LECTURES 
ON 
LIFE AND HEALTH; 
OR, 
THE LAWS AND MEANS 
OF 
PHYSICAL CULTURE. 
BY 
WILLIAM A. ALCOTT, M. D., 
AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS WORKS ON EDUCATION, MORALS, 
HEALTH, AND PHYSIOLOGY. 
*• r 
IVitlj Sllotidino 
BOSTON: 
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, AND COMPANY. 
NEW YORK : J. C. DERBY. 
1 855. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
WILLIAM A. ALCOTT, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
ALVAN B. n A S TI, P RI $'1' J? R 
3 WATER ST., BOSTON. 
STEREOTYPED AT THE 
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. TO THE READER. 
While travelling in the United States, during the 
last twelve or fifteen years, as a public lecturer and 
missionary of health, the question has been asked me 
a thousand times, What work have you written, not 
unlike your course of lectures, which may be re- 
garded as containing the substance of your views on 
health ? to which I have been obliged to reply, None 
at all. 
For though the Library of Health, the Young 
Mother, the Young Housekeeper, and the House I 
Li ve In, contain much on this great subject, yet they 
are not exactly what is demanded. The Young 
Mother is designed chiefly to . assist in the applica- 
tion of the laws of health to the physical education 
of the young; the Young Housekeeper is on food 
and cookery; the House I Live In is small; and the 
Library of Health is nearly out of print. 
Many who have attended my lectures - among 
whom have been a few of our oldest and ablest 
physicians - have urged me to publish them, as a 
suitable work on this subject; but I have not, till 
now, found the necessary leisure. I have, at length, 
prepared them for the press. 
They are not strictly physiological lectures ; but, 
more properly, lectures on hygiene, or the laws o.f 
health. Our popular books in this department, - an^ . 
so of our public lectures, - though good, in general, 
III IV 
TO THE READER. 
as far as they go, are for the most part on anatomy 
and physiology, with a mere " sprinkling " of hygiene. 
They are like the trunk and limbs of a most invalu- 
able tree; but they have not borne enough of foliage 
and fruit. My lectures are the reverse of this. They 
are chiefly and substantially on the laws of health, 
with continual appeals to anatomy and physiology 
as their basis. " To the law and to the testimony " 
has been my constant resort-not to whim, or prepos- 
session. The law itself will, for the most part, be 
found elsewhere. 
In the style of the work I have not aimed at rhet- 
oric, but intelligibility. For this reason I have pre- 
served, as much as possible, the original form of 
lecture, instead of that of the more elaborate essay. 
On this account it may not bear so well the test of 
a criticism that looks only at externals; but for the 
" million," it is believed, it will be but the more 
acceptable. 
It may be thought that the work; in some of its 
parts, is incomplete. This was intended. It would 
require several volumes like this to present, in detail, 
the whole circle of hygiene. My aim has been to 
make a selection of as many of the more important 
and material parts of a great system, or circle, as 
could well be brought within the compass of a single 
volume of moderate size. I have constantly studied 
brevity, and yet there will be found occasional rep- 
etitions of an idea, or sentiment; but the nature of 
the subject involves a necessity of repeating and reit- 
erating, in order to be intelligible. 
West Newton, March, 1853. CONTENTS. 
LECTURE I. 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS, .... 17-46 
Two fifths of all who are bom die under five years of age, 17- The 
remainder all die prematurely, 18. A fearful mortality, 18. Half die 
of fevers, 18. One fourth of consumption and scrofula, 18. The rest 
of other diseases, 18. All die of violence, 18. No such thing known, 
in modern days, as natural death, a death from mere old age, 19. But 
is not the length of human life increasing ? 19. It was so, till recent- 
ly, 19. But chronic diseases are also multiplying, 19. Estimates to 
show the shortness of life, 19. Loss of time by ill health, 20. Effects 
of this on the rising generations, 20. Amount of suffering, 21. Pe- 
cuniary losses, 21. Value of the time lost, 21. Expense for physi- 
cians and medicine, 22. Taxation by these losses, 22. Value of the 
time lost by the premature death of the consumptive, 23. Loss of 
property by the premature death of children, 23. The world a great 
hospital, 24. Whence this state of things, 24. Are diseases sent by 
the Creator ? 24. Are they the work of Satan ? 25. New England 
Primer, 25. Do they come by chance ? 25. Or are they the result of 
transgressing physical and moral law ? 26. The writer's views, 26. 
Proposal to manufacture health rather than disease, 27. But how ? 27. 
Not by hobbyism, 27. What is meant by hobbyism, 27. Not by 
quackery, 28. Not by nostrums, 29. Not by medicine, even, 30. 
Patchwork, 31. Prevention, 32. Manufacturing health, 32. How ? 
32. - 1. By the influence of right feeling, 32. - 2. By stopping the com- 
mon abuses of medicine, 33. - 3. By bringing our appetites under law, 
34. - 4. By breathing pure air, 35. - 5. By managing our nervous sys- 
tems rightly, 36. -6. By the right use of the locomotive system, 37. 
Things to be done immediately, 38. - 1. Do what we know is right, 38. 
2. Study the relation of cause and effect, 40. - 3. Live within our in- 
come, 41.- 4. Enlighten ourselves on this subject, 43.-5. Begin 
now, 44. High anticipations of the future, 46. 
LECTURE II. 
MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION, 47-104 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
All mankind under law, 47. Eighteen hundred years ago, 47. Diges- 
tion an extensive and complicated work, 47. Its principal processes 
considered, 48. 
I. MECHANISM OF DIGESTION. 
Enumeration of the parts concerned, 48. These parts briefly described, 
48. Mouth and teeth, 49. Salivary glands, 49. Saliva, 49. The 
stomach, its size, 49. 'The gastric juice, 50. Formation of chyme, 50. 
The small intestines, 51. The liver and pancreas, 52. Bile and pan- 
creatic juice, 52. Chyle, 52. The lacteals, 52. What becomes of 
the chyle, 52. What becomes of the remains of the chyme, 53. 
Change of the chyle into blood, 53. 
1 2 
CONTENTS. 
II. THE LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
Law 1. Mastication and insalivation, 54. A mistake corrected, 54. Bean- 
mont's experiments, 54. Necessity c/f masticating our food, 55. 
Gross neglect, 55. Bolting our food, 55. An anecdote of cider drink- 
ing, 56. Throwing down our food, 56. The gizzard story, 56. Dif- 
ference between digestion and solution, 56. Causes of premature 
decay of the teeth 56. Heated food, 57. Liquid food, 57. Condi- 
ments or seasonings, 58. Tea and coffee, 58. What is nature's 
own and only drink, 58. Buttering our food, 58. How to make un- 
savory food agreeable, 59. - Law 2. How often we should eat, 59. Tal- 
leyrand, and Taliaferro, 59. The Fowlers, 59. The Romans, 59. 
Extremes of eating only once a day, and eating all day long, 60. Eat- 
ing twice a day, 60. Habits of Dr. Jackson, 60. Three times a day 
the general practice, 60. Smokers, 60. Meals late at night, 60. Deli- 
cate females, 61. Three meals a day the maximum, two the minimum, 
61. Young children, 61. Error of mothers, 61. What Dr. Coles 
says, 61. Case of hard laborers considered, 62. Gnawing and faint- 
ness, 62. Explanation of the motion of the stomach, 63. " Jading 
the stomach, 63. An objection met, 64. Particular violations con- 
sidered, 64. Eating and drinking between meals, 65. Regularity in 
regard to evacuation 66. A ■warning, 66. - Law 3. Quantity of food, 66. 
Weighing food, its general folly, 66. Anecdote, 67. Who might weigh 
their food, and why, 67. Difficulty of having any fixed rules, 67. 
Mankind almost all eat too much, 68. What Solomon, Franklin, 
Newton, Dwight, and Cornaro said and did, 68. Jefferson and Cald- 
well's testimony, 68. Habits of the Japanese, Hindoos, Turks, and Ro- 
mans, 68. A practical error or two corrected, 69. Leaving off hungry, 
69. Examples, Grant Thorburn and the Ohio fanner, 70. The stronger 
our appetites the better, 70. Few have strong appetites, 70. Food 
should refresh us, 7L The supposed fever of digestion, 71. An error 
depending upon it corrected, 73. Exercise after eating, 73. We are edu- 
cated to excess in eating,74. Care of the new-born infant, 74. Fat babies, 
74. The Surinam mothers, 74. The mothers at home, 75. Example 
of bad trainings, 75. Pseudo politeness, 76. Physical law is God's 
law, 77. - Law 4. Quality of food, 77. Simplicity, 77. Mrs. Leslie's 
mince pie, 77. Complicated food very common, 78. Examples of 
cooking, to illustrate the subject, 78. The potato, 78. Pies and 
pastry, 79. What Paris, Pereira, Kitchener, and Peter Parley say, 
' 79. Made dishes always objectionable, 79. Special complications, 80. 
Luxuries and necessaries, 80. Food should not be too nutritious, 80. 
What Er. Dunglison says, 80. W'hy unbolted meal is better than 
bolted, 80. Bolters should not be used, 81. Why milk is better than 
butter and cheese, 81. Why fat is objectionable, 81. Jewish law 
against fat and blood, 81. Rice, peas, and beans, 81. Why potatoes and 
other vegetables are so healthy, 81. Reasons for using a good deal of 
innutritions substance, 82. Analogy, 82. Care of domestic animals, 
82. Care of infants, 83. Facts, 83. A thought about potatoes, 83. 
Another about fat meat and rice, 83. The human stomach a soap tub, 
84. Diseased food, 84. Diseased potatoes, 84. Other diseased vege- 
tables, 85. Hotbed culture, 85. Recent manures, 85. A query about 
large crops, 85. Diseases of domestic animals, particularly the swine, 
86. Several reasons why the swine is almost always diseased, 86. Dis- 
eased cattle, 88. The cow, 88. What Dr. Clarke says, 88. Anecdote 
of a consumptive cow, 88. Diseased geese, 88. Strasburg mince pies, 
how made, 88. All stall-fed animals diseased, 88. What animals are 
healthy, 89. What Noah Webster says, 89. Oysters, 89. The dolphin, 
89. The partridge, 89. Blood sausages, 89. Poisoning by cheese, 90. 
Putrid fat, 90. Medicated food, 90. Prescriptions of medical men, 
90. What is meant by medicated food, 91. Alcoholic liquors and to- CONTENTS. 
3 
banco with food, 91. Medicine chests on the table, 91. What table 
medicine is, 91. Effects of condiments explained, 92. Experiment 
with cantharides and salcratus, 93. Tea and coffee also medicines, 
94. Should be used as a separate thing, if used at all, 94. So should 
condiments, 94. A query about being behind the times, 94. Case of 
Methuselah, 95. Our aliment should contain all necessary ingredi- 
ents for building up the system, 95. Fibrine, albumen, and caseine, 
95. Azotized and non-azotized substances, 95. Do vegetables con- 
tain much carbon ? 95. What Dr. Carpenter says, 95. Further re- 
marks about animal food, 96. - Law 5. Our whole system should be in 
a healthy state, 97. The digestive machinery must be healthy, 97. So 
must the whole body, 98. So must the mental faculties and their ma- 
chinery, 98. So the moral nature - the feelings, and the affections, 98. 
Fretfulness - its effects, 98. Two sorts of fretting, 99. Grief, its 
effects, 99. Bad news at dinner, 99. Effects of hatred, 100. Whoso 
hates his brother is a suicide, 100. Effects of cheerfulness and the 
elevating affections and passions, 100. 
HR DISEASES OF DIGESTION. 
