UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
WASHINGTON,  D. C.
OPO  16—67244-1 
 
 
THfi
PHILOSOPHY OF HEALTH ;
HEALTH WITHOUT MEDICINE:
A TREATISE
LAWS OF THE HUMAN SYSTEM.
L. B. COLES, M. D.
FELLOW OP THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIHJ3r, AMD^^^^
  MEMBER OP THE BOSTON MEDICAL ASSfXffATKijU.   7??**+,
                     -\sxs  ■ 'ipTr
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EIGHTH  EDITION,
          BOSTON:

WILLIAM D. TICKNOR & COMPANY,

      Corner of School and Washington Streets.

           M DCCC XLIX. 
QTA
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by
                   L.  B.  COLES,
[n the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District nl
                    Massachusetts.
            Stereotyped by
      GEORGE  A.  CURTIS;
NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
              BOSTON. 
PREFACE.
  This work has been written during irregular
and interrupted intervals, which have occurred
amidst the  pressure  of other  cares, and  has
passed through but one manuscript to the press;
yet the ideas contained in  it are the result of
many years' experience,observation,and study;
not particularly the study of books and others'
theories, but the study of natural law, and the
philosophy of facts.   And although its leading
motto is  " Health without Medicine," yet it  is
not expected that no medicines are ever needed;
it is sometimes necessary to take medicine  to
remove disease — assist nature to throw off her
incumbrances, and restore herself to health and
strength.  Yet whoever will obey nature's laws,
will, comparatively speaking, have health with-
out the aid of medicine.  Medicines should be
used only as unavoidables;  they should only be
resorted to when the  remedy may not be worse
than the disease, as a choice between two evils,
both of which should be avoided as far as pos-
sible.
  This manual is not intended  particularly for
the eye of the medical man, but for the mass of
the people.   And although the  author may be 
iv
PREFACE.
considered ultra by some, on the subject of ani
mal  food, yet it is most sincerely to be  hoped
that  no one will allow himself to imbibe a prej-
udice against the  rest of the work, because he
cannot  consent  to this ddctrine; for, let it be
remembered, that  it is said in the introduction
of this  topic, that no strenuousness is intended
on the subject, but that  it is better that every
one  judge candidly on the matter for  himself.
While, therefore, the writer would urge — not
for himself,  but for the good  of the  commu-
nity— with all earnestness and  solicitude, a se-
rious attention to,  and regard for, his views and
suggestions on  every other  topic contained in
this work, yet, with all modesty, would he retire
from any controversy with  those who cannot
relinquish the use of meat.   He is content with
stating what he believes to be  the facts  in the
case, and would leave the decision of the matter
entirely with those who may think or act differ-
ently. 
CONTENTS.
                                              Page.
Digestive Organs,...............9
    Mouth,  ..................10
    Stomach,.................10
    Liver,..................11
    Bowels,..................11
Digestive Process,...............12
    Mastication,................12
    Chymifactionj...............13
    Chylifaction,................14
    Evacuation,................15
Dietetic Rules,................18
    Time for Eating,..............18
    Time for Digesting,.............20
    Time for Exercise,.............26
    Time for Labor,..............31
Food  and Drinks,...............34
    Vegetable Food,..............34
    Animal Food,...............39
    Stimulating Drinks,.............47
    Nourishing Drinks,.............55
Particular Directions,.............58
    To Parents and  Guardians,.........58
    To Literary Institutions,...........65
    To Professional Men,............71
    To Laboring Men,.............75 
Vi                  CONTENTS.

General Directions,..............78
    On Sleeping,...............78
    On Bathing,...............80
    On Amusements,.............85
    On Indulgences,..............86
Mental Affections,..............88
    Cheerfulness,...............88
    Melancholy,...............90
    Benevolence,...............91
    Malevolence,...............92
Obligations to Law,.............93
    Physical,.................93
    Moral,..................94
    Personal,.................96
    Social,..................97
Appendix,..................101
Conclusion,.................117
Recommendations,  ..............119 
INTRODUCTION.
  There is scarcely any subject so universally
neglected as a knowledge of the laws of health
and  life.  We naturally love to be well,  and
dread to be sick; yet take  little or no pains to
economize  our health or to  ward off disease.
We  indulge  our appetites and inclinations* in
violation of the laws  of health, until we are
overtaken with  the  penalty  which  the  Great
Author of our being has affixed to them, in the
form of disease, and then, perhaps, charge the
result to Divine Providence.
  It may, with propriety, be said, that nine cases
out of  ten, if not ninety-nine out of a hundred,
of the ailments which annoy mankind, espe-
cially those  of a  chronic character, might with
ease be avoided.  We  might as well be enjoy-
ing* health, as a general thing, as to be groaning
under  pains and  diseases.   Though we  might
not be  able to repel  measles, small-pox, scarlet
fever, and many  other  contagious or epidemic
diseases, yet  nearly all chronic  diseases, and a
very large proportion of those which are acute,
might  be prevented;  and  even  those  which
could not be avoided,—for  instance, that fearful
malady, the small-pox,—by habitual obedience
to law, would be made of much milder form.
  Very little is known by the people at large
on this  subject,  and what is known is very 
8
INTRODUCTION.
lightly appreciated.   Scarcely any subject can
be presented to the  community in which they
take so little interest, as that which immediately
concerns their health, until  they are overtaken
with disease.   And scarcely any subject can be
brought forward which  is more offensive than
this, especially to those who love their appetites
more  than they do their health.
  These few pages are  intended for those who
are willing to know what course is best in order
to retain or to regain a healthy constitution—
for  those who have more  regard for their own
ultimate good  than for their present gratifica-
tion— for those who prefer the right  way to
that which fosters unlawful  indulgence.
  It is not  only a matter of  expediency  that we
obey law in this respect, but a  matter of  right.
The laws  which govern our  constitutions  are
the laws of the Creator; and  to their violation
he has affixed a penalty, which  must sooner or
later be met.  And it is as truly a sin to violate
one of these laws, as it is to violate one of  the
ten commandments.   Most people seem  to think
that they have  an undoubted right to do to and
with  their  own bodies  as  they please; forget-
ting that God will hold them under obligation
to obey physical as  well  as moral  law, and
that every infringement of that law will meet
with its appropriate reward.        L.  B. C. 
PHILOSOPHY OF  HEALTH.
      THE  DIGESTIVE ORGANS.

  There is no part of the human system which
has such controlling influence  over the whole
body, as respects health or disease, as the Diges-
tive Organs.  Any derangement in these, espe-
cially the stomach, calls up a sympathy of action
from the whole animal  economy.   Nearly all
the morbid actions found in the general  system
are produced from causes first operating on the
stomach.  Hence, keeping the digestive  system
in a healthy state, secures, as a general  rule, a
healthy  action in every other part of the physi-
cal organization.   Therefore, to  know some-
thing of the  anatomy and physiology  of  the
digestive organs, together with the laws of di-
gestion, seems indispensable  for  every indi-
vidual who would know how to take care of his
health.
  By the term digestive organs, are intended the
Mouth,  Stomach, Liver  and  Bowels, including
the whole alimentary  canal, commencing with
the mouth and terminating with the extremity
of the bowels.  Extending through the whole
length of this canal is a lining membrane, called
mucous membrane, continuous throughout, from
the lips  to the  opposite extremity.   This mem-
brane is filled, throughout its  whole distance, 
 10            DIGESTIVE  organs.

 with minute blood-vessels, and  in some  parts
 abundantly  supplied  with  fine  filaments  of
 nerves.   This membrane has important  func-
 tions to perform in the process of digestion.  It
 is a membrane of much  delicacy of structure
 and sympathy.   Its  healthy action  is  easily
 deranged, and when  deranged in one part, be-
 comes, by sympathy, deranged in every part.
                 THE MOUTH.
  The mouth, with its teeth and  glands, com-
 mences the digestive process.  The teeth are to
 masticate the  food.  The salivary glands give
 important aid, too, in digestion.   There are
 three  pairs  of glands which  pour the  fluid
 which they secrete into the mouth.   This fluid
 is called  saliva.  The effort of chewing food
 excites these glands and promotes the secretion
 of saliva, which  is essential to the healthy di-
 gestive process.
               THE  STOMACH.
  The stomach is the most important organ of
digestion.  It has three coats; that which has
most to do with digestion is the mucous coat,
which lines  it.   This coat is supposed to fur-
nish by  its glands what is called gastric juice;
which is the principal agent of digestion in the
stomach.
  The  stomach  is abundantly  supplied  with
nerves,  and  holds  a  very powerful sway over
the whole nervous system; so that when the
stomach is under the influence of disease, either
acute  or chronic, the  whole  system is  imme-
diately in a state of suffering.  To  secure, then
a healthy system, the  stomach must be kept in
 health. 
THE  BOWELS.              11
                 THE  LIVER.
   The  liver has to do with  digestion.   This
organ furnishes the bile.  It is the largest gland
in the body.  Its  office seems to be to  gather
from  and carry out of the system substances
which, if retained, might prove hurtful.  When
the liver is inactive,  we  have what  is called
jaundice; the liver failing to  take  up from  the
system  that substance which forms  the bile.
When this  is  the  case, a yellow  substance is
found diffused throughout the  whole body;  the
white of the eyes, and sometimes the surface of
the whole body, exhibit a  yellow tinge.
   The  bile, when  properly secreted  and  dis-
charged, meets the contents of the stomach as
discharged into that part of the bowels nearest
the stomach, and is there  supposed to assist in
the process of separating the nutritious part of
that contents from  the refuse which  is to pass
off by the bowels ;  but  its more important office,
doubtless, is to aid the  passage of the refuse, or
the feces, by evacuation.   The bile seems to be
nature's  appropriate stimulus to the bowels;
without  which costiveness and other-  irregu-
larities are likely to ensue.
                THE EOWELS.
   The bowels contain the absorbent vessels,
which take  up the nutritious  part  of food  and
carry it  into the circulation of the blood for the
support  of the system.  They also convey the
refuse part of food out  of the body. 
12
DIGESTIVE PROCESS.
     THE  DIGESTIVE  PROCESS.
                MASTICATION.
  Mastication,  or  chewing, is the first step in
the process of digestion.  When food is taken,
it should be thoroughly masticated before it is
suffered  to  pass into  the stomach.   Without
chewing, the food is too coarse and gross for the
stomach;  and is unprepared for the action of
the gastric juice.   Besides this, the action of
chewing causes the food to be mixed with the
saliva; which is an important item in the prep-
aration of it for the action of the stomach and
its juice.  The food should therefore be broker.
up into a fine  mass and well moistened  witb
saliva.  In order to accomplish this end, it is
highly necessary that food should be taken with
sufficient  moderation  to give time for the pro-
cess  of mastication and the discharge of saliva
from the glands of the mouth.  Eating fast, or
even talking while chewing, besides its incon-
gruity with politeness  and  good breeding, is
directly at war  with thorough mastication.
  Many persons seem  to think  that hurrying
their  meals to  save  time  is economy;  their
business drives them, and they drive  their time
of meals  into  the smallest  possible  compass.
This  is  miserable economy;  for  when  they
hurry down their food,  half chewed  and half
moistened with saliva, it deranges the process
of digestion throughout; and, as a consequence,
the food not only sets bad on the stomach and
in time causes dyspepsia, but it fails to accom-
plish the sole object of taking it — the nourieh-
ment of the body.  In order to derive nourish-
ment from food, it must be well digested ; hence
it must be well masticated.   When, therefore 
        MASTICATION--CHYMIFACTION.       13

we hurry our eating, we hasten our steps on the
wrong road.  Time curtailed in eating, is worse
than hiring money at three per cent, a month.
If we cannot spare time to eat, we  had better
not eat at all.  This idea cannot be too deeply
impressed: thousands, by this kind of careless,
reckless eating, have found themselves the vic-
tims of dyspepsia, and all its attendant train of
evils.  The digestive organs may bear the abuse
awhile without giving many signs of trouble;
but the penalty of that broken law must,  sooner
or later, come;  and it may come in the form of
a broken constitution.
                CHYMIFACTION.
   Chymifaction,  or the transformation of  food
into  chyme, is  the next important step  in the
process of digestion.  The  food, after  mastica-
tion, passes into the stomach: here it is formed
into  a homogeneous mass, partly  fluid  and
partly solid, which is called chyme.  What  is
the exact philosophy of this process  has been a
matter of some discussion, into which it is not
necessary now to enter;  nor is it yet satisfac-
torily  settled, so as to admit of  any definite
instruction being given.
   The theory which is now generally received
respecting  the  manner in which  the  stomach
acts upon food, is, that the gastric juice possess-
es a solvent  power by which the food becomes
reduced to a uniform mass.  The solvent power
of the  gastric juice  is  very great in  healthy,
vigorous  stomachs; but varies in strength ac-
cording to the energy of that organ.
   The solvent power of the  gastric  juice  is
evidently  controlled by the vital  principle, or
             2 
14
DIGESTIVE PROCESS.
principle of life.  While the gastric juice of a
healthy stomach acts vigorously upon the hard-
est kind of food, yet sometimes, when it comes
into contact with anything possessed  of  the
principle of life, its power is stayed.   Worms,
while living, are  not  affected by it;  but when
destroyed, are often digested.
   The gastric juice possesses the property also
of  coagulating liquid  albuminous  substances.
The stomach of the calf is used for this purpose
by the dairy women, in making cheese.  When
the infant throws up its milk because the stom-
ach  is too full, that milk will be more  or less
curdled;  and instead of considering this cur-
dling an indication of disease, it should be con-
sidered a symptom of a healthy stomach.
   The 'time ordinarily occupied in the process
of chymifaction, when food has been properly
masticated, has been  ascertained to be four or
five  hours.  The  first hour of this period is
occupied in the process of intermixing the food,
after it  enters the stomach,  with the  gastric
juice.   After  this is accomplished, an alterna-
tion of contraction and expansion of the stomach,
or a kind of churning motion, takes place, and
continues till the whole mass is converted into
chyme, and is conveyed to the  first intestine or
duodenum, to undergo another change.
                CHYLIFACTlON.

   Chylifaction, or  the  formation of  chyle, is
the next great step in the process of digestion.
This takes place in the duodenum.  The chyme
from the stomach is let into this intestine little
by little.   A valve at the lower opening or out-
let of the stomach prevents it from passing any 
EVACUATION.
15
faster than  it can "be disposed of in the forma-
tion of chyle.   This fluid is a thin milky liquid
extracted from the chyme, and then taken up by
absorbent vessels, called lacteals.
   The chyme passes slowly through the duode-
num ; and  in doing so,  becomes  mixed  with
another  fluid  furnished from  the  pancreas or
sweet-bread, and  the bile from the liver.  Pass
ing  thus slowly through  this large intestine,
ample time is given for the lacteals to take up all
that is valuable to be carried into the circulation
for the nourishment and support of the system.
This chyle, taken up by the lacteals, is directly
converted into blood; and in  many of  its char-
acteristics it very closely resembles blood.  The
process  by which this conversion is carried on,
is called absorption.   That class  of absorbent
vessels called  lacteals are not  only found in the
first intestine, or duodenum, but are distributed
along the small  intestines, for the  purpose, as
before  stated, of conducting  the  chyle in  its
appropriate  course for the formation of blood.
                 EVACUATION.
   Evacuation, or the  discharge of the refuse
part of food through the bowels, is another, and
the last step in the  process of digestion.   This
part of the subject has a very important bearing
upon the condition of health.  It is impossible
for any  one to  enjoy  good health while  this
office of  the bowels is imperfectly performed.
   If the bowels  are relaxed  and  irritable, the
food is  borne along too soon  and too  rapidly:
this  causes the  process  of  chylifaction to be
imperfect: the chyle is imperfectly formed, and
the lacteals  have not sufficient time to  absorb it 
16           DIGESTIVE PROCESS.

from the mass.   This prevents the food from
nourishing the system.  Hence, those who suffer
from chronic diarrhoea may eat largely, and yet
grow weaker and weaker; their  food  does not
nourish them; the nutritious part of  it  passes
off through  the  bowels  instead of being taken
into the blood.
   If the bowels, on the  other hand, are  consti-
pated,  the consequences are no  less unhappy.
No one can possibly be well with costive bow-
els.  The free and easy action of the bowels is
as truly essential to health,  as the free circula-
tion of the blood.  When the  bowels  are slug-
gish, the process of absorption of the chyle is
retarded, and  what  chyle  is absorbed is  less
pure and healthy; so the quality of the blood is
impaired.
   Besides the evils already mentioned, a  costive
state of bowels often causes a pressure of blood
on the brain ;  also derangement of the nervous
system—excitability  of the  nerves ;  nervous
headache;  depression of spirits;  and a  long
catalogue of sufferings, too numerous for detail.
Habitual costiveness  impairs the tone  of the
stomach, and prevents its healthy action.  Piles,
also, with various degrees of severity,  are often
caused, directly  or  indirectly,  by constipated
bowels.
   The  causes of costiveness are various; and
to point them out in detail would be perhaps a
fruitless toil.  But there is one  cause, and  a
very common one, which claims attention here :
it is the  habit  of  inattention  to, and neglect
of the  natural  promptings  of the bowels  to
evacuate themselves.  Thousands on thousands
especially females, by a habit  of checking the 
EVACUATION.
17
 natural inclinations  of the bowels to throw off
 their contents, have  brought upon themselves a
 habitual costiveness, Avhich, in time, has cost
 them immense suffering and wretchedness.
   No one should ever hold his bowels in check
 if it be possible to avoid it.  It can be readily
 perceived that doing this would tend to diminish
 the  natural effort of the bowels, and to collect
 their contents into  a solid  mass.   Then  the
 exertion required to empty the bowels, or  the
 physic  taken to  aid and  make effectual  that
 exertion, tends also to increase the difficulty.
   A  habit of costiveness  should always be re-
 moved  if possible; and the best way of doing
 this is by a course of discipline.  Those articles
 of food should be selected which have an influ-
 ence to keep the bowels open.   Bread made of
 flour has  a tendency to constipate  them.   But
 brown bread, and bread made of wheat meal,
 have  a tendency to  open  them; also molasses
 taken  with  food  has an  additional  tendency.
 Fruits  and greens,  if the  stomach  can  bear
 them, are adapted to relieve costiveness.
  The  influence of the mind should also be
 brought to bear upon this difficulty.  The opera-
 tion  of the  mind on the physical system is
 always  great, especially in chronic  complaints.
 A person  with costive  bowels  should  have a
 mental determination to have a natural evacua-
 tion of the bowels at some regular  hour in  the
 morning;  just after  breakfast  should be pre-
 ferred.  By a mental calculation — by bearing
the subject  in mind—by thinking and desir-
ing—by intending  to have  the bowels move
about that  hour,  very much  may  be  done  by
way of facilitating such a  result.
              2* 
18
DIETETIC RULES.
  But if, instead  of attending  to  a favorable
diet, and of thinking on  the  subject at the
proper time, we treat the difficulty with medi-
cines  alone, we do harm rather  than good;  for
the more alteratives we  take, the more we  in-
crease the trouble.  The physic  only overcomes
the constipation for the time, and afterwards
leaves the bowels in a more torpid state.   Still.
rather than endure the consequences of costive
ness, it is better to take alteratives, in  conjunc-
tion with other means, until the difficulty can
be overcome.   When alteratives are  used  in
conjunction  with discipline, they should be  of
the mildest  kind.   No  proper pains should  be
spared in overcoming this  derangement of  na-
ture,  till a habitual movement  of  the bowels,
once in twenty-four  hours, is secured.

           DIETETIC RULES.
              TIME  FOR  EATING.
   Time  for  eating has claims for attention.   If
persons intend to have health, their meals should
be regularly timed  and distanced.  There is
much importance to be attached to the kind of
food which we allow ourselves to take; but the
time of taking food, together with the proper  in-
tervals between meals, has a much  more impor-
tant bearing on  our  health.  Therefore, as just
stated, meals  should be regularly  divided  and
distanced.   A good  common rule for  the time
of meals for the laboring  classes,  is,  breakfast
at seven o'clock, dinner at one, and supper at
seven.   But at different seasons  of the year
and with different classes  and  occupations in
society,  the time of  meals varies.
   But whatever hours may be selected as most 
TIME FOR  EATING.
19
convenient for meals, they should be uniform;
and for  this  reason—at the  hour when  the
stomach is accustomed to receive food, the ap-
petite  is  sharper generally,  and  the gastric
juices  more copious, than they are immediately
before or after that time.   If food be taken
before the accustomed hour, the  stomach is, as
it were, taken  by surprise, and is not found in
perfect readiness to receive it;  if the meal is
delayed beyond the accustomed  time, common
experience teaches that the appetite is liable to
lose its  sharpness; there is, for a while, less
inclination to take food.   The objection, how-
ever, against delaying a meal beyond the usual
time, is very small compared with the objec-
tions against eating too soon; because when a
meal or luncheon is taken soon after a previous
one, the stomach has not had sufficient time to
go through with the digestive process, and to
recruit its energies  for  another effort.   But
when  a meal  is  delayed longer  than  usual,
though the appetite may lose its sharpness  for a
short time, yet it will  return again; and the
digestive power of the stomach  will not  have
been impaired, unless the period of abstinence
should be of  long continuance.
   In the arrangement of regular meals, regard
should be  had  to  the hour  of  rest at  night.
Ten o'clock,  as will hereafter  be considered, is
a  favorable hour for retirement; and no  food
should  be previously taken   in  all  ordinary
cases within  the space of two or three  hours.
If food be taken too near the  time of sleep, so
as to leave no chance for the more active parts
of the  digestive process to be  performed, there
will be found generally  a dull, heavy pain in 
20             DIETETIC RULES.
the head on the following morning, with dimin-
ished appetite.  The food has  laid  compara-
tively undigested through  the  night; because
when we sleep, the whole system is in a quies-
cent  state;  the nerves which  are called  into
action in the  process of digestion, are, during
healthy sleep, inactive.   A late supper  gener-
ally  occasions  deranged and disturbed  sleep;
there is an effort on the part of the nerves to be
quiet, while the  burdened stomach  makes an
effort to call  them into action;  and between
these two  contending efforts, there  is disturb-
ance— a sort of gastric  riot — during the whole
night.   This disturbance has sometimes termi-
nated in a fit of apoplexy and in death.

