We characterize it as unwise, from the fact that in America the 
 wife holds the highest position which she has yet attained. We 
 confess, however, that if we were a count or bogus count, or a 
 needy foreigner of any sort, that, as we should not be expected 
 to have aivy morals, we should be most happy to accept in 
 marriage any rich American girl who is at the same time hand- 
 some and all that thousands of American girls are otherwise in 
 delectability, and that is just what these men are doing. One 
 
- _ HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 of them must be very forlorn indeed to demand only money for 
 his rank. Ee must, as a general rule, have* beauty, grace, 
 vivacity, manners, education, or else the money-bags must be 
 very heavy, ami perhaps they will not even then suffice to tip 
 the scale. It is only a very dilapidated American old maid who 
 has to pay an inordinately high price for a poor specimen of a 
 count like a barber. So we argue that great injustice has been 
 done to the motives ami taste of these foreigners, ami impliedly 
 to the charms of the American girls whom they preferably seek. 
 They have a keen appreciation of the personal charms of these 
 girls. With their sublime egotism, they only want the earth, 
 and they get it. 
 
 Granting the brightness, vivacity y information, tact, grace, 
 and all other attractive attributes of the girls, back of these, 
 however, there must still be something in their physical charac- 
 teristics which makes them so attractive to foreigners, for these 
 qualities do not of themselves ever prove most powerful in 
 sexual selection. The main attraction is through that principle 
 which nature is continually manifesting as operative among 
 human beings, — the affinity of opposites. Frederic the Great's 
 regiment of giants left progeny of huge size at Potsdam, but we 
 do not hear that the race has been maintained. If every tall 
 man and tall woman, and similarly of the short of both sexes, 
 should come together by elective affinity in marriage, what 
 would become of the human race as we know it, even within the 
 3pan of a hundred years? It is the delicacy of the traits of the 
 American woman which attracts the average foreigner. After 
 the whopping big feet and hands of many foreign women, 
 especially of Englishwomen, it is delightful to see the sylph-like 
 delicacy of the sex in America as to their extremities. And the 
 whole person of the American girl partakes of this delicacy of 
 physical traits, and. coupled with mental attributes, represents 
 what foreigners find so attractive in her. Therefore, her reflec- 
 
THE FEET. 263 
 
 tion, as viewed in the foreign glass of fashion, which she bas 
 chosen to judge of her mold of form, being so satisfactory, it is 
 folly for her to seek to exaggerate one of her physical traits 
 which already verges upon excess. 
 
 The lowest tj'pe of foot is that of the negro. Its lowness is 
 constituted by the simian flatness of the instep, the hollow of 
 the foot being obliterated. The calcaneum, or heel-bone, stand- 
 ing at a considerable angle from the vertical, toward the rear, 
 as a consequence lowers the arch of the instep. Instead of the 
 foot as a whole being a high arch, it becomes none at all, from 
 the fact that one of its abutments is thrown far away from the 
 centre. In the highest type of foot the instep rises in a swelling 
 arch. This trait ma} r , however, like any other, be excessive. 
 Then it becomes unsightly, and, reaching the extremest point, is 
 a deformity. We have known a person who had a foot so short 
 and an instep so high as to make the effect club-footed, and he 
 (for it was a man) could not walk with ease. The Arab's test 
 of elegance and refinement in a foot, that water will flow under 
 its hollow, shows that early ift the history of the human race 
 anatomical differences in its tj'pes were recognized. The Arabs, 
 as a conquering race, were very eav\y thrown in contact with 
 the negro in Africa, and their own Eastern elegance of extremi- 
 ties must have struck them as in strange contrast with the 
 negro's rudeness of form of the same parts. 
 
 It should be axiomatic that nothing, except face and hands. 
 can be so aristocratic as a well-dressed, shapely foot ; nothing 
 so plebeian as an ill-dressed, clumsy one; and nothing more 
 vulgar than any foot in a shoe manifestly too tight. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE FEET. 
 
 THE civilized foot presents one of the best proofs of flie 
 correctness of the theory, that it takes a vastly longer time 
 to affect the congenital features of a structure than to affect the 
 adult form of them. It must be remembered that, what we call 
 civilization has endured for only a few hundred 3'ears, and that 
 it is only during this comparatively brief period in the history 
 of man that the foot has been unduly constrained. Going back 
 to the period when statuary brings us face to face with the gen- 
 eral condition of the foot in ancient times, we find that the great 
 toe stood somewhat outward, instead of, as now, standing straight 
 forward, or somewhat inward, which is, perhaps, the most com- 
 mon modern position of the member. Children of civilization, 
 when first born, exhibit this t}'pe of foot, but, whether or not 
 they subsequently go barefoot, later in life exhibit one of the two 
 other types. This shows, what has been proA'ed in man}" other 
 ways in connection with animal life, that through continuous 
 modification of function on definite lines, the animal, when first 
 born, may not show any change in structure, although, at a 
 later period of the individual's life, the long-latent impression 
 may come into visible existence. 
 
 Great absurdities are uttered regarding feet. We have known 
 a foot to be called handsome because it was inordinately small, 
 when it had not a single handsome attribute, the one specially 
 praised being so much in excess as to amount to a defect. A foot, 
 to be really beautiful, must have a fine instep, perfectly straight 
 and individually symmetrical toes ; the nails of rose-pearly, not 
 yellowish, tint; heel of gently outward curvature; and, in gen- 
 eral contour, be softly rounding and delicately tinted with a rosy 
 
 (265) 
 
HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 heel and outside edge. Smallness of size, which must be con- 
 sidered iff strict relation to the whole person, is also an element 
 
 of beauty in it not to be despised, it' not present in excess. It 
 is a beautiful foot that we have described, hard to find, and yet 
 existing, and possible of maintenance in its pristine beauty by 
 those who are sensible, to whom nature has been gracious in her 
 gifts. So born, it may be so nurtured as to be t'o its possessor 
 a useful companion in the path through life; but, maltreated, 
 will, as surely as fate, repaj in misery the indignities to which it 
 may have been subjected. 
 
 So much suffering is often caused by corns and bunions as 
 to make those afflicted with them unable to taste of the pleasures, 
 or even to be equal to the comfortable performance of the duties, 
 of life. The pitch of misery which is sometimes reached in con- 
 sequence of their presence is well represented in the by -word of 
 a charitable old friend of ours, who, when seeing a person cross 
 and crabbed without apparent cause, always remarks, " Oh, poor 
 thing, his [or her] feet must hurt." 
 
 It ought to be said, in this connection, that the culpability 
 of having corns is much less than that of having bunions. Skins 
 differ so much in different persons in softness and pliancy, that 
 an ill-fitting shoe, as well as one too tight, is capable of produc- 
 ing corns. The presence of a bunion, however, is proof positive 
 that shoes have been continuously worn too tight. The differ- 
 ence in the cases lies in this, that one affection arises from fric- 
 tion, or from pressure on the skin, but the other from pressure 
 on a joint; and the latter proclaims at once through sensation 
 the injury that is being done, while the former may go on for a 
 long time without producing an}- sensation at all. Besides, as 
 the two positions where bunions occur are on the main joints of 
 the great and little toes, in both of which, unless there be mal- 
 formation of the foot, pressure from a shoe is lessened by its 
 distribution over a large curved area, the existence of the bunion 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OB' THE FEET. 267 
 
 proves that the pressure to which the parts have been deliberately 
 subjected was enormous. Thrice unhappy he or she who has a 
 bunion surmounted by a corn as legitimate heir-apparent to the 
 throne I 
 
 Our advice is, Don't. Do not deliberately do that which is 
 certain to entail discomfort and perhaps misery to the end of 
 life. Avoid so-called cheap shoes, the dearest one can buy. Un- 
 less you happen to know of a number for readj'-made shoes 
 which represents a size that exactly suits you, avoid all ready- 
 made shoes. The wretched period has passed when people had 
 not even " rights and lefts," but wore what were called straight 
 shoes, which were transposed eveiy night, to shift their places 
 in the next day's wear. Sensible, handsome shoes are procur- 
 able in every large city. Miserable ones are, of course, also to 
 be found there, and so the purchaser, if wary, will avoid them. 
 If there be no number among the ready-made shoes that repre- 
 sents for you an exact fit, have your shoes made to order, and do 
 not take them unless you feel that the}' fit. Eveiy one knows 
 for himself or herself best where the shoe pinches, and whether 
 or not it fits. Break in no man's shoes. The operation is at 
 
 3'our untold expense. The test of whether they fit is to be found 
 
 » 
 only by the sensation of feeling, not in the shoemaker's state- 
 ment that they will soon come all right. The test for that sen- 
 sation, as given by one of the best shoemakers whom we ever 
 knew, was that in a well-fitting shoe one's foot feels like a duck's 
 in the mud. The expression is not elegant, but a more elegant 
 one would be less graphic. 
 
 Follow the guidance of nature ; the shoemaker follows it in 
 his own interest. Those worthy people sometimes flatter, as did 
 the fox when he besought the crow up the tree, with a piece of 
 cheese in her beak, to exhibit her lovely voice for his delecta- 
 tion. Nature prescribes that the toes shall lie straight, not be 
 bunched up against their joints; that the sole of the foot shall 
 
868 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 not rest on :i narrow strip of Leather, with the Bides of the foot 
 bilging over on the ground. Even fashion has at last come 
 pa tially t«> see that nature is right, and is in some degree brush- 
 i 11 iz" impatiently aside former Buffering and vulgarity in the 
 wearing of shoes. 
 
 The corn is not the kind of formation described by charlatans. 
 The wonder-mongers as to the simplest things stamp themselves 
 as quacks. The corn has no root. It does not grow upward I »ut 
 downward, and it is thus protruded upward. Its root, if it could 
 be said to have a root, would be in the tight point of the unduly 
 pressing shoe. The reader can easily understand now, with the 
 aid of the information in preceding pages as to the constitution 
 and growth of the skin, that nature, in seeking to protect itself 
 against injury, forms layer after la3'er of the horny layer of 
 the scarf-skin over the point of pressure. The layer on top of 
 a corn is the earliest, not the latest of the growths. The latest 
 growth is at the bottom of all, directly in contact with disor- 
 ganized mucous-layer tissue. This disorganized, unhealthy mu- 
 cous layer it is which, when the corn as a mass is removed from 
 the foot, clings to its base, and is triumphantly exhibited by the 
 quack as its root. If you will examine fine slices of a corn cut 
 horizontally across, you will find that they represent concentric 
 layers of a horny substance, and this is the dead horny layer of 
 the scarf-skin. 
 
 It follows, then, that, with, proper attention to the feet, 
 corns can be easily removed, and that, if the attention be assidu- 
 ous, as it ought to be, they need never occur. By means of 
 soaking the feet in warm water, which softens the dead horny 
 layer of the scarf-skin, it can be peeled off until it is reduced to 
 the single layer at the general surface of the foot. After that, if 
 the attention be continuous, through bathing the feet in warm 
 water, followed by the use of a delicate file and rough towel, the 
 tendency to the formation of a corn at the place can be checked. 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THK IKKT. 269 
 
 If the case be one of long neglect, then the only additional treat- 
 ment to be adopted is, after the use of the warm bath, to 3often 
 the part, to reduce its size preliminarily by paring oil' the com 
 with a sharp pen-knife, being especially careful not to injure the 
 surrounding flesh, or to cut to the quick the corn itself. After 
 that, the routine, regular processes previously recommended will 
 suffice to keep the corn suppressed until the end of the longest life. 
 
 Whenever one is so situated, pecuniarily and otherwise, as 
 to be able to procure them, the services of a skillful chiropodist 
 at regular stated intervals is a great luxury. Forty years ago a 
 gentleman of this city advocated the employment of a skillful 
 chiropodist with every regiment of the army, but, so far as we 
 are aware, without producing any impression as to its signal 
 advantage. Later, however, during our civil war, thirty 
 years ago, some action was taken in that direction. Now, the 
 greatest military power in the world, the German Empire, has 
 finally introduced the practice of employing chiropodists with 
 the arm} r . What, however, applies to a couple of millions of 
 soldiers, representing persons drawn from man}' classes of 
 society, does not apply, at least as obligator}', to very many 
 persons, and, least of all, to gentlemen and ladies. 
 
 The soft corn, which sometimes ensues from a single day's 
 hot marching or walking, and often presents itself between the 
 toes, partakes of the nature of a blister. It is easily reduced 
 within a few hours by the use of small, rounded pieces cut from 
 an old, white-kid glove, with holes made in the centre, so as to 
 keep away all contact from the excrescence. White kid, being 
 without dye, is preferable to colored kid for the purpose. It is, 
 also, independent of the fact that dye is poisonous, and that it 
 hardens leather, better for the purpose, from the circumstance, 
 not generally known, that the best kid — that which is most soft 
 and pliable — is reserved for undyed gloves, dye to a certain 
 degree disguising quality. 
 
2T0 HEREDITY. HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The bunion can sometimes be reduced by the process of 
 applying, with a camel's hair brush, tincture of iodine to the 
 inflamed part, or by the application of a soothing poultice, such 
 as one made of flaxseed, or of flaxseed and slippery elm. Some- 
 times the great mistake in treatment is made, of cutting a hole 
 in a snugly-fitting shoe, just large enough to uncover the inflamed 
 area and no more. In the confined parts of the foot, thus 
 uniformly constricted, the circulation is equalized on that large 
 surface, and remains sensibly undisturbed; whereas, inasmuch as 
 the free part of the foot tends to rise through the opening, the 
 edges of the whole press harmfully on the diseased part. The 
 consequence is that the blood tends to flow into and engorge 
 the diseased part, the condition of which, from increasing press- 
 ure from these cumulative causes, becomes worse and worse. 
 The best course to pursue for reducing the inflammation and 
 swelling is to give the part perfect rest in a loose slipper. If 
 this be not feasible, then the next best course is to make the 
 hole in the ordinary shoe so large as to uncover not only 
 the inflamed area but a large margin all around it. By this 
 plan the tendency of blood to the part is not stimulated, and 
 the inflammation and engorgement of the part intensified ; but, 
 on the contrary, it is relieved of all stress as the indispensable 
 condition of its getting well. 
 
 The prompt cure of this affection is most important, for if 
 the synovial membrane, the membrane lining the joint, should 
 become seriously diseased, and its secretions abnormal, the 
 ailment becomes chronic, and life-long suffering, increasing with 
 vears, may be entailed. Such a condition, we need hardly say, 
 debars one from many legitimate pleasures otherwise easy of 
 attainment. We have in our mind's eye now the case of a lady, 
 who, a few months ago, came to Philadelphia for a visit of two 
 weeks' recreation, when, in consequence of having resumed while 
 traveling shoes too tight for her, her old ailment of an inflamed 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE FEET. 271 
 
 joint recurred, and she was unable to stir out of the house 
 during her whole stay in the city. The ease, as one of impru- 
 dence, is all the more remarkable beeause, only a year before, 
 she had had, under precisely the same circumstances, fair winn- 
 ing of what was likely to happen if she persisted in wearing 
 shoes too tight, for on that occasion of a visit to the city for 
 recreation she had, through the same imprudence, been able to 
 pay only a visit or two before she was confined to the house 
 with the inflamed joint for the remainder of her sta}'. This is 
 certainly a heavy penalty to pay for original and continued petty 
 tribute to vanity, still lingering sufficient^ to postpone cure, or 
 perhaps to remove all rational hope of it forever. 
 
 The two following formulas represent good prescriptions for 
 the treatment of corns and bunions : — 
 
 1. Borate of sodium, ....... 1 drachm. 
 
 Extract of cannabis,. 1 scruple. 
 
 Collodion, . . . ... . .1 ounce. 
 
 Paint over the corn or bunion every day once or twice, and after five or six 
 applications the superficial growth can be scraped off. 
 
 2. Salicylic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Cocaine, ......... 5 grains. 
 
 Collodion, % ounce. 
 
 Paint over the corn or bunion twice a day, and scrape away the superficial 
 growth at the end of three or four days. 
 
 The two following recipes will be found good for the treat- 
 ment of chilblains : — 
 
 1. Camphor, 1 drachm. 
 
 Beta-naphthol, 10 grains. 
 
 Cocaine, . 5 " 
 
 Diachylon ointment, 1 ounce. 
 
 2. After bathing the part in hot water, balsam of copaiba is 
 
 painted over the surface. 
 
 The Canadian Practitioner once gave a recipe for the 
 removal of corns, without any further voucher for it than that 
 
'212 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AM) PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 it was quoted from the Medical Courier, quoting L' Union 
 Medicate tin Canada. Whether <>r not it appeared in the first 
 print with the name of the author, we do not know. .Is, how- 
 ever the prescription is harmless, and seems upon its face to 
 represent whal may be an efficacious treatment, we here give it 
 with this explanation : — 
 
 Phosphorated oil (boiled oil) 1 in 800 is recommended by the Medical Cou- 
 rier, without giving the author's came. Every morning, with abrn.-h dipped in Hie 
 phosphorated oil, that portion of the stocking in contact with the corn is soaked. 
 In about a fortnight only a thin pedicle remains. — L' Union Medicale du Canada. 
 
 The best plan to adopt to rectify ingrowing nail, short of 
 the necessity for surgical interference, is to cut the end of the 
 great-toe nail short, and almost square across, so that it shall 
 not exert the slightest pressure upon the nail-bed. Thus its 
 forward growth being unrestricted, its tendency to lateral 
 spreading will be sensibl} r relieved. 
 
 Of course the general cosmetic care and treatment of the 
 nails of the feet do not differ from the general cosmetic care and 
 treatment of the nails of the hand, already described in their 
 appropriate place. 
 
 In connection with the nicest care of the feet, the use of a 
 smooth piece of pumice-stone is found very useful for keep- 
 ing the sole and outside edges soft, through reducing the thick- 
 ness of the cuticle there, which has a tendency in those parts to 
 become callous through thickening, as the result of friction and 
 pressure from exercise. 
 
 There is a disease called bromidrosis, characterized by fetid 
 sweating, the affliction from which obviously does not cease at 
 the suffering of the patient. The feet do not escape it, but, on 
 the contrary, the disease, when local, preferably attacks those 
 parts. Owing to the number and largeness of the pores there, 
 their consequent capacity for copious exudation, and the con- 
 fined manner in which the feet are dressed, they are of all por- 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE FEET. 273 
 
 tions of the body those which can become most offensive. Leather 
 is porous, and freely yields effluvium to the air, besides being 
 capable of much absorption. When made into shoes, it has 
 added to its natural capacity for absorbing and transmitting 
 odor that derived from the presence of the lining of the shoes. 
 Even shoes cleaned by mixing the blacking with saliva have an 
 unpleasant odor, because saliva is a digestive fluid, and in becom- 
 ing stale, in contact with soluble matter, becomes also putrid. 
 We are glad to say that already a movement is perceptible to do 
 away with the dirty practice of using saliva in connection with 
 the blacking of boots and shoes. When we see men in cars put- 
 ting their odoriferous shoes in disrespectful proximity to ladies, 
 we often have occasion to reflect how much faster the material 
 prosperity of the country is proceeding than what should be its 
 accompaniment in good manners. 
 
 Bromidrosis may be physiological, appertaining to healthy 
 function, or pathological, appertaining to diseased function. An 
 instance of the former condition may be observed in the pure 
 Negro, and, as we individually believe, markedly to some degree 
 in the North American Indian and in some other races, although 
 the fact is not generally known. When the condition is patho- 
 logical it may be constitutional, or it may be temporaiy, and it 
 may in any case be general or local. The commonest form of 
 the affection is, as we remarked, as localized, and the localit} 7 of 
 its predilection and most unfortunate choice, the feet. When 
 reaching a certain degree of virulence, the excretions become 
 most irritating to the flesh, which is excoriated and tender to 
 the pressure of the weight of the body in standing. If the affec- 
 tion be physiological, or be individually constitutional, frequent 
 ablution with one or other of the soaps recommended for that 
 purpose in our list of medicated soaps and frequent change of 
 clothing will afford relief. If, on the contrary, the affection be 
 distinctly a disease, recourse should be had to the advice of a 
 
274 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL I5EAUTY. 
 
 physician, as t Ik- treatment thai should be adopted depends upon 
 too many conditions to warrant giving :• genera] prescription for 
 what is, of necessity, in every instance a special case. 
 
 There is also a disease called byperidrosis, characterized by 
 copious, not fetid, sweating, which, as it sometimes involves the 
 lint, should not escape notice here. For this thesufl'erer should 
 go to a regular physician for constitutional treatment, for no 
 man is in all respects as any other man in either health or sick- 
 ness. In this disease frequent bathing is not indicated, but only 
 occasional bathing of the parts in hot water, with the use of dust- 
 ing powders and other external combined with internal remedial 
 measures, which no one but a regular physician, with the patient 
 before him and a full history of his case, is equal to judieiously 
 prescribing. 
 
 Every man has his idiosyncrasy within a general likeness in 
 temperament to other persons. He has his past history, which is 
 exactly like no one else's. And he has his present condition, 
 which is identical with no one else's. This disease is most 
 erratic in its manifestation. It may be general or local, may be 
 on one side or both, may be strictly localized without reference 
 to side, and, finally, may be one of the signs of much more serious 
 affections, such as consumption, nervous prostration, etc. The 
 copious exudations caused by it frequently prove very annoying, 
 and proceeding beyond that point, especially when the feet are 
 attacked, they macerate the flesh and expose raw and painful 
 surfaces of the cor i urn. We counsel any one wdio is afflicted 
 with the disease to resort at once to a physician for his advice. 
 A friend of ours, who makes in consultation witli us a great 
 many experiments for discovering curative effects in electricity, 
 has lately communicated to us what may prove an invaluable 
 treatment for hyperidrosis. He suppressed, witli one or two 
 mild applications of the galvanic current, directly to the parts, 
 by means of the sponge-covered poles of a battery, a long-standing, 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE FEET. 275 
 
 persistent case of localized hyperidrosis. We are inclined to 
 believe that this treatment will prove universally palliative or 
 curative in the afl>ction,from the fact of our holding the modern 
 medical view, that such morbid conditions as are represented by 
 this disease depend upon a lowering of the nerve tone, which the 
 galvanic current, judiciously administered, certainly tends to 
 restore. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION, GROWTH, AND DISEASES OF THE NAILS. 
 
 A DESCRIPTION of the constitution, growth, and diseases 
 of the nails naturally follows an account of the cosmetic 
 care and treatment of the hands and feet, for the nail is subject 
 to unhealthiness, not only from partaking of loss of tone with 
 the general system, but from specific disease, from the action of 
 powerful chemical agents, and from mechanical injuries. We 
 mentioned, in the chapter on the cosmetic care and treatment of 
 the hands, our own individual experience with the nails, in tem- 
 porarily injuring their healthy nutrition through incautiously- 
 dabbling for several months in water highly acidulated with 
 sulphuric acid. If a cause like this could affect nails unfavor- 
 ably, it can easily be realized that many others of which the 
 reader may at present have no knowledge would seriously injure 
 them. 
 
 We have learned, in connection with our examination of the 
 constitution and growth of the skin, that that portion of it called 
 the scarf-skin is pierced up to the under side of its horny layer 
 by microscopic papillae that rise from the surface of the corium, 
 the sensitive skin, the true skin. In fact, these minute papillae 
 with single nerves may justly be regarded, so numerous and 
 close together are they, besides being constituted like the corium, 
 as a large extension of the corium upward to the under surface 
 of the horn}' layer of the scarf-skin. Now, the nail is only a 
 modified form of the horny layer of the scarf-skin, and the nail- 
 bed is the. mucous layer re-in forced by the corium in parallel 
 "folds, instead of the corium with, as usual, a smooth general 
 surface from which papillae rise. The nature of the struc- 
 tures and forces in play is virtually the same ; it is their 
 
 (277) 
 
278 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 arrangement and deployment that are different, and the modifi- 
 cation resulting is the exaggeration of the horny element of the 
 scarf-skin. Thai is to say, in a word, that, regarding solely 
 
 the principle of the mode of generation of the scarf-skin, the 
 principle is found to be the same in the generation of the 
 nail, and the nail corresponds with the horny layer of the 
 scarf-skin. 
 
 The corinm, or sensitive layer of the skin, is arranged in 
 parallel ridges running lengthwise under the nail, serving not 
 only to receive through it the sensation of touch, but to supply 
 to it, through the mucous layer of the scarf-skin, the elements for 
 its increase in thickness. It follows from the fact that the nail- 
 bed lies in parallel ridges and valleys of the corium, and the other 
 fact that this peculiarly constructed surface it is which is affording 
 to the lower side of the nail its elements of growth, that the under 
 surface of the nail is formed as if cast in the mold of the ridges 
 and valleys of the underlying corium. That is exactly the case, 
 the ridges of the corium corresponding to depressions of nail, 
 and the valle3 r s of the corium to ridges of nail. Examine the 
 relatively smooth surface of the outside surface of the nail, and 
 you will perceive upon it longitudinal parallel striations or streaks 
 differing slightly in tint. The pinker ones represent ridges of 
 the highly vascular corium rising into a groove of the nail-sub- 
 stance, and the paler ones the base of ridges of the nail-substance 
 filling grooves of the corium. The cause of this difference of 
 appearance in the different lines of striation is that in the former 
 case you see the red corium through less thickness of horny 
 matter than 3 r ou do in the latter case. 
 
 The matrix, or root, of the nail is embedded in a fold of 
 the skin. In the case of the adult thumb, it lies back of the 
 visible part of the nail to the rear by about a tenth of an inch. 
 Just in advance of the matrix comes the little white half-moon 
 called the lunula. Beyond that comes the general nail-surface, 
 
CONSTITUTION, GROWTH, AND DISEASES OF THE NAILS. 279 
 
 partially directed in its onward course of growth by the nail- 
 groove, as it is called, which frames its sides with folds of skin. 
 
 Let us now examine more particularly into the nail's mode 
 of growth in length and thickness, for, as is inferable from what 
 has been said, it does not start out from the matrix full-grown in 
 thickness, but grows in thickness as well as in length until it 
 passes beyond the nail-bed. Its growth in length is determined 
 by the capacity of the individual matrix, included within the 
 bounds which nature has set for range of growth in nails. The 
 nail starts forward in its growth in length, perforce of the forma- 
 tion of its characteristic cells by the matrix. That is to say, the 
 generative agency is also the propelling agency, for, as the matrix 
 forms the cells and continues to form them, the nail thus created 
 must move on the line of least resistance, and that is obviously 
 directly away from the matrix, along the corium-grooves and 
 the nail-groove. The nail-bed, in generating and nourishing 
 the lower surface of the nail, having increased its thickness and 
 given it a formation corresponding to its own, the nail readity 
 obeys the impulse to move forward given by the multiplication 
 of cells at the matrix. It is, moreover, rigidly confined to this 
 course, through the fact that the corium, lying lengthwise in 
 ridges parallel to the bed of the nails, therebj T forms parallel 
 tracks from which the nail cannot escape. 
 
 Where we see the lunula the nail is quite thin, its tendency 
 to growth in thickness being comparatively slight there, the 
 whiteness of the lunula indicating the comparatively small 
 vascular supply there, vascular supply being strictly propor- 
 tioned to increase of animal tissue, whether of health}' or 
 morbid growth. But, immediately bej-ond the lunula the nail 
 evidences, through its ros}- hue, the existence of rich vascular 
 supply to that portion of it, and over that portion it is that it 
 receives the main contribution to its thickness. 
 
 It will now be understood wlrv the nail is so sensitive. 
 
280 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Although the ridges and valleys of sensitive skin into which the 
 nail fits are shielded by the dense mass of the horny matter of 
 the nail, they are still capable of receiving the most, accurate 
 transmission known of the character of one physical condition 
 of matter. — snioot htiess. This was so well known to the 
 Romans, that they spoke of nicety of finish to a superlative 
 degree as we speak of a thing as being accurate to a hair, by 
 saying that it was finished "</ unguem, to the touch of the nail. 
 The Greeks had the same perception, and used a similar expres- 
 sion. The Greeks, and the Romans following- them, tested all 
 exquisite finish with the. thumb-nail, the final fleck in modeling 
 in clay being removed with the thumb-nail, and the finished 
 piece of statuary 1 icing regarded as perfect only after having 
 been submitted to the test of passing over doubtful parts the 
 critical and appreciative thumb-nail. We have often experi- 
 mented with this test, and have found it a crucial one as to 
 smoothness. Run the middle of the end of the thumb-nail over 
 any surface which you regard as virtually smooth, and if there 
 is the most minute eccentricity upon it, the jar to the end of the 
 nail will be communicated accurately to the sensitive skin 
 beneath the nail, and accurately registered in the brain, even to 
 the point of definition of the size and shape of the obstruction. 
 We have often observed carpenters, painters, and other work- 
 men, who certainly have not all familiarized themselves with the 
 practices of the Greek and Roman artificers, automatically 
 examining surfaces with the thumb-nail, as if the movements 
 were strictl}' instinctive. 
 
 The white marks which one sometimes observes on the nail 
 are not primarily from a defect in the nail-substance, but from 
 one in the corium beneath it. The corium, having received some 
 slight injur} 7 , ceased for a brief space of time, while it was re- 
 covering, to yield through the mucous layer at that point, which 
 has passed onward since, a normal supply of nail-substance. 
 
CONSTITUTION, GROWTH, AND DISEASES OF THE NAILS. 281 
 
 Mechanical injury to the great-toe nail is of very common 
 occurrence. The wearing of shoes that are too short, and 
 especially of those which have at the same time high heels, in 
 consequence of which the weight of the body is partially 
 supported by the point of the great-toe, often restrains to such a 
 degree the growth of its nail, while jamming the root into the 
 socket of its matrix, as to force it to grow laterally, and either 
 produce the very painful affection of an ingrowing nail, or 
 abolish the power of cell-proliferation at the matrix, or perhaps 
 accomplish both of these results simultaneousl}*-. These affec- 
 tions are never radically cured until, through rest and proper 
 remedial medical measures, the normal function of nail-growth is 
 restored, and this, in the case of the complete abolishment of 
 cell-formation at the matrix, it is impossible to restore, and the 
 sufferer remains, through thickening of the nail without any 
 forward progress of it, more or less of a cripple all through life. 
 The reader can understand, upon the basis of information 
 previous^ conveyed here, that this condition must supervene 
 from serious injury to the matrix. Because the capacity of the 
 matrix to generate cells and push the nail forward is abolished, 
 that does not affect the capacity of the mucous layer of the 
 scarf-skin and the corium beneath the nail to go on indefinitely 
 increasing it in thickness. Under the circumstances supposed, 
 the nail grows from below, layer by. layer in thickness, until it 
 makes an enormous mass, becoming thus an essentially foreign 
 body, so large and painful as to forbid the wearing of an ordi- 
 nary shoe. Sometimes one of these enormous masses is shed, 
 sometimes one of them requires surgical interference for its 
 removal. Some diseases of the great-toe nail necessitate its 
 extirpation. We knew an old lad} 7 who suffered during the 
 latter years of her life the greatest torture from her feet, the 
 condition of which was not known until her demise, when it was 
 discovered that the thickness of her great-toe nails was enormous. 
 
282 HEREDITY, HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 These huge masses of nail, of which, of course, the topmost 
 layer is the oldest, and sometimes truly ancient, are yellow, 
 lustreless, friable, like pieces of refuse horn. Dr. Erasmus 
 Wilson Bays, in his chapter on the nails, in his admirable little 
 
 work on the skin and hair : — 
 
 I know an instance in which the nail is regularly Bhed; whenever Che old 
 one folia off, a new one being found beneath it. Sometimes growth in length is 
 ii<>t entirely checked, although growth in thickness is induced, and then we get 
 Borne marvelous specimens of toe-nails. I have several such in my possession, 
 one being fully two inches long. 
 
 The nail shares in the well- or ill- being of its possessor. In 
 cases of long-continued depression of the general system, it, as 
 well as the hair, changes so radically in appearance as to attract 
 the attention of the most casual observer. In lesser degree of 
 sickness, or in that which is merely temporary, its varying con- 
 dition is significant to the more critical medical e3 r e. In treating 
 affections of the nail, whether they amount to marked disease 
 or merely to depraved condition, constitutional treatment 
 should not be neglected. This means that all hygienic measures 
 should be adopted in food, air, exercise, etc., and, in addition, 
 that some tonic should be prescribed. 
 
 The nail is affected by, or, more preciseW speaking, partici- 
 pates in constitutional defects of the general system. Its 
 appearance in persons of pronounced consumptive diathesis is 
 quite as characteristic as ie the appearance of their teeth and 
 hair. It is affected by acute and chronic diseases. It is also 
 liable to its own localized diseases, whether organic or functional. 
 Three of these, besides that already described in detail, are 
 onychogryphosis, paronychia, and onychomycosis. 
 
 Onychogryphosis is simply an organic defect in the shape 
 of the nail, which grows with a decided curve from front to rear, 
 giving it the appearance of a talon. It was in view of the un- 
 sightly effect produced by this form of nail, even when existing 
 in only slight degree, that we were led, in the chapter on the 
 
CONSTITUTION, GROWTH, AND DISEASES OF THE NAILS. 283 
 
 cosmetic care and treatment of the hands, to caution persons 
 having it, to however slight a degree, to be especially careful to 
 keep the nails well trimmed. The truly-formed nail has no 
 marked curvature from front to rear. It curves only from side 
 to side, and that curve is a flattened one. Nothyig can be more 
 repulsive than the appearance of the nails of a person who, with 
 curvature in them from front to rear, associated, as it always is, 
 with too sharp a curve from side to side, allows them to grow 
 beyond the end of the finger, thus producing the effect of a 
 veritable claw. Of course, there is no possibility of rectifying 
 the defect of this organic growth. All that any one can do is 
 to palliate the condition, by being careful, through paring the 
 nails, not to let its effect be intensified. 
 
 Paronychia has been, in modern usage, divided into four 
 varieties, of which one is what is popularly known as "run- 
 round," the other three being resolvable into what are known as 
 different stages of whitlow. 
 
 Onychomycosis is a parasitic fungous disease. When the 
 fungus which represents the disease pre} T s upon the nails, they 
 lose their translucencj^ and become laminated and brittle. Both 
 the nail and the nail-bed are diseased through their penetration 
 by the fungous growth, the nail, as a whole, becoming bulkier and 
 tending to disintegrate. Of course, it will be understood that, 
 as a general rule, the invasion of a fungus means previously- 
 lessened resistance through imperfect functioning of the parts. 
 
 The moral of all that has been said in this chapter is, that 
 if we would not risk a greater fall to our vanit} 7- than ever it had 
 rise, which, although a physical impossibility, is not a moral one, 
 let us look out for our toes. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OP THE HAIR. 
 
 THE reader may be surprised when told that the hair, as well 
 as the nails, is a modification of the scarf-skin. It is 
 nevertheless true, as the human eye, aided by the mici'oscope, 
 proves. Attention to the following general description of the 
 main features of the constitution and growth of the hair will be 
 amply repaid by knowledge valuable as a protection against the 
 charlatanism of ignorant instruction as to the care of this im- 
 portant adjunct of the body. 
 
 The hair on the person is distinguished, even by the naked 
 eye, as consisting of four different varieties. The first and most 
 important of these is the long, smooth, and pliant hair of the 
 head. The second is the shorter and coarser hair on the face 
 of the adult of the male sex, and, on the adults of both sexes, 
 under the armpit and on the pubic parts. The third is the still 
 shorter and coarser hair of the eyebrows, eyelashes, nostrils, and 
 orifice of the ears. The fourth is the exceedingly short and fine 
 hair, called lanugo, which, almost imperceptibly to the naked 
 eye, covers the general surface of the body, with the exception 
 of the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the lips, and 
 the mucous-membrane passages into the body. These varieties 
 exhibit slight organic differences among themselves, as indicated 
 by their constitution and growth, but not sufficient to invite 
 attention here to an examination of their similarities and dis- 
 similarities. It will be, for the information of the general reader, 
 enough if we confine ourselves to the consideration of the 
 character and growth of the hair of the head, as the highest 
 type of similar products of the body. 
 
 It is from rude conceptions of material things that we rise 
 
 (285) 
 
286 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 to our highest conceptions of them. Our preliminary concep- 
 tion is, in fact, nothing - but a summoning before mental vision 
 of one oi' our previous rude perceptions. These rude percep- 
 tions are, in turn, through an intellectual process, transformed 
 into conceptions representing a higher order of perception. We 
 are about incidentally to illustrate this truth, by remarking that 
 the reader must first of all conceive of the place whence the hair 
 grows as a vase, — a longish vase, with a narrow neck, and a 
 slightly flaring funnel-like rim, the lines all flowing gently into 
 each other without the slightest abruptness, and the rim of the 
 vase melting, as it were, into the upper surface of the scalp of 
 ' the head. That is a veiy rude conception, truly, to begin with, 
 but it is absolutely necessary to begin there, if one would finally 
 comprehend this formation, which we are about to describe. 
 We rise to knowledge from the foot-hold of what we have seen 
 or touched and know, not from what, being the unseen and 
 untouched, we do not and cannot know. 
 
 Let us now, as the next step, refine upon this conception of 
 a reminiscence of a former perception, b} r saying that this vase 
 is so minute, that if one could submit a man and it to the same 
 magnifying power, of about fifty times of apparent increase in 
 size, the man would look about three hundred feet high. JS T ow 
 our vase disappears as the rude conception that it was at first, 
 and we have left in the imagination simply a microscopic form 
 defined by an outline of matter of some unknown kind, which 
 remains to be described. That is the vessel, so to speak, in 
 which an individual hair grows, just as a flower grows in a 
 flower-pot. 
 
 Here we have again a rude conception from which to start, 
 in the expression, "just as a flower grows in a flower-pot," from 
 which conception we must mount, as before, to a higher plane 
 of understanding. At the very bottom of this inclosing vessel, 
 called a follicle, formed of an inner and outer sheath in contact 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 287 
 
 with each other, is embedded and slightly protruded through 
 the bottom the germ called the papilla of the hair. This papilla 
 is entirely enclosed and clasped by the bulb of the hair, a round- 
 ing, pear-shaped object, with the large end upward, :m<l from 
 this rises the root of the hair, and from this, in turn, at the 
 surface of the scalp, rises the shaft of the hair, or what is called 
 simply a hair. 
 
 Let us now, upon our present basis, refine still further upon 
 our conception. We have now the root-sheaths of the vase-like 
 vessel, corresponding to the flower-pot ; the papilla, correspond- 
 ing to the seed ; the bulb, corresponding to the first bursting of 
 the seed; the root, corresponding to the first determinate upward 
 growth within the soil ; and the hair-shaft, corresponding to the 
 stem of a plant above the ground. But, now are to be noted 
 important differences in the growth between such a vegetable 
 product as that indicated and the animal product of a hair. 
 Excepting at the point where the hair escapes from the scalp, 
 we must not imagine the parts described to be loosely bound 
 together. On the contrary, the papilla, the bulb, and the root 
 of the hair are all closely invested by the inner and outer root- 
 sheaths. So, in this organic apparatus, we have, not as in the 
 case of a flower-pot, an inert mass of matter, the stem of a plant 
 growing from a seed ; but a seed, bulb, root, and containing-vessel, 
 all vitalty combining for the production of a single plant — a hair. 
 
 We are now prepared to understand the minuter details of 
 this structure. We will not go into the question of the minutest 
 of them, for those are derived from histological research with 
 the microscope, which discerns that the cells from the hair-bulb 
 change in constitution and shape to fit them for positions which 
 the}' occupy in the hair-shaft. This constitution, omitting the 
 mode of its formation, we will now proceed in general terms to 
 describe. 
 
 If we could express the first idea necessary to be seized, to 
 
283 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 enable us to proceed, by any other term than " invaginate," we 
 
 would do so with pleasure, but, as there is no popular equivalent 
 for the term, we begin by explaining its meaning-. If you thrust 
 your fore-finger into a lump of dough, the inner surface of the 
 hole made would not be invaginated, because the outer surface, 
 excepl at the point of the finger, would not have been conveyed 
 into the hole. If, however, you take an imperfectly inflated 
 India-rubber ball, and make a dent in it, the interior of the dent 
 is invaginated, because it possesses a surface like the general 
 surface, and continuous with it. 
 
 Now, the root-sheaths of the hair and the hair itself are 
 simply the scarf-skin and corium of the scalp invaginated in the 
 scalp and modified. Thus economical is nature in its works in 
 the expenditure of material and force. The scalp of the head 
 simply dips inward in a multitude of places over the head (on 
 an average, about 100,000), and forms the wherewithal, in struc- 
 ture and function, for the production on the head of its valuable 
 covering. The reader, now firmly grasping the idea that the 
 epidermis and the corium, in their relative positions, dip into 
 the scalp, and make the follicle and hair, is in possession of the 
 main facts connected with this growth. 
 
 The cells of the bulb of the hair are continuous with those 
 of the outer root-sheath. If the reader demur at this statement, 
 in view of the fact that it has been said that the bulb is at the 
 very bottom of the inside of the root-sheaths, we explain that, 
 at the bottom, the inner root-sheath has been fined away to noth- . 
 ing. The inner root-sheath, in fact, is generated by the cells of 
 the root, which, the reader will remember, surmounts the bulb, 
 and we may add that it is also fined away to nothing at the neck 
 of the follicle. It is in so intimate contact with the root of the 
 hair that we cannot pull out a living hair without pulling with it 
 the major portion of the inner root-sheath. As it ends before it 
 reaches the bottom of the outer root-sheath, and also ends before 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HA III. 289 
 
 the follicle emerges into the open air, and, as the root is so 
 closely invested by it, the reader cannot fail to see why, in pull- 
 ing out a hair, the inner root-sheath should be withdrawn with 
 the hair from the follicle. 
 
 Immediately on top of the hair-papilla, as it lies inclosed 
 within the bulb of the hair, takes' place the most energetic pro- 
 liferation (production and sending forth) of the cells which form 
 the root of the hair, this action resulting in a formation which 
 is the same in constitution as the hair-shaft itself. This consists 
 of the medulla, or pith of the hair ; the cortical substance, or 
 bark of the hair ; and the thin cuticle, or horny outside layer of 
 the hair. The medulla is composed of many-sided cells ; the 
 cortical substance, of fibrous cells fastened together with a 
 cement-substance ; and the cuticle, of cells which begin at the 
 root of the hair as rounded, and become elongated as thej r 
 ascend the root of the hair and thence become part of its shaft. 
 The cells on the hair-shaft overlap each other like tiles upon a 
 house. On exquisitely fine hair the positions of the overlapping 
 points cannot be detected by the sense of touch, but if one will 
 take a coarse hair, such as a hair from the beard, and pull it 
 through between the middle of the thumb-nail and the end of 
 the fore-finger, tightly clasping it throughout its course, their 
 position in places will be distinctly felt. 
 
 The medulla and cortical substance are not conspicuous in 
 all hairs, the cortical substance containing the chief part of the 
 coloring matter of the hair. The medulla is supposed to be 
 actually absent in certain hairs, but not those of the head. \Te 
 think it probable, however, putting out of question for a moment 
 the hair of the head, that it is often present as to structure, but 
 not recognized, through absence of nucleation in cells, as being 
 in existence. Sometimes, on the contrary, as in the hair of cer- 
 tain of the lower animals, the cortical substance is in excess, the 
 two outer layers forming a mere film. 
 
290 HEREDITY, HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Certain facts seem to warrant the supposition that the 
 medulla may sometimes be invisible, of ■which we here set down 
 one or two examples. Some caterpillar-hair, which we Lately 
 examined under a high power ol* the microscope, was to the 
 microscope, as well as to the naked eye, colored in alternate 
 1 muds of Mack and maroon color. Under the microscope, the 
 dark part on an individual hair seemed to be such solely 
 because it was highly corticated and medullated. As an abnormal 
 affection, the same condition in an irregular form is sometimes 
 observable in human hair. "We see the same phenomenon in 
 the porcupine-quill, in feathers, and elsewhere. In all of these 
 cases the construction to serve cortication and medullation is 
 probably always present, but we do not in places see it as such, 
 because it is not differentiated from the others by stain from 
 pigment. 
 
 In some fine blond hair of a child which we lately examined 
 under a high power of the microscope, the medulla .and cortical 
 substance hardly differed in color from the outside of the hair. 
 In the hair from a black beard, experimented upon at the same 
 time, the appearance of the medulla and cortical substance so 
 preponderated that the cuticle of the hair would not have been 
 visible but for perception of the shape of its scales. One of the 
 most curious results of some of our late examinations of hairs 
 under a high microscopic power was that resulting from com- 
 parison of hair from different portions of a Yorkshire terrier. 
 The Yorkshire terrier has, as is well known, a dark-blue back 
 and fox-colored parts elsewhere, except on top of the head, where 
 the color of the hair becomes almost blond. Several things dis- 
 covered we were not prepared to find. First of all, the thick- 
 ness of the blue hair is enormous as compared with the thickness 
 of the fox-colored hair. Secondty, the hair on top of the head, 
 which has the feeling of floss-silk to the touch, is even finer than 
 that, and finer than the finest human hair, excepting, of course, 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 291 
 
 the first growth at birth. We had expected to find the appear- 
 ance of the blue in the 'blue hair considerably modified in appear- 
 ance as enormously magnified, but, on the contrary, it remained 
 as blue as before to the sight, with an undertone of purple. The 
 fine hair on the head seemed to be absolutely without medulla 
 and cortical substance, — to be homogeneous throughout. It 
 looked like the finest strand of glass just tinged with the most 
 exquisite 3'ellow. Therefore, the fact is that it was colored, as 
 it was colored j'ellow ; and, as the medulla and cortical sub- 
 stance, not the cuticle of the hair, are the vehicles of color, 
 we cannot escape the conclusion that many hairs which are 
 believed to have no medulla may possess the structure not visibly 
 present, and they certainly must possess cortical substance. 
 
 It is easy to see, from what has been said here and in the 
 preceding chapter on the skin, why, under certain conditions, 
 refraction and diffraction spectra are formed by the hair. We 
 have sometimes seen in the curve of a horse's neck, just above 
 the fore-shoulder, when it was standing in a blaze of sunlight, 
 the most beautiful prismatic effects. Here are the conditions 
 necessary to the phenomenon, — the direct, white rays of the 
 sun ; the concave depression in the neck, making the hairs stand 
 at various angles ; the three kinds of cellular formation in the 
 shafts of the hairs; the coloring matter in the cells forming the 
 shafts. The white light is broken up by refraction and diffrac- 
 tion into rays of different wave-lengths, and consequently 
 different colors, and they are thus reflected to the eye. Similar 
 effects, of less intensity, may sometimes be seen on the convexity 
 formed by the glossy croup and the concavity of the neighboring 
 parts of the flanks of well-groomed horses. 
 
 In speaking of the coloring matter of the hair as conveying 
 its effect, we should add that what is referred to is its main 
 effect. It has long been known that extremely minute vacant 
 spaces exist in the hair, called vacuoles, filled with air or some 
 
292 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 other gas. This physical condition, combined with color, goes 
 to i)r. "luce the final effect of the Lair upon the eye. There are 
 probably still other factors thai go to produce the final effect. 
 Every one has observed that the handsomesl liair is not that 
 which has uniform tint and lustre throughout, but that which 
 has glinting surfaces, which enhance while harmonizing with 
 the general effect. This accounts for the fact that black hair, or 
 very dark hair that is almost black, is never so handsome as hair 
 of* lighter color. There is in it very Little, if any, transmitted 
 light. We see it virtually by reflected light from its surface, not 
 by light which permeates it and is then reflected, blended with 
 other light which is reflected without having been first trans- 
 mitted. At the opposite extreme, we have the medulla and 
 cortical substance of the hair so colorless as to transmit light 
 too easily to produce variable effects in the hair, and in one case 
 reach the unhandsome character of hair of the color of tow. 
 We see here, as in all of nature's work and man's striving, the 
 essential need of variety to confer pleasure. Be the color of the 
 hair what it may, from blond to brown and chestnut and auburn, 
 if it but have the glints that come from variety of structure and 
 pigmentation in the individual hair, the hair is handsome; if it 
 be densely colored hy nature, or, far w'orse, d3'ed b3 T art, it loses 
 beauty possible to it as the effect of the refraction of light. 
 
 With the mention of one or two other points connected with 
 the constitution and growth of the hair, Ave shall conclude with 
 general observations on the subject, wdiich the reader will then 
 In- able fully to understand. 
 
 At the narrowest portion of the hair-follicle, at its so-called 
 neck, the ducts of one or more sebaceous glands enter the 
 follicle and supply the contained hair-root with the sebaceous 
 matter which the glands secrete. Every individual hair-follicle is 
 also supplied with small muscular appendages. These, lying at an 
 acute angle with the follicle, to the inside lower portion of which 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 293 
 
 one end is attached, while the other is fixed in the corium, in 
 contracting change the hair-follicle from its normally oblique 
 position toward the vertical one. The hair-rool and hair, rising 
 toward the perpendicular, produce the effect known as the " hair 
 standing on end." When this effect, which is involuntary, the 
 muscles concerned in it being involuntary ones, is produced in 
 an exaggerated degree, the opening of the hair-follicle is spas- 
 modical^ puckered up and protruded, and the surface of the 
 skin assumes the roughness known as "goose-flesh." Either 
 fright or sudden cold occasions these effects. In the case of 
 fright, the central nervous system, stimulated by ideation, is 
 responsible for the condition. In the case of cold, the effect is 
 produced by simple reflex action in response to the stimulation 
 of the surface of the skin. 
 
