Publishers’ Advance Sheets of 
OUR 
HOME PHYSICIAN: 
A NEW AND POPULAR GUIDE 
TO THE 
Art of Preserving Health and Treating Disease ; 
WITH PLAIN ADVICE FOB ALL THE 
MEDICAL AND SURGICAL EMERGENCIES OF THE FAMILY. 
CONTAINING CLEAR DESCRIPTIONS OF THE 
Structure and Functions of the Human Body; the Influence of Occupation on Health and 
Longevity ; the laws of Inheritance; with new and original chapters on Diet, Stimulants 
and Narcotics, Air, Sunlight, Exercise, Climate, Electricity, and Nervous Diseases 
of modern times ; and full directions for the care of the Sick, and the manage- 
ment of Infants and Children; with a general description ot recent Medical 
Discoveries and Improvements; plain suggestions for the Treatment of 
Diseases adapted to the wants of the Household, and for those 
who, like Miners, Sailors, Planters, and dwellers ih remote 
districts, are beyond the ready call of a Physician. 
BASED ON THE MOST RECENT AND THE HIGHEST AUTHORITIES IN THE SEVERAL DE- 
PARTMENTS, AND BROUGHT DOWN TO THE LATEST DATES. 
By GEORGE M. BEARD, A.M., M.D., 
Lecturer on Nervous Diseases in the University of New York; Member of the New York County 
Medical Society; one of the Authors of “The Medical Use of Electricity,” &c. 
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. 
SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION. 
NEW YORK: 
E. B. TREAT & CO., 654 BROADWAY; 
C. W. LILLEY, CHICAGO, ILL.; A. II. HUBBARD, PHILA., PA.; A. L. TALCOTT & CO., 
PITTSBURG, PA.; IRA S. BRAINARD, ST. LOUIS, MO.; J. H. HUMMEL, NEW ORLEANS, LA. 
1869. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by E. B. Treat & Co., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United 
States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. 
The objects of this book are : 
1. To prevent disease, by presenting in a popular form informa- 
tion concerning the laws of health. 
2. To shorten disease, by enforcing the necessity and the duty 
of taking bad symptoms in time, and stopping the beginnings of 
evil. 
3. To diminish the evil and fatal effects of disease, by giving 
plain advice for all the medical and surgical emergencies of the 
family, and simple rules for arresting and controlling disease for 
those who are beyond the ready call of a physician. Its purpose, 
therefore, is not so much to enable its readers to dispense with a 
physician, as to teach them how to dispense with disease. 
4. To give popular information concerning the progress of me- 
dical science, by briefly describing and illustrating the recent inven- 
tions, discoveries, and improvements by means of which physicians 
are now enabled to study and to treat disease so much more satis- 
factorily and successfully than in former times. Although many 
of the instruments and appliances that are represented cannot, of 
course, be seen by my readers, and may indeed never be seen by 
them, yet a general knowledge of their nature and uses cannot fail 
to be both interesting and valuable to the afflicted of every class, 
and should have the effect to convince the most sceptical that a 
profession which has done so much and so nobly for humanity is 
worthy of the highest respect and most fervent gratitude. 
What is here said concerning the structure of the human body 
and the functions of its organs; on diet, stimulants, narcotics, air, 
sunlight, exercise, bathing; on the care of the sick-room, the man- 
agement of infants and children ; on the general laws and history 
of disease; and on the treatment of accidents and emergencies, and 
descriptions of familiar remedies,—is designed for all persons and 
for every household. 
What is here said concerning the special care and treatment 
of obscure and grave diseases, and the application of powerful re- 
medies, is designed chiefly for those who, like planters, miners,' 
sailors, travellers, and dwellers in remote districts and on the plains, XIV 
PREFACE. 
are beyond the reach of skilful medical aid, and must either be 
treated by themselves or by their friends, or left to suffer, and per- 
haps to die. 
The work, as now arranged, not only includes all that has ever 
been attempted in similar works, but also several hundred new sub- 
jects in the departmen t of health that have never befoi'e been men- 
tioned in any or all of the popular treatises on medical science that 
have yet appeared. I have sought to mention and describe every 
recent medical discovery and improvement that can possibly be of 
any service to my readers. I have endeavored throughout the 
work to keep in mind that I was writing for the great masses of 
the people, who know little or nothing of medical language. There- 
fore I have aimed to make the descriptions brief, clear, and elemen- 
tary. There are many methods of studying disease, many hard 
terms which would only bewilder the general reader, though they 
are very familiar to physicians. Of such I make no mention. 
My aim has also been to make the work so clear that the wayfar- 
ing man might not err therein, and yet so thorough and exhaustive 
that the educated physician should find in it much to perfect his 
knowledge and refresh his memory. 
It will be seen that the types, phases, and names of diseases 
have changed wonderfully during the past twenty-five years. We 
now have less of fevers and inflammation, and more of dyspepsia, 
neuralgia, hysteria, hypochondria, and other forms of nervous dis- 
ease. 
In our method of treatment, a greater revolution has been 
wrought than in the types of disease. Instead of bleeding and 
calomel, tartar-emetic and low diet, we now give tonics and stimu- 
lants—iron and quinine, strychnine and arsenic, cod-liver oil and 
whiskey, air and sunlight, passive movements, general electriza- 
tion, abundance of sleep, and a large and palatable variety of nour- 
ishing food. 
The result of all this scientific progress is, that we are much 
more successful in the treatment of diseases than formerly. Con- 
sumption is now much oftener held in check, relieved, and cured 
than it was twenty-five years ago. Statistics now show that it is 
much less frequently fatal under the new system of treatment than 
under the old. Catarrh of the nose and larynx (rhinitis, pharyngitis, 
and laryngitis), dyspepsia, neuralgia, hysteria, hypochondria, in- 
sanity, the special diseases of women, affections of the eye, the ear, 
and the skin—all of which were until recently7 ignored and neglected 
by the profession—are now treated with signal success. Among the 
new remedies and methods of treatment that have been found most PREFACE. 
XV 
successful, I may here mention bromide of potassium, carbolic acid, 
the sulphites and hypophosphites of soda, pepsin, cod-liver oil, strych- 
nine, Swedish movements, general and localized electrization, podo- 
phyllin, pyrophosphate of iron, veratrum viride, nitrous oxide, 
oxygen, phosphorus, glycerine, chlorate of potash. 
This work is intended to be a compend of the whole of the pop- 
ular medical science of our time, so far as it can be interesting or 
useful to my readers. Under Anatomy I have presented those gen- 
eral facts in regard to the structure of the body, that every one, 
young and old, should be acquainted with. Under Physiology I 
have introduced many recent experiments and researches in this 
most fascinating branch of science. Under Hygiene I have given 
in detail important rules for the care of the health and the art of 
prolonging life. This is a subject to which I have devoted my 
life, and one to which I call the special attention of my readers. 
The large portion of the book devoted to the care of the health will 
be found to contain new, reliable, and interesting facts, many of 
which have never before been published. The facts and views that 
I present on the subject of Food, Stimulants and Narcotics, Exer- 
cise, Sleep, Laws of Inheritance, Influence of Occupation on Health 
and Longevity, Man compared with other Animals, certain of the 
nervous diseases, will probably take most of my readers by surprise. 
This surprise will be all the greater because the people have usually 
obtained their instruction on these matters from bad or ignorant 
men, who knew nothing whatever of science. I have tried also to 
present this department of hygiene in a somewhat attractive and in- 
teresting style, so that every one into whose hands the book may 
fall will read them first, even though all other sections are neglected. 
In speaking of the various Accidents, Diseases, and Remedies, 
I have aimed to be brief, clear, direct, and explicit; to introduce 
nothing that would mislead, to omit nothing that can be of prac- 
tical service to any one. I have tried to draw the lines beyond 
which patients should never attempt to cross. I have pointed 
out those conditions in which patients should never allow them- 
selves to be treated by themselves or their friends, and should con- 
sult the best medical advice or none at all. 
It will be seen that a large number of diseases which the masses 
of the people suppose to be incurable are now, under our modern 
systems of treatment and in skilful hands, susceptible of relief and 
of cure. All over the land there are thousands of cases of cataract 
that a skilful oculist might operate on with success; thousands of 
cases of deafness which, if taken in time, might be wholly or par- 
tially cured; thousands of cases of dyspepsia, neuralgia, paralysis, xvi 
PREFACE. 
and other nameless forms of chronic nervous diseases, that, if they 
only knew where to go, without falling into the hands of the phi- 
listines, might be permanently relieved. All about us there are 
aching heads, weary nerves, that cry bitterly for relief and know 
not where to find it. This knowledge of the best way to consult a 
physician, and the best means of treatment, especially for diseases 
that have been regarded as incurable, I endeavor here to supply. 
There are yet among the people those who have a blind faith in 
some one school or exclusive system of treatment. To all such, 
let me say that the wise physician of our time uses for his patients 
all things that have been proved to be beneficial. On this principle 
this work is based. The best physicians of our day are not nar- 
row or bigoted, as some suppose, but are on the whole more liberal 
and progressive than almost any other class in society. 
I undertake the enterprise with a full appreciation of the re- 
sponsibilities of my position as a pioneer. Accordingly, I have left 
no stone unturned to make the work fully represent the best and 
most recent opinions and experience of the leading authorities of 
our time in the various departments. 
This book, as now completed, is the work of so many hands, that 
I might perhaps be more properly called its editor than its author. 
Of the “ Domestic Medicine ” prepared by Imray and other able 
writers, on which the work is based, I have taken of the general 
descriptions, especially in the department of Anatomy, such por- 
tions as in their very nature cannot be very progressive, and are 
therefore of permanent application. 
I have been assisted in the department of the Eye and Ear, by 
Prof. D. B. St. John Itoosa; in Surgical Accidents and Emergen- 
cies, by Prof. Benjamin Howard ; in Obstetrics and the Hygiene of 
Infancy, by Dr. James B. Hunter. In the general revision of the 
work and correction of the proofs I have received indispensable 
assistance from my professional associate, Dr. A. D. Bockwell. 
In collecting Vital Statistics I have at various times received 
invaluable suggestions from those eminent hygienists, Dr. Edward 
Jarvis and Dr. Elisha Harris, Registrar of Yital Statistics of the 
Hew York Metropolitan Board of Health. 
In the sanitary department I have had the benefit of the experi- 
ence of the well-known sanitarian, Dr. John IT. Griscom. 
To each and all of these gentlemen I desire to express my 
warmest acknowledgments, not alone for special assistance, but 
for general encouragement in my labors. 
I have quoted extensively from my translation of Tobold's 
Chronic Diseases of the Larynx, from my works on The Brain and PREFACE. 
xvii 
Brain-Workers, and Hygiene for Students, both of which are now- 
being prepared for early publication; and also from a work on 
General and Localized Electrization, by Dr. A. D. Rockwell and 
myself, which is now in press. To Messrs. Tiemann & Co. my 
thanks are due for courtesy and promptness in furnishing a number 
of the cuts of instruments with which the work is illustrated. 
I have consulted and freely quoted the standard works in the 
special departments of medical science that have appeared during 
the last few years. A partial list of the more prominent of these 
writers, with the titles of their books, will be found under a separate 
heading. 
The task which I have here undertaken is one of unusual diffi- 
culty and delicacy. To prepare a comprehensive popular treatise 
on the recondite science of medicine that shall say just enough to 
instruct, and not so much as to bewilder; that shall fairly represent 
the various departments in language both clear and attractive, as 
well as accurate and instructive; that shall make broad and plain 
the boundaries between those subjects which the people can and 
should know, and those which they should not attempt to know ; 
that shall treat all this large variety of themes in such manner as not 
to offend the taste of the best-ordered household,—this is probably the 
severest test to which a scientific w'riter can possibly be brought. 
In the absence of any respectable model, I have been compelled 
to proceed without guide or precedent, and to create my own ideal. 
Accordingly, it has been my aim to write here in the pages of this 
book just what I say every day in my office to my patients; just 
what I have been accustomed to teach in my popular essays 
and in my lectures before schools and lyceums. 
I say just what the family physician would tell his patients if 
he had the time and strength to give instruction in science to the 
families under his charge. 
New York, August, 1869. 
Gr. M. B. INTRODUCTION. 
I. 
REASONS WHY ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE SOME 
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
It is one of the most cheering signs of onr times that science is 
being diffused among the masses of the people. 
On every hand we see evidences of an increasing love for scienti- 
fic truth, even among those classes who formerly had no love for 
knowledge of any kind. Works on familiar science are now read 
with considerable eagerness; and the certain prospect is, that in a 
few years they will command a much wider circle of readers than 
they do at the present time. 
The people are beginning to learn that science is for them and 
not for the few, and are now informing themselves of some of the 
general principles and facts of astronomy, of geology, and of che- 
mistry ; and our periodical literature is helping on the good work, 
oftentimes unconsciously. It is hard to find any prominent and 
popular newspaper or magazine that does not now and then present 
some interesting and valuable scientific facts and theories; and there 
are quite a number of journals which regularly devote a certain 
space to popular science in all its branches—chemistry, astronomy, 
geology, and medicine. 
.Nor is this all. Quite recently a journal has been established, 
one of the professed objects of which is to disseminate popular 
science among those classes who are the most eager readers of fiction. 
These signs of the times are, I say, full of cheer. They give 
promise of a more generous culture, larger views, and more kindly 
tolerance in the future, among all ranks of society ; for the tendency 
of scientific knowledge is always to liberalize. 
The one great cause of the prevailing (but happily diminishing) 
narrowness in our current theologies, systems of education, and 
social customs,is ignorance. Ignorance begets prejudice, and for the 
poison of prejudice the only antidote is knowledge. 
While, then, bidding God-speed to all who, like Agassiz, and 20 
REASONS WHY ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE SOME 
Huxley, and Youmans, and others, are endeavoring to popularize 
natural science, I desire here to make a special plea for the popular 
study of the Human Body in health and disease. 
There are reasons why, especially at the present time, every one 
should make it a pleasure and a duty to become acquainted with 
some of the general facts in regard to the structure and functions 
of the human system, as well as the rules for preserving health, and 
checking or modifying disease. 
1. Because the human hody is the greatest wonder of creation. 
Nothing that man can devise, and nothing else that God has created, 
is worthy to be compared with the complex, wonderful machine 
which we call man. 
A distinguished theologian truly and eloquently says : “ Men will 
cross the ocean to see a mountain or a waterfall, but there is more 
of grandeur in the human spirit than in all material nature.” 
Now the human spirit is manifested through the material organ- 
ization—the body; it therefore becomes necessary that we should 
study the structure and functions of this body before we can well and 
truly understand the spirit of which it is the agent. The human 
brain, through which the soul is manifested, is a far more wonderful 
object than the loftiest mountain or the broadest ocean. It is true 
that the gigantic and imposing objects of nature,—mountains and 
oceans, forests and cataracts,—appeal more directly to the uneducated 
senses than do those objects which are comparatively minute and 
insignificant. 
The element of size, the grandeur of immensity, the awfulness 
of height and depth, of length and breadth, can be much better 
appreciated by the great mass of unthinking and unreasoning hu- 
manity than objects which, though far more wonderful and sugges- 
tive, are yet less imposing and pretentious. Humanity the world 
over is more impressed by quantity than by quality. In proportion, 
however, as men advance in knowledge, in proportion as reason ob- 
tains supremacy over imagination, in that proportion will men cease 
to be impressed by mere size and quantity, and will learn to appre- 
ciate the beauty and grandeur of nature as revealed in objects that to 
the untaught mind would not only not be impressive, but would 
actually be revolting. 
There are those who feel that the study of material substance 
is undignified and disagreeable. They declare that the study of 
anatomy suggests the dissecting-room, that the reading of hygiene 
tends to hypochondriasis, and that all discourses of medicine bring 
up horrid images of the hospital and sick-room. To all such objec- 
These reasons are :— GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
21 
tions I reply that knowledge itself is dignity, and in turn dignifies 
and ennobles that which to the untutored senses is insignificant and 
revolting. The human body is always small and insignificant in 
comparison with thousands of other created objects, animate and 
inanimate, and only in exceptional cases is it attractive or beautiful 
to the eye; and yet it is the most wonderful and suggestive of all. 
The brain is but a small portion of the human body: its yield- 
ing and sightless mass can readily be held in the hollow of the 
hand; but in comparison with it all other wonderful objects of 
nature sink into insignificance. Place but a minute section of that 
brain beneath the microscope, and what before, to the unaided 
vision, was as simple in its structure as a formless mass of clay, 
reveals itself as a vast congeries of cells, group after group, layer on 
layer, of every variety of shape, infinite in their number, infinite in 
their communications, and infinite, too, as wre may suppose, in their 
functions. Subject a fragment of that brain to the tests of chemis- 
try, and we learn that the elements of which it is composed are 
substantially similar to those out of which are developed thousands 
of organized products of nature ; and thence we are forced to infer 
that the vast superiority in function and capacity over all other 
created objects must be due solely or chiefly to some subtle and 
mysterious difference of molecular arrangement, which neither the 
microscope nor chemistry have yet been able to fathom. 
2. A general knowledge of medical science will aid us in gyre- 
serving health and prolonging life, and thus will add much to our 
usefulness and happiness. 
The great art in medical science is not so much to cure disease 
as to prevent it. The great progress that medicine has made in 
recent times is shown not so much in the actual treatment of dis- 
ease—although here also we are far more successful than formerly 
—as in forestalling and preventing it by obedience to the laws of 
health and wholesome sanitary reform. 
For all that we are, and for all that we do in life, we are depen- 
dent on the body. The difference between one man and another is 
the difference in quantity and quality of bodily formation ; for the 
soul manifests itself through the brain, which is an organ of the 
body, and is as much dependent on the brain for the character of 
its manifestations as the digestion is dependent on the apparatus of 
digestion. 
Strictly speaking, there can probably be no such thing as a dis- 
ease of the mind without a corresponding disease of some part of 
the body, and usually of the brain, which is the organ of the mind. 
In view of this consideration we see that it becomes a high and 22 
REASONS WHY ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE SOME 
solemn duty for every one to obtain some general knowledge of the 
human system in health and disease, in order to guard against evil, 
to ward off injury, to intensify and prolong existence. 
It should be remembered that every evil that is experienced by 
the human system, every pain, every sorrow, every disease, comes 
by the operations of the great law of cause and effect. Nothing evil 
or good comes to us by chance. Contagions, epidemics, malarias, 
the myriad forms of nervous disease, the subtle and saddening 
phases of insanity and delirium—all these myriad woes of the 
human races are dependent on definite causes, many of which 
may be guarded against by those who have the requisite knowl- 
edge. 
A general knowledge of medical science will help us to fulfil 
more intelligently and successfully our various duties as members 
of society. 
Science must not be confined to scientific men. A knowledge- 
of science in its various departments, and especially a general; 
knowledge of the structure and operations of the human body andi 
of some of the laws of disease, will make us better lawyers, better 
clergymen, better merchants, better farmers, better laborers, better 
mechanics and artisans, better wives and mothers and husbands 
and fathers, better citizens, and better in every condition and 
relation of society. 
The habit of studying and reading on science is important, not 
only for the facts that we learn, but on account of the habit which 
we thereby form of looking at questions from a scientific point of 
view. We are all of us too much inclined to form our opinions from 
prejudice, and from a general impression, without regard to truth 
or facts. The consequence is that society is filled with error. The 
consequence is, that even in this enlightened age and throughout 
this enlightened country, the opinions of masses of people on nearly 
every important subject are more or less erroneous. On nearly 
every page of this present work I have been obliged to refute some 
deeply-rooted, widely-spread error concerning diet, or stimulants 
and narcotics, or sleep, or exercise, or some form of disease. 
Erroneous views on medical science confront the physician wherever 
he turns—in the street, in the store, at public assemblies, in the 
halls of legislatures and chambers of justice, in the periodical litera- 
ture and in our standard works of genius, in every family, and by 
every bedside. 
These are not the results of ignorance alone. They are the 
results of a deficiency in the scientific spirit, and an excess of dog- 
matic prejudices in society. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
23 
The scientific spirit differs from the dogmatic spirit in these 
respects: 
First. In the pursuit of truth it endeavors to dismiss all pre- 
judice, all preconceived impressions. It has no theories to prove 
and no wishes to gratify, except the love of truth. 
Secondly. It never assumes that anything is true until it is 
proved to be true ; and always holds itself ready and willing to 
change any views, however dear or long-cherished, as soon as they 
are proved to be erroneous. 
Thirdly. When it has found the truth on any subject, after 
careful and patient balancing of all the facts that bear upon it, it 
eagerly embraces and proclaims that truth, without ever asking for 
an instant whether its apparent tendencies may be good or evil. 
The great want of our country at the present time is a wider 
diffusion of this scientific spirit, so that men will form their opinions, 
■especially on social and political topics, less by their hopes and 
desires, expectations and fears, and more by the facts. 
When I write on the ignorance of the country on matters of 
science, I know not where to begin or where to end. This igno- 
rance is not confined to the lower classes; it is even more promi- 
nently observed and far more injuriously felt among the educated 
and influential. In our country this scientific ignorance is espe- 
cially to be deplored, because here all men are created free and 
equal, all have equal voice in the administration of government, 
and all have equal chance to rise to positions of honor and influ- 
ence. Our present social, legislative, and judicial systems are so 
defective, that men who know nothing whatever of science are 
•continually called upon to decide important scientific questions 
affecting the rights, the privileges, and the duties of those who, 
perhaps, know far more than they, not only of science, but of every 
•other department of thought. 
legislatures, not one of whose members can answer the simplest 
fundamental question concerning the nature or the history of 
stimulants and narcotics, who do not know and have not thought 
to inquire whether they came chiefly into use fifteen hundred years 
before Christ or fifteen hundred after, are yet every year called 
upon to enact laws to prohibit or regulate their use in society. Is 
it surprising that their legislation is so absurd and inconsistent? 
Judges and juries, who have not the faintest conception whether 
insanity is a symptom of disease of the brain or of the liver—who 
in all their lives have never given five minutes of consecutive 
thought to any scientific subject whatever—are compelled, under 
•our present system of laws, to decide on this momentous question 24 
REASONS WHY ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE SOME 
of sanity or insanity, not only in cases of life and death, but also in 
cases where property even, so much more valued than life, is at 
stake. Is it surprising that the wicked so often escape and the ir- 
responsible are so often punished ? 
Clergymen, editors, and public teachers, who know all subjects 
better than they know the science of life, are expected and required 
to pronounce upon the right or wrong of questions which do not and 
should not rise into the sphere of morals until they have first been 
determined in the sphere of experience. Is it surprising that even 
our most conscientious public instructors must sometimes put 
darkness for light and light for darkness on many of these impor- 
tant themes ? 
Parents and guardians, who have never themselves been properly 
taught concerning the structure or the functions of the human body, 
are obliged to train up their children to the same dogmas and pre- 
judices and erroneous impressions by which they themselves have 
been inspired. Is it surprising that our children grow up in error? 
Would it not indeed be still more surprising if they possessed any 
true or real knowledge on any question of hygienic or medical 
science ? 
The truth is, that there is scarcely any important social, political, 
or religious question of our time that may not be aided in its solu- 
tion by a knowledge of the leading principles of medical science. 
The rights and duties of women, the status of the Africans,, the future 
of the Chinese, and many other analogous questions of minor im- 
portance, would be solved much more readily and more correctly 
if philanthropy would not so blindly refuse the aid of physiology. 
But, unfortunately for the cause of truth, only those who have at 
least some general knowledge of medical science, or who have en- 
joyed some training in that department, are willing to listen to 
arguments based on the facts of science, especially when they mili- 
tate against their prejudices and desires. Prof. Goldwin Smith, in 
his masterly address on education recently delivered at Albany, 
said that the voice of physiology should be heard on this great 
question of the education of woman ; but until the people, both 
the leaders and the masses, are educated into a scientific spirit, the 
efforts of physiology will be vain. Though she cry aloud in every 
language and on every corner of the street, yet her speech will be 
in an unknown tongue, and her voice will be drowned in the jeers 
and groans of the multitude. 
It cannot be denied that even at the present time there exists a 
deeply-seated prejudice against scientific men. They are regarded 
as the enemies of truth, although their professed object is the pur* GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
25 
suit of truth. They are branded with meaningless but repulsive 
epithets,—materialists, infidels, atheists,—and are held up before 
the people as solemn and impressive warnings. The cure for this 
unfortunate prejudice lies in the general diffusion of scientific know- 
ledge. 
4. The study of the principles and facts of medical science is 
exceedingly pleasurable. 
If the pursuit of knowledge is the highest and most enduring 
pleasure of life, the study of science is the most enjoyable depart- 
ment of knowledge. 
The calm and unworried pursuit of science is probably the 
purest and most enduring intellectual pleasure of which human 
nature is capable. It is also exceedingly conducive to health. As 
will be shown in my essa}r on the Influence of Occupations on 
Health and Longevity, philosophers and men of science attain a 
great average longevity. 
Children should be instructed in the interesting and important 
departments of physiology and hygiene, not only at school, but in 
the family circle. It is not right nor necessary that the study of 
these subjects should be made dry and dismal. By the aid of maps, 
charts, pictures, attractive books, and especially by the exercise of 
kindly care on the part of instructors, these theories can be made 
not only instructive but actually fascinating. The commandments 
of physiology and hygiene should be taught diligently unto our chil- 
dren, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a 
little, in the house and by the way, at their lying down and their ris- 
ing up. Much of the scientific instruction given to children in 
early life will not be fully understood in all its transcendent im- 
portance until after years; but in time of need they will both re- 
member and appreciate its value. 