Dyspepsia, a many-headed monster, 100. What Dr. Johnson says 
about it, 101. Treatment of dyspepsia - a word about it, 101. Lien- 
tery, what it is, 102. Mistakes about it, 102. Diarrhoea, 103. Acidi- 
ty or heartburn, 103. Foul breath, 103. Bad teeth, 103. Sick head- 
ache, 103. Cold feet, 103. Drowsiness, 104. Liver complaint, 104. 
Eruptive diseases, 104. The young woman at Dorchester, 104. 
LECTURE III. 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION, . 105-168 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
Statement of Mr. Thackrah, 105. Digesting air, 105. Fifty hogsheads 
a day, 105. The air we breathe should not be injured by previous breath- 
ing or by combustion, 105. 
I. MECHANISM OF RESPIRATION OR BREATHING. 
The lungs or lights essentially a mass of air bladders, 105. Size of the 
chest-its influence, 105. Inhaling a pint of air at once, 106. The 
lungs seldom hold a gallon, 106. Their situation, 106. Their struc- 
ture, 107. Their motion, 107. Philosophy of breathing explained, 107. 
The word " windpipe," 108. Muscular motion, 108. The bronchial 
tubes, 109. Their termination, 109. Air cells, 110. Size of these 
cells, 110. Should be always full of air, 110. 
II. OFFICES OR USES OF THE LUNGS. 
First office - to convert chyle into blood, 110. Second office - to re- 
new the old blood, 111. How this is supposed to be effected, 111. 
Third office - to serve as the great fireplace of the human system, 111. 
One other office mentioned, 111. Do the lungs absorb ? 111. My own 
experiments on this point, 112. 
III. LAWS OF THE LUNGS. 
Law 1. The lungs should be capacious, 112. Importance of this law, 
112. Men with large chests tenacious of life, 112. Laborers and oth- 
ers in the open air have large chests, 113. Why, 113. Why tailors, 
shoemakers, &c., have small lungs, 113., What the Germans say about 
singing, 113. - Law 2. The lungs must have free motion. 113. Great 4 
CONTENTS. 
neglect of this, 113. Distortion of the breast in infancy, 113. Man- 
ner of holding infants, 113. Better to let them scramble on the floor, 
on their backs, 113. Particular care needed with rickety children, 114. 
Error in teaching children to speak, 114. Making monkeys and par- 
rots, 114. Singing early, 115. Pestalozzi, 115. Singing with all 
our might - not bawling, 115. Keep the lungs full of ah-, 115. Sing- 
ers by profession, 115. How to read, 115. Heading aloud, 115. Ef- 
fects to the race from speaking, singing, and reading right at first, 115. 
One cause of bronchitis, 116. Dressing .the chest too tightly, 116. 
An anecdote, 116. Position of the body often wrong, 116. Bad posi- 
tion of the body in sitting, 117. Thirty years ago, 117- Bad position 
in standing, 117. Why sitting long proves injurious, 118. Romping 
and running, 119. Amusements, 119. Doing good for amusement, 119. 
Swimming as an amusement, 119. Why we have no more of it, 119. 
Means of swimming within our reach, 119. Expanding the lungs by 
special effort, 120. The silver tube, 120. Nature's own tube - the 
■windpipe-preferable, 120. Counting with the lungs inflated, 120. 
Repeating the letters of the alphabet, 120. Case of disease removed 
in this way, 120. Dumb bells, climbing, &c., 120. Shaking the air into 
the air cells, 120. - Law 3. The lungs require pure air, 121. What pure 
air is, 121. Changes induced on it by breathing it, 121. What Frank- 
lin said, 121. Carbonic acid gas destructive to life and health, 122. 
How it destroys, 122. Grotta del Cane, 122. Choke damp, 122. 
Death by charcoal, 123. Remarks on this casualty, 123. Dying in this 
way by inches, 123. Thousands suffer, 123. Symptoms of suffering 
from it, 123. How particular individuals are affected, 124. Carbu- 
retted hydrogen gas, 124. This gas described, 124. How it is origi- 
nated, 124. Its poisonous character, 124. Dr. Dunglison's testimony, 
124. Sulphuretted hydrogen, 125. What it is, 125. How generated, 
125. In what proportion it will destroy birds, dogs, and horses, 125. 
How it affects the human species, 125. This gas on the intestines, 
126. Sulphurous acid, 126. Emanations - animal and vegetable, 126. 
The general opinion that the former are innocuous shown to be doubt- 
ful, by an array of facts, 127. Emanations from putrefying vegetable 
matter, 128. Their danger well understood, 128. Illustrations from 
facts in my own history, 128. Case at Newton Upper Falls, 129. Mys- 
terious providences - sometimes supposed so - controllable, 1'30. 
Medicated gases, airs, and vapors, 130. The exhilarating gas not so 
safe as many suppose, 130. Ether and chloroform, 131. Chloroform 
very dangerous, 131. Getting drunk to have a tooth extracted, 131. 
Its frequent exhibition injures the health of the medical men who ad- 
minister it, 131. Medicated vapors, 132. Various kinds of dust, 132. 
Delicate lining of the lungs, 133. Dirt not healthy to outside or in- 
side, 133. A mistake corrected, 133. What the Germans say of car- 
pets, 133. Their usefulness at least doubtful, 133. Dust of mineral 
substances, 133. Stonecutting, medicine, and paint grinding, &c., 
133. Axe grinding, 134. Metallic dusts, 134. What they truly are, 
134. Roxbury lead factory, 134. " Sentence against an evil work," 
not always executed immediately, 135. The man in Connecticut, 135. 
Fumes of copper, 135. Operatives at Newton, Mass., 135. Dust of 
tobacco, 135. What is meant by it, 136. Tobacco smoke something, 
136. Tobacco a poison, 136. Experiments of Dr. Mussey, 136. To- 
bacco smoke poisonous to all who breathe it, 136. Poisoning our 
dearest and best friends, 136. Smokers, though, like drunkards, they 
sometimes live to old age, die of poison after all, 136. Slow poisoning 
explained, 136. A new doctrine, 137. Transforming the nose and 
and lungs into chimneys, 138. - Law 4. Temperature and moisture 
of the air we breathe, 138. The denser our air the better, 138. Ex- 
ample to prove this, 138. Breathing air too warm, 139. How many 
have been destroyed by it, 139. Going to warm climates, 139. Case CONTENTS. 
5 
of bleeding at the lungs in Massachusetts, 139. Can any rule be giv- 
en as to temperature ? 140. Relying too much on external heat - 
clothes, fires, &c., 140. Throwing -water on nature's fireplace, 140. 
No crouching over fires, 141. More external heat needed at evening 
than in the morning, 141. Dangers of too high temperature, 141. 
Illustration, 141. Story of Cardinal Cheverus, 142. Moisture needed 
in our air, 142. Chapped hands, &c., 142. Constant evaporation of 
water in our rooms necessary, 142. 
IV. DISEASES OE THE LUNGS. 
A list of diseases to -which the lungs are exposed, as the penalties of 
violated law, 143. Injury done at the same time to other organs, 143. 
Colds on the lungs, 143. Then- tendency to consumption, 144. Bron- 
chitis, 144. Pleurisy, peripneumony, and lung fever, 144. Anecdote 
of the children in the Hartford schools, 144. A new scheme proposed, 
145. Asthma, 145. Expending six hundred dollars for useless medi- 
cine, 145. Scrofula, 146. 
• V. VENTILATION. 
How important ventilation is, 146. Franklin's story of Methuselah, 
146. " Times are altered," much for the worse, 147. The open pure 
air of heaven now almost universally slighted, 147. Most people 
endeavor to be covered or caged up, 147. Housekeepers and chil- 
dren, 147. Tanning, 147. Where the public mind needs direction, 
148. Proper places for erecting buildings, 148. Factories, school 
houses, and dwelling houses, 148. Particular remarks concerning each, 
148. School rooms, 149. What Dr. Jarvis says, 150. Immense suf- 
fering in school rooms, as shown by estimates, 150. Punishment in- 
flicted when the fault is bad air, 151. Formation of bad habits at 
school, 152. A case in point, 152. Location, construction, and par- 
ticular ventilation of the school room, 152. Different modes of ven- 
tilation, 153. Ventilators at both top and bottom, 154. Raising and 
lowering windows, 155. One or two cautions, 155. The march of im- 
provement, 156. Remarks on factories, 156. Lowell, 156. Blowing 
away dust, 157. Application of science on Christian principle to our 
factories, 157. Ventilating our shops, 158. Sleeping rooms, 158. 
These much too small, 158. Examples, 158. How to ventilate, 159. 
Death from neglect in Boston, 161. Story of the Black Hole at Cal- 
cutta, 161. What is to be done ? 162. Particular directions, 163. 
Various methods, 163. How to sleep safely with open windows,. - 
165. Cautions and anecdotes, 166. Returning to the use of fire- 
places, 166. Reasons why this might be advisable, 166. Air-tight 
stoves, 167. Ventilation of churches, vestries, lecture rooms, &c., 
167. Ignorant sextons, 168. 
LECTURE IV. 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION, . 169-204 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
Usefulness of the blood, 169. Twenty-five or thirty pounds of it in the 
adult, 169. Four fifths of the body liquid, 169. 
I. MECHANISM OF THE CIRCULATION. 
Heart, arteries, veins, and capillaries, 169. Description of the heart, 
170. Is double in man, 170. Its size, 170. Auricle and ventricle, 
170. Two kinds of blood, venous and arterial. 170. Its mode of circu- 6 
CONTENTS. 
lation, 171. Motion of the heart, 171. The figure 8, 171. Fifty to 
eighty beats of the heart a minute, 172. The motion more rapid in 
infants, 172. Force of the heart, 172. Size of the aorta, 173. Num- 
ber and character of the arteries, 174. The capillaries, 174. Number 
and character of the veins, 174. Valves in the latter, 174. 
II. FUNCTIONS OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 
Without circulation the blood would stagnate, and we should die, 174. 
Circulation accomplishes three or four objects, 175. These objects 
fully explained, 175. How the system is nourished - how renewed - 
how growth takes place, 175. Agents in effecting these results, 176. 
We are constantly changing, 178. A great and important truth, 178. 
How often we are renewed, 178. A most encouraging inference, 179- 
III. LAWS OF THE CIRCULATION. 
Law 1. The heart must not be compressed, 179. The aorta- its shape, 
179. Should not be compressed, 180. Tight lacing the chest, 180. 
Appendages of dress, 181. What causes varicose veins, 181. Wrong 
habits formed at school, 181. Seats with backs, 182. The seat of 
life, 182. - Law 2. There, must be no irritation, 182. Plain food and 
drink do not irritate, 182. Water in large quantities, 183. High 
seasonings in our food, 183. The use of salt, 183. Example of the 
use of mustard, 184. Tea and coffee, 184. Testimony of Dr. Cole 
concerning them, 185. The tea disease, 185. Dosing and drugging in 
general, 185.-Law 3. Equality of temperature, 186. Keeping the 
skin plump, 186. Obeying all the laws of the skin, 187. - Law 4. In- 
nervation- what it is, 187. Appearances when it is wanting, 187. 
The brain must be a working organ, 188. Extreme of overtasking 
the mental machinery, 188. -Law 5. Healthful state of the pas- 
sions and affections, 188. What Dr. Sweetser says, 188. What the 
physiologist Haller, 189. Love, hope, and joy - their influence, 189. 
Excess of joy, 189. Effects of grief, 189. Story of the Quaker wo- 
man and Dr. Rush, 190. Suicide, 190. Dr. Sweetser again, 190. Our 
Savior, 191. Chicken-heartcdness, 192. Phrenology of the heart, T92. 