 To the best of the knowledge of anthropologists, there is no 
 distinctively hairy race on earth, although there are peoples 
 more hairy than other peoples, individuals who have an ab- 
 normal luxuriance of hair, and other individuals who have a 
 growth abnormal with respect to sex or age, as in the- case of a 
 so-called " bearded lady" and her little son, with whom we once 
 had the pleasure of dining daily on a sea-voyage. The lady 
 had what would have been considered in a man a very fine, 
 full beard, and the boy, who was about 5 years of age, had a 
 hirsute covering on the lower part of his face, that looked like a 
 rat-skin, and bore ample promise of future compensation in 
 dimes. -The inhabitants of that singular island in the West 
 Pacific, called Easter Island, are said to be bearded, although 
 the beardless type of the human race obtains in that quarter of 
 the globe. This is one instance of a relatively hirsute people. 
 We shall eventually know more about them, through the interest 
 which has been excited in the island, by the great find there 
 of idols, some of which were taken to the Smithsonian Institu- 
 tion lately. Some other islands of the Polynesian archipelago 
 
204 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 are .said to have hairy people, hut generally their inhabitants 
 oannot he so characterized. 
 
 In short, the freaks of nature exhibited at dime-museums 
 have heretofore represented nothing bul their own individuality, 
 which, unfortunately, is transmissible; for, in one case, well 
 known and thoroughly investigated by scientific men, three gen- 
 erations bad shared in the dreadful deformity of hirsuteness all 
 over the body. These cases are doubly strange, for there seems 
 to he some mysterious connection between this abnormal growth 
 of the hair and the teeth, these hirsute monstrosities being 
 generally deficient in dentition. The belief that there are nor- 
 mally hairy races has always been very prevalent. The Medical 
 World published a long article on the girl known as " Krao," or, 
 the " Missing Link," in favor of the supposition that she was 
 one of a race of hairy savages in the north of Siain. There is, 
 however, no such race anywhere in Siam, and, so far as known, 
 no such race anywhere in the world. If there be an}', Africa is 
 the only land where it can be dwelling, and Africa has not, so 
 far, made any such revelation. 
 
 Persons have thought that the pigment of the body is of 
 the same color in all human beings, and that dilferent races and 
 individuals are characterized merely b}- the presence of different 
 amounts of it. This is not true, the pigment .varying in color 
 among dilferent races of mankind, and in amount among indi- 
 viduals of the same race, the lightest blonde having some pigment 
 in her skin. The tint of the lightest visible drawing in India-ink, 
 as compared with the lightest visible drawing in sepia, is entirely 
 different in tone. This illustration alone ought to show that no 
 tint in the skin, from the slightest trace of coloring matter to 
 the densest black, can be produced h}-the same color of pigment. 
 
 The probability is, that in the same individual the pigment 
 throughout the body is the same in color, and only variable in 
 quantity as to places; and that that portion which pervades the 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 206 
 
 hair differs in appearance from that which pervades the skin only 
 from the fact that it exists in the former in greater quantity 
 than in the latter, and also under very different conditions. 
 The difference of coloration, as between that of the skin and 
 that of the hair of the same individual, can be in sum accounted 
 for thus, by the respective amounts in the skin and hair of the 
 pigment-substance, and the respective differences of construction 
 between the scarf-skin and the modified form of it constituting 
 the hair. 
 
 The hair-bulb supplies pigment-granules to the medulla and 
 cortical substance of the hair, and these, growing upward, 
 charged with color, give what we know in the shaft as the color 
 of individual hair. Sometimes the hair-bulb fails to yield this 
 supply of pigment, and the consequence is that there are on the 
 same hair spaces that are alternately colored and uncolored. 
 Sometimes the pigment fails utterly and finally, and then the 
 hair blanches, and is sometimes of so dead a white, instead of 
 being of a grayish or silveiy white, as to be unhandsome. There 
 are two other phases in the appearance of pigmentaiy loss in 
 the hair, one of which is extremely unsightl}*, and the other quite 
 the opposite. The first is that in which the hair, in losing pig- 
 ment, becomes of a greenish, sea-weed tint. The other is that in 
 which the hair preserves so small a trace of green as to be 
 scarcely recognizable, save as softening and refining the effect 
 of its whiteness. 
 
 In view of the beautifying effect of white hair, it is extra- 
 ordinary how many persons as they grow old are blind to the 
 fact. In Marie Antoinette's time it was accepted and utilized. 
 Even the youthful face looks more youthful still with powdered 
 hair ; every fancy-ball proclaims the fact. It is strange, there- 
 fore, that, despite the fact, men of a certain age will persist in 
 dyeing their hair and beards to look like blacking-brushes, and 
 women of an uncertain age make it appear most certain by 
 
296 HEREDITY, HEALTH, ASP PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 donning black "fronts"as rigid as the coiil'ure of the damsel 
 that often serves as n ship's figure-head. There are plenty of 
 grayish and white " fronts " that would make a most gracious 
 substitute by softening every facial line. 
 
 Whal makes hair curl? The curling-tongs, for one thing; 
 crimping-papers, for another. We have heard it stated thai a 
 glass of good whisky has the same effect, but our observation 
 goes to the contrary, that its tendency is to produce elf-locks. 
 When hair does not curl, when it is perfectly straight, like that 
 of the Indian, it is because the cross-sections of the individual 
 hairs, forming collectively the head of hair, are broad ovals in 
 form, approaching in shape the cross-section of a cylinder, which 
 is a circle. When hair curls to the extreme possible, as in the 
 Negro, with whom it is even kinky, it is because the individual 
 hair is in shape very far removed indeed from that of a cylinder. 
 It is flattened in places and distorted throughout its length. 
 Take any hair that lies out straight, and pull it, while tightly 
 compressed, through between the thunfb-nail and the end of the 
 forefinger, and it will be found instantly curled. One side of it 
 has by the operation been shortened as compared with the other 
 side. It therefore curls toward the compressed side. 
 
 The curling-tongs, by means of their heat, contract one side 
 of the hair, and it consequently curls toward that side. The 
 crimping-paper crowds the cells of the hair together on one side 
 as compared with the other side, and as the hair is elastic it 
 yields to the stress, and curls toward the crimping-paper, but 
 upon being released gradually regains through its elasticity its 
 old form. The heat from constant use of the curling-tongs per- 
 manently injures the hair b} r destroying its elasticity and render- 
 ing it dry and friable. The oil}' matter pervading the hair-shaft 
 is dissipated, the cuticle of the hair is injured, and its natural 
 Lustre departs. Crimping-papers do no harm, except to the eyes 
 of spectators. Girls who spend their nights and days in them 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR. ■ 297 
 
 look forlorn for the most of their time, for the sake of an even- 
 ing flitting, passing their existence in a pupa state, to emerge 
 as an unnatural butterfly ; for, do what one will, the curia of 
 nature defy imitation. 
 
 Except in the outer root-sheath of the hair, and then only 
 to a very limited extent, has the presence of nerves as associated 
 with the hair been demonstrated. Of course, the constitution 
 of hair excludes the idea of its having any circulation analogous 
 to that of the body. And yet there are certain facts connected 
 with abnormal blanching of the hair, which indicate that, through 
 cerebral excitement, and through other causes also, certain 
 chemical changes taking place at their roots may pervade hairs 
 to their tips, and change their color within a few hours. Putting 
 aside the oft-cited cases of Sir Thomas Moore, Mary Queen of 
 Scots, and Marie Antoinette, as having been so often mentioned 
 as to produce the impression that there are no others, and equally 
 discarding Byron's mention in poetty, which is fiction, of the 
 Prisoner of Chillon, whose hair blanched in a single night, we 
 will cite other cases leading to the conclusion that the phenome- 
 non is possible, has occurred, and therefore is liable to occur 
 again. Medical men are divided in opinion as to its possibilit3 T , 
 but we are of the opinion of those who think that blanching of 
 the hair, induced by some chemical change, the character of 
 which is unknown to us, may occur within a few hours. 
 
 First of all should be noted the fact, if it be a fact, that 
 sudden change in the color of the hair is not always from dark 
 to white, but that cases are on record where the hair has turned 
 from white to black, and from blond to red. 
 
 Dr. Erasmus Wilson, upon the authorit}^ of a correspondent 
 of the London Times, cites the case of John Libery, who 
 attempted to assassinate the Emperor Francis Joseph, of Austria, 
 to the effect that when, a week after his attempted crime, he was 
 led to execution, he was hardly recognizable from the circum- 
 
HEREDITY. HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 stance that his previously black hair had become almost snowy 
 white. The change was said to have occurred within forty -eight 
 hours. Whether we suppose his hair to have previously been 
 naturally black, or artificially black, a change from either rendi- 
 tion could have proceeded from no other cause than a chemical 
 one. Dr. Wilson supposes, from his own microscopic examina- 
 tion of the white spaces in partially and irregularly blanched 
 hair (air seeming at those points to occupy nearly the whole of 
 the air-shaft), that the presence of the gaseous matter there 
 masks the color, and that saturation of the hair in oil might, by 
 expelling the gaseous matter, have the effect of restoring the 
 color of the hair. 
 
 But, if the pigment remains, as it is admitted still to re- 
 main, by the statement that its color is probably masked, how 
 can its color be masked by air or an}' other gas? Air is air ; we 
 see through it ; and we see through other gases. Gaseous mat- 
 ter, so disposed as he describes in the vacuoles of the hair-shaft, 
 would, through the influence of light, have the effect of modify- 
 ing the color, not that of masking it to the extent of obliterating 
 it to the sight. Either the pigment has lost its color, or the 
 pigment, as matter originally containing color, has disappeared; 
 there is no other alternative. The last proposition is untenable, 
 because the matter containing pigment, the granules regardless 
 of their color, are pli3*sical existences, retained by the cuticle of 
 the hair with a tenacity which we must believe sufficient to keep 
 them under some form of matter from escaping. 
 
 •We are therefore forced to conclude that the granules have 
 lost their color. The coincident presence of gaseous matter in 
 the hair-shaft, in such abnormal quantities as apparently to 
 occupy nearly the whole contents of it, offers a very important 
 suggestion to the mind, which we will venture to set forth as the 
 true explanation of the phenomenon under consideration. 
 
 Is it probable, we ask ourselves, is it indeed credible, that this 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIU. 290 
 
 gaseous matter comes from the atmosphere; that it is ordinary 
 air ? If this inordinate amount of gaseous matter be atmospheric 
 air, it must come from the inside or outside. But it cannot 
 come from the inside, because the hair-shaft is directly connected 
 in the follicle with the hair-root from which it rises, and it cannot 
 come suddenly from the outside, because the horny cuticle of the 
 hair cannot suddenly change, and the contents of the hair-shaft 
 are so compact that it requires strong chemical measures (which 
 we shall describe in the next chapter) seriously to disturb them. 
 The tendency of the contents of the hair-shaft is to outflow in- 
 stead of to inflow, as we see demonstrated by the shriveling of 
 the hair during severe sickness and disease. 
 
 We are therefore driven to believe that we are not concerned 
 with atmospheric air at all, but that the gaseous matter inside of 
 the hair-shaft is liberated by a chemical change which has simul- 
 taneously divested the pigment-granules of color, and perhaps 
 wholly converted them into a gaseous product. We believe, 
 in a word, that the loss of pigment-color and the presence of 
 gaseous matter are related, concomitant conditions of the same 
 phenomenon. Upon this theory, the sequence of events would 
 be, that great disturbance of the nervous sj-stem, whether pri- 
 marily mental or physical, having occasioned abnormal and de- 
 structive secretions in the generative apparatus of the hair at 
 the root, capillar attraction has conveyed them through the 
 hair and thus destroyed its coloring matter, coincidently with 
 liberating gas formed as one of the products of the chemical 
 reaction. 
 
 The views here expressed are strongh T confirmed by the 
 circumstances of a case reported in the Medical Times of July 
 2, 1881, since republished in the Joiwnal of the American Medi- 
 cal Association, December 21, 1889, and noticed b}- the London 
 Lancet. In this case, through the hypodermic administration 
 of pilocarpine, the hair changed entirely in the quantit}' and 
 
300 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 quality of coloring matter. Twelve days after the beginning of 
 the treatment, the light-blond hair of the patient, a woman, 
 began to darken, and continued so to do until by the twenty-sixth 
 davit had become dark brown, and, although at the end of seven 
 weeks the administration of the pilocarpine ceased, the hair at 
 the end of four months had become nearly jet black. It subse- 
 quently reverted to brown. No change of structure in the hair 
 was observable through microscopical examination. The only 
 change detected in it was thickening and increase of pigment. 
 Here we have, in a surcharge of pigment, the reverse of the 
 cause of blanching. 
 
 A case is also known where the fluid extract of jaborandi 
 produced similar results. Dr. D. W. Prentiss, the original ob- 
 server in these cases, gives in his article on the subject, in the 
 Journal of the American Medical Association, many interesting 
 cases of change of color in hair. 
 
 A credible medical witness has reported a case of violent 
 neuralgia treated with morphia, bromide of potassium, quinine, 
 etc., followed by discoloration of the hair, some of it becoming- 
 white and some red, while at the back and sides of the head the 
 normal black tint of the hair remained. Sir James Paget tells, 
 in one of his lectures, of the case of a lady whose hair, during 
 attacks of nervous headache, whitened in places, and in a few 
 days afterward regained its color. 
 
 All that we have personally been able to glean on the subject 
 seems to warrant the conclusion that hair may change suddenly 
 from natural or artificial causes, through sj'stemic agency, 
 despite the fact that the hair proper has no nerves and no 
 determinate circulation, that it does occasionally so change, and 
 that it so changes through chemical, combined with capillary, 
 action. 
 
 Klein is justly regarded as a high authority on the subject 
 of the hair, but we cannot agree with him on one point, that if 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 301 
 
 a papilla be destroyed it is reproduced. lie says that, in the 
 case of the destruction of a papilla of a hair, a new papilla and 
 a new hair are generated in the old follicle. The process, ac- 
 cording to him, is the following. When the papilla atrophies, 
 its hair-bulb and the lower part of the follicle degenerate and 
 are gradually absorbed, and then, when nothing is left of the 
 apparatus but the upper part of the follicle and the hair-root, a 
 growth of cells pushes downward from the outer root-sheath 
 and becomes invaginated over a new papilla. But where does 
 the new papilla come from ? A new papilla is thus assumed to 
 have formed. But we have one cogent and sufficient reason to 
 oppose to the idea that a new papilla can form in case the old 
 one has actually been destroyed, and that is that, when by the 
 needle we extirpate a hair by passing an electric current through 
 the papilla, no hair is ever reproduced from the follicle. It is a 
 legitimate presumption that no papilla is there to reproduce it. 
 
 When a hair, exhausted as to the vitality of its root, per- 
 haps from the root being called upon to maintain a stem too long 
 for its capacity to nourish, the root shrivels, and the root, with 
 the hair, slips from its follicle, leaving the papilla to reproduce 
 another hair, as it assuredly will do, unless the case be one of 
 incipient baldness. The follicle remains as the vital point, fully 
 equal to producing another hair. When we pull from the head 
 a live, vigorous hair, we do not find the root shriveled, but 
 looking like a dense gelatinous mass, ragged at the extremity 
 and sides. This is the root with a portion of the inner root- 
 sheath clinging to it. The reader will remember that we said 
 that the inner root-sheath extends onh/ from the neck of the 
 follicle nearly, but not quite, to its bottom, and closety invests 
 the root. Hence, when the root is exuberant with vitality and 
 bulges out in every direction in its follicle, instead of being- 
 overtaxed to support too long a shaft, or dwindled from disease, 
 • it is in such close contact with the inner root-sheath, that in 
 
302 HEREDITY. HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 pulling out a vigorous hair we must needs pull out part of the 
 inner root-sheath with it. In neither case, however, is the 
 papilla removed or destroyed, and it at once begins to generate 
 a new hair. 
 
 A new hair is pointed, and in making its way out of the 
 narrow neck of the follicle it is bent around like a loop upon 
 itself, in which form its ability to escape is much increased. 
 Nevertheless, hairs do sometimes become involved in the 
 follicle so that they cannot escape, and continue to grow in a 
 spiral form until the irritation to the skin becomes so intense 
 that they must be liberated by its perforation. 
 
 Baldness, whether premature or mature, as in old age, and 
 also baldness from disease, is caused by the absorption of the 
 structures which represent the mechanism of the growth of the 
 hair. Baldness may be physiological or pathological ; from 
 natural weakness of the structures and cessation of their func- 
 tions, or from disease constitutional or acquired. 
 
 Congenital baldness can be but retarded in its devastation, 
 and, probably, best by means of the stimulation of the galvanic 
 current. For this particular application of the current, there is 
 now manufactured an admirably constructed brush, with light, 
 springy steel wires, taking the place of bristles. So far from 
 being harsh to the scalp, the sensation produced by it without 
 the current is delightful. With the addition of the light current 
 used for the scalp, the sensation undergoes, of course, the change 
 natural to the electrical flow. 
 
 Congenital baldness being, as every one knows, frequently 
 associated with great general vitality, tonic and constitutional 
 treatment is not indicated for persons suffering from its inroads. 
 When, however, the tendency to loss of hair originates other- 
 wise, whether in children or adults, constitutional treatment 
 should be adopted coincidently with local treatment of the 
 scalp. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND GROWTH OF THE HAIR. 303 
 
 Dandruff is a perfectly normal product. It represents 
 scales of the horny layer of the scarf-skin, both those pushed out 
 of the follicles b}- the growing hair, and those fallen from the 
 surface of the scalp of the head. The scales of the horny layer 
 of the scarf-skin are constantly falling from all parts of the body, 
 but the fact does not attract general observation, as it docs on 
 the scalp, because their fall is not arrested as it is by the pres- 
 ence of long hairs like those of the scalp. In healthy persons, 
 especially in the cases of those whose hair grows fast, the forma- 
 tion of dandruff is naturally the most rapid. Beyond the natural, 
 healthy condition described, we reach the oily scaliness of sebor- 
 rhea and other diseases. Fuller mention of affections of the skin 
 causing baldness properly belongs to a chapter in which we 
 shall discuss the diseases and parasitic invasions of the hair ; so 
 we reserve it for that place. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OP THE HAIR. 
 
 THE hair, at the first glance, seems to be virtually inde- 
 pendent of the body, to be a growth which manifests vigor 
 or weakness, irrespective of vigor or weakness of bodily consti- 
 tution. We sometimes see young, lusty members of society 
 bald at an early age, and the consumptive often endowed with 
 marvelous luxuriance of hair. Yet this independence is, after 
 all, but seeming. We know next to nothing of the delicate 
 processes of vital chemistry, but, little as we know, we know this, 
 that the growth of hair depends primarily upon nerve-suppl}- 
 and circulation in the scalp, and therefore that a man endowed 
 with superb general health ma} T become bald, while, at least for 
 a time, the hair of the consumptive may flourish. The health 
 of the hair of the consumptive, as deduced from its appearance 
 of luxuriance, is only seeming. Consumption is a consuming 
 of tissues and coincident death of structures. In its earliest 
 stages it often presents many signs similar to those of health, — 
 high hope, appetite, color, muscularit}', — because the vital action 
 is spendthrift. The outgo is more "than the income ; it is not 
 drawing upon the interest of constitution, for there is none, but 
 upon the little principal that it possesses. But later, the hair 
 shares in the general decadence. It begins to fall out, what is 
 left to become dry and shriveled, and in the last stages of the 
 disease, if they last long enough, the sparse remainder gives no 
 idea of its pristine luxuriance and beauty. The nerves of the 
 scalp and all the apparatus depending on them are atrophying 
 and, like the bod} T , will soon be dead. 
 
 The first, last, single, fundamental fact that we would strive 
 to impress upon the reader, regarding the growth of the hair, is 
 
 20 (305) 
 
300 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 that, however much it may vary in the individual on account of 
 constitution, Bex, :i'-iv, «>r climate, ii depends in all persons upon 
 the character of individual hair-producing nervous and vascular 
 organisation of the scalp. Whatever, therefore, whether in kind 
 or duration of covering for the head, in cleanliness of the part, 
 friction to it, stimulating lotions, contributes to keeping the 
 scalp in a healthy condition, promotes also the growth and 
 duration of the hair. 
 
 The scalp should not be regarded as skin, otherwise than at 
 least as susceptible as that of the body, liable from the same 
 causes to experience good or ill effects; for it has the same 
 constitution as that of the rest of the body, with the relative 
 disadvantage of not being heavily re-inforced by tissues below, 
 Coincidently, another fact should be kept in mind, that general 
 rules apply only to mankind in general, that often what is 
 permissible to one person is impossible to another. The amount 
 of neglect which, in the shock head-of-hair of an Italian organ- 
 grinder's boy, gifted through race, and spending most of his 
 time in the open air, has no apparent effect, would mar or ruin 
 the hair of a home-abiding woman. With him every nerve in 
 the scalp is in vigorous action, every gland secreting, despite 
 neglect of cleanliness. He is living almost in a state of nature, 
 the woman almost as far as possible from it. Who has never 
 observed, who has been away on a ramble on sea-shore or 
 mountain, how much faster there than elsewhere the hair grows 
 from the effects of air and exercise under the open sky ! 
 
 It follows that certain practices of some persons, in the care 
 and treatment of the hair, are impossible to others. Feople 
 generally forget that they are not living in a state of nature, but, 
 on the contrary, in a highly artificial one, and, therefore, that 
 what, in a state of nature, nature would tolerate as divergent, it 
 is ruthless with regard to in departure from or violation of its 
 laws. To a certain degree it will accommodate itself to the special 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HAIR. .'ill 7 
 
 needs of every individual, but beyond that the bond between it, 
 and the individual becomes strained, and often parts with life 
 itself. Everywhere human beings need light and air and clean- 
 liness for health and life itself, but they seem to forget, if they 
 ever knew, that the hair, being a vital structure, needs, like fix- 
 body elsewhere, light, air, and cleanliness. It especially needs 
 attention to them in the midst of the artificial life of civilization, 
 for, in a state of nature, the hair obtains the first two so plente- 
 ously that it can even afford to dispense largely with the last. 
 With regard to light and air, we have, however, marie some 
 advance in practice, as the flowing locks of girls up to fourteen 
 years of age show. We much fear, however, that the practice 
 originates with fashion, and not from recognition of the fact 
 that we have mentioned. 
 
 Civilization is especially mindful of the need of cleanliness 
 for the hair, while apparently oblivious of its demand for air and 
 light. But, while practicing the cleanliness to which it is laro-elv 
 addicted, it often pursues methods which are detrimental, and 
 sometimes fatal, to its chief end in view. We can favorably in- 
 fluence the condition of the hair-secreting apparatus only by 
 means of maintaining or increasing the health}^ action of the 
 scalp. By nourishing and stimulating to reaction the secretin^ 
 structures, they are kept in healthy condition, and their pro- 
 ductive energy increased. We shall attempt to show that some 
 of the practices contemplating these results are, instead of beino- 
 beneficial, highly pernicious. 
 
 One of the most flagrantly wrong methods is severe combing 
 with the fine-tooth comb, and severe brushing with the stiff- 
 bristled hair-brush. The epidermis and corium of the scalp 
 are not, as are the epidermis and corium of the body, supported 
 by large masses of subcutaneous connective-tissue and fascia?. 
 The thickness of the scalp is very slight, — so thin that in some 
 cases of baldness it presents the appearance of dry parchment 
 
308 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 shrunk over every modeling of the skull. Realize the severity 
 of the practice, as l<> this thin integument, of taking a bard brush 
 (and sometimes one is used in each hand), and going through an 
 [ndian-club exercise on the, head. Of course the skin there is 
 unduly stimulated, because it is too thin there to stand the 
 amount of friction from which elsewhere it would not sutler. A 
 considerable amount of stress, too. is by this process put upon 
 the roots of the hair by the pull upon the hair-shafts. In the 
 case of the abuse of the sculp by the line-tooth comb, it is used 
 like a harrow over the scalp, excoriating it so that the smallest 
 amount of diluted spirits afterward applied to it causes painful 
 smarting. 
 
 Yet both of these instruments are efficacious for cleanli- 
 ness, and productive of no harm if judiciously employed. We 
 once knew a gentleman who retained to an advanced age a full 
 suit of hair, untouched in color and glossiness, who never failed 
 daily to pass the fine-tooth comb through his hair. But then the 
 operation consisted literally of passing it once through the hair, 
 allowing it barely to touch the scalp. Thus he gathered on it a 
 minute, almost imperceptible, fluffy film of dust and dandruff, 
 and maintained the scalp in a state of perfect cleanliness, without 
 exacerbating it to the slightest degree. He parted, and then 
 brushed his hair, not as a gymnastic exercise, but simply as a 
 gentleman quietly arranges it, — with a moderately hard brush, 
 neither hard nor soft, imparting a gentle but sufficient stimulus 
 to the scalp. 
 
 If one has one's hair onty occasionally cleaned and combed 
 by another person, the best mode of procedure is the following, 
 in which also the line-tooth comb bears its share: — 
 
 Some saponaceous matter, in liquid form, or made at the 
 time from a cake of bland soap, is rubbed into suds on the head,- 
 the scalp being carefully gone over with the tips of the fingers 
 and nails, to dislodge any adherent scarf-skin scales, and then 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HAIR. 309 
 
 scalp and hair are washed by pouring water over them while the 
 person being operated on stoops over a basin. The hair is then 
 dried, preferably with hot towels, and such an amount of oil of 
 some kind as may represent that lost by the operation, and, per- 
 haps additionally needed, is administered to both scalp and hair. 
 
 Here the operation may cease, with this administration to 
 the scalp especially, but in some degree also to the hair, of a 
 small amount of oil or pomade as a substitute for that lost 
 through the detersive effect of the soap, and, additionally, of an 
 amount needed to rectify undue dryness of the scalp and hair. 
 But if one contemplates having the operation completed to the 
 ultimate point of nicety, then, after the head has been dried with 
 hot towels, the operator should take the smallest kind of a 
 toilet-brush (that which in the brush part is only two or three 
 inches long), and, carefully dividing the hair with it and a comb 
 in places all over the scalp, look out for any remaining incrusta- 
 tions of scarf-skin, and gently remove them from the surface, not 
 by a scratching, but by a gentle, spading movement. After this, 
 some fine oil or pomade is rubbed into the scalp with the tips of 
 the fingers, and the hair itself is given a sufficient allowance by 
 receiving that which remains on the hand. • 
 
 In an exceeding^ rude way this operation is performed by 
 barbers, and called by them shampooing. With them, it closes 
 at the end of the first step just described, when the}' douche the 
 customer's head through a quill in the cork of a bottle containing 
 some compound of an oily, alcoholic nature, scented with such 
 a vile odor that for hours afterward, when a man removes his 
 hat in a public conve3 T ance, or in the street, and finally returns 
 to the bosom of his famity, the whole world knows that he has 
 been shampooed, and upon rising the next morning he finds 
 that he has, although perhaps an educated man, made his mark 
 upon his pillow. If one attempt to escape from the infliction of 
 the pepper-sauce bottle, he does not fare much better, for the 
 
310 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL HEAUTY. 
 
 ordinary barber never has a choice oil or pomade. The only 
 trul\ sublimated barber's shop thai we ever sa"w was one kepi in 
 San Francisco by a German named Edward Stahl. There a 
 brush was never used a second time until it bad been washed. 
 Baskets of freshly-washed brushes, looking at a little distance 
 
 like heaps of freshly-cul straw, were brought in at intervals 
 
 i 
 throughout the day. The towels used were heated over hori- 
 zontal cylinders of bright copper, wit hin reach of the shampooer. 
 
 It will be recollected that we spoke of the moderate use of 
 the brush on the head as imparting a gentle, pleasant, and bene- 
 ficial stimulus to the sculp. There are, however, other desirable 
 stimuli for the scalp which we are far from wishing- to ignore. 
 It is only the excessive use of stimuli for it, or the use of 
 improper stimuli, that we condemn. Just as we verily believe 
 that we have known men to promote baldness by severe brushing 
 of the scalp with hard brushes, equally do we believe that other 
 cases of baldness of which we know have been promoted by 
 sluicing the head with all sorts of astringent and stimulating 
 lotions. Most men and women, upon first taking alarm at the 
 loss of hair as portending the immediate invasion of baldness, 
 adopt remedial measures which are by far too energetic. They 
 are generally addicted to too much brushing and combing and 
 lotion-applying, and when we consider that the composition of 
 some of the lotions is positively injurious, and that there may be 
 excess in the use of those which are good, the usual event of 
 more and more rapid loss of hair is not surprising. 
 
 There are about the growth of the hair certain fundamental 
 facts that would seem to be so open to the commonest observa- 
 tion, that they would serve for guidance in the care and treat- 
 ment of the hair. Indeed, there is a single one, generally 
 accepted by women, which would seem to imply all the rest, as 
 if they were mere corollaries of it. Thousands of women have 
 been told and believe that, if they examine the ends of their 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HAIR. 311 
 
 hair, and snip it off below the point where the hair-shaft seems 
 impoverished, it is not so likely to fall out. Thousands of 
 women follow this practice, but do not seem to see all the 
 various facts which it implies, and consequently do not reap the 
 benefit that could be derived from that knowledge. 
 
 The fact, for it is a fact, implies, first, that the root of the 
 individual hair-shaft can nourish well just so much length of the 
 shaft and no more than that represented by the length of the 
 hair from the scalp to the beginning of the shriveled portion of 
 the hair. It implies, secondly, that by cutting off' the shriveled 
 portion of the shaft, whatever small amount of nourishment it 
 has been uselessly receiving, will be devoted to that portion of 
 the shaft which is left. And through both of these statements 
 it is implied that nutritive material proceeds along the hair-shaft 
 from the root toward the end. 
 
 Now, the preceding fact and its implications lead surely to 
 the broad, underlying fact of nature's agency in the matter. 
 Every individual scalp is a soil. It is, first of all, a soil, as 
 belonging to one of a race of mankind, one race being as to it 
 endowed with greater fertility than another, and productive of a 
 different kind of crop. It is, secondly, a soil, as belonging to 
 an individual within a race, to that particular individual and to, 
 no other. And it is, lastly, even as to that individual, a soil 
 variable in fertility, its capacity as to quantity and quality of 
 crop differing with habits of life, health, and age. 
 
 No matter who that individual may be, one can no more 
 make a hair grow sensibly longer than it naturally grows, than 
 one can by taking thought increase one's stature by a cubit. 
 We can make it grow thicker, but the thickness obtained is at 
 the expense of even the former length, because there is just so 
 much nutritive material to make it grow, and if we use it for 
 thickness we cannot have it for length. Some time in the latter 
 part of the fifties a man went through a portion of Maine, making 
 
312 HEREDITY, BEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 such plausible repi'esentations to the women and girls, thai hun- 
 dreds of them had their hair cut off al the nape of the neck. 
 The hay-crop of Maine is justly celebrated, but it requires labor 
 to reap and store it. Bere was a swatb cul through a crop of 
 the State at the expense of flourishing a pair of shears. Dearly 
 musl some of the ancient virgins, who had nol trimmed their 
 lamps to enable them to see better, have rued their blindness to 
 the fad that, after the loss of precious years, they had hardly 
 reached the point from which they had started. 
 
 The very first thing that one should do when hair begins to 
 fall freely from the follicles and presents a shriveled root, is not 
 charingly to snip it off near the tips, but promptly to cut oil' a 
 generous allowance at the ends. Therein lies the best chance to 
 regain what is thus lost. Then, do not go to work to brush 
 harshly and unceasingly, and to comb with unrelenting care, but 
 perform both operations gently and occasionally, being careful 
 to see that the scalp and hair are supplied with ample nutritive 
 oily material. Avoid all cosmoline and vaseline preparations, 
 which are derived from petroleum. Think you, that if nature 
 had thought it best that coal-oil or any of its products would be 
 best for the scalp and hair, that it would not have had spouting 
 wells of petroleum on the head ? Nature has declared in favor of 
 sebum. Sebum, as we know, is a product like suet. It does not 
 follow that we recommend only suet for the hair, although suet, 
 nicely refined and scented, makes an excellent application for it. 
 "What we first of all define as our view is. that nothing prepared 
 from petroleum should be used on the scalp and hair, and, going 
 beyond that, we recommend as best forthe hair, not even a vege- 
 table oil, but an animal oil ; because we believe that nature knows 
 best about everything, and in this matter our experience con- 
 firms the ever-present wisdom of its ways. Vegetable oils for 
 the scalp and hair may pass muster in health, simply to remove 
 dryness, but for comprehensive utility, whether in health, weak- 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HAIR. 313 
 
 ness, or disease of the scalp, commend us to the oil of nature's 
 choosing, or the nearest imitations of it tli.*i,t we can ma 
 Bear's grease, beef's marrow, almost any pure animal-oil that 
 has been well tried-out and refined beyond the possibility of be- 
 coming rancid, is adapted to the scalp and hair. We have the 
 remains of a pot of Coud ray's pomatum that we have had for 
 nine years, and it is still perfectly sweet, although it has been 
 exposed to the, heat of several very hot summers. 
 
 In all that has been said as to the use of oil or grease on the 
 scalp and hair, it is not in the least implied that they are ever to 
 be used for decorative purposes. Nothing is more indicative of 
 barbarous and semi-civilized conditions than the use of oily 
 matter for decoration. The more man becomes civilized, the 
 more he shrinks from grease. There is a tribe of savages in 
 South America whose members finish their toilet by placing on 
 top of the head a pat of butter, which in the course of the day 
 trickles down over the head. The purpose is protective against 
 the scorching rays of the sun, but, as in the case of all dressing, 
 it is doubtless regarded as decorative. In this very city, about 
 the forties, when a man with a moustache could not be sure of 
 passing through the streets without being hooted at, the fashion 
 of hair in the hooter, who was known as Sykesey,his female con- 
 gener being Lize, was cropped short behind, and at the temples 
 hanging to the cheek-bones in two squared, black ears, called 
 soap-locks, saturated with oil, while Lize was not far behind him 
 in her greasy presentation of her sex. 
 
 Oil, or grease of any sort, then, is not to be understood as 
 recommended for decorative purposes, but simpty, so to speak, 
 as a fertilizer; and the reason for which we recommend it as 
 such is simply that of a wide experience, confirmatory of its 
 necessity as representing obedience to the laws of nature. If it 
 be said that nature, furnishing oil to the scalp and hair, must 
 furnish it in sufficient quantities, we answer that observation 
 
314 111 HF.DITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 proves that this often is not the fact. The argument, in view of 
 all the knowledge in our possession, is fallacious. It' we were 
 living in a state of nature, the argument would have more ap* 
 parent force. But even then it -would be futile, for, after all, 
 what is nature? Not the perfectuess of any living thing, but the 
 sign and symbol in every Living thing of tendency toward per- 
 fection. Nor is nature even thus limited, for around all living 
 things is placed the bondage of circumstances, from which man 
 can only partially escape, and this condition is a part of nature. 
 If nature, as thus composed of life and circumstances, were to 
 man all-sufficient for his welfare, then self-help and tendence of 
 others would be folly, and the existence of the physician would 
 be one of the most glaring absurdities in life. 
 
 The profession of women has been, for many years, that 
 they use no oil at all on the head. Their abstention from the 
 practice has not been so great as many of them imagine, for 
 within that time there has been more use of hair-lotions and so- 
 called tonics, all of which contain oil. • But to whatever degree 
 abstention, or belief in abstention, from the use of oil on the 
 head has taken place, it has been brought about by the decree 
 of fashion as to the dressing of the hair, and without the slightest 
 thought of any connection between it and the hygienic condition 
 of the scalp and hair. The fashion for the hair, however variable 
 in individuals, has been averse to smoothness of arrangement, 
 fluffiness and crinkiness to some degree being universally present 
 in the coiffure. Our observation of the deadness of appearance 
 in the hair of young girls and women, compared with its former 
 relatively lustrous appearance, goes to show that this fashion, in 
 largely hading to discontinuance of former methods of treating 
 the scalp and hair, and to the adoption of plentiful alcoholic 
 stimulating lotions, has brought the hair of members of the fair 
 se\- generally to a lower hygienic condition than the condition 
 among corresponding classes, say thirty years ago. 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HAIR. 315 
 
 Let us examine this question in the light shed by a com- 
 parison between the old practice and the new, with relation to 
 their probable respective effects upon the hair. 
 
 We have learned that the hair, in becoming less vigorous, 
 withers at the end. This shows that the forces which sustain it 
 pass through it as through a capillary tube. We have learned, 
 also, that in otherwise degenerating, the interior substance of the 
 hair liberates a gas which may pervade it. In addition, it is 
 known that the hair is hygroscopic ; that is to say, that it will 
 imbibe water. Upon the basis of this knowledge instruments, 
 called hj'groscopes, are made of hair, which imbibe the vapor 
 of water in the atmosphere, and b3 T an attached scale can show 
 its relative humidity at different times. We also observe that 
 the hair, from being immersed hi water, becomes partially 
 saturated, because we find that it then becomes much heavier, 
 and in proportion to the time during, which it has been im- 
 mersed, takes a longer time to dry. In bleaching the hair, we 
 find that potash and peroxide of hydrogen readily attack and 
 change the character of the whole contents of the air-shaft. We 
 find that, in weakness of constitution, and in certain diseases, 
 the exposure of a large hair-surface is unfavorable to the 
 patient's condition, and we cut off the hair. We find that, in 
 paroxysms of acute insanity, the hair often bristles up over the 
 whole head, and presents a peculiar appearance far beyond the 
 possible elevating effect of the hair-erecting muscles at the roots. 
 
 These facts prove, over and over again, that the hair is a 
 living tissue, that the individual hair-shaft, when in its normal, 
 unmoistened condition, acts virtually as a tube, capable of 
 exercising capillary attraction, and that, when moistened, the 
 cells of its cuticle admit liquid at their joints, which, entering 
 into the tissue, escapes, if water, by extremely slow evapora- 
 tion. 
 
 The universal old-time practice of treating the scalp and 
 
316 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 hair among people of condition was admirably adapted (<> this 
 actual constitution of hair, of which, however, it should be said, 
 they knew not a whit more than the, present generation among 
 the laity. 'The women who go about now cleaning hair have no 
 more knowledge than the barber lias of its constitution and 
 growth. They often bring a lotion with them of their own 
 composition. Soevery barber 1ms one, frequently of his own 
 composition. He calls it a tonic; so does she her compound. 
 Neither knows anything of its therapeutic value, yet they both 
 assume each to he of talismanic virtue. It is generally nothing 
 hut alcohol and almond, or some other oil, sometimes, colored 
 with cochineal, or otherwise tinted. If only of these ingredi- 
 ents, it is not objectionable if used only occasionally, and the 
 alcohol be not too strong. We do not mention it as such, but 
 merely as part of the account of the ordinary male or female 
 hair-dresser's stock-in-trade in knowledge and material. Scien- 
 tilic practice must be based either directly or indirectly on 
 scientific knowledge, and this they have not individually 
 searched for and found, nor have they ever acquired it through 
 instruction. 
 
 In the modern system of dressing the hair and cleaning the 
 head alcoholic solutions are entirely too much used. They 
 unnaturally dry both hair and scalp, and penetrate the cells of 
 both to their permanent injury. That, is, they do so if used in 
 a concentrated alcoholic form, or if used constantly even when 
 in a diluted alcoholic form. The first thing to be done in 
 beginning the treatment of the scalp and hair is to examine the 
 sealp for undue dryness, and the hair for withered roots and 
 lustreless shafts. Then one becomes possessed of facts to work 
 upon. The hair being, as we have mentioned, a living tissue, 
 shows at once if it be unhealthy. If any one should say, how 
 does it happen then, that' hair long shorn from the head retains 
 its beauty? we answer that it retains its beauty if it possessed 
 
THE COSMETIC CA11E AND TREATMENT OF THE JIAIR. 311 
 
 beauty when so shorn, because its beauty then became embalmed. 
 On the living body, one of the differences between healthy 
 and unhealthy hair, the one most open to casual observation, is 
 precisely difference in beauty. Dead hair never can regain it, 
 but for the still-living hair there is hope with life. 
 
 Pluck some hairs out on different portions of the head. 
 Are the shafts irregularly tinted and shrunken? Are the roots 
 shriveled and withered, instead of being full and bright, like 
 pieces of moist gelatin? If these are the conditions present, 
 trim as you would a plant under cultivation, not limited as 3'ou 
 are in the case of the plant to any season of the year. Trim the 
 hair gradually at the ends, watching at the roots the effeet in 
 newly-grown hair, and along the shafts of both old and new hair. 
 Administer bland oil in extremely small quantities, but fre- 
 quently, to the scalp for the nourishment of it and the roots of 
 the hair. By fertilizing the soil and trimming, admit that one 
 cannot expect a weakly plant to be umbrageous. If there is 
 any chance that it shall ever be, you are securing it by these 
 precautions. Under Providence we do what we may, not what 
 we wish. 
 
 The hair, being a living tissue, and being very long as worn 
 on the head of members of the fair sex, offers excellent oppor- 
 tunity for healthful stimulation along its shaft, as well as at its 
 root. No lady of the olden time but knew that the hair, manipu- 
 lated by passing the hand over it as it lies smoothed out on the 
 head, or passing the long masses of chevelure through the hand, 
 is improved in glossiness. It is not to be for a moment supposed 
 that the hair is thus rendered glossy, save as a secondary conse- 
 quence of this treatment. The primary consequence is the 
 health}' condition of the hair-shaft. The hair-shaft, thus treated, 
 secretes and excretes, as well as absorbs. The mild friction of 
 the somewhat similarly constituted skin of the palm of the hand 
 removes from the hair-shafts minute, clinging particles, commu- 
 
318 BEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 nicates warmth from friction, stimulates nutrition, and its con- 
 sequent secretion and excretion, and polishes the rounding 
 surfaces to exquisite finish, revealing and enhancing all the 
 nuances and undertones of color in the hair. 
 
 When the hair, as smoothed out on the scalp, is subjected to 
 this process, the best way to carry it out is to pass the hand and 
 the softesl kind of a brush alternately over the surface. The 
 effect is as different from that of crudely oiling as is that of 
 nighl from day. Oil should be used merely to supply a deficiency 
 in oil-production. If there be no deficiency at all, which is a 
 doubtful condition in our very artificial mode of life, then it were 
 needless to say that the use of oil would be monstrous. It is, 
 however, our conviction that, our lives being what they are. as 
 to exercise, housing, furnacedieating, etc., there is no one so 
 living who, at least in the winter time, is not deficient in oily 
 secretion from the scalp. Upon the basis of these facts, as 
 detailed, it is for the judicious to employ oil with discretion, with 
 the view of supplying a deficiency in a substance upon which 
 the health and beaut}' of the hair depend. 
 
 We conclude this branch of our subject with a summary of 
 the advice which we would wish to impress regarding the treat- 
 ment of the hair. All stress put upon the roots of the hair, 
 whether by twisting its shafts in dressing it, so as unduly to pull 
 upon the roots, or so brushing it as unduly to pull upon them, 
 is detrimental to the health and the growth of the hair. Equally 
 detrimental to it is exacerbation of the scalp from harsh mechani- 
 cal treatment of it with the comb and brush, or frequent use on 
 it of strong alcoholic solutions. All preparations of cosmoline 
 and vaseline should be tabooed, because they are mineral-oil 
 products. Great care should be exercised to avoid letting the 
 hair grow so long as to become impoverished by its dropping 
 out, or by the withering of the hair-shaft, conditions sometimes 
 coincident in time. Remembering that on poor soil one cannot 
 
THE COSMETTC CARE ANT) TREATMENT OK THE HAIR. 319 
 
 raise a good crop, be careful to supply artificially to the scalp 
 and hair the amount of oil by which it is naturally, or you have 
 artificially rendered it, deficient. Remembering, too, that 
 nature's growths need air and light and moisture, fail not to 
 let the hair have all these. Thus, and thus only, if it be other- 
 wise possible, can one secure health and beauty to the hair, and 
 avoid, or at least postpone, the evil day of baldness, if perchance 
 it threatens invasion. 
 
 We have admitted that we approve of an occasional mild 
 stimulation of the nervous and vascular systems of the scalp by 
 the mechanical means of the brush, or by some properly medi- 
 cated fluid ; but we have been careful to say, at the same time, 
 that any stimulation of the scalp must be onhy occasional and 
 mild, and that when it is a stimulating fluid that is used for the 
 purpose we should be vety careful as to its chemical composi- 
 tion. We have no faith in a strong solution of alcohol being 
 beneficial to either scalp or hair. The very fact that it so 
 efficiently cleanses them is one of the proofs of how severe the 
 application is. The question as to its use or abuse, however, 
 really turns upon the question as to how much the alcohol is 
 diluted. If it could ever be used perfectly pure, and were so 
 used, it would doubtless kill outright many a hair-root. But 
 alcohol has such an affinity for moisture, that what is called 
 absolute alcohol, or perfectly-pure alcohol, has but a very brief 
 existence. Then, again, the alcohol, as actually used for lotions, 
 has been purposely diluted with watery fluids, besides having 
 matter in solution. All this being admitted, alcoholic solutions, 
 as used for the hair and scalp, are very frequently, perhaps for 
 the most part, too strong. 
 
 Alcohol is drying to the scalp, arid to ever}' part of the 
 hair-shaft that it touches. This happens because it takes up the 
 natural and artificial oils in solution. And that is why it cleanses 
 so thoroughly, because in taking the oils into solution it liberates 
 
320 HEREDITY, BEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 the dirt entangled with them, and this the final application of 
 water removes. But what is the condition of the hair after a 
 bath of alcoholic solution? Excessively dry, requiring ample 
 restitution of oil, it' serious detriment bo its health and growth 
 is to be avoided. The same consequence, in a greater degree, 
 follows the use of borax on the scalp and hair, and after the use 
 of it there should he an ample restitution of oil. 
 
 We are strongly of the opinion that, although for occasional 
 use light mechanical friction and mild lotions are all that are 
 desirable for the hair and maintenance of the health of the scalp, 
 that when it comes to cases of incipient loss of hair, threatening 
 baldness, it will be eventually recognized that no stimulus for 
 the scalp, and, through it, for its nervous and vascular systems, 
 upon wdiich, as Ave have said, health and growth of hair primarily 
 depend, can compare with that of the galvanic current mildly ad- 
 ministered. Its tonic effect is so remarkable that, if it be possi- 
 ble to abort a case of baldness, the best means for so doing lie 
 there. With moistened sponge-electrodes, the hair too being- 
 moistened and parted at intervals, the application can easily be 
 made to the scalp. A very good way of administering the cur- 
 rent is with the metallic-bristled brush, of which we have spoken. 
 The galvanic current forms real, effective administration of elec- 
 tricity. The brushes that are offered, and, we regret to say, too, 
 are bought by a portion of the public, have a little magnet inside 
 of them, and possess no electrical power wdiatever, nor any mag- 
 netic power either, so far as affecting the animal body is con- 
 cerned. Their attraction is exercised solely on iron or steel and 
 the public gullibility. 
 
 The presence of hair abnormally, with reference to position 
 on the body, or to sex, is a real affliction, in cases in the female 
 sex occasionally reaching a point embittering life. New Reme- 
 dies, of October, 1883, gives the following formula for a 
 depilatory : — 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE HAIR. 321 
 
 Sprinkle over 100 parts of good quick-lime about, 50 parteof hot water, and 
 when slaked, triturate [shake up] with 200 parts of cold water. Place In a suit- 
 able flask, and pass into it trie hydrogen sulphide, generated from 200 parte of sul- 
 phide of iron and 200 parts of sulphuric acid, gradually introduced Into the 
 generator. This preparation must be immediately placed in small vials and 
 securely sealed; but even then it will lose its virtues alter a tew weeks. This 
 was originally recommended by Bcetger, but is sometimes known as Martin's 
 Depilatory. This paste is to be spread over the hairy skin to the thickness of -X 
 inch, and allowed to remain for ten minutes, when it is removed with a wit, 
 sponge. When allowed to remain too long, bad sores are apt to result. 
 
 Another, known by the Turkish name, Rusma, is composed of 50 parts of 
 quick-lime, 30 parts of starch, and 5 parts of orpiment. This is to be made into a 
 paste with water, and employed in the same manner as the foregoing. 
 
 Of course these, and all such methods, remove hairs only 
 temporarily. One of the incidental and dreadful phases of ab- 
 normal hair is the tenacity of its growth. What might serioush- 
 affect a surface of healthy hair, does not seem to influence the 
 obtrusive growth in the least. Our imaginations, however, are 
 somewhat concerned in this impression, but only to the extent 
 of exaggerating it to the mind, for abnormal growths have 
 doubtless wonderful relative vigor. The only way of making 
 complete and final disposition of abnormal hair, without marrino- 
 the beauty of the skin, is by what is known as epilation by 
 the electric needle. This is a very trifling operation, so far as 
 hurt is concerned. A very fine platinum needle is inserted in 
 the papilla of the hair, and then, a small galvanic current from 
 the negative pole being turned on, the papilla is instantly 
 destined, and the reproduction of hair from it, of course, 
 rendered impossible. 
 
 The following recipes are for washes, regarded as excellent 
 for stimulating the scalp in case of gradual loss of hair: — 
 
 1. Lanolin, . .1 ounce. 
 
 Bicarbonate of sodium, 1 drachm. 
 
 Mix, and rub once a week over the scalp in a single application. 
 
 2. Corrosive sublimate, 15 grains. 
 
 Turtle-oil, 6 ounces. 
 
 Mix, and use as a hair-oil. 
 