             TIME FOR  DIGESTING.
   Time for digesting what is  eaten,  demands
of every one who values health, a most serious
consideration.  Ignorance  on  this  topic,  and
inattention to  its importance even  when  under-
stood, have involved thousands and  millions in
untold  suffering  and premature  death.  If  it
were possible so to impress the mind of com-
munity on this subject, that they would obey
nature's laws, or rather the laws  which  the
Great Author of  nature has given to our diges-
tive  systems,  we should  see  a very obvious
change taking place in  the standard of general
health.  The larger  portion of people have no
rules for eating, but to eat, as they say, " when
they are hungry;"  having no regard  to  the
time of eating, or to time for  digesting;  but
like the short-fed beasts, take a little here and
there, whenever  and wherever they can get it.
 They think their own stomachs are  a sufficient 
            TIME FOR  DIGESTING.           21

guide, in spite of facts and philosophy.   There-
fore, they  eat  whenever  they take a  notion.
Their stomachs would perhaps guide them in
the right way if a morbid action of those organs
had never been  induced by  previous  irregu-
larities.
  Three meals a day are sufficient for all classes
of persons, under all circumstances, and of all
ages.  For persons having weak stomachs, and
many persons of  sedentary habits, two meals a
day, rightly distanced,  might  be preferable.
But no individual,  whatever may be his age,
his occupation, or his health, should take solid
food more than three  times in  one day.  No
person  can do more than this  without trans-
gressing nature's laws.  The reasons for  this
rule will soon be given.
  An argument against  taking food at regular
intervals is often attempted from the fact  that
many dumb animals have no  regular times of
eating; and it is urged that these animals have
no other guide than the dictates of nature.  In
answer to  this, it may be said, that the habits
of dumb beasts, since the introduction  of  sin
into the  world,  under the  weight of  which
"the whole creation,"  or rather, as the original
signifies,  every  creature, " groaneth, being
burdened," are not  always in  exact accordance
with nature's rules.   For instance, cattle are
put into a lean pasture; and they are unable to
gather a full meal  at once;  they are obliged.
perhaps, to  graze all day long to obtain suffi
cient subsistence.   In such cases, to allow in
tervals  between meals,  would be  to  undergo
gradual starvation.   But  put dumb animals into
full feed, and what do  they do ?   They  deliber- 
22             DIETETIC  RULES.
ately eat a full meal, and then cease eating till
that meal is fully digested.   Hence, the testi-
mony taken from this source, when we make a
fair test, is unequivocally and uniformly in favor
of eating at intervals sufficient for digestion.
  Eating  at intervals sufficiently long to allow
the fu.ll digestion of a  meal before  another is
taken,  is as truly essential to the good constitu-
tion and health of beasts, as of human beings.
The time  was, even within the limits of fifteen
or twenty years, when  it was customary, on
driving a horse on the road, to feed him about
every ten  miles.   This was  enough to kill the
poor animal;  he  had no time to digest his food
and  derive nourishment  from it; and it is well
that such a system has been abandoned; and it
would  be better still, if intelligent beings would
adopt a similar rule of diet for themselves, and
those under their care.  Those who drive horses
for  pleasure-riding or in  teaming, at this day,
having proved the folly of the old  system, feed
regularly three times a day. Under this method,
the animals eat, on the  whole, less in quantity,
are found  in  better  order,  and endure much
more ;  and why ?  because they derive, by obe-
dience  to nature's law, more  nourishment from
the same food, and do not break down the diges-
tive  organs by oppressing them with too off-re-
peated  meals.  And  when  individuals live as
they list, and eat when they please, in disregard
of right rules of diet, they  commit  a crime
against nature. They sin against God, by treat-
ing with contempt his laws; they sin against
their own bodies, by committing gradual  sui-
cide;  and the penalty  of those violated laws
must be met—there is  no escape; the punish- 
TIME FOR DIGESTING.
23
ment will, in some way, sooner or later  come.
nature's own God will and must take this  matter
in hand, and sustain the validity of his own laws.
   Now for the whys and  wherefores  of these
directions.  In the first place, food must be thor-
oughly masticated;  this requires about half an
hour ;  especially at dinner, which is, generally
and  properly, the principal meal  for the day.
Inattention to and  curtailment of time  neces-
sary for mastication, is a violation of physical
law at the very outset of the digestive process;
and  one which, more or less, deranges all the
other steps.   In the second place, when food is
lodged in the  stomach, it requires ordinarily
about four hours for this  organ to perform its
work, before  the entire  meal is disposed of and
carried into  the  duodenum, or first  intestine.
Here are, then, at least four hours and a half re-
quired for the process thus far; and probably five
hours are more often needed, than a period short
of four and a half.   Then, after this, there re-
mains the process of chylifaction to be finished.
   Therefore, no two meals or luncheons  should
be allowed to come nearer  to each other  than a
distance of at  least  five  hours.  Because, as
any one can  see, there  is a regular routine of
steps, in  the process of digestion, to  be gone
through with in this space  of  five hours.  And
if a second meal or lunch be taken short  of that
period, it produces confusion ; the process with
the first  meal  is interrupted; the organs  are
obliged to stop  their course and begin  a new
process with the second  meal:  there will be
probably a struggle between the two processes,
and  both  be imperfectly  performed.  By this
course, the organs are weakened, and the amount 
24             DIETETIC  RULES.
of nutrition from a given quantity of food is
much less.  To illustrate this method of pro-
ceeding and its  effects,  suppose an omnibus,
running between  Boston and Cambridge, should
set out from Brattle-street with passengers, and
after passing half way to Cambridge, the driver
should recollect that there are a number more
passengers whom he had forgotten; but instead
of finishing his present route,  and taking those
[eft behind at the next regular trip, he wheels
about, brings his load back, takes in the rest, and
again proceeds.   Precisely analogous to this, is
the  course which multitudes take in respect to
their  eating;  one meal  is  half digested, and
another is crowded upon it.  The organs  are
kept continually  at work, without  systematic
order, and without chance  to rest  and recruit
their energies.
  The good effects of regular and  simple diet
may be seen  by  visiting our  prisons.   There
the  inmates are generally in possession of good
health, notwithstanding their  confinement and
close air.  Some have gone there greatly afflict-
ed with  dyspepsia,  but  have  obtained a com-
plete  cure, and become  robust;  and this at the
time there must unavoidably have been a great
and constant mental oppression.   This is incon-
trovertible testimony in favor of plain and regu-
lar living.
  Besides the positive injury done to the dio-es-
tive organs themselves, by eating too often, and
by injury  to those organs, a sympathetic injury
to the whole system, there is a sort of negative
injury done to the  entire system by the  inter-
ruption of the process of nutrition.  After break-
fast has been  taken, let a lunch be eaten  about 
TIME FOR  DIGESTING.          25
eleven o'clock, and the process  of  chylifaction
and nutrition is broken up, by the digestive en-
ergies being attracted too  soon  to the work of
disposing of the  eleven o'clock  lunch; and so
on in the  same manner so long as meals and
lunches  succeed  each other  without giving at
least five hours space for digestion.   Hence, the
system receives  less  nourishment  from about
twice the quantity of food per day, than it would
receive under a regular, systematic diet, with a
regular quantity.
   It is argued by some that the inclination to
eat is a proper guide to the time and frequency
of eating.   But this  is no rule at  all; if we
eat ten times a day habitually,  the  stomach is
obliged to undergo  such a  change in its action,
that we  shall  think  we are hungry as many
times.  There comes up a disordered action of
the  stomach,  and  a morbid appetite  ensues.
What sort of  a guide is a  man's inclination to
eat who is just  merging from  the  prostrating
power of a typhus fever?   And why is it that
those who  are  always eating are always hun-
gry; while those  who live on three meals a day
are not inclined to eat till the regular meal-time
comes ?
   But why contend against facts established by
the researches of learned physiologists ?  They
have given us the time required for digestion;
we know that this  being correctly  ascertained,
we cannot  interrupt that process without detri-
ment.  And who is willing to sacrifice justice to
himself, and to the Author  of his being, for the
paltry gratification  of  a moment?  Thousands
do it; but it  seems  too uncharitable  to  sup-
pose they  would do  it with their  eyes open; 
26             DIETETIC RULES,
though it is to be feared too many are willingly
blind.
  Whoever knows no law but the fearful dic-
tates of carnal appetites, is like a ship, driven
by fierce winds coastward, without anchor.   If
we  would  do  right—if  we  would  act upon
principle — we must obey every righteous law.
That is a  safe  and  prosperous government
where  obedience to law is sustained;  that is a
well regulated physical system whose physical
law  is  obeyed.   But how sadly this  law is
trampled  under  foot.   How  many there  are
who reverse one of the best rules of life :  while
all  should eat to live,  they,  impiously and
wantonly, live to eat.   In this way, they de-
stroy the very foundation  of all true enjoyment
from temporal sources, and prejudice  the pros-
pect for the future life.  The old heathen adage,
" Let us eat and  drink, for to-morrow we die,"
is the  sum and substance of their theology—
they know no God but their belly.

             TIME FOR EXERCISE.
  Time for exercise has an important connection
with digestion, and is indispensable to  health.
It is important to the healthy state of body and
mind.   Bodily health cannot be secured without
due attention to exercise.  Persons  of seden-
tary habits, especially, should give  particular
attention to this subject.   Persons of  active or
laborious  habits  can make their business sub-
serve  the  purpose of exercise;  while those
whose daily task requires little physical exer-
tion, need some other exercise.   By  such  let
this part of the subject be particularly heeded.
To illustrate what is meant, take the case of the 
TIME FOR  EXERCISE.
27
 shoemaker:  his business chains him  to  the
 bench; it  gives him  insufficient bodily exer-
 cise ; he is too much confined.
   The  shoemaker, then, or the man of similar
 occupation, should  endeavor to have a garden
 to  cultivate,  if in the country, because  this is
 one of the very best kinds of employment for
 exercise; it affords  physical motion and exer-
 tion ; it gives  amusement to the mind, and it
 secures healthful influences from the earth.   If
 this means cannot be secured, then resort should
 be  had to  cutting wood,  or some other useful
 exertion; if this cannot  be obtained, then he
 must resort to some artificial exercise ; at all
 events, some kind of brisk and smart exercise
 should  be  had early in  the  morning before
 breakfast.  This gives activity and energy to
 the body, greatly invigorates the appetite, and
 exhilarates the mind.   After breakfast, he can
 go  to his bench if  he please; but he  should
 never put himself to hard work short  of about
 one hour after  taking his meal.  He may do
 light  work, but should never  put  himself to
 severe exertion in any way for about one hour.
 This  rule applies, as also the previous  one, to
 all sedentary  habits.  It  also  applies  to every
 meal.   In  every case  of  a similar kind, where
 exercise is taken  for  recreation, it  should be
 immediately before each meal, and not immedi-
ately after it   And as dinner  is generally  the
heaviest meal, one full hour at least should be
allowed after  finishing it, for the first  step to-
wards digestion, i.  e,,  the mixing of the food
with the gastric juice.
  Now for a reason for this rule; let the dinner
be  taken for  an illustration:  why  should  we 
28
DIETETIC RULES.
rest from much  exertion after  taking  our din-
ner ?  And this rule applies with equal force to
all classes of persons and all kinds of business;
the reason is this: when a  meal is to be digest-
ed, or, more properly, while the food  is  being
broken up  by the gastric  juice, which process
occupies in the case of a dinner  full one hour,
the nervous  energies of the whole system are
drawn into sympathy with  the  stomach, and
made tributary to this part  of the digestive pro-
cess ; their aid is  needed: this is a law Avhich
the Author of nature has  established, and it
should be obeyed; i.e.,  nothing should be al-
lowed to  interrupt  this  natural arrangement.
But if we allow ourselves to make much bodily
or mental exertion during  the hour  mentioned,
we distract this  arrangement; because  when
bodily exertion is made, the nervous  energies
are required and drawn in  that direction,  in aid
of the muscular powers ;  or if the mind is made
to labor, then the nervous energies are  called
in that direction.   Hence, when body or mind
is taxed considerably immediately after eating,
the process of digestion  is  much disturbed and
interrupted.
   Everybody's  experience  corroborates  the
truthfulness  of this  theory.   We  know that
after a full meal, especially a dinner, there is a
disinclination  to much bodily action or mental
effort; so strong is the draft upon the nervous
energy, or  nervous fluid, or  animal  electricity
whichever it may be called, that it is with diffi'
culty we  can call it  in any  other direction.
Inerelore,  to  make  much  exertion of body or
mind immediately after  a  meal, is to  violate a
law of the  animal economy.   To attempt hard 
TIME FOR  EXERCISE.
29
work, or study, within one  hour after  eating,
will induce in any one, except the most vigorous
system, with a cast-iron stomach, derangement
in the functions of the digestive organs;  the
food will not digest so well, and the system will
not be as well nourished from the same quantity
of food.  Hence, the whole system is impaired,
its vigor and durability are diminished, and life
is shortened.
  It is in vain that we contend that nature has
no rules — the Maker of these bodies no  laws —
violated  law no penalty.   It is worse than idle
to say, here are A, B, and C,— they have lived
to a great age—.have been robust,  and  have
never observed these rules.  The general rule
is one thing, and the exceptions  make another.
These instances appear to be the exceptions to a
general rule.   But are they really and in all
respects exceptions ?  Because some  who have
kept their bodies and souls in a gradual steeping
of alcoholic liquor have been apparently robust,
and have lived to old age, is it proved that alco-
hol has never done them injury?   But while
one has lived a long life in violation of law with
seeming impunity, a hundred  and one,  espe-
cially of those who have followed  sedentary
habits, literary men in particular, have gradually
ruined their constitutions.  Whoever has intel-
ligence enough to know that nature has  laws, is
in duty  bound to obey them, and not run the
hazard of laying temptations for disease.  And
whoever will take  the safe side of  this  matter,
will  always find it for  his good.   Even the
farmer, in the  most driving season  of the year,
will find obedience to law to be for  his interest.
Let him conform—and his men with him —to
             3* 
30             DIETETIC  RULES.
the old maxim, " after dinner sit awhile," even
one hour, or, what might be better, instead of
sitting idle, let all hands do some light matter
such as  tinkering and preparing  tools, and he
will find, in the long run, more  work accom-
plished, with less expenditure of strength.
  After  exercising very lightly  for  one hour
after eating, then let them begin to increase
their  amount of labor,  and keep themselves
oound  down to work until  the  time of another
meal.  This light exercise, immediately after
eating, if it be something artificial, i. e., got up
simply for exercise, should not  only be light, so
as not to require real muscular exertion, but it
should be something that  is adapted to amuse
and exhilarate  the  mind.  The  state  of  the
mind has much  to do with  the  health of the
body, and especially the healthy and free action
of the digestive  organs.   Hence, it is exceed-
ingly important, in all efforts at exercise, that the
mind be interested in whatever the hands under-
take.  Anything that is  a  piece of drudgery to
the imagination, would be of little service to the
body.
   The fact that  the  nervous  energies are at-
tracted in the direction of  the digestive process
immediately after a  meal, which renders any
considerable physical or mental exertion at that
time particularly burdensome, is proved true in
the conduct of dumb animals.  When the ox
or the  horse has  grazed  a  full  meal, he imme-
diately becomes indisposed  for exertion or activ-
ity. And the same  rule should be observed in
regard to his labor, that has been recommended
for human  beings; he should  never be forced
into hard labor short of  one hour after he  has 
TIME FOR  LABOR.
31
eaten his meal.   The ferocious animals, when
they have taken a full  meal,  lose  for a time
their  fierceness, and are comparatively harm-
less.   And so it is with man; if it be necessary
to ask a favor of a morose or tigerish man, seek
an interview immediately after dinner;  if a
charity is to be solicited from a creature who
carries a miser's soul within his encasement of
flesh,  see  him  immediately after dinner.  At
any other time than after a  full meal, they
would resist, and succeed, probably,  in warding
off every motive ;  but while the nervous  ener-
gies are taxed with  the digestive effort, they
cannot rouse themselves so well to meet the
emergency;  they  will rather  grant the  favor
asked, than  annoy themselves  with the  effort
necessary to  repel the invader.

              TIME FOR LABOR.
   Time  for labor, taken in its relation to the
time of taking food, makes an  important item
in the scale of means  for preserving health.
This  matter  has been considerably  anticipated
and superseded  while considering the subject
of exercise;  yet something more may be said,
and the  substance  of  previous  remarks reiter-
ated, so as to leave no chance for misapprehen-
sion or forgetfulness on this subject.
   Labor is intended to mean  close  and intent
application to business, whether of  a bodily or
mental character.  No labor should be attempted
while the nervous  system is intensely engaged
in the  process of digestion.  And as  the time
of this intensity is during the  first hour after a
meal is finished, no  labor should be performed
during that hour.   If a laborer commence hard 
32
DIETETIC  RULES.
work immediately after eating, the action of his
nervous  energies  is  distracted;  partly drawn
toward the stomach,  and partly  forced in the
direction  of  the muscular  system.   By  this
unnatural, forced action of the nerves, the diges-
tive process is impaired; the  food  is not thor-
oughly  broken  up by, and mixed with, the
gastric juice.  By this.unnatural operation, the
food is comparatively unprepared for all the rest
of the process.   The  chyme and  chyle  must
be imperfectly formed, and the system, so far as
each such meal  is concerned, imperfectly nour-
ished.   Besides  this, the forcing of the muscles
to exertion against the natural inclination of the
nerves to supply the necessary power, gradually
impairs the power and activity of the muscular
system.
  The man who disregards this law will grow
old faster — other things being equal—than the
man who allows  time for the thorough digestion
of his food.   It  is his food which  sustains him
in labor; therefore, he is in  duty bound to  give
that  food  the  best possible  opportunity to  give
him support.   The same law prevails in duml
animals as in  man.   Whoever works his oxen
or drives his horses immediately after their eat-
ing, will find, in the  course of  an experience
sufficient to test  the point, that his beasts, under
such a management, will soon wear out; while
his neighbor's beast, under a  management which
accords  with  nature's law,  will  be robust and
endure.  It is economy, then, as well as health
to yield obedience to this natural law.
  Mental  labor  should  never  be  attempted
within one hour after a meal is finished.   If a
close mental  application  be  made  immediately 
TIME FOR LABOR.
33
after  eating, whether it be a merchant casting
accounts, or  a  student  getting  his  lesson, the
digestive process is impaired ; the nervous ener-
gies are drawn, in a measure, away from the
direction of  the  stomach to the  brain.  This
unnatural action frequently causes an increased
quantity of blood  to be lodged  on that organ,
occasioning  a  dull,  heavy  headache.   Some-
times it will bring on a nervous headache.  The
influence of this course is  also very injurious
to the stomach.   Hundreds and thousands of
students have in this way brought upon them-
selves dyspepsia, with its long  train of untold
symptoms  and  sufferings.  Many a  one has in
this  way broken irremediably his constitution.
With too little  physical  exercise at the right
time, and with  mental labor at the wrong time,
he has ruined himself for life, or brought him-
self  to  a premature grave.  Many  a one has
gone  through a regular course of education —
prepared his mind for usefulness — but  by hav-
ing neglected the laws of his body—neglected
to keep up  a proper  balance of action between
his  physical and intellectual powers — he has
rendered himself disqualified for much execu-
tion in the callings of life.   His mind, though
well disciplined, cannot act in this life  without
a body;  the  bodily  energies are  so deranged
and weakened,  as to  hold the intellectual facul-
ties in a  state of comparative imbecility.
  Students should accustom themselves to con-
siderable daily  exercise of body, in order to
preserve  a  balance of physical and  mental en-
ergy.   This  should  be done  for  the  sake of
aiding them in  making  intellectual proficiency,
and of preserving a good constitution for future 
34
FOOD AND DRINKS.
usefulness.  Their  principal physical exercise
should be taken on an empty stomach, i. e., just
preceding a  meal.   Just  after a  meal, they
should be-at leisure, or  amusement which re-
quires  no mental or physical exertion, for at
least one hour.   Then they  are prepared for
close study until near the time of the next meal;
leaving a little space for relaxation: as also when
bodily  exercise precedes a meal, a few minutes'
relaxation before eating should be had, that the
nerves may regain their equilibrium.  But when
exercise is spoken of in relation to students, that
which  would agitate or exhaust the body is not
meant.  Such exercise would be decidedly detri-
mental.   If students would give time  for eating
and for digesting, they  could perform  a large
amount of mental labor  with far less time de-
voted to  mere exercise, and that exercise  of  a
milder character, than would otherwise be re-
quired.  But every student  should  accustom
himself to a brisk, lively,  cheerful daily exer-
cise, if he values his  health.   The same rule
applies with equal force to every one, whatever
may be his calling, whose  labors are  of a men-
tal character.  Under these rules, three hours
of close study would be worth more than six in
the ordinary  way.