Visiting schools, 192. I can't, and I'll try, 193. Effects of godliness 
and correct training on the world, 193. 
IV. DISEASES OF THE BLOOD AND ORGANS OF CIRCULATION 
A capital error opposed, 194. Cleansing the blood by medicine, 194. 
Various popular ways of trying to do this, 194. Direct application to 
the blood can do nothing, 195. Humbuggery exposed, 195. Cleans- 
ing the Mississippi ! 196. How alone the blood can be purified, 196. 
Particular diseases, 197. Cyania, or blue skin, 197. Hydrocardia, 197. 
Angina pectoris, 198. Various diseases of the heart, 198. Aneurism, 
198. Ossification, 199. Sudden death, 199. Anecdote from my own 
history, 200. Ossified veins, 200. Children early instructed in hy- 
giene, 201. An ingenious teacher, 201. Blackboard and diagram, 
201. Particular directions to parents, 202. Too early confinement of 
the young, 202. Anecdote of a boot maker, 203. Heart complaints 
among boot and shoe makers, 204. These complaints alleviated, but 
not cured by religion, 204. 
' LECTURE V. 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING, 205-248 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
The skin not a mere wrapper, 205. Not a mere strainer, 205. It is a 
handmaid to the lungs, 205. It is a safety valve to the general CONTENTS. 
7 
system, 295. Its great work is that of depuration, 206. It must have 
a centrifugal tendency, 206. 
I. MECHANISM OF THE SKIN. 
The different layers of which it is composed, 206. The cuticle - its 
structure, 207. The rete mucosum, 207. The cutis vera, or true skin, 
207. Its wonderful machinery, 207. Comparison with a leaf - a fac- 
tory - a steam engine, 207. What Dr. Carpenter says about it, 208. 
Color of the skin, 210. Connections, 210. Thickness of the cuticle, 
210. Extent of the skin, 210. 
II. OFFICES OF THE SKIN. 
Absorption, 210. Proofs that the skin absorbs, 211. Secretion, what 
it is, 211. What perspiration is, 211. The sebaceous matter, 212. Its 
uses, 212. Excretion, 212. The skin an organ of sympathy, 212. 
Particular sympathies, 213. The skin an ornament when healthy, 
213. Mistake about beauty, 214. The skin a covering and defence, 
211. A medium of communication with the surrounding world, 215. 
III. LAWS OF THE SKIN. 
Law 1. Avoid the absorption of improper and poisonous substances, 
such as cosmetics and medicated washes, 215. Sudden death from 
handling diseased animals, 216. Eye washes, 216. An error about 
ointments, 216. Anecdote of a surgeon and nature, 216. Impotence 
of all ointments and plasters, 217. Drawing out a stump with gall, 
217. A word or two of caution, 218. - Law 2. The skin should not 
be compressed, 218. Illustrated by a comparison, 218. Compression 
of the chest, 219. Compressing various parts of the skin, 219. Tight 
boots, hats, &c., 219. Influence of hard beds, 219. The " soft side of 
a plank,"229. Eider down, 220. Elastic wire beds, 220. Application 
of the law of sympathy, 220. -Law 3. The skin must not be irritated, 
221. External irritation, 221. Internal irritation, 221. Alcoholic 
irritants, 221. Tobacco, 222. Coffee and tea, 222. High seasonings, 
222. Contents of the castor, 223. Vinegar, 223.-Law 4. Proper 
temperature of the skin, 223. Effects of perspiration, 223. Evap- 
oration, 223. Graduating our heat by the thermometer, 223. Sir 
Charles Blagden's experiment, 223. Sudden and momentary cold, 
224. Permanent chillness, 224. A mistake about early flannel, 224. 
Its consequences, 224. Anecdote of a Boston physician, 225. My own 
experience, 225. Extremes, 225. Power of the skin in generating 
heat, 226. Returning to a savage state, 226. Ascending to nature, 226. 
As little clothing should be worn as possible, 226. Sudden heating, 
227. Crouching around stoves and flreplaces, 227. More than one 
kind of slavery, 227- Keeping the skin cool by night, 228. A common 
mistake about bed clothing, 228.-Law 5. Air and light applied to 
the skin, 228. Why the skin needs air, 228. A curious experiment, 
229. Reasoning from comparison and analogy, 229. Observation, 229. 
Why the skin needs light, 229. Comparisons, 229. The potato in a 
dark cellar, 229. Excluding the light by appendages of dress, and by 
curtains, blinds, and covered carriages, 230. Getting the skin tanned, 
230. Blistering the skin, 230. Stroke of the sun, 230. Centrifugal 
tendency of sunlight, 230.-Law 6. Keeping the skin clean, 231. 
Appeal to anatomy and physiology, 231. Frequency of cleansing the 
skin, 231. Partial ablution, 231. Sedentary people, 231. They who 
have more exercise, 232. Getting varnished over, 232. Breaking 
up the varnish, 232. Daily exercise, 232. Daily bathing, 232. Qual- 
ity of food- its effects on the skin, 232. Objection considered, 232. 
Manner of ablution, 233. Washing for mere cleanliness, 233. Objec- 8 
CONTENTS. 
tions to warm water, soap and water, &c., 233. Warm baths at go- 
ing to bed, 233. Is cold water sufficient for the purposes of cleanli- 
ness ? 233. Proper hour for bathing, 234. Reaction, 234. What a 
reaction is, 234. Reasons for cold bathing in the forenoon, 234. An 
objection answered, 235. Going into water when overheated, 235. 
Anecdote of Alexander the Great, 235. Two Edinburgh students, 236. 
The cold mill pond and Saturday evening, 236. Teachings of Rush 
and Coffin, 236. Invigorating the system by cold water, 236. The 
two great ends of bathing, 237. Which is the more important, 237. 
Positive effects of water, 237. Hydropathy-what it claims, 237. 
Particular directions about beginning to bathe, 237- Cautions, 238. 
Begin always with very cold water, 238. Bathing by the fireside, 239. 
Sponge bathing and shower bathing, 239. Vapor bathing, 239. Bath- 
ing to prevent disease, 239. Wearing the same clothing night and 
day, 239. A night dress is indispensable, 239. Why we should bathe 
daily, even in winter, 240. Objection considered, that bathing is not 
natural, 240. Stereotyped barbarism, 241. - Law 7. Spiritual part 
must be healthy, 241. A sound mind in a sound body, 241. Diseases 
from the depressing passions, 241. Diseases of fear, grief, anxiety, 
&c., 242. Habits of fretfulness, 242. A centrifugal force in the sys- 
tem, a good defence against contagion, 242. Amulets and charms, 
243. Proper cultivation of the intellect, 243. 
IV. DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 
Colds, 243. They fall on the weakest part, 243. A cold is a disease, 
244. On what parts a cold may seat, 244. Theory of a cold, 244. 
Their peculiarities, 244. Number of colds in a year, 244. They lead 
to other diseases, 244. They lead to or aggravate skin diseases, 245. 
Diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera, often colds at the beginning, 245. 
Colds on the eyes, 245. Injurious effects of sudden warming, 246. 
Cases stated-at Cleveland, Ohio - at Seville - in Maine, 246. A 
popular error exposed, 246. Keeping at a distance from the fire, 247. 
Warming feet, 247. The tendency to chilblains, 247. Anecdote of 
the black-eyed girl, 247. What Dr. Dunglison says, 248. Conclu- 
sion of the whole matter, 248. 
LECTURE VI. 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION, • . 249-290 
Consumption destroys its seventy-five thousand persons a year, in the 
whole United States, 249. Comparisons with cholera, 249. The latter 
not so dreadful, 249. Cholera takes those whom we can best spare, 249. 
Consumption the opposite class, 250. Facts presented to prove this, 
250. Consumption delights in a shining mark, 250. Proportion of 
female to male victims, 250. Average longevity of the consumptive, 
250. The disease extending south and west, 250. Mortality at Bal- 
timore, 251. What is to be done ? 251. Is the disease curable ? 251. 
What Dr. Fitch and Dr. Rose say, 251. Other writers on the sub- 
ject, 252. Comments on their statements, 252. I do not believe pul- 
monary consumption can be cured, 252. Facts in my own history, 253. 
Quackery and ignorance, 253. What consumption is, 253. Predis- 
posing and exciting causes - their nature and difference illustrated, 
253. Predisposing causes would generally be harmless, could we but 
avoid excitements, 254. External marks of consumption, 255. Men- 
tal characteristics, 256. Acquired ones, 256. Internal marks of con- 
sumption, 257. Tubercles described, 257. Their progress and course, 
257. A list of predisposing causes, 257. A list of exciting causes, 
258. Lives of the consumptive might be lengthened ten years, 259. CONTENTS. 
9 
Not, however, by palliation, so much as by prevention, 259. Two 
modes of prevention, 259. Avoiding cold, 259. What Horace Mann 
says of our climate, 259. Professor Smith, 259. Comparison with Eng- 
land, 260. Breaking up the habit of taking cold, 260. Author's ex- 
perience, 260. Whatman has done, man may do, 260. Howto break 
the habit, 260. Cold bathing, 261. Three errors in regard to bath- 
ing, 261. The Cape Cod case, 262. No cold bathing at evening, 262. 
No warm bathing in the morning, 262. Importance of common sense, 
262. The sword with two edges, 262. Determine to break the habit, 
263. Avoid medicine, 263. How the use ef medicine exposes us to 
colds, 263. For example, hot tea, 264. High-seasoned food, 264. 
Heated food and drink generally injurious, 264. Consumptive people 
specially fond of hot things, 264. Anecdote of a consumptive man, 
264. My honored mother, 265. Consumptive people fond of sensual 
indulgence, 265. Train well the calorific powers, 265. The more we 
yield to cold, the more we must, 265. Facing a cold north-west wind, 
266. Invigorate the lungs, 266. How to be done, 266. In the first 
place, use them, 266. A chapter from my own history, 267. Great 
power of endurance, 267. Pestalozzian system of music, 268. Will 
singing cure the consumption ? 268. Thoughts on the physical con- 
stitution of our Savior, 268. What his disciples should do,'268. How 
medicine predisposes us to take cold, 269. Why consumptive people 
should be particularly careful to avoid it, 269. Their extreme suscep- 
tibility7 of impression, 269. Their proneness to run after medicine, 269. 
The meddlesomeness of those around them, 269. Killing with kind- 
ness, 270. Inability to say No, 270. Not accustomed to much self- 
denial, 270. Too good natured, 270. They7 think of themselves too 
much, 271. They are spoiled by a wrong education, 271. They have 
too much love of approbation, 271. Accomplishments, 271. Keep 
the mind and heart right, 272. Precocity, 272. Application of im- 
proper stimulus at school, 273. Keep back the intellect, 273. An anec- 
dote of Mr. Woodbridge, 273. Grand error of modern education, 273. 
In avoiding Scylla we must not fall into Charybdis, 274. Beneficial in 
fluence of proper cultivation, 274. Influence of the elevating passions 
and affections, 274. Influence of hope, 274. High aims and expec- 
tations, 274. Expecting to live helps us to live, 275. An illustration, 
275. My own story, 275. Cheering views, 276. Influence of the love 
of God and man, 276. Hardening the constitution, 276. How it can 
be hardened, 277. Employments of the consumptive, 277. Useful 
employments generally healthful, 277. Air given us in the greatest 
abundance, 277- Our drink almost equally abundant, 277. Plain 
food cheap and easily obtained, 278. Our real necessities do not com- 
pel us to disease, 278. Agriculture, 278. House building, 279. Paint- 
ing, 279. List of unhealthy employments, 279. Those which are best 
for the consumptive person, 280. Our likes and dislikes, 280. Agri- 
culture or horticulture necessary to all, 280, 281. Female employ- 
ments, 282. Factories, 282. Blowing away the dust, 282. How we 
are biased by7 parental partialities, 283. Temptations to wrong do- 
ing, 283. The great law of renovation, 284. Change of climate 
considered, 284. When safe and when unsafe, 284. Mistakes, 284. 