 21 
 
322 HEREDITY. I1KA1.TU. AND PKUS0NAT, BK.UTY. 
 
 Om* of the best of hair-tonics is Pinaud's Ban de Quinine. 
 In a later chapter we will give a list of Borne of the more 
 eleganl preparations for the toilette. 
 
 Oxygen, :is is well known, is one of the constituents of 
 water. But water may contain a much greater proportion of 
 oxygen than is necessary for its constitution. Binoxide, or 
 peroxide of hydrogen, contains a very much larger amounl of 
 oxygen than water in nature docs. In this form it is sometimes 
 called ox3 r genated water, and is a highly oxidizing fluid. This 
 it is which, in the modern practice of bleaching the bair, has 
 superseded the use of potash for the same purpose. The follow- 
 in-- formula for its preparation was, in April, 1S84, given by the 
 American Drugg ist : — 
 
 The hairs should be digested with a 3-per-cent. solution of carbonate of am- 
 monium, at 30° C. (86° Fall.) for twelve hours, then treated with soap-suds, and 
 finally again digested with the solution of carbonate of ammonium. Winn thor- 
 oughly washed, they arc placid in peroxide of hydrogen, which should pre- 
 viously be perfectly neutralized with ammonia. 
 
 "Digested" means, in this case, simply "soaked in." As 
 one could not literally keep the hair in soak for twelve hours, 
 what is meant is that the hair is kept saturated by wet cloths. 
 
 Peroxide of hydrogen produces in the hair an effect which 
 is a travesty of any tint that nature makes in the hair of the 
 blonde. It is a mystery how any one can imagine that it simu- 
 lates even the lowest order of that kind 'of hair, which in its 
 lowest natural estate is far from handsome, while it rises at its 
 highest to a beauty not to be exceeded. The peroxide blond 
 hair has a singularly dull, lifeless cast of yellow, so flagrantly 
 unnatural, that a glance at it as it passes in the street is enough 
 to detect it. The hair-substance has, by the use of potent chemi- 
 cals upon it, ceased to be a living tissue, and is lustrelessly and 
 obtrusively defunct and wiggy. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 PARASITIC INVASIONS OF THE SCALP, HAIR, AND BODY. 
 
 ANY cutaneous affection is necessarily aggravated by the 
 presence of hair on the area involved. We can cite such 
 a case, even when a large boil, occurring under the chin, amidst 
 the thickest of the growth of a dense beard, was especially 
 troublesome on account of its occupying that locality. There 
 are, however, affections of the skin which are distinctively 
 associated with localities where there is a growth of hair, and 
 one affection, eczema, or tetter, to which there is marked liability 
 as a consequence of some depraved condition of the hair- 
 producing functions. When tinea or seborrhcea are the diseases 
 concerned, they, although having a wider range than merely 
 attacking the hair-producing apparatus, may be distinctively 
 diseases of the scalp and other hairy portions of the bod}\ 
 
 Tinea sycosis, or barber's itch, is a vegetable parasitic 
 affection, to which only members of the male sex are liable, 
 because it attacks only the bearded parts of the face and neck. 
 
 Tinea circinata, or ringworm of the body, caused by the 
 same vegetable parasite, does not by predilection attack hairy 
 surfaces. When it spreads to them from other parts that have 
 been attacked, the affection is known as tinea tonsurans, or hair- 
 denuding tinea, and the disease becomes modified in character. 
 
 Tinea favosa, crusted, or honey-comb ringworm, is derived 
 from another vegetable parasite. It ma}' be circumscribed to 
 one locality, and may invade the Tuhole body. 
 
 One form of tinea, alluded to in a preceding chapter, attacks 
 the nails. The disease in its various forms is very contagious. 
 Ringworm of the scalp sometimes runs through a large school 
 from the contagion of a single pupil. 
 
 (323) 
 
324 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 X 
 
 Seborrheas capitis, or degeneration of the sebaceous appa- 
 ratus of the scalp, results in an <>ily exudation poured <>ut on 
 the bead and mixed witb scales of scarf-skin, forming unsightly 
 and disgusting crusts on the bead. As seborrhcea is a disease 
 of the sebaceous glands, it may occur on any part of the body, 
 and in rare cases bas involved the whole of it. 
 
 Eczema capitis, or eczema of the scalp, may be a primary 
 or a secondary disease of the scalp. As already indicated, it 
 may be brought about by irritation of the scalp from some 
 other disease. 
 
 With this brief mention of facts related to some diseases of 
 the scalp, we must stop. It would be preposterous, even if it 
 were right, for us to attempt to present even the briefest outline 
 of such diseases and the treatment applicable to them. As a 
 regular physician, we are opposed to the laity's attempting to 
 treat themselves medically. We therefore conclude this branch 
 of our subject by recommending that, for any cutaneous affec- 
 tion, recourse should be had to a good physician. Neglected 
 diseases of the skin make firm lodgment. The skin acquires 
 the habit of the disease, ami through it the body becomes 
 systemically affected. Frequently, the trouble is centred in the 
 trophic S}-stem, and constitutional as well as local treatment 
 for the affection is indicated, neither of which ollices can an} r 
 one but a physician rationally prescribe. 
 
 We will now pass from the consideration of vegetable to 
 that of animal parasites. 
 
 It is a singular fact in the natural history of man, or rather 
 of woman, that woman bears better the reality of a disagreeable 
 tiling than hearing mention of it. In our travels we have never 
 met an exception to the rule, that the landlady Avho sa}*s that 
 she never hail a bed-bun in tin- house has plenty of them; nor 
 of the converse rule, that if the landlady judges that it is within 
 the bounds of possibility that she might have such a visitation 
 
PARASITIC INVASIONS OF THE SCALP, HAIR, AND BODY. '-Yi') 
 
 she is among the least likety of human beings to suffer from the 
 pest. One kind of woman expects no special immunity thai her 
 equally worthy neighbors cannot enjoy; the other takes it for 
 granted that all will go well of itself in this best of all possible 
 worlds. One searches, and finds, if there be aught to find, and, 
 finding or not finding, rests in blessed contentment that for some 
 time to come nothing can be found. The other searches not, 
 but lays the sweet unction to her soul that she is not as other 
 women are, but lives under a special Providence. When we 
 once saw a dame so well-assured, descanting on the natural im- 
 maculateness of her house, while all the time the very insect, 
 witness for the plaintiff, was crawling, in plain sight to everybody 
 else, along the edge of her spring-bonnet, we could heartily 
 exclaim with Puck, " What fools these mortals be !" Weismann 
 mentions, in one of the appendices to his work " On Heredity," 
 by way of illustrating the tenacity of the life of bed-bugs, that 
 "they can endure starvation for an astonishingly long period, 
 and can survive the most intense cold. Leunis (" Zoologie," p. 
 659) mentions the case of a female which was shut up in a box 
 and forgotten ; after six months' starvation it was found, not 
 only alive, but surrounded by a circle of lively young ones. 
 Goze found bugs in the hangings of an old bed which had not 
 been used for six years ; ' the}- appeared like white paper.' I 
 have myself observed a similar case, in which the starving 
 animals were quite transparent." 
 
 Anywhere, at any time, however innocent we may be of 
 neglect, we may have parasites brought to us abroad, or 
 introduced into our ver} T domiciles. Horrible to us as may be 
 the thought, the horror of it can serve no good purpose but to 
 put us on our guard and keep us ever on the alert to repel inva- 
 sion. The contamination may be received in public indoor- 
 places, in hacks, in cars, or ma}^ enter our houses in freshly- 
 laundried clothes. We knew a gentleman who, once taking a 
 
326 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 berth in a dirty schooner, in Lieu of the state-room which lie had 
 expected to Lave aboard of a steamboat which broke her shaft, 
 found the next morning that his person bad been disagreeably 
 invaded. It is by recognizing, do matter who we are, that we 
 belong to the mass of bumanity, and that, take what pains we 
 will, we are still Liable to its ills, that we incur through life the 
 fewest of them. 
 
 Scabies, or the itch, comes from an animal parasite, called 
 acarus scabiei. Even the great Napoleon once contracted this 
 disease from grasping the rammer of a cannoneer who was 
 suffering from the affection. During the late war it was very 
 prevalent in places, from the inevitable massing of men at times 
 in crowded quarters, amidst unhygienic surroundings. 
 
 There are three species of lice with which the human body 
 is* liable to be infested. These are, pediculus capitis (the head- 
 louse) ; pediculus corporis (the body -louse) ; and pediculus pubis 
 (the louse of the pubic regions). 
 
 The pediculus capitis is found frequentl}' among unclean and 
 badly-nourished children, whence it may extend its inroads to 
 children of a very different condition. Uncleanliness among 
 certain classes, even when the presence of the parasite is not 
 indicative of a low tone of the system, amounting to disease, is 
 a prolific source of contamination. Mothers, therefore, intro- 
 ducing into their families nurse-girls who have come from inferior 
 surroundings, would do well always to see to their condition and 
 personal habits. 
 
 The pediculus corporis is to be found chiefly on those per- 
 sons who are of habitually unclean habits, or who have no 
 opportunity, through being herded together as prisoners or 
 slaves, to follow their natural habits of cleanliness. 
 
 The pediculus pubis (otherwise called the crab-louse) is much 
 larger than either of the species mentioned, and is sometimes 
 communicated in the manner already incidentally noted. 
 
PARASITIC INVASIONS OF THE SCALP, HAIR, AND BODY. 327 
 
 The treatment of these affections naturally begins by getting 
 rid of the parasites and their eggs, or nits, as they are usually 
 called. They have sometimes, before this can be accomplished, 
 poisoned the skin to so great a degree as to originate cutaneous 
 disorders. 
 
 Added to the use of the comb for removing the parasites, 
 the following substances are usefully employed for the same pur- 
 pose: Naphthol, mercurial ointment, tobacco, cocculus-indicus, 
 staphisagria, sabadilla, pyrethrum, carbolic acid, and sulphur. 
 These can be procured in the form of powders, lotions, and oint- 
 ments, and some in that of soaps. Naphthol and corrosive- 
 sublimate soaps are well adapted to the cleanly removal of the 
 parasites. Pure naphthol and pure kerosene are too inflammable 
 and malodorous to be recommended as applications. If used, 
 they should be rendered less dangerous, and less offensive to the 
 smell, by mixing with them some olive-oil. Soda, borax, vinegar, 
 alcohol, and dilute acetic acid are useful for destroying the nits. 
 
 As, apart from an invasion of these parasites, a low tone of 
 the system, induced by poor and insufficient diet, bad ventilation, 
 and other unhygienic conditions, is provocative of their onset, 
 constituting under the circumstances a true disease, it is neces- 
 sary in such cases that the sufferer should be invigorated by 
 tonics, at the same time that all depressant influences are 
 removed. 
 
 If eczema, or tetter, has supervened from the attacks of the 
 pediculus capitis, it should be treated by a physician. In our 
 own medical work on diseases of the skin we have given much 
 instruction and many prescriptions for the treatment of these 
 parasitic affections when they amount to a disease, but as they 
 are, as we indicated at the beginning, of sufficient importance to 
 require the direct advice of a physician, there would be no object 
 in setting down here discussions and prescriptions relating to 
 them, and intended only for the eye of the medical practitioner. 
 
323 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 To get rid of bed-bugs in beds, floors, or wall-paper, the 
 K'st course to pursue is to wash every few days the surface 
 where the inserts are supposed to be lodged with a solution of 
 1 or 2 drachms of either corrosive sublimate or naphthol to 
 the pint of water. Such lotions are best applied to a bed with 
 the tip of a feather, which instrument affords a flat side carrying 
 a considerable amount of liquid, and at the same time a thin 
 edge that will penetrate the smallest crack. 
 
 The itching left by the poison of the bed-bug can be allayed 
 by a lotion composed of 4 ounces of camphor-water and ^ drachm 
 of powdered borax, or one composed of 2 to 4 grains of corro- 
 sive sublimate to the ounce of water. Another soothing lotion 
 for the same purpose is compounded of a drachm of boraeic 
 acid, or half a drachm of carbolic acid, to a pint of water. 
 
 The itching from the flea-bite is greatly relieved by alkaline 
 lotions, or by a solution of either naphthol or corrosive subli- 
 mate and olive-oil. 
 
 The sand-flea, known also as the chigre and the jigger, is 
 sometimes most anno\ T ing. Oil of wintergreen is somewhat of a 
 preventive of the attack of this insect. The feet of children 
 playing in the sand of the coast during the day should be exam- 
 ined as they are being undressed for bed at night, if they com- 
 plain of any itching of the parts, for these are the favorite points 
 of attack of the insect. 
 
 The tick, which varies greatly in size in different species, 
 ranging from that of a grain of pepper to that of a large fly, 
 quietly burrows into the skin in such a way as not to inflict pain, 
 but with the eventual result of producing a sore. The best way 
 to get rid of these insects is to have the spots where they have 
 entered touched with a drop of oil. This excludes the air, and 
 the insects are obliged literally to back out. In parts of the 
 country, at certain seasons of the year, a day in the woods 
 is inevitably followed by a profuse peppering of the back with 
 
PARASTTIC INVASIONS OF THE SCALP, HAIR, AND BODY. 329 
 
 the species of tick known from its minute size as the seed-tick. 
 Instinct teaches the animals where the most inaccessible parts 
 of the hody are. If another person will, under these circum- 
 stances, apply the oil, as just directed, the invaders are soon 
 brought to retreat. Another mode of repelling their attack is to 
 apply tobacco-juice, turpentine, or benzine to the part Attacked, 
 any of which applications will compel the insects to withdraw 
 from the skin. Never break one of the larger species, previously 
 mentioned, off in the skin, for that action is always followed by 
 a festering sore, which, although minute, is annoying. 
 
 There seems to be no place on the habitable globe free from 
 mosquitoes. At certain seasons, at certain times of clay, they 
 swarm even in Alaska, and are observed in equally high latitudes 
 elsewhere. The} 7 are the greatest pest of America. We have 
 been in parts of the country where the inhabitants habitually 
 spent their evenings with their heads OA r er a burning smudge of 
 some sort to keep off the attacks of these relentless enemies of 
 man and beast. In consequence of their attacks, life is in some 
 places really not worth living, which is a deplorable state of 
 things, when we remember that no saint ever lived in a mosquito 
 country. When a mosquito is in good health and vigorous, 
 nothing deters it but death from having drink. Die though it 
 inevitably does from the mania a potu, example is of no effect, 
 and all attempts to restrict it b}* pennj^royal or prohibition are 
 in vain ; it will have nothing but high license. The net is the 
 only available thing for the mosquito ; that is, the world for the 
 mosquito, and the net for mankind. But, if you have been stung, 
 that is another thing ; ammonia-water, peppermint-water, spirits 
 of camphor, or lotions made of borax, naphthol, or corrosive 
 sublimate are good for relieving the irritation caused by the 
 sting, and it is often promptl}' relieved by a lotion composed 
 of a drachm or two of boracic acid to 4 ounces of peppermint- 
 or camphor-water. 
 
330 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Next to the mosquito, and in some countries before the 
 mosquito, the flea ranks :is the most relentless foe of man. In 
 Italy bow many travelers have not bewailed their lot in their 
 unhappy visitation, for both flea and mosquito do love the new- 
 comer in a land to a degree not to be accounted Tor upon the 
 supposition of habit reconciling to the infliction, Bui we need 
 not look abroad to find the flea in numbers and activity not to be 
 ignored, for in parts of our own count it it has no respect coupled 
 with its love of man. Some of the most wretched nights that 
 we ever spent were passed in his company on the Pacific coast. 
 Even within the precincts of delightful San Francisco we found 
 the same kind of greeting in our coming, departure, and return, 
 and we entertained our hosts. That San Francisco, the blessed, 
 should have this affliction can only be accounted for upon the 
 supposition that it is ordained that she shall be continuously 
 chastened, lest the pride of her people should exceed all bounds. 
 Thus is stationed with each of her denizens, as with the ancient 
 king, and even accompanies him part way to the East, the moni- 
 tor who constantly repeats with a nip, "thou art mortal, thou 
 art mortal." 
 
 The flea is rarely taken prisoner in numbers. He is gener- 
 ally only to be subdued in single combat, and, like the Parthian, 
 he fights while flying. His cavalry movements are much im- 
 pelled by insect powder sprinkled in the bed at night, and in the 
 parts of the clothing where he is fondest of bivouacking. One 
 of the easiest ways in which he can be snared is also to many 
 persons, ourselves included, most disagreeable to practice. How- 
 ever, as almost anything is better than the company of a flea, it 
 is well to know any method of dispensing with it. Having a 
 basin of water ready at hand, habitually walk about your bed- 
 room in cotton-stockinged feet. The flea becomes entangled and 
 helpless in the fuzz of the sole of the stocking. Caught between 
 the thumb and forefinger, he should be plunged into the middle 
 
PARASITIC INVASIONS OF THE SCALP, HAIR, AND BODY. 331 
 
 of the water, to make sure that he shall not escape up the side 
 of the basin. We have in a much afflicted flea country seen 
 many fleas caught in this way. 
 
 When, during the day, one, being dressed, cannot with 
 facility reach the flea, whose armor is proof against crush from 
 the outside, the only way to do is to retire to one's chamber, and 
 there, with the basin of water at hand, make a search in every 
 garment, ready at a moment's notice to pounce with moistened 
 thumb and forefinger upon the aggressor. He is sly and seeks 
 dark corners and crevices, but a little experience soon makes one 
 expert in capturing him. To become accomplished in this is not 
 to be despised,- for a single hungry flea may mar one's pleasure 
 in the finest picture-galleiy, distract the attention in an important 
 conversation, or increase the labor of a task where one requires 
 full possession of his mental faculties. 
 
 Alkaline, naphthol, or corrosive-sublimate solutions, used as 
 lotions, speedily relieve the itching from flea-bites. 
 
 There are numerous other troublesome insects in the United 
 States, — midgets, also called sand-flies; ants, bees, wasps, cater- 
 pillars, spiders, and even centipedes and scorpions. The two 
 last mentioned are, however, very circumscribed in their range. 
 The bites of insects we often cannot avoid, nor the inflamma- 
 tion produced by the contact with the hair of the caterpillar, 
 but we can easily relieve the pain and itching involved b}^ the 
 use of ammonia-water, or solutions of permanganate of potas- 
 sium, corrosive sublimate, or naphthol, or by borax lotions and 
 ointments. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE TEETH. 
 
 THAT the teeth are most useful and beautiful adjuncts of the 
 body is self-evident. That the} r should be so beautiful, 
 while subserving so utilitarian a purpose as theirs, is one of the 
 insoluble nrysteries. A young and pretty girl, inspired by 
 affection for the love-lorn swain, beams upon him with her eyes, 
 and he reciprocates the token with his, both adding a full view 
 of the mills of their respective alimentaiy apparatus. This 
 takes place without a thought, on the part of either, that the 
 expression which reciprocally gladdens their hearts and irradiates 
 their countenances has any other end and aspect than a manifes- 
 tation of beauty. It is true that the whole outward appearance 
 of the human body is seen, upon reflection, to represent useful- 
 ness underlying beauty, and, indeed, beauty conditioned upon 
 usefulness, but no portion so flagrantly as this proclaims its sub- 
 servience to the lowliest duties, while lending itself to one of 
 the greatest charms of person. 
 
 We thank kind fortune that the modern novel is through 
 with the chariot of Phoebus and other Olympian machinery, and 
 simultaneously, for earth, has consigned the pearly teeth, with 
 which heroines were alwa}^s endowed, to the rubbish of oblivion. 
 Pearly teeth have always been repellant to the eye of the 
 connoisseur of female beauty, as indicative of fragile constitu- 
 tion. The two extremes of unsightliness in teeth, not decaj-ed 
 or crooked, are in those with the translucency of pearl or the 
 cream-color of ivory. Between these two extremes lies beauty 
 of color in teeth. As to their form, elongated teeth are not 
 handsome, nor are those which are distinctively short. The}' 
 both, particularly the first, indicate constitution which is not 
 
 (333) 
 
3o4 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND l'KRSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 robust. To be bandsome, teeth must be fine in both form and 
 color. Willi these two attributes combined in the liighesl 
 degree, wit h immaculate purity, there is no attribute that can so 
 much enhance the beauty of a bandsome lace, or better redeem 
 the plainness of the ugliest. 
 
 The first, milk, temporary, or deciduous teeth, for they are 
 known by all these names, are twenty in number, ten in each 
 jaw. The permanent teeth, so-called (would that one could say 
 so literally), are thirty-two in number, sixteen in each jaw. 
 
 Teeth are formed of enamel and dentine. There is a very 
 thin layer of what is called cementum, around the fang, or root, 
 of the tooth, but this is so inconsiderable that we may omit it 
 from our present inquiry. The enamel is harder than the 
 dentine, and lies on the crown of the tooth in nodules thinning 
 to a laver ending in a mere film at the neck of the tooth, the 
 place where it enters the gum. The dentine, the softer bone, 
 called also the ivory of the tooth, surrounds the pulp-cavity, in 
 which lies the pulp, the generatrix and preserver of the tooth in 
 every part. Both of these kinds of bone, the enamel and the 
 dentine, are harder than any other bones of the body, because 
 they contain a greater percentage of bone-earth and less bone- 
 cartilage than the bones of the body do. The varying propor- 
 tions of bone-cartilage to bone-earth in all the bones of the bod}', 
 including the teeth, recognize the varying needs of different 
 structures. Hardness and toughness in these substances 
 respectively, — the hardness in the bone-earth, the toughness in 
 the bone-cartilage, — when combined in different proportions, 
 fulfill all the varying requirements for the solid portions of 
 the body. 
 
 The enamel contains only about 3\ per cent, of bone-carti- 
 lage, the rest of it being bone-earth. The dentine, on the 
 contrary, contains 28 per cent, of bone-cartilage and 72 per 
 cent, of bone-earth. Compare these proportions with those of 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE TEETH. 335 
 
 ordinary bone. The ordinary bone of the human body, varying 
 in composition in different parts of the body, with sex, age, 
 health, and strength, contains, upon the average, about one-third 
 
 of bone-cartilage and two-thirds of bone-earth. The hone of the 
 teeth varies, too, with these conditions, especially with age. It 
 is seen, however, that, speaking in general terms, the larger the 
 proportion of bone-earth in bone, the harder the bone is, and 
 that, on account of its largest proportion of that substance, 
 enamel must stand first in hardness, followed by dentine. In 
 fact, the enamel is the hardest of all organic tissues. 
 
 No matter what the kind of bone, it requires for its 'healthy 
 formation nutritious and varying food. The same deficiency in 
 these elements that, with foul air and generally unhygienic 
 surroundings, leads to children having the cartilaginous limbs 
 of rickets, leads also to their having stunted and defective teeth. 
 Teeth never become otherwise than as they were nourished and 
 grew. We have seen little children habitually set down to table 
 to a meagre breakfast of cake and pie and preserves, with not 
 an egg, and rarely a scrap of meat at any time ; and this too 
 where poverty did not compel, but where there was nothing 
 standing in the way of their well-being but the densest ignorance 
 on the part of their parents. Yet these children were expected 
 to thrive on such pabulum. They had not the wherewithal to 
 sustain a health} 7 vitality in an}^ organ, and every detail of their 
 bodies was impoverished and weazen. Of all miserable wa^-s of 
 saving, to starve the stomach is the worst. No better legacy 
 can any father leave a child than a healthy stomach. With it 
 the child, grown to manhood or womanhood, can front the "world 
 and dire adversity ; but, without it, quails before the world as a 
 creature of nerves to whom existence is inexorable. The ten thou- 
 sand devils of dyspepsia wait on the days and nights of the richest 
 who in early life have been denied what nature craves as the first 
 conditions of continued vigorous life, — food plentiful and various. 
 
336 11KHKD1TY. EEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The modern jaw is contracting. Such :i change is strictly 
 in accordance w ith present conditions of human evolution. Man 
 was prognathous at one time; indeed is, in certain Low races ami 
 individuals, even now. His canine teeth were <>nce much Larger 
 
 than they are now. They were needed ill his savage state as 
 weapons, and with them he tore his ill-prepared meat-food. 
 Civilization, through the art of cooking, renders food tempting, 
 various, and digestible. It serves meat so that it does not 
 require to be rent as by wild beasts. It is only ignorance that 
 derides the art of cooking. What is vaunted often as plain 
 cooking is nothing but confession of ignorance of the art. In 
 proportion as it is an art, is it best fitted for the needs of 
 civilization. 
 
 As we have seen, nature subordinates, suppresses, and in the 
 lontr run discards that which is no longer of service. The fact 
 of use and disuse, brought about by nature's compulsion to 
 use or disuse, through natural selection, effects many changes. 
 Dentists are right in their observation that the most modern, 
 civilized human jaw, as compared with the jaw even within fifty 
 years, has contracted, for the present range and phase of 
 civilization are intensified beyond all previous experience on the 
 globe. 
 
 Most persons think of the tooth as a solid bone. It is, on 
 the contrary, a living structure. Not only do nerve-filaments 
 and blood-vessels pass through the end of the roots, and thereby 
 connect the pulp of the tooth with the general nervous system 
 and circulation of the body, but from the pulp pass into the 
 dentine an immense number of tubules containing filaments of 
 soft bone-making substance, the dentine being thus injected and 
 nourished throughout its whole mass. 
 
 The enamel is at its thickest points as much as a sixteenth 
 of an inch through, and consists of little six-sided prisms placed 
 side by side, and held together by some exquisitely fine cement- 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE TEETH. 337 
 
 ing substance. These standing upright, invested with a lamina 
 of very fine bone-cuticle, naturally form a barrier to the invasion 
 of decay, but if, through weakness of constitution or careless- 
 ness, the surface be attacked, the structure is, as its formation 
 clearly shows, liable to rapid disintegration. Decay, having pene- 
 trated the enamel and reached the dentine, makes havoc in that 
 relatively soft bone, the pulp of the tooth becomes diseased, 
 and toothache may be the first sign observed of the fact that 
 disease has reached the citadel of the tooth's life. 
 
 In the preservation. of the teeth two dangers are especially 
 to be guarded against, — the lodgment of particles of food be- 
 tween the teeth, and the accumulation of tartar on them. The 
 first of these dangers can easily be avoided by passing, nightly, 
 and after meals, if there be time, between the teeth of both jaws 
 a thick piece of silk thread, or even of home-spun thread, if no 
 better kind be procurable.' 
 
 The presence of tartar causes a recession of the gums. 
 This occurs partly from the fact of the irritant composition of 
 tartar, and partly from that of its being a foreign body impinging 
 on the delicate edge of the gum inclosing the tooth. With some 
 persons the chemical composition of the saliva is such that the 
 deposition of tartar is always great, and assiduous care of the 
 teeth is required to keep them free from it. Tartar consists 
 chiefly of earthy phosphates. It is a complex secretion derived 
 from three glands, and is chiefly alkaline in its chemical reaction. 
 Klebs, a very high authority on this subject, has found with the 
 microscope that it is full of micro-organisms, and he believes that 
 these organisms assimilate matter in the saliva, and cast it down 
 in the form of calcium-salts. If he be correct in this view, the 
 fact readily accounts for the rapidity with which tartar some- 
 times invades the root of the tooth under the gum. When once 
 it has begun decidedly to invade the root, the periosteum, the 
 lining membrane of the alveole or socket of the tooth, becomes 
 
338 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 inflamed, constituting the disease of dental periostitis. It is 
 
 thni :i question of only a very short time when the tooth shall, 
 from the degeneration and absorption of the tissue of the socket, 
 begin to loosen and project beyond the line of the other teeth, 
 and either fall out or require removal. 
 
 It is customary, when the recession of the gums from this 
 or another cause begins t<> take place, to apply tincture of myrrh 
 to the parts to stimulate the circulation and remove their tend- 
 ency to flabbiness. The astringent and other qualities of myrrh 
 are doubtless very beneficial for the purpose, but it may well be 
 questioned if, when the disease has proceeded so far as to in- 
 volve the periosteum, anything can be done to check it. The 
 best that can be hoped for is to palliate and retard the encroach- 
 ment of the disease. With this end in view, we give, at the end 
 of this chapter, three formulae which will be found useful for 
 such treatment. 
 
 The part of wisdom is to look by our practice to the pre- 
 vention of the disease, rather than to endeavoring to stay its 
 ravages after it has once attacked. What we would suggest as 
 a universal practice, in view of the fact that we are not address- 
 ing our advice solely to the pampered children of fortune, or 
 to those who, without being such, possess ample means and 
 leisure, but to the millions who are hurried through life, who must 
 neglect the brushing of the teeth on man)- occasions, or who, 
 brushing them, do so inadequately : what we would suggest, we 
 would say, in view of all these conditions, is the adoption of a 
 simple practice long followed by the Irish. Clean the teeth and 
 gums occasionally with common salt, rubbed without violence 
 into the gums above and below with a piece of soft muslin. 
 Under the regimen of an occasional cleaning of the teeth and 
 gums with this substance, all deposits injurious to them, whether 
 micro-organic or otherwise, are utterl}' destroyed. 
 
 Do not forget, in cleaning the teeth, no matter with what 
 
THE COSMETIC CARE AND TREATMENT OF THE TEETH. 339 
 
 you may clean them, whether as an instrument or a cleansing 
 substance, that the} r should be cleaned inside as well as outside. 
 The deposit of tartar is frequently very much greater inside than 
 outside of the teeth, and, even in case there is no abnormal de- 
 posit of tartar, the teeth are not properly cared for to insure 
 their lasting if their inside surfaces are neglected. In using a 
 brush, do not forget that the circulation of the gums should lie 
 gently stimulated by it. For this reason it is best always to use 
 a moderately stiff brush, not one that is uncompromisingly hard. 
 
 We have in America the best dentists of the world. When 
 a child is getting its second teeth, and they are not coming in 
 with perfect regularity, take the child at once to a first-rate den- 
 tist for advice and treatment. Thus you may insure it comfort 
 throughout life, and perhaps guarantee it against a deformity 
 easily preventable. 
 
 Many are the varieties of dentifrice, — powders, pastes, and 
 lotions. Some of these are extremely injurious to the substance 
 of the tooth. The " street-fakir " who removes the tartar instan- 
 taneously from the small boy's teeth, and leaves in its place a 
 white, glistening surface for the admiration of the gaping crowd, 
 has really removed, with some corrosive substance, a goodly por- 
 tion of the enamel of the tooth, which can never be restored. 
 Dentifrice is very commonly made of some powdered bark, 
 mixed with pulverized charcoal and some acidulous salt, such as 
 cream of tartar. Orris-root is perhaps one of the ingredients 
 that are most largely used. Pulverized charcoal, although very 
 antiseptic and purifying, is rather too harsh a substance, even in 
 that finely-divided state, to be used habitually on the teeth. 
 Tooth-powders and tooth-pastes seek to combine the polishing 
 effect of finery-divided substances with antiseptic qualities. 
 Tooth-washes are simply for antiseptic purposes and for render- 
 ing the mouth and breath fragrant. In case one has a good 
 dentist, the very best way is to refer all matters concerning the 
 
340 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 treatment of one's teeth, including cleansing substances for them. 
 to bis judgment, as the one best situated to know the require- 
 ments of one's individual case, 
 
 The following is a good prescription for tooth-powder: — 
 
 Precipitated chalk, 1 ounce. 
 
 Ground orris-root, 1 ounce. 
 
 Oil of roses 1 drop. 
 
 Brush the teeth with a moderately Btiff tooth-brush dipped in thi8,whichie 
 a Bimple but effective and harmless tooth-powder. 
 
 The following is an excellent tooth-wash : — 
 
 Salicylate of sodium, 2 drachms. 
 
 Tincture of myrrh, 2 ounces. 
 
 Gaultheria (wintergreen), 5 drops. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 4 ounces. 
 
 To be applied every day to the teeth with a stiff brush. 
 
 The three following prescriptions are for shrinkage of the 
 
 gums : — 
 
 1. Chloride of zinc, 20 grains. 
 
 Water, 1 drachm. 
 
 Applytothe gums every other day with a pi'vr <>f raw cotton, being careful 
 not to get any of the mixture dowu the throat, and rinse out the mouth at once 
 with water. 
 
 2. Tannic acid, 40 grains. 
 
 Tincture of myrrh, 1 ounce. 
 
 Rose-water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Use twice daily by moistening with it a piece of raw cotton, or applying it 
 with the end of the finger over the gums inside and outside. 
 
 3. Iodine, 10 drops. 
 
 Iodide of potassium, 8 grains. 
 
 Glycerin, 1 ounce. 
 
 Pencil over the gums once a day. 
 
..CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF TIIE EYE. 
 
 THE eye is, metaphorically as well as otherwise, the most 
 abused organ in the world. In the old nautical novel, 
 which presumably portrays life as it was at sea a hundred years 
 or so ago, the old salt always affectionately shivered his mess- 
 mate's timbers and damned his eyes ; nor, as to the eyes, has the 
 practice' altogether ceased to the present da}' on both land and 
 sea. So far as we are aware, no language but English is- so reck- 
 less in the matter, and, as for the actual precautionary care be- 
 stowed upon the eye, different peoples, nations, and individuals 
 are prett}' much alike in incautiously squandering the treasure 
 of its sight. 
 
 The time could not be more opportune than now to say a 
 warning word about the usage to which the e3 r e is subjected at 
 present in this country. We live in the land of the practical 
 plumber, as if a man could be a plumber at all unless he were 
 practical. We live in the land of the undertaker, willing to un- 
 dertake anything, whether or not it be within the sphere of his 
 knowledge on the subject. The land swarms with opticians prac- 
 ticing as oculists, and of journeymen-workmen and street-fakirs 
 practicing as both. The public is being exploited in the interest 
 of the sale of eye-glasses, while reputable and skillful oculists, 
 than whom there are none better in the world than here, lose the 
 practice whose possession it would be much more to the advan- 
 tage of the public to have, than theirs to secure. Sensational 
 advertisements flaunt in the public prints with diagrams for 
 self-testing of the eye, to which attention is directed by some 
 such legend as, " Are you astigmatic ? If so, go to Tom, Dick, 
 or Harry [as the case may be], and be fitted with glasses." 
 
 (341) 
 
342 HEREDITY/, HEALTH, AND I'ERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 First of all, the public dors not know that there are regular 
 astigmatism and irregular astigmatism; and when we say that 
 there is regular astigmatism, we say in effect that the best natu- 
 ral eye is astigmatic. The best natural eye is, we repeat, regu- 
 larly astigmatic ; the condition is consequent upon an organic 
 defect of the eye, and, therefore, to tell the public generally that 
 persons had better beware lest they be astigmatic gives them 
 pretty much the same kind of mental disturbance as that expe- 
 rienced by the very little boy when told by a slightly bigger 
 companion that he has a bone in his leg. 
 
 The major axis of the eye subtends a natter arc (the hori- 
 zontal curve of the eye) than the arc subtended by the minor 
 axis (the vertical curve of the eye). Hence, when we focus a 
 vertical line with the sight, a similar line horizontally placed 
 with reference to it is somewhat out of focus, and vice verm. 
 Hence, also, when we look at parallel vertical lines, they seem 
 farther apart than do the same lines when placed horizontally. 
 It follows from this fact that the same lines, turned slowly 
 around in front of us, will present all apparent gradations of 
 distance apart, between their apparent distance apart when held 
 vertically and their apparent distance apart when held hori- 
 zontally. 
 
 If the law should protect the public, as it is now beginning 
 to do, from the tampering with certain medical matters of men 
 not medically educated, it would also seem that the quackery 
 of treating the eye b}' an}- one but trained oculists should be 
 legally prevented. A whole population of midgets has lately 
 sprung up, looking like little goggle-eyed sea-monsters, who, 
 from the very fact of their enormous numbers, prove the im- 
 possibility of their having all been under the care of trained 
 oculists, and that the advertising nets have not been cast in vain 
 into the vasty deep of human credulity. 
 
 Enough for the present on this branch of our topic has been 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE EYE. 343 
 
 said. For the reasons assigned, our advice to you is (if you 
 think that you have anything the mutter with your eyes, or even 
 suspect that you may possibly, without actually knowing it, 
 have something, either organic or functional, the matter with 
 your eyes, or you wish to establish the fact, once for all, that at 
 least constitutionally your eyes are normal) to go to an oculist, 
 a real oculist, not a quack nor a mere optician. The cost will be 
 as nothing compared with that whieh may be entailed by going 
 to any one but an expert for advice as to so delicate an organ as 
 the eye. 
 
 Here, incidentally, we avail ourselves of the opportunity to 
 say also a cautionary word as to an injurious practice which is 
 limited to the members of one sex, which is not prevalent among 
 them, and which is yet sufficiently followed to warrant a passing 
 notice here. An oculist properly applies belladonna to the eye 
 with his special object of dilating the pupil, but it does not fol- 
 low that the same thing can be indulged in at pleasure without 
 damaging the organ. Yet we are sometimes asked by j'oung 
 women if the application will do the eye any harm, the inference 
 being obvious. We therefore say here, as we have had occasion 
 several times to say orally, that such a practice is injurious. It 
 stands to l'eason, even to common sense, because the dilatation 
 is artificial. Nature does not kindly tolerate tampering with the 
 mechanism of the body. Girls also sometimes ask us if arsenic 
 tablets will do them harm, the inference again being obvious. 
 Arsenic is a very useful drug in certain diseases, but not useful 
 in health. The giving of drugs in diseases is a choice between 
 evils, but in health there is nothing but good, the greatest of all 
 earthly possessions. • Foolish is the girl who seeks to make her 
 ej^es full-orbed with belladonna, or sparkle from sips of cologne, 
 or give plumpness to her figure with arsenic. The only reproach 
 that has ever been justly made against American beaut}', that it 
 does not last, she hastens to justify by making a laboratory of 
 
344 HEREDITY, BEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 herself. All these are meretricious aids thai lead, no one who 
 begins to Else them can tell whither, bul to certain loss in some 
 
 form. This work has been written in vain if it has uot shown 
 thai the only perennial source of youthfulness and beauty is the 
 fountain of H\'geia, the goddess of health. 
 
 The eye is beautiful, when beautiful, in all colors. This 
 may be acknowledged by every one, although every one has in- 
 dividual preference for a certain color of eye. Close observation 
 will prove these statements true. The French have discovered 
 that the generally much-despised green eye is, when line, prob- 
 ably the handsomest eye in existence, because, as compared with 
 any other equally tine, capable of a larger range of lustrous tints 
 and consequent range of expression. One difference among 
 e3'es that is related to great difference in beauty among them 
 seems to have almost escaped attention. This is the color of 
 the cornea, the so-called white of the eye. In the negro, white 
 as is the general effect of the cornea as compared with the 
 darkness of the skin of the face, near observation of it shows 
 that it is of a yellowish cast. This is always an unsightly tint 
 for the cornea. It is seen in the white race in the case of 
 bilious persons, and markedly in cases of jaundice. But neither 
 is the cornea handsome when it is very white. Then it has a 
 glairy effect, like that of the white of an egg. The handsome 
 cornea is- tinged with the most delicate violet color. The e3'e 
 depends, in sum, for its beauty, independent of its particular 
 color, upon the just degree of globular effect, the curves of the 
 veiling lids and lashes, the violet-tinged clearness of the cornea, 
 and the size of the iris, popularly known as the pupil, with 
 reference to the whole orb. 
 
 A very popular error about the eye is that it varies exceed- 
 ingly in size among different races, and, indeed, among indi- 
 viduals of the same race. The fact is that the globe of the eye 
 varies very little as to size among different races and individuals. 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE EYE. 345 
 
 What leads to this mistake is the correct perception of the very 
 different degree in different persons in which the hull of the eye 
 appears as set in the socket; the extreme of insertion making it 
 look as if, were it left to itself, it might fall inside of the socket, 
 and the extreme protrusion of it, as if, under similar circum- 
 stances, it might fall outside. In the Mongolian race the e} - es 
 seem to be set slanting in the head, but that is an effect which 
 is produced by a droop of the inner part of the upper eyelid, a 
 characteristic of the race, and which, when occurring as an 
 abnormality, is known among us by the medical term of 
 epicanthis. 
 
 The following will afford a sufficient!}- accurate notion of 
 the structure of the eye, omitting details that would only serve 
 to embarrass the conception of the general reader. 
 
 Very nearly four-fifths of the globe of the eye at the rear is 
 composed of a tough, whitish, opaque membrane, called the 
 sclerotic membrane. This is continuous with a translucent 
 membrane, which occupies almost one-fifth of the front of the 
 eye, called the cornea. To sa}' that the first membrane, the 
 sclerotic, is, sometimes called the opaque cornea shows the 
 general relations between the two substances. So we have, to 
 begin with in our conception, a globe formed, at the rear and 
 sides, of an opaque membrane, with a small, circular, convex 
 membrane let into its front as a window-pane, and for the same 
 purpose as a window-pane is used — the admission of light. The 
 physical apparatus constituted by this globe and its attachments 
 is similar in principle and analogous in processes to the camera- 
 obscura, with which photographs are taken. 
 
 In, and just back of, the centre of the pane of the corneal or 
 transparent, horny substance is the iris, the richl}' -colored circle 
 that constitutes the chief beauty of the eye, which circle, by 
 means of its dilating and constricting muscles, automatically 
 increases and diminishes in diameter the opening in its centre, 
 
3-1 G HKRKIHTY. HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 called the pupil, in accordance with the desirability of the admis- 
 sion of more or less Light to the interior of the eye. The iris is 
 suspended in an aqueous or watery humor, and in the rear of the 
 
 opening of tin- pupil through it there is a small lens of crystal- 
 line humor, by means of which the rays of light received by the 
 eye are refracted through a vitreous or glassy humor upon a 
 dark screen at the back of the eye. 
 
 This dark screen at the back of the eye, called the retina, 
 corresponds with the sensitive plate placed for the reception of 
 the picture in the photographic camera-obscura. Carrying out 
 the analogy a step farther, we might add that the light from 
 objects in the outer world, entering the eye and passing through 
 its lens, forms a negative picture on the retina, which picture is 
 "developed" by the brain, and, as a last process, presented to 
 the mind. By what intermediation the final wonderful leap is 
 made, of translation of mere physical conditions into psychical 
 terms, is now and must forever remain an insoluble mystery. 
 
 To recapitulate, — the eye receives, through the cornea, light 
 from the outer world into its inner chambers. The rays received, 
 sensibly parallel, are refracted through the lens so as to appear 
 on the retina in their due relations to each other, — reversed, but 
 correctly interpreted by the brain. The intensity of the rays is 
 regulated by the increase or decrease of the opening formed 
 by the pupil. The lens, back of the pupil, combines these rays 
 in a picture corresponding to that in the outer world, the picture 
 falling on the screen of the retina. The optic nerve, through 
 which the brain receives the linal impression, is closely associated 
 with the retina. 
 
 This is, in brief, the mechanism for seeing. It would not 
 perhaps interest the reader to go more minutely into examina- 
 tion of this wonderful structure, through whose instrumentality 
 man is brought into close relations with the universe, and the 
 attempt, as we said at the beginning, might lead to obscuring 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE EYE. 347 
 
 the general clear conception instead of expanding it. Suffice it 
 to say, in conclusion, that here but a fraction of the wonderful 
 truth has been told, and if any reader, attracted by what has 
 been mentioned here, should wish to learn more on the subject, 
 he will find its literature extensive and most interesting. 
 
 The eye is, nevertheless, not a perfect organ. It is liable, 
 even at its best manifestation, to be deceived in color-effects 
 following each other, or coincident in time, and many persons 
 possess the organ so chromatieallj' imperfect as to be largely 
 color-blind. The physical causes which lie at the foundation of 
 the perception of color are too obscure, and the subject, conse- 
 quently, too abstruse to be discussed here. According to our 
 own notion,what is called the Young-Helmholtz theory as to the 
 causes of the perception of color in all its gradations is the most 
 closely accordant of any theories on the subject with the facts 
 in our possession. According to this theory there are, in fact, 
 only three fundamental colors concerned in the production of 
 the tints that we perceive, and the variety of these depends upon 
 an arrangement of the color-mechanism of the eye, by which the 
 three fundamental colors are so combined in varying degrees as 
 to present the infinitude of tints that we recognize. This theory 
 can be properlj' elucidated only by means of a diagrammatic 
 representation and an elaborate discussion, which would be out 
 of place here. 
 
 Returning to practical matters for the million, we conclude 
 with a few remarks as to them. 
 
 No general amelioration of the tendency to all sorts of 
 abuse of the eye can be effected but by general appreciation of 
 the fact that all organs of the body are instruments, similar to 
 other instruments in their liability to injury, and the certainty 
 to which they are doomed, even with the best care, to wear out 
 in the course of time. This fact should be well pondered as 
 especially cogent with reference to the exceedingly delicate 
 
348 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 instrument of the eye, if we would have it lust its allotted 
 aormal duration of usefulness, which varies greatly in different 
 individuals. The greatest habitual carelessness is observable 
 among people generally as to avoiding straining the sight. For 
 one person in a thousand who habitually places himself or her- 
 self in the best position to read or to write, the remainder seem 
 utterly indifferent or ignorant on the subject; yet every indi- 
 vidual eye lias, like any other individual organ or mechanical 
 instrument, just so much capacity, and no more, for exercise of 
 its mechanism without damage to it. There is no more desirable 
 practice with reference to the use of the eve than never to fail, 
 in reading, or writing, or sewing, to put one's self in the very 
 best attitude for the comfort of the organ while being exercised, 
 and this is, seated with the source of light hack of the eye and 
 falling on the book or writing-paper, the best light for writing 
 passing over the left shoulder, so as to avoid having a shadow 
 from the writing-hand. Trilling as this practice seems as equal 
 to insure an end, it is not trilling in its saving effect as the 
 practice of a life-time. The amount of light is another consider- 
 ation. We should not attempt to read or write with a light so 
 weak as to require from the eyes a perceptible effort to distin- 
 guish the characters before us. The duration of continuous 
 employment of the eyes is another important consideration. 
 One should carefully gauge his own individual capacity for 
 duration of the exercise, and stop before there is the slightest 
 feeling of tire. A very good practice in reading is occasionally 
 to let the eyes roam from the book around the walls of the 
 room, and return to it by a long circuit. This operation has the 
 effect of varying the focus of the eye, and affording great relief 
 in the tension of its continuous employment. The same plan 
 as that described for indoors applies to outdoors, — the eye 
 should look from the relatively dark place to the relatively light 
 one. Therefore, in the intense glare of the sun the eyes should 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE EYE. 349 
 
 be well shielded by the head-dress, whatever it may be. We 
 
 suppose that never was one discovered yet by women that is so 
 delightfully protective as the old-fashioned country sun-bonnet, 
 from whose cool depths they safely peered forth into the most 
 blazing light. 
 
 Eyes are notably subject to two organic defects, called 
 myopia and hypermetropia. In the first, which is very Common, 
 and generally known as short-sightedness, the picture from the 
 lens* of the eye falls short of the retina. In the second, 
 which is long-sightedness, the picture tends, by the remote 
 convergence of the rays forming it, to lie back of the retina. 
 In neither case is there at certain distances, if visible at all, a 
 proper picture seen. Concave glasses are the mechanical appli- 
 ances that rectify short-sightedness, and convex glasses those 
 which rectify long-sightedness. The flattening of the eye with 
 the increase of age lessens short-sightedness, but it is obvious 
 that this same change would with years but increase the opposite 
 condition. 
 
 Presbyopia, or old-sightedness, is a condition that, as its 
 name indicates, comes with age. The eyes are long-sighted, but 
 not longer-sighted than they were in youth. It is for near 
 objects that they assume with age the condition described for 
 lrypermetropia, where the image tends to be formed back of the 
 retina. Consequeuth", for this condition as for that, convex 
 glasses are worn, because they have the effect, in conjunction 
 with the lens of the eye, of focusing the rays received from 
 objects in the outer world nearer to the front of the eye, and, if 
 glasses are properly selected, exactly on the retina. This con- 
 dition of the eye is due to loss, through muscular deterioration, 
 of former power of accommodation of the sight to objects at 
 different distances, and also to the flattening of the lens of the 
 eye from age. 
 
 The eye in its finest condition has this capacity, of what is 
 
350 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 known to oculists as "the accommodation," the ability to focus 
 the object on the retina over a great range of distance from far 
 to near. Indians, who roam the open country, and who are 
 habituated to long, visible distances, and who also work at 
 objects requiring the nicest scrutiny, such as baskets, arrows, 
 bead-work, etc., have the accommodation of the eye enormously 
 developed. So, for a similar reason, have those surveyors who 
 practice geodesy (surveying in the open), for, with them, the e3 - e 
 is used to sight alternately far and near, down to reading the 
 delicate graduation of mathematical instruments. 
 
 The wealing of glasses, whether in 3'outh or age, should not 
 be postponed a day beyond the time when they are needed. 
 Young people should be taken at once to an oculist upon the 
 slightest suspicion that anything is amiss with the eyes. Per- 
 sons who are sure, from long experience, of having no defect of 
 the eye, should, as they approach middle-age, go at once to an 
 oculist to be fitted with glasses, at the slightest intimation of a 
 failure of sight. The infallible intimation of waning power in 
 the sight is the perception of a difference in the ease with which 
 one reads by gas- or lamp- light, as compared with the light of 
 day. Abstention from going is equivalent to saying that rest 
 will not be given to the aging and enfeebled e} T e. The person 
 who would take a cane to support his tottering steps declines to 
 afford relief to the weakness of the most delicate organ of the 
 body. Do not imagine by ignoring glasses to deceive the world 
 into thinking that you do not need them. Many signs will 
 betray the fact, even if you have not the areas senilis, or white 
 rim of age around the iris. The world sees through this sort of 
 pretense without the aid of spectacles. 
 