          FOOD AND  DRINKS.

              VEGETABLE  FOOD.
   All  our nutrition comes primarily from the
vegetable kingdom.   If we eat flesh, the nour-
ishment which made that flesh came from vege-
tables.   The nutrition from the corn on which
the hog  is fatted becomes  assimilated into his 
VEGETABLE FOOD.
35
 flesh, and by eating that pork we get the nutri-
 tion  of the  corn, animalized,  after  passing
 through, and having been incorporated into, his
 system; or if we  eat pork that has been fatted
 on dead animal matter, we get our vegetable
 nutrition after its  having passed  through two
 processes of assimilation.   But it is proposed to
 speak here  of taking vegetable  nutrition in its
 original state.
   This was unquestionably the original method
 adopted by the Creator for the nourishment of
 man.   Man, in his original, holy state, was pro-
 vided  for from  the vegetables  of that happy
 garden which was given him to prune.  This
 was the Creator's original plan;  one animal
 was not to  devour  another animal for food; the
 eating of flesh was suffered as one of the conse-
 quences of the fall.   Living on vegetable  food
 is undoubtedly the most natural  and  healthy
 method of  subsistence.
   It is not  intended in this small work to dwell
 so particularly upon the kind of food which may
 be most conducive  to health, as upon the  manner
 and regularity of eating.  There are, however,
 some vegetables in common use, which ought
 promptly and forever  to be rejected.   Cucum-
 bers, though considered a luxury, should never
 be eaten.   They are  cold, indigestible  things.
 True, some stomachs can seem to digest them
 with apparent impunity : so, too, some stomachs
 can digest jackknives; but this  does  not prove
 that they should be used for food.  The condi-
 ments with which they are usually prepared do
 not assist in their digestion; except by over-
stimulating the stomach, which stimulating pro
cess always tends to weaken that organ.  Con- 
36            FOOD AND DRINKS.

diments aid in digestion in the same way that
alcoholic liquor aids  a laborer in performing
an extra task; which process always  tends to
weaken the system.   There are  other articles
which  might be mentioned as inappropriate for
the human stomach; but a little common sense
and observation will generally decide upon what
is proper and what improper.
  It is proper and needful that a continual same-
ness in diet should be avoided.  It is better that
there should be considerable sameness in each
individual  meal; but the  kind of articles  of
which different meals are composed may with
benefit be varied.  The more simple the diet on
the whole, the better.   Complicated food, espe-
cially that which is compounded  with various
kinds of condiments,  is bad; such  as very rich
puddings,  cake, and  pastry of  various  sorts.
Mince pies, wedding-cake, and plum-puddings,
as they are  generally  made, should never be
introduced into the human stomach — and the
prohibition need never extend beyond the hu-
man stomach,  for dumb animals  could  not be
compelled  to eat them.  Food should be simple,
yet  nutritious,  and  so prepared — though not
with stimulating ingredients — as to be  palata-
ble— inviting  to the appetite.  If the food be
poor or poorly prepared, the stomach will loathe
it.   Here  is found one cause  why some have
not been successful in their efforts to simplify
their diet; they have reduced their livino- to a
poverty-stricken quality, by which their whole
systems have become weakened.   Food should
 be palatable and nutritious.  It is not best that
 that  kind of food should  be constantly used
 which embraces within  a given  quantity the 
VEGETABLE FOOD.
37
 greatest amount of nutrition;  but the nutritious
 and comparatively innutritious kinds, should be
 used together; for instance, sugar is too nutri-
 tious, i. eM too much  nutrition/in a given quan
 tity, to  be used alone as a meal; the  digestive
 organs  would soon break  down  with such an
 incumbrance.   But sugar is a good article of
 diet when used in conjunction with articles con-
 taining less nutrition  in the same quantity.
   Simplicity of diet, i. e., living on simple, plain
 food, is exceedingly important in securing good
 health  and a sound constitution.  The great
 cause  of  the  difference  between  the present
 standard  of health and  that  of  puritan  times,
 consists in the  difference in the manner of liv-
 ing.  Then the  people  lived naturally; now
 they live artificially.  Then their  food was plain,
 homely, and simple ;  now it is rich, delicate, and
 complicated.  Then the bean-porridge was the
 luxury; now the highly seasoned meats and the
 rich pastry.  The children were  brought up on
 plainer  food than even their  parents; now the
 little ones generally are invited  to  all the  un-
 natural  luxuries  in which  the parents indulge.
 Then a plain brown crust, even without butter,
 was ate with relish ;  now nothing but the rich-
 est dainties will meet the demand.
   Fruits of various kinds are proper articles of
 diet in  connection with  other food.   Apples,
 pears, plums, cherries, oranges, pine-apples, &c,
 may properly be made articles of diet, and come
 under the  same rules and restrictions as other
articles  of  food.   They may be treated as mere
luxuries to be  eaten  at  any and all times;  be-
cause they require very little effort of the  diges-
tive  organs to dissolve them  and extract their 
38            FOOD AND DRINKS.

nutrition.   It  is  undoubtedly better, however,
that fruit should be taken as other articles  of
diet, at the regular time of eating, as a part of
the meal.  As a general rule,  fruit  should  be
taken as a part  of the  regular  dinner.  Good,
ripe fruit, taken in this way,  is beneficial to
health by  way of variety; and, if the bowels are
at all sluggish, fruits are adapted to remove that
difficulty.
  The quantity  of food which it is necessary to
take at each meal is  not a matter of so  much
importance as the regularity and simplicity of
diet.   Some writers on diet have undertaken to
prescribe  certain limits to the quantity of food
to be  taken, by  weight.   This would seem to
be a difficult task.  To  measure out to each one
a  quantity suited to all the different circum-
stances in which he  may be placed,  and to  all
persons according to their great variety of ages
and constitutions, would  be a laborious  under-
taking indeed: and it seems to  be unnecessary.
Whoever  will govern himself by dietetic law —
eat plain  food — only three  times  a  day — give
time for food to  digest — take proper exercise—
will find little difficulty in settling the question,
how much he ought to  eat.   Whoever will live
right, need not  ask his cook to weigh out  his
quantum  of food: only  give  her a chance, and
Dame Nature will settle that matter, and relieve
him of all such burden  of mind.  A person with
morbid appetite  may eat too  much; and he
should limit  himself:  but  a perfectly healthy
stomach will easily decide when it is sufficiently
supplied.
   Many have injured themselves  by too rigidly
limiting themselves in their quantity of food • so 
ANIMAL  FOOD.
39
 that their  systems were not sufficiently nour-
 ished.   In  the effort to change their  course of
 living from extreme luxury to temperance, they
 ran  over the  line, into  the opposite extreme.
 They reduced the quantity and the  quality of
 their food too low.  By this course they reduced
 their health and strength, and finally perhaps
 concluded that their former way of living  was
 the best.  The system must have nourishment,
 and  the quantity must be varied according to
 circumstances ; and a perfectly healthy stomach
 will  furnish the best index to the quantity de-
 manded.
   It is a misfortune  for any one, especially for
 one whose health has become deranged, to keep
 his mind continually dwelling on  the questions,
 what he shall eat, how much, &c, because  this
 continued mental anxiety tends to embarrass the
 free  action  of  the  digestive functions, and in-
 crease the difficulty.   Still he must give some
 attention to the subject in some  way: he must
 not be reckless  in regard to the laws of his ex-
 istence.  The better way is, let him make him-
 self  intelligent on the subject of the laws of his
 nature, and then he can keep himself within the
 limits of those laws  without  mental effort, as
well  as he can keep himself within the limits
of civil law when once understood.

                ANIMAL  FOOD.
  No strenuousness on this subject is intended;
it is  better to let each one choose for himself:
yet it may not be improper that some sugges-
tions should be made, some facts stated, and the
results  of experience shown, for the  benefit of
any who may be willing to heed them.  Flesh, 
40            FOOD AND DRINKS.

as already intimated, composed no part of the
food provided for man in his primeval state: its
use came to  be  suffered in consequence of the
fall.   And if, as  argued by some, the food ob-
tained only from  the vegetable kingdom is not
adequate to the sustenance of man, the Creator
must have  made a mistake in  his first arrange-
ment for the  support of his creatures.  The fact
that naturalists have classified man as in part a
carnivorous animal, does not  prove  it his duty
to eat flesh :  because  either the  indications of
his  classification are the result of his habits of
flesh-eating, or they existed before the fall, and
mean nothing as relates to  his mode of living.
The teeth of the carnivorous animals have either
conformed  to their habits, or they existed in the
present form  before the fall,  and consequently
have nothing to do with their  eating  flesh ; for
it cannot be supposed that animals devoured one
another in  their primeval state.
  One  objection  to eating  animal food lies in
the  fact that it  increases the  proportion of our
animality.  When the nutrition of vegetation
comes  to us through the flesh of an  animal,  it
has undergone a  sort of animalization ; and as
it passes into our circulation the proportion  of
the  animality in  our  natures  is  increased.  A
serious objection would  seem to lie against such
a result, for  man is  quite  sufficiently animal
without taking a  course to make him more so.
  The facts supporting the above statement are
these.  It is well known that when hunters wish
to prepare their hounds for the chase, they con-
fine the diet of those animals to flesh ; and that
this course does increase the savageness of their
dispositions.  When ancient warriors desired to 
ANIMAL  FOOD.
41
 give their soldiery a special fitting for the brutal
 battle-field, they would  feed  them  exclusively
 on flesh.   When the  gamester at cock-fighting
 is preparing his fowl  to win the prize, he con-
 fines him to flesh.   The experiment of flesh-
 eating has been tried upon the cow.   When she
 was confined to flesh food, rather than starve,
 she at length ate flesh ;  and finally lusted after
 it, and ate it as greedily as though she had be-
 longed to the carnivorous race.  But it changed
 her natural disposition to that of the tiger : she
 became  ferocious.  And  she  verified another
 general rule with meat-eaters ; she lost all her
 teeth.
   It  is generally admitted  among  intelligent
 people, that eating much flesh tends to animal-
 ity; and  that consequently  it  is not well for
 those who devote themselves to study to indulge
 largely in  the use of meat.  This general im-
 pression is founded on  sound philosophy. When
 we increase the  proportion of our animal nature,
 we oppress the intellectual and  moral.   If stu-
 dents would make easy progress, they must not
 indulge themselves with eating much flesh ; and
 the less the better.   If any would be eminent
 in .morals  or religion,  let them  eat but little
 flesh ; and the less the better.  For when we
 increase the activity  of the animal propensities,
 we weaken the power  of the moral sentiment,
 and endanger the rectitude of moral action. We
 need to encourage and cultivate our  intellectual
 and  moral powers, rather than our carnality.
 We are naturally savage enough in our disposi-
tions, and  fleshly  enough  in our  appetites,
without taking a course that will increase those
qualities.   There  can  be no question but that
^             4# 
42            FOOD AND  DRINKS.

the use. of flesh  tends  to create a grossness of
body and spirit.  A reference to the history and
character of different nations alone would prove
this.  There is certainly a grossness in the idea
of one dumb  animal's making food of another
animal; and the idea of an  intelligent being's
devouring the flesh of another animate creature
is grosser still.  And will a person  of refine-
ment— will the advocate of moral purity and
religion — will woman  indulge in such luxu-
ries ?
  Animal food vitiates the fluids of the system.
Practical demonstration  has often substantiated
this statement.  Take the great mass of cases
which require treatment for a humor, and it will
generally be found that the individuals thus af-
fected were, themselves or their immediate pre-
decessors, large  eaters of flesh.  Even the can-
cer can generally be traced  back, either medi-
ately or immediately, to  such an  origin.   And
what has been  found to be the most effectual
remedy in cases of common humor ? Abstinence
from eating flesh.   When we feed on flesh, we
not only eat the muscular fibres, but the juices
or fluids of  the  animal; and  these fluids  pass
into our own circulation — become our blood—
our fluids, and our flesh.  However  pure  may
be the flesh of the animals we eat, their fluids
tend to engender in us a humorous state of the
blood.  But the meat that is given  us in the
markets is very far from being pure.  The very
process taken to  fit  the animals  for  market
tends to produce a diseased state of their fluids!
The process of  stall feeding is a forced and un-
natural process, by which the fluids  become
 diseased j and then we eat those diseased fluids 
ANIMAL  FOOD.
43
 Some of our meat is fatted in country pastures;
 but  by the time it reaches  us, the process of
 driving to market has produced a diseased action
 of the fluids.
   If it be argued that these objections may  lie
 against raw meat,  but not  against it  when
 cooked, it may be answered, that if meat can be
 cooked so severely as to remove its  juices en-
 tirely, it might be comparatively harmless ;  but
 just in proportion to those juices will  be  its  nu-
 trition, and also its injurious  qualities ; besides,
 if the juices  could  be entirely removed, who
 would eat the meat? and how could nourishment
 be obtained from it ?
  Animal food exposes the system more effectu-
 ally to the causes of acute disease.  Where the
 fluids are  in a diseased state the ordinary causes
 of disease find a more easy  prey.  Thousands
 on thousands of those who have been afflicted
 with or have died of  fevers, small-pox, cholera,
 &c, might probably have  escaped their  deadly
 influence if their fluids had not been vitiated by
 animal food.  In cases of inoculation for small-
 pox, a dieting process is  recommended, which
 very much mitigates the  malignant character
 of the disease.   But  let an individual be inoc-
 ulated who  has  been' accustomed to  simplicity
 and  regularity of diet, and especially who has
 been accustomed to abstinence from animal food,
 and he is already dieted ; he  need  not  change
 his course ; he is prepared to have the disease
 with comparative safety.   The use of meat is
undoubtedly a fruitful source  of disease, and a
means of  enhancing  those diseases which are
unavoidable.  The  severest cases of worms  in 
44            FOOD AND DRINKS.
children may, as a general rule, be found among
the greatest meat-eaters.
  The vitiated state of the  fluids is often seen
in the character of wounds.   In those  whose
fluids are pure, wounds heal readily.   Smooth-
cut wounds, if rightly treated, will heal by what
is called " the first  intention," or the first effort
of nature :  while in those whose  fluids are viti-
ated, there is a  liability to  extensive inflamma-
tion and ulceration.  In cases of  rough wounds
and bruises, where the  fluids  are pure,  nature
gets up a  cure with remarkable  speed ;  but in
those whose fluids are corrupted,  the process of
cure is generally long protracted, and sometimes
exceedingly obstinate and unmanageable.   The
following  extract  contains  testimony  on  this
point:—
  "Flesh-Eating  and Vegetable-Eating.--
To  consider man anatomically, he  is decidedly
a vegetable-eating animal.  He  is  constructed
like no flesh-eating animal, but like all vegetable-
eating animals.  He has not claws like the lion,
the tiger, or the  cat, but his teeth are short and
smooth, Jike those of the horse, the cow, and the
fruit-eating animals ; and his hand  is evidently
intended to pluck the fruit, not seize his fellow
animals.  What animals does man most  resem-
ble  in every respect ?   The ape tribes  : frugiv-
erous animals.   Doves and sheep, by being fed
on animal food, (and they may be, as has been
fully proved,) will come  to refuse their natural
food:  thus has it been with man.  On the con-
trary, even cats  may be  brought up to live  on
vegetable food, so they will  not  touch  any sort
of flesh, and be quite vigorous and sleek.   Such
cats will kill their natural prey just  as other 
ANIMAL  food.
45
 cats, but will refuse them as food.   Man is nat-
 urally a  vegetable-eating animal: how, then,
 could he possibly be injured by abstinence from
 flesh ?. A man, by way of experiment, was made
 to live  entirely on animal food;  after having
 persevered ten days, symptoms of  incipient pu-
 trefaction began to  manifest  themselves.  Dr.
 Lamb, of London, has  lived for the last thirty
 years on a diet of vegetable food.   He com-
 menced when he was about fifty years of age, so
 he is now about eighty, — rather more, I believe,
 — and is still healthy and vigorous. The writer
 of the Oriental Annual mentions  that the Hin-
 doos,  among whom  he travelled,  were so  free
 from any  tendency to inflammation, that he has
 seen  compound fractures  of  the  skull among
 them, yet the patient to be  at his work, as  if
 nothing ailed  him, at the end of three days.
 How different  is it with our flesh-eating, porter-
 swilling  London brewers: a  scratch is almost
 death to them." — Flowers and Fruits, by J. E.
 Dawson.

  The objections, then, against meat-eating are
 threefold: intellectual, moral,  and  physical.  Its
 tendency is to  check intellectual activity, to de-
 preciate  moral sentiment, and to  derange the
 fluids  of  the  body.  It is a consequent of the
 fall, and  is adapted to enhance its evils.  It  is
 not essential to physical  energy and strength :
 if it is, then the Creator, as before stated, made
 a mistake when he originally gave to  man  for
 his nourishment simply the fruits of Eden.
  Animal food is also too stimulating.   Simple
 stimulus  mixed with nutrition is  what we not
only do not need, but its tendency is  injurious. 
46            food and drinks.

Take two laboring men — one lives on meat,
the other on vegetables — the meat-eater may
at first be able to excel in the amount of labor
performed in a given time, just as that man will
excel who takes brandy with his meal; but in
the long run, the man who depends on nutrition
that is simple and unstimulating  will endure
longer and perform more.
  The objections against eating flesh are, how-
ever, less forcible in  the case of  laborers than
of those of intellectual and  sedentary habits.
While the laborer works off a measure of the
evil influence exerted on his intellectual, moral,
and physical systems, the sedentary man retains
them.
  In speaking of the objections to  meat-eating,
all kinds of flesh  are  not  meant:  fish may be
excepted: and fowls  are altogether less objec-
tionable  than the general run of  quadrupeds.
And  the  objections to meat-eating in general
are not meant to be urged with the same strenu-
ousness which  is intended to be used in regard
to other matters presented in this work:  for
while these may strictly be resolved into rules
of natural law, those may perhaps with propriety
come under  rules of expediency.   Matters of
fact have been stated, deductions philosophically
drawn, and  practical demonstrations presented;
and every candid reader—unbiassed by a flesh-
loving appetite — can easily come to the conclu-
sion for himself, whether it be better to eat  or
to dispense with flesh in his diet.   The author
of these suggestions  has given the matter of
abstinence from flesh-eating a  trial of six years;
and would by no means be induced to return to
the use of animal food. 
stimulating drinks.
47
             STIMULATING DRINKS.