Consumption on Cape Cod, 285. Other causes of the disease besides 
climate, 286. Dyspepsia, scrofula, and consumption, 287. Second 
kind of prevention, 287. Right physical education, 287- How the 
consumptive should be trained, 288. Sawing wood, spading, climb- 
ing, 289. Artificial aids in keeping erect, 289. Prospective educa- 
tion, 289. Testimony7 of Willich, 289. What the Fowlers say, 289. 
What Dr. Clark says, 289. Some may sneer, but the truth must be 
told, 290. Moral obligation to improve the race, 290. 10 
CONTENTS. 
LECTURE VIL 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE, . . 291-314 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
What the general objects of dress are, 291. - 1. To serve as a covering; 
2. To defend us; 3. To assist in regulating our temperature, 291. 
Hiding deformity, 291. Christian neglect of dress, 292. It has nei- 
ther been sent to college nor baptized, 292. We are followers of fash- 
ion rather than of . science or Christianity, 292. Example of dandies 
and prostitutes, 293. Bloomer dresses, 293. 
I. EORM OF OUR DRESS. 
What Canova says, 294. The Young Mother, 294. The London Litera- 
ry Gazette quoted, 294. Dr. Dick's views, 295,296. My own dissent 
in favor of our climate, 297. Circumstances of young children, 297. 
A great mystery, 298. Partial solution, 298. The simple dress that 
nature requires, 298. Mr. Rich's views, 298. Headdress, 299. Dr. 
Dick's opinion, 300. Dress for the feet, 300, 301. 
II. AMOUNT OF CLOTHING. 
The calorific function, 301. Its immense power shown, 301. The great 
fireplace of the human system, 301. Human power of endurance, 302. 
Story of the iron man, 302. Heating a dead body to ninety-eight de- 
grees, 302. Clothing and fires do not really warm us, 302. Over- 
working the calorific powers, and the consequence, 303. General rule 
in regard to clothing, 303. Particular rules not easy to lay down, 303. 
The golden mean, 303. Nudity, 303. Alexander and the Scythian am- 
bassador, 304. False reasoning, 304. Power of habit, 304. One rea- 
son why our Indians so rapidly disappear, 304. Conclusion of the 
whole matter, 304. Experience the best schoolmaster, 305. False 
and true experience, 395. Little true experience to be had, 305. Par- 
ents and physical education, 305. Clothing in a diseased state, 305. 
Scylla and Charybdis again, 306. Why the warm days of spring are so 
oppressive, 306. A tax worth paying, 306. Changing clothes to meet 
the changes of temperature, 306. Covering the face and throat when 
we go out, 307. A grand principle to be kept in view, 307. Influence 
of food on temperature, 307. Sudden changes in diet, 307. Influence 
of temperament on clothing, 308. Influence of exercise, 308. Influ- 
ence of bad air, 308. Anecdote of a stage driver, 308. Laborers in 
the open air, 308. What Mr. Rich says, 308. 
III. MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING. 
Beauties and excellences of linen, 309. Return to a good old custom, 
309. Its healthfulness in hot weather, 309. Soft flannel for the fee- 
ble, 309. Cotton clothing, 309. Its irritating tendencies, 309. Linen 
for future generations, 310. Free labor, 310. Woollen clothing, 310. 
Prejudices against woollen, 310. Moral considerations, 310. The fu- 
ture, 310. Silk for clothing, 311. Good qualities of silk, 311. Im- 
proved dress for the feet, 312. Simplicity in this particular, 312. Pa- 
rental mismanagement, 313. Thick, heavy hats, 313. Other errors 
in dress, 313. Thin shoes and dress at evening, 313. Braces and pad 
ding, 314. Summing up, 314. Edward VI., 314. CONTENTS. 
11 
FOOD AND COOKERY, .... 315-384 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
A common prejudice, <315. Quoting Paul, 315. Omitting half what he 
says, 315. Treading under foot the appetites, 315. Baptized appe- 
tites, 316. God the author of appetite, 316. The stronger the bet- 
ter, 316. Their moral advantages, 316. Watching over ourselves 
with fear and trembling, 317. What we eat and drink should be made 
a matter of principle and conscience, 317. 
I. WHEN COOKERY IS PROPER, AND WHEN IMPROPER. 
Legitimate and illegitimate cookery, 317. Illustrations of legitimate 
cookery - the potato, 318. Rice, 318. Wheat, corn, &c., 318. Peas 
and beans, 318. Ripe fruit, 319. Illustrations of illegitimate cookety 
- making pies, 319. Making butter and cheese, 319. Reflections, 
329. An objection considered, 320. Moral evils of superfluous cook- 
ery illustrated, 321. An example for Christian housekeepers to no- 
tice, 322. Solomon's dinner of herbs, 322. Are we not brethren ? 
323. Appeal to' Christians, 323. 
II. WHAT IS PROPER^ AND WHAT IMPROPER FOOD. 
Classification, 323. - 1. Farinaceous or mealy articles, 323. Bread- 
stuffs, 323. Various forms of breadstuff, 324. Uncooked farina- 
cea, 324. Food parched, roasted, or torrefied, 324. Boiling grain, 
&c., 324. Cracked grain, or hominy, 324. Bread of unbolted meal, 
325. Reasons why meal should be cooked, rather than eaten as 
the. Schlemmerites eat it, 325. Modes of preparing coarse meal bread, 
325. Advantages of thin cakes, 325. Loaves, 326. Raising bread, 
326. Objections to fermentation, 326. Effervescing mixtures, 326. 
Fermentation and effervescence compared, 327. Mixed bread, 327. What 
is meant by mixed bread, 328. Bread from fine flour, 328. Why it 
should not be eaten hot, 328. Stale bread, 328. Ship bread, or pilot 
bread, 329. Crackers, 329. Gingerbread - the false and the true, 
329. Buckwheat cakes, 329. Cakes made of coarse meal eaten hot - 
their effects, 329. The world of puddings, 330. The best kind of 
pudding, 330. Oatmeal pudding, 330. Indian pudding, 330. Dress- 
ings for puddings, 331. Hasty pudding - why objectionable, 331. 
Another species of hominy, 331. Hasty pudding with molasses, 331. 
Fried pudding, 331. Numerous other puddings, 332. Peas, beans, 
sago, and tapioca, 332. Anecdote of eating beans without pork, 332. 
Butter with these articles, 332. The potato, of both kinds, 332. Ar- 
tichoke and comfrey, 333. - 2. Fruits, 333. List of the choicest 
kinds of domestic fruits, 333. List of foreign fruits, 333. Fruits are 
food, 333. To be used as a part of our meals, 333. A former wicked 
waste, 334. Fruit gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at 
night, 334. Reasons why fruit should be used as a part of our diet, 
334. The apple, 335. Sweet and sour apples compared, 336. Ex- 
periments of Dr. Beaumont, 336. Can children digest apples, 336. 
Why sour apples are preferred in market, 336. Stewed apples, 337. 
Apple sauce, 337. Frying apples - Commodore Nicholson, 337. The 
pear, 337. Pears at dinner, 338. The pear dinner compared with the 
mince pie dinner, 338. The peach, 338. Cooking the peach, 339. 
Drying and pickling it, 339. Nectarine and apricot, 339. The grape 
- Madeira - Isabella, 339. Raisins, their qualities, 340. Raisins, 
stewed, 340. The plum, 340. The prune - what it is, and how 
LECTURE VIII. 12 
CONTENTS. 
prepared, 341. The quince, 341. The strawberry, 341. Manner of eating, 
341. Their digestibility, 341. Eating fruits with milk, 341. What 
fruits are best with milk, 342. The raspberry, 342. They are easily 
raised, and very prolific, 342. The blackberry, dewberry, whortle- 
berry, bilberry, and mulberry, 343. The cherry, 343. Cherry stones, 
343. Other thoughts about cherries, 343. Quotation from the Young 
Housekeeper, 344. A diabolical use of cherries, 344. The currant, 
344. Green currants, 345. Fruit jellies, 345. Fruit jams, 345. The 
cranberry, 345. The tomato, 345. Its medicinal properties, 345. The 
cucumber - -wrong use of it, 346. The cucumber restored to its rights, 
346. How the Oriental nations regarded it, 347. Ripeness of fruits, 
generally, 347- How the cucumber should be eaten, 348. The water- 
melon, 349. The muskmelon, 349. Foreign fruits, 349. Figs, eaten 
with bread, 350. The date, 350. The tamarind, 350. How to have 
a good supply of fruits for family use, 350. Fruits sometimes dis- 
eased, 351. Preservation of fruits, 351. Three ways of preservation, 
351. Which is to be preferred, 352. - 3. Esculent roots, 352. Some 
of these unworthy of our attention, 352, 353. Beets - their quality 
and reputation, 353. The turnip, 353. What Drapier says of it, 353. 
To what the turnip is adapted, 354. A precaution, 354. Turnips in 
bread, 354. The carrot-various ways of preparing it, 354. The pars- 
nip, 354. Sugar with food, 355. Further thoughts on sugar, 355. 
Experiments on sugar byr Magendie, 355. Spoiling the teeth with 
sugar, 356. General rule about sugar, 356. Candy and confectionery, 
356. - 4. Oily substances, 357. Oily nuts, generally, 357. The al- 
mond, 357- Walnut, 357. Butternut, 357. Hazelnuts and filberts, 
357. The acorn, 358. Tendency of nuts to produce liver disease, 358. 
Olive oil, 358. Animal food and animal products, 358. Of milk, 358. 
The milk of the cow, 359. Analysis of cow's milk, 359. Analysis of 
human milk, 359. Milk for babes - stronger food for adults, 359. 
Feeding the horse on milk, 359. Mammoth calves, 359. Compara- 
tive good effects of a milk diet, 360. Butter-its general use, 
360. Butter unfit for human use, 360. Professor Hare on butter, 360. 
Olive oil preferable to butter, 361. Eggs - their use among the French, 
361. True way of cooking the egg, 361. Reasons why, 361. Lard 
- an abomination, 362. Flesh, fish, and fowl, 362. These occupy 
the centre of our tables, 362. Corn, wine, and oil, 363. Reform great- 
ly needed, 363. Bread should be on the middle of our tables, 363. 
Bread first, fruits next, oily substances last, 363. We must " bide our 
time," 363. Eat or be eaten, 364. Bunyan's Doubting Castle, 364. 
Animal food, 364. Ripe animals, 364. Fattened animals, 364. Pre- 
serving animal food, 364. Overcooking, 365. Snuff and pepper, 365. 
Assafoetida in cooking, 365. Boiling the best way of cooking meals, 
365. Roasting next best, 365. Frying the worst, 366. Endless 
abuses, 366. Anecdote of a dyspeptic female and the lump of butter, 
366. 
HI. DOMESTIC POISONS. 