They will remember it when they rise to positions of responsi- 
bility and posts of honor, and will guide their judgment and inspire 
their lives by its teachings. They will remember it in the hour of 
temptation, and -will derive therefrom wisdom to direct and 
strength to resist the force of mastering passions. They will re- 
member it in the time of darkness and sorrow, and will rejoice 
in the light of its truths, and find the rarest of consolation in the 
activity of its pursuit. They will remember it when they them- 
selves are parents, and in turn will teach it to their children, and 
they again to their children’s children, unto the remotest gen- 
erations. II. 
REASONS WHY THE PROFESSION SHOULD LABOR 
TO DIFFUSE A GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OF MEDI- 
CAL SCIENCE AMONG THE PEOPLE. 
The duty of the profession to diffuse a knowledge of medical 
science among the people is rendered imperative by these four 
considerations: 
1. Because all people everywhere need, and should have, some 
general knowledge of the human body in health and disease. 
The time has gone by when it was thought to be necessary that 
learning should be confined to the few. It is the glory of our century 
that knowledge of all kinds is diffused among the masses of the 
people. The time was when theology was confined to the clergy, 
and was the privilege of monks and cloisters; religion is now the 
duty and the joy of the ignorant and the lowly. The time was when 
all government and law were in the hands of a few aristocrats, and 
even of some single monarch; in our day and country the people 
rule, and kings and queens, presidents and senators, are but their 
servants. 
Science must now follow in the wake of theology and govern- 
ment. If the masses of the people are to have all the power in 
Church and State, they certainly must not be left in ignorance. 
For the ignorance of humanity there is only one antidote, and that 
is knowledge. Of all departments of knowledge, none is so im- 
portant as that of ourselves. It is impossible to know ourselves 
wfithout knowing the structure of the human body, the functions of 
its organs, and the laws of health. It is impossible to acquire this 
knowledge without careful study, diligent reading and patient 
repetition, in all the recognized methods of imparting knowledge. 
It must be taught to children in the school and by the domestic 
fireside, and in juvenile literature. It must be taught to parents 
from the pulpit, the platform, and in the periodical press, and 
in such works as these. 
The present ignorance of society in regard to anatomy, physiology, 
and the laws of health are truly appalling. Even the clergy, who 
are so advanced in general culture, and who should be the teachers 
of hygiene as a part of morality, are as a profession utterly in the REASONS FOR DIFFUSION OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
27 
dark in regard to the simplest laws of life and health. Theologians 
and professors, college presidents and pulpit orators, who have learned 
all important languages, living and dead, who can repeat at call the 
names of all the imbecile and insane kings of Europe and the dates 
of their administrations, do not even suspect the nature of the pro- 
cesses of respiration or of digestion every moment going on in their 
own bodies ; and even give no reason for the faith that is in them, 
that the brain rather than the liver is the organ of the mind. 
Even men of general science, who plan great inventions and 
understand all the machinery of man’s devising, know nothing of 
the most wonderful machine of all—the human body. If these 
things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry ? 
If our teachers, and the teachers of our teachers, know little or 
nothing of themselves, what shall we say of the great masses of 
the people ? What shall we say of the millions of farmers, 
mechanics, laborers, and the solid yeomanry of our land, on whose 
virtue and intelligence the welfare of the republic must ever 
depend ? 
The profession must exert its influence to introduce the sys- 
tematic study of hygienic science in all of our colleges and in- 
stitutions of learning. 
< Time was when the standard of scholarship was necessarily 
estimated by the extent of one’s familiarity with dead lan- 
guages ; when the span of a thousand yearn—the dark ages of 
humanity—intervened between the scholar in the cloister and the 
literary wealth of the world; when, in short, the student was 
forced to choose between treasuring up the learning of ancient 
times, and knowing nothing at all. 
That necessity has long since gone by, but the system of in- 
struction to which it gave rise in its leading features lives to-day. 
Bacon never uttered a profounder or more beautiful thought than 
when he said that what is called the antiquity of the world is 
really its youth. If the ancients could be alive again to-day, 
they surely would be the first to bow at the feet of the nineteenth 
century. 
When we consider the marvellous scientific progress of the last 
century—that within that time Geology has arisen out of the dark- 
ness of conjecture and has developed into a more comprehensive 
and enduring science; and that by the discovery of hydrogen by 
Cavendish, of oxygen by Priestley, of nitrogen by Rutherford, and 
by the labors of Sir Humphry Davy, Liebig, and their followers, 
the science of chemistry has been as it were created, and all since 
the year 1766; that within less than this time that universal agent, 28 
REASONS WHY THE PROFESSION SHOULD LABOR 
Electricity, has revealed itself to man in its effects if not in its 
nature,—has indeed deigned to serve him as his fleetest messenger 
through the air and under the sea, as the faithful and rapid copyist 
of works of art, as a powerful means of illumination, and as a most 
effective healer in disease; that within the last fifty years the 
mechanic arts, in their myriad ramifications, have made more 
effective progress than other eras have witnessed in twice as many 
decades; when we consider that astronomy, the most ancient 
of sciences, the boast of the Egyptians and Chaldeans—which is 
indeed in its very essence a study of centuries—has not been with- 
out its refinements even during the present generation—nay, even 
within the year that is just passed; when, I say, we thus consider 
all that the last fifty years has done for science,—and more than all,, 
when we contemplate the wondrous possibilities of the fifty years 
to come, and for which we now have but laid the foundation ; and 
when, on the other hand, we consider how little these branches are 
taught or even suggested to our undergraduates, we can but wonder 
that an age which has revolutionized society by its activity in 
science, has made so little impression on those institutions that 
ought to be, if they are not, the centres and the repositories of 
the world’s progress. 
It is neither necessary nor desirable that hygienic or other 
science should supplant the languages. It is the duty of the 
profession, however, to see that in all our institutions 'of learn- 
ing it is placed on the same footing as all other important depart- 
ments ; that it receives something more than a merely incidental and 
superficial attention ; and that it is made equally binding with all 
other recognized studies of the course. 
2. Because physicians are the only class who are authorities in 
medical science, and who are qualified to give instruction in it. 
Medical science is a large subject, and it takes a lifetime to 
comprehend it. People look to those whose lives are devoted to 
this subject to teach them what they ought to know. They have 
a right to do so. Of those to whom much has been given, much will 
be required. If know that which will be of service to our fellows, 
we have no right to keep it to ourselves alone. A miser of knowl- 
edge is even more censurable than a miser of money, because he is 
more intelligent, and therefore more responsible. It is even more 
wrong for us to hoard knowledge than to hoard specie, for knowl- 
edge is more valuable than gold or silver or precious stones. 
Until quite recently the clergy have been the chief instructors of 
the people in medical science; but they have unfortunately taught 
more of error than of truth. The fault, however, is not with the; TO DIFFUSE A KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
29 
clergy but with the physicians. The clergyman must first be himself 
instructed before he can instruct others. The duty of teaching medi- 
cal science to the clergy devolves upon the physician, because in all 
such matters he is the first authority and last appeal. It is right and 
proper and noble for the pastor to teach his flock the laws of health, 
and to enjoin their observance as a high moral duty; but he must 
know- wrhereof he affirms, and the true knowledge on these themes he 
must learn from the physician. 
3. Because the instruction of the people in medical science has 
heen almost entirely in the hands of ignorant and unprincipled 
charlatans. 
This lamentable and well-known fact, which ought long since to 
have aroused the profession to its great duty, seems to have had the 
opposite effect, and has deterred them from attempting any syste- 
matic instruction of the people. There are those even now who fear 
to write or lecture for the masses, lest they may thereby become 
classed with the ignorant and villanous quacks who in this country 
have appropriated this department almost entirely to themselves. I 
hold to a very different doctrine. I hold that the example of charla- 
tans, so far from discouraging, should rather stimulate the profession 
to follow after them and drive them off the track. It is because the 
enemy have planted tares in the field, that we should enter in and 
sow the good seed. It is because the philistines have already invaded 
the land, that we should hasten to take possession. 
The noblest and best part of our mission is not to cure disease, 
but to prevent it. The true and only way to prevent disease is to 
diffuse through all ranks of society a general knowledge of the 
human body and of the lanvs of health. 
There maybe those who fear lest the profession may lose its dig- 
nity by coming down from its lofty eminence and feeding the hungry 
multitude. In the infancy of science, in the darkness of the middle 
ages, such fear was, perhaps, not unnatural; but the time for that has 
now long gone by. When the sun is rising it gilds only the higher 
mountain tops; when it mounts to noonday it sends its rays, bright, 
warm, and abundant, into the depths of the valleys and the darkest 
crevices of the rocks. Just so when science was first rising upon the 
world, its light was only seen and its warmth only felt by the philo- 
sopher, the recluse; as it is now ascending higher in the sky, it 
should shine, with wisdom and healing in its beams, on the walks 
■of the humble, the lowly, and the sorrowing. 
Science is no more degraded by ministering to the wants of the 
people than is the sunlight when it trails its beams along the valleys, 
or the rain when it falls alike on the evil and the good. 30 
REASONS WHY THE PROFESSION SHOULD LABOR 
Jean Paul Richter has somewhere presented in substance this 
simile, which the disciple of science should ever bear in mind : 
“Beautiful is the eagle when it soars aloft in the sky and plumes 
its distant flight towards the sun, but more beautiful still when 
it descends to the earth and brings food to its helpless offspring 
in their nest; so the philosopher is noble when he lives above the 
world in the cold atmosphere of science, but nobler still when he 
descends from his lofty heights and brings hope and comfort to the 
suffering sons of men.” 
4. Because the profession will derate and benefit itself by thus 
instructing the people in medical science. 
All physicians the world over will agree that ignorant people 
make the worst patients. The lower classes are proverbially ex- 
acting and unreasonable, and too often unappreciative. In propor- 
tion as people are educated—and especially in science—in that 
proportion do they become considerate towards their physician, 
obedient to his orders, and grateful for his services. 
The effect of the popularization of medical science will be not 
to diminish the practice of the profession, but to increase it. Pa- 
tients are deterred from consulting educated physicians, not by 
knowledge but by ignorance; not by their ability to prevent or treat 
diseases, but their inability to distinguish between those conditions 
which are beyond all hope, and those which in scientific hands are 
both relievable and curable. 
When the people are educated to a full understanding of the 
wonderful achievements of science in the past, and the vast progress 
that it is making in the present, and the wide distinction between 
the physician and the quack, then will they know—what the masses of 
our country have yet to learn—that the educated members of the 
profession are not the enemies but the friends of advancement, and 
that on the average they are as much more successful than the 
charlatans, as they are more scholarly and more honest. 
It is only by a general diffusion of popular science that the 
vast army of charlatans—that are now working such ruinous havoc in 
the best ranks of society—can be successfully combated and dis- 
persed. The scientific man is pained to his heart’s core when he 
sees—as every day he is compelled to see—the best educated and 
finest cultured minds of the country—our leaders in literary, pro- 
fessional, and business life—ruined in health and in purse by the 
vilest quacks that ever disgraced any age or country. The quack- 
ery of our day feeds and fattens on the ignorance of the learned. 
It derives its rich support from the fact that the people know all 
other things better than they know science. The scientific pliysi- TO DIFFUSE A KNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE. 
31 
cian who long gazes upon this great rush of humanity after quack 
doctors, quack books, quack medicines—after all forms of error and 
one-sided “pathies” and “isms,'’ feels much like the philanthropist 
who, from the bank of a mighty stream, sees his fellow-beings 
hurried along in the flood and ingulfed in the whirlpool, while he is 
powerless to save. 
Salvation from quackery will only come from popular instruction. 
Besides all this, it is the duty of the profession, through the popu- 
larization of science, to make itself apovjer in society. 
It is our duty in this way to make our influence more widely felt 
as a ruling force through all the departments of modern activity. 
For all these reasons we hail with joy the recent endeavors of 
some of our leading physicians to popularize medical science. The 
system of lectures on science lately attempted by Professors Huxley 
and Carpenter in London; the noble example of Professors Willard 
Parker and E. R. Peaslee in Hew York; the recently published 
essays of Bowditch, Jarvis, Allen, Youmans, Hammond, Flint, Mit- 
chell, Griscom, Peters, Roosa, Harris, Byford, and other leading 
authorities in our profession; and the magnificent and success- 
ful treatise of our eminent countryman, Prof. John C. Dalton—all 
these are the emphatic protests on the part of the profession that the 
people shall no longer dwell in darkness, that the medieval age of 
narrow and selfish exclusiveness has passed away, and that men of 
science shall hereafter follow in the path of theologians and law- 
givers, and sow the good seed of truth broadcast through society. 
In order to popularize science it is not enough to provide text- 
books for the young. We must sow beside all waters. We must 
make the magazines, the daily and weekly press, the platform, the 
lecture hall, the organizations of philanthropy, the pulpit and the 
Sabbath-school, channels of communication, through which know- 
ledge of science shall flow to the uttermost corners of the earth. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
211 
or at least is the first symptom of that fatal malady, as well as of 
many other formidable disorders. 
STIMULANTS AND NABCOTICS. 
The subject of stimulants and narcotics is of so great and in- 
creasing importance that it not only deserves a special chapter, but 
is in fact worthy of an entire volume. 
It is proper and necessary that people everywhere, at least in 
civilized lands, should understand something of the nature of stimu- 
lants and narcotics, in order that they may know how to use them 
and how not to abuse them. 
I may say at the outset, that by stimulants and narcotics I mean 
not only rum and tobacco, but every substance to which the human race 
have been accustomed to resort for stimulating and narcotizing effects. 
There are as many different kinds of stimulants and narcotics as 
there are different races and tribes and families of men on the face 
of the earth. 
The following list and explanations, though incomplete, will give 
some idea of the varieties that are now used in different parts of the 
world. It will be seen that many of these substances are not known 
here, even by name. 
Fermented and distilled liquors.—Hum, gin, brandy, whis- 
key, champagne, sweet and sour wines, cider and beer—all con- 
tain alcohol, in greater or less quantities. They are used in all 
civilized and many of the semi-civilized lands, among about 500,- 
000,000 people. In the United States and Great Britain the 
stronger liquors are used; in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, 
the lighter wines. 
From Sheen’s little treatise I extract the following interesting 
facts with reference to alcoholic liquors : 
“ The vine is said to have been introduced into England by 
the Homans, and vineyards are mentioned in the earliest Saxon 
charters, as well as gardens and orchards. 
“Bede, writing in 731, alluded to vineyards being in existence at 
that time. Domesday Book also speaks of vineyards in several 
counties. William of Malmesbury, in his work ‘De Pontificibus,’ 
written in 1123, informs us that the vale of Gloucester used to pro- 
duce as good wdne as many of the provinces of France. From the 
date of the Conquest vineyards appear to have been attached to all 
the abbeys and monastic institutions in the southern and western 212 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
parts of tlie island. Bat about the time of the Reformation, when 
the ecclesiastical gardens were either neglected or destroyed, ale, 
which had been known in England for many centuries, seems to 
liave superseded the use of wine as a general beverage. 
44 We have no historical record of the period when the distillation 
of spirits was first known. The Greeks and the Romans were igno- 
rant of ardent spirits, and, from the absence of any evidence to the 
contrary, we must assume that the art of distilling was not known 
until long afterwards. 
44 The use of the still appears to have been well known in the time 
of Geber, who lived in the seventh century, and who describes very 
accurately the process of distillation by the alembics —per descensori- 
uno et jiltruno—in his work entitled 4 Liber Ma- 
gisterii.’ It has been stated that Albucasis, who is supposed to have 
lived in the twelfth century, taught the method of procuring spirit 
from wine; but as the process of distillation was evidently known 
long before his time, it is equally certain that his predecessors had 
submitted fermented liquors to this operation. Arnauld de Yille- 
neuve, a physician of the thirteenth century, is the first author who 
speaks explicitly of an intoxicating spirit obtained by the distillation 
of wine, and he considers it to be the universal panacea, so long 
sought after in vain. His disciple, Raymond Lully, was acquainted 
with spirit of wine (which he called aqua ardens), as well as of the 
mode of depriving it of water by means of some alkali. 
“ Morewood considers the Chinese to have been acquainted with 
this process long before the rest of Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 
his 4 Essa}'' on Intoxicating Liquors,’ page 107, he says : 4 In China, 
a country which has preserved its civil polity for so many thousand 
years, the art of distillation was known far beyond the date of any 
of its authentic records. The period of its introduction into that 
country, in common with the rise and progress of other chemical 
arts, is, however, concealed amidst the darkness of ages. But, taking 
dates as we find them sanctioned by respectable authority, and leav- 
ing the assumed antiquity of the nation as a point for the discus- 
sion of chronologists, we are certainly led to attribute to the 
people of this empire the merit of an invention which seems to 
have eluded the grasp of the human intellect in the rest of Asia, 
Africa, and Europe, until a more advanced period in the history of 
the world.’ 
44 The preparation of alcohol may be divided into three stages— 
the production of a fermented vinous liquor, the preparation from 
this of an ardent spirit by distillation, and, lastly, rectification or 
purification. When vegetable substances are placed in contact with STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
213 
air and moisture they undergo that kind of decomposition which is 
denominated fermentation. The products of this process vary at 
crifferent periods or stages, and on this depends the distinction into 
kinds or varieties of fermentations. Thus starchy liquids, under 
some circumstances, become saccharine, the process being termed 
the saccharine fermentation. Sugar,, dissolved in water and mixed 
with nitrogenous matter, is converted into carbonic acid and alco- 
hol, and to this process the name of vinous fermentation is applied. 
Under some circumstances mannite, lactic acid, and a syrupy mu- 
cilage are formed by the action of the nitrogenous or albuminous 
principles of vegetable juices on the sugar. This change has been 
denominated the viscous or mucilaginous fermentation. Vinous 
liquids are capable of generating acetic acid, and the process is 
called acetous fermentation. Lastly, most vegetable substances are 
slowly converted into gases, and a substance called vegetable mould, 
constituting the process termed the putrefactive fermentation. The 
liquid obtained by the vinous fermentation has received different 
names, according to the substance from which it is obtained. 
“When procured from the fresh juices of fruits, as grapes, cur- 
rants, gooseberries, &c., it is denominated wine ; from a decoction 
of malt and hops, ale or beer; from the expressed juice of apples, 
cider / that of pears, perry; and from a mixture of honey and wa- 
ter, mead. Fermented infusions of barley (raw grain and malt 
.prepared by distillers for the production of ardent spirits) are tech- 
nically termed washes. 
“ Brewing consists in the process of extracting a saccharine solu- 
tion from grain, and in converting that solution into a fermented 
and sound spirituous beverage called beer or ale. This art, although 
a perfectly chemical one in nearly all its stages, had not until com- 
paratively lately been indebted to chemistry for any of the improve- 
ments which have been made in its details. This we may attribute 
to the rare occurrence in former days of a practical chemist being 
engaged in the operation of brewing. However, we find that 
within the last few years very great additions have been made to 
our knowledge of this art—particularly in our being acquainted 
with that principle by means of which the conversion of starch 
into sugar whilst in the mash-tun is brought about. Various 
other improvements affecting the mode and appliances as well as 
the principles of the art of brewing have also been adopted by 
manjr of our leading firms, which contribute largely to facilitate 
their means of production and supply. 
u The process usually followed by the brewer may be divided into, 
eight distinct parts independent of malting, namely: first, the 214 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
grinding of the mait; secondly, the operation of mashing ; thirdly, 
the boiling; fourthly, the cooling; fifthly, the fermentation ; sixthly, 
the cleansing; seventhly, the racking or vatting; and, eighthly, 
the fining or clearing. In brewing the various beers, or ale, 
porter, and stout, three distinct sorts of malt are employed—the 
pale or amber malt, the brown malt, and the roasted or black malt. 
“ The first of these alone is used for ales ; indeed, for the article 
so extensively known as pale bitter ale, very light-colored malt 
only is applicable. The brown malt is the article in general use 
forgiving the flavor to beer, and the roasted malt is chiefly used with 
the latter sort in imparting the requisite color to porter and stout.” 
Tobacco.—This is used in the form of smoking, chewing, or 
snuff-taking more universally than any other stimulant or narcotic 
—among the civilized, the semi-civilized, and the barbarians—prob- 
ably among 900,000,000 of the human race. 
It is estimated that four billion pounds of tobacco are raised 
annually throughout the world, which is nearly four pounds a year 
for every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth. Six mil- 
lions of acres of land are devoted to its cultivation. The history of 
tobacco is now pretty well known. It is supposed to be indigenous 
to tropical America. Certainly it was not used in Europe until it 
was brought there after the discovery of America. 
Tobacco received its name from the fact that the plant was first 
recognized by a Spanish monk in Tabaea, a province of St. Do- 
mingo. How long it had been used by the Indians prior to the 
discovery of America it is impossible to ascertain. Doubtful legends 
say that the plant was known in Asia many centuries ago, but that 
it wras never smoked or chewed, as at the present day. In 1560 it 
Avas reported to the court of Portugal by Tsieot, the ambassador of 
the French, and was introduced from Virginia into England. 
It was popularized by the example and influence of Sir Wal- 
ter Raleigh, and by the close of the sixteenth century it had 
become quite well known throughout England. Since that time it 
has extended over a large part of the globe. It was introduced into 
Turkey and Arabia in the early part of the seventeenth century. 
Says Johnston : “ In Turkey the pipe is perpetually in the 
mouth. In India, all classes and both sexes smoke. The Siamese 
chew moderately, but smoke perpetually. The Burmese, of all 
ranks, of both sexes, and of all ages, down even to infants of three 
years old, smoke cigars.” 
In China the practice is so universal that every female, from 
the age of eight or nine, wears, as an appendage to her dress, a 
small silken pocket, to hold tobacco and a pipe. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
215 
There is reason for believing that the Chinese knew of tobacco, 
as they knew of almost everything else, long before the discovery 
of America. 
Opium.—This is used habitually among 400,000,000 inhabitants 
of the East, just as we use tobacco here. It is .estimated that it is 
indulged in by about 100,000 in the United States. It is certainly 
used among us much more than formerly. It is, as all know, the 
juice of the poppy. 
Hemp and Haschisch.—These are used in Turkey, India, Persia, 
Africa, and Brazil, by two or three hundred millions of people. 
TIemp appears to have been used in the days of Ilomer, Hero- 
dotus, and Diodorus Siculus. It is raised chiefly in India, Persia, 
and Arabia. The hemp is a resinous exudation from the plant. It 
is also raised in Africa and Brazil. 
In the plains of India it is consumed in every form, and on the 
slopes of the Himalayas it is cultivated for smoking as high up as 
the valleys of Sikkim. In Persia, in the east of Europe, and in 
Mahommedan countries it is in extensive use. In Northern Africa 
it is largely employed by the Moors. In central and tropical 
Africa it is almost everywhere known as a powerful medicine and 
a desired indulgence. In Southern Africa the Hottentots use it, 
under the name of dasha, for purposes of intoxication ; and when 
the Bushmen were in London they smoked the dried plant in short 
pipes, made of the tusks or teeth of animals. And what is astonish- 
ing, when we consider the broad seas which intervene, even the 
native Indians of Brazil know its value, and delight in its use; so 
that over the hotter parts of the globe generally, wherever the plant 
develops in abundance its peculiar narcotic principle, its virtues 
may be said to be known,- and more or less extensively made 
use of. 
Effects of Ilemp on the System.—“ This wide use of the plant 
implies that the effect of hemp upon the system is generally very 
agreeable. In India it is spoken of as the increaser of pleasure, the 
exciter of desire, the cementer of friendship, the laughter-mover, 
and the causer of the reeling gait—all epithets indicative of its 
peculiar effects.”—Johnston. 
The effect of hemp, or of haschisch, which is prepared from 
hemp, by boiling the leaves and flowers with water and butter, add- 
ing cloves, nutmegs, mace, Ac., is said to be very delightful. It 
obliterates ideas of time, and creates a kind of temporary heaven. < 
These effects, however, vary in different individuals. The word 
“ assassin ” is said to be derived from the fact, that some individuals 
under the influence of haschisch are inclined to rave furiously, to 216 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
threaten, and even to murder. These terrible effects are observed 
among the Orientals more than among the inhabitants of our own 
land. 
On some persons it causes the most intense anguish for several 
hours, a sort of doubje consciousness, and symptoms somewhat similar 
to the hallucinations of delirium tremens. 
Coffee.—This familiar drink is used to the extent of about 
1,000,000,000 pounds annually.* Like most of our popular stimu- 
lants and narcotics, it has come into use chiefly within the past two 
or three centuries. Like many of the other stimulants and nar- 
cotics, it was introduced amid great opposition. Like other stimu- 
lants and narcotics also, it has triumphed over all its enemies, and is 
now used in the best portion of the globe. 