  If we would  enjoy health,  all  stimulants
should be avoided as  common drinks.  They
may be useful as medicines when nature falters
and droops, and cannot rise and resuscitate her-
self;  but, as a  beverage, stimulating  drinks
should be strenuously avoided.   When  stimu-
lants are taken, the machinery of the system is
hurried and driven too fast.  And although by
this  means its activity and power may seem to
be increased, yet a reaction must  follow—a
corresponding debility must ensue; then another
stimulating draught is called for, to  bring the
system  up again, and then another reaction
must follow.   By this  course of things the  real,
natural vigor of the constitution becomes grad-
ually, and oftentimes  imperceptibly,  impaired.
Hence,  if we would preserve a healthy system,
instead of provoking nature to unnatural  action,
we  must furnish her with  sufficient healthy
nourishment, and let her regulate her own mode
and  speed of action.  Give  her  nourishment,
and  she will furnish  her OAvn  stimulus, which
will be  far preferable to  any promptings which
art  can  invent.  Sustain her in her natural
action, and not force  her to unnatural  speed,
which  must  result in weakening her  innate
powers.  To live naturally, is to live healthily;
but to live artificially, is to tempt and  foster dis-
ease.
  Suppose a case  for an illustration:  a  man
undertakes riding a  long journey;  his beast
naturally and easily travels at  the rate  of five
miles the hour;  he can  do this day  after  day,
with proper  care and feeding, and  come out 
48
FOOD and drinks.
bright at the end of the journey.  But the fool-
ish rider is not satisfied with this steady speed;
it would be more  to his gratification to  travel
much faster; so he goads up the poor animal to
an unnatural speed, say eight miles an hour.
He intends that forty miles  shall be each day's
travel;  and by going five miles  the hour, eight
hours on the  road would  be required  for  its
accomplishment.   But by means of whip and
spur, he performs  the  allotted  distance  in five
hours,  provided the abused beast do not give
out before the day's work  is  finished.  Now
any one of common sense can at once judge of
the ability of the animal to perform a long jour-
ney,  and of his condition at  the end of it, under
such a system of driving. Every time his goad-
ing drives his beast faster than his natural speed,
a  reaction ensues;  which  continued process
wears fast upon his natural strength.
   Precisely in this way do those whose rule of
living is their present gratification,  treat their
own  animal systems.  Instead of allowing na-
ture to take her own speed, they goad her on to
unwonted action, and consequently lessen  her
power to perform  her functions, and her ability
to  endure her labor.  Why not let nature alone?
Why interfere and jostle her natural operations ?
Why spur on the  noble  steed to unnatural fast-
ness, break down his constitution, and  disable
him for reaching the end of  his journey?  Be-
sides all the wrong in the case, it is bad econ-
omy ; what is gained temporarily, is lost, and
much more with  it, ultimately.  Let  nature
alone, and she will temper her speed  to  the
laws of health and endurance — she  needs  no
whips and spurs—she asks no  help.  While 
STIMULATING DRINKS.
49
she is able to do her  own  work, all help  is
hindrance.  The animal that is driven beyond
his five miles the hour  by the whipping pro-
cess, becomes so exhausted and dull, that even
the five miles' speed cannot be  performed with-
out increasing the stimulus  of the whip.   So
nature, by continued stimulus, becomes dull and
lifeless in her operations, and cannot be kept up
to the mark without goading her up more and
more.
   Alcoholic liquors of all kinds, whether  strong
beer, porter, ale, cider, or brandy, &c, are nevei
to be taken; because, besides the danger of a
drunkard's grave,-they are all stimulants; they
impart no nourishment to the system, but force
its action to  an unnatural degree.  The idea
that  thefe liquors promote digestion  is  all a
delusion.   They give to the stomach an unnat-
ural  and forced action, which, while in health,
it does not need; and the longer it is subjected
to this driving process, the more will it depend
on stimulants.   When the stomach is excited
in this way, the brain also is  excited;  and who-
ever uses alcoholic drinks as a beverage, is a
drunkard;  for no dividing-line can be drawn —
no transition  boundary can be made—between
him who drinks moderately and him who  drinks
excessively.
  Coffee is objectionable for  a similar reason,
it is a  stimulant—a kind of narcotic stimulant
bearing some resemblance to  opium; and so
powerful is its action, that it  is considered and
used  as  a most certain antidote  to poisoning
from opium.   And it can readily be  seen that
unless it was an article of much power itself, it
could never overpower  such a poison.   Coffee
              5 
50
FOOD AND DRINKS.
should never be placed on any other  list than
that of medicines; it never should be  drank as
a luxury or beverage.  Mothers should never
be so tender and affectionate toward their chil
dren as to give them such an article  for their
drink.   Yet, if they are determined to gratify
their tender ones at all hazards of their consti-
tutions, they are of course  at liberty to do  so;
or if any are disposed to treat themselves in the
same way, there is no civil law against it;  but
they break another law which must be met: a
law of nature written on the constitution.
   A French  writer, Mons. A. Richard,  says,
" This liquor, taken warm, is an energetic stim-
ulant; it has all the  advantages of  spirituous
drinks, without any of their bad results ;  that is
to say, that it produces neither drunkenness nor
all the accidents that accompany it."   This is
true to the very letter; it produces all the inju-
rious stimulant effects of alcoholic liquor, except
taking away men's   senses and making them
stagger and fall.
   Dr.  Colet thus describes the effect of  coffee
when  taken in a large quantity, for a length of
time:   "To gastralgia"—acute pain in  the
stomach—"that it occasions, is united, after a
variable  space  of time, a  kind of shivering, a
trembling in the left  side  of the breast, an un-
comfortable stitch in front of this region, accom-
panied by pain in breathing, and in  addition a
general excitement, the characteristics of which
are anaiagous to those of incipient intoxication."
He tells us also that if this course is persevered
in, spasms and convulsions are sometimes  pro-
duced.
   Dr.  Cottereau says, " I have seen some young 
STIMULATING DRINKS.
51
 persons who have taken excessive doses of cof-
 fee to excite them to labor, fall into a state of
 stupidity, lose  their appetite, and grow thin in
 an astonishing manner."
   A. Saint-Arroman, to whom credit is due for
 furnishing the  above extracts, says, " According
 to these counsels, given by men of skill, it is
 easy to  comprehend that coffee  is sometimes
 more injurious than the great consumption of it
 would seem to indicate.  Thus, how many per-
 sons are there  who would know the cause of a
 disease not understood, and would be less dis-
 ordered, if they thoroughly knew the effects of
 this  liquor, and the circumstances in  which it
 cannot fail to be injurious."
   It need only be added that, in the estimation
 of the writer of this  little work—after having
 used it for several years, and since that having
 abstained from it for twelve or fifteen years—
 coffee, in all cases, and  under all circumstances,
 is bad; that  its stimulating qualities  are  deci-
 dedly injurious to the system, and ought never
 to be used except when required as an antidote
 to poison, or for some other medicinal purpose.
 And what  makes it to  be dreaded more  than
 many other injurious things is, its evil working
 is so unseen  and  delusive.  While it does not
 show itself like alcohol, yet its evil work is as
 certainly undermining the nervous system; and
 while it tempts us to believe  that it strengthens
 and  supports—because it excites — it slowly
 enervates.  It affects the whole system, and  es-
pecially the nervous system, by its effects on the
stomach.   But besides  this, it creates  a morbid
action of the liver; especially where there is a
tendency to bilious affections.   It affects the cir- 
52
FOOD AND DRINKS.
culation of the  blood, and the quality of the
blood itself, so  that a great coffee-drinker can
generally be known by his complexion; it gives
to the skin a dead, dull, sallow appearance.
  Coffee affects not only the body to its injury,
but also the mind.  It has been called an " intel-
lectual drink," because it excites the mind tem-
porarily to unwonted  activity.  " But, unfortu-
nately," says the French writer last quoted, " it
is not without great prejudice to mind and body
that man procures such over-excitements.  After
them come prostration, sadness, and exhaustion
of the moral and physical forces; the mind be-
comes  enervated, the body languishes.  To a
rich  imagination succeeds a penury  of ideas;
and if the consumer does not stop, genius will
soon give place to stupidity.
  The  longevity of some coffee-drinkers has
been sometimes urged as proof that coffee does
no harm.   But we might just as well  bring for-
ward the fact that  some great alcohol-drinkers,
or some great  opium-eaters, have lived  some-
times to old age, in proof that alcohol and opium
are harmless luxuries.  It is impossible to judge
always  of the evil  effects of an article we are
using by any immediate perceptible result.  We
must inquire what is its nature ; and then draw
our  conclusions as to what will  be  its  effect.
The most violent poisons may be used, after a
habit is established, with  apparent impunity;
such as tobacco, opium, and arsenic ; and yet no
one would dare to say these are harmless  luxu-
ries.  They are not harmless ; they expose their
consumers to premature  sickness, old a«-e and
death.   And  they see not the  breakers  until
they are dashed upon  them. 
STIMULATING DRINKS.
53
   Tea is another  objectionable article, because
of its stimulating  properties.   This is a direct
and active stimulant.   Its effects are very simi-
lar to those of alcoholic drinks, except that of
drunkenness.   Like alcohol, it gives, for a time,
increased  vivacity of spirits.   Like alcohol, it
increases, beyond its healthy and natural action,
the whole animal and mental machinery; after
which  there must come  a reaction — a  cor-
responding languor and debility.   The wash-
woman  becomes exhausted, and must have her
bowl of tea to  recruit her energies, instead of
giving nature a chance to recover herself.   She
depends upon art rather than nature, and each
time lowers the standard of her own permanent
strength.   She accomplishes more in a  short
time, while her strength is  artificial instead of
natural, but is gradually, though perhaps imper-
ceptibly,  wearing  herself out before  her time.
The  nurse keeps herself awake nights by this
artificial process;  and each time, by impercep-
tible  steps, lessens  her  natural strength.   She
thinks'with  the wash-woman, that tea does her
good—strengthens her, because, like the rum-
drinker, she feels  better under its immediate
effects.
  The time was when ministers, instead of being
largely  inspired with the  Holy  Ghost, wrote
and delivered their sermons under the inspira-
tion of ardent spirits ;  but now, seeing that to be
morally and physically wrong, they not unfre-
quently labor under that artificial  inspiration,
which is quite as effectual, contained in tea.  By
this process, they gradually impair their own
natural energy  of body and mind.
  See a party of ladies met to spend an after-
                5^ 
54
FOOD AND DRINKS.
noon, in a sewing-circle, it may be; toward the
close  of the afternoon, their fund of conversa-
tionals becomes somewhat exhausted;  but soon
come  the  tea  and eatables;  and notwithstand-
ing the opposing influences  of a full  stomach,
the drooping mind becomes greatly animated,
the tongue is let loose, and the words come flow-
ing forth like the falling drops of a great shower
in summer-time.  What  does  all  this mean?
Whence the cause of such a  change ?  It is the
inspiration of the strong cups of tea.  Then is
the time for small thoughts and many words; or
it may be the sending forth of fire-brands of gos-
sip and slander;  or if, perchance, religion be the
topic, the  inspiring power of tea will  create an
excited feeling very closely resembling that pro-
duced when alcohol runs over in the form of
penitential tears.
  Tea, in large doses, produces  convulsive mo-
tions, and  a kind of intoxication.   It enters into
the circulation, and affects the complexion ;  it is
not difficult to detect a  great  tea-drinker by
looking at his  skin;  which loses its bright and
lively cast, and puts on a deadly, lifeless, dried,
and sometimes sallow  appearance.  It is  said
that in China the great  tea-drinkers  are  thin
and weak, their complexion  leaden, their teeth
black, and themselves  affected  with  diabetes.
Cases have  not unfrequently come under the
immediate inspection of the  writer, where tea
had for years almost literally been the food and
drink;  especially  of seamstresses, who  would
sit up late nights.   In such cases, about the
only remedy would  be, to prohibit the further
use of it.  But generally this prohibition would
be no longer heeded  than while being uttered • 
NOURISHING DRINKS.
55
 for their dependence on it, and love for it, could
 not be easily broken up;  and but small compen-
 sation in some cases would seem to be  gained
 by its discontinuance; for tea had almost eaten
 them  up;  leaving little  more  than bone and
 sinew, and a few scraps of dried flesh.
   In short, whoever uses tea or coffee as a com-
 mon drink, spends his money for that  which
 does him not only no good, but evil, and that
 continually.   They are  both innutritious, and
 stimulating to  a degree which it is difficult for
 their devotees  to calculate.   Now which shall
 we do ?  Abstain, and bring under this evil appe-
 tite, or will we gratify it ?  Will we deny our-
 selves, and  derive the incalculable benefit as  a
 compensation, or recklessly go on, and take the
 consequences ?  Will young ladies and gentle-
 men treat  their physical and mental systems
 lawfully, and  save  to themselves a good  consti-
 tution, or will they,  at all hazards, indulge them-
 selves in unlawful  appetites, and have no prin-
 ciple by which to govern themselves, but their
 own gratification?  Will they have  regard  to
 their own benefit,  and that of coming  gener-
 ations, or  will  they, like the devotee  to the
 intoxicating bowl, live for to-day, and let to-mor-
 row  provide for itself?

             NOURISHING  DRINKS.

  As it  has been said before, so let it  be re-
peated—which should be, at all times in health,
a standing  rule—give to  nature a sufficient
nutrition, and  she will furnish her own  stimu-
lus, far better than anything which art can do.
Support  nature, and let art go begging.   Live 
56
FOOD AND DRINKS.
naturally, and not artificially.   The natural in-
quiry will now be, what shall we drink ?
  Cocoa is a healthy drink.  That which comes
in pound and  half-pound papers makes a very
good  drink; but on  account of its oily nature,
which is objectionable, the cracked nut of cocoa
is preferable;  but caution is necessary not to
make it too strong, because  it contains a large
amount of nutrition in a small compass,  and
may oppress the stomach  and  produce  head-
ache.   The  cracked nuts  and shells, which
come in bags  of about thirty pounds, make the
most  convenient form  for use.   This mixture,
made in moderate  strength, say, according to
the following proportion and  rule, is a nutritious,
healthy drink.  Take half common tea-cupfull
of this cocoa-mixture, and add one quart of cold
water ; boil moderately for about six hours, ad-
ding more water to supply  the portion which
boils away ; it is fit then for use by adding milk,
or cream, and sugar.  This  makes a good sub-
stitute for coffee in the morning, and  the same
or simple  shells in place of tea in the evening.
There are  various nourishing,  healthy drinks,
of a domestic character, such  as bread-coffee,
and others, which it  is not important to describe
or recommend.
  Hot drinks of any kind   are objectionable.
They excite by the force  of  heat, and then de-
bilitate  the  stomach.  They should  only  be
taken about blood-warmth.   Some persons ac-
custom themselves to drink hot milk and water ■
this  is  objectionable  on account of  its  heat!
Moderately warm water, of  itself, without con-
siderable milk or cream, if taken to much extent 
NOURISHING DRINKS.
57
 is also weakening to the stomach.  Warm drinks
 generally expose one to colds.
   Large quantities of any kind of drinks should
 be avoided.  Even cold water may be taken too
 largely.  Much depends upon habit;  if we allow
 ourselves in the custom of drinking much, we
 shall want much;  if we accustom ourselves to
 drink but little, we shall want but little.   The
 objection to a large quantity is this :  it distends
 the stomach beyond its  natural dimensions, and
 therefore weakens it; it also dilutes the gastric
 juice, and therefore weakens that.   One or two
 common tea-cups  of any kind of drink,  taken
 with our meals, is sufficient.  If we take more,
 it weakens the gastric juice,  and injures  the
 digestive process.  Laborers, at their meals, and
 between meals, are inclined to  drink  far  too
 much.   Their  thirst on the whole is no less for
 drinking so largely,  and  they weaken them-
 selves by it.  Besides, in hot weather, many are
 seriously  injured,  and even  destroyed some-
 times, by too large quantities of cold  water.   If
 they want to   drink often, they must  confine
 themselves to very small quantities at a time.
   Unfermented beers—root, hop, and  ginger
 beers — are  healthy drinks, if not  taken  too
 largely.  Soda drinks, in the form of soda pow-
 ders, or from soda fountains, are also healthy.
 The carbonic  acid gas  which they impart  to
the stomach does  not excite, but is a moderate
tonic. 
58         PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.
      PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.

         TO PARENTS AND GUARDIANS.

  Parents  have  a responsibility in regard to
their  offspring originating prior to  their birth.
Their own state of health—the health of father
and mother—has a very important bearing upon
the constitutions of their yet unborn children.
If a father's nervous system has been  marred
and broken by habits  which are at war with na-
ture's law, the generations following him will be
more  or  less unhappily affected.  While, then,
he is  doing wrong to himself, he is doing wrong,
and bringing suffering upon his  posterity.  If
a mother's  system has been weakened by viola-
tions  of law, her  children, prior to birth, will be
obliged to participate with her in suffering the
penalty.   And having received the inheritance
of disease  or  debility before  birth,  they must,
more  or less, be the partakers of it through life.
Parents  have  also a heavy responsibility  on
them, touching the moral character given to
their  children before  birth.   If parents are ac-
customed to  undue indulgence  in  any of the
natural propensities — in  eating or drinking, or
any other animal appetite — their children are
sure,  prior  to  birth, to  inherit appetites  of the
same  kind, possessing a similar degree of undue
activity.
  In the  same way, previously to birth, children
are affected in their dispositions.  A child after
birth, and more or less through life, will give a
living illustration of the feelings and immediate
character of his mother during the period of her 
TO PARENTS AND  GUARDIANS.      59
 pregnancy.  If the mother, during that period,
 especially the latter part of it, indulges a gloomy,
 evil-foreboding state of mind, her child will give
 proof of it in after life.  If she indulge a peevish,
 or fretful, or  crying  disposition, her child will
 give  her ample testimony to the fact after birth.
 Some have inherited directly from a mother an
 almost unconquerable appetite for strong drink;
 others, an almost  uncontrollable  inclination to
 theft; not because their  mothers, in all  cases,
 were habitual drinkers or thieves, but because
 they  suffered  those  feelings  to affect   them
 strongly  sometime  during  their  pregnancy.
 Many physicians would deny the truth of these
 statements ; but no one who  has taken the pains
 of observing facts  touching  this matter will be
 found in that category; for facts are unconquer-
 able things.   The inspired proverb,  " Train up
 a child in the way he should go, and when he is
 old he will not depart from it," contains a great
 practical truth as a general rule ;  but under the
 most  judicious discipline,  the child will bear, in
 greater  or less  degree, the  moral  complexion
 which his mother gave him before she gave him
 birth.
   Fathers, as well as mothers, and all  those
 with  whom a mother may associate, are in-
 volved in this responsibility.  The father should
 remember that his manner and treatment of his
 wife during her pregnancy has much to do with
 the disposition  she  may  possess  during that
 period.   He should be careful to remove,  so far
 as possible, every source, real or  imaginary, of
uneasiness, unhappiness, peevishness, or gloomi-
ness,  from her way.  He  should take pains to
make her  happy  and  cheerful;  and see that 
60         PARTICULAR  DIRECTIONS.
every appetite which comes  up is, if possible,
forthwith gratified.   If that appetite  should be
for strong drink, it had better be gratified to the
full, rather than that she give, by that continued
longing, an indelible imprint of that kind upon
her offspring.  In the light of these truths, what
tremendous  responsibilities are evidently laid
upon parents.   But as this work relates mainly
to physical health, further remarks  on that of
morals might seem irrelevant.
  The object of these remarks is to  elevate the
standard of general health in the  rising gener-
ation.  One great cause of the feebleness of con-
stitution with which the great body of commu-
nity is at the present day afflicted, may be  found
in the total ignorance or recklessness of parents
and guardians  of the laws of health as applied
to those  under  their  care.  To look in upon
many domestic  circles, and see how the children
are managed, is enough  to  move a  heart of
marble, with  sorrow for  the  children, and with
indignation  towards  their parents.   The chil-
dren may be seen, about every hour  in the day,
with a lunch of bread, or pie, or cake, in hand.
Their young and  tender  stomachs are kept in
continual confusion and toil.
   Children  should eat only three times a day.
They should be brought under the same dietetic
rules which are laid down for  all persons.   It
requires  about as much time for their organs  to
digest food as is  required for  grown  persons.
And if the digestive process be hurried and con-
fused, their food does not nourish  them as well,
and they cannot  grow as  strong and  robust.
Little  new-born  infants'  constitutions are not
unfrequently ruined for life, by mismanagement. 
         TO PARENTS AND GUARDIANS.       61