 Having adopted glasses at a suitable time, do not fail to in- 
 crease them in strength as the sight becomes more and more pres- 
 byopic. Xot long ago we used to meet a nice old man in the 
 cars, with whom we had an occasional chat, whose glasses, month 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE EYE. 351 
 
 by month, were placed nearer and nearer to the tip of his nose, 
 until one morning, when we found him with them on flic very 
 tip, barely able to maintain their place, the impulse to which we 
 3delded was irresistible when we said to him, " You will either 
 have to get new glasses or a longer nose." Fortunately, his 
 sense of humor enabled him to take a kindly joke, and so his 
 eyesight and appearance have been simultaneous^ benefited 
 from a casual remark that brought about instant realization of a 
 habit insensibly acquired and prejudicial to both. 
 
 Eye-washes are applications for use, as the case may be, on 
 the ejes or on the ej'elids, or on both. For congestion and irri- 
 tation of both eyes and eyelids, the simplest wash is hot water 
 applied frequently to the parts. Applying it, night and morn- 
 ing, it will often give the greatest relief and arrest many diseases 
 of the e} r es and ej'elids : — 
 
 TEA ETE-WASH. 
 
 Hot water poured on tea-leaves, and the mixture allowed to steep and cool, 
 makes a soothing eye-wash. 
 
 WITCH-HAZEL EYE-WASH. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 1 ounce. 
 
 Pure water, 1 " 
 
 To he used especially for eyes irritable from cold. Bathe the eyes 
 frequently with the wash. 
 
 BRANDT EYE-WASH. 
 
 Brandy, 1 drachm. 
 
 Water, 1 ounce. 
 
 To be used especially for eyes irritable from cold. Apply frequently. 
 
 ALUM EYE-WASH. 
 
 Alum, 1 grain. 
 
 Pure water, tf 1 ounce. 
 
 Drop gently, night and morning, into the eye with the tip of a feather, a 
 pipette, or some such thing, and this will sensibly relieve inflammation. 
 
 ZINC ETE-WASH. 
 
 Sulphate of zinc, . 1 grain. 
 
 Rose-water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Drop the solution gently into the eyes, night and morning. For inflamed 
 
859 HEREDITY. HKAM'll. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 BOKAX EYE-WASH. 
 
 Borax, 1 crrain. 
 
 Camphor-water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Pour the Bolution In the eyea BeveraJ times a day. For Inflamed eyes. 
 
 The following is a salve for inflamed eyelids: — 
 
 Oleate <>f mercury Balve 1 drachm. 
 
 Rub into the eyelids after bathing them gently, night and morning, with 
 
 hot water. 
 
 The following is a useful recipe for a salve for inflamed or 
 
 granulated eyelids : — 
 
 Yellow oxide of mercury, 1 grain. 
 
 Rose-salve or unsalted butter, jounce. 
 
 Apply to the eyelids night and morning. 
 
 The following recipe for what is called alum-curd is for 
 
 granulated eyelids : — 
 
 Take a piece of alum about the size of a walnut, and rub it into the 
 white of an eg? until a curd is formed. Place the curd in a couple of thick- 
 nesses of fine gauze or bobbinet, and apply it thus to the eye. If bobbinet is 
 used, first wash the stiffening out of it. 
 
 These recipes are given for the benefit of those who may 
 need to know on the spur of the moment some efficacious treat- 
 ment for an inflammation of the eye or eyelids, and upon the 
 presumption that the ailment is not serious, or, if it be, that no 
 good medical man is within reach. Whenever, on the contrary, 
 there is opportunity, and, in the case of judging that the ailment 
 is slight, there lie any doubt remaining in the mind as to the 
 fact, recourse should be had at the earliest possible time to the 
 advice of a regular medical practitioner. A person might think 
 that he has merely a blood-shot eye, when in reality he has an 
 affection called pterygium, requiring astringent treatment, and 
 perhaps other treatment that no one but an oculist can properly 
 prescribe, — perhaps even an operation on the eye. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE EAR. 
 
 THE human ear is not to be regarded as of the best possible 
 form, nor as always in the best position for the collection 
 of sounds. One will observe in the lower animals, in many of 
 which the hearing is far more acute than in man, that the ear is 
 larger, of simpler form, and mobile. Among some of these the 
 concavity of the ear can be directed toward the place whence the 
 sound seems to proceed. Doubtless the human ear was originally 
 of a very different shape from its present one, and the convolutions 
 which it now possesses represent a general collapse of the organ, 
 the absence of its motile power having coincidently come about 
 in the course of ages, as being no longer needful in man's present 
 higher stage of existence. Darwin even thought that the point 
 On the inner side of the selvedge-edge of the ear, about a third 
 of the way from the top, w T hich is a very marked feature of the 
 organ in some few individuals, is to be recognized as the rudiment 
 of a former peak of the ear. He also enlarges upon the fact, 
 known to some persons, that in certain individuals the ear can 
 be moved at will. Darwin's idea of the rudiment of which we 
 speak being the representative of a former tip of the ear, now 
 folded in, brings with it a vivid reminiscence of Hawthorne's 
 Donatello, in the " Marble Faun," — that strange creature who 
 touched so nearly on primeval nature. 
 
 If any one should think it superfluous to mention that the 
 ear is not, as compared with that of some of the lower animals, 
 well adapted to collecting sounds, it will be sufficient to say to 
 such a one, that the fact is not always apparent. Even so 
 learned a man as Reis, a German professor, who, in 1860, 
 undoubtedly invented the telephone, evidently had so much 
 
 23 (353) 
 
354 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 confidence in the sbape of the human ear as the attest vehicle for 
 at least the sound of speech, that be constructed his first tele- 
 phone with a receiver (called in telephony " the transmitter") 
 shaped like the human ear. The car receives any sounds fairly 
 well, although how much better it would receive them if it pre- 
 sented a, larger concave surface, capable of moving, is proved 
 by the common practice of one hard of hearing, in adjusting 
 the curved hand back of the ear with reference both to the 
 intensity and direction of the sound sought to be heard. 
 
 The human ear in t lie present human life is not, be it under- 
 stood, ill-adapted to the requirement of it. It is the require- 
 ment of it which has largely contributed to stamp it as what it 
 is. We are but comparing it with ears of liner organization for 
 hearino 1 . Its existing convolutions are serviceable in directing 
 sounds through the passage upon the drum of the ear, as has 
 been tested by filling up the convolutions with some plastic 
 material, like wax, whereupon the diminution in hearing became 
 appreciable. But surely, as we have proved by citing a single 
 experiment, which any one can try for himself, we should hear 
 better if the ear were larger and differently shaped and capable 
 of movement. This fact, however, does not involve the con- 
 clusion that we should be equal even then in acuteness of 
 heniing to some of the lower animals, the interior apparatus of 
 whose ears is evidently more highly organized than ours. As 
 mankind have advanced in intellectual power, and have developed 
 the inventive faculty, they have become less and less dependent 
 upon the strength and the acuteness of their merely physical 
 attributes. They must have been untold centuries without an 
 acute sense of heaving, even as it is found where most highly 
 developed in human beings, among savages. Yet it is only very 
 recently that, in the German army, dogs have been trained in 
 connection with outpost duty, a service in which their special 
 keenness of hearing admirably supplements the intelligence 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND CARE OF THE EAR. 355 
 
 of videttes. It is truly remarkable that this use of the dog 
 had never previously been made a part of regular military 
 administration. 
 
 The outer ear collects waves of sound and transmits them 
 through a short channel terminated by a tense membrane having 
 the same function as that of the parchment head of a drum. 
 This membrane is, for that reason, called the drum-membrane of 
 the ear. The drum of the ear is constituted by that membrane 
 and the chamber which it closes. Delicately attached to the 
 back of this membrane is the end of a small bone, called the 
 hammer. The hammer, at its other end, is jointed with another 
 bone, called the anvil. The anvil, in turn, is jointed with a third 
 small bone, called the stirrup. These three articulated bones 
 together form what is known as a compound lever. 
 
 When a sound from the outer world strikes upon the drum- 
 membrane of the ear, it makes that membrane vibrate with the 
 intensity and quality of the impulse which characterize the 
 sound. This vibration is taken up by the end of the lever form- 
 ing the hammer, conveyed thence to the anvil, and thence to the 
 stirrup. 
 
 At the stirrup a new series of physical characters present 
 themselves, completed by the phenomenon of hearing. The 
 bottom of the stirrup is in contact with an oval opening into the 
 solid temporal bone, which opening, likened to a window, is cov- 
 ered by a membrane. Beyond this oval, membrane-covered 
 window, and carved out, as it were, in the dense bone, is what is 
 called the labyrinth,- — a chamber consisting of beautifully curved 
 passages, in which is a membranous sac containing and sur- 
 rounded by fluid. The finer details of the structure of the laby- 
 rinth are too numerous and complicated to be here described, 
 relating, as they do, to the minutest anatomical research assisted 
 by the microscope. Suffice it to say that, immeshed in this mem- 
 branous sac, filling the bony passages of the labyrinth, spread 
 
3")G HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 out the hair-like terminal filaments of the auditory nerve, by 
 means of which the perception of sound becomes one of the 
 functions of the brain. 
 
 Here, at the labyrinth, the new departure, after the vibra- 
 tion from the drum-membrane lias reached the oval, membrane- 
 covered window of the labyrinth, begins and ends with the 
 Bensation of hearing. The bottom of the stirrup conveys the 
 vibration to the oval, membrane-covered window; that mem- 
 brane transmits the impulse, in quantity and quality, to the fluid 
 inside of the membranous sac in the labyrinth ; it, in turn, trans- 
 mits the impulse to the long, hair-like processes that lie spread 
 out within the sac ; and, lastly, the}' transmit it to the auditory 
 nerve, whence, as a finality, it reaches the brain. Here, however, 
 as in the case of the eye and the faculty of seeing, we reach a 
 point incapable of solution by the human intellect. How is it 
 that a vibration — a transient physical fact, communicated to the 
 auditory nerve — ceases to have merely physical attributes, and 
 is translated from a sensation into an emotion? It is impossible 
 that any one should ever be able to find out the reason for this. 
 If an} r one think so, he is ignorant, or presumptuous beyond the 
 bounds of expression to characterize his folly. 
 
 It must seem to the general reader as if all that is necessary 
 to a description of the ear had been said, and yet, were there 
 not something else added, the structure would have been de- 
 scribed as ver} r imperfect. It is requisite to the excellence 
 of the apparatus of the ear that there should be a constant 
 supply of air in the drum-chamber. The special apparatus which 
 supplies this need is called the Eustachian tube, — a tube from 
 1^ to 2 inches long, situated at the side and rear of the upper 
 part of the throat, opening from the portion of the throat that 
 is called the pharynx. During swallowing this passage closes. 
 Air is, however, at the normal tension, supplied through this 
 passage to the drum-chamber, thus equalizing the atmospheric 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND CARE OF TIIK EAR. 357 
 
 pressure on the opposite sides of the drum-membrane. II' it 
 were not for this, the atmospheric pressure on the outside would 
 force the drum-membrane constantly inward ; a certain muscle 
 connected with it would not be able to act efficiently upon it, 
 and, besides, sound could not be conveyed so readily as now 
 across the drum-chamber. 
 
 When the opening of the Eustachian tube into the pharynx 
 is partially closed by inflammation of the throat, as from cold, 
 or from some other cause, the hearing is much impaired. We 
 can, upon reflection, realize that this must occur when we know 
 that, although the chief agent in-conveying the vibration of sound 
 across from the drum-membrane to the oval, membranous window 
 of the labyrinth is the compound lever formed of the hammer, 
 anvil, and stirrup, yet that air in the drum-chamber must also be 
 a medium for the conveyance of the vibration. For this reason 
 persons hard of hearing hear so much better when they use one 
 of the modern flexible fans constructed for deafness, which is 
 bowed at pleasure with a string, and the upper edge of it placed 
 between the teeth. We hear by the affection mediately of dif- 
 ferent surrounding parts of the auditory apparatus. Primarily, 
 we hear by means of the action of the base of the stirrup on the 
 oval window, and by means of vibration of the air in the drum- 
 chamber acting on the oval window ; but if any one has ever 
 been in bathing, as we have, during a severe thunder-storm, he 
 knows from the intensity of the sound, if he has happened to 
 plunge his head under water during a violent peal of thunder, 
 that vibrations are communicated directly to the ear from eveiy 
 portion of the bony structure of the cranium, as well as through 
 the passage of the outer ear, and, perhaps, despite the closed 
 lips and teeth, through the Eustachian tube. At any rate, the 
 din is frightful, and of singular complexity of sound effect. 
 
 In cerebral disease, impressions of hearing may be due to 
 physical causes not proceeding from the outer world. The 
 
358 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 effects are real, not imaginary ; but interior, not exterior; arising 
 from the disturbance of disease. They are sometimes, in the 
 case of the insane, not only, as indicated, caused by disease, 
 hut come in turn to he a cause of its aggravation, from the fact 
 of their being considered by the sufferers as objective sounds, or 
 sounds originating in the outer world, and, besides that, are mis- 
 construed as to significance, and regarded as persecuting voices. 
 If the reader should ever come across a French work by A. 
 Brierre de Boismont, on hallucinations, he will find the topic of 
 subjective noises, believed to be objective ones, elaborately set 
 forth. When it is known that the acutely insane are liable to 
 tumors of the ear, it ceases to be surprising that the} 7 should be 
 prone to misinterpretation of sounds. But, putting tumors en- 
 tirely out of question, when we reflect that insanity is a disease 
 of the matter of the brain, and that the brain 13 connected with 
 the ear by means of the auditory nerve, it is easy to see that the 
 cerebral disease may involve that nerve, and all reason for 
 wonderment at the delusions of some of the insane from a per- 
 verted sense of hearing, physically coupled as the optic nerve 
 is with the organization of the brain proper, should cease. 
 
 There are various disorders to which the ear is liable. The 
 most common of these is simple earache, which is caused by 
 inflammation of a part or the whole of the meatus auditorius, or 
 passage into the ear from the side of the head. The reader will 
 remember that there is another passage into the ear of which we 
 spoke — the Eustachian tube. For the affection of earache 
 nothing is more effective than the applications made with the 
 lotions represented by the two following recipes: — 
 
 Tincture of opium (laudanum) , .... 2 drachms. 
 
 Olive-oil 2 " 
 
 Heat the mixture, and insert in the ear a small piece of raw cotton moist- 
 ened with it. 
 
 Sulphate of atropine, 4 grains. 
 
 Pure water, jounce, 
 
 With a camel's hair pencil brush inside of car frequently with mixture. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION AND CAKE OF THE EAR. 359 
 
 In a similar manner a 5- to a 10-per-cent. solution of cocaine 
 can be administered to the ear, affording quick relief from pain. 
 Syringing it with simple hot water is also sometimes attended 
 with speedy relief from pain. 
 
 Affections more serious than earache should cause instant 
 resort to a skillful aurist, as any one can for himself judge 
 advisable, when it is mentioned that there may be ulceration and 
 abscess of the ear, thickening and perforation of its drum-mem- 
 brane, producing partial or entire deafness, and many more 
 ailments of the organ, some of which are very obscure, and un- 
 discoverable except by the skillful aurist. The Eustachian tube 
 ma}^ be partially occluded (closed) from the presence of inflam- 
 mation in the throat, and, as previously mentioned, this condition 
 affects the hearing. 
 
 The ear, we wish strongly to impress upon the reader, is 
 liable to affections that need the interposition of the aurist. 
 This is sometimes the case even when the difficulty is not so 
 serious as to suggest impairment of the organ, as in the case of 
 the formation of a hard mass of wax at the bottom of the outer 
 passage of the ear. The wax of the ear is secreted for the 
 benefit of the organ, but, especially in old age, it sometimes 
 forms in a hard mass wdiich the sufferer might find it difficult, or 
 dangerous to the drum-membrane, to attempt to dislodge. It is 
 best, therefore, in all cases bej'ond a simple earache, to go 
 without dela}' to an experienced practitioner in diseases of the 
 ear. Take time also by the forelock by obtaining proper 
 medical advice in the case of children who, from being of a 
 scrofulous constitutional taint, have running from the ears. 
 This is sometimes produced by enlargement of the tonsils 
 affecting the Eustachian tube, and should be attended to. 
 
 Delicate membranes such as those possessed by the ear 
 cannot long withstand the invasion of pus, or matter, as it is 
 popularly called, that flows from ulcerations and abscesses. 
 
3G0 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Nothing but the e}e approaches the ear in delicacy of organiza- 
 tion, and it will not bear tampering with or neglect. Therefore, 
 our first and last advice is to go to an aurist when you suspect 
 that you have any serious affection of the ear. With the 
 sentinel of pain as your guardian, with the sense of healing as 
 your guide, you ought to be able to divest yourself of illusions. 
 One last word 011I3' as to an aurist. Be sure you find a good 
 one, for a quack would be worse than none. 
 
 The practice of wearing pieces of cotton-wool in the ear is 
 not considered good. They sometimes prevent the egress of 
 septic (poisonous) fluids that should be allowed free escape. In 
 a case of unusual sensitiveness of the ear to cold, one might 
 properly adopt the plan for an occasion of unusual exposure. 
 We are, however, speaking to the point of the constant habit of 
 thus protecting the ear. If it seems to require such protection 
 habitually, that is proof that it is not in a health}' condition, 
 and recourse should be had to the advice of an aurist as to the 
 proper treatment to adopt to render it less sensitive to cold. 
 
 If }-our case is one of only moderate stopping up of the ear 
 with wax, not such a one as we have witnessed, where the 
 hearing was sensibly disturbed and the un comfortableness great, 
 from the presence of a mass of hardened wax, or if 3*011 are away 
 in some place remote from civilization, where it is not possible 
 to have access to a good aurist, you would be warranted in care- 
 fully syringing the ear with soap-suds and hot water, which 
 simple treatment sometimes has the effect of softening and 
 removing the wax. Under these circumstances, obeying the 
 law of necessity, one is of course warranted in treating himself 
 for an}- affection. We therefore add to the previous directions 
 others which may be found useful under similar circumstances. 
 You may, after syringing the ear with soap-suds and hot water 
 every day or two, twice daily have some gl}'cerin dropped into 
 the ear, or j t ou may dip a piece of raw cotton into the glycerin 
 
THE CONSTRUCTION AND CARE OF THE EAR. 301 
 
 and insert it in the ear. The following recipe is useful for the 
 same purpose : — 
 
 Borax, . . * 20 grains. 
 
 Olive-oil, 1 ounce. 
 
 Heat the mixture, and drop some of it into the ear once or twice a day. 
 
 The two following recipes are merely for external treatment, 
 to remove inflammation of the auricle, as it is called, — the 
 external ear, — and to heal cracks in it : — 
 
 1. Carbonate of lead, y 2 drachm. 
 
 Oil of eucalyptus, 3 drops. 
 
 Ointment of benzoated oxide of zinc, . . . jounce. 
 
 Rub well into the part night and morning. 
 
 2. Oil of cade (tar), y 2 drachm. 
 
 Carbonate of zinc, Vi u 
 
 Lard washed free of salt, jounce. 
 
 Apply to the surface of the ear. 
 
 As the odor of tar is offensive to some persons, the following 
 
 recipe is added for their especial benefit : — 
 
 Beta-naphthol, 5 grains. 
 
 Oil of chamomile, 5 drops. 
 
 Acetate of lead, 10 grains. 
 
 Oxide of benzoated oxide of zinc, ... • % ounce. 
 Apply to the surface of the ear twice a day. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE NOSE, IN ITS PHYSICAL, MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL ASPECTS. 
 
 IF any one suppose that the nose has no legitimate place here, 
 it may be sufficient to remind him that one peculiarity of 
 the nose is its disposition to poke itself in where it has no 
 business. But we maintain stoutly that it has a right to notice 
 here, not only on account of its physical significance as an 
 attribute of beauty or of ugliness, but on account also of its 
 mental and moral significance. 
 
 A perfect nose is exceedingly rare. Apropos of this 
 demonstrable fact, we proceed to illustrate it by an anecdote of 
 an occurrence affording much amusement at the time to those 
 who knew personally or by hearsay of the dry humor and quaint 
 ways of putting things occasionally indulged in by the late Dr. 
 Franklin Bache, formerly professor of chemistry in Jefferson 
 College, and one of the two original writers of the " United 
 States Dispensatory." Meeting one day an artist of his ac- 
 quaintance, in whom he took an interest, he feelingby discoursed 
 to him on his own experience as to how exceedingly rare is a 
 handsome nose, concluding by informing him that he happened 
 to have at that moment a servant-girl who was thus rarely en- 
 dowed, and inviting him in the interest of his studies to call and 
 obtain a view of this very rare specimen of the organ. The 
 Doctor had forgotten all about the incident, for a long time had 
 elapsed without the appearance of the artist, when, one night 
 after eleven o'clock, when the whole family had retired and the 
 street was as silent as the grave, a tremendous peal sounded 
 on the front-door bell, and the Doctor, putting his head out of 
 the window, in anticipation of a summons to attend an urgent 
 case, was greeted by a voice from the door-steps, saying. " Doctor, 
 
 (363) 
 
3G4 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 I have come to take a look at 3*our servant-girl's nose." Doubt- 
 less there was a mournful silence for a moment, for the Doctor 
 was always deliberate, but always courteous, even in his night- 
 clothes. Then his voice replied through the stilly night, "I 
 much regret that you will have to call at some more opportune 
 time, for my servant-girl's nose is in bed." Then there was a 
 soft closing of the window, doubtless a mild anathema, and 
 silence, broken only by the footfalls of the retreating artist, who 
 never re-appeared. 
 
 The nose is associated in some mysterious way with char- 
 acter, apart from intellectuality. So close an observer as 
 Dickens makes, in " Little Dorrit," the execrable Blandois, alias 
 Rigaud, exhibit a peculiarly significant facial trait, of the nose 
 coming down as the lip goes up, indicative of a secretive, 
 treacherous, and sinister nature. It is always a bad sign of 
 the nature when the smile is the worst expression of the face. 
 Certain cants of the nose to the side, if they are not congenital 
 malformations, or derived from accidents in parturition or in 
 after-life, are as clearly indicative of obliquity of moral vision 
 as is the nasal organ itself evidently set crooked on the face. 
 
 Rare, indeed, is it, if the exceptions are signal, as in the 
 cases of Socrates, that intellect is coupled with a turned-up 
 nose #nd spreading nostrils. Even the pretty nez retrousse 
 (snub) of the French never stands for anything but a certain 
 pertness and espieglerie of disposition, very remote from the 
 order of mental endowment of womankind graced with vivacious 
 wit, free from malice and the kittenish calibre of their less 
 favored sisters. 
 
 Rare, indeed, is it to find a pugilist who has an}" other type 
 of nose than one of a class as well denned with reference to its 
 associations as is the bull-dog's with reference to its breed. 
 Xoses of a very different sort indicate fighters of a very different 
 from the pugilistic stamp. Just as it was remarked, in connec- 
 
NOSE, ITS PHYSICAL, MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL ASPECTS. 365 
 
 tion with the case of Socrates, that it is rare to find bigb in- 
 tellectual qualities conjoined with a broad, upturned nose, so 
 equally it holds true of the conjunction of high moral qualities 
 with such a feature. Socrates was, therefore, an exception to 
 both rules, that the large, well-developed nose is indicative of 
 intellect and i-efinement. Intellectual men are generally char- 
 acterized by very large noses, and especially is this manifest in 
 the case of great statesmen, generals, and conquerors. Of course 
 we must make allowance for ethnic differences, the differences by 
 which races are characterized, and not demand as large a nose 
 of Attila, the Hun, as of some conqueror of another race. 
 
 But wholly apart from the quality of mind that makes 
 conquerors, great generals, or statesmen, it will be found that 
 men of marked distinction of mind in all walks of life are 
 characterized by larger and more distinctively accentuated 
 noses than are possessed by men of average ability, and of 
 course the same thing holds good of women. Doubtless 
 Michel Angelo's nose was a very good specimen of the artist 
 t} 7 pe of nose, when it was in early life broken by the mallet of 
 a fellow-student of sculpture. 
 
 The characteristics of distinguished generals as to the form 
 and size of the nose is pretty generally recognized, even before 
 the powers of observation have had much scope for exercise, or 
 much information has been derived from reading, as we can 
 judge from an anecdote of General Meade, told of him by some 
 of his classmates at the Militaiy Academ} r at West Point. It 
 seems that the cadets of his class were fond of joking him about 
 his large nose, and that he, who had a great fund of quiet humor, 
 used to repty to their fire of witticisms by tapping his nose on 
 one side and saying, "Great soldier, great soldier!" Much 
 evidence has reached us through life, going to show that there 
 is a very general appreciation of the fact of this trait of a large 
 nose generally meaning intellectual superiority, and certain 
 
3GG BEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 ■ 
 
 forms of it a military bent of superiority, and also that there 
 i> a very general appreciation of the fact that the opposite 
 extreme, the small. Biiuh variety of nose, is indicative of mental 
 inferiority, often conjoined with comic disposition and alimen- 
 tary and bibulous propensities. But all the existing intermediate 
 varieties of nose, as indicative of mind and temperament, are 
 very far, indeed, from being recognized in their full significance, 
 and most persons who would claim profound insight into a 
 person by looking into the e}"e would never think for a moment 
 of consulting the nose as any index to mind and character, and 
 \ et the nose is there much more helplessly than the eye to testify- 
 as to the worth or worthlessness of its possessor. 
 
 The nose is sometimes the seat of the most violent inflam- 
 mations. Inebriety sometimes leaves its mark there in the man- 
 ner in which Bardolph was afflicted. The disease of rosacea, in 
 the form of rhinophyma, which was what Bardolph had, has 
 other sources besides those of excessive drinking, that are not 
 popularly known, and hence one innocently a sufferer is sincerely 
 to be pitied as having to bear not only the disease, but the most 
 unjust conclusions regarding its cause. 
 
 Lupus, popularly termed cancer, but not regarded by phy- 
 sicians as true cancer, sometimes attacks and rapidly destroys 
 the nose, being, in respect of its capacit}^ to destroy the tissues, 
 like cancer, thus leading naturally to the popular designation of 
 it. Sometimes from a small centre of irritation, as, for instance, 
 a broken and unkindly-healed mole, which has been subjected to 
 fierce alternations of heat and cold (the causes are numerous 
 that are capable of setting up inflammation in such a place), 
 there arises a morbid affection known as epithelioma. These 
 cases seem extremely trifling at first, hardly worthy of notice, 
 hut. like the spark that is capable of causing the great con flagra- 
 tion, they do not bear letting alone. The electric needle at 
 once extirpates such growths in their incipient stages. We 
 
NOSE, ITS PHYSICAL, MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL ASPECTS. 307 
 
 have known of the case of such an excrescence that had been 
 successively treated by perforation with red-hot needles, when if 
 grew again, and then by excision with curved scissors, which 
 cut it out nearly to the bone, when it grew again ; but we have 
 never known of a case in which the electric needle has been 
 used for extirpating one when it has returned. 
 
 There is nothing to be said here as to the toilet of the 
 nose, save that it should be performed in private with the hand- 
 kerchief, as that of the other exterior organs of the body may 
 be with the wash-rag. We are sorry to say that in our public 
 conveyances sanitary rules are not sufficiently adopted and en- 
 forced by the companies. Picking the nose is outrageously fre- 
 quent. Only smoking is prohibited, and the rule against it en- 
 forced. But spitting is far worse, because some spit holds the 
 germs of the bacillus of consumption, which may, in the form 
 of dust, eventually find its way into a favorable soil in lungs 
 predisposed to consumption, and this practice is not forbidden 
 by the companies, although it is most prevalent in the cars 
 among some classes of men, and although it is well known that 
 consumption is contagious. The companies should also prohibit 
 the unsanitary practices of cleaning the nails and picking the 
 teeth in public convej-ances, where tlmy are to be constantl}- seen. 
 These practices are doubly coarse, for refinement is nothing if 
 not considerate of others, and nothing if not self-respectful 
 enough to keep for privacy the offices of cleansing the person.* 
 
 * Singular to relate, it so happens that since these lines were written, last 
 winter, and hefore they can be printed, notices have been everywhere posted in the 
 cars about Philadelphia, forbidding spitting in them. We, however, let them stand 
 in their entirety, as possibly useful instruction for the country at large, in which the 
 habit of spitting in public places has always been very prevalent. We have seen 
 roughs, immediately upon seating themselves in a car, whip out plugs of tobacco 
 and help themselves to chews therefrom, with the air of having reached a piace 
 specially devoted to chewing. But, bad as this tobacco-chewing and spitting has 
 been, it is as nothing compared with the filthiness and danger of expectoration upon 
 the floor of the cars of phlegm hawked from the deepest recesses of the throat, 
 heretofore constantly practiced in cars, in total disregard of cleanliness, and to the 
 nauseation of ladies and gentlemen. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 FOOD IN ITS RELATION TO HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND PLEASURE. 
 
 THE subject of food, viewed scientifically, is too deep to be 
 entered upon in a work of this kind, as the reader may 
 judge when informed that great masters of dietetics have 
 differed even as to the classification of food, and, therefore, of 
 course, as to many details regarding it. Dunglison's summary 
 of the simplest classification will receive the most general accept- 
 ance. He says that in nitrogenized food is included the fibrinous, 
 albuminous, caseinous, and gelatinous elements ; and that in 
 non-nitrogenous food is included the amylaceous, saccharine, 
 and oleaginous elements. Lastly, then, come the inorganic 
 elements of food He remarks, further, that the second category 
 might be further simplified, for amylaceous food is convertible 
 into sugar during digestion, and from either oleaginous matter 
 may be formed. 
 
 What we have more particularly to consider is, not the 
 scientific aspect of food as related to the human body, but the 
 ordinary practices as to eating that lie before us in our daily 
 walks in life. Even within this sphere the subject is so vast 
 that it can be at best but skimmed over here. Since the primi- 
 tive apple, through which man fell from grace, the tillers of the 
 soil have made the earth to }deld of its goodly fruits, and river, 
 ocean, and air have been laid under contribution for the suste- 
 nance of the body and the gratification of the palate of mankind. 
 
 In the course of this process, certain countries have devel- 
 oped particular dishes, and their inhabitants have imbibed 
 particular tastes. Hence, home-staying people have come to 
 regard their tastes as the natural and true standard, and often 
 decline even to make trial of new dishes, whether from their own 
 
 24 (369) 
 
370 HEREDITY, HEALTH, A\H PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 or other lands. But all tastes, including thai in eating, depend 
 upon education. What one is broughl up to in childhood to eat, 
 he generally cats with greater relish than lie eats anything else. 
 The ability, however, to acquire new tastes lasts through life, and 
 one- of the chief differences between cultivated and uncultivated 
 people is. that the former, as compared with the latter, prolong 
 through life to some degree childhood's capacity for acquisition 
 of all sorts, including what relates to the delectation of the 
 palate. 
 
 This difference among mankind is enormous. Nothing more 
 clearly marks the provincial, the untraveled man, than the perfect 
 self-satisfaction with which he holds that everything that enters 
 into his habits, including the food he eats, represents the sole 
 proper, preordained ways of the best-constituted man. Nothing 
 can swerve him from the fixed idea that he possesses the true 
 standard of food. He likes it, and therefore it is the best pos- 
 sible food, and no addition to or subtraction from it could be 
 made without marring his bill of fare. Content with the wretched 
 cooking to which he is often habituated, he will marvel at the 
 discomfiture of some experienced traveler in face of the viands 
 which he relishes as the best on earth. 
 
 Just the very reverse is the man of education, especially if 
 he has been a traveler, and has seen many countries and many 
 different ways. He believes, with Brillat Savarin, that he who 
 discovers a new dish contributes more to the happiness of man- 
 kind than he who discovers a new star. He philosophically 
 perceives that what has been to him previously unknown is 
 equivalent, so far as he is concerned, to having been just discov- 
 ered, and he sets himself to acquire new tastes in dishes, and 
 does acquire them, if not with the facility of youth, at least 
 with an advantage which not even youth possesses — a dis- 
 criminative palate, that renders every new enterprise an acqui- 
 sition likelv to be successful in true directions. That there are 
 
FOOD, ITS RELATION TO HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND PLEASURE. 371 
 
 false directions is undeniable, for some food has been derived, 
 not from choice, but from necessity. 
 
 In 1835 the tomato was just beginning to appear in this 
 country as an article of food, excepting with the populations 
 around New Orleans. Millions of people here had never heard 
 of it, thousands had not more than seen it, or had more than 
 taken a fugitive taste of it as grown for curiosity in a garden, 
 and then known as a love-apple. Very few tables in the United 
 States except those of the Creoles of New Orleans and vicinity, 
 or else people in the North, of French or Spanish extraction, 
 ever had the tomato served on table in any form. It took years 
 and years for general acquirement of taste for it, not because 
 every one was trying to like it and could not, but because the 
 majority of people assumed that they could never learn to 
 like it, and would not try. We have been in a remote settlement 
 where we were obliged to send some hundreds of miles for celery 
 to make salad, and heard it described b}^ the young lacty of the 
 house as tasting like raw rhubarb-tops, and not for worlds would 
 she touch the salad into which it was made, because of the pres- 
 ence in it of sweet-oil, although fat pork was the habitual food 
 of the region. 
 
 This same indisposition to acquire new tastes pervades all 
 the affairs of life with such people. We knew one such, where 
 the person wept the first time that she was obliged to sleep on a 
 hair-mattress instead of the accustomed feather-bed, and }*et 
 some months afterward she came very near weeping again 
 because she had to sleep on a feather-bed instead of the 
 hair-mattress, which in the meantime she had been using upon 
 compulsion. 
 
 Many instances we could adduce in support of the point to 
 which we are speaking. The point is that, with very many 
 people, variety is not the spice of life. It takes a certain amount 
 of general education, thought, and experience, and a certain 
 
372 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 consoquenl ductility of mind, to make variety seem the spice of 
 life, old age brings to the majority of people dislike forvariety 
 of all sort*. They do not wish to learn more, to do differently 
 in any respect from what they happen latterly to have fallen 
 into the why of doing. They sometimes desire never to go be- 
 yond the limits of t heir city, town, or village; then never to go 
 beyond the enclosure of the dwelling ; and, with a final degenera- 
 tion, they sometimes bring up, while still in the enjoyment of 
 good health, by frequenting only one room, and being perfectly 
 satisfied in only one chair. As these -.ami' traits are observable 
 in lesser degree even in youth, it follows, manifestly, that some 
 persons are born old. 
 
 On the other hand, with well-adjusted mental and bodily 
 mechanism, coupled with education, variety at all ages never 
 ceases to be the spiee of life; and, so far as food is concerned, 
 variety may, in a certain sense, be said directly to represent life. 
 The more various the diet, the better is the health and the enjoy- 
 ment of existence. "When we find nations so situated as to be 
 obliged to subsist chiefly on one article of food, we find the 
 system liable to specific disorders. Onl} r recently, Dr. Takaki, 
 of Japan, has accomplished a good work there in ameliorating 
 the condition of the sailors of the Japanese navy, through his 
 recommendation to the government to substitute bread, wheat, 
 and beans for a part of the daily ration of rice. Although rice 
 is good food, yet by itself it is unequal to nourishing the system 
 properly, and, in consequence of eating it as their almost exclu- 
 sive diet, the Japanese sailors had been dreadfully afflicted with 
 the disease known as beriberi. 
 
 It is not difficult for the Japanese to adopt new practices, 
 however unaccustomed they may be. We remember once con- 
 versing with an educated Japanese, and his saying, " Yes, we 
 want to adopt everything." lie was too intelligent a man not 
 to have known that, in adopting everything indiscriminately, 
 
FOOD, ITS RELATION TO HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND PLEASURE. 373 
 
 they could not fail to make some egregious mistakes. His 
 thought, fully expressed, would have been : — We recognize 
 European civilization as so superior to ours that, eager as we 
 are to adopt it, we have no time at present to hesitate about its 
 details. This wonderful aptitude of the Japanese for escaping 
 beyond the centres of thought about which they have previously 
 revolved for centuries accounts for much that is astonishing in 
 their accomplishment upon the basis of good intellectual powers, 
 — for such a thing, for instance, as a Japanese taking, in one of 
 our first schools, the prize for English composition. 
 
 How different and far inferior in this respect, of wishing to 
 acquire all that is desirable beyond the natal horizon, are the 
 ways of some of the peoples of Europe who consider themselves 
 far superior to the Japanese ! It is a well-known fact, among men 
 who have studied dietetics, that the consumption of indian-meal 
 among the laboring classes of Europe would, on account of its 
 cheapness, much ameliorate their condition. Yet, for fifty years 
 and more, progress in the direction of inducing them to adopt it 
 has been entirely disproportionate to the zealous efforts of phi- 
 lanthropists to introduce the meal in Europe as an article of 
 general food. 
 
 Dujardin-Beaumetz, a distinguished authority on dietetics, 
 remarks, in one of his recent lectures on the subject : — 
 
 We see still, in France, multitudes of our day-laborers in the country living 
 on a daily fare in which meat constitutes hardly any constituent. But such 
 writers as Kingsfordt [a vegetarian] forget that this kind of diet is imposed on 
 the laboring classes by the poverty and misery of their situation, and certainly, 
 the Irishman, who lives mainly on potatoes would be very glad to eat meat if 
 he could get it. 
 
 This is an excellent case with which to illustrate tendencies 
 that have grown, not out of habits, but of deprivation of what is 
 known, liked, and impossible of frequent attainment. The reason 
 for the craving of some of these people for certain aliments, and 
 their inordinate indulgence in them when obtained, to which 
 
:;T I HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 aliments they have not been accustomed as an habitual diet, is 
 to be explained by the fact that they have in their own country 
 lived on the confines of such things as possessed by their more 
 fortunate neighbors. The poor Irishman and Irishwoman who 
 come to this countiy as emigrants have eaten meat and drunk 
 tea, but not habitually, because they could not afford to buy 
 them. They reach here a country, entirely unlike that described 
 by Dujardin-Beaumetz, of apparently inexhaustible supplies. 
 They now eat too much meat. Three times a day they demand 
 it, and would take it a fourth quite willingly, and the wife has 
 the teapot forever on the hob. These same people, however, 
 acquire few new tastes in food, and eatables that are new to 
 them generally remain unknown to the end. Not until the suc- 
 ceeding generation of the stock does it become americanized. 
 
 The traveled foreigner of every nation is in this respect 
 almost a different human being. In every civilized country to 
 which he goes, he tastes new dishes, seeks to make himself 
 acquainted with their merits; even against difficulties, sets out 
 to learn that they are insuperable, for him before he desists. 
 What pleasure have we not seen depicted in the laces of such 
 foreigners in the face of a steaming tureen of terrapin or a dish 
 of canvas-back ducks! Trifles truly make up the sum of life, 
 and notably the sum of pleasure. Such persons live many 
 pleasant lives in the capacity for the enjoyment of variety of all 
 sorts. One of the trifles that go to make up the sum of life 
 is the alimentary process, upon which the highest well-being 
 and life itself depend, leading Cicero to say that a wise man has 
 a \\ ise palate. 
 
 Within our own land we witness egregiously the short- 
 sightedness upon which we have been descanting. Few are the 
 fa rm-houses where the savory pot-herb lends its flavor to the meat. 
 In not one in fifty thousand is the delicacy of the mushroom 
 known. In many they cannot tell the difference between a mush- 
 
FOOD, ITS RELATION TO HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND PLEASURE. 375 
 
 room and a toad-stool, and yet even little children Learn to distin- 
 guish between them, and gather the mushroom for the table in 
 places where it is appreciated. Within twenty-five years we have 
 found parts of the country where farmers throw away the sweet- 
 bread as refuse, not long before that the general practice of the 
 country. We have witnessed three stages, the throwing away 
 of the sweet-bread, the giving of it away to customers for other 
 things, and lastly the sale of it at quite a high price. Soup is 
 the rarest possible thing in an American farm-house; indeed, we 
 have met one where the people had never heard of such a thing 
 as soup. Yet in France, which bears the palm of cooking from 
 all the world, the pot-au-feu is a mere incident of cooking, so 
 much is it a matter of course. Into it all the sapid, savory bits 
 go, that would not be useful for any other purpose, and, with or 
 without a little added stock, a delicious and nutritious soup is 
 made with the addition of a little seasoning. The pot-au-feu 
 (pot standing on the fire) is a labor-saving institution, and an 
 economical institution, and an anti-dyspeptic institution, for 
 he best begins dinner who begins with soup. " Something sub- 
 stantial " is the cry with men who do not understand the art 
 of eating, ignorant that the best way to prepare the stomach to 
 deal with something substantial is to set it gently to working 
 with something comparatively light. We have seen a man in a 
 restaurant, on a reeking August morning, eating a sirloin steak 
 all to himself, when sensible people around him were preparing 
 for something a little more solid by eating the daintiest iced 
 musk-melons. 
 
 Considering the bountifulness of this land in all that can 
 contribute to the table, the general cooking seems all the more 
 execrable. Praise of plain cooking is cool self-ascription of a 
 a virtue that has no existence, and an aspersion of an art bj* one 
 who does not pretend to be a votary of it. There is no true 
 plain cooking but among cannibals, where all condiments are 
 
376 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 neglected. The plain cooking of civilization is only an imita- 
 tion of this, it is tin' negation of all that the art of cooking 
 Bammarizea in the well-being and pleasure of man. The vaunt- 
 ing of plain cooking is an inheritance from the Englishman of 
 Hogarth's times, when the French were represented by the Eng- 
 lish as living almost exclusively on frogs, and only Englishmen 
 as properly fed with the good roast beef of old England. Hence, 
 also, was derived such a term as "kickshaws," from the French 
 " quelque-chose" as expressive of contempt for French dainties. 
 But if the reader will look closely into the matter, he will 
 find thai the cookery of England at that time down to the very 
 present was, and is, with the exception of a few national dishes, 
 French cookery, even by French cooks, with all who could or 
 can afford to keep them. The English cooking of the com- 
 monalty, the typical cooking of England, is now what it always 
 was, crude in the extreme, and remains of this, still abiding with 
 us, are of the cannibalistic order described, and euphemistically 
 denominated in this country, plain cooking. 
 
 Out upon such transparent humbug! If a man or woman 
 cannot even broil a steak decently, they tell }"ou that the}' do 
 not pretend to be more than plain cooks. A plain cook of 
 either sex is a person who brings fire and meat and vegetables 
 together and lets them fight it out among themselves for a 
 dinner. Unfortunately, the fight does not end there, the next 
 bout being in the stomach of the unfortunate partaker of the 
 repast, and the next, perhaps, with the doctor as bottle-holder. 
 
 Depend upon it that cooking is an art, and that plain cook- 
 ing is the absence of all art. Depend upon it that cooking is a 
 chemical art; not that one must study pharmacy to achieve suc- 
 cess in it, although we have known a cook inadvertently to pro- 
 duce an appreciable amount of soap in a dish by including in it 
 the chemical constituents. The experience of millions of gener- 
 ations of stomachs, in conference with minds that have passed 
 
FOOD, ITS RELATION TO HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND PLEAS1 BE. '.',17 
 
 away with the bodies to which they belonged, has resulted in 
 a clinical knowledge of cookery, in its relation to the stomach, 
 that is not to be ignored. Thus at least a portion of the world 
 has had transmitted to it from preceding generations valuable 
 knowledge of what it is profitable to eat, and, rising to aesthetic 
 heights, what is in various degrees most agreeable to the palate. 
 
 The palate is not an infallible criterion of what is best fitted 
 for digestion, but it is, nevertheless, to the experienced adult, a 
 criterion of almost unerring judgment. The child is without expe- 
 rience with the palate as with everything else. Through a subtle 
 bond of union of sentiment, so to speak, between the palate and 
 stomach, the law, to which there is scarcely an exception, is that 
 what is agreeable to the palate is digestible by the stomach. 
 Of course, if the article of food is so very agreeable to the per- 
 son as to induce surfeit, that fact does not militate against the 
 statement made here. The case is merely one of want of judo-, 
 ment, and hence we find children more liable than grown persons 
 to a surfeit. In some persons of educated taste, the discern- 
 ment of the palate is so marked a characteristic of their organ- 
 ization, that the}' can place implicit faith in its decisions as to 
 the digestibility of a particular food. There is a class of persons, 
 we are aware, who, knowing full well that a certain article of 
 food is indigestible to them, deliberately pretend that they do 
 not know the fact, and eat of it. We are not speaking of such 
 persons, but of a more sensible order of beings. 
 
 It should be considered that, with the stomach, as with all 
 things else in mankind, habit must be reckoned with. The 
 palate sometimes revolts at an unaccustomed food and the 
 stomach resents its presence, to which food they afterward be- 
 come reconciled and crave. When either palate or stomach is 
 averse to the taking of such food, it is best to intermit trial of 
 the same food for a brief time, and then make another essay to 
 like it. Nothing can be more distasteful to every human beino- 
 
378 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 than tobacco IS when it is first tasted, and yet it is by just such 
 
 a procedure that many a boy glides insensibly into being a 
 chewer of the weed. If, after the cessation of trial to acquire a 
 new taste, the article in question is approached the next time 
 with less repugnance, it is certain that the taste for it is being ac- 
 quired through habit. And the strangest thing of all in con- 
 nection with these secondary tastes is, that the more difficult one 
 is of acquirement the stronger the liking becomes, exceeding in 
 strength even the primary tastes. 
 
 What we wish chiefly to impress upon the reader is that 
 man is constituted so as to be nearly omnivorous, that when he 
 finds among his own people, or among other peoples equally 
 civilized, tastes to which they have not been driven by necessity, 
 he has probably at the same time found dishes which, with a 
 little practice, would be agreeable to his palate ; and that when 
 he becomes so reconciled to what was new to him, he may find 
 among them some which have added largely to his pleasures of 
 the table. He has added not 011I3' to his resources in health, but 
 to those in sickness, for nothing is more difficult to resuscitate 
 than a patient who has a small range of tastes, or is otherwise 
 squeamish about his eating. 
 
 If you have children to educate, do not encourage them in 
 likes and dislikes as to well-prepared food of all sorts. We do 
 not mean that they should be forced to take what they dislike ; 
 that would frustrate the end in view; but that they should be en- 
 couraged in every way to partake of a variet}' of food, and to 
 acquire new tastes. How pitiable it is to see, as we often wit- 
 ness, meagre, poorly-nourished children in houses of abundance, 
 always selecting nothing but the white meat of chicken, never 
 venturing even to taste the dark, and in other directions culti- 
 vating, with the weak connivance of their parents, similar habits 
 of eating! Such as these, when grown to manhood or woman- 
 hood, are ill-fitted to meet the vicissitudes of life. 
 
FOOD, ITS RELATION TO HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND PLEASURE. 379 
 
 We are perfectly well aware that idiosyncrasies are 80 great 
 that there are persons so constituted as to be unable to acquire 
 any taste bej'ond those which they had in the earliest childhood. 
 But these do not represent the average of mankind ; indeed, 
 the} r are abnormal, and are very limited in numbers. The average 
 child can, with judicious management, of suggestion, persua- 
 sion, instruction, and even of payment in some form, be induced 
 to try any new dish again and again, until the liking for it is 
 insensibly acquired. 
 
 The old ascetic notion of the unworthiness of the bodv be- 
 ing so great as compared with the mind, that men can afford to 
 despise and neglect it, has long since vanished. We know now, 
 and to some degree proclaim and act upon the belief, held by 
 some of the ancients, that a sound mind cannot exist save in a 
 sound body. Our theories are good enough ; it is our practice that 
 fails. While a portion of the world is given to guzzling and 
 spirituous bibbing, another portion lacks due sustentation from 
 good, well-prepared, wholesome food. It is well known that much 
 of the drinking among the lowest classes in populous cities arises 
 from insufficient nourishment impairing the tone of the nervous 
 S3'stem. But, again, there is another portion of the world which 
 lives in the midst of abundance, within the bounds of modera- 
 tion, well fed and well housed and adequately nourished. 
 
 To approximate as nearly as possible to the condition of 
 these last should be the aim of those less highly favored by the 
 goods of fortune, — those thousands of the overworked and un- 
 derfed. But, unfortunately, there is among this class the least 
 knowledge of how to make small means go in eating farthest 
 toward health anclj)leasure. However, within a few years, there 
 has been some advance in this direction, through the introduc- 
 tion of cooking-schools, and the publication of cheap cookery 
 books and of newspaper articles on general and special dietetic 
 subjects. 
 
S80 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Our cookery in this country has been derived from vast 
 foreign fields. The poorest of it came from England. If you 
 wish to realize by a specimen the difference between cookery 
 and no cookery, compare French-prepared kidneys with English- 
 prepared kidneys, the one delicately prepared and minced, 
 seasoned, sin/ir and sent to the table in a chafing dish; the 
 other, the whole unsightly, corrugated kidney broiled, without 
 a particle of discoverable seasoning, and sent, to the table to be 
 carved. Cookery in this country, at its worst in New England, 
 and remaining unimproved except in the oasis of Boston, 1ms 
 been largely determined by the advent of great numbers of 
 French, Italian, and other cooks in New York, Philadelphia, and 
 others of our large cities. Through the French and Spanish popu- 
 lation of New Orleans and vicinity a great ^r:A of good cooking 
 was transfused through the South and spread beyond. Other 
 centres of skillfulness in the art had their influence in dissemi- 
 nating good met hods. — Richmond ; Charleston, S. C; Baltimore ; 
 Philadelphia, once the favorite resort of foreigners; St. Louis, 
 and, in later times, Chicago and San Francisco, places that had 
 sprung up in days long after some of the first-named cities had 
 become fumed for the production of certain dishes. From all 
 the large cities knowledge of cookery now radiates to a certain 
 extent over the country, especially to the West, to which so 
 many people from the crowded centres of population are con- 
 stantly departing to make them their homes. But, after all, 
 when we consider the immensity of this country, and the profu- 
 sion of esculents with which it, is blessed, at which foreigners 
 of the amplest experience marvel, it must he conceded that, the 
 art of cooking is, as compared with the possibilities growing 
 out of a population of over sixty millions of people, quite in 
 its infancy. 
 