“ Arabian Coffee.—The tree which produces this seed is said to 
be indigenous to the countries of Enarea and Caffa, in Southern 
Abyssinia. In these districts the coffee-tree grows like a wild weed 
over the rocky surface of the country. The roasted seed or bean 
has also been in use as a beverage in Abyssinia generally from time 
immemorial, and is at the present day extensively cultivated in that 
country. In Persia it is known to have been in use as early as the 
year 875. From Abyssinia it was introduced into Arabia in the 
beginning of the fifteenth century, when it partly superseded the 
older chaat, or Abyssinian tea. About the middle of the sixteenth 
century it began to be used in Constantinople, and in spite of the 
violent opposition of the priests, became an article of general con- 
sumption. In the middle of the seventeenth century (1652), the first 
coffeediouse was opened in London by a Greek named Pasqua ; and 
twenty years after the first was established in Marseilles.”—Johnston. 
The use of coffee was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and 
does not appear to have been known in the Asiatic countries as late 
as the time of the Crusades in the thirteenth century, although its 
first introduction into Europe was from Arabia. It seems to have 
been earliest in use in Ethiopia, where it has been drunk by the 
natives for a great length of time. Mr. Bruce, in his Travels in 
Abyssinia, states that the Gallse, a wandering nation of Africa, in 
their incursions on Abyssinia, being obliged to traverse immense 
deserts, and wishing to be encumbered with as little baggage as 
possible, take with them a mixture of coffee and butter rolled up 
into balls, and carried in a leathern bag. One of these, about the 
•size of a billiard ball, keeps them, they say, in strength and spirits 
during a day’s fatigue. 
* Two hundred millions of pounds are imported to the United States alone. 217 
COFFEE AND ITS SUBSTITUTES. 
“ Coffee was introduced into Mecca, Medina, and Cairo about 
the middle of tlie fifteenth century, and two coffee-houses were 
opened at Constantinople in 1554. Both at Cairo and in Turkey*it 
had to encounter political and religious opposition. The dervises 
affirmed that roasted coffee was nothing but a coal, and that the 
eating of coals was forbidden by the laws of their prophet. So 
that the coffee-houses were obliged to be shut up until ‘ a more 
sensible mufti ’ succeeded in convincing the people that roasted 
coffee was not a coal; upon which they were again opened. In 
later years the use of coffee became extremely prevalent throughout 
the East. Houses for selling it were established in all parts of the 
Turkish empire : it was introduced into private families, and the 
refusal of a husband to supply his wife with coffee was reckoned 
among the legal causes of a divorce. In Europe coffee was intro- 
duced into France and England about a century and a half ago. 
So rapid was the progress of a taste for it after it became known, 
that in eight years from its introduction it had become in England 
a subject of public revenue.”—Bigelow. 
Other Coffees.—“ Besides the real Coffea Arabica, other species 
of the coffee-plant are grown in various countries, and yield a use- 
ful marketable bean. Thus, in Silhet and Nepaul the C. Beu- 
halensis is cultivated; on the coast of Mozambique, the C. Mozam- 
bicana ; on the coast of Zanguebar, the C. Zanguebaria; and in the 
Mauritius, the C. Mauritiana. The seed of the last of these tastes 
disagreeably sharp and bitter, and sometimes causes vomiting, yet 
it is in some places cultivated instead of the Coffea Arabica. It is 
possible that these so-called different species may, like the varieties 
of the tea-plant, be only differently modified forms of the same ori- 
ginal species.”—Johnston. 
Very many substitutes are used for coffee. One of the best 
known of these is chiceory. It is largely used to adulterate coffee ; 
in moderate quantities is not harmless, but when used to any 
great extent is decidedly injurious. 
“ It is a native weed, which, with its large pale-blne flowers, is seen 
scattered about in numerous places. It has a large white parsnip- 
like tap-root, which increases in size when the plant is subjected to 
cultivation. This root abounds in a bitter juice, which has led to its 
use as a substitute for coffee. The plant is now extensively culti- 
vated for the sake of its root.”—Johnston. 
Chiceory itself is often adulterated. It is almost as hard to find 
it pure in the shops, as it is to find pure coffee itself. According 
to Johnston, Venetian red is much used to color chiceory. ISTor is 
this all; Venetian red is itself adulterated. The manufacturer 218 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
grinds up liis color with brick-dust, in order to be able to sell it 
cheaper and to give it a variety of colors. 
Tea.—Of the different varieties of tea there are raised annually 
about 3,000,000,000 pounds. It is estimated that three millions of 
acres of land are devoted to the culture of tea. It is more used 
than any other form of beverage, except water. It is a product of 
temperate climes, and seems to be adapted for all countries. It is 
certainly used among more than half of the human race. Its culti- 
vation, transportation, and sale give employment to millions of 
men and billions of capital. In New York City alone there are a 
number of large firms whose yearly transactions in the article of 
tea are fabulous. Much as it is used in this country and in England, 
it is used still more freely in China and Russia, where it is drunk 
several times daily. 
Like coffee, tea was not introduced into Europe until the seven- 
teenth century. It is stated that it did not come into general use 
in China until the year 600, and was introduced into Japan in 810. 
The tea-plant is a small evergreen tree or shrub, of the height 
of six or eight feet. It grows in the valleys, and on the sloping 
sides of mountains with a southern exposure. In Japan it is plant- 
ed around the borders of fields, without regard to the kind of soil; 
while in China, where it is an important article of commerce, whole 
fields are covered with it, and cultivated with the greatest care. 
The origin of the employment of tea as a beverage amongst the 
Chinese is wrapped in the obscurity which generally belongs to 
ancient usages; and a fabulous tale is narrated as to its introduc- 
tion among inhabitants of the empire, whilst, as is usual with fables, 
it has been imagined to have some allegorical allusion, which, if ex- 
plained, would satisfy the lover of antiquarian lore. The tale is 
thus related by one of the compilers of a history of China : 
“ Darma, a very religious prince, and third son of an Indian king 
named Kosjusvo, is said to have landed in China in the year 510 
of the Christian era. lie employed all his care and thought to dif- 
fuse throughout the country a knowledge of God and religion ; and, 
being desirous to excite men by his example, imposed on himself 
privations and mortifications of every kind, living in the open air, 
and devoting the days and nights to prayer and contemplation. 
After several years, however, being worn out with fatigue, he fell 
asleep against his will; and, that he might faithfully observe his 
oath, which he thought he had violated, he cut off’ his eyelids and 
threw them on the ground. Next day, having returned to the same 
spot, he found them changed into a shrub which had never before 
been produced. Having eaten some of the leaves of it, he found 219 
STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
liis spirits exhilarated and his former vigor restored. lie recom- 
mended this aliment to his disciples and followers. The reputation 
of tea. increased, and after that time it continued to be generally 
used. Kampfer, in his ‘ Amsenitates Exoticse,’ gives the life with 
a portrait of this saint, so celebrated in China and Japan. There 
is seen at the feet of Darma a reed, which indicates that he had 
traversed the seas and rivers.”—Sigmond on Tea, p. 12. 
Nicolaus Fulpius was about the first medical man who wrote 
professionally upon tea; but his were not original observations: 
they were the opinions of the most eminent men which he had col- 
lected to give to the world. But in 1678 appeared the first edition of 
a book, which speedily ran through three large impressions, and had 
a considerable influence upon the introduction of tea. It was en- 
titled “ Cornelio Bontbkoe, Tractaat van het exellenste Kruyd 
Thee.” Although this work was, from the extravagance of its com- 
mendations on tea, severely handled by some of the critics, it was 
translated into many languages, and quoted as the highest authority. 
He pronounced tea to be the infallible cause of health, and that if 
mankind could be induced to drink a sufficient quantity of it, the 
innumerable ills to which man is subject would not only be dimin- 
ished, but entirely unknown. He thinks that two Jmndred cups 
daily would not be too much. He is said to have been rewarded 
for his judgment by the liberality of the Dutch East India Compa- 
ny. Ileydentrick Overcamp, who wrote the life of Bontekoe, 
states that his inducement to write was to recommend himself to 
his fellow-citizens, and to defend himself against his colleagues, who 
did not follow his theory or his practice. Etmuller recommended 
tea as a fine stomachic, cephalic, and anti-nephritic. Pechline wrote 
a dialogue on tea, which he entitled “ Theopliilus Bibaoulus,” and 
several poets indulged themselves in its praise. Petit wrote a 
poem ; Peter Francius, two anacreontics ; Heincich, a Doric Mely- 
drion ; and our poet-laureate, Tate, joined the melodious bards. 
Whilst it met with so much approbation there were, likewise, those 
who were not equally satisfied with its merits. Boerhaave, Yan 
Swieten, and others attempted to stem the tide that was setting in its 
favor ; but they have proved themselves incapable of resisting the 
general impression, for no beverage that has ever yet been intro- 
duced sits so agreeably on the stomach, so refreshes the system, 
soothes nervous irritation after fatigue, or forms a more grateful re- 
past. It contributes to the sobriety of a nation ; it imparts all the 
charms to society which spring from the enjoyment of conversation, 
without that excitement which follows upon a fermented drink. 
The introduction of tea-drinking into England has been ascribed 220 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING IIEALTn. 
to Lord Arlington and Lord Orrery, and the year 1666 (the annus 
mirabilis of Dry den) has been assigned as the exact date ; but in 
the diary of Mr. Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty, the following 
is registered : “ I sent for a cup of tea, a Chinese drink, of which I 
had never drunk before.” In the diary of Henry, Earl of Claren- 
don, there is a memorandum: “ Pere Couplet supped with me, 
and after supper we had tea, which he said was really as good as 
any he drank in China.” The first historical record, however, is an 
act of Parliament, passed in the year 1660,12 Carl II. c. 23, which 
enacts that a duty should be laid of eight pence per gallon on all 
tea made and sold in coffee-houses; which were visited twice daily 
by officers, whose duty it was to ascertain what quantity had been 
made. 
Very much has been said and written of the difference between 
green tea and black tea. The common impression is, that green 
tea is always poisoned more or less in the preparation. This im- 
pression is only partly true. Undoubtedly drugs are sometimes 
used to color the teas; but in China, in the tea-growing regions, 
the two varieties are made by difference in the manner of prepara- 
tion. 
Johnston thus describes the processes : 
“ First, That in the process of drying the leaves are roasted and 
scorched in such a way as necessarily to bring about many chemical 
changes within the substance of the leaves themselves. The result 
of these changes is to produce the varied flavor, odors, and tastes by 
which different varieties of tea are more or less distinguished. 
“ Second, That the treatment or mode of handling by which the 
leaves are converted respectively into green and black teas, is the 
cause of the different colors of these two main varieties. 
“ It is by lengthened exposure to the air, therefore, in the pro- 
cess of drying, accompanied, perhaps, by a slight heating and fer- 
mentation, that the dark color and distinguishing flavor are given 
to the black teas of commerce. The oxygen of the atmosphere acts 
rapidly upon the juices of the leaf during this exposure, and changes 
chemically the peculiar substances they contain, so as to impart to 
the entire leaf the dark hue it finally acquires. The precise nature, 
however, of these changes has not, as yet, been chemically investi- 
gated.” 
“ Mate, or Paraguay tea, though not used over so large an 
area as the Chinese tea, is as much the passion of the Brazilians 
and their neighbors in Southern America, as the latter is of the 
nations of north-eastern Asia. It is prepared from the dried 
leaves of Brazilian holly, is said to have been in use among STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
221 
the Indians from time immemorial; lias been drunk by all 
classes in Paraguay since the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, and is now consumed by ‘ almost the whole population of 
South America.’ The leaf of this tree is four or five inches long, 
and after being dried it is rubbed to powder before it is infused. The 
dried leaf has much of the aroma of some varieties of Chinese tea, 
and the infusion has a pleasant odor, and an agreeable bitter taste. 
In the state in which it is commonly used in South America, it is 
more exciting than China tea, producing a kind of intoxication, 
and by excessive use leading even to delirium tremens.”—Johnston. 
“ Some writers have asserted that the tea is roasted upon plates of 
copper, and that its color is owing to verdigris, with which it thus 
becomes impregnated. But those travellers who are most entitled 
to credit affirm that the plates are, without exception, of iron, and 
Dr. Lettson, after a great number of experiments made with chem- 
ical tests, never detected any trace of copper ; so that this suspicion 
appears to be void of foundation.”—Bigelow. 
This Mate is very largely used in the whole of South America. 
In many respects it is very similar to the tea of China, though much 
inferior. It acts, however, upon the kidneys and bowels. 
A great many substitutes have been used for tea. Johnston 
gives the names of twenty-four of these, and states that many more 
might be mentioned. 
“ Abyssinian Tea, called in its native country Khat or Chaat, 
is very extensively cultivated in Shoaand the adjoining regions, and 
is in general use among the inhabitants, just as tea is in China. It 
consists of the dried leaves of a species of small tree from 
which the poorer classes of Chinese prepare an inferior kind of 
tea. In a light gravelly soil the plant attains a height of twelve 
feet. The leaves are plucked in the dry season, and well dried in 
the sun. They are either chewed, boiled in milk, or infused in 
boiling water, and, by the addition of honey, yield a pleasant bev- 
erage. They have much resemblance to Chinese tea, both in their 
qualities and their effects. They are bitter to the taste, possess ex- 
hilarating properties, and dispel sleep if used to excess. 
“ The leaves of this plant are also used green. Forskall states 
that the Arabs eat them green because of their property of prevent- 
ing sleep. To such a degree do they exhibit this influence, that a 
man who chews them may stand sentry all night without feeling 
drowsiness. They are also regarded as an antidote to the plague ; 
and the Arabs believe that the plague cannot appear in places 
where the tree is cultivated. Botta adds to these qualities that, 
when fresh, the leaves are very intoxicating.”—Johnston. 222 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
Cocoa.—The different varieties of cocoa are used to the extent 
of 100,000,000 of pounds annually. It is prepared from seeds. It 
is sold in the shops in three different and familiar forms :— 
1. Rock-cocoa of the stores.—This is made by roasting the whole 
cocoa bean, beating it into a paste, and then mixing it with sugar, 
starch, &c. 
2. Cocoa nibs.—These are prepared by depriving the bean 
of the husk and then crushing it. This is the purest form of 
cocoa. 
3. Chocolate paste.—This is prepared by shelling the bean, 
grinding it into a paste, and then mixing it with sugar, cinnamon, 
vanilla, &c. 
There are several varieties of cocoa—the Mexican, Brazilian, 
and one or two substitutes. 
“ The Mexican cocoa is the seed of the Theobroma cacao (fig. 
35). This is a small but beautiful tree, with bright dark green 
leaves, which is a native of the West Indies and of the central 
regions of America. It grows spontaneously in Mexico and on the 
coast of Caraecas, and forms whole forests in Demerara. 
“ When the Spaniards first established themselves in Mexico, 
they found a beverage prepared from this seed in common use among 
the native inhabitants. It was known by the Mexican name of 
chocollatl, and was said to have been in use from time immemorial. 
It was brought thence to Europe by the Spaniards in 1520, and has 
since been introduced more or less extensively as a beverage into 
every civilized country. Linnaeus was so fond of it that he gave 
to the tree the generic name of Theobroma—;Food of the Gods.’”— 
Johnston. 
Lettuce.—This is a kind of substitute for opium. The juice of 
the plant somewhat resembles opium. Every one who has eaten 
lettuce for dinner knows that it will produce drowsiness. 
“ If the stem of the common lettuce, when it is coming into 
flower, be wounded with a knife, a milky juice exudes. In the 
open air this juice gradually assumes a brown colour, and dries into 
a friable mass. The smell of this dried juice is strongly narcotic, 
recalling that of opium. It has a slightly pungent taste, but, like 
opium, leaves a permanent bitter in the mouth. It acts upon the 
brain after the manner of opium, and induces sleep. 
“ To this crude extract the name of Lactucarium has been 
given. Like opium, it dissolves in water to the extent of about one- 
half, and in this soluble portion the narcotic virtue resides. The 
principal active ingredient is supposed to be a peculiar substance 
named lactucarium, of which the crude contains about one-fourth of STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
223 
its weight. It contains other active ingredients, however, the 
chemical nature and physiological influence of which have not as 
yet been rigorously investigated.”—Johnston. 
“ Laetucarium is one of those narcotics in which many of us un- 
consciously indulge. The eater of green lettuce as a salad takes a 
portion of it in the juice of the leaves he swallows; and many of 
my readers, after this is pointed out to them, will discover that their 
heads are not unaffected after indulging copiously in a lettuce salad. 
Eaten at night, the lettuce causes sleep ; eaten during the day, it 
soothes and calms, and allays the tendency to nervous irritability. 
And yet the lover of lettuce would take it very much amiss if he 
were told that he ate his green leaves, partly at least, for the same 
reason as the Turk or Chinaman takes his whiff from the tiny opium 
pipe; that, in short, he was little better than an opium eater, and 
his purveyor than the opium-smugglers oil the coast of China.”— 
Johnston. 
Other substitutes for opium are : 
Syrian Rye.—It is used by the Turks. 
Bulls’ Hoof.—This is used in Jamaica, and has been called the 
“ Dutchman's laudanum.”—Brown, quoted by Johnston. 
“ The IIop, which may now be called the English narcotic, was 
introduced into this country at a comparatively recent period. It 
may have been employed in Germany in the times of the Roman 
writers, but was probably unknown to them. Its use, as an addition 
to malt liquor, appears to be of German origin. IIop gardens, by the 
name of Humolarice, are spoken of in documents of the early part 
of the ninth century, frequently in those of the thirteenth century.. 
In the breweries of the Netherlands, the hop seems to have been 
introduced about the beginning of the fourteenth century. From 
the Low Countries, or, as some say, from Artois, which borders upon 
them', it was brought to England in the reign of Henry YIII., some- 
time after his expedition against Tournay, and about the year 1524. 
In the twenty-second year of his reign (1530), that monarch, in an 
order respecting the servants of his household, forbade sulphur and 
hops to be used by the brewers. Three-quarters of a century later 
(1603), the introduction of spoilt and adulterated hops was forbidden 
by James I., under severe penalties. This appears to show that, 
though considerable attention is known to have been already given 
to the cultivation of the hop in England, a large part of the hops 
supplied to the home market was still brought from abroad.”— 
Johnston. 
IIop is chiefly used in the manufacture of beer. 
It gives to beer an agreeable bitter taste. 224 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
It directly affects the brain and nervous system b}r virtue of its 
narcotic properties. The* well-known soporific effects of beer are 
caused by the hop used in its manufacture. 
Hop also keeps beer from souring, by arresting fermentation. 
There are a number of varieties of the hop, which differ very 
widely in quality. 
IIop pillows were once prescribed to King George III. of England, 
as a remedy for sleeplessness, and since that time they have con- 
tinued to be used for that purpose. 
Whatever effect comes from the hop pillow must be due to the 
escape of the volatile narcotic principles in exceedingly small quan- 
tities. 
Coca is a narcotic that is used among 10,000,000 of the human 
race, chiefly among the South American Indians. It must not be 
confounded with the beverage cocoa. 
“ It is not less interesting than the narcotics of the East, either 
in its social or in its physiological relations. It is little known in 
Europe, its use as an indulgence being in a great measure confined 
to the native Indians of Bolivia and Pern. 
“ The Erytkroxylon coca is a bush which attains the height of six 
or eight feet, and resembles the black thorn in its small white flow- 
ers and bright green leaves. It is a native of the tropical valleys 
which occur on the eastern slope of the Andes in Bolivia and Peru, 
and it still grows wild in many parts of these countries.”—Johnston. 
“ Consumption of Coca Leaf.—We have no accurate data from 
which to form an estimate of the actual weight of coca leaf collected 
and consumed in Bolivia and Peru. Poppig estimates the money 
value of the yearly produce to be about four and a half millions of 
Prussian dollars, which, at Is. a pound, the price it yields to the 
grower, would make the annual produce nearly 15,000,000 lbs. The 
approximation is sufficient to show us its importance to the higher 
regions of South America, in an agricultural and commercial, as 
well as in a social point of view.” 
“ When we consider that eastward from Bolivia and Peru the 
culture and use of coca have extended into parts of Brazil and to 
the banks of the Amazon, it will not appear exaggerated if we esti- 
mate the actual growth and consumption of the dried coca leaf at 
30,000,000 lbs. a year. At Is. a pound, this is worth a million and 
a half sterling ; and at the average produce of 800 lbs. an acre, it 
implies the use of 37,000 acres of good and carefully cultivated 
land for the growth of this plant. We may estimate also that the 
chewing of coca is more or less indulged in among about ten mil* 
lions of the human race.”—Johnston. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
225 
By the Peruvian Indians coca is both smoked and chewed. The 
leaves, dried in the sun, are the portions of the plant which are used. 
Of these the Indian will consume daily an ounce, or an ounce and 
a half. 
Its effects at first are pleasant and mild. When used to ex- 
cess it begets a kind of insanity. In South America, an Indian 
who becomes a great slave to the use of the coca is called a coquero 
—a term meaning the same as our drunkard. 
The Betel Nut.—This is a narcotic which, though hardly 
known by name in this country, is yet used among 100,000,000 of 
the human family. 
It is the seed of one of the species of palm. It is cultivated 
in India, Malabar, Ceylon. It is chewed like tobacco. It is to 
the Eastern Islands what the coca is to South America. Those 
who use it become most extravagantly fond of it. Like tobacco and 
opium, it makes them unwilling slaves. When used in moderation 
its effects are agreeable and exhilarating. Among the wretched 
poor of India it is an actual substitute for food. Millions of the 
natives of India would rather be denied their regular meals than 
their betel nut. 
“,The visible effects of the betel are, that it promotes the flow 
of the saliva, and lessens the perspiration from the skin. It tinges 
the saliva red, so that when spit out it falls on the earth like blood. 
It gives a red color to the mouth, teeth, and lips, which, though at 
first sight disgusting to Europeans, is by the natives considered 
ornamental. It imparts also an agreeable odor to the breath, and 
is supposed to fasten the teeth, cleanse the gums, and cool the 
mouth. The juice is usually, but not always, swallowed.” 
“ We have no means of estimating the absolute quantity of this 
nut which is consumed yearly by the Asiatic nations, but it must 
be very great. It is chewed by probably not less than fifty millions 
of men ! If we allow to each cliewer ten pounds weight a year, 
which is less than half an ounce a day, this would give the enor- 
mous consumption of five hundred millions of pounds weight every 
year ! Only tobacco, among the narcotics in common use, is used 
in larger quantity than this. The small quantity of the betel-nut 
imported into this country is converted into charcoal for tooth- 
powder, probably from some imaginary idea that it is superior for 
this purpose to other kinds of charcoal.”—Johnston. 
2. China, or Maize Beer.—The use of malt beer in Germany, and 
probably also in England, is very ancient, and that of cliica or maize 
beer in South America appears to be equally remote. It was a com- 
mon drink of the Indians long before the Spanish conquest. 226 
HYGIENE, OB THE AKT OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
The usual way of preparing cliica is to water or moisten Indian 
corn, as the English maltster does his barley—to leave it till it 
sprouts sufficiently, and then to dry it in the sun. It is now maize 
malt. This malt is crushed, mashed in warm water, and then 
allowed to stand till fermentation takes place. The liquor is of a 
dark yellow color, and has an agreeable, slightly bitter, acid taste. 
It is in universal demand throughout the west coast of South 
America, and is consumed in vast quantities by the mountain In- 
dians. Scarcely a single hut in the interior is without its jar of the 
favorite liquor. 
In the valley of the Sierra, however, the most highly prized chica 
is made in a somewhat different manner. “All the members of 
the family, including such strangers as choose to assist in the opera- 
tion, seat themselves on the floor in a circle, in the centre of which 
is a large calabash, surrounded by a heap of dried maize (malt). 
Each person takes up a handful of the grain and thoroughly chews 
it. This is deposited in the calabash, and another handful is imme- 
diately subjected to the same process, the jaws of the company being 
kept continually busy until the whole heap of corn is reduced to a 
mass of pulp. This, with some minor ingredients, is mashed in hot 
water, and the liquid poured into jars, where it is left to ferment. 
In a short time it is ready for use. Occasionally, however, the jars 
are buried in the ground, and allowed to remain there until the 
liquor acquires, from age, a considerable strength, and powerful in- 
toxicating qualities. 
“ Chica thus prepared is called chica mascada. or chewed chica, 
and is considered far superior to that prepared from maize crushed 
in the usual manner. The Serrano believes he cannot offer his guest 
a greater luxury than a draught of old chica mascada, the ingredi- 
ents of which have been ground between his own teeth.”—Johnston. 
This method of making beer seems hideous enough. But the ex- 
planation of the process is quite interesting. The saliva changes 
the starch into sugar. This sugar afterwards ferments and makes 
beer. 
According to Yon Tchudi, chica can be made from grapes, pine- 
apples, rice, barley, peas, barley, and bread. 
“Palm Wine, or Toddy.—The sap of many palm-trees is rich in 
sugar. In some countries this is extracted by boiling down the 
collected juice, as cane sugar is extracted from the expressed juice 
of the sugar-cane. In other countries the juice is allowed to fer- 
ment, which it does spontaneously, and in hot climates within a very 
short period of time. This fermentation converts the alcohol and 
juice which contains it into an intoxicating liquor. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
227 
“ In the islands of the Indian Archipelago and the Philippines 
an intoxicating liquor is prepared in this way from the sap of the 
gomuti palm. It is called neva in Sumatra, and the Batavian 
arrack is distilled from it. The cocoa palm produces the palm 
wine known in India and the Pacific by the name of toddy.”— 
Johnston. 