Because the child cries a little, it must be dosed
with  a little  peppermint, or anise-essence, or
paregoric,  or  some other  stimulating  article,
which begins at once  to derange his  stomach;
and  through his stomach, his whole system is.
injured, and  probably  for life4  And if the  in-
quiry should be  made, in after  years, what can
be the cause of such a feeble, slender constitu-
tion ? an enlightened observer would be able to
reveal the  secret,  by showing  the treatment
received in infancy.
  A systematic diet should  always  be adopted
by mothers and  nurses at the very dawn of the
child's existence.  In the  first place, after birth,
a little cold water only should  be put into the
child's mouth.   The habit of beginning to give
some stimulant, as  though the  Creator of the
child had given  it only half life enough, is per-
fectly murderous : instead of  giving it a chance
to live of itself, a course  is  taken  which is
adapted to kill it; or if not kill it, to maim its
little constitution for life.   If the writer of this
could be heard, he would  " cry aloud, and spare
not," in the ear of every nurse, with the little
being'in her arms, Let that child live !  If it
be necessary to give the child any nourishment
before it can obtain it from the mother, it might
take a little  slippery elm water, or something
of that mild  and simple nature : but if it can
draw its  first nourishment  from the  fountain
which the Author of its  being has  provided, it
IS DGttGT*
  Babes should  be nursed but three  times a
day.   This may seem  a  preposterous rule; but
let us reason together upon  it.  The food which
Nature has provided for the child is adapted to
              6 
62         PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.
its age and capacity for digesting; and it requires
about the same length of time for the  infant to
digest its  meal as it does the man of  ripe  age
to digest his ; and the various steps in the di-
gestive  process  are  the same  in  both cases.
Then if five hours are required to complete the
process well, why disturb it  till it  is  finished ?
By letting the child have only its regular break-
fast, dinner, and supper, it digests its food well,
and is well nourished by  it.   But adopt the
course usually taken, and the little one's stomach
is kept confused and  oppressed, and its  system
is but half nourished from the same quantity of
food which wrould be requisite under  a regular
system.  As infants  are usually treated, they
are subject to  repeated vomiting, colic, and, not
unfrequently,  fits ; and the  cause  is  obvious:
the stomach has been  overloaded.  Only feed
infants right, and there  is no reason why they
should vomit  any more  than grown  persons.
What danger can there be of a child's suffering
from  want of  food before the expiration of the
five hours between meals, when they not unfre-
quently go  from twelve to  twenty-four hours,
and sometimes  longer, after birth, before  they
take  any  substantial  nourishment ?   The  idea
that a child  will  suffer  hunger, if it do not take
food oftener than once in five hours during the
day, is all nonsense ;  and worse than this, great
injury is done by such a notion.   The " little
and often " system is destructive — contrary to
the  laws  of health — contrary to true philoso-
phy and reason ;  and should forever  be aban-
doned.
   If  infants from the first were treated  in this
way, they would not  only be more  healthy, but 
          TO PARENTS AND GUARDIANS.      63

 altogether  more  quiet, and  easy to be  taken
 care of.  Then, instead of putting the child to
 the breast  to  stop its mouth and get rid  of its
 crying, it would feel better, and be far less  likely
 to cry.   And  generally,  instead of worrisome
 nights —usually  caused by  a disturbed  stom-
 ach— it would sleep quietly till morning; and
 the mother with it.   The food of the infant,
 taken just before it sleeps, or  in the night, inter-
 feres with its quiet  sleep; just as  that of any
 other individual,  from a  similar cause, is dis-
 turbed.  This  experiment  has been tried, and
 proved  successful: let  others try it.
   When children are old  enough  to take solid
 food, they should  have only three meals a day.
 If they eat oftener, their stomachs  will be  de-
 ranged, and their food will not so well nourish
 them.  If any  mother will take pains to look at
 the laws of digestion, she will at once see that
 no child can take food  oftener than once in five
 hours without interfering with a previous  meal,
 and injuring the healthful operation of the di-
 gestive  organs.   Those children who have been
 brought up on the  exclusive  system of eating
 but three times a day, have been proved  to be
 more than ordinarily strong and healthy. While
 other children  have been  afflicted with worms,
 colic, cholera-morbus, and  a  host of other ail-
 ments common to children generally, they have
 escaped.
   Why, then, will mothers suffer their children
to violate the laws of their natures, and  expose
themselves to suffer the penalty of those violated
laws ?  Will a mother  have such a tender con-
cern for her offspring's gratification, as to suffer
it to destroy its own comfort and  health, and 
64         PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.
perhaps life ?   It is often said, " My child has
no appetite for breakfast; therefore it must have
a lunch before dinner."   But this is a sure way
of prolonging the difficulty :  the child will never
be likely to have an  appetite  for breakfast, as
long as this irregular and  unlawful course  is
indulged ;  and especially as  long as the child
knows that he may depend on the precious lunch.
Let the child go from breakfast time till dinner
time, and it will not be long before he  will eat
his regular breakfast.   If parents would secure
for their children a healthy appetite and a sound
constitution, let them rigidly insist on their eat-
ing  but three times a day, using simple food,
and  having other things in keeping with nature's
laws;  and, so far as all human means are con-
cerned, they may be sure of accomplishing theii
purpose.
  The almost continual hankering  for food
which many  children  seem   to  have, arises
wholly from a habit of constant eating.  If their
eating were reduced to  a  regular habit, their
appetite would become regular.  But  this irreg-
ular appetite is  not natural;  it is created, and
unhealthy.  If we  get into a habit of eating
seven times a day, we shall hanker  after food
as many times.  If we once  establish a habit
of eating but three times a day, we shall want
food  only as many  times.   Now,  what will
mothers  and nurses do ?  Will they begin with
the  infant by a regular system, and continue
it?  or will they go  on in the  old beaten path,
to the injury  of those they  profess  to  love
and  cherish ?  Will  they make a mock of pa-
rental love and fondness, by  unrestrained and
unlimited indulgence ? or will  they love so sin- 
TO LITERARY  INSTITUTIONS.       65
cerely as to  keep the child from every hurtful
thing ?  That pretended love, which, knowing
the evil consequences, at all hazards, seeks only
to gratify, proves its own falseness.  Shame —
shame  on that mother's love which passes heed-
lessly by her  child's chief and ultimate good,
to indulge it in a momentary gratification, or to
save herself the trouble of controlling its solicita-
tions!  Shame on that mother's humanity even,
whose  refined and tender sympathy cannot re-
fuse indulgence where health, and,  it may be,
life, are at stake!  If mothers and fathers have
a  substantial  affection  for their offspring, let
them manifest it under  the dictates of  reason
and common  sense — let them seek their  per-
manent good.   If those having the care of chil-
dren would  be able to give a final account of
their guardianship in peace, let them,  next to
their morals, seek for those under  their charge,
soundness of constitution.   And in  doing this,
they do perhaps as'much for their morals as
could be done through  any other  means;  for
physical and moral health are closely allied.
          TO LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.
  There is no class of  persons who are under
higher  obligations to observe the laws of health,
than those  who are  connected,  whether  as
teachers  or pupils, with literary  institutions.
Thousands have been ruined for life, so far as
the enjoyment of health  is  concerned, and  lost
to the world, with all their native talents  and
acquired  abilities,  by  violating  those laws.
Whereas, by attention and obedience to them, a
balance between the healthy action of body  and
mind might have been preserved, and themselves
        5     6* 
66         PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.
and the world would have enjoyed the avails
of their  existence.   Young men  and  young
ladies  enter upon a  course  of  education with
good health, and long before that course is fin-
ished their constitutions give way, and they are
obliged to retire  from study:  or, if able to finish
their education, they- have  scarcely  physical
energy enough  left to apply their mental  re-
sources to any practical  purpose.  To effect a
change which  shall  obviate this evil, will  re-
quire  the attention  both of teachers  and stu-
dents.
   Students should live on simple food  ; and re-
member to " eat to live,  and not live  to eat."
To gormandize  is  beneath the dignity of one
who has  mind  enough to make it  worth while
to submit it to a process of  culture: indeed, a
man who has the soul of an intellectual being
will never do it.   Students should avoid those
things  which are hard to digest.  They should
have food that is palatable, and  well,  yet with
simplicity, prepared.   The  less animal food —
even  none  at all — the better.  They  should
rigidly and scrupulously confine themselves to
three — if not to  two — meals  a day; and for
reasons given explicitly under Dietetic Rules.
They  should never  apply their minds to study
or reading at least for one hour  after their meal
is finished : but they should make themselves
amused and cheerful in some way which neither
requires the effort of body or mind: they should
be at leisure, and endeavor to enjoy themselves.
The reason for this course, as before  stated, is,
that if the nervous energies, required  in the di-
gestive process,  are called away to some physical
or intellectual effort, great  injury is done to the 
          TO LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.       67

 digestive department.  From  this  cause, and
 perhaps mainly this,  thousands  on thousands
 have either entirely  broken down, or rendered
 themselves sufferers for life.
   After one hour  from the time  the meal is
 finished, they may with safety set  themselves
 down  to study; i. e., if they  have eaten with
 such moderation as all students  ought to use :
 if not, they should wait longer ;—yes, if they
 will not eat properly, let them retire  from  the
 institution, which  is  no place  for gluttons, and
 devote themselves  to corporeal  labor — labor at
 the anvil, or in the western wilds, felling trees,
 where they could  practise engorgement with
 comparative  impunity.  After spending about
 half an  hour in thoroughly masticating their
 meal — being careful not to spend that time  in
 too much talking, which not only interferes with
 mastication, but may agitate the mind, as would
 be the case in all argumentative conversation—
 and then one  hour  in gentle amusement  or
 cheerful leisure, they  are  ready  to bind their
 whole  mental force to study.   Under this  ar-
 rangement, six hours a day of study will accom-
 plish more in the long run  than twelve hours in
 the ordinary way.
  Exercise is another duty of  students.  It is
exceedingly important that  a balance between
the mental  and physical  energies  should  be
maintained;  otherwise  the  body  withers undei
its  superincumbent weight.  To preserve  this
balance while the  mind  is  advancing, and the
body untasked,  artificial  exercise  must be insti-
tuted ;  for bodily  strength cannot be promoted
Without some kind of bodily exertion.
  The best time  for  exercise  for  students  is 
68         PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.
about an hour before meal times ; so as to give
about three-fourths of an hour for hard labor,
and a quarter of an hour to rest, before eating.
Exercise in this way can be taken once, twice,
or three times a day, as circumstances  may  re-
quire.   The length of time devoted to  exercise,
and  the severity of the effort which each one
requires, cannot be defined by certain rules: the
constitution and circumstances of each individ-
ual, aided by common  sense, must  determine.
But every individual student requires some ex-
ercise ;  and it should  be taken sufficiently prior
to a following meal to give a little respite from
exertion just previous to sitting down to eat. A
division of time, between each meal, something
like  the following, may do  as a general rule:
spend half an hour in eating, one hour in leis-
ure, two and a  half hours  in  close  study, and
one hour in labor ; leaving off in  season to get
the system calm before the next meal.
   The kind of exercise to be taken may properly
be a  matter of inquiry.  To settle upon any one
kind for universal application, may  be difficult.
A mechanic's shop exercise may be very benefi-
cial for  body and mind.   At any rate, it should
be something which is adapted to give not only
exercise to the muscular system, but, if possible,
at the  same time,  a  source  of  amusement.
Making trunks  and boxes may secure this  ob-
ject.   Sawing or chopping wood, however prof-
itable it may be, may  require  too severe exer-
tion,  and may  not prove  to  be  very  much
amusement  to  the  mind.   The bowline alley
aside from the odium of its  general character
its bewitching  charms,  and its tendencies to
various  kinds of dissipation,  might afford a most 
          TO LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.       69

 desirable method of promoting muscular strength
 and mental exhilaration.  Exercise in the line
 of  agricultural pursuits, when it can be had, is,
 perhaps, everything considered, the best kind.
 In-the use of this, there is the advantage of the
 open air, the  smell of vegetation, the effluvia
 from the ground, and the vigorous action of the
 muscles of the arms and chest.   This last ben-
 efit — one which may be  had in other modes
 of exercise also — is very  important generally,
 and especially where there is any tendency to
 falling in  of the  chest and lung affection.
  Walking is another kind  of exercise generally
 employed ; but it is  one of very little service gen-
 erally :  it is better than nothing, but very insuf-
 ficient.   It only calls into exertion the lower
 limbs, which  least need  exercise, while  the
 muscles of the chest and abdomen, which need
 them most, are not  called into exertion.  Horse-
 back exercise has  the  same  deficiency.   At
 female  schools  some method should be chosen
 for  exercise which combines the three important
 considerations above mentioned, namely, general
 muscular  exertion, adapted  to their  strength,
 mental  exhilaration, and the special action of
 the arms and trunk.   Jumping the  rope is too
 exciting and severe. A bowling alley for young
 ladies, who of course would never allow them-
 selves to become dissipated, would  be  an excel-
 lent exercise and amusement for them.    Let all
 students remember  that if  they would  preserve
 good health, they  must  exercise ; and  that in
 doing this, they  also give vigor and vivacity to
the  intellect, as well as energy and health to the
body.                      ...
  The managers of literary institutions have a 
70         PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.
great responsibility  in this matter.   If  they
would secure the physical and intellectual wel-
fare  of those under their  care, which doubtless
they  would,  they must put themselves to the
trouble of providing for and regulating means to
accomplish that object.
  Provision should, be made for the exercise of
their students.   Means for agricultural exercise
should be provided, if possible, for that portion
of the year in which it is practicable.   A me-
chanic's  shop, or something  to  subserve the
same purpose, should be provided for the winter
season ;  and a  requirement on  every student
to attend  on this important duty,  should be es-
tablished ;  so that no loafer should find an easy
passport through any literary institution.
  Recitations should be so arranged as to accom-
modate the periods allotted to eating and digest-
ing food, and those allotted to  labor and  relax-
ation. A recitation should  never be required
just  preceding or just succeeding a meal.   If it
immediately precede a meal, the  nervous  ener-
gies have been drawn so  intently to the mental
effort, that they cannot at once be diverted and
drawn toward the digestive effort.   Therefore, a
short space should be granted for relaxation from
any  active employment of the  nervous system,
immediately  preceding a meal.   If the recita-
tion  immediately succeed  a meal, the process of
digestion is interrupted.   It would be far better
that  recitations  should be so arranged  as to
come somewhere within  the period allotted to
close study.   Then there would  be no  inter-
ference with  the natural  action of the system.
But  to  go into a recitation-room  just after a
meal, is  a violation of law, which is perfectly 
            TO PROFESSIONAL MEN.         71

suicidal; and to  be forced there  by academic
law, is gradual manslaughter.
   And now the important question is, will  the
managers of literary institutions  regulate this
matter so as not to stand in the way of their
students' obeying the laws of their being ? Will
they hinder, or will  they facilitate, their employ-
ing the  proper method  of securing  health of
body and mind ?   Will they aid in keeping up
Such a balance between  mental and physical
power, that  there may be  a prospect that  the
world will  be benefited  by the  existence of
their institutions ?
   The food and drinks also, which are  furnished,
should be adapted to the best interests of their
students.  If meats be  set aside, pains  should
be taken to  furnish a palatable and wholesome
vegetable -diet.  And as coffee  and tea  should
never see the inside of any apartment of a lit-
erary institution, nourishing drinks  should be
furnished in their  place.   Every institution's
guardians should most earnestly recommend, if
not require, ten o'clock to be the hour for closing
study and for retiring to rest; for there is noth-
ing gained, but much lost, by studying after that
hour of night.  It is generally admitted by medi-
cal men, that  sleep is worth more before than
after midnight; that two hours' good sleep before
twelve o'clock is worth more than four after that
hour.
            TO PROFESSIONAL MEN.

   Those  who accustom themselves to  intel-
lectual labor require habits of living  somewhat
different  from those who  are engaged  in  pur-
suits  of  a  physical  character.   Though all 
72         PARTICULAR  DIRECTIONS.
should strictly obey the laws of their natures,
physical and intellectual, yet, while some habits
of living may be lawful, they may not be, under
certain conditions in life, expedient; and indeed
what may be lawful for one, under certain cir-
cumstances, may  not be  lawful for another
under  other circumstances.  For instance, as
before stated, a person engaged  in farming can
bear the evil effects of animal food better than
one of sedentary  and  literary  habits.  Since
meat-eating, according to  general  admission
tends to oppress and check mental development,
it becomes inexpedient, if not unlawful, for per-
sons devoted strictly to intellectual pursuits, to
practise it.  It is doubtless inexpedient for any
to use it;  but  in the  case of those whose skill
and usefulness depend upon an unclouded and
active  intellect, this  inexpediency comes near
the range  of moral obliquity.
  For  a sample of the effects of  meat-eating, on
a large scale, upon the intellect, see the differ-
ence between the French and English, in regard
to their habits and character.
  The English  are inclined to  gluttony; they
are  enormous  meat-eaters;  they take  meat
largely at each of  their meals.  They are gen-
erally inclined to be of the lymphatic  tempera-
ment ;  a  consequence  of habitual stuffing with
roast-beef, beef-steaks,and plum-puddings. And
what is the effect upon the mass of mind?  While
we  find some highly gifted, commanding, and
high-toned  geniuses,  the mass  are stupid and
comparatively unintelligent.
  The French live principally  on vegetables •
they generally possess the  nervous "tempera-
ment;  a temperament adapted  to literary and 
            TO PROFESSIONAL MEN.          73

 intellectual habits.   They have quick and ener-
 getic minds.  They have a  large flow of spirits,
 great vivacity and cheerfulness, and are remark-
 ably  effective and productive in their  mental
 character.   It is well known that a very large
 proportion of various scientific works have orig-
 inated from France.  The science of medicine,
 with  various  collateral  sciences,  is highly  in-
 debted to the wakeful genius and indefatigable
 zeal of French intellect for its advancement.
   Professional and literary  men  should live on
 simple, nutritious, and regular diet.  The less
 exciting their food, the better; the less  meat—
 if none at all—the better; in short, they should
 observe all the rules of diet previously laid
 down.  They should by no means use stimulat-
 ing drinks.  Their nervous systems are more
 severely taxed than many other classes of men :
 hence the absolute necessity of economizing the
 nervous strength;  and  if they would preserve
 that, they must not suffer their nerves to be arti-
 ficially and unnaturally excited.   They should
 have  wholesome  nourishment,  and then   let
 nature herself supply her  own  well-balanced
 excitement.
   The clergymen of this country, in days long
 since—as  now in England—were accustomed
 to prepare and preach their  sermons  under, and
 in demonstration of, ardent spirit.  Now, among
 us, this method is abandoned; but there is a
 substitute which  answers  precisely  the same
 purpose, and is even better;  for when the ardent
was used too  freely—which not unfrequently
occurred — the subject  would reel  under  the
weight of  his  accumulated  ideas;  while  the
substitute equally  inspires  the brain,  without 
74         PARTICULAR  DIRECTIONS.
causing the  zigzag  and  horizontal  motions.
That substitute is  tea:  or, it  may be, coffee.
The nature and effects  of these articles  have
been already examined, and it is not necessary
to dwell upon them here.
  When the writer was  a  settled pastor, a few
years since, in  a neighboring town, he was  ac-
customed to have, on entering his study, extreme
nervous depression — sinking  of the nervous
energies — insomuch  that it was impossible to
make any mental effort while in that state; a
bowl of tea, therefore — in accordance with pre-
vious habits — would  be  ordered; on taking
which, the  extreme  depression  would imme-
diately pass  away,  and a most cheerful and
happy flow  of spirits  would  take  its  place.
Under this a sermon  could easily be prepared;
and  on the Sabbath, under the same kind of
stimulus,  it could  be preached.   But a little
time of such  violation  of law developed  the
fearful fact that nervous debility and depression
were rapidly increasing — that the  more stimu-
lus that was taken, the more must be taken to
meet the  demand.   Hence, the tea was  aban-
doned  entirely; and very soon the  complaint
disappeared, and has returned  no more.  This
is an illustration only of facts which always will
exist in  every instance  of tea-drinking under
similar circumstances, whether  they be°readily
perceived  or not.   How much better in  every
case, and  especially in  that of ministers, that
they depend, in all  their intellectual labors, on
the real, substantial, and uniform inspiration of
nature, than upon the spurious, fitful, debilitat-
mg excitement  of some foreign stimulant.  How
much better that the ministers of Christ under 
TO LABORING MEN.
75
 such  solemn and awful  responsibilities as the
 preaching of the gospel  involves, lean on the
 divine energy of the  Holy Ghost, than on the
 transient energy of some artificial excitement;
 nay,  how profane  and wicked  is such  a de-
 parture from nature and from nature's God.
   The injurious effects of tea and coffee cannot
 be resisted by the habits of professional men, as
 much as by the habits of the  laboring classes.
 They must either abandon them altogether, or
 bow down as  slaves to appetite, and take the
 consequences.   They must  abandon  them, or
 consent to have less health of body and  mind,
 and die sooner.  See the sallow complexion and
 trembling hand of the barrister, especially as he
 advances in life, who, instead of living naturally,
 has lived artificially all his days;  will he con
 tinue to barter his highest earthly good for such
 pottage ?  He may live to old age; and so may
 the drunkard.
             TO  LABORING MEN.

  Remarks under the head, " Time for Labor,"
 supersede the   necessity  of  extended  remarks
 under the present one.  If laboring men would
 endure long and  accomplish  much, they must
 work and live, temperately.
  Some men work too hard ; and by this means
 violate a law of their physical nature.  This is
poor economy.  Though for a day a man accom-
plish  more,  yet in  the  end, he is certainly  a
loser.   But temperate labor is both healthy and
curative in its effects on the animal system.  If
the hosts of dyspeptics and consumptives  could
turn farmers, they  might dispense with  drugs
and doctors, and recover their health.   But even 
76         PARTICULAR DIRECTIONS.

farmers themselves  may utterly destroy their
health and constitutions by  excessive and ill-
managed labor.  To subject one's self to a sever-
ity of labor which the  strength and constitution
cannot endure, is a violation of physical law,
which, sooner or later, will bring in its train a
penalty apportioned to  the  amount  of trans-
gression.
  Another way in which  labor may  be made
injurious, is by inattention  to the laws of diges-
tion.   Take the case of the farmer for an illus-
tration.   Though the  amount of daily  labor
performed by him is not sufficient of itself to
injure him, yet by ignorance or disregard of the
nature of the digestive process, he may do him-
self great injury.  One way of injuring himself
may be rapid, eating; so that his food is no more
than half masticated and half mixed with saliva.
That food can comparatively do him but very
little good.   Or if he take sufficient time to eat,
and  then immediately set himself about hard
labor, the process of digestion in the stomach
becomes deranged and imperfect.  Hence, his
system is not nourished  and  sustained;  or else
he is obliged to overload his  stomach with food
in order to get sufficient support.   But let him
take ample time for eating, and then  spend one
hour  in  digesting before~he shall  put himself
down to hard labor, and he will soon  find him-
self  a gainer in  health, and in the amount of
labor ultimately performed.  Take the farmer,
with  his  dozen hands, in  haying-time, it  may
be; they  hurry down  a heavy dinner, then go
out immediately to  mowing grass or pitching
hay; while all their nervous energies are needed
in the digestive process, they are forcing them 
TO LABORING MEN.
77
away from their duty to the muscular  system.
The men and their work move heavily; and at
the close of day they feel  exhausted and over-
done.  But let this same farmer with his men
change his course; they eat  deliberately, they
spend one hour m doing some light matter, and
then apply themselves closely to work until  the
next meal.  In this way they give time to masti-
cate, time for the stomach to act, and then they
work with  ease, and  despatch their work with
much greater energy and  speed;  and  at  the
close of the day they find themselves much less
exhausted.   Every man who knows  how  to
manage beasts of burden, and studies economy,
takes the same  course with them which is here
recommended for laboring  men.   When men
or horses live and  labor in this way, they ordi-
narily eat less, are in better condition, do more
work, and endure longer.
  Laboring men should also eat temperately.
They are  under no necessity for using animal
food.  They can be  amply nourished on vege-
table diet; else the  provision  made for Adam
and Eve before the  fall was a failure.   But
whatever they eat should be simple, nourishing,
and palatable.  They should  eat  moderately,
and not overload their stomachs.  If they  eat
too largely, the stomach is oppressed,  and  re-
quires a  longer time to perform its functions.
Some are  in the habit of taking luncheons  be-
tween meals.  They often say they  want a full
stomach to lean over; this is bad philosophy,
for reasons which need not here be repeated.
If thev lunch habitually, of course when lunch-
eoa-time  comes, they feel a femtness  at  the
stomach.   And so it would be if they were to
             7# 
78          GENERAL DIRECTIONS.

eat ten times a  day;  and if they habituate
themselves to only three meals a day, they will
suffer  no  more, nor  even so  much.   Three
meals  a day is as much as they can lawfully
dispose of; and when they take more, they are
obliged to violate an important law of the ani-
mal  economy.   They should be  careful that
they do not allow their supper to come near bed-
time ;  supper should come in season for diges-
tion.   Then on rising in the morning, the head
and  body feel clear and active.   Let laboring
men adopt these suggestions, and they will find
them much to their interest and happiness.