Does all food contain poison ? 367. Solid, liquid, and aeriform poisons, 
367. Poisoned animal food, 367. Poisoned sausages of Wurtemburg, 
367. Testimony of Christison, 367. Case related by Chevallier, 368. 
Poisoning with pork, 368. Pork in Paris, 369. Poisoning by a dead 
calf, 369. The meat pie in France, 369. Conjecture concerning Sir 
John Franklin, 369. Poisoning by milk, 370. What Dr. Whitlaw 
says, 370. One reason why poisons do not always affect us immediate- 
ly, 370. Mithridation, 370. What Solomon says, 371. Poisoning 
by mineral food, 371. Salt - facts concerning it, 371. Arsenic eat- 
ing, 372. What happened once in Boston, 373. Effects of salt on 
domestic animals, 373. Pereira on salt, 374. Nitre or saltpetre a CONTENTS. 
13 
poison, 375. Saleratus and pearlash, 375. What Orfila says of sal- 
eratus, 375. Its excessive use in New Brunswick, 376. Kills half the 
children, 376. Twenty-five pounds used in one family, 376. When 
its use is justifiable, 377- Proofs that vinegar is poisonous, 377. 
Spurred rye, 378. Spurred corn, 378. Unripe grain, 378. Lettuce, 
378. Mushrooms, 378. Annatto, 379. Exposed potatoes, 379. Bread 
mould, 379. Buttercup, 379. Poisoning through the medium of the 
milk, 380. Lead - its ill effects, 381. Bed earthen ware, 381. Mor- 
tality at Elizabethtown, 381. Setting milk in red earthen pans, 381. 
Bed lead, 381. Wafers, 382. Frosting, 382. Lead pipes, 382. Ket- 
tles made black in boiling, 383. The maple sugar, 383. Verdigris 
- two kinds, 383. Salads and vinegar in copper, 384. The dying 
cook's confession in England, 384. Effects of tin in cooking, 384. 
The intelligent housekeeper, 384. 
LECTURE IX. 
EXERCISE AND REST, .... 385-440 
I. ACTION OR EXERCISE. 
Motion or action Heaven's first law, 385. Action in the most solid 
masses, 385. Crystallization, 385. Movements in the deep ocean, 386. 
An ocean above us in motion, as well as below us, 386. Free trade, 
386. Evaporation, 386. Air and -winds, 387. Worlds in motion, no 
less than atoms, 388. Life or vitality involves motion, 388. Circula- 
tion in plants and grasses, 389. The Creator sole Monarch here, 
389. Waving of the tree tops, 390. Animal life -polypus to man - 
full of motion, 390. God the soul of brutes, 390. Man an animal, 
too, 390. Sports, studies, labor, praise, &c., all are action, 390. Fly- 
ing through heaven, 391. Man needs very much action, 391. The 
locomotive system of man, 392. Necessity of using it, 392. Appar- 
ent exception, 392. Bones or framework of the human body, 393. 
Classification and uses of the bones, 394. Ossification, 394. Dis- 
eases of ossification, 395. Rickets and mollities ossium, 395. Bones 
moved by muscles, 395. What muscles are, 396. Their shape and 
terminations, 396. Tendons, 396. Motion illustrated by the physiolo- 
gy of bringing the hand to the heart, 396. Flexors and extensors, 
397. Being pried about, 397. Four hundred and fifty muscles, 398. 
Three hundred ligaments, 398. Good muscles necessary to good 
health, 399. Mistake of Richerand and other physiologists, 399. Gi- 
ant intellects not so gigantic after all, 399. ' Apparent exceptions, 
399. Still the general rule prevails, 399. Cases in proof from ancient 
history, 399. Modern times, 400. Mind and body duly proportioned 
to each other, 400. The law of recreation and employment, 400. 
Hints to parents, on selecting amusements, 401. Effect of using 
rightly the muscles of the face, 401. Education of the face, 401. An- 
ecdote of the late Mr. Gallaudet, 402. What Dr. Mussey says of Ad- 
am and Eve, 402. Case of the porters on the Mediterranean, 402. 
Effect of walking on the muscles, 402. A curious estimate, 403. 
Thirty-two millions of motions daily, 403. Why do not the joints 
wear out ? 403. Effects of exercise on the internal organs, 403. Sit- 
ting too much, 403. Effects of inaction, 403. Walking too far to 
school, 404. Muscular power increased by habit, 404. Milo and the 
ox, 404. Curing disease by exercise, 405. Plato, 405. Sitting in 
sackcloth and ashes, 405. Exercise, to be useful, must be agreeable, 
406. Exercising in the habiliments of woe, 406. Suffering the mind 
to pursue the old mill-horse track, 406. Burying our business while ab- 
sent, 406. Walking - its advantages, 406. Health of our Savior, 407. 
2 14 
CONTENTS. 
Agriculture and horticulture - their advantages, 407. This exercise 
needed by females, 407. Fashionable fastidiousness, 408. Exercise 
of professional men, students, and teachers, 408. Exercise of factory 
people, 408. Laboring for pay, 408. Dr. Coggswell and the young in- 
valid, 408. Hints for mechanics, 409. Horseback exercise, 409. Sail- 
ing, 409. Pleasures of the chase, angling, &c., 410. Best hour of 
the day for exercise, 410. A difficulty, 410. How surmounted, 
II. REST AND SLEEP. 
Quiescence in the mineral world not sleep, 411. Sleep in the vegeta- 
ble kingdom, 411. Hybernation of animals, 411. Rest and sleep in 
man, 412. The heart - its season of rest, 412. The lungs, 412. 
What we mean by the animal functions, 412. What sound sleep is, 
412. Effects of going without sleep, 413. Evils of too great indul- 
gence in sleep, 413. Remarks of Dr. Dunglison, 413. Thoughts on 
fatness, 414. Magendie and Willich on sleep, 414. Disease as con- 
nected -with sleep, 414. Amount of sleep required, 415. Power of 
habit in regard to sleep, 415. Second nature stronger than first na- 
ture, 415. The law of habit applied to sleep, 416. Influence of early 
training, 417. No perfect standard of health, 417- Quality of sleep, 
418. Experiments noticed by Sir Gilbert Blane, 418. Approximation 
to the truth, 419. Some degree of " leeway " necessary, 419. Why 
not avail ourselves of the accommodating power of the system ? 420. 
A paradox explained, 420. Effects of grief, fear, fatigue, &c., on our 
sleep, 421. Reclining without sleep, 421. Making up sleep the 
next night, 421. The sluggish require more sleep than the active, 422. 
Napoleon and Brougham, 422. An encouragement, 422. Does sleep- 
ing a great deal render us susceptible to cold ? 423. Our sleep should 
be taken in the night, 423. Facts on this subject, 424. Sleeping in 
the daytime, 424. Sleeping before midnight, 424. Going to hed 
early, 425. Fever at evening, 426. Sitting round a blazing fire, 426. 
Injuring the eyes by morning light, 426. The siesta, or dinner nap, 
427. Influence of healthy suppers, 427. Mistake among laborers, 
428. Distressing dreams and nightmare, 429. What Haller says, 
429. Causes of nightmare, 430. Other troubles from bad suppers, 
430. Three rules for the evening, 431. What Willich says, 431. 
Meetings in the evening, 431. Morning meetings and lectures, 432. 
Light reading, warm baths, &c., 433. Franklin's advice, 433. Tem- 
perature of sleeping rooms, 433. Structure, 433. Occupants, 434. 
Material for beds, 434. Sleeping with the head covered, 435. Lamps 
and candles, 435. Cats and dogs in sleeping rooms, 435. Darkness 
during sleep, 435. Position in sleep, 436. Sleeping on the back, 
436. Contrivance about sleeping, 437. Do females require more sleep 
than males ? 438. Views of M. Friedlander, 438. A criticism, 439. 
Somnambulism, 439. 
LECTURE X. 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS, . . 441-478 
Mankind prone to extremes, 441. Is this to be so always ? 441. Dif- 
ferent views about the world's progress, 442. Signs of the times, 442. 
Inconsistencies about physic and physicians, 443. Looking wise, 444. 
General direction to the sick, 444. First use of physicians, 444. The 
eclectic, 445. Following nature, 445. Value of a good nurse, 446. 
Second use of physicians, 446. Popular tendency to quackery, 446. 
Maternal apothecary's shops, 447. Anecdote, 447- Anecdote of CONTENTS. 
15 
bringing up on medicine, 447. Maternal medicine shop, 448. Reform 
and its blessedness, 448. Reform anecdotes, 449. The no-medicine 
treatment, 450. Drugs laid aside in families, 451. Quackery, 451. 
A worse evil, 451. Third right use of physicians, 452. Physicians 
at their patients' houses, 452. Physicians to schools, 453. Phy- 
sicians to factories, 454. Physicians to court houses, &c., 456. Fourth 
right use of physicians, 456. Testimonies, 457. Who are the true 
public instructors, 457. Story of Sjilzman, 458. One more right use 
of physicians, 458. Physiological examinations, 459. Examining 
feeble adults, 459. Examining children, 460. Physical education, 
460, 461. School education, 462. Errors of ministerial education, 
463. Suggestions of improvement, 464, 465. Important medical ad- 
vice, 466. Cases of suffering for want of it, 467, 468. A common 
mistake, 469. Frequency of physiological examinations, 470. Pay- 
ing for such services, 470. Chart of the human constitution, 471. 
Theological examinations, 472. Reasons for these, 472. Reasons 
why medical men have not done the work here assigned them, 472. 
Wrong motives govern, 473. Medical education wrong, 473. The 
public do not demand a reform, 474. The demand must be made, 475. 
Medical men paid wrong, 476. Reform cannot be expected of physi- 
cians, 477. What, then, is our hope ? 478. Not miracle, most cer- 
tainly, 478. Appeal to philanthropy, 478. 
APPENDIX. 
Note A. Fruits as Food, 479 
" B. Nutritive Properties of Different Kinds of Food, 481 
" C. Superiority of Unfermented Bread, 482 
" D. Experiments in Chymification, 484 
" E. Poisoned Milk, Butter, &c., 487 
" F. Diseased Rice, 491 
" G. Potato Disease, 493 
" H. Ultra Views on Diet, 494  
1. Portrait of the Author, Frontispiece. 
2. Mouth and Teeth of an Adult, Page 48 
3. The Four Different Kinds of Teeth, 48 
4. The Salivary Glands in their Proper Situation, 49 
5. The Principal Salivary Glands, 49 
6. The Stomach, 50 
7. The Intestinal Canal, with the Stomach and Gall Bladder, ... 51 
8. Liver, Pancreas, and Spleen, 52 
9. Lacteals, 53 
10. Mesentery and Receptacle of the Chyle, 53 
10. Outline of the Trunk, 106 
12. The Lungs, 107 
13. Side Views of the Chest, 108 
14. Trachea and Bronchial Tubes, 109 
15. Air Cells of the Lungs, 110 
16. Bad Positions of the Body in Sitting, 117 
17. Bad Positions in Standing, 118 
18. The Heart, 170 
19. Divisions of the Heart and its Cavities, 171 
20. Views of the Arterial and Venous Systems, 173 
21. Internal Structure of a Green Leaf, 208 
22. Mechanism of the Skin, 209 
23, 24. Lymphatics and Capillaries, 209 
25. Sebaceous or Oil Glands, 212 
26. Sweat Glands, 212 
27. Deformed Chest, 292 
28. Rational Dress for the Young, 296 
29. Shape of Children's Shoes, 312 
30. Specimens of Muscles and Tendons, 396 
31. Biceps Muscle, ... 397 
16 LECTURES 
ON 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 
LECTURE I. 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
• 
Nearly two fifths of all who are born, even in our com- 
paratively healthy United States, die under five years of age; 
so that, if there are seven hundred and fifty thousand births, 
in the whole country, the present year, only four hundred 
and fifty thousand of this number will be alive in five years 
from this time. The other three hundred thousand will 
have perished. 