One tree yields from two to six pints of sap or “ toddy.” After 
standing a few hours it ferments. When this fermented juice is 
distilled it makes a powerful brandy. It is said that the palm wine 
is used by a larger number of the human race than the wine of the 
grape. _ 
It is used in Chili, South America, in India, and throughout 
Africa. 
The taste of the best qualities is said to be very agreeable, close- 
ly resembling champagne. 
Sugar-cane Wine, or Guarajpo.—This is the fermented sap of the 
sugar-cane. It receives its name from the fact that it is largely used 
among the natives of Guarapo. 
“ Bouza, murma, or millet beer, is a favorite drink of the Crim 
Tartars. They prepare it from fermented millet-seed, to which 
they add certain admixtures which render it excessively astringent. 
They call it bouza”—Oliphant. 
“ The Arabians, Abyssinians, and many African tribes give 
the same name to a fermented drink which they usually prepare 
from the seeds of the Poa Abyssinica. They occasionally em- 
ploy millet-seed, however, and even barley, for the purpose. Their 
bouza is described as a sour, thick drink.”—Johnston. 
This drink is much like our ordinary malt liquors. It is some- 
times sucked through a tube, as boys suck cider through a straw. 
According to Hooker it is very weak, but in a hot day’s march 
is a very grateful beverage. It is drunk while warm, like our tea 
and cotfee. 
“ Quass or rye beer, a favorite Russian drink, is a sharp, acid, 
often muddy liquor, which, in taste and appearance, resembles some 
of the varieties of bouza. It is made by mixing rye-flour, and 
occasionally barley-flour, with water fermenting. It may possibly 
contain lactic acid, but I am not aware that its composition has yet 
been made the subject of special chemical inquiry. 
“ This is one of the cases in which unmalted grain is employed 
in the manufacture of beer on the continent of Europe. 
“ Koumiss, or milk beer.—Milk, as I have explained in the preced- 
ing chapter, contains a peculiar kind of sugar, less sweet than cane 
sugar, to which the name of milk sugar is given. This sugar, when 228 
HYGIENE, OE THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
dissolved in water, does not ferment upon the addition of yeast; 
but when dissolved in the milk along with the curd and butter, it 
readily ferments, is transformed into alcohol and carbonic acid, and 
gives to the liquor an intoxicating quality. This fermentation will 
take place spontaneously, but it is hastened by the addition of 
yeast or of a little already fermented milk. The fermented liquid 
is the koumiss of the Tartars. Mare’s milk is richer in sugar than 
that of the cow, and is usually employed for the manufacture of 
milk beer.”—Johnston. 
Brandy can be obtained from the koumiss by distillation. The 
natives call this milk-brandy arraca. In the north of Scotland 
and in Ireland buttermilk is kept until it undergoes a vinous fer- 
mentation. 
Ava.—This liquor is used in the South Sea Islands, in the Ton- 
ga, Feejee, and Samoan Islands; in short, throughout the Pacific 
Ocean. It is prepared in very much the same way as the chica or 
maize beer. 
It is a very interesting and suggestive fact that this method of 
preparing fermented drink—chewing the ava and the chica—should 
exist in regions so far apart as South America and the islands of 
the Pacific. 
The process of making the ava and its effects are thus described 
by Johnston : 
“ The name of ava is given to the root of the intoxicating long- 
pepper {Macropiper methysticum). which is chewed, either in the 
fresh or in the dried state, as the Indian chews his maize. The pulp 
is then mixed with cold water, which after a brief interval is strain- 
ed from the chewed fibre, and is ready for use. The taste, to one 
unaccustomed to it, is not pleasant. It reminded Captain Wilkes 
of the taste of rhubarb and magnesia! According to the white 
persons who have tried it, this infusion does not intoxicate in the 
same manner as ardent spirits. It more resembles opium in some 
of its effects ; producing a kind of temporary paralysis, tremors, 
indistinctness and distortion of vision, and a confused feeling about 
the head.” 
Cocculus Indicus is chiefly known as a means of adulterating 
beer and other drinks. It is very bitter, has a rich taste, and di- 
rectly affects the brain, and thus produces intoxication. 
It is very powerfully poisonous when used in quantity. The 
poorer classes like to have their liquor drugged with it, because they 
can “ feel it.” It takes a less quantity of liquor that has been 
drugged with cocculus indicus to affect one than of pure liquor. 
“ It is the fruit or berry of the Anamirta cocculus, a beautiful STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
229 
climbing-plant, which is a native of the Malabar coast and of the 
Indian Archipelago. It is sometimes called the Levant nut, or the 
Bacca orietitalis. It has some resemblance to the bayberry, and 
in 1850 was imported into this country (England) to the extent of 
2,359 bags, of one hundredweight each.”—Johnston. 
There is no doubt that it is slowly injurious to the system even 
in moderate doses, and it should be regarded as a crime to adulte- 
rate liquors with it. Very much of the intemperance among the 
lower and degraded classes is caused by the cocculus indicus in 
the liquor which they drink. 
A person who has been made drunk by it feels worse after the 
debauch than one who has been made drunk simply on pure alco- 
holic liquors. 
Sweet Gale.—This narcotic is not known in this country, but 
is used in Sweden. It is said to be used largely for the purpose 
of imparting bitterness to beer. 
Emetic Holly.—This narcotic is used by the Indians of Florida. 
The infusion of the leaves is called the “ black drink,” and, ac- 
cording to Johnston, is drunk largely by the chiefs when about to 
be engaged in important deliberations. 
Siberian Fungus—a hind of toad-stool.—This is a native of 
Kamtschatka. It closely resembles our common mushroom. It is 
gathered in the hot weather and dried. It is chewed like tobacco. It 
produces at first lightness of spirits, then giddiness, flushing of 
face, and finally, in sufficient quantities, intoxication. Some of our 
own mushrooms are also narcotic in their effects. It is well known 
that certain varieties when eaten produce poisonous effects. 
Thorn Apple {stramonium).—This is indulged in by the Indians 
of the Andes. From the fruit of the plant they prepare a strong 
narcotic drink. It produces stupor and sometimes furious excitement. 
Among other stimulating and narcotizing preparations I may 
merely mention— 
Arrack, made from rice, used by the Hindoos and Malays. 
Raki, “ “ “ Greeks and Turks. 
Samshoo, “ “ “ Chinese. 
Sacio, “ “ “ Japanese. 
Kawa, “ macropiper “ Pacific Islanders. 
Yodki, “ potato “ Russians and Poles. 
Tallah, “ millet “ Abyssinians. 
In surveying the history of the use of these various stimulants 
and narcotics we learn 
1. That some forms of stimulant or narcotic have been used all 
over the world, and from time immemorial. 230 
HYGIENE, OE THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
2. That their use has increased with the progress of civ ilization. 
3. That at the present time they are used to the greatest extent 
and in the largest variety l>y the most civilized and Christian na- 
tions—England, France, Germany, and the United States. 
According to the recent report of Mr. Wells, special commis- 
sioner of revenue, it seems that the value of the liquors annually 
sold over the counter in this country alone is equal to half of our 
national debt. 
This says nothing of tobacco, which is now used so freely; 
nothing of tea and coffee, which are used in every family, and to 
the extent of several pounds annually for every man, woman, and 
child in the country; nothing of opium, which is used habitually 
by nearly 100,000 of our countrymen ; nothing of chocolate 
(cocoa, shells, &c.), which as a substitute for coffee is found in every 
saloon and hotel, and freely used in thousands of families. 
It is safe to say that the money annually expended for stimulants 
and narcotics in this country would pay the whole of our national 
debt,principal and interest, and at the same time support all our 
benevolent societies. 
Important and practical questions now arise. Shall we continue 
to use these stimulants and narcotics \ Do they fulfil any purpose in 
the animal economy ? Are they, in any sense, food ? Would not the 
world be better without them ? If we are to use them at all, what 
shall we use ? How shall we use without abusing them ? 
Before attempting to answer these queries 1 must say, at the 
outset, that I cannot answer them for every individual. Every 
person must decide for himself, in the light of science and of his 
own individual experience, whether to use these substances or to 
abstain from them, just as he decides wliat kind of food to eat and 
what to avoid. All I shall attempt to do will be to give information 
and to arrange facts which may help my readers in answering these 
questions. All I can do is to present the general principles of sci- 
ence, by which my readers may enlighten their consciences and 
learn their individual duty. 
There are some general facts that will apply to all these stimu- 
lants and narcotics. 
1. They all contain poison. The active principle of tea is theine / 
of coffee, caffeine / of chocolafe, theobromine ; of tobacco, nicotine 
and nicotianin ‘ of opium, morphine / of hops, lupuline • of fer- 
mented and distilled liquors of all kinds and varieties (wines, beers, 
cider, porter, whiskey, rum, gin, brandy, arrack, koumiss, samshoo, 
sacio, kawa, vodki, toddy, tallah, raki), is alcohol. 
All these active principles are poisonous. Nearly all of them, STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
231 
when given in sufficient quantities, will kill animals, and in a very 
short time. 
Even theine and caffeine, in large doses, will kill animals, as has 
been recently proved by the experiments of Dr. Amory. That 
nicotine and alcohol will kill animals and men is now known to 
every one. When theine is taken pure by a human being it causes 
terrible nervousness and distress, and probably a sufficient quantity 
would prove fatal. The probability is that experiments would show 
that the active principles of all the other stimulants and narcotics 
are capable of producing fatal results, when given in sufficient 
quantities. 
The fact that all these stimulants and narcotics contain poison 
does not assist us much in the solution of the question of their effects 
on the system, because there is poison, in nearly all of our ordinary 
articles of diet. 
There is poison in our garden lettuce, and in the hops with which we 
raise our bread. The oils contained in our table mustard and pepper, 
and in that most common and healthy vegetable, the onion, are among 
the most acrid and destructive poisons with which chemistry is familiar. 
Phosphorus is one of the most virulent of poisons, and even in very 
small doses it has been known to destroy life; in moderate quanti- 
ties it powerfully stimulates, like alcohol. And yet phosphorus 
exists in all nitrogenous alimentary substances, and has been proved 
to be indispensable to the vigor and health of the brain. * Children 
especially, who for any long period are confined to food in which 
phosphorus does not exist to a sufficient degree, are very apt to 
suffer from disease of the bones and scrofulous enlargement of the 
glands. 
The most skilful chemistry can hardly prepare a meal that would 
not contain more or less poisonous elements. There is poison in 
the dry loaf and plainly-served vegetables of the hardy laborer, in 
the yolk of the egg that we give to the tender invalid, and in the 
very milk that the infant draws from its mother’s breast. 
But the use of poison is not confined to our articles of food. 
Poison is a normal constituent of the atmosphere. Even in the 
healthiest localities it contains more or less carbonic acid, and not 
slight traces of iodine and nitric acid. Those who 
are most ignorant of chemistry know that these agents, when un- 
diluted, are terribly destructive and fatal. Therefore, then, not 
only in every mouthful of food we eat, but in every breath of air 
we inspire, there are elements of poison that, in a pure and uncom- 
bined form, would prove instantly fatal to all animal creation. But 
the consumption of poisons does not stop with our air and food. 232 
HYGIENE, OK THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
The water we drink or in which we bathe is rarely, if ever, found 
in a state of absolute purity. 
If there be any drink in the world that may properly be called 
natural, surely it is the waters of our springs and rivers, but all of 
these contain poisonous substances in greater or less proportions. 
The purest springs hold in solution the chlorides of sodium, mag- 
nesium, or potassium, as well as lime, in combination with sulphuric 
acid. Even rain-water, the purest of all, contains traces of nitric 
acid, that it derives from the atmosphere in its passage through 
it. 
2. They dll seem to have the power of sustaining the system with- 
in certain limits, and to a certain extent supply the place of food. 
Tea and coffee drinkers know by experience that they can both 
live and work on their favorite beverages without any solid food what- 
ever. There are thousands—aye, millions—in the world who would 
give all the rest of the breakfast rather than their cup of coffee. 
There are millions of ladies in the land to whom their cup of tea is 
more important—or, at least, seems to be so—than all their other 
food. 
Opium has a wonderful power of sustaining the system, the 
natives of the East working hard for days on nothing but a little of 
this drug. 
Tobacco has the same power, though to a less degree. Great 
smokers are usually moderate eaters. 
The South American coca has the same effect. The Indians 
there travel for days subsisting on nothing else. 
Alcohol--in all its myriad preparations—is a powerful substi- 
tute for food; I therefore term it negative food. In fevers, in ex- 
haustion, and in health even, it supplies the place of food. When 
used largely it impairs the appetite, and may almost destroy it. This 
fact is a powerful argument against the free use of this agent. 
Everybody knows that sots and debauchees are usually moderate 
eaters. The confirmed drunkard always prefers his grog to his 
dinner. Those who indulge in champagne and brandy to any ex- 
tent partake less freely of the solid articles on the table, even when 
the system is in excellent health, and all the conditions for a vigor- 
ous appetite are fulfilled. The fact that drunkards eat so little, and 
even neglect their meals, has long been so patent to superficial ob- 
servation, that temperance men have seized upon it—and with good 
reason—as an argument against intemperance. The body needs 
positive, solid nutriment, and any great excess in the use of alco- 
holic liquors must so benumb the appetite that it will not crave suffi- 
cient food to keep the system in its best wmrking condition. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
233 
The classes who are poorly fed, half starved, are apt to indulge 
excessively in alcohol. 
It is chiefly the poorer and laboring classes—mechanics, artisans, 
draymen, stevedores, and the like, who breathe impure air, in close 
tenant-houses, whom poverty compels to subsist on meagre and in- 
surticient food—that particularly appreciate the need of the “ acces- 
sory or negative food ” supplied by alcoholic stimulants. They And 
by experience that, under the depressing circumstances in which 
they live, move, and have their being, they can work harder and 
longer with their glass of beer, or perhaps of whiskey, than without 
it. It is a matter of fact, which very few recognize, that most of 
the liquors are used by the poorer and laboring classes. 
This fact, that the lower orders of society are the chief consumers 
of ardent spirits, is of such vital import in the study of social econo- 
my, that it is hard to understand why it has been so strangely ig- 
nored. New York City consumes an immense quantity of ferment- 
ed and distilled liquors—more especially the beers and whiskey— 
but the greater portion of it is used by the occupants of the tenant- 
houses. 
Indeed, most of our grog-shops are located in those quarters of 
the city that are frequented by the ignorant and the lowly. The in- 
telligent and wealthy do indeed keep wines and brandies in their 
houses—and there are a small minority who use them regularly and 
freely at dinner, or on other occasions are habitual and it-may be ex- 
cessive drinkers—but take the country through, the lower orders of 
society, in proportion to their numbers, use far more of intoxicating 
drinks than the intelligent and cultivated. 
Yery many experiments have been made in order to determine in 
what way stimulants and narcotics thus sustain the system and take 
the place of positive food. 
It is the opinion of many able physiologists that stimulants and 
narcotics—or some of them, at least—retard the change of tissue. 
In nautical language, they “ slow the fires ” of the system. 
Alcohol and opium are now very largely and very successfully 
used in the treatment of many of the severe fevers and inflammations. 
They have, in a measure, taken the place of bleeding and calomel. 
3. They all are liable to make slaves of those who indidge in 
them to excess. 
It is an interesting fact, however, that most of the intoxication 
from alcoholic liquors of civilized lands is confined to the ignorant 
and low-born. 
In spite of all tl*e warnings that have been given to the children 
of aristocracy, the fact remains, that among the educated and influ* 234 
HYGIENE, OK THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
ential the number of those who go down to drunkards’ graves is so 
exceedingly small, that any isolated case that occurs elicits the deep- 
est interest and sympathy. Among these classes—even among 
students and graduates of colleges—there are not a few who at some 
period of their lives occasionally make excessive use of intoxicating 
drinks, but yet not in such a way as to be grossly intemperate. Ac- 
cording to the police reports of New York City, and the valuable 
statistics of Mr. Halliday, of the Five Points Mission, nearly all 
of the arrests for intemperance in the Metropolitan district are 
from the lowest rank of foreigners. 
In England, also, gross intemperance is comparatively rare 
among the educated nobility, but is distressingly common among 
the peasantry. The truth is, the intemperance of the poor and ig- 
norant is more the result than the cause of their depressed condi- 
tion. The logical explanation of this is not difficult. “Accessory 
food” in the form of whiskey and beers compensates in a measure 
for the insufficiency of their diet. Moreover, the tonic properties 
of alcohol temporarily brace them against the evil effects of foul air 
and damp, gloomy homes. Then again, the classes who are thus 
unfortunately circumstanced in regard to material comforts are 
usually still more deficient in moral and mental training, and when 
once hunger or thirst or weariness has driven them to the bar- 
room, they have not sufficient moral force to stop when they 
have supplied the demands of nature; hence follow intemperance 
and its long catalogue of woes. This is, after all, the natural history 
of every form of vice. I say, then, that intoxication from alcoholic 
liquors is pre-eminently the vice of ignorance and poverty. In pro- 
portion as communities grow at once wiser and better, in that pro- 
portion do they become more temperate. The ruling classes of 
England during the last century were far less moderate in the use 
of ardent spirits than the nobility of the present day. 
The Roman patricians were almost as great debauchees at their 
feasts, even on their meagre variety of drinks, as are the common 
laborers of our day in the ale-houses and corner groceries. 
Rome cultivated the minds of her youth, but not their morals 
—thus the citizens yielded to gluttony and intoxication. The 
Spartans cultivated both mind and morals, and were paragons of 
sobriety. 
In our day the educated ruling classes of society injure them- 
selves more by tobacco than by alcohol. Among the very highest 
classes even coffee injures more—though in a very gradual way— 
than alcohol. 
Our people are not able to bear tobacco and coffee, or even STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
235 
tea, as formerly, or as perhaps their fathers and mothers were able 
to clo. 
The types of constitution change with the progress of civiliza- 
tion, and the food and drink must change accordingly. Very many 
of my patients tell me that they cannot use coffee or tobacco at all, 
and some are obliged to forego even tea. 
Tea is used too strong in this country, and there are thousands of 
ladies especially who subsist on it too exclusively, and are therefore 
seriously injured by it. Tea in excess begets nervousness, sleepless- 
ness, dyspepsia, headache, constipation, hysteria, and all forms of 
nervous disorder. Its evil effects come slowly, but they often come 
too surely. Coffee injures more than tea. Coffee and tea are both 
excellent drinks, and fortunate are the}7 who can use them without 
injury. 
Those who work hard with their muscles in the open air can 
use tea, coffee, tobacco, more freely than those whose lives are se- 
dentary and confined. During the late war the soldiers and sail- 
ors thought more of their coffee and tobacco than of all their other 
rations. 
4. They vary in their effects in different climates. Tea is a pro- 
duct of temperate climes, and can be used with about equal benefit 
everywhere and in all countries, and with no greater injury in one 
country than another. It is, however, more largely used in cold or 
cool latitudes. The Russians are the greatest tea-drinkers of the 
world, next to the Chinese. Tea is very freely used in England. 
In France, Italy, Spain, and Turkey, coffee, in a certain measure, 
takes the place of tea. In our own country tea is more used in 
the Northern States and coffee in the Southern. 
Coffee is a product of warm climes, therefore it can be used 
more freely in the torrid and sub-torrid zones than in the colder 
regions. The nations of the world seem to find this out by instinct, 
for the inhabitants of hot countries in both hemispheres use coffee 
very freely, while those of the colder regions in a measure substitute 
for it tea and alcoholic drinks. 
During the late war our soldiers and sailors on the Union side 
used far more coffee, and probably without serious injury, than they 
had been wont to do in their Northern homes. 
In 1864 and 1865 I was acting for a year and a half as surgeon 
in the navy, on the blockade in Farragut’s squadron in the Gulf of 
Mexico. When I first arrived at the station,—which was off the 
coast of Texas,—and, indeed, for a number of months, I continued 
to abstain from coffee, as all my life I had been obliged to do in the 
North. Gradually, however, I fell into the habit of the officers 236 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PKESEKVING HEALTH. 
about me, and began to drink strong coffee three, four and five times 
daily. To my surprise I found that instead of being made nervous, 
sleepless, and dyspeptic by it, as would have been the case had I 
indulged even in a single cup at home, I actually improved in my 
health, and ever afterwards during my stay I persevered in taking 
the beverage at all my meals, and frequently at habit lunches. 
When I returned to the North I was obliged almost immediately 
to stop my allowance of coffee, and have never since indulged in it. 
Shortly after my return I met a very intelligent gentleman, who had 
visited all the Southern States, and who related precisely the same 
experience in regard to the use of coffee. It is the habit of the 
Southerners to drink strong coffee on rising in the morning, at 
breakfast, and during the day as they may wish it. The same cus- 
toms are observed in the warm countries of Europe. 
Opium can apparently be used more freely in the warm coun- 
tries of the East than in other parts of the world. Of the 400,000,- 
000 who habitually indulge in the drug, probably only a comparative- 
ly few are ruined by it. Medical travellers in the East report that 
opium eating does not usually have as marked injurious effects on 
the inhabitants as it does with us. There are, of course, thousands 
who there use it to enormous excess, become slaves to it, and are 
made wretched indeed. 
It is not possible that opium-eating will ever become a national 
habit in America. Of the 100,000 in this country who are said to 
use it, nearly all first resorted to the drug as a relief from pain. In 
Europe and America our tobacco, our tea, and our various forms of 
fermented and distilled liquors have saved us, and will continue to 
save us, from the opium-eating habits of the East. 
Alcohol is a product of both temperate and warm climates, and 
can be used in all the latitudes. It seems, however, to be most 
injurious when excessively used in extremely hot or extremely cold 
climes. Nearly all travellers agree that in the polar regions or in 
the tropics more injury than benefit results from a large amount of 
alcohol in any form. 
Tobacco, like tea, is a product of temperate latitudes, and like 
tea it can be used without any special or markedly observed differ- 
ences of effects in all countries. Like tea, it can be indulged in 
with comparative impunity in the regions of the tropics and of the 
poles. All the injurious, all the beneficial, and all the negative 
effects of tobacco seem to be about equally observed in all latitudes. 
If there is any difference whatever in its effects in the various cli- 
mates, it is this, that it can be used most freely in those which are 
warmest. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
237 
5. They all vary in their effects on different constitutions. 
Chocolate, cocoa, shells—all these are mild drinks, but there are 
those to whom they are positively noxious. 
Tea acts very differently with different temperaments. I know 
a man who is so exceedingly sensitive to this beverage, that even a 
cup of the very weakest tea will keep him awake all night. I know 
many who cannot habitually use tea in any shape. On the other 
hand I know many—and so do we all—who can take several cups 
daily of the very strongest tea without showing any effects from it. 
Coffee is terribly poisonous to very many, especially in our north- 
ern latitudes, while others can indulge in the charming beverage to 
an almost unlimited extent. I am convinced that the number of 
those among us who cannot drink coffee is increasing. I account 
for this by the changes being made in the type of constitutions. 
We are growing more impressible, more nervous, and more sensi- 
tive to those drugs and agents that directly affect the nervous cen- 
tres. I doubt whether more than half of those in this country who 
lead sedentary and confined lives can habitually use coffee with 
impunity. Those who labor hard with their hands out-doors can 
use it more freely. 
Opium very rarely has the effects described in De Quincey’s 
“ Confessions of an Opium-Eater.” Even those who use it to enor- 
mous excess do not usually experience any of those dreamy visions 
which his gifted imagination has pictured in such brilliant and 
hideous colors. Opium varies in its effects even when given in 
small doses. The majority are put to sleep by it, but some it keeps 
wide awake. There are those whom it makes actually raving. 
Alcohol varies in its effects with different constitutions. There 
are many hundred different forms of fermented and distilled liquors 
now in use in the world. The differences between these are very 
wide. 
The strongest whiskeys, brandies, rums, gins. &c., contain over 
fifty per cent, of alcohol. The stronger wines—port, madeira—con- 
tain from ten to Uventy per cent, of alcohol. The weaker, lighter 
wines, as hock, claret, Burgundy, champagne, contain from five to 
ten per cent. Ales, porter, and cider contain but from three to six 
per cent, of alcohol. 
It is manifest at a glance that these different forms of alcohol 
must not only vary widely in their effects, but also in their effects 
on the same individual; for besides the alcohol, all of them con- 
tain other important substances, on the proportions of which their 
influence on the constitution must very materially depend. Some 
can drink claret, Rhine wines, hock, cider, beer and porter, and 238 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
are unable to use rum, gin, or brandy. Some can drink beer, but 
not cider. Hard cider with many makes the head ache. For others 
it clears the digestion, corrects the liver, and sharpens the appetite. 
Gouty patients are oftentimes unable to take a drop of champagne, 
or acid wines of any kind or in any quantity, without paying ter- 
rible penalties. Many who cannot use brandy, even when largely 
diluted, find that claret, Burgundy, and even champagne, give 
them no discomfort. 
There are no special rules to guide one in the selection of wines. 