 It is said that if you be virt nous you will be happy. We 
 prefer to parody the sentiment by saying that if you will abjure 
 
FOOD, ITS RELATION TO HEALTH, BEAUTY, AND PLEASURE. 381 
 
 plain cooking and learn the art of cookery, you will be virtuous, 
 for there is no such imp as one horn of dyspepsia, bom of plain 
 cooking, grandchild of Satan himself, who sends the cooking, 
 not the cooks, for his own evil purposes. 
 
 The pleasures of the table mean the pleasure of conversa- 
 tion as well as that of eating. Silence at the dinner, when not 
 taken alone, means feeding, not dining. It has been said that 
 only man dines, that the brutes feed. We fear that man flatters 
 himself too much by so sweeping an assertion. The best test 
 of refinement at table is that of whether the meeting seems to 
 be for the purpose of eating or for that of social intercourse. 
 If the eating seems to be but incidental to the intercourse, the 
 test is completely stood. 
 
 The pleasures of the table contribute directly and indirectly 
 to beauty, — directly, by the consumption of appetizing food, 
 and indirectly, by surroundings that promote easy digestion. 
 To suppose that it matters not what one eats, so that the ap- 
 petite is satisfied, shows want of common observation. The 
 kind of food eaten largely affects the organization of every 
 animal, including man. The habitual use of certain coarse foods 
 becomes at once apparent through their effect on the skin. The 
 lower animals that are eaten evidence in their appearance the 
 influence of different kinds of food, and that influence, even to 
 the different flavor of the flesh which different kinds of food 
 impart. 
 
 It would be a mistake for any one to suppose, from what we 
 have said in recommendation of variety in food, that it is to be 
 construed as advocating great variety at any one meal. On the 
 contrary, except on certain occasions, as at dinner-parties, where 
 one may remain seated for hours, great variety is not desirable. 
 For eveiy-day life the most delectable variet3 r is the variet}* of 
 well-regulated sequence. Were we able to have on our table 
 daily all the various products the market affords, it would be a 
 
382 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY". 
 
 mistake to have them. Viands thai are constantly scon and 
 tasted pall upon the taste. A little air of strangeness makes us 
 return to things with renewed avidity. Hotels are under a 
 certain compulsion t<> furnish everything in the market simul- 
 taneously, because they entertain so many guests of different 
 tastes. But one of the consequences of attempting to prepare 
 so many dishes is that all of them are not well prepared. So, 
 for the management of the private table there is a double reason 
 for not having a great variety at, any one meal, that the dishes 
 which do appear, being limited in number, can all be made 
 choice, and because the absent friends will soon firing with them 
 renewed zest at their appearance. 
 
 The fact is that variety coming in the guise of a surprise is 
 an immense fillip to the pleasure of eating and the ease of diges- 
 tion. It may be that the new dish is nothing but an old ac- 
 quaintance from which we parted not long since, but it is none 
 the less welcome if it has come opportunely and does not sta}' 
 too long. This introduces a phase of the table in which Ave 
 have the profoundest sympathy with women. The mistress of 
 the house generally knows exactly what is coming. No pleasant 
 surprises in this regard are in store for her. The master of the 
 house, on the contrary, is always being favored with them. This 
 is one of the reasons why the majority of women so thoroughly 
 enjoy any little treat in the v,'ay of eating in which the}' have 
 had nothing whatever to do with the preparation. Not being 
 able to see a way for them out of their difficulty, we can but 
 extend to them our heartfelt sympathy, congratulate ourselves 
 upon our more favored estate, and avail ourselves of every op- 
 portunity to make amends to them by affording them the pleasure 
 which, like ourselves, they so heartily enjoy. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 CLOTHING IN ITS RELATION TO HEALTH. 
 
 OUR province is not to speak more than incidentally, as we 
 have already availed ourselves of the opportunity of 
 doing, of clothing from the point of view of dress. It is simply 
 to speak of clothing as a protective, healthful, and agreeable 
 covering of the body. 
 
 To enable us to exercise, in the particulars mentioned, sound 
 judgment with reference to the choice of clothing for different 
 purposes, we should know certain fundamental facts regard i no 1 
 the behavior of the ordinary substances that, as fibres, are con- 
 verted into clothing. This knowledge, coupled with apprecia- 
 tion of the fact that clothes do not, of themselves, make warmth 
 or coplness, but are serviceable in cold weather to retain the heat 
 that the body generates, and in hot weather to exclude the 
 greater exterior as compared with the interior temperature, is 
 sufficient, with one addition, to enable any one to understand 
 the philosophy of clothing. That addition is, that it should be 
 remembered that at all times the body transpires, or gives off 
 moisture through its pores, and that this circumstance cannot 
 be ignored in the selection of the material out of which the 
 clothing is made. 
 
 As it is the heat of the body which is to be preserved, if we 
 wish to be warm, or the excessive outside heat which is to be 
 excluded, if we wish to be cool, the best fabric for both purposes 
 must be that which is made of some substance that is relatively 
 non-conducting to heat. Additionally, although we wish to 
 retain or to exclude heat, the mesh of the fabric must always be 
 adapted to allowing to pass through it the evaporation of the 
 moisture from the skin. Hence, a suit of leather, such as knights 
 
 (383) 
 
384 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY, 
 
 used to wear under their armor, must have been unhealthy. It 
 was good as a non-conductor of heat, and had a certain degree 
 of porosity, but not sufficient to make desirable clothing for the 
 whole person. 
 
 Linen is not a good fabric for underwear, even in a hot cli- 
 mate, because linen is a good conduetor of heat, presenting con- 
 ditions just the opposite of those that are best suited for the 
 purposes of clothing, — those which are secured by materials 
 that are bad conductors. Linen, besides, readily absorbs the 
 moisturfe of the body, which circumstance still further promotes 
 the loss of bodily heat in a cold climate, or, in a warm climate, 
 facilitates the passage inward of the excessive outside heat. 
 This objectionableness of linen for underclothing, inherent in the 
 physical constitution of the substance itself, we can obviate, 
 when desirable, by wearing a garment under the linen composed 
 of a material that is a bad conductor; but then, it will be ob- 
 served, the linen has ceased to be an undergarment. With 
 nothing but a single thickness of linen next the skin, a sudden 
 drop of the outside temperature will cause a chill to strike to the 
 very marrow. This is because the heat of the body passes 
 readily through the slight opposition of the fabric, so good is it 
 as a conductor of heat. We once tried to wear linen shirts in 
 very hot weather, but found them, in alternations of tempera- 
 ture, far from agreeable. 
 
 On the contrary, nothing is more delightful for hot weather 
 than are linen sheets. Here, the quality of linen in being a 
 good conductor of heat serves well the heat-oppressed sleeper, 
 conducting, as it does, the heat so rapidly from the surface 
 of the body as to make radiation -buck to it inappreciable. Be- 
 sides, the fibre of linen is round and smooth, rendering fabrics 
 made of it singularly agreeable to the touch when coolness 
 is desirable. An analogous though opposite gratification to 
 that afforded from touching or seeing good blankets in the 
 
CLOTHING IN ITS RELATION TO HEALTH. 385 
 
 winter-time is experienced from seeing and feeling linen sheets 
 in the summer. 
 
 Taking it for all in all, wool is the best fabric for wear next 
 the skin. But this cannot be said without the qualification that 
 much depends upon the quality of the wool. We have a lively 
 recollection of a terribly cold walk that we once took, with snow 
 on the ground, through the open country, when, coming to a way- 
 side store, it occurred to us to buy a pair of long, coarse, woolen 
 stockings for protection from the severe cold. Such was the 
 exacerbation to the skin from the rude material of the stockings, 
 that by nightfall our legs were covered from ankle to knee with 
 a profuse eruption, which subsided at once as soon as the active 
 cause of the irritation was removed. 
 
 In heat-retaining and excluding merits, the common ma- 
 terials for clothing rank as follows, — woolen, cotton, silk. We 
 have said sufficient on the score of linen. For outside garments, 
 whether for men or women, it is admirable for hot weather. It 
 is much used for dresses by men and women of tropical climates, 
 the fine-linen market of Cuba being one of the best i*i the world. 
 
 Cotton is the most generally agreeable wear for under- 
 garments, if not in immediate contact with the skin; at least, 
 next to the garment which is in immediate contact with it. Our 
 own opinion is that no climate is so hot that the health is not 
 the better for wearing a woolen garment next to the skin. This, 
 in tropical countries, should, of course, be of the texture that is 
 known as gauze-merino. Cotton does not absorb moisture so 
 readily as linen does, and, after all that we have said, it is hardly 
 needful to remark that it is much warmer than linen. For socks 
 or stockings it has, under certain conditions of their use, singular 
 unfitness. To become footsore on a long pedestrian tour, one 
 could not devise a better plan than to use cotton socks or stock- 
 ings. That very peculiarity of the substance of which we just 
 spoke ; that it does not absorb moisture so readily as linen does, 
 
HEREDITY, HEALTH, \\l> PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 should be expanded here into the Fullness of the fact that it 
 absorbs moisture very reluctantly. The consequence of this is, 
 that the great exudation From the feet while exercising is largely 
 retained, the sock or stocking, drying, becomes in places on the 
 foot a hard, uncompromising mass, and the next thing one funis 
 himself footsore. The proper footgear to walk long distances 
 in. no matter how hot the weal her, is woolen stockings, or merino 
 ones, made of soft material. 
 
 Silken underwear is, for some skins, and in sonic conditions 
 of health, the most delightful possible. It is a bad conductor, 
 and therefore makes a good clothing for persons who do not 
 come within certain categories of skin and health conditions. 
 The question of whether individuals do or do not can he settled 
 only by their personal trial, or by the opinion of ;i physician, 
 guided by a full history of the case. In gouty and rheumatic 
 affections, supposing that there is no contra-indication to the 
 wearing of silk, the electrical condition that it excites in the 
 skin is beneficial to persons predisposed to these affections. But 
 this same electrical excitation of the skin is prejudicial in the 
 case of cutaneous disorders. AW- knew a case, some years ago, 
 where a tendency to rheumatic gout had been sensibly abated by 
 the wearing of a complete suit of silk underclothing, when some 
 years afterward an attack of senile prurigo in the same person 
 was stimulated and heightened by continuing to wear the \<r\ 
 garments that had proved so beneficial in counteracting the 
 rheumatic-gOUt}' tendency. 
 
 Of course color has much to do with the warmth of gar- 
 ments. Whenever there are heat and cold ami light (and that, 
 excepting with reference to light, is always), the color of gar- 
 ments enters into the determination of their qualities with 
 reference to temperature. Taking an obvious case, if we 
 should have a wdiite woolen coat dyed black, it would become 
 warmer, because, as black, the material would absorb more heat. 
 
CLOTHING JN ITS RELATION TO HEALTH. 387 
 
 It would also, because absorbing heat rapidly, rapidly radiate if ; 
 but, on the whole, it would be warmer than the white coat, at 
 least as long as it was subjected to light, and to heat greater 
 than that generated by the body. If, in continuous exposure to 
 the weather, say in tent-life in the winter, a man should wear a 
 black coat by day, and a white coat of the same fabric, weight, 
 and make by night, he would best utilize heat — outer heat by 
 absorption ; inner heat, or heat of the body, by its conservation. 
 This is only stating in terms of illustration the preceding fact. 
 
 In our climate, the very best course to pursue with regard 
 to change of clothing, to accord with change of outside tempera- 
 ture, is to have at least two, or even three, grades of thicknesses 
 of underclothing, for spring, autumn, and winter wear, the 
 thicker of which will sometimes find a place even in a sudden 
 lowering of temperature in summer weather, and temporarily 
 supersede the gauze drawers and undervest of that season. 
 
 At no season of the year should we be without some fabric, 
 not muslin or linen, immediately next to the skin, and from 
 what has been said, this fabric ought to be woolen, merino, or 
 even silk, under the limitations mentioned. If this fabric per- 
 formed no other function than that of absorbing and slowly 
 liberating the moisture from the booty, the practice of wearing it 
 would be amply rewarded. If people would but remember that 
 the aim of health should be to guard against the vicissitudes of 
 weather, and to maintain equableness in the temperature of the 
 surface of the body, there would be less sickness and death from 
 colds, and a much larger aggregate of pleasure in the world. 
 The gratification of the whim of a moment often leads a girl to 
 an exposure to cold that costs her her life. A fall of twenty or 
 thirty degrees in the thermometer, or a sudden chilliness of the 
 air, should mean to sensible people the adoption of instant pre- 
 cautions to avoid cold. 
 
 The unthinking portion of the world goes much more bj' the 
 
388 HEREDITY, IIKAI.TII. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 almanac than it ever directly admits. We knew a man -who, 
 every spring, according t<> the almanac, used to Bay to hi* chil- 
 dren, on the first fine day, "The back of the winter is broken; I 
 must change my underclothing," the result of which always was 
 that he was confined to the house with a cold for the next few 
 days. 'We know plenty of people who will not light a lire until 
 they deem that the almanac warrants their having a fire. For 
 our part, if the weather is cold enough we have a fire in July, 
 and if it is hot enough we fan ourselves in December. So 
 experience and common sense, and we, as their temporary repre- 
 sentative, alike proclaim as reasonable. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 VENTILATION WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH. 
 
 EVERY one has some notion, however inadequate as a 
 proper guide to practice, of the value of fresh air; advice 
 to take fresh air being prescribed by every one for himself and 
 others. This general notion, however, goes but a little way 
 toward the proper regulation of life with reference to the 
 necessity to health of having constantly an abundant supply of 
 fresh air, for thousands of persons who realize the hygienic 
 value of out-door air take not the slightest precaution as to 
 securing purity of air in their dwellings ; and }^et, upon an 
 average, more than the half of life is spent in-doors. 
 
 Therefore, to possess really valuable knowledge on the 
 subject, such as leads to establishing the habit of ventilating, it 
 is necessary that the requirement of the body as to pure air 
 shall be known. Pure air is just as much the food of the body 
 as comestibles are. The breathing of persons in the closed 
 spaces called rooms vitiates the air. Every person by breathing 
 contributes just so much poison to it constantly. The flame 
 of an ordinary gas-burner makes a draught upon it equal to 
 the breathing of it by four persons. Nature takes care of the 
 purity of out-door air, and is ready to aid us in taking care of 
 that in-doors ; but if we do not accept the proffered aid, it does 
 not compel us to do so. It merely visits this, as an infraction 
 of one of the laws of health, with feebleness, sickness, and 
 death. 
 
 An errpneous popular notion confounds warm air with im- 
 pure air, and cool air with pure air. A room is not necessarily 
 close because it is too warm, nor necessariby pure because it is 
 cool. One of the most sickening of all smells is in the close, cold 
 
 (389) 
 
300 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AM) PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 houses of the wretchedly poor, who are constrained, in order 
 to avoid Buffering from cold, to exclude outside air as much as 
 possible. Of course, both warm air and cool air may be impure 
 to any degree down to foul, but, of the two kinds, the warm 
 air is, under average conditions, likely to be the purer, because 
 constantly tending to be purified by interchange of volume for 
 volume with the outside fresh air, whereas the cool air remains 
 relatively stagnant. 
 
 This last observation naturally leads at once to the inquiry as 
 to wliai is the active agency in the purification of the air of houses. 
 The determination of that question, and the best action deducible 
 from it, make the basis of the whole art of ventilation. 
 
 To ventilate a house is not to purify the air in it, but 
 gradually to get rid of the impure air in it by gradually re- 
 placing it with fresh air. The air in it is, as compared with 
 outside air, always more or less impure; so our object should be 
 so to dilute the whole intermingled volumes of good and bad 
 air by a constantly-entering volume of pure air, that the air of 
 the house shall be virtually pure. 
 
 This purpose can be accomplished in two, and in on]y two, 
 ways: by mechanical means, such as pumps and fans, and by 
 natural means — action growing out of the difference of density 
 of contiguous volumes of air. The mechanical means are best 
 adapted to certain classes of buildings and to mines; the natural 
 means are for all the world. It is only with reference to the 
 latter that we are called upon to speak, for they represent 
 ordinary ventilation. 
 
 Air becomes less and less dense, that is, becomes lighter 
 and lighter, the more that it is heated. Consequently, air in 
 houses tends to lie in what we may, for convenience^ regard as 
 a series of strata gradually growing from below warmer and 
 warmer as they grow less and less dense in ascending to greater 
 and greater heights. 
 
VENTILATION WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH. 391 
 
 In the winter-time, in the climate of Philadelphia, rooms 
 are, when their occupants can afford to heat them at pleasure, 
 at the temperature of about 70° Fall., and the outside tem- 
 perature ranges from about zero to 40° Fall. We have, under 
 these conditions, plenty of motive power at our disposal to dis- 
 charge the impure air from our houses, and take in place of il, 
 all the pure air necessary for health. If we foolishly caulk up 
 and weather-strip every perceptible aperture, we should not be 
 surprised at producing weakly conditions, nor even at the ap- 
 pearance of typhoid fever. We have unlimited pure air at our 
 disposal, and all the necessary means of moving it, both fur- 
 nished by nature. If we bar nature out from acting, we do it at 
 our own cost. 
 
 The next question that arises is as to what is the volume of 
 the stream of air that we should discharge from our dwellings, 
 in order to insure that the corresponding volume of outside air 
 received shall maintain that in the reservoir of the house in a 
 virtually pure condition. Statistics say that the lowest permis- 
 sible fresh air eveiy hour for a grown person is 1000 cubic feet. 
 A preferable amount to this is deemed to be 2000 cubic feet per 
 hour, and some persons advocate even 3000 cubic feet per hour. 
 Higher amounts are needed for the sick, some sanitarians 
 recommending as high as 3000 to 4000 cubic feet for the sick. 
 All these estimates are, of course, founded upon investiga- 
 tion of the degree to which air in a house is liable to become 
 vitiated from breathing and other causes. 
 
 It follows, from what has been said, that the best ventilation 
 is that which supplies ample amount of air without changing 
 the temperature and without occasioning draughts. In turn it 
 follows that outside air allowed to enter a building is best 
 injected through many sources of supply, and best ejected 
 through many vents. The proper movement of the air there, 
 and the consequent purity of the air, depend as much upon the 
 
392 HEREDITY, HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 possibility of exit as of entrance. 1 f registers of a cellar-furnace 
 are giving out in lower rooms of a bouse a large volume of 
 heated air, it is en-tain that an equal volume of air is in some 
 way or other finding escape from tin- house. Bui although, as 
 
 we have said, tin- warmer the air is, the higher it will ascend, it 
 must, not he restrained from ascending. Like everything else 
 
 in motion, it goes in the lines of least resistance. If the 
 windows in the upper stories of the house are almost hermeti- 
 cally sealed, ami those near the register are comparatively free 
 for the egress of air, the hot air will escape through the latter, 
 ami thus lie wasted for the useful office of passing through and 
 warming and scouring out the upper rooms. 
 
 Draughts are obviated by the simplesl precautions. In the 
 best dwelling-houses, hospitals, and factories, the ventilation is 
 effected by means of vertical shafts in the walls, so arranged 
 that the ingress of fresh air is near the floor and of waste air 
 near the ceiling, but so that the registers for these different 
 purposes shall not be exactly underneath each other. But, 
 without these appliances, by judicious use of windows, depress- 
 ing the sashes above and raising them below, with guards, if 
 necessary, for the open space below, all draughts in a house can 
 be prevented, while, at the same time, it may be ventilated 
 thoroughly. In the cold winter climate of this latitude, the 
 ventilation may be sufficiently secured by means of the cracks 
 in the sashes, if persons would forbear from a general weather- 
 stripping of the house. Eveiy case is a special one, to be 
 considered and acted upon as such. The whole question upon 
 which to base a decision is as to the fact of how much fresh air 
 is being received. Different kinds of building result in such 
 differences of permeability in different houses, that no general 
 rule can be given as to whether or not to weather-strip, and, if it 
 be decided to weather-strip, to what degree to have it done. 
 
 In the morning, after the family have risen and left their 
 
VENTILATION WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH. 393 
 
 sleeping-rooms, the bedclothes should bo strewn loosely around 
 away from the bed, and the windows be opened, much or little 
 according to the outside temperature, the doors leading to the 
 rest of the house being closed during the airing of the apart- 
 ments. Bedrooms and bedclothing should thus be aired every 
 day for not less than half an hour. 
 
 Unless the region is malarious, outside air should be freely 
 but judiciously admitted through the night into sleeping-apart- 
 ments. If the outside temperature is low, an opening that will 
 keep the air of the room well renovated need be only half the 
 size of that employed when the temperature of the outside air is 
 twice as high. The direction and strength of the wind, too, are 
 to be considered. If it is blowing directly toward the windows, 
 it will change the air of the room much more than a calm would 
 do it, or than a wind blowing in any other direction ; it will 
 change it, in fact, proportionately to the velocity as well as the 
 coolness of the wind. 
 
 A very unjust prejudice exists against night air. The very 
 same person who praises the earliest morning air and decries 
 the air of night forgets that thejr are the same. Night air is 
 perfectly wholesome in a healthy country. If 3-011 should ever 
 have the opportunity of living in a tent properly constructed, 
 with board floor laid on scantling, and with a protective fly, you 
 will find that you never before knew the delight of pure exist- 
 ence. Do not, however, commit the folly suggested a few 
 months ago by some inexperienced person, who recommended 
 ladies to go to some place in the wilds for the summer, and 
 there, as he phrased it, " plunge into the woods," Irv camping 
 out. In the first place, a healtlry camp is never pitched in the 
 woods, but near them; and secondly, for people unaccustomed 
 to such a life, nothing could be more arduous. "We say, as one 
 who has had pleasant experience in camp, and seen woful 
 experience of others, that to enjoj' camp life it is necessary to 
 
304 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 have hewers of wood and drawers of water. To serve as these, 
 and additionally, as conks, is work, real hard work. It is 
 absurd to Buppose that life in ramp does not entail household 
 work, and ladies who plunge into the woods with the opposite 
 impression will be very glad to plunge out of them. 
 
 One of the besl of sanitary appliances for a room in the winter, 
 and especially tor the sick-room, is an open fire-place for burning 
 wood. There is always a column of air flowing languidly up the 
 chimney when the lire, temporarily unneeded, has been allowed 
 to go out, and flowing rapidly up it when the lire is burning. 
 Thus the room, supposing that it does not receive its chief sup- 
 plies of air from neighboring tenanted apartments, is always 
 kept in the most sanitary condition without the slightest percep- 
 tible draught. Even in the summer-time, the up-draught in the 
 chimney is admirable for changing, purifying, and deodorizing 
 the air in the apartment. 
 
 In heating houses b}~ furnaces in the cellar there is no neces- 
 sity of drawing your supply of air for the air-chamber of the 
 furnace directly from the outside, if only your cellar is perfectly 
 dry and sweet. In fact, if the cellar is, as it should be, in a per- 
 fectly sanitary condition, some air from the cellar should be 
 utilized in the furnace air-chamber, even if you have a fresh-air 
 conduit leading to it from the outside of the building; for the 
 cellar, as well as other portions of a dwelling, needs its scouring 
 out by a constant flow of pure air through it. 
 
 Much illness results from cellars kept in an unsanitary con- 
 dition. Do not let a decayed fruit or vegetable or a piece of 
 spoiled meat remain there for a minute. Inspect it regularly to 
 make sure that domestics in your house do not Adolate some hy- 
 gienic rule. We knew a case once where disease broke out in a 
 house, and it was discovered that the domestics had been using 
 one of the coal-bins as a receptacle for slops. If the condition 
 of the cellar is perfect, it is for the best in the general ventilation 
 
VENTILATION WITH REFERENCE TO HEALTH. 305 
 
 of a house, that'the air should be drawn directly from the cellar, 
 and indirectly from the outside, because the air in the cellar is 
 thus constantly changed and remains purer than it can possibly 
 be in any other part of the house. Remember, however, that 
 when this plan is adopted there should be an ample opening in 
 one of the cellar-windows, not less than that afforded by the 
 taking out of a whole pane of glass, to allow of free access to 
 the furnace air-chamber of the air from the outside of the house. 
 Otherwise, air from rooms contiguous to the cellar, and in most 
 houses from the kitchen, will be drawn down into the air-cham- 
 ber to supply it with air as a substitute for that which is inade- 
 quately struggling to reach it through the cracks around the 
 cellar-windows. 
 
 Would that we could influence the buyers and renters of 
 moderate, small, and the slenderest means to compel builders 
 to introduce on the house-tops of our large cities of this part 
 of the country shaded places for family and friendly summer 
 gatherings. Philadelphia is in most respects the city of cities 
 for comforts, but the summer heats are not of these. Eveiy one 
 does not escape to Europe, the mountains, or the sea-shore. The 
 majority must remain at home through long spells of exhausting 
 heat. It is for such as these, as we have alreacty tried indirectly 
 to impress upon the general public, through an article contributed 
 last winter to the Medical Register, that the sanitary effects and 
 solace of pleasant house-tops are needed. From their use, the 
 decrease in the summer mortality, especially among children, 
 would be amazing to most persons, and the added boon that they 
 would confer, during the heated term, on the life of stifling alleys 
 and courts would be incalculable. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE CIRCULATION AND DIGESTION. 
 
 A WORK of this sort, in which so much has been said as to 
 the bodily functions, should not omit some general men- 
 tion of the special functions of the circulation of the blood and 
 the digestion of food. Accordingly, before proceeding to our 
 concluding chapters on miscellaneous matters, cosmetic articles, 
 household recipes, etc., we give a brief description of these 
 processes. 
 
 The popular notion of respiration is that it is represented 
 only by an alternate expansion and contraction of the chest, 
 corresponding to the inspiration aiid expiration of air. But, 
 respiration being fundamentally the consumption of ox} r gen and 
 the liberation of carbonic-acid gas and aqueous vapor, it takes 
 place in other ways. The gills of the fish absorb the oxygen 
 present in water and liberate carbonic-acid gas. The human 
 skin aids the lungs to some degree by respiration. The unborn 
 child, as we have already incidentally mentioned, respires entirely 
 by means of the placenta of the mother, — a temporary organ of 
 vascular character, which, known as the after-birth, follows the 
 course which the latter name indicates. 
 
 Between birth and death the human organism breathes, as is 
 well known, by means of the lungs, save, as has been indicated, 
 to a certain extent by the skin. The vital functions of digestion 
 and circulation, of which respiration is a part, proceed as fol- 
 lows : The food taken into the stomach forms a pulp, which has 
 absorbed saliva and other fluids as the food finds its way to the 
 more potent digestive fluids of the stomach proper. This pulp, 
 known as chyme, is, then, a mass of food that has gone through 
 some chemical change representing partial digestion; the process 
 
 (397) 
 
398 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAT TV. 
 
 of digestion being that which renders food lit for the renovation 
 of the blood, and through it of the general system. In this 
 condition the chyme passes from the Btomach into the first part 
 of the intestines, a short sac of greater diameter than that of 
 the small intestine, which is continuous with it ; the small intes- 
 tine, in turn, leading into the lai'ger intestine, which closes the 
 alimentary t racl . 
 
 This part of the bowels into which the food first enters from 
 the stomach is called the duodenum. The duodenum is entered 
 by ducts leading from the gall-bladder and the pancreas. The 
 gall-bladder is the liver's reservoir for bile. The pancreas, which 
 has been likened to internal salivary glands, secretes the so-called 
 pancreatic fluid. At the point of time when the chyme enters 
 the duodenum, nerve-signals transmit the fact to the gall-bladder 
 and the pancreas, and the}' pour their fluids (bile and pancreatic 
 juices) into the duodenum, and thereby a further chemical change 
 is produced in the chyme, and it is converted into a product 
 called chyle, representing the ultimate digestive elaboration of the 
 food. The process continues b}' the absorption of the chyle by 
 the blood through the intermediation of a multitude of ducts of 
 exquisite fineness belonging to the lymphatic system. The main 
 body of the chyle rises from the duodenum through a duct, 
 called the thoracic duct, to an opening, under the left collar-bone, 
 of a vein called the left subclavian vein, and also, to a lesser de- 
 gree, by another duct into the right subclavian vein, and thence 
 through the heart and the lungs into the general circulation, thus 
 renewing the blood. 
 
 The product of lymph, as saturated with chyle and absorbed 
 by veins and capillaries, may be regarded as a sublimated sort 
 of blood. The process of the absorption of this renovating fluid 
 does notecase at the point mentioned. Throughout the body is 
 continued the absorption of the chyme, down to the small intes- 
 tine, followed by the succeeding portion of the intestines, — the 
 
THE CIRCULATION AND DIGESTION. 399 
 
 larger intestine, or colon, — which becomes finally, in the rectum, 
 a duct releasing the excrementitious matter to be voided by the 
 system. 
 
 The mode in which sapid, or soluble, matters are utilized in 
 the system having been thus briefly described, it remains only 
 to speak of the general circulation of the blood, by which they 
 are carried to different portions of the body. The heart, as is 
 well known, is a force-pump. It consists of four chambers, — the 
 right auricle and ventricle, and the left auricle and ventricle, with 
 valves adapted to the functions now to be described. The blood 
 is, by its automatic contraction of the right auricle, propelled 
 from it into the right ventricle, and thence into the lungs, there 
 receiving oxygenation. From the lungs it is received by the 
 left auricle of the heart, which forces it into the left ventricle, 
 which in turn transmits it to the greatest artery of the bodj-, 
 the aorta, whence by innumerable ramifications of smaller arteries, 
 and through the net-work of capillaries connecting the arterial 
 with the venous s3 T stem, it reaches every part of the human or- 
 ganism, finally returning, through the venous system, to the 
 right auricle of the heart. The bloodvessel sj r stem is provided 
 with valves, so that the blood can flow in onty one determinate 
 direction, from the right side of the heart to the lungs, from the 
 lungs to the left side of the heart, thence to the extremities of 
 the body, and thence, on its return to the right side of the heart, 
 to repeat the same round. 
 
 As might well be supposed of an animal so nighty organized 
 as man is, who owes his pre-eminence to a nervous system of 
 extremely great relative power and delicacy, the organism is so 
 adapted to its needs that the best blood goes to the chief portion 
 of the nervous system, the controlling brain. This condition is 
 based on a circulatory system of a higher order than that pos- 
 sessed by many animals. Whereas, in ranks of creation below 
 that of birds, the arterial and venous bloods often commingle in 
 
400 HEREDITY, HEALTH, and PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 the heart : in the heart of the most perfectly differentiated beings 
 the arterial is separated from the venous blood. In some inver- 
 tebrates, or spineless animals, the circulatory apparatus is so low 
 in order that, instead of their possessing capillaries to convey 
 the blood from the arterial to the venous system, these are rep- 
 resented in structure and function by Lakelets, or what, anato- 
 mists call sinuses, into which the arteries flow, and from which 
 the blood is taken up directly by veins instead of by intermediate 
 capillaries. 
 
 The significance of these differences is easil\ T to be gathered 
 from the consideration of the fact that the blood, according to 
 its purity, is to be regarded as a more or less life-giving stream, 
 and that the purer and more disseminated it is the higher the 
 life will be. When the blood flows out of the left side of the 
 heart into the aorta, it is a highly oxygenated, crimson tide, 
 bearing its life-giving properties to every part of the organism 
 through the minutest capillaries. As it returns to the heart, 
 after a tour, which on the average lasts twenty seconds, it is 
 laden with carbonic-acid gas and other effete matters represent- 
 ing waste of the body, has assumed a dulled look evidencing the 
 fact of their pi'esence, and requires again immediate renovation 
 by a return through the heart to the lungs. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 COSMETIC TREATMENT AND COSMETIC ARTICLES. 
 
 THE matter immediately following is a list of a few of the 
 most elegant toilet preparations. It will be remembered, 
 from what we have previously said, that we do not recommend 
 hair-dyeing and similar practices, bnt, on the contrary, disap- 
 prove of them. Delicate powders, however, sometimes subserve 
 excellent purposes in soothing inflamed surfaces of the skin, and 
 no one can object to the refreshing employment of the finer 
 perfumes. What we reprobate is the attempt, for it is but an 
 attempt, to counterfeit beauty by artificial means. 
 
 Among the most delicate soaps of the world are Couclray's 
 lettuce-juice soap, Brecknell's yellow-skin soap, Piver's savonau 
 lait cTTWs, Bailey's spermaceti tablet-soap, Pinaud's Opopanax 
 soap, Rieger's transparent soap, Sarg's violet liquid soap, and the 
 pate dulcifiee de la Societe Hygienique. 
 
 Pure powders are Lubin's violet and rose powders, Pinaud's 
 millefleurs powder, Chardin's marechale powder, Piesse and 
 Lubin's pistachio-nut powder, Ruimmel's ylang-ylang powder, 
 Piver's rose-blayiche powder, and Low's rose-leaf powder. 
 
 Delicate preparations for the hair are, Savage's ursina, or 
 bears' grease, philocome oil, Couclray's pomades, Pinaud's eau 
 de quinine, and Dupuytren's astringent pomade. 
 
 Good toilet-waters are Farina cologne, eau de violette, eau 
 de Kananga, eau de lavande, lait d'lris, eau des Mandarins. 
 
 Good stick-ponlades are Lubin's violet pomade and Cou- 
 dray's " fixateur." 
 
 Brilliantine gives a peculiar softness and lustre to the hair. 
 
 The best thing to fix the moustache in place is either Lubin's 
 or Coudray's pate hongroise. Good shaving compounds are 
 
 26 (401) 
 
402 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Pinaud's crime (UAmbroise, euxesis in tubes, the old Neapolitan 
 soap, and the savon pour la barbe, manufactured by the Societe' 
 Hygienique. 
 
 If any one should take a fancy to try to make colognes 
 or other preparations, the following recipes will afford some 
 knowledge of the best compounds used : — 
 
 FARINA COLOGNE. 
 
 Oil of ncroli, 1 drachm. 
 
 Oil of lemon, 4 drachms. 
 
 Oil of lavender, % drachm. 
 
 Deodorized spirit, 14 ounces. 
 
 Rose-water, sufficient t<> bring the mixture up to 1 pint. 
 Macerate in a wooden vessel for the space of three mouths. 
 
 BANDOLINE. 
 
 Gum tragacanth, '. . 1}.£ drachms. 
 
 Water, 7 ounces. 
 
 Proof spirit, 3 " 
 
 Otto of rose, 10 drops. 
 
 Macerate for one day, and strain the mixture. 
 
 The following recipe for cologne was awarded the prize by 
 the Chemist and Druggist, two hundred and nineteen persons 
 competing: — 
 
 EAU DE COLOGNE. 
 
 Oil of bergamot, 2 drachms. 
 
 Oil of lemon, 1 drachm. 
 
 Oil of neroli, 20 drops. 
 
 Oil of origanum, 6 " 
 
 Oil of rosemary, . 20 " 
 
 Alcohol, triple-distilled, 1 pint. 
 
 Orange-flower water, 1 ounce. 
 
 These were by British weights and measures, but it would 
 not make much difference if American were used. 
 
 The following is an elegant preparation for the skin and 
 lips : — 
 
 JELLY OF ROSES. 
 
 Finest Russian isinglass, jounce. 
 
 Glycerin, 2 ounces. 
 
 Rose-water, 6 " 
 
 Oil of roses, 10 drops. 
 
 This preparation is usually kept in flexible metallic tubes, and squeezed out 
 in small quantities as used. 
 
COSMETTC TREATMENT AND COSMETIC ARTin,KK. 403 
 
 This is a mixture of spices and flowers, dried, but not 
 ground : — 
 
 JAPANESE POT-POURKI. 
 
 Lavender-flowers, 1 pound. 
 
 Rose-leaves, 1 " 
 
 Ground orris-root, 14 ll 
 
 Crushed cloves, 2 ounces. 
 
 Crushed cinnamon, 2 " 
 
 Crushed allspice, 2 " 
 
 Table-salt, 1 pound. 
 
 Keep in well-sealed jars until ready to use it. 
 
 At any first-class pharmacist's the following preparations 
 can always be procured : Cold-cream of roses, cucumber-cream, 
 and rose lip-salve. 
 
 The three following preparations are for the removal of 
 dandruff: — 
 
 Boracic acid, . 2 drachms. 
 
 Cologne, -5 ounces. 
 
 Every other night rub into the scalp with a sponge. 
 
 Green soap, 4 ounces. 
 
 Use from 1 to 3 teaspoonfuls of the above soap to % cupful of warm water, 
 and rub the mixture into the scalp once or twice a week, being careful to wash 
 the scalp thoroughly immediately afterward with warm water. Finally, rub the 
 scalp with a rough, dry, warm towel. 
 
 Corrosive sublimate, 10 grains. 
 
 Cologne, . 5 ounces. 
 
 Rub well into the scalp every night. 
 
 The following statement of fact is about all that is neces- 
 sary in connection with bleaching the hair, that the only safe 
 preparation for the process is peroxide of hydrogen. Perhaps 
 we ought to repeat what we said in the bod}* of this work, that 
 it produces a most unnatural appearance of the hair. 
 
 The following recipe for hair-dye is that of Twiggs, of 
 Mexican War fame, celebrated because he perhaps invented as 
 well as used it : — 
 
 Precipitated sulphur, 1 drachm. 
 
 Acetate of lead, 1 " 
 
 Rose-water, 4 ounces. 
 
 Apply twice a day until the desired depth of shade is obtained. 
 
404 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 The following bair-dye requires much more of an operation 
 for its application than does the preceding our. First of all, 
 the hair must be wet with the following solution, and then 
 allowed to dry before the second one is applied : — 
 
 Sulphuret of potassium, 1}£ ounces. 
 
 Solution of potassa, '., ounce, 
 
 Pure water, 8 ounces. 
 
 The hair, as we said, having been moistened with the 
 preceding solution, the following one is then applied : — 
 
 Nitrate of silver, 6 drachms. 
 
 Pure water, 8 ounces. 
 
 As this is liable to stain the hands, it becomes necessary 
 to mention that the marks can be removed with hyposulphite 
 of sodium. 
 
 Nitrate of silver is not considered a safe ingredient for a 
 hair-dye; so we here acquit our conscience, in including this 
 recipe, by giving at the same time to the reader full warning of 
 what might be injurious. It would be fatuous for us to pretend 
 that we can debar persons from using hair-dye if they have a 
 mind to do so, and therefore we make no such pretense. We 
 state explicitly, and have tried to demonstrate in the body of this 
 work, the folly of using all such devices. Beyond that, and such 
 additional warning as we have just given, our duty does not lie. 
 
 The two following recipes are for preparations for refining 
 and imparting lustre to the surface of the nails : — 
 
 Ointment of oleate of zinc, 2 drachms. 
 
 Apply with friction to the surface of the nails, and rub in well at their base. 
 
 Ointment of oleate of mercury, .... 2 drachms. 
 
 Lanolin, 2 u 
 
 Rub well over the nails and into the ba6e. 
 
 Having given at the beginning of this chapter the names of 
 such powders as can be purchased, we here add some original 
 recipes for face treatment, that can be made up in the household. 
 
COSMETIC TREATMENT AND COSMETIC ARTICLES. 405 
 
 The first two are not for powders, but for lotions, for 
 greasy, shiny, and rough skin of the' face : — 
 
 Corrosive 6ublimate, 8 grains. 
 
 Glycerin, 2 ounces. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, . , . . . . 2 " 
 Apply to the skin with a sponge, or a piece of soft, old muslin. 
 
 Boric acid, . . . . . . . .1 drachm. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 4 ounces. 
 
 Apply to 6kin with piece of old muslin, or with piece of absorbent cotton. 
 
 The three following recipes are for face-powders : — 
 
 Powdered oleate of zinc, ]/ 2 ounce. 
 
 Powdered arrow-root, 1 " 
 
 Oil of bergamot or of roses, 3 drops. 
 
 Dust over the skin. 
 
 Very fine prepared chalk, 1 ounce. 
 
 Subnitrate of bismuth, . . . . . . 1 " 
 
 Oil of roses, 2 drops. 
 
 Dust over the surface. This powder is especially adapted for a greasy, 
 shiny, rough, or red condition of the skin. 
 
 Impure carbonate of zinc, finely pulverized, . • 1 ounce. 
 
 Carbonate of magnesium, 1 " 
 
 Oil of verbena, 5 drops. 
 
 This makes an elegant toilet-powder of a slightly pinkish hue. Dust it 
 lightly over the skin. 
 
 The three following recipes have just reached us through 
 
 the Druggists' Circular and Chemical Gazette for Maj^, 1890 : — 
 
 TEA HAIR-TONIC. 
 
 Bay-rum, 2 ounces. 
 
 Glycerin, ........ 2 " 
 
 Alcohol, . 2 " 
 
 Infusion of black tea, 10 " 
 
 Mix and perfume to suit. The tea infusion should be made very strong, 
 
 say 1 ounce of tea (best quality) to 10 ounces of boiling water ; let stand till cool, 
 
 strain, and add the other ingredients. 
 
 TOILET-VINEGAK. 
 
 Essence of bergamot, 20 minims. 
 
 Essence of ambergris, 4 drachms. 
 
 Essence of vanilla, 30 minims. 
 
 Oilofneroli, 30 " 
 
 Acetic acid (strong), 160 " 
 
 Alcohol, 6 ounces. 
 
 (A minim is the sixtieth part of a fluidrachm.) 
 
406 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 STKAWHEUUY POMADE. 
 
 Bnet 15 ounces. 
 
 Lard, 2.5 " 
 
 ( lacao-butter 40 ; ' 
 
 Frrsii strawberries, 18 " 
 
 Otto of roses 2 drops. 
 
 Oil of neroU 2 " 
 
 Mell the Fate in a water-bath, and Introduce the fresh strawberries. The 
 temperature must be kepi very low, only high enough to keep the mass liquid, 
 otherwise the strawberry aroma will be lost. After digestion (that is, soaking) 
 for several hours, Btrain and, When nearly cool, add the essential oils. 
 
 We extract the three following recipes for almond-meal 
 from the Pharmaceutical Era of May, 1890 : — 
 
 1. Ground almonds, 1 pound. 
 
 Wheat-flour, 1 " 
 
 Powdered orris-root, X " 
 
 Oil of lemon, % ounce. 
 
 Oil of bitter almonds, \£ drachm. 
 
 2. Powdered almonds, 1 pound. 
 
 White castile-soap (dry and powdered), . . % " 
 
 Powdered orris-root, 2 ounces. 
 
 Finely-powdered pumice-stone, . . . . 6 " 
 
 Oil of bitter almonds, 2 drachms. 
 
 3. Blanched sweet almonds, 18 ounces. 
 
 Ripe and dry beans, 18 " 
 
 Orris-root, 8 " 
 
 White castile-soap (powdered), . . . . 6 " 
 
 Spermaceti, 1% " 
 
 Dried carbonate of 6oda, 1 ounce. 
 
 Oil of bergamot, ....... 6 drachms. 
 
 Oil of lavender, 6 " 
 
 Oil of lemon, 6 " 
 
 Beat to a fine powder, and keep from the air. Use, with a little water, to 
 cleanse, whiten, and soften the hands, instead of soap. 
 
 The following are five different ways of making Florida 
 water, which, as well as the succeeding four making Brilliantine, 
 are taken from the Pharmaceutical Era of May, 1890 : — ■ 
 
 1. Oil of lavender, 2 ounces. 
 
 Oil of lemon, 1 ounce. 
 
 Oil of orange-peel, 1 " 
 
 Oil of cloves, 5 drachms. 
 
 Deodorized alcohol, 1 gallon. 
 
COSMETIC TREATMENT AND COSMETIC ARTICLES. 407 
 
 2. Oil of bergamot, 5 ounces. 
 
 Oil of lemon,. . . . . . . . 3 " 
 
 Oil of orange-peel, 2 " 
 
 Oil of lavender, 3>£ " 
 
 Oil of cloves, y 2 ounce. 
 
 Oil of cinnamon, 14" 
 
 Oil of neroli, % " 
 
 Alcohol, 4 gallons. 
 
 Water, 1 gallon. 
 
 3. Oil of lavender, 2 drachms. 
 
 Oil of bergamot, 2 " 
 
 Oil of lemon, ■ •. . .2 " 
 
 Oil of neroli, 1 drachm. 
 
 Tincture of turmeric, 1 " 
 
 Oil of balm, 30 drops. 
 
 Otto of roses, 10 " 
 
 Rectified spirits, 2 pints. 
 
 4. Oil of lavender, 4 ounces. 
 
 Oil of bergamot, 4 " 
 
 Oil of neroli, 2 drachms. 
 
 Oil of orange, .• ■ 4 " 
 
 Oil of cloves, . 1 drachm. 
 
 Pure musk, 4 grains. 
 
 Cologne spirits, 1 gallon. 
 
 Tincture of tonka, sufficient to color. 
 Macerate fifteen days, and filter through filtering-paper. 
 
 5. Oil of bergamot, 8 ounces. 
 
 Oil of orange, . . . . -. . . 4 " 
 
 Best oil of lavender, 3 " 
 
 Oil of cloves, iy 2 " 
 
 True oil of cinnamon, ......% ounce. 
 
 Tincture of orris, % pint. 
 
 Tincture of Peru balsam, . . . . % " 
 
 Alcohol, .4 gallons. 
 
 Water, 6 pints. 
 
 Mix, and allow to stand several days before filtering and bottling. 
 
 BRILLIANTINE. 
 
 1. Honey, . . . 1 ounce. 
 
 Glycerin M " 
 
 Cologne, . y 2 " 
 
 Alcohol, . . .2 ounces. 
 
 2. Finest virgin olive-oil, 2 ounces. 
 
 Any toilet-water, or Parrish's cologne, . . .1 ounce. 
 
408 HKKEDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 3. Gum benzoin, i ._, ounce. 
 
 Alcohol, ........ 8 ounces. 
 
 Dissolve and filter. Add — 
 
 Castor-oil, 4 " 
 
 Oil of geranium, 1 drachm. 
 
 Oil iif bergamot, ....... 1 " 
 
 4. Veal-fat, ......... 4 ounces. 
 
 Spermaceti, 2 " 
 
 Castor-oil, 2 " 
 
 Oil of bitter almonds, % drachm. 
 
 Oil of cloves 1 " 
 
 Oil of bergamot, 2 drachms. 
 
 Mi It together, adding the perfume when nearly cold. 
 
 We are pleased to see at last a protest against the severity 
 of what is called "a close shave." In making a close shave, the 
 barber keeps his fingers moist at the finishing touches of the 
 operation, and, with the forefinger and the middle finger spread 
 slightly apart, presses the skin both downward and outward, with 
 the effect of actually making the lower part of the hair-shaft 
 unduly project beyond its follicle. It is not the hair alone that 
 is moved, but the little trumpet-mouthed follicle in which it 
 grows is pressed downward over the hair, so as to cause it to 
 protrude. The hair is thus, as it were, squeezed out of its fol- 
 licle. Some one, it seems, as narrated in the Medical Classics, 
 has had the curiosity to examine through the microscope the 
 skin of a face after it had been closely shaven. He describes 
 the cost at which one thus gets a very smooth face, as the 
 removal of a thin layer of the cuticle, the laceration of the tiny 
 blood-vessels at the orifice of the follicles, the exposure of the 
 tips of the nerves there, and the rendering of the skin, as it 
 appears under the microscope, like a piece of raw beef, — tender, 
 unhealthy, and to so great a degree susceptible as to be provo- 
 cative of colds, hoarseness, and sore throat. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 LIST OF MEDICATED SOAPS. 
 
 THE following soaps are used for many more pnrposes than 
 those herein mentioned in connection with them. It would 
 be useless to mention, for the information of the general reader, 
 such applications of them as relate to diseases which invariably 
 require the advice of a physician. Therefore, only such applica- 
 tions are included as come within the possibilities of popular 
 treatment : — 
 
 Alum Soap, used in greasy seborrhoea, pustular eczema, etc. 
 
 Amber Soap, used for enlarged glands, moles, warts, etc. 
 
 Arnica Soap, used for abrasions, wounds, bruises, boils, carbuncles, sore 
 
 nipples, etc. 
 Balsam Soap, used in indolent ulcers, etc. 
 Boro-Gltceride Soap, used for cleansing wounds and ulcers, and in allaying 
 
 inflammation, etc. 
 Camphor Soap, frequently used for pruritus, accompanying eczema, chilblains, 
 
 etc. 
 Carbolic-Acid Soap, used in chronic eczema, etc. 
 Chamomile Soap, used for chafed surfaces, for seborrhoea, for excessive secretion 
 
 of the skin, and foul-smelling sores. 
 Chamomile and Sulphur Soap, used in dry seborrhoea, loss of hair, etc. 
 Elder-Flower Soap, used for sunburn, etc. 
 Ergot Soap, used in eczema, etc. 
 Eucaltptol Soap, used for foul-smelling wounds and ulcers, and also for fetid 
 
 perspiration . 
 Glycerin Soap, used for roughness of the skin, chapping, etc. 
 Iodine Soap, used in scrofulous skin affections, etc. 
 Iodide of Sulphur Soap, used for chronic ulcers, yellowish-brown or blackish 
 
 patches on the skin, freckles, etc. 
 Kino Soap, used for eczema, ulcers, etc. 
 