Of the four hundred and fifty thousand then alive, another 
portion - perhaps a hundred thousand or more - will perish 
in passing from childhood to youth; another hundred thou- 
sand in passing from youth to full manhood ; a hundred 
thousand more - I fear two hundred thousand - before the 
climacterical age of sixty-three; and the remainder at a 
more advanced age. As it is in our protracted national 
wars, a few survive the terrors and dangers of powder and 
ball, and sword and bayonet, for nearly a century, so it is 
in the warfare of human life. 
17 18 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
Now, what I have said is not only true of the seven hun- 
dred and fifty thousand born in 1853, but will be true, 
probably, of the seven hundred and fifty thousand born in 
1854, and every subsequent year. In a quarter of a cen- 
tury, even if our population were to remain stationary, we 
should thus lose, below the early age of five years, no less 
than seven millions - a number nearly equal to one third of 
our whole present population. 
This is a fearful mortality; but the truth should be told. 
No surgeon is fit to take charge of a sick or wounded 
patient who has not the courage to examine his wounds 
to the bottom, even though the examination should be 
painful. He should know the worst of the case and its 
circumstances. 
Not far from one half of all who *ire born die of the 
numerous fevers which prevail. Nearly one fourth die of 
consumption and other complaints of the lungs. The 
remaining one fourth - including fifteen or twenty thousand 
who are stillborn, and a considerable number who perish 
from accidents - die of other diseases, chronic and acute. 
Among these are cholera, small-pox, bowel and liver com- 
plaints, syphilis, scrofula, apoplexy, palsy, heart complaint, 
cancer, neuralgia, and intemperance. This last is as truly a 
diseased condition of the system as any other. All our 
race, so far as we know, die of disease, - in other words, 
of violence, - and not in a natural manner. 
But is it true, you will perhaps 'inquire, that all die of 
disease ? Do not a few die, apparently, in good health ? 
And do not a small number live on to old age, and come to 
a natural death ? Do those persons who, like Jenkins, Parr, 
Pratt, Francisco, and Holyoke, attain to more than one 
hundred years, die of violence ? PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
19 
My reply is, that Parr, at the age of one hundred and fifty, 
was fed into disease. Dr. Holyoke died with a cancer on 
his stomach. So did Dr. Emmons, of Franklin. The for- 
mer was over one hundred, the latter but little short of it. 
John Q. Adams and Hosea Ballou, more recently, died of 
violence - the one of palsy, the other of bilious fever. 
There is no certain evidence to be had that since the 
patriarchal times any person has died a natural death. In 
my own sphere of observation - by no means narrow or 
isolated - I have never witnessed such a death. And as 
for dying in good health, there neither is, nor can be, any 
such thing. 
But is it not a well-known fact, you will say, that the 
average duration of human life is increasing gradually, in 
all civilized countries; and are not our writers and lecturers 
on health apt to overlook this fact? 
It is admitted that the average duration of human life, 
until recently, has been increasing. But, according to our 
most accurate statistical tables and our current bills of mor- 
tality, there is much room for doubt whether this is the case 
at present. In Boston and a few other very highly civilized 
- rather, over-refined-places, it appears to have been 
for the last twenty-five years, decreasing. 
Admit it, however, to be otherwise. Admit, for the 
moment, that the average duration of life is very slowly 
increasing,- for we cannot possibly say more than this,- 
yet, by the side of such a statement we shall be obliged to 
place another very painful fact. The average amount of 
lost time, annually, from sickness and ill health, is also 
rapidly increasing. 
There always was sickness in the world, it is true ; at 
least it has been so from a very early period ; but then there 20 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
has not always been as much of it as now, especially of 
chronic disease. In England, the average loss of time to an 
individual, in this way, is one year and five sevenths ; and 
as nearly as can, at present, be ascertained, it is about a year 
and a half in the United States. 
There is one thing more to be mentioned in this connec- 
tion. This increase of chronic disease, and the protraction 
of human life, under' unfavorable circumstances, proves a 
means of perpetuating a feeble and constantly-deteriorating 
race. Such a conclusion is not to be placed among the 
croakings of that chilling old age which places the world's 
golden period in the past; it is the result of a careful in- 
vestigation of facts - facts, moreover, which lie within the 
broad and obvious range of plain, unsophisticated common 
sense. 
For every body knows that consumptive, scrofulous, can- 
cerous, gouty, and dyspeptic parents are constantly increasing, 
and that, by a law as irrevocable as that of the Medes and 
Persians, a debility corresponding, in some measure, to the 
ill health of those parents, is entailed upon all who follow 
them in bodily constitution. And now, if the art of medi- 
cine, and the little we know of the laws of health, are applied 
to correction rather than prevention, - to the mere work, 
important as it is, of prolonging the lives of those who are 
sickly, and placing them in a condition to perpetuate their 
race, - is it not plain that we are constantly multiplying our 
cases of chronic disease, and increasing the already frightful 
aggregate of human ill ? 
This state of things involves an immense loss. Life is too 
short to be curtailed so much by disease. The healthiest 
waste quite too much of their time. We sleep away about 
one third of it, which seems, of itself, like a heavy tax. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
21 
Then we waste another considerable portion of it in various 
other ways which might be named. 
Who is there among us that does not spend whole years 
of life in a manner which even he himself cannot justify ? 
Is it too much to affirm, that by sleep, and by what seems to 
be almost necessary trifling, we use up almost half of an 
average life of forty or fifty years ? And is it not a serious 
thought, that from the remaining twenty or twenty-five years 
we must still deduct a year and a half of time consumed by 
ill health? Is man - such man as this - as happy as he 
might be ? 
And then, in addition to the mere loss of time, there is 
much of actual suffering. Not that we undergo a year and 
a half of pain to each person ; still, those who are so ill as to 
lose their time do really suffer in a very considerable degree. 
Nay, is it not even true -that mental pain is sometimes harder 
to be borne than any other ? 
The truth is, we cannot dive deep enough into the mind 
and soul to take the exact dimensions of this item of human 
unhappiness. No created being but angelic can compute 
the mighty aggregate to which these remarks refer. It is 
probably, in the overwhelming view of this aggregate, that 
some have been inclined to call the world itself a vale of 
tears. 
But there is great pecuniary loss; for time is money, and 
we have seen how much time is lost by the individual who is 
sick - saying nothing of additional losses of the same kind, 
in the time of attendants, and nurses, and dear friends. The 
last item it would be difficult to compute, or even to approx- 
imate. The former will, of course, be equal to the value of 
the time of the individual for one year and a half. It may 
be several hundred dollars; it may not be one hundred. 22 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
The average to each individual can hardly be less than 
one hundred dollars. This, for the United States,* is about 
twenty-five hundred millions of dollars for each generation, 
or more than fifty millions of dollars a year. 
Then we pay for physicians and medicine, at the lowest 
possible estimate, one hundred millions of dollars a year. 
This is only four dollars each, or twenty dollars for a family 
of five persons. I fear the actual expenditure is at least one 
third greater. 
Some will shrink, I well know, even from this estimate. 
At least, they will say it does not greatly concern them., 
since they do not expend one fourth - they may think not 
one tenth - of twenty dollars for sickness in their families 
yearly, nor lose one tenth the time which has been mentioned. 
And a few will triumphantly tell us they have nothing to do 
either with physicians or medicine. 
These individuals forget - perhaps they never knew - 
that all this, if true, has little to do with the taxation of which 
1 have spoken. They do know, however, that if we have 
paupers or drunkards in the community, - men or women 
who produce nothing, - they must have, and will have, a 
living from those whose labor is productive. Just so with 
regard to losing time by sickness. In a community like our 
own, all persons, whether sick'or well in their own families, 
are compelled to contribute - submit to taxation, rather - 
to pay the expense. The sick must be sustained - are 
sustained; and it is by those who labor, or have labored. I 
do not say the tax is exactly equal; but I do say it is not so 
unequal as many appear to suppose. 
* In all my estimates in this work, I have supposed twenty-five 
millions to be the present population of the United States. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
23 
Then, again, we sustain, as a people, a tremendous loss 
by the premature decline and death of consumptive people. 
This is a loss so heavy that it deserves a separate considera- 
tion. Consumptive people are usually among the most prom- 
ising of our citizens, at least so far as their intellectual and 
moral development and cultivation are concerned. The old 
saying, " Death delights in a shining mark," is not wholly 
without foundation. 
Instead of reaching the average limit of life, these individ- 
uals usually fall about fifteen years short of it. The value of 
these fifteen years of time, multiplied by seventy thou- 
sand, the supposed yearly number of victims to this disease, 
gives us a total yearly loss of one hundred and fifty million 
dollars. I think this estimate quite below the reality. 
And once more : every child that dies prematurely is a loss 
of property. Let no one ridicule the idea of estimating the 
worth of children in dollars and cents. Some of our breth- 
ren of the human family know full well how to set a price 
on children as well as on adults ; and I have yet to learn that 
white children arc not worth quite as much as black ones. 
Besides, I have authority on this subject. Horace Mann 
says that every child, at every age, even before he is old 
enough to earn any thing, is an investment of property to the 
exact extent of what it has cost to bring him up to that period. 
Here, then, is a yearly, national loss of at least fifty million 
dollars more. 
The sum of these various aggregates is three hundred and 
fifty million dollars. This is an average tax of fourteen 
dollars yearly for each person, or seventy dollars for each 
family of five persons - a heavy tax for poor people to pay. 
And yet they are practically compelled to pay it. It is a 
sum that, in twenty-five years, if placed at annual interest, 
would amount to nearly five thousand dollars! 24 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
In short, our world is a diseased world. Many come into 
it with disease for their certain inheritance; others, with 
such tendencies to disease that they will hardly escape it. 
Others, though partially free from these tendencies at birth, 
soon acquire them. So that, in one way or another, to the eye 
of the medical man, the world seems more like a great hos- 
pital than any thing else. 
And whence came this state of things ? Whence is it that 
mankind are so prone to disease ? A more important inquiry 
could hardly be raised. Let us see if there is any hope of 
answering it. 
There are four different ways of accounting for it-per- 
haps more. First, disease is said to be of divine appoint- 
ment. Secondly, it is thought to be the result of malevolent 
agency. Thirdly, it is deemed a matter of mere fate, chance, 
or haphazard. Fourthly, it is believed to be of human ori- 
gin- the result of moral and physical transgression. 
The first of these views is held by a far less numerous 
class than it once was. Time has been when it was quite 
common to speak of disease as being sent - as a judgment 
of Heaven, &c. People who died were said to be " smitten," 
" cut down," " snatched away," &c. 
But although this language continues to be used, it is almost 
without meaning. Very few, indeed, would offer such an 
insult to high Heaven as to defend the opinion that " smitten 
friends " are smitten arbitrarily. They cannot, in their reflec- 
tive moments, be willing thus to throw blame on the great 
Creator. 
That God has seen fit to inflict pain or death by what might 
be called an arbitrary stroke, in particular cases, - nay, that 
he may occasionally do something of the kind now, - is not 
denied. We contend only that such infliction is his " strange 
work." PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
25 
The number of those who believe that disease is of Satanic 
agency, directly or indirectly, is much greater. Indeed, there 
is a confused belief of this kind, which, though never writ- 
ten down in the form of a creed, very extensively prevails. 
The notion of being " struck with death " in the last stages 
of disease, to say nothing of powwows, charms, and incanta- 
tions, among the more ignorant and superstitious of our race, 
fully confirms this opinion. So does the saying already re- 
ferred to, that " Death delights in a shining mark " - and so 
do many others.* 
By many it is now believed that this prince and power of 
the air, in going about as a roaring lion, (both by himself and 
his minions,) seeking whom he may devour, very largely 
engages in this fell office. He is, as it were, throwing down 
his darts here and there, wounding one and killing another. 