If one feels that he must use wine, let him find out by experience 
what kind serves him best. As a rule, claret and Rhine wine agree 
with more persons than any other kinds of wine that reach this 
country. There is no question, however, that wines are luxuries 
and not necessities for us, and that life and health can be perfectly 
maintained without them. One of the strongest arguments in their 
favor is, that they keep us from abusing ourselves with stronger 
liquors, and with other and more potent forms of accessory food, 
such as tobacco, opium, and coffee. But tea and coffee, opium and 
tobacco, are, strictly speaking, luxuries, although in our modern 
civilization they have long been deemed as actual necessities. There 
is no question that health and life, at least in individual cases, can 
be maintained without any of these substances. 
Tobacco varies wonderfully in its effects with different indivi- 
duals. With many the first whiff of a cigar is disagreeable, and the 
first “ cud” absolutely nauseous; but there are very few who can- 
not become so accustomed to the drug as to enjoy it. I must, 
however, plead an exception. 
Tobacco dries up some, fattens others. In some it causes dys- 
pepsia, in others it relieves it. Some use it to keep awake, others 
to promote sleep. With all persons, or nearly all, it has a tendency 
to diminish the appetite, and within certain limits to take the place 
of ordinary food. 
Persons who have been slaves to tobacco very often suddenly or 
gradually break up the habit; the results are of the most opposite 
character. Some at once improve in health, grow fitter and 
stronger; others at once go backward, and grow thinner and 
weaker. It constipates some and relaxes others. 
On many it produces all the horrors of extreme nervousness. 
Some it makes brilliant, others it stupefies. 
Some take a smoke before going to battle, to fortify them for 
severe and unusual effort; others take it after the battle, when 
their effort is completed, to calm their nerves and soothe them to 
slumber. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
239 
6. They vary in their effects at different ages and times of life. 
The reason of this is quite apparent. The constitution varies at 
different times of life. The size and quality of the brain, of the 
muscles, of the bones, vary wonderfully between infancy and old 
age. A youth of twenty-one is a different being from what he was 
at the age of one year. A man in middle life is a different being 
from what he was at twenty-one. An old man at seventy is a very,, 
very different being from what he was at middle life. 
It is very clear, therefore, why our food acts differently with us at 
different periods of our life. Our food is almost a constant quantity. 
It does not vary much in its quality from year to year, while our 
bodies into which it enters are ever changing. As with ordinary 
food, so with stimulants and narcotics. 
Many who have been accustomed to indulge, as they desired, in. 
tea, or coffee, or tobacco, or chocolate, or in some form of fermented' 
or distilled liquor, find sometimes that they are obliged to disconti- 
nue the use of some one or all of them. The rule works both ways. 
I have had patients who have found by trial and experience that 
they could use with impunity, and perhaps with benefit, stimu- 
lants and narcotics which formerly were exceedingly injurious to 
them. 
There are many who are obliged to abstain from coffee all their 
lives until they reach old age, when they find, to their great sur- 
prise, that they can use it freely. Probably this experience would 
be repeated more frequently if people only made trial of them- 
selves in this respect every year or two during their lives. 
Infants should not habitually use stimulants and narcotics. 
Those who are growing need positive and not negative or accessory 
food. Their tissues need to be changed rapidly in order that the 
growth maybe carried on. In infants the brain and nervous system 
is but little used, and therefore but little needs the aid of stimu- 
lants and narcotics. The intuition of the people everywhere is op 
posed to the use of these substances by very young children. 
For the same reason, children and youth shoidd not use stimu- 
lants and narcotics until they arrive at years of discretion. 
There are two very decided arguments against the use of tea, 
coffee, tobacco, fermented and distilled liquors, by those who are 
under fifteen or twenty years of age. First, they do not at that 
time need negative food, but on the contrary as much positive food 
as they can digest. Growing children need fresh meat, with fish, 
oysters, good vegetables, wholesome fruit, and all in a palatable 
variety. They do not need anything that will interfere with the 
rapid changes of tissue that always accompany the growth of the 240 
HYGIENE, OK THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
body. Secondly, children and youth have not sufficient self-control 
and force of mind to use these substances without becoming in a 
sense slaves to them. 
It would be better for the young and growing generation if they 
abstained entirely, or nearly so, from tea, coffee, until fifteen or 
twenty years of age, to say nothing of tobacco, fermented and dis- 
tilled liquors. Our children drink tea and coffee too young, and in 
too large quantities. Like all of us, they take their tea too strong. 
The best drinks for children are milk, cocoa, and water. 
Still further, if young 7nen would abstain entirely from tobacco 
and alcoholic liquors until the age of twenty-five or thirty, intoxi- 
cation and all forms of intemperance would be almost unknown 
by the next generation. 
Intemperance in the use of tobacco and alcohol is usually the 
result of habits formed in youth, or before the age of twenty-jvve or 
thirty. 
On the other hand, persons of mature age, and especially those 
in the decline of life, are usually benefited by a reasonable indul- 
gence in tea or coffee. 
In the very aged the digestion is often weak, and therefore the 
sustaining power of stimulants and narcotics is especially grateful. Tea 
is pre-eminently the drink for the aged. Undoubtedly there are many 
even among old people who injure themselves by tea, coffee, as well 
as bv tobacco and alcohol; but the proportion of persons over sixty 
who thus injure themselves is very small indeed in comparison with 
“the thousands of youths who are undermining their manly vigor 
and impairing their prospects for usefulness by indulging in these 
forms of negative food. 
7. They are nearly all liable to be adulterated. 
Tea is adulterated with at least twenty-five different herbs or imi- 
tations that more or less closely resemble the original article. Green 
teas are adulterated in China, according to Mr. Fortune, by adding 
to them various coloring substances. Prussian blue and gypsum are 
much used for this purpose. The Chinese never drink the adulter- 
ated teas, but sell them to foreigners, because they bring a higher 
price. Indigo is also used for the purpose of adulteration. Tea is 
also much adulterated with what is called “ lie-tea,” which is com- 
posed of the sweepings and dust of the warehouses. 
Coffee is largely adulterated with chiccory, as everybody knows. 
Chiccory itself is adulterated with Venetian red, and the Venetian 
red is adulterated with brick-dust. (See chapter on Adulter- 
ations.) 
Fermented and distilled liquors are adulterated in thousands of STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
241 
ways; even pure hard cider is difficult to obtain in our cities. 
Much of the cider that is sold in the saloons is made of sugar, 
water, and tartaric acid. Sometimes I have searched for a long 
time in New York, and in many different stores, for pure hard 
cider, and without avail. The bottled cider is very apt to be impure. 
Sulphite of soda and other chemicals are mixed with it in order 
to preserve its sweetness. It is very unfortunate that it is thus 
difficult to get pure hard cider, for it is a most valuable beverage. 
It is usually an excellent drink for the nervous and dyspeptic. It 
is the Rhine wine of America, and better, far better would it be for 
our American ladies if they took more hard cider and* less tea and 
coffee. 
Malt beer is adulterated with cocculus indicus, tobacco, sweet 
flag, sweet gale, yarrow, and thorn-apple. The Javans adulterate 
their rice beer with cakes, made of onions, black pepper, and capsi- 
cum (Johnston). It is not adulterated with strychnine to any 
extent. 
Wine is adulterated with poppy-heads, and in myriads of ways 
that it is not necessary to mention. 
Pure wines can be obtained in this country from California, 
and also from Europe, by those who will take special pains and 
make the matter a study. In wine-making countries the pure 
article is as common as water. It may yet be so with us. The 
introduction of pure wine into our country would not cure intem- 
perance, though it might diminish its horrors. Intemperance is 
the vice of poverty and ignorance, and can only be driven from the 
land by the introduction of knowledge. 
Ardent Spirits,—rum, gin, brandy, and whiskey,—as everybody 
knows, are adulterated to a most fearful degree. Even those who 
pay the highest price are by no means sure that they obtain the 
pure article. All of these drinks are manufactured from chemi- 
cals. 
According to the recent analyses of Prof. J. C. Draper, fusel oil 
and other bad ingredients are found in highest-priced liquors, and 
in the most aristocratic hotels and saloons of New York City. 
These adulterations are not all, however, of such a kind as to 
seriously injure the health, but all of them are less beneficial and 
more injurious than alcohol. The rums, gins, whiskeys of the 
poorer classes are horrible mixtures, and thoroughly deserve their 
well-known title—“ chain lightning.” Much of the intemperance 
of the poorer classes is produced not so much by alcohol as by 
cocculus indicus. It is a terrible substance, and is terribly per- 
nicious. It is largely used in the adulteration of beer. 242 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PKESEKVING HEALTH. 
But, after all, it is an exaggeration to say that pure or nearly 
pure liqitors cannot be obtained in this country. However it may 
have been in the past, there is no question that at the present time 
it is entirely possible to obtain pure wine, and nearly pure liquors 
of some other kinds, provided we go to the proper authorities in 
such, and make the matter a special study. They will, at least, be 
about as near to absolute purity as our tea, our coffee, or our 
tobacco. Brandy and champagne are very rarely found here in 
absolute purity. 
The Boston Journal of Chemistry—a good authority—says that 
thousands of gallons of claret are made by allowing water to soak 
through shavings, and adding thereto a certain portion of logwood 
and tartaric acid, and a little alcohol. Good judges can hardly 
tell the difference between this mixture and the genuine article. 
This is unfortunate, for good, pure claret is one of the best of 
our wines, and is the least liable to injure. 
Hoskins gives the following prescriptions for manufacturing 
liquors: 
“ Sweet Cider.—Imitation: Water, 100 gallons; honey, 5 gallons; 
catechu, powdered, 3 ounces; alum, 5 ounces; 1 quart of yeast; fer- 
ment for 15 days in a warm position in the sun. Then, bitter almonds, 
half a pound; burnt sugar, one quart; 3 gallons whiskey; if acid 
predominates, correct by addition of honey; if too sweet, add sul- 
phuric acid to suit taste.” 
Another recipe by the “ Bordeaux Guide ” is, in accordance with 
his avowed principles, harmless: 
“ To 8 galls, soft water. 
8 lbs. N. O. sugar. 
7 oz. tartaric acid. 
1 qt. yeast. 
“Put the ingredients into a cask and stir it up. After standing 
24 hours with the bung out, bung it up close, add 1 gallon spirits, and 
let it stand 48 hours, after which time it is ready for use. 
“ Port Wine.—Cheap cider or claret, twenty gallons ; honey, two 
gallons; carbonate of soda, twelve ounces; strong tincture grains of 
paradise, one and a half gallons; pow'dered catechu, 5 ounces; color 
with a strong tincture of logwood and a small portion of burnt sugar. 
The reader observes that this wine is made without the addition of 
any spirit, though a small portion would greatly improve it. The 
object of the carbonate of soda is to neutralize a portion of acid in 
the wine or cider, which, if allowed to remain, would present too large 
a proportion of acid for good port. 
“ Sherry.—Cider, two gallons; bitter almonds, four ounces; honey, STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
243 
one gallon ; mustard, four ounces. Boil for thirty minutes and 
strain, then add spirit of orris root one half pint, essence of cassia 
two ounces, and rum three quarts. 
44 Jamaica is preferable, as this wine, when made from this formula, 
is often prepared for the mictions. The amount of neutral spirit 
added becomes an important item owing to the cost. When this is 
kept in view the tincture of grains of paradise should be substituted 
for spirit. 
44 The volatile oil is produced in excess during the distillation of 
brandy, only a portion of it being dissolved by the spirit. It is im- 
ported into this country under the name of 4 Oil of Cognac,’ and 
possesses a strong, pungent, and disagreeable taste and odor. On 
it chiefly depends the flavor of brandy. 
“ Acetic acid is pure concentrated vinegar. Acetic ether is a com- 
bination of acetic acid with alcohol. It has a pleasant, diffusive, and 
somewhat fruity smell, and a cooling, agreeable taste. Nitrous 
ether, or 4 sweet spirits of nitre,’ is often used in flavoring spirits as 
a substitute for acetic ether. 
44 (Enanthic ether is an oily, fragrant, and volatile liquid. From 
it brandy derives most of its peculiar odor. This, like the cognac 
oil, is imported from the wine-making countries specially for use in 
preparing artificial brandies. 
44 Tannic acid, or tannin, is the vegetable astringent principle 
existing chiefly in the bark, seeds, and wood, and sometimes in the 
sap and fruit of vegetables. In genuine brandy it is principally 
derived from the seeds and skins of the grape, and from the wood 
of the casks in which it is kept. 
44 Cognac Brandy.—To forty gallons pure spirits add two to three 
ounces oil cognac (dissolved in alcohol), one and a half pounds loaf 
sugar, two ounces oenanthic ether, two ounces acetic acid, and two 
ounces tincture of kino. To this add from five to ten gallons of the 
brandy to be imitated. Let it stand about eight or ten days. Color 
it with burnt sugar, using a sample of the kind to be imitated as a 
guide. If you desire a higher flavored brandy, use more of the 
cognac oil; if a higher odor, more oenanthic ether; if softer and richer, 
more sugar; if stronger, increase the proof of the spirit by adding 
strong alcohol. 
44New York Brandy.—Filtered whiskey, twenty gallons ; clear 
water, seventeen gallons ; tincture of Guinea pepper, one and a half 
gallons; tincture of pellitory, one pint; strong tea, one gallon Color 
with burnt sugar and red saunders, and add four ounces of nitric 
ether and half a gallon tincture of prunes.” 
Tobacco is very much adulterated. 244 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PKESEKYING HEALTH. 
According to Pereira, molasses, sugar, and honey are used to in- 
crease the weight of tobacco, and also to make it more palatable. 
The leaves of the rhubarb, the beech, the walnut, mosses, bran, 
beet-root dregs, liquorice, rosin, yellow ochre, fuller’s earth, sand, 
saltpetre, common salt—all these substances have been detected in 
tobacco. 
Our ordinary articles of food are likewise adulterated. It is 
difficult to obtain pure groceries of any kind. It is unfair to claim 
that all the adulteration of the country is confined to the dealers in 
stimulants and narcotics. The same difficulty is felt across the 
water. 
8. They all may Ije used so as to directly injure the nervous 
system. 
Tea is one of the mildest of the stimulants, and yet there are 
thousands who are injured by it. Coffee injures more constitutions 
among the leading classes of American society to-day than all the 
forms of alcohol combined. It would be better for our American 
ladies if they would use less tea and coffee—much less—and more 
cider, sour wines, and good beer. 
It is a very significant fact that the men of America—even 
those wTho indulge freely in tobacco and in fermented and distilled 
liquors—are much healthier and stronger than our women, who 
rarely use these substances, but use more tea and coffee than 
their lords. The complicated question arises, Why is this so ? Is 
it not, at least, probable that our wives and mothers would be 
stronger if they would use less tea and coffee, and more cider, beer, 
and wine, like the Germans, French, and English % 
Coffee injures thousands. Only a fractional portion of those 
who lead sedentary lives in America can drink it habitually all their 
lives. It can bring on every nervous symptom imaginable. 
Tobacco is capable of producing nearly every possible nervous 
symptom. Dyspepsia, hypochondriasis, neuralgia, sleeplessness, 
are sometimes caused by it. 
Tea and coffee give rise to the same disorders even more fre- 
quently than tobacco. Insanity has been charged upon tobacco, 
and it has been stated that the increase of insanity in our modern 
civilization is largely due to the increase in the consumption of 
tobacco. This statement cannot, however, be proved, and is not at all 
probable. There is an immense amount of false reasoning on this sub- 
ject. A person who has been in the habit of using tobacco is taken 
insane. Some of his friends, who may not themselves use tobacco, and 
who regard chewing and smoking in public as breaches of etiquette, 
as they truly are, at once give out that his insanity was caused by STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
245 
tobacco. This inference they have no right to make. They might 
with just as much propriety have charged his insanity upon the 
tea or coffee, or cider or beer, which he may very likely have been 
in the habit of using. 
They might even have charged it upon his daily food, for there 
is no question that bad diet often brings on nervous diseases. 
The truth is, that no one has a right to charge the nervous diseases 
—insanity, or any other form—of any individual upon any special 
hind of diet, or of stimulant or narcotic that he may have been in the 
habit of using, without overwhelming evidence and after the most 
careful study. It is indeed extremely difficult for a physician— 
whose life is devoted to the study of disease—to decide in any 
given case of dyspepsia, neuralgia, paralysis, hypochondria, sleep- 
lessness, debility or insanity, whether the symptoms were or were not 
brought on by the tea, the coffee, the tobacco, or the alcohol that the 
patient has been accustomed to use. The newspapers report at times 
that tobacco has caused death. Some of our books on hygiene de- 
clare that insanity has increased of late years in direct proportion 
to the increase in the use of tobacco. How it is impossible for one 
not a physician to tell in any given case whether death has been 
caused by tobacco, or by tea, or by coffee, or even by alcohol, except in 
very marked cases indeed. 
Therefore, all such reports are unreliable. Precisely so with the 
relation of insanity to the use of tobacco. The question is a very, 
very complicated one, and cannot so easily be answered. It is true 
that insanity has somewhat increased of late years—though not to 
the extent that is commonly supposed. It is also true that the con- 
sumption of tea, of coffee, of tobacco, of alcohol, and of opium has 
greatly increased in our civilized land. Shall we attribute the in- 
crease of insanity to the tea, the coffee, the tobacco, the alcohol, or 
the opium? We see at once that the question is very difficult to 
answer. 
Still again, there has been a wonderful increase in the cares, 
the labors, the anxieties, the passions, and the strifes of our 
modern civilization. Over-work and over-worry of the brain are the 
great causes of diseases of the brain. But, after all, it appears from 
statistics recently published that insanity has not increased to the 
extent that is commonly supposed. 
That nervous diseases in general have increased, there can be no 
question ; but this increase is probably due more to the passions and 
strife of our modern civilization than to the use of any special article 
of food or drink. 
Alcohol, when used in large quantities and for many years, un- 246 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
questionably injures the brain and nervous system. This vieu.; is 
confirmed by actual examination of the brains of those who have 
died drunkards. Alcohol also injures the liver, the stomach, and 
indeed the whole system. There is, however, great liability to err, 
just as in the case of tobacco. Because a man who has been addict- 
ed to alcohol dies, even in his prime, of some disease of the brain, 
stomach, liver, or other vital organ, we are by no means always jus- 
tified in convicting him of death from alcohol. So many causes are 
continually acting upon us that the question is a very complex one, 
and can only be answered after careful study and close investiga- 
tion by some professional authority. 
There are two well-known diseases that come from the abuse of 
alcohol. They are delirium tremens and chronic alcoholism. The 
symptoms of the former are well known, and need not be here 
repeated. 
The symptoms of chronic alcoholism are (according to Marcet)— 
1. Inability to sleep. 
2. Trembling. 
3. Giddiness and headache. 
4. Hallucinations. 
5. Weakness. 
6. Difficulty of breathing. 
All of these symptoms may come from a thousand other causes 
besides the abuse of alcohol, and in any given case it is impossible 
even for a physician to settle the question without very close scru- 
tiny. Of late years much attention has been given to the reformation 
of drunkards. It is now well understood that intemperance is very 
often a symptom of insanity. It is a kind of mania, and has been 
honored with various special names—“ dypsomania,” “ methomaniaf 
“ vinomaniaf &c., &c. This mania may be the result or the 
cause of intemperance. Long-continued abuse of alcohol may so 
injure the brain that the victim becomes insane on that subject, and 
is unable to control his appetite. On the other hand, insanity, how- 
ever produced, may give rise to intemperance. 
In either case the patient should, if possible, go to an inebriate 
asylum. This disease, if taken early, and well managed by skilful 
hands, is nearly as curable as any form of insanity. The State reports 
of the asylums are very encouraging. Much of the intemperance 
of our time, especially among the educated' classes, is the result of 
insamity, and should be treated accordingly. The pledge never 
saves such patients. For such total abstinence is a duty. If 
they cannot control themselves, let them, if possible, go to an 
asylum. STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
247 
Opium, when used habitually and for a long time, produces worse 
effects than tea, or coffee, or alcohol, or tobacco. 
These effects have been very forcibly described by De Quincey, 
and in the work recently published, entitled “ The Opium Habit.” 
All of the writers on the subject are, however, inclined to exag- 
gerate the horrors from which they have suffered. Thousands take 
opium and take it habitually, and take it in large doses and for a 
long time, and vet never experience the dreams of De Quincey, or 
the sufferings depicted in the “ Opium Habit.” 
The results of opium-eating must depend, and very manifestly, 
on the temperament. That opium is the most powerful for evil of 
any of our common stimulants and narcotics, all will admit. If 
the habit of opium-eating were to become universal in our climate, 
I should tremble for the results. I have no fear that we shall ever 
be thus afflicted. Our tea, our coffee, our tobacco, our large and 
abundant variety of fermented and distilled liquors, every year im- 
proving in quality, will undoubtedly continue to save us from the 
horrors of opium in the future as they have done in the past. 
I am inclined to forgive tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol what- 
ever evil they have wrought in the world, for this one great redeem- 
ing benefit—that they have, in a good measure, delivered us from 
the opium-eating habits of the East. 
Opium-eating, like the use of alcohol, is often a symptom of 
disease of the brain. Like chronic alcoholism, it may be either the 
result or the cause of mental disease. This affection, which is, T am 
happy to say, quite rare in our country, is called opio-mania. 
9. They have never been successfully prohibited by law. A 
complete history of the attempts that have been made in various 
countries to prohibit or regulate the sale or use of stimulants and 
narcotics would be exceedingly interesting. 
Law has been directed not only against alcoholic liquors, but 
also against opium, against tobacco, and against coffee. 
The government of China used vigorous and desperate meas- 
ures to prevent the introduction of opium in that country, but it 
failed. 
Opium, however, has been less opposed by law than tobacco, 
and possibly that may be one reason why it is less used at the 
present. Always and everywhere the breeze of opposition fans the 
flame of enthusiasm, and it is as true now as in Bible days, that 
bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Nothing advertises a substance 
so thoroughly as to oppose it by law. 
It is with stimulants and narcotics as with books. The more 
widely and severely are they criticised, the better the sale. 248 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
Tobacco made trouble everywhere, and has fought and triumphed 
in more battles than any other stimulant or narcotic. 
King James I. of England wrote, as everybody knows, a terri- 
ble counterblast against it. In the beginning of the seventeenth 
century, Abbas, the first Shah of Persia, “ proclaimed that every 
soldier in whose possession tobacco was found would have his nose 
and lips cut off, and afterward be burnt alive.” One of the Sultans 
of Turkey—Amurath IY.—made the use of tobacco a capital 
offence. Another Sultan ordered that every one who was caught 
in the act of smoking “ should have his nose pierced with his pipe.” 
One of the Czars of Russia punished smokers with the bastinado 
and the cutting off of the nose. A bull was thundered against the 
habit of smoking and snuff-taking in church by Pope Urban VIII. 
Alcohol has been regulated and prohibited in every way con- 
ceivable. The history of the laws that have been enacted against 
this substance would make a volume. 
The recent enactments that have been made in this country— 
our prohibitory and license laws—are very familiar, and need not be 
cited. 
Coffee also has triumphed over great opposition. In Constanti- 
nople the priests used all their influence against it, but in vain. In 
France, Madame Sevigne—a high literary authority of the time— 
tried her best to prevent the popularization of the beverage. In 
London, also, coffee found virulent enemies, but there, as every- 
where, it triumphed over all. 
From a very interesting paper in a recent issue of “ Appletons’ 
Journal” I extract the following. We see that our good fore- 
fathers also were unsuccessful in their legislative attempts against 
stimulants and narcotics, even under the most favorable circum- 
stances. 
“ In the good old times of which we write, it is evident that the 
evils of intemperance were as great as they have ever been in any 
portion of our history. Mr. Winthrop complains bitterly of the 
amount of hot drinks consumed by the young people on board the 
Arbella during the voyage from Southampton to America; and 
every art of legislation was devised to check the ravages of this 
vice, short of absolute prohibition, or any restriction upon the pri- 
vate use, by the more respectable members of society, of what is some- 
times termed in the statute ‘the good creature of God.’ Mr. John 
Josselyn, gent., who visited Boston eight years after its settlement, 
says: ‘ I found two houses of entertainment, called ordinaries, into 
which if a stranger went, he was presently followed by one ap- 
pointed to that office, who would thrust himself into his company STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
249 
uninvited, and, if he called for more drink than the officer, in his 
judgment, thought he could soberly bear away, lie would presently 
countermand it, and appoint the proportion beyond which he could 
not get one drop.’ 
44 The custom of 4 drinking one to another, which draweth the 
abominable practice of drinking healths,’ is positively forbidden by 
law. Among the reasons assigned by the General Court for this 
order, are the following : — 
“ 4 1. It was a thing of no good use. 
44 4 2. It was an inducement to drunkenness, and occasion of 
quarrelling and bloodshed. 
“ 4 3. It occasioned much waste of wine and beer. 
44 4 4. It was very troublesome to many, especially the master 
and mistress of the feast, who were forced thereby to drink more oft 
than they would.’ 