 Lead Soap, used for boils, carbuncles, abrasions of the skin, bed-sores, etc. 
 Naphthol-Sulphur Soap, used for itch, lousiness, bites of insects, eczema, 
 
 seborrhoea, and fetid perspiration. 
 Naphthol Soap, used for fetid perspiration, and in eczema, and for the bites of 
 
 insects. 
 Salicylic- Acid Soap, used in thickening of the skin on the palms of the hands 
 
 and soles of the feet, for pustular eczema, fetid perspiration , foul wounds or 
 
 sores, and for toilet purposes. 
 
 (409) 
 
410 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 Si iu.imate Soap, used in animal parasitic diseases, for freckles, pigmentary 
 spots on the skin, and effective in relieving itching <>f the skin. 
 
 Sii.i'iin; Soap, used In rosacea, etc. 
 
 Tannih Soap, need for ulcers, for excessive perspiration, oily seborrhoea, etc. 
 
 Tannin-Balsam Soap, used for wounds, ulcers, chilblains, etc. 
 
 Tab Soap, used in chronic eczema, etc. 
 
 Thymol Soap, used for ulcers, wounds, and in pustular eczema, etc. 
 
 Turpentine soap. This soap is Bometimes known under the name of Starkey's 
 Soap. It is used for chilblaiiiB, etc. 
 
 WlNTEBQBBBN SoAP, used in eezeina, etc. 
 
 Witoh-Hazbl Soap, used in eczema, for fetid perspiration, and iu loss of hair. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES. 
 (Alphabetically arranged.) 
 
 BALDNESS. 
 
 1. Ointment of 10-per-cent. oleate of mercury, . . H ounce. 
 Lanolin, or prepared suet, K 
 
 Rub well into the scalp. 
 
 2. Tincture of capsicum, 2 drachms. 
 
 Water of ammonia, 1 ouuce - 
 
 Pilocarpine hydrochlorate, 5 grains. 
 
 Cologne, Bounces. 
 
 Use on the scalp twice a day. 
 
 3. Fluid extract of pilocarpine, .... 1 ounce. 
 Soap liniment, 3 ounces. 
 
 Rub thoroughly into the scalp, night and morning. 
 
 BITES OF INSECTS AND ERUPTIONS. 
 
 1. Beta-naphthol, 1 drachm. 
 
 Cologne, K Pint- 
 Apply to the irritated skin. This is suitable for alleviating the smarting 
 from the bites of any kind of insects. 
 
 2 Ointment of oleate of mercury, .... 1 ounce. 
 
 Camphor, • • • • 10 S rains - 
 
 Rub well into the skin. 
 
 3. Ipecacuanha, 1 °™ ce - 
 
 Alcohol, 
 
 Apply to the skin. 
 
 BLACKHEADS OF THE SKIN. 
 
 1. Boracic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Alcohol, 1 ounce. 
 
 Rose-water, 2 ounces. 
 
 Use with friction twice a day on the skin affected. 
 
 2. Ether, . 1 ounce - 
 
 Soap liniment, 
 
 Upon retiring for the night, rub into the spots affected, and in the morning 
 wash the surface with hot water. 
 
 O 11 ) 
 
412 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 BOILS. 
 
 1. Menthol, 10 grains. 
 
 Extract of arnica, \i drachm. 
 
 Extract of belladonna, \i " 
 
 Ointment nf oxide of zinc, 1 ounce. 
 
 Spread the ointment on a piece of old muslin, and keep the boil constantly 
 so covered. 
 
 2. Ointment of subacetate of lead, .... 3 drachms. 
 
 Iodol, >< drachm. 
 
 Ointment of oxide of zinc, 3 drachms. 
 
 Apply to the surface. 
 
 BUNIONS. 
 
 Carbolic acid, 2 drachms. 
 
 Tincture of iodine, . 2 " 
 
 Glycerin, 2 " 
 
 Apply with a camel's hair pencil every day. Copper oleate applied in the 
 form of a plaster is also serviceable. 
 
 BURNS. 
 
 1. Immerse the burned part in cool water, and afterward paint it with oil 
 of peppermint. 
 
 2. Boracic acid, 2 drachms. 
 
 Glycerin, 2 ounces. 
 
 Olive-oil, 2 " 
 
 Saturate a piece of old muslin or a piece of absorbent cotton with the 
 lotion, and use it on the painful surface. 
 
 BURNS AND SCALDS. 
 
 1. Bicarbonate of sodium, jounce. 
 
 Subuitrate of bismuth, ]4 " 
 
 Keep the surface covered with the powder. 
 
 2. Creasote, . . . 15 drops. 
 
 Cocaine hydrochlorate, 10 grains. 
 
 Lime-water, y 2 pint. 
 
 Linseed-oil, "% " 
 
 Apply constantly to the skin with soft, old muslin, or cotton. 
 
 3. Solution of subacetate of lead, ... .4 ounces. 
 
 Tincture of opium, ....... 2 " 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 2 " 
 
 Apply to the skin with a piece of old muslin. 
 
 CARBUNCLE. 
 
 1. Take 2 ounces of bicarbonate of sodium. Dust it over the carbuncle, 
 and allow the soda to remain on the skin until it becomes covered with a good 
 many little openings. Then apply a poultice to the part, and follow that with a 
 soothing ointment. 
 
HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES. 413 
 
 2. Compound resin ointment, 1 ounce. 
 
 Atropine- sulphate, . ... . . . 3 grains. 
 
 Cocaine hydroehlorate, 5 " 
 
 Camphor, 10 " 
 
 Apply constantly to the carbuncle. 
 
 CHAPPED AND CRACKED LIPS. 
 
 1. Borax, 34 drachm. 
 
 Glycerin, 1 ounce. 
 
 Rose-water, 1 " 
 
 Moisten the lips frequently with the lotion. 
 
 2. Compound tincture of benzoin, ... .1 ounce. 
 
 "With it pencil the lips once or twice a day, following the operation with the 
 application of a little cold-cream or suet. 
 
 3. Take a 5- or 10-per-cent. solution of cocaine hydroehlorate, ordering 
 about y<t ounce of the apothecary. Apply it to the surface with a piece of 
 old muslin, or with a piece of cotton. 
 
 4. Balsam of Peru, 1 drachm. 
 
 Oil of peppermint, 2 drops. 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Apply to the lips with the finger. 
 
 5. Hydroehlorate of cocaine, 5 grains. 
 
 Suet, or unsalted butter, y 2 ounce. 
 
 Use on the lips whenever they are dry or irritated. 
 
 CHAPPING OF THE SKIN. 
 
 1. Powdered oleate of zinc, 3 drachms. 
 
 Subnitrate of bismuth, 3 " 
 
 Lycopodium, 2 " 
 
 Dust over the surface. 
 
 2. Calomel, 10 grains. 
 
 Carbonate of zinc, . . . . .1 drachm. 
 
 Oil of eucalyptus, 5 drops. 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Apply to the skin. 
 
 CHAPS AND ROUGH SKIN OF THE HANDS. 
 
 1. Unsalted butter, 1 ounce. 
 
 Acetate of lead, .30 grains. 
 
 Carbolic acid, 5 " 
 
 Apply night and morning. 
 
 2. Glycerin, 1 ounce. 
 
 Lime-water, % t( 
 
 Rub in several times a day. 
 
414 HEREDITY, HEALTH, \M> PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 3. Benzoated-sino ointment 1 ounce. 
 
 Camphor, ........ 5 grains. 
 
 Subnitrate of bismuth '.J drachm. 
 
 RoBe-water ointment jounce. 
 
 Kuh in well, night and morning. It will BOften and whiten the skin, whTle 
 removing the roughness. 
 
 4. Snot, or lanolin, 1 ounce. 
 
 Camphor, 20 grains. 
 
 Glycerin, % ounce. 
 
 Melt the Ingredients together, then pour the mixture into some vessel, and 
 allow it tii cool. Soften a lump of the salve in the palm of the hand, and rub it 
 well into the -kin before retiring at eight. 
 
 CHAPS OR CRACKS AT THE CORNERS OF TnE MOUTH. 
 
 1 . Take a 50-per-cent. solution of boro-glyceride, and apply it several times 
 a day to the irritated surface. 
 
 2. Hyposulphite of soda, }i drachm. 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, 2 drachms. 
 
 Ointment of oxide of zinc, 2 " 
 
 Apply frequently to the surface. 
 
 CRACKS AND IRRITATION AROUND THE NOSE. 
 
 1. Sublimed sulphur, 20 grains. 
 
 Camphor, 5 " 
 
 Ointment of oxide of zinc, 1 ounce. 
 
 Apply to the irritated surface. 
 
 2. Cerate of subacetate of lead, ... .2 drachms. 
 
 Cocaine hydrochlorate, 3 grains. 
 
 Prepared suet, or lanolin, 2 drachms. 
 
 Apply to the irritated surface. 
 
 3. Distilled witch-hazel, 1 ounce. 
 
 Camphor-water, . . . . . . . 1 " 
 
 Mop often over the surface. 
 
 CRACKS OK FISSURES OF THE SKIN. 
 
 Glycerin, 3 ounces. 
 
 Tannic acid, 5 drachms. 
 
 Rose-water, 2 ounces. 
 
 Apply with a piece of absorbent cotton. 
 
 CRACKS OR IRRITATION INSIDE OF THE NOSE. 
 
 1. Ointment of oleate of zinc, jounce. 
 
 Apply with the end of the finger, or with a camel's hair pencil. The pow- 
 dered oleate of zinc blown up the nostrils with a quill is also beneficial. 
 
HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES. 415 
 
 2. Glycerin, 1 ounce. 
 
 Rose-water, 1 " 
 
 Borax, or tannic acid, 15 grains. 
 
 Apply to the irritated surface several times a day with a piece of cotton, or 
 with a camel's hair pencil. 
 
 CORNS OR BUNIONS. 
 
 1. Extract of cannabis-indica, % drachm. 
 
 Salicylic acid, .1 " 
 
 Collodion , 4 drachms. 
 
 Pencil over the corn or bunion every night and morning. 
 
 2. Chrysarobin, 34 drachm. 
 
 Cocaine hydrochlorate, . . . . . . 10 grains. 
 
 Gutta-percha, 34 drachm. 
 
 Chloroform, 5 drachms. 
 
 Pencil every night over the corn or bunion. 
 
 DYSPEPSIA. 
 
 We are loth to prescribe the chewing of gum for dyspepsia, so vulgar is the 
 habit of chewing it for pleasure. It is our duty, however, to state that it is use- 
 ful in dyspepsia. It stimulates the flow of the salivary and gastric fluids, and 
 thus somewhat assists digestion. 
 
 FALLING OF THE HAIR. 
 
 1. Distilled witch-hazel, 5 ounces. 
 
 Corrosive sublimate, 10 grains. 
 
 Use on the scalp twice a day. 
 
 2. Tincture of nux vomica, 1 ounce. 
 
 Spirits of rosemary, 2 ounces. 
 
 Alcohol, . . 2 " 
 
 Apply several times a day. 
 
 3. Oleic acid, 2 ounces. 
 
 Spirits of lavender, 2 drachms. 
 
 Cologne, . . . 2 ounces. 
 
 Apply to the scalp. 
 
 FEVER-BLISTERS. 
 
 1. Camphor, 5 grains. 
 
 Powdered arrow-root, 34 drachm. 
 
 Subnitrate of bismuth, 34 " 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, 34 ounce. 
 
 Apply frequently to the lips. 
 
 2. Glycerin, 1 ounce. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 1 " 
 
 Apply frequently, using old muslin, or cotton. 
 
410 HEREDITY. HEALTH, AND PERSONA], BEAUTY. 
 
 • "•. Carbolic acid, 5 drops. 
 
 Suet, . . . . . . . . .1^, ounce. 
 
 Place the Ingredients in a pan, and mix while beating them. Frequently 
 apply the mixture, « hen cool, to the lips. 
 
 PBBOKLBS AM' ii'm.'.w DISOOLOBATION8 OP THE SKIN. 
 
 1. Corrosive sublimate, 10 prains. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 2 ounces. 
 
 Rose-water 2 " 
 
 Mop over the spots. 
 
 2. Oleate of copper 10 to 20 grains. 
 
 Ointment of oxide of zinc, }£ ounce. 
 
 Rub into the spots, niirht and morning. 
 
 3. Boraeic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, ]4 ounce. 
 
 Use on tbe spots twice a day. 
 
 FROST-BITE. 
 
 1. Ointment of oleate of lead, % ounce. 
 
 Hydrochloratc of cocaine, 10 grains. 
 
 Use externally on the parts affected. 
 
 2. Compound tincture of benzoin, .... 3 drachms. 
 Tincture of aconite-root, 1 drachm. 
 
 Apply externally to the parts affected. 
 
 3. Salicylic acid, }i drachm. 
 
 Sulphate of atropine, 5 grains. 
 
 Collodion, 4 drachms. 
 
 Apply with a camel's hair brush. 
 
 HAZELINE CREAM. 
 
 Special mention should be made of a preparation which is in some vogue 
 in London, and which is better than cold-cream for many applications. This is 
 hazellne cream, compounded from the green twigs and leaves of the witch-hazel 
 (Hamamelis Virrfinica). It combines the astringent and stimulant properties of 
 these with the fatty, emollient base of lanolin. As manufactured by Bur- 
 roughs, Wellcome & Co., of London, each pound of the ointment contains 5 fluid- 
 ounces of hazeline with 11 ounces, by weight, of lanolin. 
 
 It affords a soothing ointment in all eases of irritation of the skin, and has 
 one great advantage over cold-crearn, in its insusceptibility to become rapidly 
 rancid, which circumstance so frequently renders cold-cream injurious instead of 
 beneficial. It has consequently proved to be a very effective application in 
 hemorrhoids, pruritus aid, etc., where the heat of the parts is certain to cause 
 ordinary unguents rapidly to degenerate when in contact with them. Other 
 medicaments, as the case may require, are sometimes added to the hazeline cream. 
 It is sometimes applied to the rectum by means of Ward Cousins or Allingham's 
 ointment-injectors, and by means of collapsible tubes with nozzle attachment for 
 injection. 
 
HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES. 417 
 
 INFLAMED OR BOUGH SKIN*. 
 
 1. Subnitrate of bitorrath, 1 drachm. 
 
 Powdered arrow-root, ...... 1 
 
 Ointment of benzoatcd oxide of zinc, . . .1 ounce. 
 Apply once or twice a day. 
 
 2. Boracic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 2 ounces. 
 
 Rose-water, 2 " 
 
 Use externally. 
 
 ITCHING AROUND THE BOWEL. 
 
 Camphor, 1 drachm. 
 
 Cocaine, . . .10 grains. 
 
 Lanolin, 3 drachma. 
 
 Ointment of benzoated oxide of zinc, . . .3 " 
 Rub in well, whenever troubled with irritation and itching. 
 
 ITCHING OF THE SKIN. 
 
 1. Alum, 1 ounce. 
 
 Borax, 1 " 
 
 Add 1 pint of hot water to these, and spouge the mixture over the skin. 
 
 2. Carbolic acid, y, drachm. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, % pint. 
 
 Apply to the skin. f 
 
 LANOLIN COLD-CREAM, POMADE, AND SOAP. 
 
 Lanolin, the fatty matter similar to that of the human skin, is employed 
 for pomade, for cold-cream, and for soap. It is put up by Burroughs, Wellcome 
 & Co., of London, a toilet kind in collapsible tubes, with a nozzle. As a soap it 
 is manufactured in such a manner as to be neutral and possess an excess of fat. 
 Ichthyol and eucalyptus soaps, containing a certain amount of the special 
 medicament, are manufactured by the same firm upon the basis of the above 
 qualities. 
 
 LAXATIVE FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 Manna — in tears, 50 parts. 
 
 Calcined magnesia, ...... 10 
 
 Washed sulphur, 10 " 
 
 White flour, 20 " 
 
 To be made into an electuary (that is, prepared with something that will 
 make it palatable). A teaspoonful or more may be given in a cup of weak tea or 
 hot milk. This is a French recipe. 
 
 MOISTURE OF THE HANDS. 
 
 1. Oleate of zinc, 1 drachm. 
 
 Subnitrate of bismuth, 2 drachms. 
 
 Beta-naphthol, 10 grains. 
 
 , Dust frequently over the surface. 
 
 27 
 
418 HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 2. Salicylic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Impure carbonate of zinc, . . . • # • 1 ouuce. 
 
 Dust over the surface 
 
 3. Chromic acid, 5 grains. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, jounce. 
 
 Especially useful for moist, clammy hands. Drop over the surface several 
 times a day. 
 
 The four following recipes are for mouth-washes : — 
 
 1. Distilled witch-hazel, 3 ounces. 
 
 Chlorate of potassium, 1 drachm. 
 
 This can he used as a wash for a sore mouth, or as a gargle for a sore throat. 
 Employ it of the full strength. 
 
 2. Tincture of chloride of iron, .... 34 ounce. 
 Glycerin % " 
 
 The above is useful forsores on lips, tongue, mouth, or throat — canker-sores. 
 Touch the sore spots twice a day with a camel's hair pencil, or a piece of cotton, 
 dipped in the solution. 
 
 3. Compound tincture of cinchona, . ... 4 ounces. 
 Glycerin, 2 " 
 
 The above is useful for sore mouth, irritable or sore gums, and for 6ore 
 throat. Add one or two t'easpoonfuls to the same quantity of water, and rinse 
 out the mouth and gargle the throat with it. 
 
 4. Tincture of kino, .2 ounces. 
 
 Borax, 1 drachm. 
 
 For soreness or inflammation of the mouth or throat, wash out the mouth, 
 or gargle with the mixture. 
 
 NETTLE-RASH (HIVES). 
 
 1. Carbolic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Water, 1 pint. 
 
 Drop over the irritated skin. 
 
 2. Boracic acid, 2 drachms. 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, \i ounce. 
 
 Ointment of oxide of zinc, ]/ 2 " 
 
 Apply to the irritated skin. 
 
 PAIN OR IRRITATION OF THE SKIN. 
 
 Cocaine, . 10 grains. 
 
 Sulphate of atropine, 1 grain. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 4 ounces. 
 
 Apply with a piece of old muslin over the surface. 
 
HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES. 419 
 
 PERSPIRATION (EXCESSIVE). 
 
 1. Subnitrate of bismuth, 24 ounce. 
 
 Powdered oleate of lead-zinc, '. . . • X " 
 
 Dust frequently over the perspiring skin. 
 
 2. Beta-napbthol, 20 grains. 
 
 Salicylic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Powdered impure carbonate of zinc, . . .2 ounces. 
 
 Dust over the parts. 
 
 3. Hydrastin hydrochlorate, 5 grains. 
 
 Cologne, 4 ounces. 
 
 Apply frequently to the surface. 
 
 PERSPIRATION (EXCESSIVE OR ODOROUS.) 
 
 Oleate of zinc, K ounce. 
 
 Powdered starch, 1 
 
 Salicylic acid, . . . . . . .1 scruple. 
 
 Dust over the parts. 
 
 PERSPIRATION (ODOROUS). 
 
 1. Beta-naphthol, y 2 drachm. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 4 ounces. 
 
 Apply well to the skin. 
 
 2. Powdered oleate of zinc, . . . . • K ounce. 
 Powdered boracic acid, 3 drachms. 
 
 Keep the surface constantly covered with the powder. 
 
 PIGMENTED, OR DISCOLORED, SPOTS OF THE SKIN. 
 
 Use mercurial plaster,, or take expert treatment with the galvanic current. 
 
 The following recipe comes highly recommended. It is for 
 
 the removal of the pigment-spots that sometimes appear during 
 
 pregnane}' : — 
 
 Cacao-butter, . . . . . . . 2},^ ounces. 
 
 Castor-oil, . . . . . . . 2% " 
 
 Zinc oxide, 45 grains. 
 
 Ammoniated mercury, . . . . . . 2 " 
 
 Oil of roses, sufficient quantity. 
 
 To be applied morning and evening. 
 
 PIMPLES. 
 
 1. Beta-naphthol, 5 grains. 
 
 Oil of chamomile, 5 drops. 
 
 Ointment of benzoated oxide of zinc, . . .1 ounce. 
 
 Use on the surface. 
 
4-JO HEREDITY, HEALTH, AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 •J. Ointment of oleate <>f zinc 1 ounce. 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, 1 " 
 
 Camphor, 10 grains. 
 
 Apply on retiring for the night. 
 
 3. Boracic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 2 ounces. 
 
 Glycerin, 2 " 
 
 Apply externally. 
 
 PLUGS OR GRUBS OF THE SKIN. 
 
 1. Boracic acid, % drachm. 
 
 Spirits of rosemary, 1 ounce. 
 
 Water 3 ounces. 
 
 ' Use with friction on the skin. 
 
 2. Tincture of green soap, 2oun 
 
 Distilled witch-hazel, 2 " 
 
 Apply the mixture every other da} - to the skin, and wash it off immediately 
 with hot water. 
 
 POISONING FROM IVY. 
 
 1. Impure carbonate of zinc, 'jounce. 
 
 Lime-water, 2 ounces. 
 
 Glycerin, 2 " 
 
 Apply to the skin with a piece of soft, old muslin. 
 
 2. Carbonate of lead, 2 drachms. 
 
 Powdered arrow-root, 2 " 
 
 Powdered g-um-acaeia, 1 drachm. 
 
 Hvdrochlorate of cocaine, 10 grains. 
 
 Olive-oil, 3 ounces. 
 
 Spread over the skin. 
 
 PRICKLY HEAT. 
 
 1. Lime-water, 4 ounces. 
 
 Levigated calamine, jounce. 
 
 Shake up the mixture and apply it to the skin. 
 
 2. Subnitrate of bismuth, jounce. 
 
 Carbonate of zinc, M " 
 
 Dust over the parts. 
 
 ROUGn, PIMPLY NECK AND LIMBS 
 
 1. Sublimed sulphur, 
 
 Oil of eucalyptus, .... 
 Ointment of the oxide of zinc, 
 Ointment of rose-water, 
 Use once a day on the skin. Wash off the parts once or twice a week with 
 the tincture of green soap, cleansing them with hot water, after which renew the 
 application of the above ointment. 
 
 1 drachm. 
 5 drops. 
 
 1 ounce. 
 
 1 " 
 
HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES. 
 
 421 
 
 2. Beta-naphthol, 5 grains. 
 
 Glycerin, 3 ounces. 
 
 Cologne, 3 " 
 
 Use alone, or in conjunction with soap and hot water. 
 
 SCARS. 
 
 1. Lanolin, 2 drachms. 
 
 Ointment of biniodide of mercury, . . . 1 drachm. 
 
 Rub in well once a day. 
 
 2. Iodide of potassium, 1 drachm. 
 
 Ointment of nitrate of mercury, . . . . % ounce. 
 
 Use on the parts. 
 
 ► 3. Borate of sodium , % ounce. 
 
 Salicylate of sodium, y 2 drachm. 
 
 Lanolin, 1 ounce. 
 
 Keep in contact with the scar by means of a piece of lint, or else rub in 
 well with moderate friction, night and morning. 
 
 SORES ON LIPS, MOUTH, TONGUE, OR THROAT (CANKER SORES). 
 
 Sulphate of zinc, . . . . . .40 grains. 
 
 Rose-water, or pure water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Apply every other day to the spots with a camel's hair brush or a piece of 
 cotton. Canker sores can be touched to advantage every day or two with burnt 
 alum or a piece of sulphate of copper. 
 
 SUNBURN. 
 
 1. Carbonate of lead, 1 drachm. 
 
 Powdered arrow-root, 1 " 
 
 Ointment of rose-water, 1 ounce. 
 
 Olive-oil, 2 drachms. 
 
 Apply lightly to the surface. 
 
 2. Sublimed sulphur, y 2 drachm. 
 
 Carbonate of zinc, 1 " 
 
 Ointment of oxide of zinc, . ... 1 ounce. 
 
 Apply lightly to the surface. 
 
 THICK SKIN ON HANDS" OR FEET. 
 
 1. Salicylic acid, y 2 drachm. 
 
 Ointment of oleate of lead, % ounce. 
 
 Spread on muslin and use on the surface. 
 
 • 2. Boracic acid, 1 drachm. 
 
 Beta-naphthol, 20 grains. 
 
 Lanolin, or prepared suet, . . . . .1 ounce. 
 Apply to the surface. 
 
422 HEREDITY, HEALTH. AND PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
 
 TOOTHAOHB. 
 
 1. Cieaaote, 5 drops 
 
 Tincture of opium, 10 " 
 
 Place in the cavity of the tootli a piece of cotton moistened with the 
 mixture. 
 
 2. Cocaine hydrochlorate, 2 grains. 
 
 Morphine Bulphate, )4 grain. 
 
 Camphor, 1 " 
 
 Place in the cavity of the tooth a piece of cotton moistened with Che 
 preparation. 
 
 WARTS. 
 
 1. Solution of ethylate of sodium, .... 2 drachms. 
 
 Every two or three days touch the wart with the solution, administered 
 with a camel's hair pencil. 
 
 2. Chrysarobin, 40 grains. 
 
 Collodion, * . .3 drachms. 
 
 Apply with a camel's hair pencil every day or two. 
 
 WHITLOW — FELON. 
 
 1. Tincture of opium, 2 ounces. 
 
 Lead-water, 2 " 
 
 Use on the part a piece of thin, old muslin, keeping the surface constantly 
 wet with the lotion. The part sometimes requires lancing, to relieve pain and 
 to restore it to healthy action. 
 
 2. Ointment of compound resin, .... jounce. 
 Ointment of nitrate of mercury, . . . . % " 
 Cocaine hydrochlorate, 10 grains. 
 
 Apply before or after making a free incision with the lancet. Previously 
 hot poultices are frequently applied to the part. Painting it with iodine is 
 sometimes practiced. 
 
CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Medical Publications 
 
 OF 
 
 F. A. DAVIS, 
 
 MEDICAL PUBLISHER AND BOOKSELLER, 
 
 1231 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 BRANCH OFFICES: 
 
 New York City— 117 W. 42d Street. 
 
 Chicago, III.— 24 Lakeside Building, 214-220 S. Clark St. 
 
 Cor. Adams. 
 Atlanta, G-a. — 25 Old Capitol. 
 London, Eng. — 40 Berners Street, Oxford Street, W. 
 
 ORDER FROM NEAREST OFFIOE. 
 
 FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
Principles of Surgery^ 
 
 By N. SENN, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Principles of Surgery and 
 Surgical Pathology in Rush Medical College, Chicago, 111.; Professor of 
 Surgery in the Chicago Polyclinic; Attending Surgeon to the Milwaukee 
 Hospital; Consulting Surgeon to the Milwaukee County Hospital and to 
 the Milwaukee County Insane Asylum. 
 
 In one handsome Eoyal Octavo volume, with 10'.) line Wood-Engrav- 
 ings and 624 pages. 
 
 United States. Canada (duly paid;. Great Britain. France. 
 
 Price in Cloth, $150 Net $5.00 Net 24s. 61 27 fr. 20 
 
 " Sheep or i-Russia, 5.50 " 6.10 " 30s. 33 fr. 10 
 
 This work, by one of America's greatest surgeons, is thoroughly 
 complete ; its clearness and brevity of statement are among its con- 
 spicuous merits. The author's long, able, and conscientious researches 
 in every direction in this important field are a guarantee of unusual 
 trustworthiness, that every branch of the subject is treated authorita- 
 tively and in such a manner as to bring the greatest gain in knowledge 
 to the Practitioner and Student. It has already been placed on the list 
 of Text-Books of several Medical Colleges in the United Stat >s. Physi- 
 cians and Surgeons alike should not deprive themselves o;' this very 
 important work. 
 
 A critical examination of the Wood-Engravings (109 in number) 
 will reveal the fact that they are thoroughly accurate and produced by 
 the bed artistic ability. 
 
 Opinions and Criticisms on Senn's "Principles of Surgery." 
 
 STEPHEN SMITH, M.l)., Professor of 
 Clinical Surgery Medical Department 
 University of the City of New fork, 
 
 writes: — "I have examined the work with great 
 satisfaction and regard it as a most valuable addi- 
 tion to American Surgical literature. There has 
 long been great need of a work on the principles of 
 Surgery which would fully illustrate the present ad- 
 vanced state of knowledge of the various subjects 
 embraced in this volume. The work seems to me to 
 meet this want admirably." 
 
 L. C. LANK, A.M., M.D., M.R.C.S., 
 L.L.D., Professor of Surgery in and Presi- 
 dent of the Cooper Medical College, San 
 Francisco, thus writes :—" Especially is the 
 work valuable as a comprehensive review of the sub- 
 ject of the bacteriological causation of surgical 
 disease : in no other work can so much be found told 
 so briefly and so well as has been done by Professor 
 Senn in this book." 
 
 BOSWELL PARK, M.D., Professor of 
 Principles and Practice of Surgery and 
 Clinical Surgery in the University of IJut- 
 falo, N. Y., writes:—" I must congratulate both 
 
 author and publisher on the excellent work laid 
 before us. For years 1 have wanted just such a book 
 to put into the hands of my students, and now 1 c::n 
 give no warmer commendation of it than to state 
 that I have urged all my class to lose no time in 
 procuring it." 
 
 " The achievements of Modern Surgery are akin 
 to the marvelous, and Dr. Senn has set forth the prin- 
 ciples of the science with a completeness that seems 
 to leave nothing further to be said until new discover- 
 ies are made. The work is systematic and compact, 
 without a fact omitted or a sentence too much, and it 
 not only makes instructive but fascinating reading. A 
 conspicuous merit of Senn's work is his method, his 
 persistent and tireless search through original inves- 
 tigations for additions to knowledge, and the prac- 
 tical character of his discoveries. This combination 
 of the discover and the practical man gives a special 
 value to all his work, and is one of the secrets of his 
 fame. No physician in any line of practice can 
 afford to be without 'Senn's Principles of Sur- 
 gery.' " — The Review of Insanity and Nervous 
 Diseases. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED— A NEW AND VALUABLE WORK ON 
 
 Practical Electricity 
 
 MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
 
 -BY- 
 
 G. A. LIEBIG, Jr., Ph.D., 
 
 Assistant in Electricity, Johns Hopkins University; I.eciurer on Medical Electricity, College of Phy- 
 sicians and Surgeons, Baltimore; Member of the American Institute 
 of Electrical Engineers, etc., 
 
 —AND— 
 
 GEORGE H. ROHE, M.D., 
 
 Professor of Obstetrics and Hygiene, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore; Visiting Physician 
 
 to Bay View and City Hospitals; Director of the Maryland Maternite; Associate 
 
 Editor "Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences," etc. 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED BY WOOD-ENGRAVINGS AND ORIGINAL DIAGRAMS, AND PUBLISHED IN ONE 
 
 HANDSOME ROYAL OCTAVO VOLUME OF ABOUT 400 PAGES, BOUND IN EXTRA CLOTH. 
 NET PRICE, UNITED STATES and CANADA, $2.00, Post-paid ; GREAT BRITAIN, 8s. 6d. ; FRANCE, 12 fr. 40. 
 
 The part on Physical Electricity, written by Dr. Liebig, one of the recognized 
 authorities on the science in the United States, treats fully such topics of interest as 
 Storage Batteries, Dynamos, the Electric Light, and the Principles and Practice of 
 Electrical Measurement in their relations to Medical Practice. 
 
 Professor Rohe, who writes on Electro -Therapeutics, discusses at length the recent 
 developments of Electricity in the treatment of stricture, enlarged prostate, uterine 
 fibroids, pelvic cellulitis, and other diseases of the male and female genito-urinary organs. 
 
 The applications of Electricity in dermatology, as well as in the diseases of the 
 nervous system, are also fully considered. 
 
 THE SECOND VOLUME IN THE PHYSICIANS' AND STUDENTS" 
 READY REFERENCE SERIES. 
 
 HAND-BOOK 
 
 By CUTHBERT BOWBN, M.D., B.A., 
 
 Editor of " Notes on Practice." 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE PREFACE.— " While this is essentially a Student's Manual, a Iarga 
 amount of matter has been incorporated which, it is hoped, will render it a useful reference-book to the young 
 graduate who is just entering on his professional career, and more particularly the individual whose sphere 
 of work demands a more practical acquaintance with pharmaceutical processes than is required of the ordi- 
 nary city practitioner. Great care has been taken throughout the book to familiarize the student with the 
 best methods of administering the various drugs he will be called upon to use, and with this object a large 
 number of standard prescriptions have been selected from the works of the most eminent authorities, which 
 he can either adopt, with modifications to suit particular cases, or use as models on which to construct his own 
 formulae.'" . 
 
 This excellent manual comprises in its 366 small 
 octavo pages about as much sound and valuable in- 
 formation on the subjects indicated in its title as 
 could well be crowded into the compass. The book 
 is exhaustively and correctly indexed, and of a con- 
 venient form. The paper, press-work, and binding 
 are excellent, and the typography (long primer and 
 brevier) is highly to be commended, as opposed to 
 the nonpareil and agate usually used incompendsof 
 this sort, and which are destructive to vision and 
 temper alike. — St. Louis Med. and Surg. your. 
 
 In going through it, we have been favorably im- 
 pressed by the plain and practical suggestions in 
 regard to prescription writing, and the metric sys- 
 tem, and the other things which must be known in 
 order to write good and accurate prescriptions. — 
 Medical and Surgical Reporter. 
 
 Many works claim more in their title-pages than 
 can be verified further on, but the only adverse 
 
 criticism we can make on this volume is that it does 
 not claim enough. — Southern Cali/ornia Prac- 
 titioner. 
 
 The book is one of the very' best of its class. — 
 Columbus Medical Journal. 
 
 This is a very condensed and valuable resume 
 of the drugs recognised by the United States Phar- 
 macopoeia, and all the officinal and important 
 preparations. — Southern Medical Record. 
 
 Dr. Bowen's work is a very valuable one indeed, 
 and will be found " to fill a want " beyond a doubt. 
 — Cincinnati Medical News. 
 
 It is short and concise in its treatment of the 
 Subjects, yet it gives sufficient to gain a very correct 
 knowledge of everything that comes under this head- 
 ing. This is a ready work for the country physician, 
 who must of necessity have a more practical acquain- 
 tance with pharmaceutical processes. — Medical 
 Brief. 
 
 One 12mo volume of 370 pages. Handsomely Bound in Dark-Blue Cloth. 
 
 Price, post-paid, in tlie United States and Canada, §1.4:0, net; 
 
 in Great Britain, 6s. 6d.; in France, 9 fr. 25. 
 
 (F. 4. DWIS, Medico 1 Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
Bashore's Improved Clinical Chart. 
 
 For the SEPARATE PLOTTING of TEMPERATURE, PULSE, and RESPIRATION. 
 
 Designed for the Convenient, Accurate, and Permanent Daily Recording of Cases in 
 Hospital and Private Practice. 
 
 B> HARVEY B. BASHORE, M.D. 
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 188S, BY F. A. DAVIS. 
 
 SO Charts, In Ta,"blet Form. Size, 8x12 in.cli.ee. 
 
 Price, in the United States and Canada, Post-paid, 50 Cents, 
 Net ; Great Britain, 2s. 6d. ; France, 3 fr. 60. 
 
 The above diagram is a little more than one-fifth (1-5) the actual size of the chart and shows the 
 method of plotting, the upper curve being the Temperature, the middle the Pulse, and the lower (he 
 Respiration. By this method a full record of each can easily be kept with but one color ink 
 
 It is so arranged that all practitioners will find it an invaluable aid in the treatment of their patients. 
 
 On the bark of each chart will be found ample space conveniently arranged for recording "Clinical 
 History and Symptoms" and "Treatment." 
 
 By its use the physician will secure such a complete record of his cases as will enable him to review 
 them at any time. Thus he will always have at hand a source of individual improvement and benefit in 
 the practice of his profession, the value of which can hardly be overestimated. 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
Thousands of Physicians have Won Success in their Chosen Profession through the Aid 
 
 of this Invaluable Work. 
 
 ZLSTDEW EDITION. 
 
 BOOK ON 
 
 The Physician Himself 
 
 And Things that Concern ins Reputation and Success. By D. W. 
 CATHELL, M.D., Baltimore, Md. Being the ninth edition ("enlarged and 
 thoroughly revised) of the " Physician Himself, and what he should add 
 to his Scientific acquirements in order to Secure Success." In one hand- 
 some Octavo Volume of 298 pages, bound in Extra Cloth. 
 
 Price, post-paid, in the United States and Canada, $2.00 Net; Great Britain, 
 Us. 6d. ; France, 12 fr. 10. 
 
 This remarkable book has passed through eight (8) editions in less 
 than five years. It lias j ust undergone a thorough revision by the author, 
 who has added much new matter covering many points and elucidating 
 many excellent ideas not included in former editions. 
 
 " I am most favorably impressed with the wisdom and force of the points made in ' The Physician Him- 
 self,' and believe the work in the hands of a young graduate will greatly enhance his chances for professional 
 success." — From Prof. D. Hayes Agnew, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 "We strongly advise every actual and intending practitioner of medicine or surgery to have ' The 
 Physician Himself,' ai:d the more it influences his future conduct the better he will be." — From the Canada 
 Medical and Surgical yoarnal, Montreal. 
 
 Medical Symbolism. 
 
 Historical Studies in the Arts op Healing and Hygiene. By 
 THOMAS S. SOZINSKEY, M.D., Ph.D., author of "The Culture of 
 Beauty," " The Care and Culture of Children," etc. 
 
 No. 9 in the Physicians' and Students' Ready-Reference Series. 12mo. 
 Nearly 200 pages. Neatly bound in Dark-blue Cloth. Appropriately illus- 
 trated with upward of Thirty (30) New Wood-Engravings. Just Ready. 
 Price in United States and Canada, post-paid, $1.00 Net; 
 Great Britain, Ss. ; France, 6 fr. 20. 
 
 The subjoined letters will show with what interest this work is 
 regarded (a brief article having first appeared in the " Medical and 
 Surgical Reporter " of Philadelphia) : — 
 
 Dr. Sozinskey. 
 
 Dear Doctor : — Many thanks. You ought to enlarge the article to a little book. It interested 
 me greatly. In a bas-relief of myself by St. Gaudens, New York, he has set beside the head the caduceus 
 and twin serpents as symbolical ; at ail events, they will symbolize my relation to snakes. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 1524 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. S. WEIR MITCHELL. 
 
 Philadelphia, Jan. 24, 18S4. 
 Dr. T. S. Sozinskey. 
 
 Dear Sir: — Please accept my thanks for your paper on "Medical Symbolism," received this 
 morning. I have read it with great interest, more especially as it is in the direction of the higher education 
 of Physicians. The preponderance of the so-called practical (empirical) in medical literature, which appeals 
 strongly to the trade element in the profession, makes such a contribution all the more enjoyable. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 1427 N. Sixteenth Street. FRANCES EMILY WHITE. 
 
 Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 1SS4. 
 Dr. T. S. Sozinskey. 
 
 My Dear Doctor : — I write to thank you for a copy of your interesting and instructive paper on 
 "Medical Symbolism." In Fergusson, on " Tree and Serpent Worship," which you quote, you can readily 
 trace the connection between the emblems of religion and medicine. I recognize that, as priest and Physi- 
 cian were once the same person, medicine is yet justly termed " the divine art." It affords me much pleasure 
 to see your studious interest in your profession. 
 
 Yours trulv, 
 
 HENRY H. SMITH. 
 
AN IMPORTANT PUBLICATION OF GREAT VALUE TO THE MEDICAL 
 AND LEGAL PROFESSIONS. 
 
 Spinal Concussion: 
 
 Surgically Considered as a Cause of Spinal Injury, and Neurolcgi- 
 
 cally Restricted to a Certain Symptom Group, for 
 
 ■which is Suggested the Designation 
 
 ERICHSEN'S DISEASE, AS ONE FORM OF THE TRAUMATIC NEUROSES. 
 
 S. V. CLEVENGER, M.D., 
 
 CONSULTING PHYSICIAN KEESE AND ALEXIAS HOSPITALS; LATE PATHOLOGIST COUNTY INSANB ASYLUM, 
 CHICAGO; MEMUER OF NUMEROUS AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC AM) MEDICAL SOCIETIES,' COLLAUORATOR 
 AMERICAN NATURALIST, ALIENIST ANU NEUROLOGIST, JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY AND 
 PSYCHIATRY, JOURNAL OF NERVOUS ANU MENTAL DISEASES; AUTHOR OF "COM- 
 PARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY," "AUTISTIC ANATOMY," ETC. 
 
 For more than twenty years this subject has occasioned bitter con- 
 tention in law courts, between physicians as welPas attorneys, and in 
 thai time no •work lias appeared that reviewed the entire field judicially 
 until Dr. Clevenger's book Avas written. It is the outcome of five years' 
 special study and experience in legal circles, clinics, hospital and private 
 practice, in addition to twenty years' labor as a scientific student, writer, 
 and teacher. 
 
 The literature of Spinal Concussion has been increasing of late years 
 to an unwieldy shape for the general student, and Dr. Clevenge.r has in this 
 work arranged and reviewed all that has been done by observers since 
 Hie days of Eriehsen and those who preceded him. The different and 
 sometimes antagonistic views of many authors are full}' given from the 
 writings of Eriehsen, Page, Oppenheim, Erb, WestphaL, Abercrombie, 
 Sir Astley Cooper, Boyer, Charcot, Leyden, Rigler, Spitzka, Putnam, 
 Knapp, Dana, and many other European and American students of the 
 subject. The small, but Important, work of Oppenheim, of the Berlin 
 University, is fully translated, and constitutes a chapter of Dr. Cleven- 
 ger's book, and reference is made wherever discussions occurred in 
 American medico-legal societies. 
 
 There are abundant illustrations, particularly for Electro-diagnosis, 
 and to enable a clear comprehension of the anatomical and pathological 
 relations. 
 
 The Chapters are: I. Historical Introduction; II. Eriehsen on 
 Spinal Concussion ; III. Page on Injuries of the Spine and Spinal Cord; 
 IV. Recent Discussions of Spinal Concussion ; V. Oppenheim on Trau- 
 matic Neuroses; VI. Illustrative Cases from Original and all other 
 Sources; VII. Traumatic Insanity; VIII. The Spinal Column; IX. 
 Symptoms; X. Diagnosis; XI. Pathology; XII. Treatment; XIII. 
 Medico-legal Considerations. 
 
 Other special features consist in a description of modern methods 
 of diagnosis by Electricity, a discussion of the controversy concerning 
 hysteria, and the author's original pathological view that the lesion is 
 one involving the spinal sympathetic nervous system. In this latter 
 respect entirely new ground is taken, and the diversity of opinion con- 
 cerning the functional and organic nature of the disease is afforded a 
 basis for reconciliation. 
 
 Every Physician and Lawyer should own tin's work. 
 
 In one handsome Royal Octavo Volume of nearly 400 pages, with 
 Thirty Wood-Engravings. Net price, in United States and Canada, 
 $2.50, post-paid ; in Great Britain, 10s. 6d. ; in France, 15 fr. 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
JUST READY-A NEW AND IMPORTANT WORK. 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 MEDICAL PNEUIATOLOGY SEROTHERAPY: 
 
 A PRACTICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE CLINICAL AND THERAPEUTIC VALUE 
 
 OF THE GASES IN MEDICAL AND SURGICAL PRACTICE, WITH ESPECIAL 
 
 REFERENCE TO THE VALUE AND AVAILABILITY OF 
 
 OXYGEN, NITROGEN, HYDROGEN, AND NITROGEN MONOX/DE. 
 
 By d. N. DEMARQUAY, 
 
 Surgeon to the Municipal Hospital, Paris, and of the Council of State ; Member of the Imperial Society 
 
 of Surgery; Correspondent of the Academies of Belgium, Turin, Munich, etc. ; Officer 
 
 of the Legion of Honor ; Chevalier of the Orders of Isabella-the- 
 
 Catholic and of the Conception, of Portugal, etc. 
 
 TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES, ADDITIONS, AND OMISSIONS, 
 
 By SAMUEL S. WALLIAN, A.M., M.D., 
 
 Member of the American Medical Association ; Ex-President of the Medical Association of Northern New 
 York ; Member of the New York County Medical Society, etc. 
 
 In one Handsome Octavo Volume of 316 Pages, Printed on Fine Paper, in the Best 
 Style of the Printer's Art, and Illustrated with 21 Wood-Cuts. 
 
 United States. Canada (duty paid). Great Britain. France. 
 
 NET PRICE, CLOTH, Post- paid, S3. 00 8S2.30 8s. 6d. 12 fr. 40 
 
 » ^-RUSSIA, " 3.00 3.30 13s. 18 fr. 60 
 
 For some years past there has been a growing demand for something more satisfac- 
 tory and more practical in the way of literature on the subject of what has, by common 
 consent, come to be termed "Oxygen Therapeutics." On all sides professional men of 
 standing and ability are turning their attention to the use of the gaseous elements about 
 us as remedies in disease, as well as sustainers in health. In prosecuting their inquiries, 
 the first hindrance has been the want of any reliable, or in any degree satisfactory, 
 literature on the subject. 
 
 Purged of the much quackery heretofore associated with it, Aerotherapy is now 
 recognized as a legitimate department of medical practice. Although little noise is made 
 about it, the use of Oxygen Gas as a remedy has increased in this country within a few 
 years to such an extent that in New York City alone the consumption for medical pur- 
 poses now amounts to more than 300,000 gallons per annum. 
 
 This work, translated in the main from the French of Professor Demarquay, contains 
 also a very full account of recent English, German, and American experiences, prepared 
 by Dr. Samuel S. Wallian, of New York, whose experience in this field antedates that of 
 any other American writer on the subject. 
 
 Plain Talks on Avoided Subjects. 
 
 — BY — 
 
 HENRY N. GUERNSEY, M.D., 
 
 Formerly Professor of Materia Medica and Institutes in the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia; 
 
 Author of Guernsey s " Obstetrics," including the Disorders Peculiar to Women and 
 
 Young Children ; Lectures on Materia Medica, etc. 
 
 IN ONE NEAT 16mo VOLUME. BOUND IN EXTRA CLOTH. Price, Post-paid, in 
 United States and Canada, $1.00 ; Great Britain, 4s. 6d. ; France, 6 fr. 20. 
 
 This is a little volume designed to convey information upon one of the most important subjects con- 
 nected with our physical and spiritual well-being, and is adapted to both sexes and all ages and conditions 
 of society ; in fact, so broad is its scope that no human being can well afford to be without it, and so com- 
 prehensive in its teachings that, no matter how well informed one may be, something can yet be learned from 
 this, and yet it is so plain that any one who can read at all can fully understand its meaning. 
 
 The Author, Dr. H. N. Guernsey, has had an unusually long and extensive practice, and his teachings in 
 this volume are the results of his observation and actual experience with all conditions of human life. 
 
 His work is warmly indorsed by many leading men in all branches of professional life, as well as by 
 many whose business connections have caused them to be close observers. 
 
 The following Table of Contents shows the scope of the book : — 
 
 CONTENTS. Chapter I. — Introductory. II. — The Infant. III. — Childhood. IV. — Adoles- 
 cence of the Male. V. — Adolescence of the Female. VI. — Marriage: The Husband. VII.— 
 "^he Wife. VIII. — Husband and Wife. IX' To the Unfortunate. X. — Origin <yp the Sej^ 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS. Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 7 
 
NEW EDITION; 
 
 Lessons m Gynecology. 
 
 By WILLIAM GOODELL, A.M., M.D., Etc., 
 
 Professor op Clinical Gynecology in tub University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 With 112 Illustrations. Third Edition, Thoroughly ltevised and Greatly Enlarged. 
 ONE VOLUME, LARGE OCTAVO, 578 PAGES. 
 
 This exceedingly valuable work, from one of (he most eminent specialists and teachers in gynecology 
 in the United Stales, is now offered to the profession in a much move complete condition than either of the 
 editions. It embraces ail the more important diseases and the principal operations in the field of 
 gynecology, and brings to bear upon them all the extensive practical experience and wide reading of the 
 author. It is an indispensable guide to every practitioner who has to do with the diseases peculiar to 
 women. 
 
 Fig. 44. 
 
 Natural Position of the Womb When the Bladder is Full. 
 After Briesky. 
 
 These lessons are so well Vnown that it is en- 
 tirely unnecessary to do more than to call attention 
 fact of the appearance of the third edition. 
 It is too good a book to have been allowe 1 to remain 
 out of print, and it has unquestionably been missed. 
 The author has revised the work with special care, 
 adding to each lesson such fresh matter as the prog- 
 ress in the art rendered necessary, and he has en- 
 larged it by the insertion of six new lessons. This 
 edition will, without question, be as eagerly sought 
 for as were its predecessors. — American Journal 
 of Obstetrics. 
 
 The former editions of this treatise were well 
 received by the profession, and there is no doubt 
 that the new matter added tothe present issue makes 
 it more useful than its predecessors. — New York 
 Mi die a I Record. 
 