       GENERAL  DIRECTIONS.
                ON. SLEEPING.
   Sleep is as important to body and mind as
food is for the general system.   Without it, the
health of the most  robust would fail, and even
life itself  in time  wither  away.   Some need
more sleep than others, perhaps, under the same
circumstances.  But those who are destined to
labor in body or in mind, need more sleep than
those who are  not exposed to fatigue.   And
those who  are engaged in bodily labor, gener-
ally require more than those who devote them-
selves  to that which is intellectual.
  Laboring men should give themselves ample
time for sleep.   They should retire to rest about
nine or ten o'clock at night.  Nine, perhaps, is
the best hour, but never  in any  ordinary case,
should they sit  up  later than ten.   They need'
as a general rule, seven or eight hours of sleep!
And sleep before midnight is generally consid-
ered worth more than sleep for the same length 
ON SLEEPING.
79
 of time  after midnight.  They should rise in
 the morning about four or five o'clock.
   Professional,  literary,  and  mercantile  men
 should give themselves time to rest  the mind.
 They ought never  to  allow themselves  to be
 awake after ten o'clock at night.  Many  may
 suppose that by laboring over their books or
 other business till eleven or twelve o'clock, they
 gain time and money ;  but this is a grand  mis-
 take.  When men  undertake  to cheat them-
 selves, they always get a bad bargain.  Dame
 Nature is jealous of her rights ; and whoever
 will be  so  unwise  as to trample them under
 their feet, will, sooner or later, be made to pay
 damages.  If we want health and ability to en-
 dure, we must obey law  by giving sufficient
 time,  and the right time,  for  sleep.  If  any
 would shorten his time of sleep, let him not put
 off the hour of retirement, but rise earlier  than
 the ordinary hour in the morning.
   Sleep, to  be quiet and  refreshing,  should be
 on an empty stomach ; that is,  the first steps in
 the process of digestion should be accomplished
 before retirement.   Supper should be the light-
 est meal of the day, and should be taken at  least
 two hours before bed-time.   Some are in the
 habit of eating fruit after supper, and frequently
 late in the evening.   Strong stomachs may dis-
 pose of fruit under  such circumstances without
 apparent injury, but weak ones will suffer more
 or less from such a course.   The better way is
 not to take anything, even  the  mildest  fruit,
 after supper.  The  stomach  should be allowed
the privilege of rest, as well as the rest of the
body.   Dreams are generally the result of  lun-
cheons and  suppers  late in the evening.   The 
80           GENERAL DIRECTIONS.

revelations of night  visions are  doubtless,  in
many instances, the  result of late suppers, pro-
ducing involuntary somnambulism.
  Another rule, indispensable to good health, is,
never to sleep on  feather-beds.   One  objection
to them is, they are  non-conductors of the va-
rious gases which  are thrown off from the body,
and are also gathered around it from the atmos-
phere.   The tendencies of some of these gases
are  adapted,  among  other  evils, to  generate
fevers.   Owing to the non-conducting quality
of these beds, these gases are accumulated, and
are very detrimental to  the system.  Another
objection to them is, they are the general reser-
voir  of  the various exhalations  of the different
bodies which have been lodged on them.  They
possess  the power of retaining all the effluvia
and  humors  which  may have been  gathered
from those who have occupied them.  Hence,
feather-beds should be rejected, and husk, palm-
leaf, or hair mattresses,  should be  adopted in
their place.
                ON bathing.
  Cleanliness is a  very important means  of
health.   Some  persons  in  low  life, and some
foreigners, are  practically great lovers of dirt;
and at the  same time they have good health and
sound constitutions :  but they are none the bet-
ter for their filthiness.  Their good health may
be the result alone of their  plain living;  while
those in higher life,  with all  their  cleanliness
and  ventilation, destroy  themselves with their
luxuries. But when the cholera and other violent
epidemics  appear,  their  most fearful  footsteps
are traced in those districts and  families where
filth abounds. 
ON BATHING.
81
   Every  person  ought to be  accustomed  to
 periodical bathing, or at least to occasional bath-
 ing.  The pores of the  skin are likely to become
 choked and  impervious without  it.   Without
 occasional  bathing  the  surface of the body be-
 comes covered with a dirty and  offensive  sub-
 stance, which prevents the action of the cuta-
 neous vessels.  Washing the surface from such
 accumulations  is very  important both for the
 flavor and the health of the body :  for when the
 skin is thus coated, the whole system is affected
 by it: the natural exhalations which are adapted
 to purify the blood and fluids generally, are
 thrown back upon the system;  and some or all
 of the internal organs become oppressed.  Per-
 sons having an obstructed  skin are more liable
 to fevers and pestilential diseases.  An  obstruct-
 ed  skin  is  frequently  produced  by  a sudden
 cold; by which  the internal system  becomes
 oppressed, and a  fever  ensues, unless  the ob-
 struction be speedily removed.  A bath to meet
 such  an  emergency is necessary.   A warm
 bath perhaps when  the action of the system  is
 feeble, possessing but  little power of reaction;
 but where the system is more vigorous, promis-
 ing to react so as to bring up a glow  of warmth
 and a  gentle perspiration,  a  cold  bath may be
 the best.
  The kind of bath to be used is of some conse-
 quence.  Sea water may be the best  for those
in general who have been unaccustomed to the
atmosphere  of the  sea shore.   It may be the
best for any whose surface is too cold, lax, and
flaccid, throwing  off perspiration too profusely,
or that which is clammy  and  morbid.  Sea-
bathing, cold or warm, as  the  individual may 
82           GENERAL DIRECTIONS.
be able to bear it, accompanied with dry friction,
in such cases, may prove  very beneficial,  A
fresh water bath  is unquestionably best where a
fever, or a tendency to a fever, exists.
   A  cold  or  warm bath should  be  selected in
accordance with circumstances and facts relating
to the  state  of general  constitution, present
strength, or the  nature  of an existing morbid
affection.   As before  remarked,  as  a general
rule,  a warm  bath  may be the better one when
the general strength is too  feeble  to admit of a
reaction of the system  under the influence of
cold  water; while a  cold  one may be better
where a tolerably vigorous habit exists.  A cold
bath  may also be preferable, as a general thing,
when resorted to as a  luxury, or for the purpose
of preserving  health.   The cold itself is a tonic
to the skin, and through the skin, to the entire
system : while the general tendency of warm
water upon the surface is weakening.  When a
limb  is inflamed, we  bathe it freely in warm
water to reduce its  action ;  i. e., to weaken the
present excited action  of its vessels.
  The frequency of bathing is a matter of some
interest.   This depends much upon  the consti-
tution, health, habits, and employment of each
individual.  Those who  live on meats and oily
substances have much more-occasion for frequent
baths than those of different habits.   If persons
would so  regulate  their habits of living as to
keep the fluids of their  systems pure, they would
have  much less  occasion for frequent bathing
Hence no specific rule  can be given for  bathing,
either as a preservative, restorative, or a luxury •
common sense and circumstances must determine
its frequency. 
ON BATHING.
83
   Too  frequent bathing, however, is decidedly
 injurious.   Although  hundreds perhaps  suffer
 for want of bathing, while one is injured  by its
 frequency, yet there is such a thing as  making
 too free use of a good thing.   A  person may
 bathe so often as to materially weaken  himself
 in the course of time.   Any one must  be very
 filthy to need a bath every day.  And if a bath
 be used every day by  one  who only needs one
 once or twice a week, and this course is persist-
 ed in for a great length  of  time, much  damage
 to the system must accrue.  Very many, doubt-
 less, have been  greatly injured in this way,
 though  that injury may not  have been attributed
 to such a cause.
  Too  frequent bathing does injury by stimu-
 lating the pores of the skin too much.   When
 the skin acts naturally, it constantly throws off,
 by insensible perspiration or exhalation, a sub-
 stance which it is necessary the system should
 part with  for the continuance of life and health.
 When, from any cause,  that  exhalation is  im-
 peded, the system suffers  by being oppressed
 with that which should be  thrown  off.  But if
 the skin be made  too  active, it throws off too
 much — more  than  is  required, and more than
 the system can  afford to spare : hence the sys-
 tem is gradually weakened.  And though  years
 may pass  before this undue  waste be perceived,
 yet it will  sooner or later discover  itself.   Not
unfrequently has the writer  been called to pre-
 scribe  for debilitated, rickety children,  when
little else could or  needed to be done except to
proscribe  the  use of  too  frequent baths and
washings.   Some mothers are so  excessively
 afraid of their  little ones being dirty, they will 
84
GENERAL DIRECTIONS.
bathe and wash them  several times  a day.
Such a course  is liable to be very disastrous,
especially when warm  water is used.   When
children are washed  for cleanliness,  cold water
should be  used;  but even that should not be ap-
plied to the whole body  so often as every day,
if the  strength  and  health  of  the child be an
object.
  A letter has been recently received from the
much  honored  ex-president,   John   Quincy
Adams, answering some inquiries in relation to
his  experience on bathing, in which  he says he
has practised it in a variety of forms and ways,
" from first to second childhood " — an " experi-
ence during more than  three score  years and
ten."   He says, " I continued it  until  within
the  last four or five  years, when I found it no
longer agreeing with my health, but operating
rather unfavorably to it.  Medical friends, and
particularly my very ancient friend, the late Dr.
Waterhouse, advised  me to disuse it; and my
experience confirming his admonitions, I have,
with  greafr reluctance,  entirely renounced it."
He  adds,  " and I parted from it as from a dear
and deeply regretted friend.  Though no longer
able to enjoy it myself, I can very cheerfully
recommend it, not only the practise  of bathing,
but  of swimming, to all  my  friends under the
age when  King David could get no heat."
  There can be little doubt  but that the fasci-
nating luxury of  bathing has sometimes led  to
such an undue use of it, as  gradually to waste
the  physical energies,  and induce  premature
old  age.   While the system possesses the vigor
of youth  and manhood, the too great waste of
the  body can be  supplied by its recreative power 
ON AMUSEMENTS.
85
 so effectually that the debilitating effect is not
 noticed ; but when that power of recreation be-
 comes much diminished, the loss  becomes more
 permanent and  apparent.   Let  the young be
 admonished lest this useful luxury be  used  in-
 temperately.  Other  cases  have come under
 observation, where bathing had been extensively
 practised  for years, but as age came on, the
 system was not able longer to  bear the exces-
 sive exhalations by insensible perspiration which
 the practice occasioned.

               ON AMUSEMENTS.
   All amusements  for recreation should  of
 course be innocent and  free  from a tendency to
 any kind of dissipation.   The periods  daily al-
 lotted to exercise  and relaxation may  be more
 or less occupied in amusements  ; but generally
 there should be, aside from this, some time oc-
 casionally  spent exclusively in  simple recrea-
 tions.   There  should  be  occasional  hunting
 parties,  fishing  parties,  temperance   picnics,
 sleigh-rides, and other pleasure parties and ex-
 cursions.   Occasional  plays and games which
 have  no evil tendency, may be made profitable
 to health.   Some may think that such recom-
 mendations are giving too great license ; but if
 they  are properly chosen and managed, there
 can be no  harm from  them,  but great good :
 they are recommended not for the sake of the
 mere  amusement they are adapted to give, but
 purely for the purpose of recreating and pre-
 serving a  healthy  state  of body  and mind;
which° cannot always  be done   without  these
aids.  Those persons especially who are devoted
to constant mental labor, must  have resort to
             8 
86
GENERAL DIRECTIONS.
some kind of mental relaxation, or their consti-
tutions will  suffer loss :  the mind cannot bear
to be kept constantly on the stretch of exertion;
it will soon lose its elasticity  and power, and
the body give way.

               ON INDULGENCES.
   Under this  head it is intended to speak of
things  which  are  inexpedient  and  unlawful.
While  honest and innocent  amusements, used
tvith judgment and temperance, are very impor-
tant by way of giving elasticity and  strength to
the mind and  body, unlawful and intemperate
indulgences injure and often ruin both.  There
are amusements which are innocent  and harm-
less in their nature, that may be used intemper-
ately and unlawfully.  Amusements should be
used, not as a matter of indulgence, but of actual
utility:  and while  kept  under such a rule, all
is well;  but the moment they shall be used for
the  simple  gratification  they  give,  they  are
likely to  engross too much of time and thought,
and lead to ruinous results.   But when persons
resort to  measures for their gratification, which
are  unlawful  when  used  in any degree, the
danger is greatly increased.
   Private indulgences claim attention here.  In-
dulgences which  belong  to married  life, when
used with moderation, are conducive to health;
the married, all other things being equal, enjoy
better health and live longer than the single;
but when these are allowed in  excess, they re-
duce the  vital  energies, diminishing the powers
of body  and mind.   All licentiousness, aside
from its moral evils and degradation, is destruc-
tive to the human system.  Many & you no- man 
ON INDULGENCES.
87
 has  not  only  ruined his  reputation and moral
 character, by licentious practices, but has spoiled
 his constitution for life.   He has, early in  life,
 planted in his system the seeds of misery and
 premature death.   One  who' has early in life
 given himself to such habits, has unfitted him-
 self for the future enjoyment of domestic happi-
 ness.  The degradation of  his mind,  and the
 vitiation of his appetite, have made him unfit to
 become the companion of virtue and refinement,
 and  he is very likely to continue the indulgence
 of his  corrupted passions, whatever may be the
 sacrifice  to his moral and physical health.
   Self-indulgence is another low-lived, contemp-
 tible vice, which has destroyed its thousands and
 tens of thousands annually, both of males  and
 females.   Setting aside a comparison of its  sin-
 fulness, it is doing  more injury to  society than
 all other forms of  licentiousness put together.
 Boys, and even girls, of respectable origin, of
 splendid original talents, have, by this unnatural
 practice, not only destroyed their physical sys-
 tems, but have reduced their minds to  compar-
 ative imbecility, and, in many cases, to complete
 idiotism.  It would seem as though, if one were
 lost to  all sense of  moral accountability on  this
 subject, that the idea of making oneself  an idiot,
to be a walking monument of self-destruction,
would  be enough,  of itself, to deter the most
inveterate devotee  to his  passions, from such
habits.
  The bodily  diseases produced in this  way are
frequently very formidable,  and baffle the most
profound skill.  Sometimes they appear in the
form of  spinal affections, which send  distress
and  wretchedness  throughout  the  whole  ner- 
88
MENTAL AFFECTIONS.
 vous system.   Accompanying this, will often be
 found  a morose disposition, dejection of mind,     (
 and melancholy.   These affections are common
 to  males and  females.  And  added to these,
 there will not unfrequently appear  in males,
 seminal incontinence, wasting away the  vital     I
 energies;  and in females,  vaginal discharges,
 which are no less destructive to health.

          MENTAL AFFECTIONS.

   The  sympathy existing between the mind and
 the body is so great, that when one is affected,
 both are affected.   If a person  imagine  even
 that he is sick, he is pretty  sure to be sick.  If,
 while in health, he be told, and made  to believe,
 that his countenance indicates illness, in a short
 time his  whole  system will  become affected.
 Medicines have sometimes  been  known to pro-
 duce  their  specific effect by a mere dread of
 taking  them.   Let the  imagination be inspired
 with  confidence  that a certain  medicine, or
 course of treatment, is going to perform a cure,
 and the cure is likely to follow.   It  is on this
 principle, that  simple bread pills have some-
 times performed great cures; and on this prin-
 ciple, doubtless, depends, to  a very considerable
extent, the success of homceopathists.

               CHEERFULNESS.
   This state of mind has much to do with the
healthy action of the physical system.  A cheer-
ful and happy mind gives a free and easy circu-
lation  in  the  nervous system; it aids in  the
generation of animal electricity or nervous fluid
which gives support to the vital energies of the 
CHEERFULNESS.
89
 whole  body.   Cheerfulness,  by its  effect on
 the nervous system, contributes much toward  a
 healthy and free circulation of the blood.  It
 has to  do,  indeed,  with the  formation  of the
 blood, by virtue  of its influence on the process
 of digestion.   A cheerful mind, especially dur-
 ing the hour set apart particularly for the first
 effort of the stomach after a meal, is very impor-
 tant to an easy, thorough digestive process.  If
 the mind be attacked with grief, the food is not
 digested as well; and consequently the system
 is not as well nourished.   How commonly does
 leanness of body follow continued grief! Why
 this ?  Because grief hinders the process of nu-
 trition.   It  does  it in two ways;  it hinders the
 thorough digestion of the food, so that nutrition
 cannot as well  be extracted  from it, and it re-
 tards the action  of the absorbent vessels them-
 selves, which take up the nutritive part of the
 food, and convey it into the blood.
   Whatever, then, may be an  individual's con-
 dition or circumstances in life, it will be great
 economy for him to make himself cheerful and
 happy.  However bitter may be the cause of his
 grief, let him cultivate a spirit of resignation;
 however painful may be his condition in life, let
 him endeavor to  be content with such things as
 he  has;  however dark his  prospects, let him
 hope  for good.  While nothing is gained by
 despondency, much is lost.  While cheerfulness
 helps others to be healthy and happy, it is of
 great benefit to oneself.
  Some  have thought that much cheerfulness
 was contrary to  true dignity and Christianity.
 But this is taking  a narrow-minded view of
thine-s    It is no  more a sin nor a breach ot
    s '        8* 
90
MENTAL AFFECTIONS.
dignity to  indulge  in real cheerfulness, than it
is to take wholesome food.   There is a distinc-
tion to be made between cheerfulness and levity.
While levity may be undignified and  unchris-
tian, genuine cheerfulness  may be  a  part  of
dignity and Christianity both.   Ministers  have
been sometimes charged with  a want of spirit-
uality, because, at some of their social meetings,
they indulge in some degree of merriment; but
all this is in keeping with nature's  law, and is
absolutely essential to health.   Their situation
and calling  ordinarily  circumscribe them  in
relation  to  sources of  amusement, and  their
responsibilities are adapted  to induce solemnity
of mind; and if this condition could not now
and then be relieved, they could scarcely endure
it.  If we would be benefited by their minis-
trations, we must give them a chance to live.
                MELANCHOLY.
   This affection of mind has an opposite effect,
on the general health, to that of cheerfulness.
Melancholy deadens the circulation in the blood-
vessels and nerves;  and also retards the action
of the  liver.   It retards the  process of digestion
and of nutrition, and tends to dry up the fluids
of the  whole system.
  A state of despondency and melancholy is a
frequent accompaniment of deranged digestive
organs.  It sometimes is found to be  both cause
and  effect.   It often  causes   dyspepsia, and
whether it cause it or not, it generally follows
ft;  and then operates both as cause and effect.
When melancholy, or a despairing state  of mind,
once exists, whether as connected with deranged
digestive organs, or any other state of ill health, 
BENEVOLENCE.
91
 the cure becomes very much more difficult and
 doubtful;  and nothing  comparatively can  be
 effected by way of medication, for the benefit of
 the patient, till something be done for the men-
 tal affection.   Some method must be had at
 once to attract the attention of the patient away
 from  himself and his complaints.   Hence, in
 selecting a  method  of  cure, some exercise or
 employment must be chosen, which will interest
 and engage the thoughts, and prevent  their
 being absorbed in himself; and those associated
 with him must put on the most cheerful aspect.