44 Drinking with disreputable associates, more especially if it was 
not accompanied by judicious and timely remarks on the evils of 
intemperance, also appears to have brought the offender under the 
reproof of the magistrate. Thus 4 Benj. Hubbard is solemnly ad- 
monished of his failing for being in company with James Brown 
and the rest, and often drinking of the strong-water bottle with 
them, and not reproving them.'1 
44 A man, convicted of drunkenness in the year 1633, was sen- 
tenced to attend every day upon the session of the General Court, 
and in their presence wear the ominous scarlet cloth, with the letter 
D inscribed upon it. The thought will here suggest itself, whether 
some such exhibition as this might not have a salutary effect upon 
our modern representative assemblies, and also whether the general 
aspect of these bodies would not be somewhat enlivened if the err- 
ing members thereof were adorned in like manner with scarlet. 
“ Some time before the transfer of the patent to America, a 
petition was forwarded to the Massachusetts Bay Company to this 
effect: 4 We especially desire you to take care that no tobacco be 
planted under your government, unless it be some small quantity 
for mere necessity and for physic, for preservation of their healths ; 
and that the same be taken privately by ancient men, and none 
other.’ It would appear as though 4the ancient men’ were a 
little inclined to monopolize the poisonous weed. 
44 A few years later, we find that the court felt it to be necessary 
to relax in some degree the rigidity of the law; for it is ordered 
‘that no person shall take any tobacco publicly; and every one 
shall pay one penny for every time he is convicted for taking tobacco 
in any place.’ Still later, the law is again modified: 4 It is fur- 250 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
ther ordered, that no person shall take tobacco privately, in his own 
house, or in the house of another, before strangers ; and that two 
or more shall not take it together, anywhere, under the penalty of 
eleven shillings and sixpence for every offence.’ 
“ From the tone of legislation adopted soon after this, we may 
infer that the early settlers of Boston found it as hard to regulate 
such matters as these by law as their posterity have proved it to be. 
‘ This court, finding that, since the passage of the former laws 
against tobacco, the same is more abused than before, it is therefore 
ordered that no man shall take any tobacco in the fields, except in 
his journey or at meal-times, upon pain of twelvepence for every 
offence ; nor shall take any tobacco in any inn or common victual- 
ling-house, except in a private room there, so as neither the master 
of the same house, nor any other guests there, shall take offence 
thereat.’ Constables are further charged ‘ to take special notice 
of common coasters, unprofitable fowlers, and tobacco-takers.’” 
I cannot attempt to lay down rules for my readers in regard to 
the use of stimulants and narcotics, as it would be in regard to the 
use of ordinary food. In all these matters each one must work out 
his own salvation with fear and trembling. The individual experi- 
ence of every man is a better guide than all the boohs on hygiene that 
have ever been written. 
All that I can do in this book—all that any scientific man can 
do—is to collect and arrange the general facts that bear on these sub- 
jects ; to present the results of scientific study and the experience of 
mankind. By the light of these facts let each one guide his own 
life. 
If you find by experience that you are positively benefited 
by anyone of these stimulants or narcotics, then use it with the same 
judgment and moderation that you would use any article of food on 
your table. 
If you find that you are becoming a slave to any one of these sub- 
stances, disentangle yourself and make yourself master of the situa- 
tion at all hazards and at vdiatever cost. You may know that you 
are abusing your favorite stimulant—be it tea, coffee, tobacco or 
alcohol—when you find that you are such a slave to it that you 
cannot possibly do -without it. 
If, on the other hand, you find by experience that you are injured 
by any stimulant or narcotic that you may be in the habit of using— 
no matter how moderately—drop it as you would drop a hot coal, and 
never give it another thought, even though you see your friends 
about you on every hand using the same substance even more freely 
than yourself, not only without injury, but with real apparent ben- STIMULANTS AND NABCOTICS. 
251 
efit. In these matters every man must be a law unto himself. Some 
facts of my own personal experience may be of interest to my read- 
ers, and may perhaps help to illustrate the doctrine I am here en- 
deavoring to teach. 
At no period of my life have I been able to smoke even the mild- 
est cigar, without experiencing immediate and long-continued un- 
easiness. 
I have frequently experimented with smoking in order to test its 
physiological effects, and I have always found that, although it gave 
intensity and clearness to the mental operations, yet its influence on 
the nervous and digestive systems especially were so pernicious that 
I feel positive that even a moderate indulgence in the use of the weed 
for any length of time would undermine my constitution. I there- 
fore totally abstain from tobacco—although I see about me on every 
hand those who use without injury a number of cigars daily—and 
although I am well assured that there are thousands who can smoke 
and chew and take snuff, even to a good old age, without any per- 
ceptible injury to themselves or their posterity. The law for them 
is not the law for me. While the use of tobacco may be right and 
proper for them, for me it would, with my present knowledge of its 
effects on my constitution, be a positive crime. 
Coffee also affects me injuriously, and in very much the same 
way as tobacco, though with less rapidity. Therefore I very rarely 
indulge in it. 
Weak tea in very closely restricted quantities seems to have on me 
only a pleasant effect. I strongly suspect, however, that I should 
do better to abstain from it altogether, and I should do so, provided 
I could always be sure of some warm drink of a different kind, or of 
some quality of acid wine. 
Ale and porter, as we find them generally, affect me very ca- 
priciously. Therefore I do not habitually use them. 
Hard cider and mild acid wines—claret, Rhine wine—almost 
affect me beneficially, and accordingly I frequently, though by no 
means regularly, use them. I go for weeks using them almost daily, 
and again weeks pass in which I do not think of them. 
If I could always obtain them I should use them oftener, and 
take them at meal-time instead of tea or water. 
The stronger liquors—whiskey, brandy, and the like, or even 
the heavier wines, sherry, port—I rarely use, because they seem to 
do me only harm. f 
I have presented my personal experience in this detail, in order 
to clearly illustrate the principles by which we are to be guided 
in the selection of our stimulants and narcotics. 252 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
Every individual is a law unto himself. Just as no human face 
is precisely like any other, just so no constitution is precisely like 
any other in its adaptability for special articles of food or drink. 
There are those who, on account of the terrible evils of intoxica- 
tion, desire to abstain entirely from all alcoholic liquors. This is a 
matter of conscience, with which science has nothing to do. In 
this luxurious age, all proper encouragement should be given to the 
spirit of self-sacrifice for the good of others; but wTe must all admit 
that those who do thus abstain, no matter how conscientiously, are 
very apt to do unintentional harm ; and, in the wTords of Hudibras, 
to 
“ Compound for sins they are inclined to, 
By damning those they have no mind to.” 
I have known scores of active, earnest, and conscientious re- 
formers in the temperance movement, who would pluck out a right 
eye or give their right hand to be burned rather than touch a drop 
of fermented or distilled liquors, who yet are grossly and criminally 
intemperate in the use of tea, of coffee, and tobacco, all of which 
contain poisonous active principles, while the latter contains ni- 
cotine and nicotianin, in comparison with which the fiercest alcoholic 
liquors are mild and innocuous. 
Indeed it may be said in general that the nervous hrain-worJcers 
of our modern civilization—our educated classes—are, at the 
present time, less injured by alcoholic liquors than by tobacco, 
opium, tea and coffee. 
Throughout the land there are thousands of nervous and feeble 
and dyspeptic men, and especially women, and who, through the ha- 
bitual use of tea and coffee, are growing more nervous, more feeble, 
more dyspeptic, who by abstaining from these articles, or by using 
them in greater moderation, or by wisely substituting for them 
some pure and healthful wines, beers, or ciders, might vastly im- 
prove their own constitutions, and those of their children and 
children’s children. 
The only consistent teetotalism is that which abstains from all 
forms of stimulants and narcotics. The only consistent prohibitory 
law is that which should prevent the production, the importation, 
or the sale of tea, or coffee, or tobacco or alcoholic liquors, or opium. 
Such absolute teetotalism is very rarely seen among the adult 
population. In the whole circle of my personal acquaintances, ex- 
tending through all ranks and grades of society, 1 cannot now re- 
call the names of a dozen consistent adult teetotallers. 
Such a consistent prohibitory law has not to my knowledge 
ever been proposed or suggested during all these fierce contests on STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS. 
253 
the subject of temperance. If proposed, it could never be enacted ; 
if enacted, no earthly power could enforce it for one day. The 
great fault of the noble heroes, who in spite of their ignorance and 
errors have so successfully engineered the temperance reform, is that 
they have taken too narrow a view of the question—have combated 
some one form of stimulant or narcotic, as alcohol, or tobacco, or 
opium, ignoring the rest. In this way they drive the disease from 
one part of the body to another, but do not thoroughly eradicate 
it. 
To prohibit stimulants and narcotics from our modern civiliza- 
tion would be as morally impossible as it would be to prohibit the 
use of beef or bread or fruit. They are woven into and have 
become a part and parcel of modern society, and will probably con- 
tinue to be so until that society shall perish from the face of the 
earth. 
But in the next generation they will be used very differently 
from what they are now. With the progress of civilization and 
the consequent change in the type of constitution, wTe must instinct- 
ively change our habits in the use of stimulants and narcotics, just 
as we have done and are doing in the use of our ordinary food. 
The probabilities are that in the next century our brain-workers, at 
least in this climate, wTill use less strong tea, less coffee, less tobacco, 
and more beers, wines, and cider. Intoxication and intemperance 
will not necessarily increase with the increased consumption of stimu- 
lants and narcotics. Three centuries ago intoxication, on tKe average, 
was far more gross and flagrant than it is now ; and yet during 
these three centuries the use of stimulants and narcotics has increased 
several fold more rapidly than the population. 
It is the same with licentiousness. It is a great evil now; but 
it was a far greater evil three centuries ago. Both of these giant 
woes have diminished with the intellectual and moral elevation of 
mankind. If savage nations could have access to the immense 
variety of stimulants and narcotics that are found among the civil- 
ized, they would be as beastly in their intemperance as they pro- 
verbially are in their licentiousness. 
In these latter days intoxication has decreased because knowledge 
has increased. The same law will be observed in the future. In 
proportion as mankind become intellectually and morally enlight- 
ened, in that proportion will they become temperate, however freely 
they may be provided with the different varieties of stimulants and 
narcotics. As long as ignorance and extreme poverty exist among 
men, just so long will there be intoxication and all forms of intem- 
perance. 334 
HYGIENE, OK THE AET OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
In the twenty-second registration report of Massachusetts for 
1866, I find a very carefully prepared table, showing the number and 
average ages of all persons over twenty years of age, whose occu- 
pations were specified, and whose deaths were registered during a 
period of twenty years and eight months, from May 1st, 1843, to 
December 31st, 1866. As the number of persons whose occupations 
and average ages are there given is upward of 95,000, this record 
is the most important contribution to vital statistics that has ever 
been made. I append the statistics of the most important represen- 
tative employments. (See Statistical Tables.) 
In the eleventh registration report of Rhode Island for 1863, 
the average ages of those who died during that year in that State 
are given, wTith their respective occupations, the ages under twenty 
being excluded. 
As the whole number specified is less than eight hundred, the 
results are not very conclusive; in some of the trades only one or 
two cases of death are recorded. I select those that are of the 
greatest importance in a statistical point of view, omitting all such 
as do not present a sufficient number of deaths to be of value:— 
Occupations. 
No. of Per- 
sons. 
Av. 
Age. 
1. 
Agriculturists 
147 
65.22 
2. 
Mechanics and artisans : 
Blacksmiths 
13 
60.84 
Carpenters 
24 
57.37 
Jewellers 
12 
39.41 
Machinists 
14 
57.85 
Shoemakers 
12 
53.91 
Weavers 
10 
49.60 
3. 
Laborers: 
Laborers 
141 
48.56 
4. 
Business men : 
Manufacturers 
10 
47.80 
Merchants 
39 
54.33 
5. 
Seafaring men : 
Mariners 
16 
38.81 
These are all the statistics in regard to the occupations of this 
country that I have been able to obtain, and are, I believe, all of 
any importance that exist, or have been prepared in the United 
States, with the exception of a few observations of the longevity 
of special classes, which will appear under their appropriate heads. 
Let us now compare the reports of the English Registrar-Gen- INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
335 
eral with that of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The first regis- 
tration report of England was published in 1838, since wdiich time 
there has been continued progress in the system of arrangement and 
collation. 
Dr. Caspar, of Berlin, and Dr. Guy, of London, both wTrote on 
the subject of the relation of occupation to health and longevity; 
but, inasmuch as very few statistics had at that time been gathered, 
their speculations are of no great value. Ramazzini and Thackeray 
gave some advice to artisans by which they might in a measure 
counteract the evil effects of their callings. 
But by far the best work on this subject that has yet appeared 
on either side of the Atlantic is a small book written by Dr. 
Thackrah, an eminent surgeon of Leeds, and published in 1832. 
Although he had few figures to aid him, his book is of great value,, 
both for the compass and accuracy of its general observations, and 
for the originality and clearness of its ideas. 
In 1857, Dr. Neison published a large work on vital statistics, 
the main object of which was to present the mortuary facts of the 
friendly societies of England, and also of the medical profession. 
Dr. Farr, Registrar-General of England, in his fourteenth annual 
report, made some important statements in regard to the ages of 
men dying in different employments. From a careful examination 
of his tables, I am convinced that they are in the main corroborative 
of the experience of the registrars of Massachusetts and Rhode 
Island. 
Of those that died in England in 1851, the different classes stand 
thus in order of mortality :— 
1. Farmers. 5. Blacksmiths. 9. Miners. 
2. Shoemakers. 6. Carpenters. 10. Bakers. 
3. Weavers. 7. Sailors. 11. Butchers. 
4. Grocers. 8. Laborers. 12. Innkeepers. 
It thus appears that miners, bakers, butchers, and innkeepers 
experienced the heaviest mortality. In regard to the professions he 
states that the percentage of death is less or at least not greater 
than that of the average in all the employments, as we have seen to 
be the case in this country. 
In Dr. Neisoirs report I find the following table, showing the 
expectation of life of the clerks, plumbers, bakers, and miners of the 
friendly societies of England :— 
Ages. Clerks. Plumbers. Bakers. Miners. 
20 • 31.83 36.50 40.02 40.67 
30 27.57 30.50 32.35 33.15 
40 21.83 24.30 24.07 24.42. 336 
HYGIENE, OK THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
Distinguishing by Occupations (statistically classified) the Number, with their Average and Aggregate Ages, of Persons in the State (in two 
geographical divisions) whose Occupations were specified and whose Deaths were registered during the year 1866; also in the State 
(entire) during the period of Twenty-three Years and Eight Months, ending with December 31, 1866. 
[This table includes only persons over twenty years of age.*] 
OCCUPATIONS. 
NINE EASTERN COUNTIES, 
1866. 
FIVE WESTERN COUNTIES, 
18 66. 
WHOLE STATE, 
Twenty-three Tears and Eight Mos. 
From May 1,1843, to Dec. 81,1866. 
Number of 
Persons. 
Ages. 
Number of 
Persons. 
Ages. 
Number of 
Persons. 
Ages. 
Aggregate. 
Average. 
Aggregate. 
Average. 
Aggregate. 
Average. 
All Classes op Occupations 
3,718 
189,182 
50.88 
1,501 
80,332 
53.52 
95,918 
4,828,120 
50.34 
I. Cultivators op the Earth 
562 
37,417 
66.57 
541 
35,055 
64.80 
22,764 
1,461,288 
64.40 
II. Active Mechanics Abroad 
286 
15,612 
54.59 
68 
3,962 
58.26 
6,893 
351,855 
5104 
III. Active Mechanics in Shops 
482 
22.410 
46.49 
195 
9,314 
47.76 
9,898 
474,399 
47.93 
IV. Inactive Mechanics in Snops 
483 
21,025 
43.52 
146 
6,335 
43.39 
10,855 
465,594 
42.89 
V. Laborers—No Special Trades 
727 
37,274 
51.27 
269 
12,994 
48.30 
17,764 
825,852 
46.49 
VI. Factors Laboring Abroad 
165 
6,771 
41.04 
40 
1,588 
39.70 
4,978 
172,806 
34 71 
VII. Employed on the Ocean 
341 
15.856 
46.50 
2 
52 
26.00 
6,160 
279,532 
45 38 
VIII. Merchants, Financiers, Capitalists. .. 
460 
22,679 
49.30 
124 
5,853 
47.20 
9,220 
445,410 
48.26 
IX. Professional Men 
140 
7,284 
52.03 
61 
3,298 
54.07 
3,316 
166,953 
50 35 
X. Females 
72 
2,854 
39.65 
55 
1,881 
34.20 
4,070 
184,431 
45.31 
I. Cultivators op the Earth 
562 
37,417 
66.57 
541 
35,055 
64.80 
22,764 
1,460,288 
64.15 
II. Active Mechanics Abroad 
286 
15,612 
54.59 
68 
3,962 
58.26 
6,893 
351,855 
51.04 
Brickmakers 
5 
223 
44.60 
1 
34 
34.00 
65 
3,161 
48.63 
Carpenters 
140 
7,583 
54.16 
46 
2,666 
57.96 
3,852 
197,234 
51.20 
Caulkers and Gravers 
9 
502 
55.77 
- ■ 
- 
- 
122 
7,156 
58.65 
OCCUPATIONS INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
337 
Masons 
34 
1,911 
56.20 
10 
682 
68.20 
980 
48,862 
49.86 
Millwrights 
3 
237 
79. CO 
1 
61 
61.00 
91 
5,176 
56.88 
Riggers 
2 
71 
35.00 
- 
- 
- 
113 
5,780 
60.00 
Ship-Carpenters 
31 
2,070 
66.83 
- 
- 
- 
602 
34,408 
57.16 
Slaters 
5 
182 
36.40 
1 
32 
32.00 
23 
868 
37.74 
Stonecutters 
41 
1,960 
47.80 
7 
403 
57.57 
597 
27,428 
45.94 
Tanners 
16 
873 
54.56 
2 
84 
42.00 
448 
21,782 
48.62 
III. Acttye Mechanics in Shops 
482 
22,410 
46.49 
195 
9,314 
47.76 
9,898 
474,399 
47.93 
Bakers 
15 
740 
49.33 
1 
53 
53.00 
302 
13,823 
45.77 
Blacksmiths 
50 
2,389 
47.48 
24 
1,334 
55.58 
1,655 
87,203 
52.69 
Brewers 
3 
162 
54.00 
- 
- 
- 
13 
720 
55.38 
Cabinet-makers 
27 
1,412 
52.29 
2 
99 
49.50 
493 
24,036 
48.75 
Calico-printers 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
9 
469 
52.11 
Card-makers 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
31 
1,406 
43.35 
Carriage-makers 
8 
346 
43.25 
1 
57 
57.00 
159 
8,001 
50.32 
Chair-makers 
1 
84 
84.00 
8 
373 
46.62 
70 
2,963 
42.33 
Clothiers 
- 
- 
- 
1 
80 
80.00 
63 
3,687 
56.94 
Confectioners 
3 
Ill 
37.00 
- 
- 
- 
40 
1,619 
40.47 
Cooks 
8 
280 
35.00 
- 
_ 
_ 
68 
2,703 
39.75 
Coopers 
24 
1,393 
58.04 
2 
106 
53.00 
647 
38,278 
59.16 
Coppersmiths 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
- 
67 
3,156 
47.10 
Curriers 
8 
361 
45.12 
4 
241 
60.25 
109 
4,755 
43.62 
Cutlers 
4 
198 
49.50 
3 
140 
46.67 
77 
2,984 
38.75 
Distillers 
1 
69 
69.00 
- 
- 
- 
20 
1,128 
56.40 
Dyers 
5 
264 
52.80 
4 
190 
47.50 
94 
4,126 
43.89 
Founders 
17 
783 
46.05 
11 
386 
35.09 
187 
8,356 
44.66 
Furnace-men 
5 
328 
66.50 
_ 
- 
- 
69 
2,944 
42.67 
Glass-blowers 
6 
284 
47.33 
1 
34 
34.00 
93 
3,606 
38.77 
Gunsmiths 
- 
- 
_ 
2 
78 
39.00 
221 
10,538 
47.68 
Hatters 
13 
625 
48.07 
3 
202 
67.33 
258 
14,135 
54.79 
Leather-dressers 
6 
247 
41.16 
_ 
- 
_ 
100 
4,556 
45.56 
Machinists 
71 
2,808 
39.54 
28 
1,247 
44.54 
1,233 
49,441 
40.09 
* Soldiers and females excepted. INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
245 
judiced observation. The doctrine that has for years been taught 
by the profession and believed by the people is, that in the economy 
of man mind and body are necessarily at war; that they can pros- 
per and grow only as the nations of Europe can extend their domin- 
ions—by infringing on the rights of each other. This doctrine is 
worse than unscientific; it is a libel on the Creator, who has ordain- 
ed that body and soul should work together, and be developed in 
grand and beautiful harmony. God makes nothing in vain, and if 
a mind of wondrous power is given to man, it is designed that it 
should be used, and it is also provided that it should be strengthened 
and not weakened by its own activity; and furthermore, that the 
body should be benefited and not injured by the growth of the soul 
it incases. The law is this : mental activity is healthful / mental 
anxiety is injurious. 
Let us now look at the special occcupations that call for the 
largest exercise of the intellectual nature. 
Clergymen very properly demand our first attention. They are 
in many respects the most prominent of our professional men. In 
this country they have always taken the initiative in the cause of 
education and social progress. Moreover, they have always been 
cited as illustrations of the destructive effects of mental toil, and in 
the popular mind the ministry has ever been associated with bron- 
chitis, consumption, insanity, and an early grave. Now while it is 
true that clergymen, in common with all classes of brain-workers, are 
peculiarly subject to the class of diseases that result from undue activ- 
ity of the nervous system and vocal organs, it is also true that they are 
remarkably free from most of the inflammatory affections that carry 
away our mechanics and laborers before the average term of life is 
reached. Let it be remembered that the nervous diseases peculiar 
to literary men, of which so much is said and written, although they 
annoy existence and cripple usefulness, are by no means as serious 
in their character as many acute disorders that over-exertion of 
the physical powers with attendant exposure seem to invite and 
foster. 
The ministerial calling approximates more nearly than almost 
any other to the ideal occupation we have supposed. The pastor 
is called upon to use his whole nature. The exercise of the moral 
faculties of reverence, hope, spirituality, and benevolence is spe- 
cially conducive to health and longevity—a fact which appears to 
have been almost wholly ignored by writers on hygiene. 
Again the pastor can, if he will, perform his work in calmness 
and repose. Ilis life is usually free from the unequal pressures, the 
agitating storms and crises that at times embitter the existence of 246 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
speculators and politicians ; if he labor in any other than an equa- 
ble frame, the fault is usually due to himself more than to externals. 
Lastly, no one better than the pastor can systematize his time, 
giving to each day, and each portion of the day, its appropriate 
work or recreation. 
The facts of clerical biography sustain the theories here ad- 
vanced. Concerning no other occupation are the figures so accor- 
dant. 
The average longevity of clergymen of all denominations, ac- 
cording to the Registration report of Massachusetts, is 57.79 ; and 
53.80 according to that of Boston alone. In Rhode Island it is 59.25. 
Of 417 clergymen whose names are recorded in Allen’s Biogra- 
phical Dictionary, the average age was 65.7; and of these there 
died :* 
13 between 90 and 100 years. 
66 “ 80 “ 90 “ 
123 “ 70 “ 80 “ 
84 “ 60 “ 70 “ 
53 “ 50 “ 60 “ 
43 “ 40 “ 50 “ 
25 “ 30 “ 40 “ 
5 “ 20 “ 30 “ 
Dr. Lombard, of Geneva, found the average age of 53 Protestant 
clergymen to be 63.8, excluding those who died under thirty. 
Of 888 clergymen who died in Massachusetts, and whose ages 
were known, 
90 averaged 61.77 
124 “ 65.00 
302 “ 62.00 
372 “ 64.00 f 
Of 840 clerical graduates of Harvard College, the average age 
was 63.62; 41 in each 100 reached 70. Of those dying between 
1835 and 1841, the average age was 564 
Dr. Madden, in a work on the infirmities of genius, while argu- 
ing that the professions in which the imagination was largely exer- 
cised were relatively unfavorable to longevity, allows clergymen 
70 years. 
* Prize Essay of Benj. W. MeCready, M.D., Transactions New York State Medical 
Society. 
f Report of Sanitary Commission of Mass., 1850. 
t Quarterly Register, vol. x., p. 39. INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
347 
If, tlien, there be any truth in statistics, as well as any logic in 
our reasoning, the prospects of a long life for the minister are ex- 
ceedingly flattering, in spite of the temptations to excessive work 
of the brain, and of their manifold bronchial and laryngeal disorders. 
Among no public bodies do we find more aged and venerable men 
than in the synods of clergymen. 
Lawyers.—Of lawyers it has been said, that they need a “ bad 
heart and a good digestion.” If this be true, then our pleaders and 
counsellors are certainly supplied with these conditions, for they 
stand very high on the tables of longevity. The law is indeed 
very far from being a natural or ideal profession. The advocate 
must spend hours and days in the horrible air of court-rooms ; 
the counsellor leads the most sedeutary of all lives in his office 
chair. 
On the other hand, law presents a field for the exercise of the 
largest powers of reason and judgment; as a science, it is pre- 
eminently intellectual in its character, and is intimately interwoven 
with statesmanship and diplomacy. 
Public pleaders speak long and earnestly, sometimes for days 
together, but they rarely complain of the clergymen’s sore throat 
or of anything analogous, for the simple reasons that their tones are 
more conversational; their briefs are merely used for reference ; and, 
far more than clergymen, they harden the neck to the variations 
of the atmosphere by a wise and judicious neglect. 