 His literary style is peculiarly charming. There 
 
 is a directness and simplicity about it which is easier 
 to admire than to copy. His chain of plain words 
 and almost blunt expressions, his familiar compari- 
 son and homely illustrations, make his writings, like 
 his lectures, unusually entertaining. The substance 
 cf his teachings we regard as equally excellent. — 
 Phila. Medical and Surgical Reporter 
 
 Extended mention of the contents of the book is 
 unnecessary'; suffice it to say that every important 
 disease found in the female sex is taken up and dis- 
 cussed in a common-sense kind of a way We wish 
 every physician in America could read and carry 
 out the suggestions of the chapter on "the sexual re- 
 lations as causes of uterine disorders — conjugal 
 onanism and kindred sins." The deoartment treat- 
 ing of nervous counterfeits of uterine diseases i; 
 a most valuable one. — Kansas City Medical 
 I Index. 
 
 Price, in United States and Canada, Cloth, $5.00; Full Sheep, $6.00. Discount, 20 per 
 
 cent., making it, net, Cloth, $100; Sheep, $4.30. Postage, 27 Cents ertra. Great 
 
 Britain, Cloth, 17s. ; Sheep, 21s., post-paid, net. France, 30 fr. 80. 
 
 8 \ ' A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
WITH NOTES UPON THEIR CLIMATE. 
 
 ISv BTJSHROD "W. (JjRi.X<CE:S, jRl.KT., IXC ID., 
 
 Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Public •'.'in, the 
 
 Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Franklin Institute, and the Academy oi Natural Si iences, Philadelphia; 
 
 the Sooiety of Alaskan Natural History and Ethnology, bitka, Alaska, etc. 
 
 WITH A TRANSLATION FROM THE GERMAN, BY Mr. S. KAUFFMANN, 
 
 Of ' u ose chapters of " Die (Climate dcr Erde" written by Dr. A. Woeikof, of Si P( t< irg, RllMia, that 
 relate to North and South America and the islands and oceans contiguous thereto. 
 
 In One Octavo Volume. Handsomely IJound in Cloth. Nearly 300 Pages. Price, 
 Post-paid, in V. S. and Canada, $2.00, net. Great Kritain, 8s. Gd. France, 12 fr. 40. 
 
 This is a unique nnd valuable work, and useful to physicians in all parts of the country. It is just sue*! 
 a volume as the Medical Profession have stood in need of for many years. We mention a few of the raeril -. 
 it possesses: First. List ofcall the Health Rcsons of the country, arranged according to their climate. 
 Second. Contains just the information needed by tourists, invalids, and those who visit summer or winter 
 resorts. Third. The latest and best large railroad map for reference. Fourth. It indicates the climate 
 each one should select for health. Fifth. The author has traveled extensively, and most of his suggestions 
 are practical in reference to localities. 
 
 Taken altogether, this is by far the most complete ex- 
 position of the subject of resorts that has yet been put 
 forth, and it is one that every physician must needs possess 
 intelligent information upoii. We predict a large demand 
 for this useful and attractive book. — Buffalo Med. and 
 Surf;. Jour. 
 
 The special chapter on the therapeutics of climate . . 
 is excellent for its precautionary suggestions in the selec- 
 tion of climates and local conditions, with reference to 
 known pathological indications and constitutional predis- 
 positions. — The Sanitarian. 
 
 It is arranged in such a manner that it will he of great 
 service to medical men whose duty it often becomes to rec- 
 ommend a health resort. — y. IF. Med. Jour. 
 
 A well-arranged map of the United States serves as the 
 frontispiece of the book ; and an almost perfect index is 
 appended, while between the two is an amount of informa- 
 tion as to places for the health-seeker that cannot be gotten 
 elsewhere. We most cordially recommend the book to 
 travelers and to the doctor. — Virginia Med. Monthly. 
 
 This is a work that has long been needed, as there is 
 scarcely a physician who has not had occasion to look up 
 the authorities on climate, elevation, dryness, humidity, 
 etc , etc., of the various health resorts, and has had great 
 difficulty in finding reliable information. It certainly 
 
 ought, as it deserves, to receive a hearty welcome from the 
 profession. — Medical Advance. 
 
 The book before us is a very comprehensive volume, 
 giving all necessary information concerning climate, tem- 
 perature, humidity, sunshine, and indeed everything neces- 
 sary to be stated for the benefit of the physician or invalid 
 seeking a health resort in the United States. — Southern 
 Clin ic. 
 
 This work is extremely valuable, owing to the liberal 
 and accurate manner in which it gives information regard- 
 ing the various resorts on the American continent, without 
 being prejudiced in the least in favor of any particular one. 
 but giving all in a fair manner. . . . All physicians 
 need .just such a work, for the doctor is always asked to 
 give information on the subject to his patients. Therefore, 
 it should find a place in every physician'3 library. — The 
 Med. Brief. 
 
 The author of this admirable work has long made a 
 study of American climate, from the stand-point of a phy- 
 sician, with a view to ascertaining the most suitable locali- 
 ties for the residence of invalids, believing proper climate 
 to be an almost indispensable factor in the treatment, pre- 
 vention, and cure of many forms of disease. . . . The 
 book evidences careful research and furnishes much use fill 
 information not to be found elsewhere. — Pacific Med. Jour. 
 
 JUST PUBLISHED' 
 
 RECORD-BOOK OF MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS 
 
 For Life Insurance. 
 
 In examining for Life Insurance, questions are easily overlooked and the answers to 
 thern omitted ; and, as these questions are indispensable, they must be answered before the 
 case can be acted upon, and the examiner is often put to much inconvenience to obtain 
 tbis information. 
 
 The need has long been felt among examiners for a reference-book in which could be 
 noted the principal points of an examination, and thereby obviate the necessity of a 
 second visit to the applicant when further information is required. 
 
 •* After a careful study of all the forms of examination blanks now used by Insurance 
 Companies, Dr. J. M. Keating has compiled such a record-book which we are sure will fill 
 this long-felt want. 
 
 This record-book is small, neat, and complete, and embraces all the principal points 
 that are required by the different companies. It is made in two sizes, viz. : No. 1, cover- 
 ing one hundred (100) examinations, and No. 2,- covering two hundred (200) examina- 
 tions. The size of the book is 7 x 3f inches, and can be conveniently carried in the 
 pocket. 
 
 NET PRICES, POST-PAID. 
 
 U. S. and Canada. Great Britain. 
 No. 1, For 100 Examinations, in Cloth, - &» .50 2s. 6d. 
 
 No. 2, For 200 Examinations, in Full 
 
 Leather, with Side Flap, . - 1.00 4s. 6d. 
 
 France. 
 3 fr. 60 
 
 6 fr. 2« 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S A.) 
 
■DISEASES' 
 
 OP THE 
 
 Heart and Circulation 
 
 IN INFANCY AND ADOLESCENCE. 
 
 "With an Appendix entitled " Clinical Studies on the 
 Pulse in Childhood." 
 
 JOHN M. KEATING, M.D., 
 
 Obstetrician to the Philadelphia Hospital, and Lecturer on Diseas.s of Women and Children; Surgeon to 
 
 the Maternity Hospital ; Physician to St. Joseph's 1 lospital ; Fellow of the 
 
 College of Physicians of Philadelphia, etc., 
 
 WILLIAM A. EDWARDS, M.D., 
 
 instructor in Clinical Medicine and Physician to the Medical Dispensary in the University of Pennsylvania ; 
 
 Physician to St. Joseph's Hospital ; Fellow of the Collece of Physicians ; formerly 
 
 Assistant Pathologist to the Philadelphia Hospital, etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY PHOTOGRAPHS AND WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 About 225 Pages. 8vo. Bound in Cloth. Price, post-paid, in U. S. 
 and Canada, $1.50, net; Great Britain, 6s. 6d. ; France, 9 fr. 35. 
 
 There are many excellent text-books on children's diseases, but they have failed to give a satisfactory 
 account of the diseases of the heart ; and, indeed, as far as known, this work of Keating and Edwards' now 
 I resentc 1 to the profession is the only systematic attempt that has been made to collect in book form the 
 abundant material which is scattered throughout medical literature in the form of journal articles, clinical 
 lectures, theses, and reports of societies. 
 
 The authors have endeavored, in their difficult task, to collect these valuable materials and place them 
 within easy reach of those who are interested in this important subject. That they have succeeded will, we 
 believe.be conceded by all who obtain and make use of their very valuable contribution to this hitherto 
 neglected field of medical literature. 
 
 An appendix, entitled " Clinical Studies on the Pulse in Childhood," follows the index in the book, and 
 will, we are sure, be found of much real value to every practitioner of medicine. The work is made available 
 for ready reference by a well-arranged index. We append the table of contents showing the scope of the 
 book : — 
 
 COITTEITTS 
 
 Chapter I. — The Methods of Study — Instruments — 
 
 Fcetal Circulation — Congenital Diseases of the 
 
 Heart — Malformations — Cyanosis. 
 Chapter II. — Acute and Chronic Endocarditis — 
 
 Ulcerative endocarditis. 
 Chapter 111.— Acute and Chronic Pericarditis. 
 Chapter IV. — The treatment of Endo- and Peri- 
 carditis — Paracentesis Pericardii — Hydropericar- 
 
 dium — Ha.mopericardium — Pneumopericardium. 
 Chapter V. — Myocarditis — Tumors, New Growths, 
 
 and Parasites 
 Chapter VI.— Valvular Disease: Mitral, Aortic, 
 
 Pulmonary, and Tricuspid. 
 
 Chapter VII. — General Diagnosis, Prognosis, and 
 Treatment of Valvular Disease. 
 
 Chapter VIII. — Endocarditis — Atheroma — Aneu- 
 rism. 
 
 Chapter IX. — Cardiac Neuroses — Angina Pectoris 
 — Exophthalmic Goitre. 
 
 Chapter X. — Diseases of the Hlood : Plethora, 
 Anamia, Chlorosis, Pernicious Anaemia, l.eu- 
 kamia— Hodgkin's Disease — Hamophilia.Throm- 
 bosis, and Embolism. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 APPENDIX.— Clinical Studies on the Pllsb 
 in Childhood. 
 
 Drs. Keatine nnd Edwards have produced a work that 
 will give material nid t<> evorr doctor in his practice among 
 children. The style of the book is graphic and pleasing, 
 thediag plicit and exact, and_ the tnera- 
 
 inde the novelties of medicine as well 
 as the old and tried agents. Pittoburgh Med. Review. 
 A very I valuable work has been given to 
 
 . i \ Drs. Keating and Edwards, in 
 their treatise on the diseases of the heart and circulation | 
 in infan i Bnce, nnd they deserve the greatest | 
 
 credit for the admirable manner in which they havi 
 
 reviewed, and made ose of the immenso amount of 
 
 muter' it.'int subject.— An hives qf Pediatric*. 
 
 The plan of tne work is the correct one, viz.. the Snp- 
 tlemen lervations of the better class of prao- 
 
 titioners by the experience of those who have given the 
 ■abject jysteuiutic attention.— Medical Age. 
 
 It is not a mere compilation, but a systematic treatise, 
 and hears evidence of considerable labor and observation on 
 the part of the authors. Two fine photographs of dissec- 
 tions exhibit mitral stenosis and mitral retfurxitniinn ; 
 there are also a number of wood-cuts. — Clevi land Medical 
 Qaaette, 
 
 As tho works upon diseases of children give little or no 
 
 attention to diseases ol the heart, this work of Drs. Keat- 
 
 l Edwards will supply a want. Wo think that 
 
 there will be no physician, wno takes an interest in the 
 
 affections of yonng folks, who will not wish to consult it. 
 
 — Vinrmnnli Mnl. .XrVK. 
 
 The work takes up, in an able and scientific manner, 
 diseases of the heart in children. This is a part of the 
 field of medical science which has not been cultivated tv< 
 the extent that the importance of the subject deserves — 
 Canada Lancet. 
 
 J) 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
Text-Book of Hygiene. 
 
 A Comprehensive Treatise on the Principles and Practice of Pre- 
 ventive Medicine from an American Stand-point. By GEORGE H. 
 ROHE, IV!. D., Professor of Obstetrics and Hygiene in the College ol 
 Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore; Member of the American Public 
 
 Health Association, ete. 
 
 Second Edition, thoroughly revised and largely rewritten, with 
 many illustrations and valuable tables. In one handsome Royal Octavo 
 volume of over 400 pages, bound in Extra Cloth. 
 
 United States. Canada (duty paid). Great Britain. France. 
 
 Price, post-paid, $2.50 Net $2.75 Net 14s. 16 fr. 20 
 
 Every Sanitarian should have Rohe's "Text-Book of Hygiene" as a 
 work of Reference. Of this NEW (second) edition, one of the best quali- 
 fied judges, namely, Albert L. Gihon, M.D., Medical Director U. S. Navy, 
 in charge of U. S. Naval Hospital, Brooklyn, N. Y., and ex-President of 
 the American Public Health Association, writes : " It is the most admirable, 
 concise resume of the £icts of Hygiene with which I am acquainted. 
 Prof. Rohe's attractive style makes the book so readable that no better 
 presentation of the important place of Preventive Medicine, among their 
 studies, can be desired for the younger members, especially, of our 
 profession. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 For Physicians and Students. By Dr. LUDWIG EDINGER, Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Main. Second Revised Edition. With 133 Illustrations. 
 Translated by WILLIS HALL VITTUM, M.D., St. Paul, Minn. Edited 
 by C. EUGENE R5GGS, A.M., M.D., Professor of Mental and Nervous 
 Diseases, University of Minnesota ; Member of the American Neuro- 
 logical Association. 
 
 The illustrations are exactly the same as those used in the latest 
 German edition (with the German names translated into English), and 
 are very satisfactory to the Physician and Student using the book. 
 
 The work is complete in one Royal Octavo volume of about 250 
 pages, bound in Extra Cloth. 
 
 Price in United States and Canada, post-paid, $1.75 Net; 
 Great Britain, 10s, ; France, 12 fr. 20. 
 
 This work is thus spoken of by those who are eminently qualified to 
 pass judgment : — 
 
 B. SACHS, M.D., Professor of Diseases of the Mind and Nervous 
 System, etc., in the New York Polyclinic and Hospital, says : " I know the 
 translation well, and can say that it is done extremely well. I shall 
 recommend it at once to my students at the Polyclinic." 
 
 N. SENN, M.D., Ph.D., of Milwaukee, and Professor of Principles of 
 Surgery and Surgical Pathology in Rush Medical College, Chicago, and a 
 distinguished author of several able and authoritative works on Surgery and 
 Surgical subjects, says : " A critical examination of the contents of the 
 book has satisfied me that it is the most important and explicit work on 
 this intricate subject in the English language, alike indispensable to the 
 student and practitioner. The translation has been done in a masterly 
 manner and the illustrations are excellent," 
 
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT-JUST READY. 
 
 Materia Medica and Therapeutics 
 
 WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 
 
 CLINICAL APPLICATION OF DRUGS. 
 
 By JOHN V. SHOEMAKER, A.M., M.D., 
 
 Professor of Materia Medica, Pharmacol 05 y, Therapcniica, and Clinical Medicine, and Clrmcsl Professor 
 
 of Diseases of the Skin in the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia ; Physician 
 
 10 the Me-iieo-Chiinsrgicul Hospital, etc, ere. 
 
 BEING THE SECOND AND LAST VOLUME OF A TREATISE ON MATERIA MEDICA> 
 
 PHARMACOLOGY. AND THERAPEUTICS. AN SNDEPENDENT 
 
 VOLUME UPON DRUGS. . 
 
 This 13 the long-looked-for second volume of Shoem.tker T s 
 Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Therapeutics. It is wholly taken 
 up with the consideration of drugs, each remedy being studied from 
 three points of view, viz.: the Preparations, or Materia Medica; the 
 Physiology and Toxicology, or Pharmacology; and, lastly, its Therapy. 
 Dr. Shoemaker has finally brought the work "to completion and now this 
 second vol time is ready for delivery. It is thoroughly abreast of the 
 progress of Therapeutic Science, and is really an indispensable book to 
 every student and practitioner of medicine. Royal Octavo, about 6T5 
 Pages. Thoroughly and Carefully Indexed. 
 
 
 United States. 
 
 Canada (dnty paid). 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 France. 
 
 Price in Cloth, uost-paid, 
 
 $3.50 Net 
 
 $100 Net 
 
 20s, 
 
 22 fr. 40 
 
 " Sheep, " 
 
 150 " 
 
 5.00 " 
 
 23s, 
 
 28 fr. 60 
 
 (The first volume of the work is devoted to Pharmacy, General Phar- 
 macology, and Therapeutics, and remedial agents not properly classed 
 with drugs. Royal Octavo, 353 pages. Price of Volume I, post-paid, in 
 United States, Cloth, $2.50 Net; Sheep, $3.25 Net. Canada, duty paid, 
 Cloth, $2.75 Net; Sheep, $3.60 Net. Great Britain, Cloth, 14s.; Sheep, 
 18s. France, Cloth, 16 fr. 20 ; Sheep, 20 fr. 20.) 
 
 THE VOLUMES ARE SOLD SEPARATELY. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher and Bookseller, 
 
 1231 FILBERT STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL 21 Lakeside Building, 214-220 S. Clark Street. 
 
 BRANCH ) NEW YOKK. CITY— 117 W. Forty-second Street. 
 
 OFFICES 
 
 {CHICAGO, ILL 21 Lakeside limlding. 2 
 NEW YOKK CITY— 117 W. Forty-second St 
 ATLANTA, GA.— 25 Old Capitol. 
 LONDON, ENG.— 40 Berners Street, Oxford Street, W. 
 
 ORDER FROM NEAREST OFFICE. 
 
 FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS, 
 
 (over) 
 
shoemaker's therapeutics (vol. 11 of a treatise on materia med'ca, 
 Pharmacology, and Therapeutics) 
 
 STANDS ALONE. 
 
 1 
 
 It Stands Alone among Materia Mediea text-btofcs hi that it 
 includes every officinal drag and every preparation contained in the 
 
 United States Pharmacopoeia. 
 
 2 
 
 It Stands Alone in that it is the only work on therapeutics 
 giving the strength, composition, and dosage of every officinal preparation. 
 
 3 
 
 It Stands Alone in giving the latest investigations with regard 
 to the physiological action of drugs and the most recent applications in 
 therapeutics. 
 
 4 
 
 It Stands Alone in combining with officinal drugs the most 
 reliable reports of the actions and uses of all the noteworthy new reme- 
 dies, such as aeetaniiide, antipyriti, bromoform, exalgine, pyoctanin, 
 pyridine, somnal, spermine (Brown-Sequard),fcuberculine (Koch's lymph ^ 
 sulphonal, thiol, urethan, etc., etc. 
 
 5 
 
 It Stands Alone as a complete encyclopaedia of modern thera- 
 peutics in condensed form, arranged alphabetically for convenience of 
 reference for either physician, dentist, or pharmacist, when immediate 
 fn formation is wanted concerning the action, composition, dose, or anti- 
 dotes for any officinal preparation or new remedy. 
 
 a 
 
 It Stands Alone in giving the physical characters and chemical 
 formulas of the new remedies, especially the recently introduced anti- 
 pyretics and analgesics. 
 
 7 
 
 It Stands Alone in the fact that it gives special attention to 
 the consideration , of the diagnosis and treatment of poisoning by the 
 more active drugs, both officinal and non-officinal. 
 
 It Stands Alone and unrivaled in the number and variety of 
 
 the prescriptions and practical formulae, representing the Latest achieve- 
 ments of clinical medicine. 
 
 9 
 
 It Stands Alone in that, while summarizing foreign thera- 
 peutical literature, it fully recognizes the work done in this department 
 by American physicians. It is an epitome of the present state of 
 American medical practice, which is universally acknowledged to be the 
 best practice. 
 
 10 
 
 It Stands Alone because it is the most complete, convenient, and 
 compendious work of reference, being, in fact, a companion to the U. S. 
 Pharmacopoeia, a drug-encyclopaedia, and a therapeutic hand-book all ii* 
 one volume. 
 
AN ENTIRELY NEW PHYSICIAN'S VISITING LIST. 
 
 ■ - - = T H E 
 
 Medical Bulletin V isiting L 1S1 
 
 OR ■ 
 
 Physician's C ALL Record. 
 
 ARRANGED UPON AN ORIGINAL AND CONVENIENT MONTHLY AND WEEKLY PLAN 
 FOR THE DAILY RECORDING OF PROFESSIONAL VISITS. 
 
 Prequent Rewriting of Names Unnecessary. 
 
 Tms Visitint; List is arranged upon a plan Lest adapted to the most 
 convenient use of all physicians, and embraces a new feature in recording 
 daily visits not found in any other list, consisting of stl'B or half leaves 
 in the form of INSERTS, a glance at which will suffice to show that as the 
 first week's record of visits is completed the next week's record may be 
 made by simply turning over the stub-leaf, without the necessity of re- 
 writing the patients' names. This is done until the month is completed, 
 and the physician has kept his record just as complete in every detail of 
 visit, CHARGE, credit, etc., as he could have done had he used any of the 
 old-style visiting lists, and has also saved himself three-fourths of the 
 time and labor formerly required in transferring names every week. 
 There are no intricate rulings; everything is easily and quickly under- 
 stood ; not the least amount of time can be lost in comprehending the 
 plan, for it is acquired at a glance. 
 
 The Three Different Styles Made. 
 
 The JY©. 1 Style of this List provides ample space for the daily 
 record of seventy (TO) different names each month for an entire }-ear 
 (tAvo full pages, thirty-five [35] names to a page, being allowed to each 
 month), so that its size is sufficient for an ordinary practice ; but for 
 physicians who prefer a List that will accommodate a larger practice we 
 have made a JVo. 2 Style, which provides ample space for the daily 
 record of one hundred and five different names (105) each month for 
 an entire 3"ear (three full pages being allowed to each month), and for 
 physicians who may prefer a Pocket Record Book of less thickness than 
 either of these styles we have made a JVo. 3 Style, in which " The 
 Blanks for the Recording of Visits In" have been made into removable 
 sections. These sections are very thin, and are made up so as to answer 
 in full the demand of the largest practice, each section providing ample 
 space for the daily record of two hundred and ten (210) different 
 names for one month; or one hundred and five (105) different names 
 daily each month for two months; or seventy (TO) different names daily 
 each month for three months; or thirty-five (35) different names daily 
 each month for six months. Six sets of these sections go with each 
 copy of Xo. 3 Style. 
 
 Special Features Not Found in Any Other List. 
 
 In this No. 3 Style the printed matter, and such matter as tht 
 blank forms for Addresses of Patients, Obstetric Record, Vaccination 
 Record, Cash Account, Births and Deaths Records, etc., are fastened 
 permanentl}' in the back of the book, thus reducing its thickness. The 
 addition of one of these removable sections does not increase the size 
 quite an eighth of an inch. This brings the book into such a small com- 
 pass that no one can object to it on account of its thickness, as its bulk 
 
 14 
 
is vt;ry much less than that of any visiting list ever published. Every 
 physician will at once understand that as soon as a section is full it can 
 foe taken out, filed away, and another inserted without the least incon- 
 venience or trouble. 
 
 This Visiting List contains a Calendar for the .last six months 
 of last year, all of this, and next year; Table of Signs to be used 
 in Keeping Accounts; Dr. Ely's Obstetrical Table; Table of Cal- 
 culating the Number of Doses in a given 1£, etc., etc. ; for converting 
 Apothecaries' Weights and Measures into Grammes; Metrical Avoirdu- 
 pois and Apothecaries' "Weights ; Number of Drops in a FluidrachnJ ; 
 Graduated Doses for Children; Graduated Table for Administering 
 Laudanum ; Periods of Eruption of the Teeth ; The A verage Frequency 
 of the Pulse at Different Ages in Health; Formula and Doses of Hypo- 
 dermic Medication; Use of the Hypodermic Syringe; Formula; and 
 Doses of Medicine for Inhalation ; Formulae for Suppositories for the 
 Rectum; The Use of the Thermometer in Disease; Poisons and their 
 Antidotes; Treatment of Asphyxia; Anti-Emetic Remedies; Nasal 
 Douches ; Eye-Washes. 
 
 Most Convenient Time- and Labor- Saving List Issued. 
 
 It is evident to every one that this is, beyond question, the best and 
 most convenient time- and labor- saving Physicians' Record Book ever 
 published. Physicians of many years' standing and with large practices 
 pronounce this the Best List they have ever seen. It is handsomely 
 bound in fine, strong leather, with flap, including a pocket for loose 
 memoranda, etc., and is furnished with a Dixon lead-pencil of excellent 
 quality and finish. It is compact and convenient for carrying in the 
 pocket. Size, 4 x 6| inches. 
 
 IN THREE STYLES-NET PRICES, POST-PAID. 
 
 U. S. and Canada. Great Britain. 
 Regular Size, for 70 patients daily each month for one year, SS1.25 5s. 3. 
 
 Large Size, for 105 patients daily each month for one year, 1.50 6s. 6. 
 
 In which "The Blanks for Recording Visits in" are in re- 
 movable sections, as described above, - 1.75 7s. 3. 12 fr. 20 
 
 No. 1. 
 No. 2. 
 No. 3. 
 
 France. 
 7 fr. 75 
 9 fr. 35 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS." 
 
 " While each page records only a week's visits, 
 yet by an ingenious device of half leaves the names 
 of the patients require to be written but once a 
 month, and a glance at an opening of the book 
 shows the entire visits paid to any individual in a 
 month. It will be found a great convenience." — 
 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 
 
 "Everything about it is easily and quickly 
 understood." — Canadian Practitioner. 
 
 " Of the many visiting lists before the profes- 
 sion, each has some special feature to recommend 
 it. This list is very ingeniously arranged, as by a 
 series of narrow leaves following a wider one, the 
 name of the patient is written but once during the 
 month, while the account can run for thirty-one 
 days, space being arranged for a weekly debit 
 and credit summary and for special memoranda. 
 The u?aal pages for cash account, obstetrical 
 record addresses, etc., are included. A large 
 amoun 1 of miscellaneous information is presented 
 in a condensed form." — Occidental Medical 
 Times. 
 
 "It is a monthly instead of a weekly record, 
 thus obviating the transferring of names oftener 
 than once a month. There is a Dr. and Cr. column 
 following each week's record, enabling the doctor 
 to carry a patient's account for an indefinite time, 
 or until he is discharged, with little trouble." — 
 Indiana Medical Journal. 
 
 "Accounts can begin and end at any date. 
 Each name can be entered for each day of every 
 month on the same line. To accomplish this, four 
 leaves, little more than one-third as wide as the 
 usual leaf of the book, follow each page. Oppo- 
 site is a full page for the recording of special 
 memoranda The usual accompaniments of this 
 class of books are made out with care and fitness." 
 — The American Lancet. 
 
 "This is a novel list, and an unusually con- 
 venient one." — Journal of the Anier. Med. Assoc. 
 
 ''This new candidate for the favor of physi- 
 cians possesses some unique and useful points. 
 The necessity of rewriting names every week is 
 obviated by a simple contrivance in the make-up 
 of its pages, thus saving much valuable time, 
 besides reducing the bulk of the book." — Buffalo 
 Medical and Sttrgicai Journal. 
 
 "This list is an entirely new departure, and 
 on a plan that renders posting rapid and easy. It 
 is just what we have often wished for, and really 
 fills a long-felt want." — The Medical Waif. 
 
 "It certainly contains the largest amount of 
 practical knowledge for the medical practitioner 
 in the smallest possible volume, besides enabling 
 the poorest accountant to keep a correct record, 
 and render a correct bill at.a moment's notice." — 
 Medical Chifs. 
 
 r\ A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
 15 
 
HMD-BOOK OF ECLAMPSIA; 
 
 OK, 
 
 Notes and Cases of Puerperal Convulsions. 
 
 UY 
 
 E. Michener, M.D., J. H. Stubbs, M.D., R. B. Ewing, M.D., 
 
 B. Thompson, M.D., S. Stebbins, M.D. 
 
 Price, in United States and Canada, Bound in Cloth, 16mo, Net, 75 Cents; in Great 
 Eritain, 3 Shillings ; in France, 4 fr. 20. 
 
 In our medical colleges the teachers of Obstetrics dwell upon the use of blood-letting (phlebotomy) in 
 eases of puerperal convulsions, and to this method Dr. Michener and his fellows give their unqualified 
 support— not to take a prescribed number of ounces, but to bleed/or effect, and_/>.'«: a large orifice. This 
 is i lainly and admirably set forth in His book. To bleed requires a cutting instrument,— not necessarily a 
 
 lancet . — for Dr. M, states how in one case a pocket-knife was used and the desired effect produced. 
 
 let the young physician gather courage from this little book, and let the more experienced give testi- 
 mony to confirm its leaching. 
 
 We have always thought that this treatment was 
 indorsed, approved, ami practiced bj physioians generally; 
 ami to sacta as •!. . . 1 1 >r the efficacy of bloo i lettin ■ we would 
 ; thi3 little volume. Southern Clinic. 
 
 Tin.- authors arc Berioualy Btriving to restore tho 
 
 "losl art" of blood-lotting, and we must oommend tlie 
 modest} of their endeavor. — North Carolina Med. Jour. 
 
 The cases were ably analyzed, and this plea for vet - 
 section should receive the most attentive consideration from 
 obstetrioians. — Medical and Surgical Reporter. 
 
 JUST IRIE^JD-Sr. 
 
 A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION 
 
 FOK GIVING 
 
 Si olid Iffmittf Massage Treatment. 
 
 BY 
 
 Prof. Hartvig Nissen, 
 
 Director of the Swedish Health Institute, Washington, D.C. ; Late Instructor in Physical Culture and 
 
 Gymnastics at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. ; Author of 
 
 " Health by Exercise v. ithout Apparatus." 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 29 ORIGINAL WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 In One 12mo Volume of 12S Pages. Neatly Bound in Cloth. Price, 
 
 post-paid, in United States and Canada, Net, $1.00; in 
 
 Great Britain, 6s. 3d. ; in France, 6 fr. 20. 
 
 This is the only publication in the English language treating this very important 
 subject in a practical manner. Full instructions are given regarding the mode of 
 applying 
 
 The Swedish Movement and Massage Treatment 
 
 in various diseases and conditions of the human system with the greatest degree of 
 effectiveness. Professor Nibsen is the best authority in the United States upon this rai 
 tical phase of this subject, and his book is indispensable to every physician who wishes to 
 know how to use these valuable handmaids of medicine. 
 
 This manual is valuable to the practitioner, as it ' 
 contains a terse description of a subject hrt too little under- 
 
 rantry The book ifl trc* up very 
 
 creditably.— .V. Y. Med. Jour, 
 
 The present volume is a modest acennncot ti.e appli- 
 cation of the Swedish Movement and Massage Treatment. 
 in winch the techniqnc of tbe various proceduresnre cleariy 
 stated as well as illustrated in a very excellent manner. 
 — Worth American Practitioner. 
 
 This little manual seems to be written by an expert, 
 sad to those who desire to know the details connected with 
 
 the Swedish Movement and Massage wo commend the 
 book. — Practice. 
 
 This attractive little bonk presents the subject in a very 
 practical shape, and makes it possible for every physician to 
 understand at leas; how it is applied, if it does not, jrivehim 
 dexterity in the art of its application. He can certainly 
 acquire dexterity by following the directions so plainly ad- 
 vised in this book. — Chicago M..I. 'I"tni<'«. 
 
 It is so practical and clear in its demonstrations that 
 if you wish a work of this nature you cannot do better than 
 peruse this one. — Medical lirir/. 
 
 u 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
The Latest and Best Physician's Account-Book Ever Published. 
 
 THE PHYSICIAN'S 
 
 All-Requisite Time 
 diiii Labor 
 
 "' Account-Rook: 
 
 BEING A LEDGER AND ACCOUNT-BOOK FOR PHYSICIANS' USE, MEETING ALL 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW AND COURTS. 
 
 DESIGNED BY 
 
 "^7-IXjJLZ^^I^C ^. SEIBERT, ZMMD., 
 
 Of Easton, £=a- 
 
 Probably no class of people lose more money through carelessly kept 
 accounts and overlooked or neglected bills than physicians. Often 
 detained at the bedside of the sick until late at night, or deprived of 
 even a modicum of rest, it is with great difficulty that he spares the 
 time or puts himself in condition to give the same care to his own 
 financial interests that a merchant, a lawyer, or even a farmer devotes. 
 It is then plainly apparent that a system of ^okkeeping and accounts 
 uhat, without sacrificing accuracy, but, on the other hand, ensuring it, at 
 the same time relieves the keeping of a physician's book of half their 
 complexity and two-thirds the labor, is a convenience which will be 
 eagerly welcomed by thousands of overworked physicians. Such a sys- 
 tem has at last been devised, and we take pleasure in offering it to the 
 profession in the form of The Physician's All-Requisite Time- and 
 Labor- Saving Account-Book. 
 
 There is no exaggeration in stating that this Account-Book and 
 Ledger reduces the labor of keeping your accounts more than one-half, 
 and at the same time secures the greatest degree of accuracy. We may 
 mention a few of the superior advantages of The Physician's All- 
 Requisite Time- and Labor- Saving Account-Book, as follow: — 
 
 First — Will meet all the requirements of 
 the law and courts. 
 
 Second — Self-explanatory ; no cipher code. 
 
 Third — Its completeness without sacrificing 
 anything. 
 
 Fourth — No posting ; one entry only. 
 
 Fifth — Universal ; can be commenced at any 
 time of year, and can be continued in- 
 definitely until every account is filled. 
 
 Sixth — Absolutely no waste of space. 
 
 Seventh — One person must needs be sick 
 every day of the year to fill his account, 
 or might be ten years about it and re- 
 quire no more than the space for one 
 account in this ledger. 
 
 Eighth — Double the number and many times 
 more than the number of accounts in 
 
 any similar book; the 300-page book 
 contains space for 900 accounts, and the 
 600-page book contains space for 1800 
 accounts. 
 
 Ninth — There are no smaller spaces. 
 
 Tenth — Compact without sacrificing com- 
 pleteness; every account complete cai 
 same page — a decided advantage and 
 recommendation. 
 
 Eleventh — Uniform size of leaves. 
 
 Twelfth — The statement of the most com- 
 plicated account is at once before you 
 at any time of month or year — in other 
 words, the account itself as it stands is 
 its simplest statement. 
 
 Thirteenth- — No transferring of accounts, 
 balances, etc. 
 
 To all physicians desiring a quick, accurate, and comprehensive 
 method of keeping their accounts, we can safely say that no book as 
 suitable as this one has ever been devised. 
 
 A. descriptive circular showing ttie plan of the book will be 
 sent on application. 
 
 NET PRICES, SHIPPING- EXPENSES PREPAID. 
 
 No. 1. 300 Pages, for 900 Accounts per Year, 
 Size 10x13, Bound in ^-Kussia, Raised 
 Back-Bands, Cloth. Sides, ... 
 
 No. 2. 600 Pages, for 1800 Accounts per Year, 
 Size 10x12, Bound in %-Kussia, Raised 
 Back-Bands, Clotli Sides, 
 
 In U. S. 
 
 Canada 
 
 (duty paid). 
 
 Great 
 Britain. 
 
 France. 
 
 S5.00 
 
 S5.50 
 
 28s. 
 
 30 fr. 30 
 
 S.00 
 
 8.S0 
 
 42s. 
 
 49 fr. 40 
 
 {F. A. DAI/IS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa, U.S.A.) 
 
PHYSICIANS' INTERPRETER 
 
 IN FOUR LANGUAGES. 
 
 (ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN. AND ITALIAN.) 
 
 Specially Arranged for Diagnosis by M. von V. 
 
 The object of this little work is to meet a need often keenly felt by 
 the busy physician, namely, the need of some quick and reliable method 
 of communicating intelligibly with patients of those nationalities and 
 languages unfamiliar to the practitioner. The plan of the book is ;i sys- 
 tematic arrangement of questions upon the various branches of Practical 
 Medicine, and each question is so worded that the only answer required 
 of the patient is merely Yes or No. The questions are all numbered, 
 and a complete Index renders them always available for quick reference. 
 The book is written by one who is well versed in English, French, Ger- 
 man, and Italian, being an excellent teacher in all those languages, and 
 who has also had considerable hospital experience. 
 
 Bound in Full Russia Leather, for Carrying in the Pocket. (Size, 5x2J 
 
 Inches.) 206 Pages. • Price, post-paid, in United States and 
 
 Canada, $1.00, net; Great Britain, 4s. 6d. ; France, 6 fr. 20. 
 
 Phv 
 
 To conve} r some idea of the scope of the questions contained in the 
 •sicians' Interpreter, we append the Index : — 
 
 General health i- 50 
 
 Special diet 31- 47 
 
 Age of patient 52- 62 
 
 Necessity of patients undergoing an opera- 
 tion 63- 70 
 
 Office hours 7i- 77 
 
 Days of the week 78- 84 
 
 v ^cient's history: hereditary affections in his 
 femily; his occupation; diseases from 
 
 his childhood up 85-130 
 
 months of the year. 106-117 
 
 Seasons of the year 118-121 
 
 Symptoms of typhoid fever ...131-158 
 
 Symptoms of Bright's disease 159-168 
 
 Symptoms of lung diseases 169-194 and 311-312 
 
 Vertigo 195-201 
 
 The eyes ■ 201-232 
 
 Paralysis and rheumatism 236-260 
 
 Stomach complaints and chills 261-269 
 
 Falls and fainting spells 271-277 
 
 How patient's illness began, and when pa- 
 tient was first taken sick 278-279 
 
 Names for various parts of the body 283-299 
 
 The liver 300-301 
 
 The memory 3°4-3°5 
 
 Bites, stings, pricks 314-316 
 
 Eruptions 317-31S 
 
 Previous treatment 319 
 
 Symptoms of lead-poisoning 320-374 
 
 Hemorrhages 325-328 
 
 Burns and sprains 33°-33i 
 
 The throat , 33 2 "335 
 
 The ears 33°-339 
 
 General directions concerning medicines, 
 baths, bandaging, gargling, painting 
 
 swelling, etc 34°-373 
 
 Numbers pages 202-204 
 
 The work is well dono, and calculated to be of great 
 service to those who wish to acquire familiarity with the 
 used ir. questioning patients. More than this, we 
 believe it would t»o a great help in acquiring a vocabulary 
 to be used in reading medical books, and that it would fur- 
 nish an excellent basis for beginning a study of any one of 
 the languages which it includes.— Medical mi. I Surgical 
 Reporter. 
 
 Many other books of the same sort, with more ex- 
 tensive vocabularies, have been published, but, from their 
 site, and from their being usually dovoted to equivalents 
 in English and one other language only, they have not had 
 the advantage which is pre-em loot in this -convenience. 
 It is handsomely printed, and hound in flexible red leather 
 In the form of a diary. It would Brandy make itself felt 
 in one's hip-pocket, and would insure its hearer aga i 
 ordinary conversational difficulty in dealing with foreign- 
 gpenking people, who are constantly coming into our city 
 hospitals.— tmc York Medical Journal. 
 
 In our larger cities, and in the whole Northwest, the 
 physician is constantly meeting with immigrant patients. 
 to whom it is difficult for him to make himself understood, 
 or to know what they say in return. This difficulty will 
 
 be greatly obviated by use of this little work.— The Phy- 
 and Surgeon. 
 
 The phrases are well selected, and one might practice 
 long without requiring more of these languages than this. 
 little 1 i. furnishes.— Phila. Medical Timet. 
 
 How ofUn the physician is called to attend thosv with 
 whom the English language is unfamiliar, and man;, phy- 
 sicians are thus deprived of the means, Bave throned an 
 interpreter, of arriving at a correct knowledge on which to 
 base a diagnosis. An interpreter is not always at hand, 
 
 but with this 1 ket interpreter in your hand you are able 
 
 1 1. all therjuestiou8 necessary, and receive the answer 
 
 in snoh manner that rou will be able to fully comprehend, 
 — Tlu Medical Brief. 
 
 This little volume is one of the most ingenious aid* 
 to the physician which we have seen. We heartily com' 
 mend the book to any one who. being without a knowledge 
 .M:. i ireign languages, is obliged totreat those who dt 
 not know our own language.— .SV. Louit Courier of Medi 
 cine. 
 
 <" It will rapidly supersede, for the praotical use of tli/ 
 doctor who cannot take the time to learn another language 
 all ether suggestive works.— Chicago Medical Times. 
 
 18 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
An Important Aid to Students in the Study of Anatomy. 
 
 Three Charts op 
 
 The Nervo-Vascular System. 
 
 PART I.— THE NERVES. 
 
 JPAliT II.— THE ARTERIES. 
 
 PART III.— THE VEINS. 
 
 Arranged by W. HENRY PRICE, A.M., M.D., AND S. POTTS EAGLETON. 
 ENDORSED BY LEADING ANATOMISTS. 
 
 PRICE, IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA, 50 CENTS, NET, COMPLETE; 
 GREAT BRITAIN, 2s. 6d. FRANCE, 3 fr. 60. 
 
 " THE NERVO-VASC ULAB SYSTEM OF CHASTS " far Excels Every Other System 
 in their Completeness, Compactness, and Accuracy. 
 
 I*avt I. The Nerves. — Gives in a clear form not only the Cranial 
 and Spinal Nerves, showing the formation of the different Plexuses 
 and their branches, but also the complete distribution of the 
 Sympathetic Nerves, thereby making it the most complete and 
 concise chart of the Nervous System } T et published. 
 
 Part II. The Arteries. — Gives a unique grouping of the Arterial 
 System, showing the divisions and subdivisions of all the vessels, 
 beginning from the heart and tracing their continuous distribution 
 to the periphery, and showing at a glance the terminal branches 
 of each artery. 
 
 Part III. The Veins. — Shows how the blood from the periphery 
 of the body is gradually collected by the larger veins, and these 
 coalescing forming still larger vessels, until the}' finally trace 
 themselves into the Right Auricle of the heart. 
 
 It is therefore readily seen that " The Nervo-Vascular System of 
 Charts" offers the following superior advantages: — 
 
 1. It is the only arrangement which combines the Three Systems, 
 and yet each is perfect and distinct in itself. 
 
 2. It is the only instance of the Cranial, Spinal, and Sj'mpathetic 
 Nervous Systems being represented on one chart. 
 
 3. From its neat size and clear type, and being printed only upon 
 one side, it may be tacked up in any convenient place, and is always 
 read} 7 for freshening up the memory and reviewing for examination. 
 
 & 4. The nominal price for which these charts are sold places them 
 within the reach of all. 
 
 For the student of anatomy there can possibly be no 
 more concise way of acquiring a knowledge of the nerves, 
 veins, and arteries of the human system. It presents at a 
 glance their trunks and branches in the great divisions of 
 the body. It will save a world of tedious reading, and will 
 impress itself on the mind as no ordinary eade ihecurn, 
 even, could. Its price is nominal and its value inestima- 
 ble. No student should be without it. — Pacific Record qf 
 Medicine and Surgery. 
 
 We take pleasure in calling attention to these charts, 
 as they are so arranged that a study of them will serve to 
 impress them more indellibly on your mind than can be 
 gained in any other way. They are also valuable for 
 reference. — Medical Brief. 
 
 These are three admirably arranged charts for the 
 use of students, to assist in memorizing their anatomical 
 Studies. — Buffalo Med. and Surg. Jour. (" 
 
 This is a series of charts of the nerves, arteries, and 
 
 veins of the human body, giving names, origins, distribu- 
 tions, and functions, very convenient as memorizers and 
 reminders. A similar series, prepared by the late J. H. 
 Armsby, of Albany, N.T.. and framed, long found a place 
 in the study of the writer, and on more than one occasion 
 was the means of saving precious moments that must 
 otherwise have been devoted to tumbling the pages of ana- 
 tomical works. — Med. Age. 
 
 These three charts will be of great assistance to 
 medical students. They can be hung on the wall and read 
 across any ordinary room. The price is only fifty cents for 
 the set. — Practice. 
 
 These charts have been carefully arranged, and will 
 prove to be very convenient for ready reference. They 
 
 are three in number, each constituting a part 
 
 It is a high recommendation that these charts have been 
 examined" and approved by John B. Deaver. M.D.. Demon- 
 strator of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. — 
 Pacific Med. and 'Surg. Jour, and Western Lancet. 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS Medical Publisher Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
 IS 
 
Fever: Its Pathology and 
 Treatment. 
 
 Being the Boylston Prize Essay of Www a.rd University for 1890. 
 Containing Directions and the Latest [nformation Concerning the 
 Use of the So-Called A.ntepyretics in Fever and Pain. By HOBART 
 AMORY HARE, M.D. ( Univ. of Penna.), B.Sc, Clinical Professor of the 
 Diseases of Children and Demonstrator of Therapeutics in the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania; Physician to Si. Agnes' Hospital anil to the 
 Children's Dispensary of the Children's Eospital ; Laureate of the Royal 
 Academy of Medicine in Belgium, of the Medical Society of London, etc. ; 
 Member of the Association of American Physicians. 
 
 No. 10 in the Physicians' and Students' Ready-Reference Series. 
 12mo. Neatly bound in Dark-blue Cloth. 
 
 Illustrated with more than 25 new plates of tracings of'various fever 
 cases, showing beautifully and accurately the action of the antipyretics. 
 The work will also contain 35 carefully prepared statistical tables of 
 249 cases showing the untoward effects of the antipyretics. 
 
 Price in the United States and Canada, post-paid, $1.25 Net; 
 Great Britain, Ss. 6d. ; France, 7 fr. 75. 
 
 JUST IS&HED 
 
 PHYSICIANS' AND STUDENTS' READY-REFERENCE SERIES 
 3STo. -4. 
 
 The Neuroses of the Geraito-Urinary System 
 
 IN THE MALE, 
 WITH STERILITY AND I3IPOTENCE. 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. R. ULTZMANN, 
 
 Professor of Genito-Urinary Diseases in the University of Vienna. 
 TRANSLATED, WITH THE AUTHOR'S PERMISSION, BY 
 
 GARDNER W. ALLEN, M.D., 
 
 Surgeon in the Genito-Urinaky Department Boston Dispensary. 
 
 Illustrated. 12mo. Handsomely Bound in Dark-Blue Cloth. Net Price, in the United 
 States and Canada, $1.00, Post-paid ; Great Britain, 4s. 6d. ; France, 6 fr. 20. 
 
 This great work upon a subject which, notwithstanding the great strides that have 
 been made in its investigation and the deep interest it possesses for all, is nevertheless 
 still but imperfectly understood, has been translated in a most perfect manner, and pre- 
 serves most fully the inherent excellence aud fascinating style of its renowned and 
 lamented author. Full and complete, yet terse and concise, it handles the subject with 
 such a vigor of touch, such a clearness of detail and description, and such a directness to 
 the result, that no medical man who once takes it up will be content to lay it down until 
 its perusal is complete, — nor will one reading be enough. 
 
 Professor Ultzmann was recognized as one of the greatest authorities in his chosen 
 specialty, and it is a little singular that so few of his writings have been translated into 
 English. Those who have been so fortunate as to benefit by h:s instruction at the Vienna 
 Polyclinic can testify to the soundness of his pathological teachings and the success of his 
 ids of treatment. He approached the subject from a somewhat different point of 
 view from most surgeons, and this gives a peculiar value to the work. It is believed, 
 moreover, that there is jo convenient hand-book in English treating in a broad manner 
 the Genito-urinary Neuroses. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. First Part.— I. Chemical Changes in the Urine in 
 of Neuroses. . II. The Neuroses of the Urinary and of the Sexual Organs, classi- 
 : 1, Sensory Neuroses ; 2, Motor Neuroses ; 3, Secretory Neuroses. Second Part.— 
 Sterility and Impotence. 
 
 The Treatment in all Cases is Described Clearly and. Minutely. 
 
 (F. A. DA'.'IS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
Hay Fever 
 
 ITS SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT BY SUPERFICIAL ORGANIC 
 ALTERATION OF THE NASAL MUCOUS MEMBRANE. 
 
 CHARLES E. SAJOUS, M.»., 
 
 Lecturer on Rhinology and laryngology in Jefferson Medical College; Vice-President of Hie American Larytl 
 Association; Officer of the Academy of France nod of Public Instruction of Venezuela; Corresponding 
 
 Member of the Royal Society of Belgium, of tho Medical Society of Warsaw (Pol in ), 
 
 and of the Society of Hygiene of France; Member of the American 
 
 Philosophical Society, etc., etc. 
 
 WITH 13 ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. BEVELED 
 
 EDGES. PRICE, IN UNITED STATES AND CANADA, NET, «1.00- 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN, 4s, 66..; FRANCE, G fr. 20. 
 
 The object of this little work is to place in the hands of the general 
 practitioner the means to treat successfully a disease which, until lately, 
 was considered as incurable; its history, causes, pathology, and treat- 
 ment are carefully described, and the latter is so arranged as to be 
 practicable by any physician. 
 
 Dr. Sajous' volume must command the attention of 
 those called upon to treat this heretofore intractable com- 
 plaint. — Medical and Surgical Reporter. 
 
 Few have had the success in this disease which has 
 so much baffled the average practitioner as Dr. Sajous, con- 
 sequently his statements are almost authoritative. The 
 book must be read to be appreciated. — American Medical 
 Digest. 
 
 Dr. Sajous has admirably presented the subject, and, 
 a-c this method of treatment is now generally recognized 
 as efficient, we can recommend this book to all physicians 
 
 who are called upon to treat this troublesome disorder.— 
 The Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal. 
 
 The symptoms, etiology, pathology, and treatment of 
 'Hay Fever are fully and ably discussed. The reader will 
 not regret the expenditure of the small purchase price of 
 this work if he has cases of the kind to treat. — California 
 Medical Journal. 
 
 We are pleased with the author's views, and heartily 
 commend his book to the consideration of the profession. 
 — Tlie Southern, Clinic. 
 