                BENEVOLENCE.
   Human sympathy is a quality of our natures
 which the  Creator has implanted  in us; and
 whoever cultivates  and exercises it, yields to a
 law of his social character — obeys a law of his
 nature; and whoever cherishes a due spirit of
 obedience to any law of his being, is doing that
 which is promotive  of his health.   In willing
 good to others — which necessarily involves all
 practicable   benefactions — there is  a pleasant
 sensation passes over  the mind,  which  also
 vibrates over the whole body; and this heaven-
 born vibration  of human  sympathy and good-
 will, gives a glow of health to the whole mental
 and animal system.  Hence,  the  fact, that  in
 times  of  the prevalence of pestilential diseases,
 those  who  devote  themselves  to the  self-sacri-
 ficing effort of nursing and watching the  sick
 and dying,  while the victims of  the malady are
 fast falling  on their right and left, seldom be-
come  a prey to that malignant disease them-
selves.  The great philanthropist, John Howard,
could  never have  endured so long his labor? 
92
MENTAL AFFECTIONS.
amidst the varied death-damps  of prisons and
dungeons, and appalling scenes of wretchedness
to which he exposed himself, had not the desire
and the pleasure of doing good, for the sake of
humanity and of God, given to his system un-
wonted power of resistance to disease and endur-
ance of toil.
   He who wills good to his fellow-beings, and.
so far as able, gives  practical demonstration of
his benevolence, is not only relieving the ills of
human  life in  others, but is at the same time
contributing largely  to bis own  health  of soul
and body.  The Great Teacher of practical be-
nevolence fully appreciated the personal benefit
to be derived from  the exercise of a spirit of
benevolence, when he said,  " It is more blessed
to give  than to receive."  Let those who have
never made  the experiment, begin at once to
yield obedience to this law of their social being.
and  they  will find  that in  doing  so, they will
receive their reward.

                MALEVOLENCE.
   This  affection of  mind is contrary to  every
law  of our social  being.  Willing evil to our
fellow-beings is contrary  to  the moral  law of
God, to the law of human brotherhood, and the
law  of our mental constitution.   Whoever  in-
dulges this spirit, has sunk out of himself as he
was  constituted by the hand  of his Maker, and
become a fit  subject for the  companionship of
demons; where no other  feelings  than malice
and revenge, crimination and recrimination, ever
find  a  dwelling-place.  A spirit of revenge for
injuries finds a resting-place only in the bosom
of fools, who defy the right  of the Almighty to 
            PHYSICAL OBLIGATIONS.         93

 declare,  "Vengeance is mine;  I  will repay:"
 much less will a malicious spirit, without provo-
 cation, find a place in his breast, in which any
 of the milk of human kindness  dwells.
   Whoever  indulges this  cold,  misanthropic
 temper of mind, chokes the natural current of
 his soul; and while that soul is thus constrained,
 and its social sympathies are becoming dried
 and withered, the whole physical organization
 feels its unnatural action, and becomes partaker
 of its unnatural depravity.   This is to be seen
 in the very countenance.  While the face of the
 benevolent man shines with the lustre of moral
 and physical health, that of the misanthropist is
 dejected, downcast, and sullen.  Why this differ-
 ence in the physical conformation of the counte-
 nance ?   Because  the soul of man gives direc-
 tion to the action of the whole animal economy;
 and enstamps its own image upon the outward
 man.  One who  is  versed  at  all  in reading
 human character,  can easily distinguish  a be-
 nevolent  man from one of malevolent spirit, by
 his   exterior,  especially  the expression of his
 face.

       OBLIGATIONS TO  LAW.

            PHYSICAL OBLIGATIONS.

  A man who would enjoy perfect health  is
 obliged  to  obey physical law;  and from this
physical  obligation he cannot free himself;  for
if he transgress physical law, he  must endure
the  infliction of a physical penalty.  While the
violator of  human law may escape the punish-
ment due to his crimes, by keeping them out of
sight or by fleeing from the reach of justice, 
94
OBLIGATIONS  TO LAW.
the man who is guilty of violating the laws of
his own animal economy,  cannot escape  with
impunity—his sin is sure to find him out.
Though he may pass on  for a while without
arrest, yet  sooner or later, he will find himself
overtaken,  tried before Dame  Nature's  court,
and condemned.
  The man, who, by gradual steps, deviates from
the path-way of physical law, may seem to pass
on  uninjured  for some length  of time, yet, by
and by, he will be sure to  feel the rod of pun-
ishment.   The man  who disregards dietetic
rules, may not at first discover any injury, or if
he  experience  suffering, he may not  discover
the relation  of the  cause  and  the  effect, yet
the consequences of his  unlawful course, will,
sooner  or later, follow, and he cannot escape.
The man who habitually  steeps himself in alco-
holic  liquor,  may  possibly  live to threescore
years and ten, and seem to be tolerably well;
yet he has made himself liable  to fall suddenly
dead, in consequence  of the unseen fires that
have for years  been consuming his internal or-
gans.   The man who disobeys law in any other
way, may  not now  see  that his system is in-
jured, yet when some outward cause of disease
may approach him, he is  overcome by it, simply
because his previous  habits have weakened the
power of resistance in his constitution.

              MORAL OBLIGATIONS.

   Next to our obligations to God, are our obliga-
tions to ourselves.   If we  are under obli nation
to treat our Creator right, we are also next  to
him, under obligation  to treat  ourselves right. 
              MORAL  OBLIGATIONS.           95

 The second table of the moral law, comprehend-
 ed in  this, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
 thyself," implies the preexistence of the law of
 self-love ;  and the  law of self-love involves the
 obligation  of  self-protection.   What right  have
 we to  abuse, or even to neglect, ourselves ?  To
 do that which will  injure  our constitution or
 health, is  sinful in the sight of Heaven.  To
 transgress physical law is transgressing  God's
 law; for he  is as  truly the  Author of physical
 law, as he is  the Author  of the moral  law.
 Whoever,  therefore, violates  the  laws of life
 and health, sins against God as truly as though
 he break the ten commandments.   Every man
 is therefore under moral obligation to obey those
 laws;   and  whoever dares  violate them will
 find "  The way of  transgressors is hard."
   The moral  sense of community is exceedingly
 obtuse on this subject.   With the  great major-
 ity, appetite is the  only law which governs; and
 in spite of all that  can be said, it will probably
 continue to be  so  : and those who choose  to
 have it so, must bear the consequences.   But
 some may  possibly be induced to examine their
 obligations  and responsibilities  in the  case.
 Where is the  consistency of  being governed by
 principle instead of appetite, in regard to the
 demands of the moral law, and yet let appetite
 rule instead of  principle in  regard to physical
 law? for,  as  before  stated, when we violate
 physical law,  we do truly violate moral obliga-
 tion.   Whoever will  let appetite govern in one
 thing, is in a fair  way to let it govern  in all
things.   Whoever,  through appetite, will allow
himself to  eat too  much or  too often, is very
likely to give  license  to all other appetites and 
96          OBLIGATIONS TO LAW.
passions  in proportion  to their strength  and
activity.
           PERSONAL OBLIGATIONS.

  Obedience  to  the  laws of health should be
made a matter of individual and personal duty.
It is every individual's duty to study the laws
of his being and  to conform to them.  Ignorance
or inattention on this subject is sin ;  and the
injurious consequences of such a course make it
a case of gradual suicide.   The idea  that we
may do what we please  with ourselves, is not
only bad policy,  and bad economy, but to do so
is positively wrong :  it is sin against the Author
of our being.   And when persons knowingly ot
wantonly  expose themselves  to disease  and
death by violating the laws of life and health,
instead of calling the result a visitation of Prov-
idence, it should be called a suicidal  act.
  The laboring man who eats  quick  and works
immediately after, is not only pursuing a course
of bad economy, but is doing wrong to himself
and to his Creator.  He  is  diminishing his
power and  durability for  doing good.  When a
man of intellectual habits neglects to live in ac-
cordance to the laws of mind and body, he pur-
sues not only a bad policy, but secures for him-
self the punishment due to his criminal conduct.
The man who lives unnaturally instead of  nat-
urally, who allows  his  system  to  come under
the influence of stimulating drinks, or unnatural
excitants, or narcotic and poisonous druo-s, does
a material and important wrong to himself, and
must expect  to  give account  for his course on
the day of final judgment. 
            PERSONAL OBLIGATIONS.         97

   The strange abandonment of principle which
 characterizes this generation in their treatment
 of themselves, is almost enough to dishearten
 the  most sanguine hopes of reform.   Instead
 of seeking after a true knowledge of themselves
 —the laws which sustain and govern their own
 animal existence—and  what course of living
 they ought to adopt to secure for themselves a
 sound state of health and long life, they fool-
 ishly and wickedly inquire, " What shall I eat,
 and wherewithal   shall  I  eniov the  present
 hour?"
   If we tell the devotee to the alcoholic draft,
 or the  more poisonous  and filthy narcotic, to-
 bacco, that his daily potations, or the  essences
 of the deadly weed,  are  secretly gnawing the
 tender cords that  bind his soul and  body to-
 gether, he heeds  us  not.   He will  probably
 acknowledge the facts in the case,  and, at the
 same time, with most perfect indifference to
 consequences, and insensibility to personal obli-
 gations, will answer, that he chooses rather to
 enjoy life while he does live, than  to prolong
 life by curtailing present gratification.
   But what is  duty—what is right—in the
 case ?   Have we a right to prefer present grati-
 fication to permanent good?   Have  we  any
 right to open a vein and let the blood gradually
 run  away  because  we are delighted with the
 crimson stream ?  We have just as much right
 to do this, as we have to use rum, tobacco, tea,
coffee, or  any other hurtful  agent, for  mere
gratification, against the  highest earthly inter-
ests of our own bodily constitutions.
              9 
98           OBLIGATIONS  TO LAW.
             SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS.
  In addition to our own personal obligations to
physical  law, we are  under additional obliga-
tions in consequence of our relations to society.
We  are  under  obligations to  law for the sake
of posterity.   Parents, and those  who may ex-
pect to be parents, are called upon to take care
of their  health and constitution for the sake  of
generations to come.   If parents are of weakly
or diseased  constitution, the children must suf-
fer, to  more or  less extent, the consequences.
By the unlawful course of parents in regard to
themselves,  the children  often  suffer disease
and  premature death.
   Parents  are also under obligation to  teach
and oblige their children to conform to physical
law for their own sakes.   The mother who suf-
fers  her  children  to eat  irregularly, or violate
the laws of their  systems in  any other  way,
commits  a crime against  her offspring, against
humanity, and against  Heaven, for which God
will hold her responsible.   She commits a crime
against the dearest  objects  of her  affections, the
evil consequences of which, time  may never be
able wholly to remove, and eternity alone reveal
to her  understanding.   How strange and  unac-
countable, that mothers should  love  their chil-
dren so  tenderly as  to indulge them  in  what
they have  occasion to know may injure their
constitutions and impair their happiness for life!
May many  children  be  delivered from  such
mothers  and from such cruel kindnesses.
   The managers  and teachers of schools and
literary institutions are under obligations  to  se-
cure such facilities for  exercise and regulations 
SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS.
99
 in regard to the observance of dietetic law, as
 are adapted to preserve the  health, promote the
 literary  progress, and secure  to  the  world the
 usefulness of their pupils.  And  students owe
 it to the world  that they so walk in obedience
 to law, as to render their existence and advan-
 tages a blessing to society.
   Professional  men cannot disregard the laws
 of their  own  health,  without  infringing upon
 their  obligations  to   community whom   they
 serve.  If their services are required, they are
 bound to make the  most of their ability to meet
 the demand.  The labors of any professional
 man, engaged  in  the  active  business of his
 calling, whether he be a clergyman, a physician,
 or a  lawyer, make a  severe  draft  upon  the
 nervous  system,  which  will  require all  the
 strength  that it can possibly command.
  Laboring men have a responsibility in this
 matter.  Those  of them who  employ laborers
 are bound, not only for their own  interests, but
 for the interests  of  those who serve them, so to
 regulate  the hours of  each  day's labor, as to
 give their men a chance to live, enjoy the bles-
 sings of life, and  sustain those  who may fall
 into their charge.   Those who are employed by
 others, are  under obligation to live  in such a
 manner as  to make  themselves  of  service to
 their employers, and meet the demands of soci-
ety at large.                      .
  All who desire the  welfare and  improvement
of society, are  under obligation to endeavor to
exert an  influence over others on this  subject by
example  and precept.   No man can live entirely
isolated from his  fellow-beings:  his influence
by word  or deed is constantly telling pro or con 
100         OBLIGATIONS  TO LAW.

the well-being of the world.  Let him see to it
that  it be such, touching this matter, as shall
make mankind the better  and the happier for
his having lived in it.  Let him be at least a
drop in the bucket of that great wheel which
moves the vast machinery  of human improve-
ment in its onward course. 
APPENDIX.
 PHILOSOPHY OF  HEALTHY REPRODUCTION.

   The attention of the public  has of late been
 called to this subject, and a considerable amount
 of information, in the form of books and lectures,
 has been  disseminated.   And certainly  that
 must be a very fastidious taste and a narrow
 mind which would object to giving to the people,
 in a judicious style,  such a practical  knowledge
 of themselves as is  essential to the healthy re-
 production of the species.   Who should not
 know enough of the natural origin of human
 life to perceive his own obligations  respecting
 it, and to be able to see in what way he is liable
 to be a curse, or in what way a blessing, to pos-
 terity ?
   All information, however, given on this sub-
 ject for mere mercenary purposes, or to pamper
 an idle and  vicious  curiosity, should be most
 sternly repudiated.  Nor  is it best, even for
 laudable  intentions,  to go  further into detail on
 these delicate matters, than is really necessary
 for the practical purposes of life.  But so far as
 these do require  information to  be given, all
 whimpering delicacy and  superfluous niceness
 should be looked~out  of countenance by the firm
and steadfast eye of common sense.  Let every
individual so study himself and know himself, 
102
REPRODUCTION.
as to be able in this matter to discharge his re
sponsibilities to humanity and to God.
  THE PATERNAL PRINCIPLE OF  REPRODUCTION.
   This consists in the germinating principle;
which contains probably the entire infinitesimal
rudiment of the future being.  This germ, when
examined by the aid of the microscope, is found
to contain animalcula.  Their form bears a strik-
ing resemblance to the human  brain and spinal
column.  Those which proceed from a robust
constitution manifest great vital energy; while
those from a  constitution of an opposite kind
exhibit an opposite character.  In conjunction
with its appropriate and tributary maternal ele-
ment, this germ ultimately becomes  developed
into perfectly  organized vitality.
   This germinating principle has its origin un-
questionably in the brain and nervous system;
particularly that portion of the brain called cere-
bellum.   To  this  part belongs the  organ  of
amativeness;  on the existence of which the prop-
agation of the species depends.  On the healthy
development and action of this organ, under the
balancing and regulating power of intellect and
moral sentiment, together with the vital quali-
ties of a  sound physical system, depend, in a
very  large degree, the physical  and  mental
force  which shall belong to the future offspring.
   On the healthy condition of the bodily sys-
tem depends  the  vital energy of the  germi-
nating  principle.   Numerous  experiments  of
learned physiologists show this statement to  be
correct.   The legitimate  conclusion, therefore,
must  inevitably be, that the innate  constitution
of the offspring must  bear an immediate and 
             PATERNAL PRINCIPLE.         103

 necessary relation to the vital power of that
 system from which the germ proceeds.
   In proof that the  brain  and nerves have a
 direct and positive agency in this matter, it is a
 well attested fact, that in all cases of excess —
 a condition most injurious to the parent and the
 offspring — there is  found a complaint of  a pe-
 culiar and enervating sensation in the  head,
 especially in the region of the cerebellum, ac-
 companied with a degree  of general nervous
 prostration.  In some instances there will be a
 periodical or protracted head-ache, which can
 only be removed when the cause ceases to be,
 and the immediate  effects have  passed away.
 That the quality of the  paternal system, espe-
 cially the brain and nerves,  determines the
 character of the offspring, is, therefore, a tangi-
 ble matter of fact.

           PATERNAL  RESPONSIBILITY.
   In view of these facts, just adduced, the re-
 sponsibilities which fall on those who are now
 liable, or may at some future period  become
 liable, to be fathers, are incalculable.  That man
 who practically disregards his obligations touch-
 ing  this matter, is not fit for the society of in-
 telligent beings.  While he lives as  he  lists,
 following out his depraved and self-created ap-
 petites, regardless of his obligations to himself,
 his generation, and  his  God, he  is only  fit to
 herd among swine and grovel in the mire of
 his own sensuality.   We see that the rudiment
 of the future being  is of paternal  origin, and
that the quality of constitution possessed by the
 parent determines in a great degree the char-
acter of that future being.   Hence the conclu- 
104            REPRODUCTION.
sion is legitimate, that  inattention  to such
responsibilities  is  in a  high degree reprehen-
sible.
  Any departure from  strict obedience to  na-
ture's laws tends to weaken the system.  And
any process which, in any degree, produces this
result, proportionably disables an individual for
meeting his obligations to his race.  That man
who uses alcoholic liquors, is steeping his brain
and nerves in the poisonous cup.  He is taking
one of the most deadly enemies to human  life
into the very citadel of  his being.  His brain,
from whence the germ  of a  future being pro-
ceeds, is steaming and fuming by the  alcoholic
fires which he  has there kindled.   Can this
man suppose that he can take his daily, or even
occasional  dram, and his children  escape  the
consequences ?   Ay, they cannot escape.  As
a general rule — which  may have exceptions —
there will be found unusual physical  or moral
defects ; and perhaps both.
  A case in proof is at hand: a father of nine
children became by degrees a confirmed drunk-
ard.  When first  married, and until  after his
fourth child was born, he remained temperate ;
but being unfortunate in business, he  suddenly
became, and continued,  addicted to  his  cups;
during which time his other five children were
born.   One of these was convicted of robbery,
and served an apprenticeship in the state prison;
another of theft; another of larceny; another
became a drunkard ; the fifth was an idiot.  The
mother of all these was an  excellent woman,
and his first four children were intelligent and
upright.  These facts are not alone ;  many are 
          PATERNAL RESPONSIBILITY.       105

 there of a similar character which testify to the
 same general truth.
   That man who chews and smokes his tobacco,
 is the individual to be addressed on this subject.
 He  is doing that  to himself  which should be
 called gradual suicide;  and that for his future
 offspring  which should be denominated man-
 slaughter.   It is to him that truth would direct
 her long and pointed finger, saying, " Thou art
 the man."   His brain and nerves are tinctured
 with that foul and loathsome thing, which none
 else will ever eat except the  miserable tobacco
 worm, and the rock goat of Africa, whose efflu-
 via none but himself can endure.  He is daily
 taking into his  system an amount perhaps of
 the real  essence of that wretched poison suffi-
 cient, when given to those who are unaccus-
 tomed to its use, to destroy at once the lives of
 half a dozen men.   His nervous susceptibilities
 to its immediate  effects are  blunted; but the
 genuine  poison, which, under  other  circum-
 stances, would kill himj and many others with
 him, is nevertheless lodged daily in his system,
 and  must sooner or later cause  him to pay the
 penalty of violated law.
  And where  principally has this poison lodged
itself? On the brain and nerves.  It is through
this medium making gradual inroads upon his
own  physical and mental systems, and those of
his immediate posterity.  His  brain, which is to
give  origin  to other beings, is  saturated with
the  poison.   A  poison, too, which affects not
only his brain and  nerves,  but every gland,
every membrane, and every tissue of his body.
His children cannot escape being sharers of its
hurtful  agency.    In  view of this undeniable 
106
REPRODUCTION.
fact, will our young men, for fashion's  sake, or
for a depraved, unnatural appetite's sake, con-
tinue this wicked gratification ?  Will they, in
spite of consequences, and in defiance of solemn
obligation, go on, puffing their cigars or chew-
ing the deadly weed ?   Do they lack for moral
courage to face and defend themselves against
that created, depraved and infernal appetite?
Are they beyond the reach of recovery—drawn
down  the current  of  an enslaving and over-
powering propensity ?   Do they give it up ? or
has tobacco  so deadened their  moral sensibili-
ties— which it is capable of doing — that they
can look upon this whole subject with a dogged
indifference  ?
   People are apt to think that because a certain
habit — which they perhaps in theory admit to
be bad — does not destroy life,  or immediately
make them invalids, they are getting no harm,
and are under no need or obligation to change
their course.   They judge of their obligations
to physical  law as they do of their obligations
to moral law; that because judgment against
an evil-doer is not executed speedily, they may
sin on with impunity.   But punishment for
violated physical law will  sooner or  later come ;
and if they who offend could bear the rod alone,
their crime against nature's government would
seem to be of less consequence; but when we
know that their innocent offspring must bear a
part of the  punishment due to their  parents,
their offence seems to swell to a tenfold mag-
nitude.                                    &
  Tobacco is one of the most deadly narcotics
found upon  the list of  poisons.  A very  few
drops of its  condensed  properties will  destroy 
           PATERNAL RESPONSIBILITY.       107