The average age of lawyers in Massachusetts is 56.21 ; in the 
city of Boston 60.20. It is clear that they do not stand as high as 
ministers in statistics any more than in theory. Judges live to be 
66.38. 
Physicians.—Medicine is, in some particulars, the most incon- 
sistent and unequal of the professions. In one aspect it is peculi- 
arly conducive to health, in another is theoretically most hazardous. 
It calls into action the best faculties of both mind and heart; its 
study embraces, in its totality, the whole range of human thought 
and feeling. 
Moreover, the physician is not alone an operator in bodily inju- 
ries, and a prescriber for merely physical diseases; it is his solemn, 
responsible privilege to 
“ Minister to a mind diseased ; 
Pluck out from the memory a rooted sorrow; 
Eaze out the written troubles of the brain.” 
—a task that demands his own moral as well as intellectual sympathy 
and inspiration. In so far, then, as medicine gives scope for the ex- 
ertion of man’s best faculties of mind, in so far as it quickens and 348 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PKESEKYING HEALTH. 
intensifies the moral nature, in just so far does it approximate to the 
ideal type of a profession. But there is another side to the picture. 
The physician, especially the country practitioner, cannot adjust 
his hours of labor according to hygienic principles. The life of a 
faithful, successful practitioner must, then, be one of exposure, anx- 
iety, and irregular toil. The city physician is often able to com- 
bine in a most happy manner the physical exercise of daily practice 
with various study and acquisition; thus marrying, as it were, bodily 
exercise with a purpose, to the calm pursuit of science—a most for- 
tunate union, that cannot fail to be conducive to vigorous health 
and length of years. 
It is stated on very good authority, that physicians are more than 
ordinarily subject to cardiac disease, owing to the fact that they are 
so continually obliged to disguise their feelings and thoughts while 
in the presence of patients. Whatever of truth there may or may 
not be in the statement, it does not prevent their attaining a high 
average longevity. 
Of 490 physicians of Massachusetts who died before 1840, the 
average age was 57, and 35 in each 100 attained to 70 years.* 
In Thacher’s Medical Biography (quoted by Dr. McCready) 145 
physicians are mentioned, whose average age is 62.8. Of these: 
3 died between 90 and 100 years. 
25 “ “ 80 “ 90 ' “ 
37 “ “ 70 “ 80 “ 
30 “ “ 60 “ 70 “ 
21 “ “ 50 “ 60 “ 
18 “ “ 40 “ 50 “ 
15 “ “ 30 “ 40 “ 
12 “ “ 20 “ 30 “ 
It thus appears that 59 of these lived to be over 70, and 100, or 
more than two-thirds, over fifty. 
Of 32 physicians and surgeons whose lives are sketched in Gross’ 
Medical Biography (including several who died before their prime), 
the average age was 59. 
The farmers of intelligent districts are properly included in the 
class of brain-workers. A gulf as wide as the Atlantic separates the 
husbandman, ruling “ suaarvapaternaf and the common laborer on 
the farm, hired at so much a week. A stupid or shallow-brained man, 
devoid of energy or foresight, can no more make a successful farmer 
than he can make a successful lawyer, merchant, pastor, or physician. 
It is a fact generally known that the average longevity among 
* Report of Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts, 1850. INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
349 
farmers in this country is greater than that in any other occu- 
pation. But their green old age is not due to their muscular exer- 
cise alone, for mechanics and laborers, who work even harder than 
the majority of farmers, do not live as long by many years; it is not 
due to the pure air they breathe, for many outdoor workers are 
much lo\ver in the scale of longevity than they ; nor, lastly, is it due 
to the calmness of rural life, for the farmer is burdened with grave re- 
sponsibilities and oppressed often by weightier cares than the work- 
man he hires by the day or month, the butcher in the market, or the 
teamster on the highway, all of whom die much younger than he. 
Farmers are long-lived not only because of pure air, moderate 
exercise, and country quiet, but more especially because they can 
counteract the animalizing effects of merely physical labor by varied 
activity of the mind. 
In Massachusetts the average age of 22,764 cultivators of the 
earth was 64.40. 
Merchants, manufacturers, and men of business next demand 
our attention. That the head of any business firm must be 
a man of intellectual activity and resource, there can be no 
room for question. Mercantile life, with its myriad complica- 
tions and crises, makes heavy drafts on the wits and genius of the 
ablest. And yet the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, and trade 
do not usually develop the best faculties of man in their entirety ; 
they may be successfully prosecuted without the aid of the moral 
nature, or the highest capabilities of the mind. The frequent but 
by no means necessary tendency of commercial life is to sordidness, 
externalities, and morbid worship of property as the end rather 
than the means of existence. So far, then, as business life of any 
kind begets narrowness and greed of gain, just so far is it unfavor- 
able to health. The merchant who is master of his affairs can be 
measurably systematic in his labor. Moreover, the pursuits of trade 
will always be congenial to human nature, until the worship of 
Mammon is less universal than now ; and the man of business can- 
not fail to be inspired by the hope of the bright rewards of his oc- 
cupation, though at times he may be sickened with its cares and 
uncertainties. But he is the victim first prostrated by the financial 
storms which at irregular periods sweep over the land, paralyzing, 
for the time, the mighty arm of trade. We find business disasters are 
very frequently the exciting causes of insanity. 
But in spite of all drawbacks attendant on business life, mer- 
chants are usually healthy, and their average longevity, though 
below the standard of clergymen, lawyers, or physicians, is greater 
than that of artisans and laborers. 350 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PEESEKVING HEALTH. 
In the table of Dr. Jarvis, their average age is 48.39 ; in the 
report of Massachusetts, covering twenty-three and more years, it 
is 47.95 ; in Rhode Island it is 54.33, while manufacturers are put 
down at 47.80; in Boston, 58.81. The average of all (merchants, 
financiers, and capitalists) is 48.26. 
AN ARTIST. 
Artists and Musicians, as a class, only cultivate the peculiar 
gifts they enjoy, ignoring oftentimes the higher intellectual and 
moral endowments. Whatever in art or music is ennobling, en- 
larging to mind and soul, serving to make man more intellectual, 
more spiritual, and more catholic in feeling, must be conducive to 
health and longevity; but the great body of musicians in this coun- 
try, at least, are simply men of special aptitudes, and are oftentimes 
very irregular and dissipated in their lives. The average age of 101 
artists in Massachusetts was 45.19. As a class they are unbalanced 
men, for the reasons just stated, and, if the statistics of insane asy- 
lums are worthy of credence, artists furnish a greater percentage of 
inmates in proportion to the numbers in the profession than almost 
any other class. 
Students in academies and colleges are as healthy and vigorous 
as any other body of young men of similar ages in the country. 
In spite of the late hours, and oftentimes irregular habits of 
students; in spite of their excessive use of tobacco, and spasmodic 
industry, they are, as a rule, both in this country and in Europe, 
eminently vigorous and healthful. Neither among clerks, mechan- 
ics, nor laborers have I seen so pleasant an average of sturdy, wiry, 
bounding health as among the undergraduates of Harvard and Yale. 
Teachers of primary schools are not usually over-healthful nor very 
long-lived, but the occupation of teaching itself is not necessarily in- 
jurious. On the contrary, the beneficial effect of the intellectual 
exercise required in instructing is seen in the gray hairs of our col- 
lege and academy professors, and managers of private schools. Of 74 INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH 
351 
STUDENT. 
professors mentioned in Allen’s Biographical Dictionary, the ave- 
rage age was 61 ; of 22 in Massachusetts, 55.81; while of 359 teach- 
ers in the same State, the average age is but 39.95. 
Why is this discrepancy % The answer is obvious. Teachers 
stand low on the list, partly because very few follow teaching as 
a life calling, but abandon it usually before arriving at maturity; 
and therefore of those who die and are registered as teachers, the 
average age can, of course, be no guide in determining the healthful- 
ness of the occupation ; partly because the duties of instruction in the 
elementary branches do not call forth the highest powers of intel- 
lect, like pleading and sermon-writing; and partly because they are 
confined for many hours each day in poisonous and over-heated 
rooms, subject all the while to multitudinous petty vexations and 
“ insect cares,” which, though they are mighty enough to torture 
the body and fret the spirit, are too insignificant to develop the high- 
est type of character. 
Authors, as a distinct registered class, are not numerous either in 
this country or in Europe, but they are scattered through all the pro- 
fessions. Whatever hygienic laws apply to professional men must 
also apply to authors, as such. It follows, therefore, from what lias 
been said that authorship is favorable, and eminently so, to health 
and long life. 
On the score of congeniality, we may safely assert that no class 
so love their calling as do authors. Says one: “ Of all artists, the 
poet is most fond of his work ; ” and the statement may be extended 
to embrace all classes of writers. 
Unless driven by pecuniary straits, authors can regulate their 
hours of labor according to hygienic laws. They can systematize 
their time ; they can think in repose. But authors are usually men 352 
HYGIENE, OK THE AKT OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
of genius endowed with exalted imaginations, and subject to vary- 
ing moods and fitful humors. The muse is often coquettish, and will 
not come and go by clock-work ; fancy will not soar by the laws of 
arithmetic. It is one of the compensations of genius, that he who pos- 
sesses it largely must be its slave. The imagination of great 
souls breaks from the fetters of hygiene, and they cannot restrain it 
if they will. 
It is useless for such geniuses to attempt to regulate their sea- 
sons of creating by the chronometer, like the compiler or statistician. 
So much has been said of Ivirke White, Chatterton, Keats, 
and others wdio wrere similarly unfortunate, and so many homilies 
have been written on the lessons of their lives, that those who have 
not investigated the subject will be surprised at the statement that 
the average age of the poets, essayists, historians, and novelists of 
England, whose names have been handed dowm with various de- 
grees of fame, is nearly sixty years. If we go back to classic times, 
we find that Cicero died at sixty-four; Demosthenes at sixty ; So- 
crates at ninety; Virgil at fifty-one ; Tacitus at sixty; Plato at 
eighty ; Aristotle at sixty-three; Aeschylus at sixty-nine; Ovid at 
sixty; Livy at seventy-six ; Anaxagoras at eighty-eight; Zeno at 
ninety-nine, and Xenophon at ninety; and if the list be extended 
to include all the immortal authors of antiquity, the average longev- 
ity is still found to be very high. Comparing the different spheres 
of intellectual activity, we find that philosophers and men of science 
live longer than poets, or those wdio are endowed with rich gifts 
of fancy. Observe the following comparative list: 
Philosophers and Men of Science. 
Galileo 78 
Franklin 84 
Herschel 84 
Hewton 85 
Halley 86 
Locke 73 
Roger Bacon 78 
Buffon 81 
Harvey 81 
Galen 79 
Jenner 75 
Haller 70 
Galvani 61 
Francis Bacon 78 
Poets and Romancers. 
Virgil 52 
Dante 56 
Petrarch TO 
Fenelon 63 
Pope 56 
Moliere 53 
Horace 57 
Racine 59 
Milton 66 
Young 80 
Corneille 78 
Voltaire 85 
Wieland 80 
The causes of this difference are sufficiently obvious. The life INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
353 
of the philosopher is one of calmness, regularity, and unworried ac- 
tivity of mind ; the life of the poet is often one of excitement and 
irregular and spasmodic industry, or of absolute dissipation ; the ave- 
rage longevity of the one class is probably between 70 and 80 years. 
That even these irregularities and excesses are not of themselves 
so destructive as is supposed, is proven by the records of literature. 
With the sad examples of Kirke White, Schiller, Chatterton, Byron, 
and Poe before our minds, we And that the average age of authors is 
very high. The average age of the writers of France, Germany, 
and America, of the past century, will not fall much below that of 
clergymen. Journalists in this country are not as healthy or as 
long-lived, on the average, as authors, and for very obvious reasons. 
Those, however, who work regularly and calmly, and obtain a 
proper amount of sleep, may and do live as long as other classes of 
literary men. 
We seem, then, to be shut up to the conclusion that intellec- 
tual activity is not only healthful, but pre-eminently so, and that the 
effects of the mental excesses of professional men are far more than 
counteracted by the conserving tendencies of the exercise of the 
higher faculties. 
A corroborative argument in favor of this position is to be found 
in the fact that the expectation of human life increases with the 
progress of civilization. Although this has been denied by some, 
there can be little room for doubt to the candid inquirer. 
Registrations of births and deaths were kept by the Greeks and 
Romans, but as they wrere not preserved, we are unable to compare 
the different periods of classic history ; but from the tables which 
have been continued at Geneva with great care for several centu- 
ries, we learn that the expectation of life at the present day in that 
city is five times as great as it was in the sixteenth century. The 
following table represents the rate of increase : 
Period. 
Years. 
Months. 
Days’. 
Rate ot Increase. 
1551-1600 
8 
7 
26 
100 
1600-1700 
13 
3 
16 
153 
1701-1750 
27 
9 
13 
321 
1751-1800 
31 
3 
5 
361 
1801-1813 
40 
8 
10 
470 
1814-1833 
45 
0 
29 
521 
In round numbers, the average expectation of life at Geneva in 
1551 was 9 years; in 1833, 45 years—a most marvellous increase, 
and one that is to be accounted for partly by the progress of social 
science, government, and sanitary knowledge, but chiefly by the 354 
HYGIENE, OK THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
mental and moral activity to which this progress is due. The rate 
of annual mortality in France in 1781, was one in 29 ; in 1802, one 
in 30 ; and in 1823, one in 40. In London in 1700 the annual mor- 
tality was one in 25 ; in 1781, one in 40. 
If, then, there has been a gradual and continual increase in the 
expectation of life on both sides of the Atlantic, the inference is 
warranted that such increase is owing very materially to the expand- 
ing intellectuality of our modern civilization, as well as to a better 
knowledge and observance of the laws of health. 
The second fact that we learn from the study of vital statistics 
is this: that the greater the mental and moral endowments of a man, 
the greater the amount of intellect ual labor he can undergo, and the 
better his prospects for longevity. It would seem that those upon 
whom nature has been most prodigal of her intellectual gifts can 
work harder and longer, with better expectation of life (other 
things being equal), than the rank and file of humanity in any of 
the professions. Although this idea has not been advanced before, 
so far as I am aware, its truth is, I think, satisfactorily established 
by analogy and by literary and scientific biography. 
Isolated illustrations of longevity among great men are familiar 
to us all. But we have no right to generalize from a few instances. 
In order to establish the general principle that the greatest geniuses 
and hardest brain-workers of the world attain an exceedingly high 
longevity, we need as many cases as can well be obtained. 
I have therefore taken the pains to go through the Cyclopaedia, 
and to note down the ages of one hundred of the greatest men of his- 
tory—those who have created epochs, and have been the leaders of the 
world’s thought in literature, art, science, and statesmanship—and I 
have found that the average age of these was much higher than that of 
literary and professional men generally; nay, even much higher 
than that of clergymen, the longest livers of all. This list, which 
covers a period of many centuries, contains such names as Goethe, 
Coleridge, Lessing, Beranger, Wordsworth, Yoltaire, Hume, Milton, 
Shakspeare, Dante, and Irving, among men of letters; Raphael, 
Michael Angelo, and Reynolds, among painters; Malebranche, 
Locke, Leibnitz, ILobbes, and Hamilton, among modern philoso- 
phers ; Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and Cicero, among the ancients; 
Ilarvey, Cuvier, Buffon, Galileo, Humboldt, Newton, Jenner, and 
Faraday, among men of science; Napoleon, Marlborough, Wash- 
ington, Metternieh, Richelieu, Burke, Webster, Calhoun, and Clay, 
among warriors and statesmen; and Calvin, Luther, Knox, Butler, 
Palejr, and Edwards, among theologians. Ho one will deny that 
these, and similar names, fairly represent the giants of history. INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
355 
Now, the aggregate ages of the one hundred men on this list was 
not far from 7,500, giving the astonishing average of nearly 
seventy-jive years, which is twelve to fifteen years higher than that 
of the most favored of ordinary professional men. 
Whoever will make the effort to fill out any list of names that 
thoroughly represent the leaders of the world’s thought and activity 
will, I am sure,. arrive at results not essentially different from 
mine. 
In opposition to the facts here presented, it will he said that 
nervous diseases are on the increase among us, and that they are 
most frequent and most severe among brain-workers. That this 
impression is well founded there can be no question. Paralysis, 
neuralgia, hysteria, dyspepsia, hypochondriasis, and insanity are 
certainly more frequent, both in this country and in than 
they were thirty or fifty years ago. In my own practice, I am con- 
tinually amazed by the variety and subtlety of phase that these 
diseases assume even in the young and growing generation. But 
it is one of the compensations of these nervous disorders that they 
are not rapidly fatal, and that they ‘protect the system against 
febrile and inflammatory affections that hurry the Indian, the 
negro, and the poor laborers of our own race into early graves. 
The third fact which we learn from these statistics is, that of those 
occupations which are not distinctively intellectual, those are most fa- 
vorable to health and longevity which, on the whole, demand the great- 
est relative activity of the mind. 
Those mechanics who, like carpenters, carriage-makers, black- 
smiths, use their brains as well as their muscles, although they work 
much indoors, are healthier and longer-lived than shoemakers, 
tailors, jewellers, and operatives in factories, whose labor is so rigidly 
systematized that they are obliged to do very little more thinking 
than the machines on which they are employed. 
It should be remembered, also, that a variety of muscular acti- 
vity is more conducive to health than mere routine, that calls into 
play but a single set of muscles. 
Active mechanics abroad live to be 51.04. 
Brickmakers live to be 48.63. This is a very good average. 
Their occupation admits of a variety of toil, and much of the time 
they have the benefit of the sunlight. 
Carpenters attain the age of 51.20. Their trade admits of a 
variety of toil. Some of the time they are outdoors, and then again 
they labor in shops. Most of the time they are exposed to the 
sunlight. All of the principal muscles are called into exercise 
at various times and in various combinations. 356 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
The carpenter, breathing no noxious gases and no poisonous dust, 
cramped in no narrow position and imprisoned in no heated rooms, 
is, on the whole, the healthiest of artisans. 
A CARPENTER. 
Calkers and ship-carpenters are also comparatively vigorous, and 
live a comfortable length of years. Calkers are obliged to labor 
in a confined position, and the mere exercise of their trade is not 
stimulating to the mind, nor calculated to develop the whole physi- 
cal man. That their average longevity is good is due to the pure 
air they breathe, more than to any other cause. 
A COOPER. 
Coopers, carriae/e and clockmakers, and wheelwrights are all 
quite healthful and have a good expectation of life, and for the same 
reasons that apply to the carpenters and joiners. The journeyman may 
become an architect, provided he be able and willing to climb the 
rounds of the ladder, one by one. These considerations act as a 
stimulus to those mechanics who are not dead to all ambition, and INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
357 
impel to active thought and strong exertion. In those callings 
where the chances of promotion are distant and cloudy, we shall 
see that men become desperate and animalized, while in the same 
proportion their life-expectation diminishes. 
Grocers are said to be troubled with a kind of itch, caused by the 
irritation of sugar and other substances they handle. But although 
this affection is disagreeable, it is neither dangerous nor fatal. Their 
life is active, and allows of a wide range of intelligence and energy ; 
while sluggish dotards may exist by the occupation, it yet affords 
scope for the highest business abilities. They die at 48.03 years. 
Blacksmiths live long, and are not subject to any peculiar dis- 
ease. Of more than 1,000 in Massachusetts, the average age was 
52.69. While their work is hard, it admits of not a little variety. 
They breathe good air and observe regular hours of labor. The 
cinders, smoke, and heat are injurious to the eyes, and give rise to 
chronic inflammations, but have no marked effect on the general health. 
Millers do not seem to be injured by the dust of flour and meal 
they continually breathe, although Thackrah distinctly asserts that 
starch and farina manufacturers are more than ordinarily subject to 
bronchial and pulmonary disorders. Their occupation is in all other 
respects healthful and elevating, and they may not improperly 
be classed as manufacturers. The average age of 186 in Massachu- 
setts was 58.58. 
We now come to speak of those employments that are not re- 
garded as favorable to health and longevity, which we find to be by 
far the largest class, including most of the trades and mechanic arts 
that attend upon and are a part of our modern civilization. 
Butchers are proverbially fleshy, bloated, and red-faced. So 
A BLACKSMITH. 370 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
Tobacconists do not seem to be as much injured by their calling 
as was at one time supposed. It has been thought that working in 
tobacco had a bad effect on the health, but this theory is not sus- 
tained by sufficient evidence. 
It is now proved, both by general observation and by statistics, 
that tobacconists are, if anything, healthier and longer-lived than 
the average ot indoor operatives. In some of the rooms of tobacco 
manufactories the workmen live in an atmosphere of tobacco dust, 
large quantities of which they must take into their lungs with each 
respiration ; and yet they become so entirely accustomed to it that 
they not only are as free from disease as the average of operatives, but 
are really longer-lived. It is thought by some that working in to- 
bacco protects the system from consumption and fevers, and some 
other diseases. The average age of 29 tobacconists in Massachusetts 
was 52.17 years. This is, four years above that of active mechanics 
in shops, and only four below that of clergymen, lawyers, and phy- 
sicians, who are noted for their longevity. 
Operators on Sewing-Machines.—It is said that there are over 
one million of sewing-machines in the United States. All these 
have come into use within 25 years. This is a short time in which 
to test the effects of operating these machines on the longevity, and 
the statistical table on this special occupation sheds no light. Many 
physicians and other close observers now agree that operating on the 
sewing-machine for an exclusive occupation is injurious to the health, 
especially of women. In operating on our ordinary machines the 
body is in a sitting position, and only a limited number of muscles 
of the arms and limbs are used. The position is cramped and un- 
natural. The movements required become exceedingly tiresome. 
A very intelligent lady, of more than average health, once told me 
that half an hour at the sewing-machine completely exhausted her, 
and that it made her for the time exceedingly nervous. 
Besides the general results, operating on sewing-machines 
sometimes injuriously influences the genital apparatus, and there- 
by, by its mechanical effects, may give rise to serious local dis- 
order. 
Finally, we observe that those occupations of women which are 
allied to and are a part of her duties as wife and mother, and 
mistress of the household, are more favorable to her longevity than 
the special trades. 
The average age of 4,070 females {of all classes') was 45.31 years. 
“ “ “ “ 57 nurses “ 61.53 “ 
“ “ M “ 2,309 housekeepers “ 50.33 “ INFLUENCE OF THE OCCUPATIONS ON HEALTH. 
371 
The average age of 361 domestics was 46.15 years. 
“ “ “ “ 195 seamstresses “ 45.81 “ 
“ “ “ 154 tailoresses “ 45.16 “ 
“ “ “ “ 37 slioebinders “ 43.84 “ 
“ “ “ “ 147 dressmakers “ 41.90 “ 
“ “ “ “ 29 straw-braiders “ 38.69 “ 
“ “ “ “ 84 milliners “ 38.45 “ 
“ “ “ “ 26 straw-sewers “ 31.92 “ 
“ “ “ “ 205 teachers “ 29.99 “ 
“ “ “ “ 466 operatives “ 28.07 “ 
It will be observed that there is here a regular gradation—that 
nurses, housekeepers, domestics, are quite long-lived, while those 
engaged in the special trades of straw-braiding, millinery, attain 
only an average age of less than forty. 
NURSE. 
Making all allowances for tlie fact that young women are more 
apt to engage in these special trades, these facts are yet very signi- 
ficant. 
When woman is allowed to participate actively in politics, and 
in pfofessional and business life, it is probable that her longevity 
will be increased. Tier present duties do not sufficiently exercise 
her brain. Home duties give more and a better variety of activity 
to the brain than working in the mills or standing behind the 
counter, and are therefore more healthful. In proportion as woman 
uses her fingers less and her brain more, in that proportion, other 
conditions being favorable, will she become longer-lived. 
There is, then, a difference of at least ten years in favor of those 372 
HYGIENE, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH. 
who labor in the household. Stern necessity compels the widows 
and unmarried of civilized lands to engage in irksome mechanical 
employments, but it would be far better for woman’s health and hap- 
piness if the laws of society made it more honorable to wait on the 
door and preside over chambers than to sew on coats or make 
straw hats. 
Of the relative age of the married and the unmarried, these sta- 
tistics give us no information. 
It has been shown, however, by other statistics, that the mar- 
ried live much longer than the unmarried / that widows and wid- 
owers have less expectation of life than if they remained all their 
lives in the married state. 
It is a very suggestive argument in favor of the healthfulness of 
the married state that, in spite of all its necessary cares, and anxi- 
eties, and distresses, in spite of its frequent and life-long uncon- 
geniality and misery, in spite of the sorrows of parturition, an.d all 
the nameless trials that children cause their parents, yet the mar- 
ried live much longer than the spinsters and bachelors. 
This fact is also an argument in favor of the healthfulness of labor 
of the brain. The brains of the married are usually much more active 
than those of bachelors and old maids. They have weightier and 
more numerous cares. They have severer anxieties. The care of the 
children, the unnumbered duties of the household, the perpetual bat- 
tle for bread and shelter, the continuous planning and forecasting, 
the constant activity of the emotional and moral nature—all these 
things, on the average, tend to health and longevity. 