 PHYSICIANS' AND STUDENTS* READY REFERENCE SERIES 
 
 zInTo. 1. = 
 
 By JOHN S. STEWART, M.D., 
 
 Demonstrator of Obstetrics and Chief Assistant in the Gynaecological Clinic of the Medico-Chirurgical 
 
 College of Philadelphia. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY 
 
 WILLIAM S. STEWART, A.M., M.D., 
 
 Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia. 
 
 42 ILLUSTRATIONS. 202 PAGES. 12 mo. HANDSOMELY BOUND IN DARK-SLUE CLOTH. 
 
 Price, Post-paid, in the United States and Canada, Net, $1.00 ; 
 Great Britain, 4s. 6d. ; France, 6 fr. 20. 
 
 By students this work will be found particularly useful. It is based 
 upon the teachings of such well-known authors as Playfair, Parvin, 
 Lush, Galabin, and Cazeaux and Tarnier, and, besides containing much 
 new and important matter of great value to both student and practi- 
 tioner, embraces in an Appendix the Obstetrical Nomenclature sug- 
 gested by Professor Simpson, of Edinburgh, and adopted by the 
 Obstetric Section of the Ninth International Medical Congress held in 
 Washington, D.C., September, 1887. 
 
 It is well written, excellently illustrated, and fully up 
 to date in every respect. Here we find all the essentials of 
 Obstetrics in a nutshell, Anatomy, Embryology, Physi- 
 ology, Pregnancy, Labor, Puerperal State, and Obstetric 
 Operations all being carefully and accurately described. — 
 Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal. 
 
 It is clear and concise. The chapter on the develop- 
 ment of the ovum is especial! y satisfactory. The judicious 
 
 use of bold-faced type for headings and italics for impor- 
 tant statements, gives the took a pleasing typographical 
 appearance. — Medical Record. 
 
 This volume is done with a masterly hand. The 
 scheme is an excellent one. . . . The whole is freely 
 and most admirably illustrated with well-dravm. new 
 engravings, and the book is of a very convenient sii«.— 
 St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal. 
 
 (F- A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) n 
 
DIPHTHERIA: 
 
 Croup, Tracheotomy, ^ Intubation 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF A. SANNE. 
 
 TRANSLATED AND ENLARGED BY 
 
 HENRY Z. GILL, M.D., LL.D. 
 
 Net Price, Post-paid, Cloth, - 
 " " Leather, 
 
 United States. 
 
 - $4.C0. 
 5.00. 
 
 Canada (duty paid). 
 
 $140. 
 
 5.50. 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 £ 0.17s. 
 1. Is. 
 
 France. 
 
 24 fr. 60 
 30 fr. 30 
 
 The above work, recently issued, is a translation from the French of Sanne's great 
 work theria," by EL Z. Gill, late Professor of Surgery in Cleveland, Oh 
 
 directly or indirectly, by every writer since its publication, 
 as the high-'-: authority, statistically, theoretically, and practically. The translator, 
 having cial Btudy to the subject for many years! has added over fifty pages, in- 
 
 cluding : Lnatomy, Intubation, and the recent progress in tl ■ b 
 
 i down to the present date; making it, beyond question, the most complete work 
 on the subject of Diphtheria in the English language. 
 
 le-page is found a very fine Colored Lithograph Plate of the parts o m« 
 cerned in Tracheotomy. Next follows an illustration of a cast of the entire Trachea, and 
 bronchi to the third or fourth division, in one piece, taken from a photograph of 
 
 h the cast was expelled during life from a patient sixteen years old. This is the 
 most complete ca<t of any one recorded. 
 
 Over fifty other illustrations of the surgical anatomy of instruments, etc., add to the 
 practical value of the work. 
 
 Diphtheria having become such a prevalent, wide-spread, and fatal disease, no 
 general practitioner can afford to be without this work. It will aid in preventive 
 
 stimulate promptness in the application of, and efficiency in, treatment, and 
 moderate the extravagant views which have been entertained regarding certain specifics 
 in the disease Diphtheria. 
 
 A full Index accompanies the enlarged volume, also a List of Authors, making 
 altogether a very handsome illustrated volume of over 680 pages. 
 
 In this book we have a complete review and 
 compendium of all worth preserving that has hitherto 
 been said or written concerning diphtheria and the 
 kindred subjects treated of by our author, collated, 
 arranged, and commented on by both author and 
 translator. The subject of intubation, so recently 
 revived in this country, receives a very careful and 
 impartial discussion at the hands of the translator, 
 and a most valuable chapter on the prophylaxis of 
 diphtheria and croup closes the volume. 
 
 His notes are frequent and full, displaying deep 
 knowledge of the subject-matter. Altogether the 
 book is one that is valuable and timely, and one 
 that should be in the hands of every general practi- 
 tioner. — St. Louis Med. and Surgical Journal. 
 
 Sanne's work is quoted, directly or indirectly, 
 by many writers since its publication, as the highest 
 authority, statistically, theoretically, and practi- 
 cally. The translator, having given special study 
 to the subject for many years, has added over fifty 
 pages, including the surgical anatomy, intubation, 
 and the recent progress in the branches treated, 
 down to the present date; m;tking it, beyond ques- 
 tion, the most complete work extant on the subject 
 of diphtheria in the English language. Diphtheria 
 having become such a prevalent, wide-spread, and 
 fatal disease, no general practitioner can afford to 
 be without this work. It will aid in preventive 
 measures, stimulate promptness in application of, and 
 efficiency in, treatment. — Southern Practitioner. 
 
 STANTON'S PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PHYSIOGNOMY 
 
 MOW TO P^EjQlXD FACES, 
 
 By MARY OLMSTED STANTON. 
 
 Copiously Illustrated. 
 
 Two I^arjje Octavo "Volumes. 
 
 United States. Canada (duty paid). Great Britain. France. 
 
 Price, per Volume, Cloth, 85. OO !*.",.. ",() SI. Is. 30 fr. 30 
 
 .. •• Sheep, 6.00 0.00 l.Os. 3G fr. 40 
 
 « " Half-Knssia, 7.00 7.70 1.9s. 43 fr. 30 
 
 $1.00 Discount for Cash. Sold only by Subscription, or sent direct on receipt of price, shipping expenses prepaid. 
 
 The author, Mrs. Mary O. Stanton, has given over twenty years to the preparation of this work. Her 
 style Is easy, and, by her happy method of illustration of every point, the book reads like a novel, and 
 memorizes itself. To physicians the diagnostic information conveyed is invaluable. To the general 
 reader each page opens a new train of ideas. (This book has no reference whatever to Phrenology.) 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
New Edition of an Important and Tim&ly Work Just Published. 
 
 Electricity in the Diseases of ^fomen, 
 
 "With Special Reference to the Application of Strong Currents. 
 
 By G. BETTON MASSEY, M.D., 
 
 Physician to the Gynecological Department of Howard Hospital, Late Electro-Therapeutist to the Phila- 
 delphia Orthopaedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases ; Member of the American 
 Neurological Ass'n, of the Philadelphia Neurological bociety, of the Franklin Institute, etc. 
 
 Second Edition.. 
 
 K.eTrisecT. a-an-d. 
 
 ZEzxlo.xrjfed.. 
 
 WITH NEW AND ORIGINAL WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. HANDSOMELY BOUND IN CLOTH. OVER 200 PAGEa 
 
 12mo. Price, in United States and Canada, $1.00, net, poat-paid. 
 
 In Great Britain, 5a. 6d. In France, 9 fr. 35. 
 
 This work is presented to the profession as the most complete treatise yi ' issued on 
 the electrical treatment of diseases of women, and is destined to fill the increasii.^ demand 
 for clear and practical instruction in the handling and use of strong currents after the 
 recent methods first advocated by Apostoli. The whole subject is treated from the present 
 stand-point of electric science with new and original illustrations, the thorough studies of 
 the author and his wide clinical experience rendering him an authority upon electricity 
 'itself and its therapeutic applications. The author has enhanced the practical value of 
 die work by including the exact details of treatment and results in a number of cases 
 taken from his private and hospital practice. 
 
 Fig. is. — Author's Fibroid Spear. 
 
 Fig. i8, — Ball Electrode for Administering Franklinic Sparks. 
 
 C03STTE3iTa?S 
 
 Chapter I, Introductory ; II, Apparatus required in gynecological applications of the galvanic current ; 
 III, Experiments illustrating the physical qualities of galvanic currents ; IV, Action of concentrated gal- 
 vanic currents on organized tissues ; V, Intra-uterine galvano-chemical cauterization; VI, Operative details 
 of pelvic electro-puncture; VII, The faradic current in gynecology ; VIII, The franklinic current in gyne- 
 cology ; IX, Non-caustic vaginal, urethral, and rectal applications ; X, General percutaneous applications in 
 the treatment of nervous women ; XI, The electrical treatment of fibroid tumors of the uterus ; XII, The 
 electrical treatment of uterine hemorrhage; XIII, The electrical treatment of subinvolution; XIV, The 
 electrical treatment of chronic endometritis and chronic metritis ; XV, The electrical treatment of chronic 
 diseases of the uterus and appendages; XVI, Electrical treatment of pelvic pain; XVII, The electrical 
 treatment of uterine displacements; XVIII, The electrical treatment of extra-uterine pregnancy; XIX, 
 The electrical treatment of certain miscellaneous conditions ; XX, The contra-indications and limitations to 
 the use of strong currents. 
 
 An Appendix and a Copious Index, including the definitions of terms used in the work, concludes 
 the book. 
 
 The author gives us what he has seen, and of which 
 
 he is assured by scientific study is correct We 
 
 are certain that this little work will prove helpful to all 
 physicians who desire to use electricity in the management 
 of the diseases of wotnou. — The American Lancet. 
 
 To say that the author is rather conservative in his 
 ideas of the curative powers of electricity is only another 
 way of saying that he understands his subject thoroughly. 
 The mild enthusiasm of our author is unassailable, because 
 it is founded ou science and reared with experience. — The 
 Meiliral Analectic. 
 
 The work is well written, exceedingly practical, and 
 can be trusted. We commend it to the profession." — Mary- 
 land Medical Journal. 
 
 The book is one which should be possessed by every 
 physician who treats diseases of women by electricity. — 
 The Brooklyn Medical Journal. 
 
 The departments of electro-physics, pathology, and 
 electro-therapeutioa are thoroughly and admirably con- 
 
 sidered, and by means of good wood-cuts the beginner has 
 before his eye the exact method of work required. — The 
 Medical Register. 
 
 " The author of this little volume of 210 pages ought 
 to have added to its title, " and a most hay • -...- - 
 
 upon the methods of using this medicinal s gent : " for in 
 the first 100 pages he has "contrived to descrite the techni 
 of electrization in as clear and happy a manner as no 
 author has ever succeeded in doing, and' for this part of the 
 book alone it is almost priceless" to the beginner in the 
 
 treatment with this agent The "little book is 
 
 worthy the perusal of every one at all interested in the 
 subject of electricity in medicine.— The Omaha Clinic. 
 
 The treatment" of fibroid tumor of the uterus will, 
 perhaps, interest the profession more generally than any 
 other question. This subject has teen accorded ample 
 space. The method of treatment in many cases has been 
 recited in detail, the results in every instance reported be- 
 ing beneficial, and in many curative. — Pacific Med. Jour. 
 
 12 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia. Pa., U.S. A. J 
 
-. JUST PUBLISHED.: 
 
 THE PHYSIOLOGY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Domestic Animals. 
 
 A TEXT-BOOK FOR VETERINARY AND MEDICAL 
 STUDENTS AND PRACTITIONERS. 
 
 ROBERT MEADE SMITH, A.M., M.D.. 
 
 Professor of Comparative Physiology iii University of Pennsylvania; Fellow of :he College of Physician! 
 
 and Academy of the N.iuir.,1 Sciences, Phil a lelphia : of the American Physiological 
 
 Society ; of the American Society of Naturalists ; Associe Euaager 
 
 de la Societe Francaise D' Hygiene, etc 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 Fig. 117.— Parotid and Submaxillary Fisti'l* »n the Horse, after Colin. 
 
 (Thanhojfcr and Tormay.) 
 
 K, K', rubber bulbs for collecting saliva ; en, cannula in the parotid duct. 
 
 In One Handsome Royal Octavo Volume of over 950 Pages, Pro- 
 fusely Illustrated v/ith more than 400 Fine "Wood- 
 Engravings and many Colored Plates. 
 
 United States. 
 
 NET PRICES, CLOTH, $5.00 
 
 SHEEP, 6.00 
 
 Canada (duty paid). 
 
 Groat Britain. 
 
 France. 
 
 $5.50 
 
 21s. 
 
 30 fr. 30. 
 
 6.60 
 
 24s. 
 
 36 fr. 20. 
 
 ■THIS new and important work, the moat thoroughly complete in the English language 
 on this subject, has just been issued. In it the physiology of the domestic animals 
 is treated in a most comprehensive manner, especial prominence being given to the sub- 
 ject of foods and fodders, and the character of the diet for the herbivora under different 
 conditions, with a full consideration of their digestive peculiarities. Without being over- 
 burdened with details, it forms a complete text-book of physiology, adapted to the use of 
 I s and practitioners of both veterinary and human medicine. This work has already 
 4"?cn adopted as the Text-Book on Phytioloyy in the Veterinary Colleges of the United 
 Statet, Great Britain, and Canada. 
 
 24 
 
 CF. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
HERE IS JUST THE BOOK TO PLACE ON THE WAITING-ROOM TABLE OF EVE' V 
 
 PHYSICIAN, AND A WORK THAT WILL PROVE USEFUL IN 
 
 THE HANDS OF YOUR PATIENTS. 
 
 Heredity, Health, and Personal 
 
 Including! the Selection of the Best Cosmetics for the Skin, Hair, 
 Nails, and All Parts Relating to the Body. By JOHN V. SHOE- 
 MAKER, A.M., M.D., Professor of Materia Medica, Pharmacol 
 
 Therapeutics, and Clinical Medicine, and Clinical Professor of Di- 
 of the Skin in the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia ; Physi- 
 cian to the Medico-Chirurgical Hospital, etc., etc. 
 
 The health of the skin and hair, and how to promote them, are dis- 
 cussed ; the treatment of the nails; the subjects of ventilation, food, 
 clothing, warmth, bathing; the circulation of the blood, digestion, ven- 
 tilation ; in fact, all that in daily life conduces to the well-being of the 
 body and refinement is duly enlarged upon. To these stores of popular 
 information is added a list of the best medicated soaps and toilet soaps, 
 and a whole chapter of the work is devoted to household remedies. 
 
 The work is largely suggestive, and gives wise and timely advice as 
 to when a physician should be consulted. 
 
 Complete in one handsome Royal Octavo volume of 425 pages, 
 beautifully and clearty printed, and bound in Extra Cloth, Bevelel 
 Edges, with side and back gilt stamps and Half-Morocco Gilt Top. 
 
 United States. Canada (duty paid). Great Britain. France. 
 
 Price in Cloth, rost-paid, $2.50 Net $2.75 Net 14s. 15 fr. 
 
 " i-Moroceo " 3.50 " 3.90 " 19s, 6d. 22 fr. 
 
 ONE OF THE MOST TIMELY AND USEFUL SMALL VOLUMES 
 PUBLISHED LATELY IS 
 
 The Daughter, 
 
 Her Health, Education, and Wedlock. Homely Suggestions to 
 Mothers and Daughters. By WILLIAM M. CAPP, M.D., Philadelphia. 
 It is just such a book as a family ph}'sician would advise his lady patients 
 to obtain and read. It answers man} r questions which every busy prac- 
 titioner of medicine has put to him in the sick-room at a time when it is 
 neither expedient nor wise to impart the information sought. 
 
 It will not mar the most proper womanly modesty or refined feelings, 
 and may wisely be put into the hands of any woman or girl ; is a book 
 for the family; will bear repeated readings and will be useful to refer to 
 in emergencies. 
 
 It is complete in one beautifully printed (large, clear type) 12mo 
 volume of 150 pages. Attractively bound in Extra Cloth. 
 
 Price, post-paid, in the United States and Canada, $1.00 Net; Great Britain, 
 5s. 6d. ; France, 6 fr. 20. 
 
International Pocket Medical Fopimilanj, 
 
 ARRANGED THERAPEUTICALLY. 
 
 By G. SUMNER WlTHERSTlNE, M.S., M.D., 
 
 Associate Editor of the "Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences ;" Visiting Physician of the Home for 
 the Aged, Germantown, Philadelphia; Late House-Surgeon Charity Hospital, New York. 
 
 More than 1800 Formulce from Several Hundred Weil-Known Authorities. 
 
 With an Arrnsmx containing a Posological Table, the newer remedies included ; Important Incompati- 
 ble : Tables on Dentition and the Pulse ; Table of Drops in a Fluidrachm and Doses of Laudanum graduated 
 Formulae and Doses of Hypodermic Medication, including the newer remedies; Uses of the Hypo- 
 dermic Syringe; Formula and Doses for Inhalations, Nasal Douches, Gargles, and Eye-washes ; Formula; 
 for Suppositories; Use of the Thermometer in Disease; Poisons, Antidotes, and Treatment ; Directions for 
 Post-Mortem and Medico-Legal Examinations; Treatment of Asphyxia, Sun-stroke, etc.; Anti-emetic 
 Remedies and Disinfectants: Obstetrical Table; Directions for Ligation of Arteries ; Urinary Analysis; 
 Table of Eruptive Fevers ; Motor Points for Electrical Treatment, etc., etc. 
 
 This work, the best and most complete of its kind, contains about 275 printed pages, besides 
 extra blank leaves. Elegantly printed, with red lines, edges, and borders; with illustrations. Bound 
 in leather, with side flap. It contains more than 1800 Formulae, exclusive of the large amount of 
 other very valuable matter. 
 
 Price, Post-paid, in the United States and Canada, $2.00, net ; 
 Great Britain, 8s. 6d. ; France, 12 fr. 40. 
 
 TPhl /?£"J C77/1/Q WHY EVERY MEDICAL MAN SHOULD POSSESS A COPY OF 
 I CIV nCHOUIVO THE INTERNATIONAL POCKET MEDICAL FORMULARY. 
 
 1. Because it is a handy book of reference, replete with the choicest formula; (over 1800 in number) of 
 more than six hundred of the most prominent classical writers and modern practitioners. 
 
 2. Because the remedies given are not only those whose efficiency has stood the test of time, but also the 
 
 newest and latest discoveries in pharmacy and medical science, as prescribed and used by the best- 
 known American and foreign modern authorities. 
 
 3. Because it contains the latest, largest (66 formula;) and most complete collection of hypodermic formula? 
 
 (including the latest new remedies! ever published, with doses and directions for their use in over 
 fifty different diseases and diseased conditions. 
 
 4. Because its appendix is brimful of information, invaluable in office work, emergency cases, and the 
 
 daily routine of practice. 
 
 6. Because it is a reliable friend to consult when, in a perplexing or obstinate case, the usual line of treat- 
 ment is of no avail. (A hint or a help from the best authorities, as to choice of remedies, correct 
 dosage, and the eligible, elegant, and most palatable mode of exhibition of the same.) 
 
 6. Because it is compact, elegantly printed and bound, well illustrated, and of convenient size and shape 
 
 for the pocket. 
 
 7. Because the alphabetical arrangement of the diseases and a thumb-letter index render reference rapid 
 
 and easy. 
 
 8. Because blank leaves, judiciously distributed throughout the book, afford a place to record and index 
 
 favorite formula;. 
 
 9. Because, as a student, he needs it for study, collateral reading, and for recording the favorite prescriptions 
 
 of his professors, in lecture and clinic ; as a recent graduate, he needs it as a reference hand-book for 
 daily use in prescribing (gargles, nasal douches, inhalations, eye-washes, suppositories, incompatibles, 
 poisons, etc.) ; as an old practitioner, he needs it to refresh his memory on old remedies and combi- 
 nations, and for information concerning newer remedies and more modern approved plans of treatment. 
 
 10. Because no live, progressive medical man can afford to be without it. 
 
 It is sometimes important that such pressriptions as 
 have been .veil established in their usefulness be preserved 
 for reference, and this little volume serves snob a purpose 
 better than any other we have seen.— Columl nu Medical 
 
 Without doubt this book is the best one of its class 
 
 that we have ever seen The printing, binding. 
 
 tnd genera] appearance of the volume are beyond praise.— 
 University Medical Wagazint . 
 
 It may be possible to get more crystallized knowledge 
 in an equally small space, but it does not seem probable.— 
 Medical Cla 
 
 A v.-rv handv and valuable bo.>k of formulae for the 
 .n's pocket.— Si. Louis Vedical and Sura. Journal. 
 
 This little pocket-hook contains an immense number 
 of prescriptions taken from high authorities in this and 
 other countries— .V'" - "'"". iti rn Zanci '. 
 
 This one is the most complete as well as the most 
 conveniently arranged of any thnt have come under our 
 attention. The diseases are' enumerated in alphabetical 
 ord»r. and for each the latest and most approved remedies 
 (ram the ablest authorities are prescribed. The book is in- 
 dexed entirely through after the order of the first paces of 
 a ledger, the ind u letter being printed on morocco leather 
 and th- durable Pacific Medical Journal. 
 
 iok desirable for the old practitioner and for 
 his younger brothers as well.— .S(. Joseph Medical Herald. 
 
 As long as " combinations " are sought such a bonk 
 will be of value, especially to those who cannot spare the 
 time required to learn enough of incompatibilities iieh.n 
 commencing practice to avoid writing incompatible and 
 dangerous prescriptions. The constant use of such a hook 
 by such prescribes would save the pharmacist much 
 anxiety.— Tin- Druggists' Circular. 
 
 In judicious selection, in accurate nomenclature. <n 
 
 arrangement, and in stvle it leaves nothing to be desired. 
 
 litor and the publisher are to be congratulated on the 
 
 production of the very best book of its class. — Pittsburgh 
 
 Medical St oit u . 
 
 One must see it to realize how much information can 
 be got into a work of so little bulk. — Canada Medical 
 Record. 
 
 To the young physician just starting out in practice 
 this little book will prove an acceptable companion.— 
 Omaha Clinic. _. . 
 
 The want of to-dav is crystallized knowledge. I Ins 
 
 neat little volume contains in it the most accessible form. 
 
 It is bound in morocco in pocket form, with alphabetical 
 
 ,, . of diseases, so that it is possible to turn instantly 
 
 to the r.inedv. whatever may be the disorder or wherever 
 
 the patient may be situated To the physician 
 
 it is invaluable, and others should not he without it. We 
 heartily commend the work to our readers.— Minnesota 
 Medical Journal. 
 
 Jo 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.; 
 
JXJST ISSUED. = 
 
 PHYSICIANS' AND STUDENTS' READY-REFERENCE SERIES. 
 
 ZL-To. 3. 
 
 Synopsis of Human Anatomy: 
 
 Being a Complete Compend of Anatomy, including the 
 Anatomy of the Viscera, and Numerous Tables. 
 
 JAMES K. YOUNG, M.D., 
 
 Instructor in Orthopaedic Surgery and Assistant Demonstrator of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania; 
 Attending Orthopaedic Surgeon, Out-Patient Department, University Hospital, etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 76 WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. 390 PAGES. 
 
 12mo. HANDSOMELY BOUND IN DARK-BLUE CLOTH. 
 
 Price, Post-paid, in the United States and Canada, $1.40, net; 
 Great Britain, 6s. 6d. ; France, 9 fr. 25. 
 
 While the author has prepared this work especially for students, sufficient de- 
 scriptive matter has been added to render it extremely valuable to the busy practitioner, 
 particularly the sections on the Viscera, Special Senses, 
 and Surgical Anatomy. 
 
 The work includes a complete account of Osteology, 
 Articulations and Ligaments, Muscles, Fascias, Vascular 
 and Nervous Systems, Alimentary, Vocal, and Respiratory 
 and Genito-Urinary Apparatuses, the Organs of Special 
 Sense, and Surgical Anatomy. 
 
 In addition to a most carefully and accurately prepared 
 text, wherever possible, the value of the work has been 
 enhanced by tables to facilitate and minimize the labor of 
 students in acquiring a thorough knowledge of this impor- 
 tant subject. The section on the teeth has also been 
 especially prepared to meet the requirements of students 
 of Dentistry. 
 
 In its preparation, Gray's Anatomy [last edition], 
 edited by Keen, being the anatomical work most used, has 
 been taken as the standard. 
 
 Anatomy is a theme that allows such concen- 
 tration better than most medical subjects, and, as 
 the accuracy of this little book is beyond question, 
 its value is assured. As a companion to the dis- 
 secting-table, and a convenient reference for the 
 practitioner, it has a definite field of usefulness. — 
 Pittsburgh Medical Review. 
 
 This is a very carefully prepared compend of 
 a..atomy, and will be usefui to students for college 
 or hospital examination. There are some excellent 
 tables in the work, particularly the one showing the 
 origin, course, distribution, and functions of the 
 cranial nerves. — Medical Record. 
 
 Dr. Young has compiled a very useful book. 
 We are not inclined to approve of compends as a 
 general rule, but it certainly serves a good purpose 
 to have the subject of anatomy presented in a com- 
 pact, reliable way, and in a boot- easily carried to 
 the dissecting-room. This the author has done. 
 The book is well printed, and tne illustrations well 
 selected. 1 f a student can indulge in more than one 
 work on anatomy, — for, of course, he must have a 
 general treatise on the subject, — he can hardly do 
 better than to purchase this compend It will save 
 the larger work, and can always be with him during 
 the hours of dissection. — Buffalo Medical and 
 Surgical Journal. 
 
 Excellent tables have been arranged, which 
 tersely and clearly present important anatomical 
 facts, and the book will be found very convenient 
 for ready reference.— Columbus Medical Journal. 
 
 The book is much more satisfactory than the 
 "remembrances" in vogue, and yet is not too cum- 
 bersome to be carried around and read at odd 
 moments — a property which the student will readily 
 appreciate.— Weekly Medical Review. 
 
 If a synopsis of human anatomy may serve a 
 purpose, and we believe it does, it is very important 
 that the synopsis should be a good one. in this 
 respect the above work may be recommended as a 
 reliable guide. Dr. Young has shown excellent 
 judgment in his selection of illustrations, in the 
 numerous tables, and in the classification of the 
 various subjects — Therapeutic Gazette. 
 
 Every unnecessary word has been excluded, out 
 of regard to the very limited time at the medical 
 student's disposal. Tt is also good as a reference 
 book, as it presents the facts about which he wishes 
 to refresh his memory in the briefest manner 
 consistent with clearness. — New York Medical 
 Journal. 
 
 It is certainly concise and accurate, and should 
 be in the hands of every student and practitioner.— 
 The Medical Brief. 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
 27 
 
— ===ANNUAL=^ — 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Universal Medical S c ^ ences - 
 
 A YEARLY REPORT OF THE PROGRESS OF THE GENERAL SANITARY 
 SCIENCES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. 
 
 Edited by CHARLES E. SAJOUS, M.D., 
 
 LECTURER ON LARYNGOLOGY AND RHINOLOGY IN JEFFEKSON MEDICAL COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, ETC., 
 
 AXIl 
 
 SEVENTY ASSOCIATE EDITORS, 
 
 Assisted by over TWO HUNDRED Corresponding Editors and Collaborators. 
 
 In Five Royal Octavo I' about 500 images each, bound in Cloth and Half-Russia, 
 
 Magnificently Illustrated with Chromo-IAthographs, Engravings, 
 
 Maps, Charts, anil Diagrams. 
 
 BEmG INTENDED 
 
 1st. the busy practitioner in his efforts to keep abreast of the rapid sti 
 
 of all the branches of his profession. 
 
 ' ■ avoid for him the loss of time involved in searching for that which is new in 
 the profuse and constantly increasing medical literature of our day. 
 
 Sd. To enable him to obtain the greatest possible benefit of the limited time he is 
 able to devote to reading, by furnishing him with new matter ONLY. 
 
 4th. To keep him informed of the work 'lone by all nations, including many other- 
 wise seldom if ever heard from. 
 
 To furnish him with a review of all the new matter contained in the periodicals 
 to which he cannot (through their immense number) subscribe. 
 
 6th. To cull for the specialist all that is of a progressive nature in the general and 
 special publications of all nations, and obtain for him special reports from countries in 
 which such publications do not exist, and 
 
 Lastly, to enable any physician to possess, at a moderate cost, a complete 
 
 CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF UNIVERSAL MEDICINE, 
 
 by many of America's ablest teachers, and superior in every detail, of print, ; a] sr 
 binding, etc., etc., a befitting continuation of such great works as "Peppers System of 
 
 ne," "Ashhurst's International Encyclopaedia of Surgery," "Buck's Reference 
 Hand-Book of the Medical Sciences," etc., etc. 
 
 EDITORIAL STAFF of the ANNUAL of the UNIVERSAL MEDICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 ISSUE OK 1888. 
 
 Chief Editor, DR. CHARLES E. SAJOUS, Philadelphia 
 
 ASSOCIATE STAFF. f 
 
 Volume I. — Obstetrics, Gynecology, Pediatrics, Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, 
 Histology, ami Embryology. 
 
 Prof. William G lell and Dr. W. C. Prof. II. Newell Martin and Dr. W. II. 
 
 (. ell. Philadelphia. Howell, Baltimore. 
 
 Prof. E. C. Dudley, Chicago. ! Dr. Chns. S. Minot, Boston. 
 
 Prof. W. II. Parish, Philadi Iphia. Dr. E. 0. Shakespeare. Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. William S. Forbes, Philadelphia. Dr. W. X. Sudduth, Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. Win. L. Richardson. Boston. 
 Prof. Theo] dim Parvin. I'hilada. 
 Prof. Louis Starr, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. J. Lewis Smith, New York City. 
 Prof. Pa l I'. Maude and Dr. E. II." 
 Grand;,,. New Fork City. 
 
 Volume II. — Diseases of the Respiratory, Circulatory, Digestive, and Nervous Systems', 
 
 Fevers, Exanthemata, etc., etc. 
 
 Prof. A. L. Loomis, New York Citv. | Prof. E. C. S< ruin, New York Citv. Prof. Jas. Tvson. Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. Jas. T. Whittaker, Cincinnati. Prof. E. C. Spitzka. New York Cit<\ Prof. N. S. Dai is, Chicago. 
 
 Prof. W. II. Tl ison, New York City. | ProfChas.K. Mills and Dr. J. H.Llbyd, Prof. John Guiteras, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 Prof. w. W. Johnston, Washington. Philadelphia. Dr. Jas. C. Wilson. Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof Jos. Leidy, Philadelphia. , Prof. Francis Delafield, N. Y. City. 
 
 Volume III. — General Surgery, Venereal Diseases, Anesthetics, Surgical Dressings, 
 
 Dii tetii s, etc., etc. 
 
 Prof. D. Hayes Agnew, Philadelphia. ] Prof. F. R. Sturgis, Now York City. Prof. T. G. Morton and Dr. Win, Hunt, 
 
 Prof. Hunter McGuire, Richmond. 
 i , New York. 
 Prof. P. £ ncinnati. Prof. Christopher Johnston, Haiti nore. Dr. I has, Wirgmau, Philadelphia. 
 
 Dr. Chus. IS. Kelsey, New York City. Dr. C. C. Davidson, Philadelphia. 
 
 .' Ew in.' Hears, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. E. L, K.- ■•-, .New York < in . 
 
 Volume IV. — ' ' 'jihihahnology, Otology, Laryngology, Uhinology, Dermatology, Dentistry, 
 Hygiene, Disposal of the Dead, etc., etc. 
 
 Prof. William Thomson. Philadelphia. I Prof. C. N. Peirce, Philadelphia. Dr. Chns. S. Tnrnhull. Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. j. Solis Colo-,,. Philadeli | Prof. John li. Hamilton, Washington. I>r. Edw. C. Kirk. Philadelphia. 
 
 ]■ i D.Bi on Delavan, New York. Prof. H. M. Lyman. Chicago. | Dr. John G. Lee. Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. A. Van Harlingen, Philadelphia. Prof. S. H. Guilford, Philadelphia. Dr. Chas. E. Sajous, Philadelphia. 
 
 28 
 
List of Collaborators to Dental Department. 
 
 Prof. James Truman, Philadelphia. | Prof. E. II. Anfrlo, Minneapolis, Minn, 
 
 Prof. J. A. Marshall, Ch 
 Prof. A. W. Harlan, Chicago, ill. 
 Prof, G. V. Black, Chioago, 111. 
 Prof. C. II. Stowoll, Ann Arbor, Mich. 
 Prof. L. C. Ingersoll, Keoltuk, Iowa. 
 Prof. F. J. S. Gorgas, Baltimore, Md. 
 Prof. II. A. Smith, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 Prof. C. P. Pengm, Boston, Mass. 
 
 ipoliH. ind. 
 
 Prof. K. Stubbletield, Nashville, 1 enn 
 Prof. W. C. Barrett, Butfalo, N. V. 
 Prof. A. ll. Thompson, Topeka, Kan. 
 Dr. James W. White, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. L. Ashley Faugh*, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. Roberts. Ivy, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. W. Storer How, Philadelphia. 
 
 Dr. J. D. Patterson, Kansas City, Mo. 
 Dr. J. B. Uodgkin, Wo hingtoi l 
 
 Dr. B. It. Aod,. ; • I . ■ . I 
 
 Dr. Albion M. Dud em Situs. 
 
 Dr. Geo. S. Alien, New Vork fjily. 
 Dr. <;. S. Dean, >:ui C rancl '". ' III 
 
 in , M ll. J- letcher, Cincinnati, I »hio. 
 Dr. A. Morsman, Omaha, Neb. 
 Dr. G. \V. Melotte, Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 Volume V. — General and Experimental Therapeutics, Medical (Jhcuur-lr;/, Medical 
 Jurisprudence, Demography, Climatology, etc., etc. 
 
 Prof. William Poppor, Philadelphia. i Prof. Goorgo II. Robe, Baltimore. j Dr. W. P. Man ton, Detroit. Mich. 
 
 Prof. F. W. Draper, Boston. Dr. Albert L. Gilion, U. S. N. Dr. Ili.lm.rt A. Hare, Philade phia. 
 
 Prof. J. W. Holland, Philadelphia. Dr. K. J. Dungllson, Philadelphia. Dr. C. S. Witherstine, Pluladulphia. 
 
 Prof. A. L. Itanuey, New York City. I I 
 
 TZEaZIE STTBSCRIPTIOIT PRICE 
 (Including the "SATELLITE" for one year). 
 
 United States. Canada (duty paid). Great Britain. Franoe. 
 
 Cloth, 5 Vols., Royal Octavo, - - $15.00 $16.50 £3.5s. 93 fr. 95 
 
 Ealf-Rusaia, 5 Vols., Royal Octavo, - 20.00 22.00 16s. 121 fr. 35 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS. 
 
 We venture to say that all who saw the Annual as it appeared in 1888 were on the 
 lookout for its reappearance this (1889) year; but there are many whose knov/ledge of this 
 magnificent undertaking will date with this present issue, and to those a mere examina- 
 tion of the work will suffice to sho"w that it fills a legitimate place in the evolution of 
 knowledge, for it does what no single individual is capable of doing. 
 
 These volumes make readily available to the busy practitioner the best fruits of 
 medical progress for the year, selected by able editors from the current literature of the 
 world; such a work cannot be overlooked by anyone who would keep abreast of the 
 times. With so much that is worthy of notice incorporated in one work, and each depart- 
 ment written up with a minuteness and thoroughness appreciated particularly by the 
 specialist, it would avail nothing to cite particular instances of progress. Let it be suffi- 
 cient to say, however, that while formerly there was a possible excuse for not having the 
 latest information on matters pertaining to the medical sciences, there can no longer be 
 such an excuse while the Annual is published. — Journal of the American Medical 
 Association. 
 
 We have before us the second issue of this Annual, and it is not speaking too 
 strongly when we say that the series of five volumes of which it consists forms a most 
 important and valuable addition to medical literature. 
 
 Great discretion and knowledge of the subjects treated of are required at the hands 
 of those who have taken charge of the various sections, and the manner in which the 
 gentlemen who were chosen to fill the important posts of sub-editors have acquitted 
 themselves fully justifies the choice made. We know of no branch of the profession to 
 which this Annual could fail to be useful. Dr. Sajous deserves the thanks of the whole 
 profession for his successful attempt to facilitate the advance of medical literature and 
 practice. — London Lancet. 
 
 This very valuable yearly report of the progress of medicine and its collateral 
 sciences throughout the world is a work of very great magnitude and high importance. 
 It is edited by Dr. C. E. Sajous, assisted, it is stated, by seventy associate editors, whose 
 names are given, making up a learned and most weighty list. Their joint labors have 
 combined to produce a series of volumes in which the current progress throughout the 
 world, in respect to all the branches of medical science, is very adequately represented. 
 The general arrangements of the book are ingenious and complete, having regard to 
 thoroughness and to facility of bibliographical reference. — British Medical Journal. 
 
 The editor and publishers of the Annual of the Universal 
 Medical Sciences take this opportunity to thank its numerous friends 
 and patrons for the liberal support accorded it in the past, and to 
 announce its publication, as usual, in 1891. Recording, as it does, the 
 progress of the world in medicine and surgery, its motto continues to 
 be, as in the past, u Improvement," and its friends may rest assured that 
 no effort will be spared, not only to maintain, but to surpass, the high 
 standard of excellence already attained. 
 
 The Subscription Price will be the same as last year's issue and 
 the issues of 1889 and 1888. 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
ISSUE OF 18S9 
 
 The Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences. 
 
 In Five Royal Octavo Volumes <>r over 500 i>aic<>N each, bound in Cloth and 
 
 Half-Kussla, Magnificently Illustrated with Chroino-Lilthographa, 
 
 Engravings, Maps, charts, and Diagrams. 
 
 THE SUBSCRIPTION PRICE (including the -Satellite" for one year). 
 
 United Slates. Canada (duty paid). Great Britain. Franoe, 
 
 Cloth, 5 Vols., Royal Octavo, - - $15.00 $16.50 ' £3.5s. 93 fr. 95 
 
 Half-Russia, 5 Vols., Royal Octavo, - 20.00 22.00 4.6s. 124 fr. 35 
 
 This work is bound in above Styles only, and sold by subscription. 
 
 Published in Connection with the Annual and for Subscribers Only. 
 
 THE SATELLITE 
 
 AKNVAI, OK THE I'MVERSAI, MEDICAL SCIENCES. 
 
 A M inthly Review of the most important articles upon the practical branches of medicine appearing in 
 the medical press at large, edited by ihe CI iei Editor ol the Annual and an able staff. 
 
 Editorial Staff of the Annual of the Universal Medical Sciences, issue of 1889. 
 
 Chief Editor, Dr. CHAS. E. SAJOUS, Philadelphia. 
 
 ASSOCIATE STAFF. 
 
 Volume I.— Diseases of tli - I. if the Eeart, Diseases of the Gastro- 
 
 11' - D sea of the Intestines, Intestinal Entozoa, Diseases of 
 
 the Kidneys and B Fevers, Fevers in Children, Diphtheria, Rheu- 
 
 matism and Gout, Diabetes, Volume Ind 
 
 Dr. Jas. C. Wilson, Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. Louis Starr, Philadelphia 
 Prof. J. lewis Smith, New York. 
 Prof. N. S. Davis, Chicago. 
 Prof. Jas. Tyson, Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. Jas. T. Whit taker, Cincinnati. 
 Prof. A. L. 1 OOmiS, Now York City. 
 Prof. E. T Bruen, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. W. W. Johnston, Washington. 
 I >r. L. Emmett Holt, New York. 
 Prof. Jos. Leidy, Philadelphia. 
 
 Volume II. — Diseases of the Brain and Cord, Peripheral Nervous System, Mental 
 Diseases, Inebriety, Diseases of the Uterus, Diseases of the Ovaries, Diseases 
 of the External Genitals in Women, Diseases of Pregnancy, Obstetrics, Dis- 
 - of the Newborn, Dietetics of Infancy, Growth, volume Index. 
 
 Prof W. H. Parish. Philadelphia. 
 Prof. Theophilus Parvin, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. Win. I., kichardson. Boston. 
 Dr. A. F. Currier, New York. 
 
 Prof. I otiis Starr, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. Chas. S. Minot, Boston. 
 
 Prof. E. C. Seguin, New York City. 
 
 Prof. Henrv Hun. Albany. 
 
 Dr. E. N. brush, Philadelphia. 
 
 Dr. W. R. Birdsall, New York. 
 
 Prof. Paul ]•'. Munde, New York City. 
 
 Prof. \Vm. Goodell. Philadelphia. 
 
 Dr. W. C. Goodell, Philadelphia. 
 
 Volume III. — Surgery of Brain, Surgery of Abdomen, Genito-Urinary Surgery, Dis- 
 eases of Rectum and Anus, Amputation and Resection and Plastic Surgery, 
 Surgical Diseases of Circulation, Fracture and Dislocation, Military Surgery, 
 Tumors, Orthopaedic Surgery, Oral Surgery, Surgical Tuberculosis, etc Sur 
 gical Diseases, Results of Railway Injuries, Anaesthetics, Surgical Dressings, 
 Volume Index. 
 
 Prof. N. Senn, Milwaukee. 
 Prof. E. L. Keyes, New York City. 
 Pi if. J. Ewing Meats, Philadelphia. 
 I )r Chas, B. Kelsey, New York City. 
 Prof P. S. Conner, Cincinnati. 
 Dr. John H. Packard, Philadelphia. 
 
 ; Lewis A. Stimson, New York City. 
 Dr. J. M. Barton, Philadelphia. 
 
 Volume IV. — Skin Diseases, Ophthalmology, Otology, Rhinology, Diseases of Pharynx, 
 etc., Intubation, Diseases of Larynx and Oesophagus, Diseases of Thyroid 
 Gland, Legal Medicine, Examination for Insurance, Diseases of the Blood, 
 Urinalysis, Volume Index. 
 
 Prof. D. Hayes Agnew, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. Morris Longstreth, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. Thos. G. Morton, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. J. 1". Garretson, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. J. W. White, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. C. Johnston, Baltimore. 
 Prof. E. C. Seguin, New York City. 
 
 Prof. A. Yan Harlingen, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. Chas A. Oliver and Dr. Geo. M. 
 
 Gould, Philadelphia. 
 Dr Charles S. Turnbull, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. J. Solis Cohen, Philadelphia. 
 
 John GuiteVas, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 Dr. Chas. E. Sajous, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. D. Bryson Delavan, New York. 
 Prof R, Fletcher lngals, Chicago. 
 Prof. F. W. Draper. Boston 
 Prof. Jas. Tyson, Philadelphia. 
 
 Volume V. — General Therapeutics, Experimental Therapeutics, Poisons, Electric 
 Therapeutics, Climatology, Dermography, Technology, Bacteriology, Embry- 
 ology. Physiology, Anatomy, General Index. 
 
 Dr. C. Sumner Withers! ine, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. J. W. Holland, Philadelphia. 
 
 Dr. J. P. Crozer Griffith, Philadelphia. 
 Dr. Hobart A. Hare, Philadelphia. 
 Prof Geo. H. Rohe, Baltimore. 
 Prof. John B Hamilton. Washington. 
 Dr. Harold C. Ernst, Boston. 
 Prof. H. Newell Martin, Baltimore. 
 Dr. R. J. Dunglison, Philadelphia. 
 
 Prof. A. L. Ranney, New Yorl 
 Dr. Albert H. Gihon, U. S. N. 
 Dr. W. P. Manton, Detroit. 
 Dr. W. X. Sudduth, Philadelphia. 
 Prof. Wm. T. Forbes, Philadelphia. 
 
 80 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
THE LATEST BOOK OF REFERENCE ON NERVOUS DISEASES. 
 
 Lectures on Nervous Diseases, 
 
 FROM THE STAND-POINT OF CERERRAL AND SPINAL LOCALIZATION, AND 
 
 THE LATER METHODS EMPLOYED IN THE DIAGNOSIS AND 
 
 TREATMENT OF THESE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 By AMBROSE L. RANNEY, A.M., M.D., 
 
 Pri.'essor of the Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in the New York Post-Graduate Medical 
 
 School and Hospital ; Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases in the Medical Department of the 
 
 University of Vermont, etc ; Author of "The Applied Anatomy of the Nervous system," 
 
 " Practical Medical Anatomy," etc., etc. 
 
 PEOFTTSELT ILIVSTU^lTED 
 
 With Original Diagrams and Sketches in Color by the Author, carefully selected Wood. 
 
 Engravings, and Reproduced Photographs of Typical Cases. 
 
 ONE HANDSOME ROYAL OCTAVO VOLUME OF 780 PAGES. 
 
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 CLOTH, ... S5.50 866.05 
 
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 It is now generally conceded that the nervous system controls all of the physical 
 functions to a greater or less extent, and also that most of the symptoms encountered at 
 the bedside can be explained and interpreted from the stand-point of nervous physiology. 
 
 The unprecedented sale of this work during the short period whi'l: has elapsed since 
 its publication has already compelled the publishers to print a second edition, which is 
 already nea.rly exhausted. 
 
 We are glad to note that Dr. Ranney has pub- 
 lished in z ;ok form his admirable lectures on nervous 
 diseases. His book contains over seven hundred 
 large pages, and is profusely illustrated with origi- 
 nal diagrams and sketches in colors, and with many 
 carefully selected wood-cuts and reproduced photo- 
 graphs of typical cases. A large amount of valua- 
 ble information, not a little of which has but recently 
 
 appeared in medical literature, is presented in com- 
 pact form, and thus made easily accessible. In our 
 opinion, Dr. Ranney's book ought to meet with a 
 cordial reception at the hands of the medical pro- 
 fession, for, even though the author's views may be 
 sometimes open to question, it cannot be disputed 
 that his work bears evidence of scientific method and 
 honest opinion. — American Journal of Insanity. 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Diseases of the Nose and Throat. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE, PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 By CHARLES E. SAcJOUS, M.D., 
 
 Lecturer on Rhinology and Laryngology in Jefferson Medical College; Vice-President of the American Laryngologieal 
 
 Association; Officer of the Academy of France and of Public Instruction of Venezuela; Corresponding Member 
 
 of the Koyal Society of Belgium, of the Medical Society of Warsaw (Poland), and of the Society of 
 
 Hygiene of France ; Member of the American Philosophical Society, etc., etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 100 CHKOMO -LITHOGRAPHS, FROM OIL PArNTLNGS B"S 
 THE AUTHOR, AND 93 ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. 
 
 ONE HANDSOME KOYAL OCTAVO VOLUME. SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCKLTTION. 
 
 United States. Canada (duty paid). Great Britain. F-ance. 
 
 Cloth, Royal Octavo, - $4.00 S4.40 22s. 6d. 24 fr. 60 
 
 Half-Russia, Royal Octavo, - 5.00 S.50 28s. 30 fr. 30 
 
 (H3P Since the publisher brought this valuable work before the prof ession, it has become; 
 1st, the text-book of a large number of colleges; 2d, the reference-book of the U. S. Arm'/, 
 Navy, and the Marine Service; and, Sd, an important and valued addition to the libraries 
 of over 7000 physicians. 
 
 This book has not only the inherent merit of presenting a clear expose of the subject, 
 but it is written with a view to enable the general practitioner to treat his cases himself. 
 To facilitate diagnosis, colored plates are introduced, showing the appearance of the differ- 
 ent parts in the diseased state as they appear in nature by artificial light. No error can 
 thus be made, as each affection of the nose and throat has its representative in the 100 
 chromo-lithographs presented. In the matter of treatment, the indications are so complete 
 that even the slightest procedures, folding of cotton for the forceps, the use of the probe, 
 etc., are clearly explained. 
 
 It is intended to furnish the general practitioner II they would appear to him were they seen in the 
 
 not only with p guide for the treatment of diseases of living subject. As a guide to the treatment of the 
 
 the nose and throat, but also to place before him a ]l nose and throat, we can cordially recommend this 
 
 representation of the normal and diseased parts as || work. — Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 
 
 (F. A. DAVIS, Medical Publisher, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.) 
 
The Medical Bulletin 
 
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 TOKIO, Japan— Z. P. Marnya it Co. 
 
 OINTMENTS AND OLEATES, 
 
 ESPECIALLY IN DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 
 
 By JOHN V. SHOEMAKER, A.M., M.D., Professor of Materia 
 Medica, Pharmacology, Therapeutics, and Clinical Medicine, and Clinical 
 Professor of Diseases of the Skin in the Medico-Chirurgical College of 
 Philadelphia, etc., etc. 
 
 No. 6 in the Physicians' and Students' Ready-Reference Series. 
 Second Edition, revised and enlarged. 298 pages. 12mo. Neatly 
 bound in Dark-blue Cloth. 
 
 Price in United States and Canada, post-paid, $1.50 Net; 
 Great Britain, 8s. 6d. ; France, 9 fr, 35. 
 
 The author concisely concludes his preface as follows : " The reader 
 may thus obtain a conspectus of the whole subject of inunction as it 
 exists to-day in the civilized world. In all cases the mode of preparation 
 is given, and the therapeutical application described seriatim, in so far 
 as may be done without needless repetition." 
 
 It is invaluable as a ready reference when ointments or oleates are to be used, and is serviceable to both 
 druggist and physician. — Canada Medical Record. 
 
 To the physician who feels uncertain as to the best form in which to prescribe medicines by way of the 
 skin the book will prove valuable owing to the many prescriptions and formula; which dot its pages, while 
 the copious index at the back materially aids in making the book a useful one. — Medical Newt, 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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