Some, however, gravely begin to tell us that he only does his 
work by tempting men to wrong actions. 
But the number of those who believe that neither God nor 
Satan sends disease, at least in any sense which is at all ar- 
bitrary, is much greater. Among these last, not a few regard 
the whole as a matter of mere chance or haphazard. Dis- 
ease and death are subiect to no rule or law whatever, so 
* Our old New England Primer has done some harm as well as a 
great deal of good. It has unwittingly given currency to many views 
which are not now generally received. For example, it has personified 
Death, and made him a sort of assassin, not so much in the dialogue be- 
tween Christ, Youth, and the Devil, as in another place. No one can 
tell how much has been done to perpetuate error in the mind by the un- 
natural association of Death, in the shape of a skeleton, armed with a 
dagger, on which he is endeavoring to transfix a little boy, -and the 
couplet, by the side of the picture, which reads as follows : - 
" Youth, forward slips, 
Death soonest nips." 26 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS', 
they tell us. " Why, there always was just about so much dis- 
ease in the world, in some form or other, and there always will 
be. We may, indeed, in particular localities, and for a time, 
have fewer diseases; or they may change their appearance, 
or be less or more fatal; but, taking a thousand years together, 
things remain about the same as they were always." 
Now, I w#l not stop to show the inconclusiveness of such a 
mode of reasoningas makes the past a measure for the future ; 
nor to oppose the statements thus made by counter statements 
of my own. It is, perhaps, sufficient to say that such a belief 
belongs to a species of fatality alike common to Mohammed- 
anism and paganism, but utterly unworthy of the sunlight of 
Christianity and Christian science. For even chance itself is 
subject to law. 
A fourth and rapidly-increasing class (to which I belong) 
believe that man, as a race, is, for the most Dart, the author 
of his own miseries, especially his diseases. They believe it 
not only irreverent and wicked to throw the blame on any 
other source than human transgression, but absolutely unphil- 
osophical and irrational. 
They believe that God has established certain laws within 
the organic domain, as well as without it, which are as fixed 
- as immutable - as those which were given at Sinai. 
They believe that obedience to all law, whether natural or 
moral, has its appropriate reward, here or hereafter, or both. 
They also believe that disobedience to all law, whether natu- 
ral or moral, has its fixed, and, except in the case of special 
remission by a special provision, has its appropriate and irrev- 
ocable penalty. In one word, they regard man as, under 
God, the artificer of his own health and happiness. 
To express their views in other words, and very briefly 
they believe that, as a whole, disease is the product of manu 
♦ PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
27 
facture, just as truly and certainly as cloth, paper, or pins ; 
and that the world has been, unwittingly or otherwise, engaged 
in this manufacture for nearly six thousand years. And it is 
time, they think, to " turn the tables," and manufacture 
health. 
But how shall this be done, and by whom ? How, I mean 
to say, shall health be manufactured ? 
My reply will be, in part, negative. I will endeavor to 
show, in the first place, how it cannot be manufactured. 
Not by mere hobbyism. By hobbyism I mean an undue 
attachment to certain measures or schemes which, at most, 
are only partial in their application and tendency. Thus 
some have seemed to suppose that by the exclusive use of 
coarse bread, or the external and internal habitual use of cold 
water, health might be greatly improved, and life lengthened 
indefinitely. 
Now, while I will allow no one to go beyond me in his esti- 
mate of the recuperative power of a system which is sustained 
by mere bread and water, I do not hesitate to say, that as a 
means of manufacturing health, they are of very different 
value to different individuals. Coarse or unbolted bread, for 
example, so indispensable to human health generally, is, in 
some few instances, of diseased tendency. I have known 
one chronic dyspeptic destroyed by it. 
Besides, however excellent either or both these may be, 
they are neither of them the " immortal elixir." There are 
many other things to be done or left undone, or taken or ab- 
stained from, before the world's curse can be removed, and 
man fully restored to Eden. Health and long life depend on 
air, exercise, temperature, purity, and cheerfulness, as well 
as on food and drink. The latter must, indeed, be regarded, 
but the former must not be neglected. 28 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
Notwithstanding the fact, that very little attention has hith- 
erto been paid to the laws of health or hygiene, it is remark- 
ably true, that when a lecturer or teacher presents these laws 
in a proper manner and urges their acceptance, they seem, to 
many, so reasonable, and conscience is so much roused, that 
there is a determination to do something, were it only to quiet 
her upbraidings. 
The awakened individual seizes, therefore, on some promi- 
nent point or topic, and gives to this his whole attention. He 
thinks on it, converses on it, practises it. Soon it becomes to 
him the all in all of reform. It is - so he supposes - the pan- 
acea for human ills. It will soon remove the curse. It will 
make every one a Hercules, a. Samson, or a Methuselah. 
This I call hobby ism. 
There is, however, a hobbyism which is of a worse kind 
than even this. Certain remedial agents are introduced and 
lauded to the skies. They are said not only to palliate or 
remove our ills, but to bring back the deteriorated constitution 
into a renovated and improved state, that will enable it to last 
almost forever. They are the elixir of human life ; and Par- 
acelsus * - poor man ! - lived a little before his time 1 
There is some slight apology for such hobbyism, I well 
know. Certain medicated preparations having been given to 
certain persons laboring under particular complaints, described 
by a particular name, say asthma or rheumatism, a few, as 
might have been expected, recovered under their use. Others, 
by hundreds or thousands, were apparently unaffected. Oth- 
ers, in great numbers, were made worse, and a few destroyed. 
The few who have recovered under their use - rather, as 
* Paracelsus, who flourished in the sixteenth century, professed to 
have discovered an elixir of immortality. But, like other men, he died PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
29 
[ should say, notwithstanding their use - are requested to 
give their names and approbation, especially if they are 
among the elite of society. These two, or three, or half a 
dozen names are trumpeted through the length and breadth 
of the land. The boxes, and cartloads, and shiploads of the 
precious stuff, so lauded and commended, are almost beyond 
computation. 
The thousands who are not benefited are not heard from, 
and those who are injured, more or less, seldom make any 
report. The dead tell no tales, of course. The reputation 
of the medicine is hence considered as established. Every 
one who has a complaint which can be " christened " asthma, 
or rheumatism, or consumption, must procure and try it, and 
the fortunate vender - not, usually, the discoverer - can 
build temples to JEsculapius eight stories high.* 
It is believed, by many, especially those who are themselves 
in the decline of life, that our world, generally, has begun a 
retrograde movement. Some even say that, as things are now 
going on, it cannot last more than two or three centuries. If 
there is ought to sustain this belief, it is the delusion of man- 
kind with regard to medicine, especially nostrums. In few 
ways is there so much disease manufactured as by their use. 
They should be labelled life-destroyers. 
One of the most painful features of this insanity in regard 
to medicine is, the fact that good men, in great numbers, are 
helping it on; not physicians and apothecaries alone, but 
multitudes of others. A respectable bookseller in Boston told 
me that he sold Brandreth's pills, from his bookstore, in about 
two years, to the value of more than twenty thousand dollars 
Other similar confessions might be made. 
* Alluding to an apothecary's shop in one of our cities. 30 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS, 
Nostrum dealing is a many-headed affair, that cannot, in 
little space, well be described. Powders, pills, panaceas, 
elixirs, vermifuges, and cough drops make only a part of this 
fearful armament, in battle array against health and life. 
The evil would be more tolerable if o'ur strength to endure 
it increased daily, as Milo's power to carry the calf in- 
creased all the while he was carrying it. But, alas ! the 
reverse were more true. Our strength to bear with the evil 
is all the while diminishing; and where shall the end of these 
things be ? 
This view of medicine docs not so much reject medicine 
entirely as it does its abuses. It would lop off from this sup- 
posed tree of life its excrescences. But I have yet more to 
say. The legitimate and approved use of remedial agents, 
like nostrum dealing, will accomplish nothing in the way of 
manufacturing health. It will, at most, only serve the pur- 
poses of mere patchwork - happy for mankind if it does 
even that. 
Of course I do not here use the word patchwork reproach- 
fully, for the work it indicates, as the world is, may be 
needful. The agriculturist, even, in our own region, seldom 
has a virgin soil to begin with. Broken down, if not diseased, 
by wrong culture, he is employed, much of his time, in en- 
deavoring to patch it up. The parent, the teacher, the minis- 
ter, in attempting to form or to reform human character, has 
much to do of mere patchwork. The lawyer, the civilian, 
the statesman, - how much these all have to do in the way 
of patching up broken civil law ! Is it greatly to be wondered 
at, then, if custom has prescribed for the medical man little 
else but patchwork ? 
This tyrant custom, united with other influences, has hither- 
to allowed to medical men neither time nor disposition' to PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
31 
attend to the work of building up health, even if their med- 
icine could do it. But it cannot. With the utmost stretch of 
charity on our part, and effort on his, the wisest medical man 
will only be able to keep the old tenement from falling down 
and crushing the occupant. 
Nor will the very popular notion of the present day, that 
every person should be made his own doctor,'-could it be re- 
alized, - accomplish much more. The labor, though divided 
among the million, would be patchwork still. It would man- 
ufacture no health. It would prevent no ills to which flesh is 
heir. 
But the very notion itself is an absurdity. The oldest and 
wisest physicians - they who know most about the human 
constitution and the nature of medicine, and have, withal, a 
good fund of common sense - feel, most of all men, their own 
littleness and incompetency to the work in which they have 
been engaged ; and some of them almost think their efforts 
have been worse than in vain. How, then, can the mass of 
mankind, who have their other occupations, expect better 
things of themselves ? Who has the time or the means of 
acquitting himself more honorably than they, even on the 
patching plan, and much less as a manufacturer of health ? 
Besides all this, a merely superficial study of diseases by 
mankind generally, - and it could be no more than super- 
ficial,- with a view to their treatment, would lead to that con- 
tinual thinking about ourselves - that turning of our thoughts 
inward -• which would manufacture disease rather than health. 
Thousands of diseases are originated and tens of thousands 
aggravated in this very way. 
But I have dwelt long enough on mere negations. I have 
said all, if not more than all I ought to say, about those means 
and agencies which never did and never can succeed in 32 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
manufacturing public health, but which must, on the contrary 
always diminish the general aggregate of this most invaluable 
commodity. Let us then recur to the question, What can be 
done ? and consider it affirmatively. 
Prevention is said, the world over, to be better than cure. 
Yet while, in all ages, we have sung the praises of prevention 
in theory, we have, in our practice, very little regarded it. 
Operatively and indirectly, it would do much in the way of 
manufacturing health ; for, if you keep down weeds, the grass 
will grow, even though you sow no seeds; and in like man- 
ner, if you can prevent disease, health will spring up. 
Much more than mere prevention is, however, required at 
our hands. In the present blaze of physiological light, we 
can, in ways and processes almost innumerable, manufacture 
human health to an extent not formerly dreamed of. A few 
of these processes will be mentioned in a general way, and 
- in this connection - in a general way only. Each of 
them, in order to do it justice, would require a full lecture 
at the least-some of them several. 
1. In the first place, we must bring ourselves under the full 
influence of the elevating feelings, passions, and affections. I 
am accustomed to attach immense importance to every thing 
which belongs to the subject of physical hygiene, as is well 
known ; but mental hygiene compared with that which is 
merely physical is like the sun in comparison with a mere ta- 
per. More bodily suffering has come to our race, through the 
medium of a wrong state of mind and heart, than from almost 
any other source whatever. 