On this important subject of longevity, Dr. J. Y. C. Smith re- 
marks as follows : 
“ 1st. Short persons, of sound constitutions, unimpaired by viola- 
tions of natural laws of health, have a prospect of a longer life than 
tall persons, all other circumstances being equal. 
“ 2d. Females having particularly long necks have shorter chests 
and narrower at the base than those whose necks are of the ordinary 
appearance. 
“ 3d. Diseases of the lungs do more frequently exist in tall men 
than in those of medium height, or those between five feet seven 
inches and five feet nine; and a hereditary tendency to pulmonary 
consumption is thought to be found in tall families more frequently 
than in others. 
“ 4th. When pulmonary disease is hereditary in a family, chil- 
dren are not unfrequently born with tubercles in the tissues of the 
lungs. Years may be required to develop them, unless they are sub- 
jected to some exciting causes. Slight inflammatory action in the . SURGICAL ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOME SURGICAL KNOWLEDGE TO EVERY PERSON. 
The following directions are not designed to induce the public 
to usurp the province of the regular surgeon, but merely to put our 
readers in possession of a few broad principles, and a certain por- 
tion of the modes of operation, by which they can calmly face the 
danger of an accident that involves the question of life or death in 
a fellow-being, grapple with it until the arrival of a surgeon, and, 
when life can be preserved, to preserve it! No family is proof 
against accidents. You may, perhaps, be called on, almost at any 
instant, to listen to the painful intelligence that a calamity of a 
threatening nature has happened to a member of your own house- 
hold. Suppose such an one to have severed the main artery of the 
thigh—an accident entailing certain death, unless aid be imme- 
diately rendered—and no surgeon within some miles. The blood 
is gushing out in torrents from the wound, or he is already at the 
point of exhaustion! You would go calmly and scientifically to 
his relief, quiet the tumultuous grief of his surrounding friends, 
while dexterously applying a bandage which you would instantly 
construct of your pocket-handkerchief, and coolly put aside the 
arm of death! 
There are accidents of a very common character which require 
surgical assistance, but which do not threaten life; such, for ex- 
ample, are fractures and dislocations. But even here assistance 
cannot be obtained too soon ; for after the utmost and permanent 
contraction of the surrounding muscles, which generally takes place 
in about three-quarters or even half an hour, the reduction is 
effected with the extremest difficulty, and with inconceivable suffer- 
ing to the patient; while, accomplished in the first moments after 
the accident, the adjustment of the displaced parts is comparatively 
easy, and is accompanied with very little pain. In short, the surgi- 
cal cases of which we treat are those in which relief may be admin- 
istered in the first moments, which are the most precious; and that, 
too, with as much facility, and with as much efficacy, in almost 
every instance, as if a surgeon were actually present. 
Sea-captains are obliged to know something of surgery. What 
I shall hereafter say concerning fractures and dislocations will be 
designed chiefy for them, and for those who like them are liable 400 
SURGICAL ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES. 
to meet with serious accidents in places where no physician can 
be procured. 
OF THE MEANS OF ARRESTING A FLOW OF BLOOD. 
Whenever an accident occurs, wherein the loss of blood is liable 
to expose the wounded person more or less immediately to danger, 
the hemorrhage, or flow of blood, may be always suspended by 
applying one or more fingers, according to the extent of the injury, 
upon the place whence the blood issues, while the other more impor- 
tant means are being prepared. 
These consist of any soft substances which are capable of being 
rolled up or moulded into the form of a plug, and are to be applied 
directly upon the open vessel, so as completely to All up and cover 
the wound; for this purpose recourse may be had to sponge, Ger- 
man tinder, puff-ball, spiders’ web, moistened paper, tow, lint, old 
and soft linen, wool, or, if in the country, and at a distance from 
any habitation, even fine moss. But whenever it can be obtained, 
the preference should be given to sponge, as it can be more easily 
insinuated into the wound, the interstices of which it fills completely 
up, by reason of its peculiar structure and its elasticity. 
But in order to impart the greatest efficacy to the means just 
recommended, the clots of blood, if there are any, should be re- 
moved, and the wound washed with cold water, in order that the 
place from which the blood issues may be exposed as completely as 
possible; the point of the plug ought then to be placed directly 
upon the vessel, and not upon the clot. The cleansing of the 
wound alone will often cause the flowing of the blood to cease. 
The substances thus wedged in should be maintained in their situa- 
tion by a neckerchief or a pocket-handkerchief, folded in the 
form of a cravat, a common band, or even a garter. If the means 
already pointed out should be insufficient to suspend the flow of 
blood, the whole application should be removed, and the pressure 
of the finger alone relied upon, until the surgeon, or a person ac- 
quainted with the nature and treatment of such accidents, can be 
called in. The wounded person could manage this himself in case 
of need. 
The pressure of the fingers upon the same place during several 
hours would suffice to arrest the most considerable hemorrhage; 
but as this continued pressing, if confided to one person, would be- 
come too painful to be long endured, two or three persons should 
be employed to aid alternately. 
If, however, it should be found necessary, from the great depth 
or extent of the wound, to have the powers of restraining the hemor- 401 
STOPPING BLEEDING. 
COMPRESSING THE ARTERY OF ARM TO STOP BLEEDING. 
COMPRESSING ARTERY OP LEG TO STOP 
BLEEDING. 
STOPPING BLEEDING OP LEG BY TWISTED HANDKER- 
CHIEF. 
STOPPING BLEEDING BT APPLICATION OF A TOURNIQUET. 436 
surgical accidents and emergencies. 
or outside skin; thus protecting the wound securely from the ag- 
gravating influence of the air, dust, &c. 
Yet the common gun-cotton, although partially soluble in ether, 
and forming a shield analogous to what we have described, is not a 
perfect preparation. The gun-cotton should be prepared with par- 
ticular reference to this specific purpose. Otherwise it will leave a 
deposit upon the wound resembling whitewash ; whereas the prepa- 
ration which we recommend leaves, as we have said, a shield almost 
imperceptible to the eye. 
TO RESTORE PERSON'S APPARENTLY DEAD FROM 
DROWNING. 
the DIRECT METHOD of pkof. benjamin Howard, of new york, 
.4s taught under the auspices of the Metropolitan Board of Health of the 
City of New York. 
Rule 1.— Unless in danger of freezing, never move the patient 
from the spot where first rescued, nor aliens bystanders to screen off 
the fresh air, but INSTANTLY wipe clean the mouth and nos- 
trils, rip and remove all clothing to a little below the waist, rap- 
idly rub dry the exposed part, and give two quick, smarting slaps 
on the stomach with your open hand. 
If this does not succeed immediately, proceed according to the 
following rules to perform artificial breathing: 
Rule 2.—Turn the patient on his face, a large bundle of lightly 
rolled clothing being placed beneath his stomach, and press heavily 
over it upon the spine for half a minute. 
Rule 3.—Turn the patient quickly again on his back, the roll 
of clothing being so placed beneath it as to make the short ribs bulge 
prominently forward, and raise them a little higher than the level 
of the mouth. Let some bystander hold the tip of the tongue out of 
one corner of the mouth with a dry handkerchief, and hold both 
hands of the patient together, the arms being stretched forcibly back 
above the head. 
Rule 4.—Kneel astride the patient's hips, and with your hands 
resting on his stomach, spread out your fingers so that you can grasp 
the waist about the short ribs. Now, throw all your weight steadily 
forward upon your hands, while you at the same time squeeze the 
ribs deeply, as if you wished to force everything in the chest upwards 
out of the mouth. Continue this while you can slowly count—one,— 
two,—three ;—then SUDDENLY let go, with a final push, which RESTORATION OF PERSONS APPARENTLY DROWNED 
437 
MODE OF FORCING AND DRAINING OFF WATER AND OTHER ACCUMULATIONS FROM THE STOMACH, 
THROAT, AND MOUTH, ACCORDING TO RULE 2, PREPARATORY TO PERFORMING ARTIFICIAL 
BREATHING. 
a, Patient’s clothing rolled tightly. 
Fig. 2. 
MODE OF PERFORMING ARTIFICIAL BREATHING ACCORDING TO RULES 3 AND 4. 
A, Posture of patient according to Rule 3—arms extended backward, and riba thrown prominently 
forward by roll of clothing (a) beneath back. 
B, Assistant holding tongue, so as to prevent it falling back into the throat and blocking up air-pas- 
sages to chest. By using handkerchief or similar article, the tongue cannot slip from the grasp. 6, Right 
hand of assistant grasping both wrists of patient, keeping arms forcibly extended backwards. If not 
available, the assistant may be dispensed with. 
C, Operator forcing out of chest all foul air, preparatory to the midden letting-go, which compels an . 
inrush of fresh air, on the principle of the ordinary bellows. The operator may, if he choose, kneel beside 
the patient, or in case of a child, where little force is required, may conduct the process in any attitude 
most convenient. 438 
SURGICAL ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES. 
springs you back to your first kneeling position. Remain erect upon 
your knees while you can count—one,—two ;—then throw your weight 
forward again as before, repeating the entire motions—at first about 
four or five times a minute, increasing the rate gradually to about 
fifteen times a minute, and continuing with the same regularity of 
time and motion as is observed in the natural breathing which you 
are imitating. 
Rule 5.—Continue this treatment, though apparently unsuccess- 
ful, for two hours, until the patient begins to breathe ; and for a 
while after this help him by well-timed pressure to deepen his first 
gasps into full, deep breaths ; while the friction of the limbs, which 
should if possible have been kept up during the entire process, is now 
further increased. 
Rule 6.—• AFTER-TREATMENT—externally. As soon as 
the breathing has become perfectly natural, strip the patient rapidly 
and completely. Enwrap him in blankets only. Put him in bed 
in a room comfortably warm, but with a free circulation of fresh 
air, and except for the administration of internal treatment, let him 
llOWe PERFECT REST. 
Internally. Give a little hot brandy and water, or other stimu- 
lant at hand, every ten or fifteen minutes for the first hour, a/nd as 
often thereafter as may seem expedient. 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE TREATMENT. 
Death from drowning is caused not because of the presence of 
water as such, but because of the absence of fresh air from the 
chest. 
Whether excluded by water, as in drowning; by a cord closing 
the windpipe, as in hanging; by dense smoke, as in a burning build- 
ing ; by foul gas, as in an old well, or from escape of ordinary burn- 
ing gas into a close room; whether by burying the face in a soft 
pillow, or by a piece of tough meat lodged in the throat, corking 
up the entrance to the windpipe—in all these cases the immediate 
cause of death is one and the same. 
The breath is the life. Le" it be shut out from the chest, or 
anything else be entirely substituted for it, and suffocation at once 
begins, and this continued always ends in death. 
To avert death, then, and reawaken life in all these cases, you 
must not begin by giving a little stimulus, or “ something reviving,” THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE TREATMENT. 
439 
as it is called; not by applying hot blankets, nor putting the patient 
into a nice warm bed. The first and instant necessity is, if possible, 
to give breath until the patient is sufficiently recovered to be able 
to take breath for himself. This alone can start life again, and 
maintain it in action. If the draft and door of a stove is long 
kept tightly closed the fire dies away to an interior spark. If in 
this condition you begin to put in more coal, your disturbance is 
very likely to completely extinguish the remaining spark. 
To apply heat in any form to the outside around the stove 
would be simply absurd and ridiculous. If, on the contrary, you 
should open the draft, rake away the ashes and dead coals from the 
mouth of the draft up to the interior spark, open the damper and 
set a current of air in motion through the stove, or in a great emer- 
gency add a few gentle steady puffs from the bellows, you would 
be adopting what all experience proves to be the most sensible 
and only successful way to rekindle your fire to brightness and 
warmth. 
The relation of fresh air to the burning of a fire is precisely what 
it is to the reviving and continuance of life. Therefore, if the friction, 
the breeze, and the slap upon the nerves over the stomach, as 
directed in Rule 1, fail to startle and revive the patient, then it is 
necessary to at once see that the track from the mouth to the chest 
is clear, so that the passage of air to the chest be not obstructed. 
By following the directions of Rule 2, fluids accumulated in 
the stomach, chest, or throat are removed. The stomach, at a greater 
elevation than any other part of the track, is pressed between the 
roll of clothing and the spine, whence water or other accumulations 
have a complete drainage down to and out of the mouth, which is 
the lowest point. 
The next step is to induce air to enter the chest by what is called 
artificial breathing or respiration. Rule 3 prevents the tongue 
tumbling back into the throat, to choke it up as by a piece of dead 
meat, and provides for its tip being kept out and to one side of 
the mouth. Also by keeping the arms well stretched back, helps to 
keep the chest somewhat expanded. 
The actual breathing is effected by the directions in Rule d. 
In order to understand this, it must be remembered that the chest 
containing the elastic lungs is an open-work, ribbed, bony box, which 
above the bottom of the breast-bone is scarcely movable, except by 
one’s own will, the ribs being fastened both in front to the breast- 
bone and behind to the spine. The ribs below the breast-bone, known 
as the short ribs, are fastened only behind to the spine; they are 
very elastic and loose, and thus are called the floating ribs. 440 
SURGICAL ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES. 
It is this enables any foolish woman to diminish the size of her 
waist to any standard fashion may demand. 
All the breathing necessary to life can be performed by this part 
of the chest alone, as is generally the case during sleep. 
When the pressure is made upon this part of the chest, then, as 
directed in Rule 4, the cavity of the chest is greatly diminished; 
what air is in it is partially forced out, and on suddenly letting go, 
the natural elasticity of these seini-cartilaginous ribs compels them 
to spring back to their natural position. This would create a 
vacuum, but that the fresh air is thus compelled to rush in through 
the mouth to occupy the otherwise vacant space. 
This action, repeated as directed, compels successive volumes 
of fresh air#to enter the chest just as occurs in natural breathing, 
and so it is called and constitutes “ artificial breathing ” or “ arti- 
ficial respiration.” 
The first returning natural gasps are apt to be irregular, and if 
the artificial breathing be continued regardless of them, the motions 
of the operator may actually interfere with and interrupt them ; 
therefore, as directed in Rule 5, let your motions be so timed 
to the natural effort of the patient as simply to aid and deepen his 
breathing, which is as yet imperfect and insufficient. 
With life comes heat, but the latter may be greatly favored by 
following the direction in Rule 6. Warmth, rest, and fresh air 
are now to be regarded as important means of completing the resus- 
citation already begun. 
To make this chapter more complete, the following method of 
artificial respiration, known as Marshall Hall’s, or the “ Ready 
Method,” is appended ; it is described by its author as follows : 
“ Place the patient on his face, his arms under his head, that the 
tongue may fall forward, and leave entrance into the windpipe free, 
and that any fluids may flow out of the mouth; then 
“ Turn the body gradually but completely on the side and a 
little more, and then again upon the face alternately, to induce in- 
spiration and expiration. 
“ When replaced, apply pressure along the back and ribs, and 
then remove it to induce further expiration and inspiration, and 
proceed as before. 
“ Let these measures be repeated gently, deliberately, but effi- 
ciently and perseveringly, sixteen times in the minute only.” 
HANGING AND SUFFOCATION. 
Hanging induces death chiefly because the rope closes the 441 
STILL-BIRTH. 
windpipe, and keeps fresh air from the lungs. Suffocation, whether 
caused by something covering the mouth, or by smoke, foul gas of 
wells, or other noxious vapors, causes death from the same cause 
equally, viz., by preventing fresh air from reaching the lungs. 
In hanging, the first thing is instantly to cut and remove the cord. 
Then proceed at once to perform artificial breathing, as directed 
in drowning, dispensing, of course, with the attempt to remove 
accumulations from the mouth or chest, and being careful to keep 
the head raised a little more than in the position after drowning, 
because in hanging the head becomes filled with blood, and this 
congestion is partly relieved by a more elevated position of the head. 
In suffocation, proceed simply with the process for artificial 
breathing, just as for hanging. % 
STILL-BIRTH. 
If the infant does not breathe immediately on coming into the 
world, be careful not to divide the navel-string for the present, 
because so long as that is complete the blood of the mother con- 
tinues to nourish the child, just as it did in the womb. Wipe 
cleanly from its mouth and nostrils all mucus, and give it a smart 
slap with your open hand upon the belly. Dash upon its face 
sharply a little very cold water, then a little warm water, then 
a little cold water. If this does not succeed cut the cord, wrap the 
child in flannel, and proceed at once with artificial breathing, as 
for suffocation, but with this difference:—remember the infant has 
never once had any air enter its lungs, so there is none which by 
pressure can be displaced, therefore it is better to try and blow 
up its lungs first, and apply pressure afterwards; or let one per- 
son blow while another person makes the pressure for artificial 
breathing. In order to do this properly, wipe the nose and lips of 
the child very clean ; open the mouth wide, by pressing your fore- 
finger down upon the tongue and lower jaw. Let some one else 
press upon the larynx, or Adam’s apple, as it is called, so as to keep 
it at the back part of the throat, and prevent any air from passing 
behind it into the stomach. Now apply your lips to the lips of the 
child, and steadily and forcibty blow, not quite emptying your own 
chest. Now let your assistant make the pressure, as described; 
then blow again, and so on, alternating the blowing and the pres- 
sure, in imitation of natural breathing; continuing the process, 
if necessary, for an entire hour, without intermission. 
Firm, steady pressure on the bleeding part is the first treatment 
HEMORRHAGE FROM WOUNDS. 442 
SURGICAL ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES. 
for bleeding wounds in every case, and will usually be at once suc- 
cessful. 
Cold—ice or ice-water—is very efficient when only small blood- 
vessels have been divided. 
Pressure above the wound, applied in the course of the artery, 
is more reliable than either the other methods. In the arm or 
thigh this may be made and continued by tying a stone in a hand- 
kerchief, allowing the stone to rest right over the course of the 
artery, and then tighten it thereupon, by twisting the ends of the 
handkerchief around a stick, constituting a tourniquet sufficient to 
control the most violent hemorrhage, until the patient can be bet- 
ter cared for. 
TREATMENT OF PERSONS STRUCK WITH LIGHTNING. 
“ When persons happen to be overtaken by a thunder storm, 
although they may not be terrified by lightning, yet they naturally 
wish for shelter from the rain which usually attends it, and therefore, 
if no house be at hand, generally take refuge under the nearest tree 
they can find. But in doing this they unknowingly expose them- 
selves to a double danger; first, because, their clothes being thus 
kept dry, their bodies are rendered more liable to injury, the light- 
ning often passing harmlessly over a body whose surface is wet; and, 
secondly, because a tree or any elevated object, instead of warding 
off, serves to attract and conduct the lightning, which, in its pas- 
sage, frequently rends the trunks or branches, and kills any person 
or animal who happens to be close to it at the time. Instead of 
seeking protection, then, by retiring under the shelter of a tree, 
hay-rick, pillar, wall, or hedge, the person should either pursue his 
way to the nearest house, or get to a part of the road or field which 
has no object that can draw lightning towards it, and remain there 
until the storm has subsided. 
“It is particularly dangerous to stand near leaden spouts or iron 
gates at such times; metals of all kinds have so strong a conducting 
power for lightning, as frequently to lead it out of the course which 
it would otherwise have taken. 
“ When in the house, avoid standing near the window, or door, 
or walls, during a thunder-gust. The nearer you are placed to the 
middle of a room the better. 
“ When a person is struck by lightning, strip the body and throw 
bucketsful of cold water over it for ten or fifteen minutes ; let con- 
tinued frictions and inflations of the lungs be also practised; let 
gentle shocks of electricity be made to pass through the chest, when CONVULSIONS IN CHILDREN. 
443 
a skilful person can be procured to administer them ; and apply 
blisters to the chest.” 
TREATMENT OF APPARENT DEATH FROM THE EFFECTS OF COLD. 
The body should be brought into a room in which there is no 
fire, and rubbed with snow or cloths dipped in cold water. The 
frictions should be directed from the stomach towards the extremi- 
ties. In a few minutes after, the temperature of the water should 
be very gradually increased, so as not to heat the body suddenly. 
Stimulants may be applied to the lips and nostrils. 
The lungs must be inflated as in the treatment of the drowned. 
When the natural warmth of the body is returning, the patient 
should be put into a bed, wrapped in dry blankets, and be well 
rubbed with a flesh-brush. A little weak wine and water may be 
given, or a clyster administered containing a little wine or some- 
thing slightly stimulative. 
Strict diet should be adhered to for some time after recovery. 
When the limbs only are frozen, the application of snow or wet 
cloths is to be confined to the affected parts ; half a teaspoonful of 
hartshorn in a glass of water may be advantageously administered, 
or a little weak spirit and water. 
CONVULSIONS IN CHILDREN. 
In children there are two remarkable kinds of convulsions, 
namely, what are called inward fits, and the common violent con- 
vulsions. The inward fits occur generally during sleep, and are 
known by the corners of the mouth being drawn up into a sort of 
smile ; the eyelids are open, and the eyes are usually turned up, so 
as to show the whites. There is a fluttering in the breathing, and 
the child frequently starts. Fits of this kind are generally relieved 
by a warm cordial medicine, such as a little aniseed or syrup of rue; 
appearing as they do to depend on wind and flatulence of the 
intestines. 
As to the more violent convulsions, they depend on disorders of 
the nervous system, most usually brought about by the irritation 
dependent on teething. The symptoms by which such convulsions 
maybe known are these:—There is spasm throughout the muscular 
system, the arms and legs are drawn up and agitated, the body 
drawn back, the eyes are either fixed in their sockets, or are rolled 
to and fro, the child grinds its teeth, and the countenance is dis- 
torted. Sometimes there is a sort of breathing, which resembles 
greatly the breathing in croup. The first thing to be done is to 
place the child in a warm bath, to which a handful of mustard w 444 
SURGICAL ACCIDENTS AND EMERGENCIES. 
salt may be advantageously added, and while in tlie bath to sprinkle 
cold water upon the head. A clyster should also be administered. 
After remaining some time in the bath, if the violence of the 
symptoms is but little mitigated, the child should be removed, and 
after being wiped dry, the spine should be rubbed with spirits, 
or hartshorn and oil, and mustard poultices applied to the feet. 
But whenever there is reason to believe that the convulsions are 
from teething, the gums should be immediately and freely lanced. 
A sharp pen-knife will serve perfectly well in this operation, which 
any one would be able to perform. At times, however, the child 
is weak and pale, and then, instead of applying leeches or bleeding, 
a little stimulant medicine should be given, containing two or three 
drops of laudanum. 
When the child has recovered from the fit, it is usual to give a 
dose of calomel with a little rhubarb, in quantity proportioned to 
the age. 
POISONING. . ♦ 
There are many different kinds of poisons. There is poison in 
the water we drink, and in which we bathe. But within certain 
limits, poisonous substances, when properly diluted, may be benefi- 
cial, and not injurious. There are poisonous ingredients in the 
ordinary articles of diet, and some of the best qualities of food 
contain the most powerful poisons. Flesh, fish, and wheat are the 
three most digestible and most nutritious of our common alimen- 
tary substances, and yet they contain phosphorus—one of the most 
virulent of poisons. 
But beyond certain limits poisonous substances cannot be taken 
without injury. 
Carbonic acid may be breathed for years in moderate doses ; but 
in large quantities, as it is sometimes found in deep wells, it will 
prove instantly fatal. 
Nearly all of our best medicines are poisons, some of them of the 
most virulent character. In small doses they benefit; in large 
doses they may work terrible mischief. 
The same remarks will apply to stimulants and narcotics, all of 
which contain more or less poisonous substances. (See Stimulants 
and Narcotics.) 
It is not necessary, in a treatise like the present, to enter into 
particulars relatively to the modes of action of the numerous descrip- 
tions of poisons to which the unfortunate who resolve on suicide 
have recourse, or to which such as are the victims of their own " HEALTH IS WEALTH.” 1KD1SPKNSARLE TO EVERY HOUSEHOLD.-" KKOW THYSELF.” 
j§tt n*mt glfflfitm 
TO THE AltT OF FRESERVING HEALTH ANH TREATING DISEASE 
With Plain Advice for all Medical and Surgical Emergencies of the Family, 
A NEW AND POPULAR GUIDE 
CONTAINING CLEAR DESCRIPTIONS OF TIIE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY ; THE 
INFLUENCE OF OCCUPATION ON HEALTH AND LONGEVITY ; THE LAWS OF INHERITANCE ; NEW 
AND ORIGINAL CHAPTERS ON STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS, CLIMATE, ELECTRICITY 
AND NERVOUS DISEASES OF MODERN TIMES; DIRECTIONS FOR THE CARE OF 
. THE SICK AND THE MANAGEMENT OF INFANTS AND CHILDREN ; WITH 
A DESCRIPTION OF RECENT MEDICAL DISCOVERIES AND IM- 
PROVEMENTS, AND PLAIN SUGGESTIONS FOR THE 
TREATMENT OF DISEASES, ADAPTED TO THE 
HOUSEHOLD. AND FOR THOSE BE- 
YOND THE READY CALL 
OF A PHYSICIAN. 
The whole is based on the most Recent and the Highest Authorities, and brought 
down to the Latest Hates. 
By G-EO. M. BEARD, A.M., M.D. 
LBCTUREB ON NERVOUS DISEASES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK; MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY 
ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF “ THE MEDICAL USE OF ELECTRICITY,” ETC. 
The Publishers present “ Our Home Phtsician ” with the assurance that it is the most 
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