 life.  It is sometimes used as a medicine, though
 rarely, in extreme cases, where nothing  else
 will  meet the indications in the case.   When
 used, it is generally given by injection, in cases
 of lock-jaw, convulsions, and so  on;  but  is
 never given by those who understand its prop-
 erties,  but  with the utmost  caution :  a little
 imprudence  might prove fatal.  It should never
 be used  as  a medicine  except by  a judicious
 physician, even by external application ; for so
 powerful  are its poisonous qualities that  a small
 quantity, laid upon the skin, may prove fatal by
 mere absorption.   If any doubt can  be indulged
 in  regard to its power,  let any one who has
 never used it chew a small piece, and the genu-
 ine power of the article will  soon manifest itself.
 And though the habitual use of it stupefies the
 nervous susceptibilities, yet  the real  power of
 the article is daily absorbed into the system,
 and is doing by degrees, and perhaps by imper-
 ceptible progress, its deadly work.   And now
 returns the momentous question, in  view of all
 the  consequences,  shall this  demon-idol  be
 longer worshipped, or trodden under foot?
   All forms of licentiousness  are destructive;
 not only to those who indulge it, but those who
 may have the sad misfortune to inherit its poi-
 sonous fruits.  This vice prostrates the whole
 nervous system, and is destructive to that prin-
 ciple which becomes the origin of life.  If those
 who have ruined  their constitutions by habits
 of this kind  should ever become fathers, their
 children will probably give them sufficient proof
 that such  a paternal relationship is never to be
 coveted.   Another  form  of licentiousness, no
loss  ruinous  to posterity, is,  self-indulgence. 
108
REPRODUCTION.
This secret vice is all but  ruining the  whole
race.   It often begins very early  in life, and
continues till its work of destruction — if it has
not utterly annihilated the reproductive  power
— has so enfeebled it as to render marriage in-
expedient and even improper.
  Any course of  conduct  or  habit of  living
which tends to lower the standard of nervous
strength, or to vitiate the  fluids of  the system,
is deleterious to  the constitution  of the off-
spring.  Every  one who ever  expects  to be-
come a parent, should obey his own physical
laws in all things, not merely  for  himself, but
for the sake of his immediate generation.
  Mental health, also, is essential to healthy re-
production.   Great mental  exertion and appli-
cation— that  application  which  tends, even
temporarily, to diminish  the  mental force, is
injurious for the time being to the reproductive
power.  This may account for the fact — in part
at least—that great men seldom leave sons who
are able to fill the places of their fathers. The
talent  of the  child may not so  much  depend
upon  the degree of talent possessed  by the
parent, as upon the good condition of his phys-
ical, mental, and  moral  systems.   A healthy
physical system, with well-balanced  brain and
nerves, and a well-cultivated moral and intel-
lectual character, make up, then, the great lead-
ing qualifications to  meet our  responsibilities
touching this subject.
  There is  another idea connected  with this
subject which may be important.  There  should
be in all cases, particularly in men of studious
habits, a sufficiency of mental exhilaration, as
well as bodily exercise, to maintain an equi'lib- 
           PATERNAL RESPONSIBILITY.       109

 rium  of  nervous  circulation.    The  clerical
 profession are in special need of care touching
 this matter.  Their calling  involves the gene-
 ral idea, especially in the mind of a scrutinizing
 community, of great and uniform sedateness of
 deportment.  Hence, partly  from the nature of
 their calling, and partly from the expectations
 of the people, they are accustomed to suppress
 that natural buoyancy of spirit, and that letting
 off of the electricity of mirthfulness, which are
 common to all persons, and which, for  health's
 sake, should, in some proper way, find oppor-
 tunity to vent itself.
   This suppression of nature's promptings must
 cause a kind of continual or occasional  desire
 for mirth, which is kept pent up  in the cloisters
 of the soul.   It  is the same  feeling in kind
 which the boy  felt,  and could  not suppress,
 when he  whistled aloud during the hours of
 school.    Being   asked,  " Did   you  whistle,
 John ?" he promptly answered in the negative.
 " George, did not John whistle ?"  " Yes, sir."
 "John, how is  that—did  you  not whistle?"
 " No, sir—it whistled itself."  This same kind
 of would-if-it-could feeling must inevitably exist
 within those who  are  comparatively deprived
 of the  privilege  of  sufficient mental recrea-
 tion.   This may very  philosophically  account
 for that proverbial  saying, which certainly has
 some foundation in fact, that the sons  of cler-
gymen are  the  greatest  rogues.  They have
this same would-if-it-could disposition inborn in
their mental constitutions.
             10 
110
REPRODUCTION.
 THE MATERNAL PRINCIPLE OF REPRODUCTION.

  This consists in what is called the ovum, or
egg, which bears a close resemblance  in char-
acter to that of the oviparous or egg-bearing
animals. This is the natural element for the re-
ception of the primary principle or germ which
is of paternal origin.  It is located, not in the
interior, as may generally be supposed, but is on
the exterior, upper, and lateral part of  the  ute-
rus, or womb.  The whole course of the repro-
ductive process is, in all its essential features,
analogous to that  of  oviparous  reproduction.
Soon after  the reproductive  process  is com-
menced, the ovum changes its location  from the
exterior to the interior of the uterus, where  it
undergoes a full fcetal development.   The  ute-
rine system is concerned in  the  nutrition  and
perfection of the paternal rudiment of the future
being;  and  great care  should be taken  that
nothing, at any stage of early life, shall trans-
pire to derange its functionary powers, and dis-
able it for the purposes for which  it was origin-
ally designed.
  This system  is  liable to  derangements of
various kinds.   One  is displacement.   This
may be brought  about by severe lifting; jump-
ing and striking hard  upon the feet;  long  pro-
tracted standing;  severe exercise in  jumping
rope ; severe exercise in dancing;  tight lacing;
and other causes.  Any cause, too, which tends
to weaken the general system will greatly  pro-
mote this derangement.  Irregularities of peri-
odical  habit  often  become matters  of serious
moment.  Where daughters have been brought
up  under proper  physical  training—if their 
MATERNAL PRINCIPLE.         Ill
 discipline in respect to diet, open air, exercise,
 and other things, has  been what they should
 be—there will be little  difficulty of this kind.
 But if parents have  been guilty  of neglecting
 these obligations, have brought up their daugh-
 ters too delicately,  have  not  given  sufficient
 attention to the  development of their physical
 powers, or have allowed  them to have irregular
 habits of diet, by which  their digestive appara-
 tus has become disordered, serious results may
 follow.   If  they  have not given them  precau-
 tions against such causes as sudden colds, ex-
 posure of the feet by thin shoes, long-continued
 cold feet, tight lacing, costive bowels, and other
 hurtful influences,  they may find occasion for
 repentance when it is too late to make amends.
   There is  great sympathy between the female
 mind and her own reproductive system.   The
 offspring, while  in  its foetal  state, receives an
 imprint from the  maternal mind, which, though
 it may afterward be  modified, can  never be
 eradicated.   It  there receives  a mental and
 moral  mould, the great  outlines of which can
 never be  obliterated.  We go  into a family of
 children, and find some  very different traits of
 character.   Trace the history of these different
 children back to their foetal state, and the influ-
 ences to which they were then exposed by the
 immediate operations of the mother's mind, and
 the causes of these differences will then appear.
 While the paternal  character  gives the  great
 features, the immediate  operations of maternal
influences give the smaller peculiarities.
   This sympathy  is  also manifested in the
effects of sudden  emotions and  particular  appe-
tites  Deformities of physical structure are not 
il2
REPRODUCTION.
unfrequently produced by a sudden impression
being, made on the mother's mind by the unex-
pected appearance of some frightful  or  disa-
greeable object.  A case which has come under
the observation of the writer, was of this sort.
The mother,  during her  pregnancy—some-
where about the sixth month—indulged a great
desire for partridge-meat.  The husband  went
in search for the fowl, but  finding none, killed
a ground-squirrel, and brought it home.  She
saw him at a distance,  thought the partridge
was coming, and prepared  her cooking appara-
tus for its reception.   She saw no more of her
husband till he, with astonishing imprudence,
threw the dead  animal at her feet.  She was
shocked at the sight, and sadly disappointed.
When the  child  was born, it presented, in a
striking manner, the  features of the dead squir-
rel, as it laid prostrate before her. The  arms
could never be raised above an angle of  forty-
five degrees  from the body.  The hands  re-
sembled the  animal's claws ; the elbow and
knee joints were almost immovable, and bent in
the opposite way  from  the natural direction.
He lived to ripe manhood, but with the  same
degree of malformation and disability.   Many
illustrations  of this  kind  might be  adduced,
together with cases of mothers' marks, in  proof
of the great sympathy between the  maternal
reproductive system and the maternal mind.

         MATERNAL  RESPONSIBILITY.
  In  anticipation  of coming responsibilities,
every young woman is  bound to look well to
herself.   She can but know that the grand  ar-
rangement of nature  is that she shall become a 
           MATERNAL RESPONSIBILITY.       113

  mother.   Let her also know that her own state
  of constitution  will in a  great  degree be the
  type of that of her future offspring.  The tal-
  ent, the moral tone, and the physical health of
  that  offspring will  very  much depend on her.
  Let  her weigh  this matter well, and prepare
  herself to meet  approaching obligations.   Let
  her be  prepared to give the right stamp of char-
  acter to that living  immortal being that may
  hereafter be committed to her charge.
   Let  her look well to  her physical  system.
  Let her diet and exercise be such as to secure a
  sound and well-balanced nervous system.   Let
 her strenuously and  scrupulously avoid all
 stimulating drinks and condiments which con-
 flict with nature's laws, and do great- mischief
 to the  brain and nerves.   Let her live natu-
 rally, and not artificially.   Let her avocations
 and exercise be such  as  will give expansion
 and strength to her whole  muscular  system.
 Let her take special pains to expand her chest,
 that her breathing apparatus may be free in the
 exercise of its vital functions;  for without  a
 full chest, she may plant the seeds of consump-
 tion in  the constitution of her offspring before
 its birth.
  Let her look well to the  character of her own
 moral constitution.  Let her choose those die-
 tetic  habits  which favor  moral  culture; and
 which will tend to give a preponderance to the
 moral sentiment over the animal system.  For
 the sake of her posterity, if for  no other pur-
 pose, let her make herself an intellectual being,
 Let her not live for  the mere purpose of mer-
cenary and selfish gratifications,  but for God
and humanity.   Let her not live to eat, and
           10* 
114
REPRODUCTION.
    drink, and sleep, but to answer the great pur-
    poses of her being.
      Let  her  look well to  the  character of him
    who may become  her matrimonial  associate.
    Is he an  intellectual being, or a mere animal?
    He  should  have a  good  physical  system, but
    has he a soul ?  Is he a  sensual being, living
    for no other purpose than to fill up the measure
*   of  his  appetites and  passions? Has he  cor-
    rupted  his body and soul by dissolute habits ?
    Are his habits of life adapted to secure to him
    a sound physical system ? for if his course of
    life is weakening and vitiating his bodily na-
    ture, a  degree of moral imbecility will be likely
    to follow in its wake.  Is  he cultivating a sound
    nervous system, or  is he  wantonly pursuing  a
    course  that is diminishing the natural energy
    of his brain and nerves, which will unfit him to
    meet his responsibility to his posterity ?
      Let her examine  well his temperance habits.
    Does he  appreciate the  cause of temperance ?
    if not,  there is  prima facie evidence, in these
    days of light,  of a laxness of moral principle
    which  endangers  moral rectitude.   Is  he  a
    young  man of total abstinence habits ? or does
    he  now  and then  take  a pleasurable  draft?
    If so, he is dealing with that which may, sooner
    or later, "bite  like a serpent  and stino- like  an
    adder."  Trust  him not.  He  is gradually step-
    ping forward and  onward in  that path which
    has  conducted  millions to ruin.  Think of the
    unmeasured woes  of the drunkard's  family;
    then stand aloof and be excused  from such a
    destiny.  Is the number of  the  pure small?
    then prefer single blessedness to double misery.
    Nay;  let the   young men of this generation 
          MATERNAL RESPONSIBILITY.      115

 know that they  must  quit  their  occasional
 drams, or go forever wifeless.  Let  them know
 that the young women of this generation can-
 not consent  to  share with them so fearful a
 responsibility as that of having a family of chil-
 dren whose only inheritance must be the hered-
 itary taint of a drunken father.
   Let her see whether there is any  other hurt-
 ful habit of which  he is the  slave.  If he be
 free from the corrupting and debasing power of
 alcohol, is he free from that slower, surer, and
 more deadly poison, tobacco ?  Let every young
 lady who sets any value  upon herself, look well
 to this matter.  When she sees a young  man
 so lacking in the essential qualities of a gentle-
 man that he needs a cigar to finish him, let her
 be determined that she will prefer the acquaint-
 ance of those who do not require this append-
 age.   And let her  never  suffer herself to be
 courted by one of corrupted breath and tobac-
 conized  brain.  Let  her  never marry  one
 whose habits  will ever annoy her, and  whose
 system is under a poison that  is enervating the
 vital and moral energies of his whole nervous
 constitution, and that will affect her  posterity.
  Will any one say this is a matter of fancy
 and not of fact ?   How  comes it that the gen-
 eral idea that the physical condition  of parents
 has a bearing upon  the  physical character of
 children, is universally admitted,  and yet there
 are no individual instances in  which it is true?
 The truth is that there are individual instances
 the world over, and everywhere; but nobody
 seems to realize it;  yet in every case where
either  of the  parents' habits  are contrary to
physical  law, they are doing  an  injury which 
116
reproduction.
 will' be more or less felt in the generation fol-
 lowing them.
   Let every young woman and every  young
 man bring common sense  and reason to bear
 upon this great and momentous subject.  Let
 them so  take  care of themselves as to be  pre-
 pared for the sober  realities of life.   Let them-
 so fulfil their responsibilitiesjas that, when years
 shall have passed away, and their family circle
 is gathered  around  them, they may not have
 cause to look back with sorrow upon the past,
 and with fearful forebodings toward the future.
 Let them be so careful in the selection of con-
 nubial associates, that they'may prove a mutual
 comfort  to each  other, and a blessing to the
 generations which follow them.
   Let them beforehand count the cost of indul-
 gence-in intemperate appetites and sensual dis-
 positions,  which  must inevitably tend to en-
 stamp upon  their offspring grossness of moral
 depravity.  Let them not  in  this way make
 themselves responsible for the evil conduct of
 their children, which  may bring their  gray
 hairs with sorrow  to the grave.   But let them,
 by their physical, moral, and intellectual  cul-
ture of themselves,  be prepared to  bring  into
 existence  a  class  of  beings  whose  physical,
 moral, and intellectual character shall enable
 them to enjoy life, be an ornament to society,
 and a blessing to the world. 
117
               CONCLUSION.

   The preceding pages were written with the
 sincere  hope  of  doing  good  to  humanity.
 There is no subject belonging to this life more
 important than the true science  of health.  The
 standard of general health is constantly declin-
 ing from  generation  to generation,  and  the
 whole cause  may be found in the habits of the
 people.  The grand question for the reader is,
 will he  follow  every  suggestion in this little
 work, which commends itself to his good sense,
 endeavoring to raise the standard of strength in
 his own  system, and  be prepared to transmit
 health and soundness to his posterity ?  Will
 he live according to  the principles  of physio-
 logical law, and reap the benefits to himself and
 his progeny? or will  he make  a god  of  his
 belly,  suffer  the penalty of violated law, and
 bring disease and premature death on  himself
 and those that follow him ?
   What shall be said of him who will go on
 in known hurtful indulgences — feeding unnat-
 ural appetites, or crowding his  natural ones
 by unnatural  burdens ?   Shall he be reckoned
 amono-  intelligent beings — beings endowed
 with a soul ?   Inspiration calls that man a fool
 who seeks  only worldly good, and neglects  his
 higher destiny.  And is  a man  any less a fool
 who knows no  higher  rule of  life  than the
 mere  gratification of a depraved appetite;  in-
 dulgence which hazards health and life, and
 lowers the standard of his intellectual and moral
 being-?  In  doing this he puts  himself  on a
level with the soulless  brute !  Some even put 
118      .       CONCLUSION.
 themselves far below the brute !   They cherish
 appetites so  low,  and vulgar,  and  unnatural,
 that brutes will  not stoop  to  be  their associ-
 ates.  Brutes will not sip the drunkard's drink;
 they will not chew the tobacco eater's cud.
   How would the ox, or the horse, the dog, or
 even the  muddy swine,  degrade his nature,
 were he  to use tobacco — that  deadly  thing
 which is working greater devastations to this
 generation  than  even  alcohol  itself!  What
 would a man think to find his  horse eating
 the poisonous stuff?   Would he not be alarmed
 for its effects  on his strength and durability ? —
 for every one  of much intelligence knows  it to
 be injurious to animal life.  Let that  same man
 ask himself whether his own body is  worth less
 than that of his beast; and inasmuch as he has
 a higher nature, let it be saved  from the be-
 numbing influence of the deadly weed.   If in-
 telligent beings  would live as lawfully as the
 brute creation, they would as seldom be affected
 with  disease.  Will  they be lower  than  the
 brutes ?
  Let him who was made to be a man,  be a
 man ; or, if not, let him down on  all  four, and
 no longer pretend to be what he is not.  If he
 is endowed with reason, let him govern himself;
 let him  study to understand, and resolve to obey
 the laws of his  being, which are  the laws of
 God.  Let each one  resolve to do what he can
 to turn back the mighty current  of physical and
 moral declension, which  now threatens the ex-
 tinction  of  the noble qualities of human nature.
 Let him not live,  like the beasts  that  perish  to
gratify his  lower  nature;  let him improve his
higher being, live for God and Humanity 
119
    [From the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.]
  This is a  small  treatise on a great  subject.  Its
title is, " Philosophy of Health, or" Health without
Medicine — a Treatise  on the Laws of the Human
System.  By L. B. Coles, M. D."  He  inculcates
many  excellent things, which,  properly  observed,
would lead  the way to  a pleasant old age, free from
the infirmities that have their  origin in a violation of
the physiological laws.   Ticknor &  Co. are the pub-
lishers, who  will unquestionably give an activity to
its distribution over the  literary world.

             [From the Journal of Health.]
  We rejoice in the publication of this work, for more
reasons than  one.  First, Because the writer has ad-
vocated the same  subject for which  this Journal was
started, and in which it  has been engaged more than
two years.  Second, Because we see by his statement
in the title  page that he is a regular man, a Fellow
of the Massachusetts Medical  Society ; and we love
to see the members of  a Society so respectable, and
which has such vast weight  on the physical welfare
of the community, speaking out on these subjects.
Third,  Because it advocates, in our opinion, the true
ground of our  obligation to the laws of our  being,
which are the laws of God.

TFrom Dr  Wm. A. Alcott  — Author of " The Young Man's
L                 Guide," &c, &c]
  Auburndale, West  Newton, Ms., Oct. 4, 1848.
L. B. Coles, M. D. Dear Sir:
  To one who has  labored, by pen or  tongue,  for
more than a quarter of a century, to disseminate the
same  ereat  laws of  Health to which your own mind
has been  led,  the  appearance of a  small  manual,
-Hantpd to the wants of every  family, cannot  but be
hailed  with delight.  I  do  most cordially  wish to
have it read, universally.,.
"*                  Your fellow-laborer,
                               Wm. A. Alcott. 
120
             [From the Christian World.]
   The Philosophy of Health; a Treatise on the Laws
of the Human System.  By L. B. Coles, M. D.
   We cannot be too often urged to look at the sub-
ject which the author of this little work has so care-
fully and judiciously unfolded.  Jf his system is the
true one, for the early care of children — and we are
very much inclined to believe that it is — then most
of the nursery discipline and maternal management
of our day are very faulty.  We incline to this opin-
ion the more strongly, because the results of experi-
ence are coincident with what our author lays  down
as the sure consequence of so much of the  misman-
agement of infants  and young children.  There are
valuable hints and directions  to parents, and  young
persons of both  sexes,  which  cannot  fail  of  doing
good, wherever they are appreciated and obeyed.

           [From the Christian Watchman.]
   The writer of the treatise which we  noticed  some
weeks ago, on the " Philosophy of Health," has add-
ed an Appendix to the second edition, on  the " Phi-
losophy of Healthy Reproduction," in which a subject
of much importance to parents, present or  prospec-
tive, is treated with becoming  delicacy ; a perusal of
which ought  to prevent some of the evils often entail-
ed by ignorance  and passion on children, and chil-
dren's children, to the fourth generation.

               [From Zion's Herald.]
   Philosophy of Health,  by Dr.  Coles.  We  have
noticed  before this valuable little  treatise ; but the
present  edition contains a valuable Appendix on the
" Philosophy of  Healthy Reproduction," which we
cannot but emphatically commend.  It avoids  every-
thing that the most fastidious could consider excep-
tionable, and abounds in most valuable counsels.  The
book, as a whole, combines a remarkable  amount of
useful information in a small compass. 
 
 
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