Thus anger, fear, grief, envy, jealousy, hatred, and even 
melancholy and discontent, have a tendency to cripple and 
destroy the vital energies of mankind beyond, in degree, what 
the unthinking can possibly conceive. Their "wear and PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
33 
tear " of the constitution are almost incalculable. They not 
only aggravate all other diseased tendencies, but they tend 
directly to disease itself. 
Hence it is* that in. order to manufacture health, in any 
worthy degree, there must be a reverse influence - an up- 
ward rather than a downward tendency. We must cultivate 
faith, hope, love, joy, peace, courage, general benevolence, 
and contentment- in a word, all the Christian graces. These, 
be it known, are as profitable for the life that now is as for 
that which is to come. 
2. In the next place, and in order that health may be man- 
ufactured, we must ccasfe from that unlicensed and abomina- 
ble use of medicine to which I have already briefly adverted. 
Enough of suffering, and more than enough, comes to our 
race, through the medium of error connected with that dosing 
and drugging which are licensed, and therefore in a sense law- 
ful ; but this does not cover a tithe of the ground which is 
now occupied by drugs and medicines. 
Observe, however, it is the abuse of medicine to which I 
now refer. The regular physicians of the various schools 
give quite as much as it is desirable should be given, and they 
are giving less and less every year. No additions need be 
made at our hands to the quantity. 
One of the greatest and most dangerous abuses of medicine 
is found in our modern maternal treatment. Mothers assume 
that they understand the constitutions of their own children, 
and know how to give them medicine, quite as well as the 
doctor. And they use their license with an unsparing hand. 
Our very closets have, to a frightful extent, been turned into 
apothecaries' shops - it were almost true to say that our 
steamboats and railroad cars have undergone the same change. 
And if we should come to travel by electro-magnetic power. 34 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
with lightning speed, it remains to be seen whether our moth- 
ers will be willing to wait for medicine for their children till 
they come to the various stations, or whether they will wish 
to give elixirs and " drops" as they pass along 'the wires! 
3. We may manufacture a world of health, so to speak, by 
bringing our appetites - all three of them - into strict sub- 
jection to the great Creator's moral and physical laws; or, in 
the beautiful language of Paul, by yielding our members ser- 
vants to righteousness. 
The abuses of the appetite for drink, whether we refer to 
the extent or the intensity of their injurious influences, have 
seldom, if ever, been overrated. Indeed, I doubt whether they 
can be. An army of drunkards, whether ten thousand or 
thirty thousand, is no trifling affair. And yet it is highly 
probable that more of evil comes to the moral, social, and 
physical system, by the indulgence of this appetite short of 
what is called drunkenness, than beyond it. 
But make the sin of intemperance, popularly so called, 
great as you please, - as great even as God makes it, - and 
it falls short, very far short, of the sin of intemperance, as 
connected with the use of food. I know very well that this 
position may be controverted ; but I know also that it is de- 
fensible. Perhaps I may, hereafter, make it more intel- 
ligible. 
There is a law which should come in here to illustrate 
this last point, or, as it were, render it more tolerable. The 
grosser and more stimulating things, in considerable quantity, 
are, after all, less permanent in their effects than smaller 
quantities. The system, in the former case, is roused to 
some degree of reaction so as to be able to throw off a part 
of the irritating or poisonous influence. But when this influ- 
ence is inconsiderable, and yet continual, there is less of reac- PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
35 
tion in proportion to the degree of irritation ; and the foe steals 
into every part of the great citadel of life. 
Now, this law is not only applicable in comparing rum 
and brandy with wine and beer, or the excessive with the 
moderate use of cither, but also in comparing any or all of 
these with the feebler but not less irritating and anti-vital 
substances so generally mingled with our food. I refer to 
our condiments 01* seasonings. They are all - unless we 
except salt - neither more nor less than medicine. They 
are all irritating, and some of them poisonous. 
Few dishes come to our modern tables that are not, by 
thgir quality or their quantity, silently yet surely undermining 
the " house " we " live in ; " inducing or aggravating disease ; 
hastening our dissolution ; and making us vehicles for trans- 
mitting woes innumerable to generations yet unborn. These 
remarks are peculiarly applicable to those dishes which con- 
tain saleratus, mustard, pepper, catchup, and vinegar, and to 
the use of tea and coffee. 
The. manufacture of ill health by the undue indulgence 
of the appetite God has bestowed on us as a race, rather 
than as individuals, is believed to have been hitherto not 
enough considered. Some think it to be the source of more 
disease than any other cause whatever. But this is not the 
place for a full discussion of that subject. Obedience will 
restore, and more than restore, what has been lost by trans- 
gression ; so that here we have hope, too, of the manufac- 
turing process. 
4. A fourth way of manufacturing health is by breathing 
pure air. Thackrah, an eminent British writer, says, " Be it 
remembered that man subsists more upon air than upon his 
meat and drink." The remark, though not wholly true, has 
truth in it. 36 
PRELIMINARY remarks. 
For it is certain and undeniable that, while we eat and 
drink but a few times in twenty-four hours, we inhale air 
twenty to thirty thousand times. The character of our blood 
and of all the fluids and solids that go to make up these bodies 
of ours, depends very much upon the purity of that air. 
Then it is also admitted that very little of the pure air of 
heaven is inhaled. Did mankind live more out of doors, the 
case would be greatly altered. But we spend one third of 
our time in narrow, unventilated bed rooms ; and another 
third in rooms which are little better, except that we are not 
quite so immovable while in them. It is not more than eight 
hours in twenty-four that we breathe right. 
Worse even than all this is true of a large part of our race. 
The female world, and the sedentary of the other sex, - mak- 
ing an aggregate of considerably more than one half of the 
whole, - scarcely ever breathe pure air at all. No wonder 
they have so many ailments, and as a race arc growing 
feebler every year. 
Before health can be manufactured on a large and liberal 
scale, more pains must be taken to secure the introduction of 
pure air to our lungs and blood. Not only must we have 
good food, that we may have good chyle, but so also must 
our air be good. It is necessary to the skin as well as 
the lungs. 
5. Then, again, we most strangely abuse our nervous sys- 
tem, and this in a thousand ways. This latter, like many, if 
not most, other evils, begins in early life - at life's very 
threshold. And hence, as in the correction of evil in other 
cases, our efforts at amendment must begin there. 
For at this early period of existence, instead of abusing 
' our nervous systems, we ought to be constantly adding to our 
physical capital. I have not a doubt that an amount of PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
37 
health of which few persons have any conception might be 
manufactured by a due attention, from the first, to the great 
laws of the cerebral and nervous systems. 
6. But once more : although there are particular classes, 
in our busy American community, - especially in agricul- 
tural regions, - who do not suffer for want of proper activity 
of their locomotive system, yet, with a very considerable 
proportion of our mechanics and manufacturers, our students 
and our literati, it is far otherwise. 
In the old world, not a few of the operatives become de- 
formed by their too constant confinement to particular po- 
sitions of body; and some of them very seriously so. And 
although we are not yet doing, in this respect, as badly as our 
transatlantic brethren, we are following in the same train, to 
overtake them at no very distant day. We must have more 
varied and healthful, if not more abundant, exercise. 
These, briefly, are some of the ways and means by which 
human health may be manufactured, and the curse which 
vests upon us, physically, be removed. But it is no part of 
my present intention, I repeat, to enter fully upon this sub- 
ject. It will be more and more developed as we pass on. 
Many, who have followed me with a kind of general in- 
terest thus far, will now turn back. " We know a great deal 
better than we do, already," they say, " and why should 
we know more ? Would not the result be that we should 
only add sin to sin, and thus make the more sure our 
condemnation ? " 
But suppose it were liable to have that tendency ; does this 
absolve you from obligation to know the law still better than 
you now do ? You might say the same thing morally and 
religiously; but would you dare to act accordingly ? Be- 
cause your knowledge is in advance of your practice, morally, 38 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
will you dare to shut your eyes against further light, or even 
further inquiry ? 
You ask, perhaps, what you can do. You have not the 
time nor the means, you will allege, to acquaint yourself 
with the code of physical law. You might, perhaps, find 
time to attend a course of lectures on the subject, now and 
then ; but such lectures are not often within your reach. 
And yet something can be done. I well know there are 
difficulties, serious ones ; but I know, too, they can be met 
and overcome. Something, I repeat, can be done - some- 
thing which is worth doing - something which will prepare 
the way for doing still more. I will endeavor to say 
what it is. 
1. Every one can do what he already knows to be right. 
He is, in truth, bound to do this, as truly as he is bound to 
obey what he knows of the moral code. There is here no 
escape. He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him 
it is sin. In other words, disobedience to physical law, when 
the law is clearly understood, becomes moral transgression. 
Many who are in the habit of suffering from colds, head- 
ache, toothache, rheumatism, sore throat, and the like, well 
know the causes which are apt to excite them, for they often 
speak of them, and this, too, in the way of confession of 
their own carelessness. What less can they do than avoid 
their causes ? 
There is one caution necessary just at this point. It is to 
go to work in this matter on principle - not with fear and 
trembling. Some persons fall into the wretched habit of 
doing every thing of this sort, or avoiding every thing, with 
great solicitude, and anxiety, and watchfulness. They are 
timid about consequences. They fear and tremble too much. 
Such individuals should first count the cost of what they PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
39 
are about to do, and never make a movement till fully con- 
vinced of its rectitude and necessity. But when they know 
it to be right, they should go forward in full faith. There 
should be no looking back, with Lot's wife. There should 
be no feeling the pulse, looking in the glass, or watching 
the internal movements. There should be no listening to 
croakers, either without or within. 
This making changes in our habits, without full faith, is 
wrong, entirely so. " According to your faith be it unto 
you," and according to your faith only. He who is but half 
convinced of the importance of a work of reformation will 
never go forward without misgiving. He will be apt to invite 
the very evils he fears. 
Others vainly expect immediate large results. If they do 
not find them - if they are not rid of their troubles, whatever 
they may be - in a few days, or a few weeks, and exalted 
to high and firm health, they give up the pursuit. They not 
only lack in faith, but also in perseverance. 
It is said, by high authority, " He that doeth truth " (mor- 
ally and religiously) " cometh to the light," and, " If any 
man will do my will, he shall know of the doctrine," whether 
it be true or not. And once more : " The path of the just is 
as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the 
perfect day." I am of opinion that this is true physiologi- 
cally. It would seem to be so from analogy. It certainly 
has proved so in my own experience. 
When I was about sixteen years of age, and feeble, in- 
clining strongly to consumption, I read of the cold shower 
bath, and resolved to use it. At that time, we had no costly 
apparatus. Necessity, however, that mother of invention 
helped me to contrive something, in a very simple form, 
which I used for a long time, and with benefit. 40 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
Now, I have studied the laws of health as much as most 
persons, perhaps I might say more. I have studied books 
and men. I trust I have learned something in both these 
ways. Yet I am not aware that in my whole life I ever 
made so much progress, in the same period of time, as while 
I used this shower bath. 
Perhaps I might not be able to show, fully, the why and 
wherefore of all this. But I have no doubt the fact is expli- 
cable, in part, when we consider that this doing truth leads 
our attention to the subject, whether it be religion or hygiene. 
I was endeavoring to harden my constitution ; it was natural 
that I should inquire how the shower bath could have a hard- 
ening effect; and, as I had no books, or almost none, I was 
thrown upon my own internal resources. 
He that " does" truth, morally or physically, will, in my 
own view, whether we can explain the fact or not, find new 
light breaking in upon his path. Why should it not be so ? 
Is this principle, in its application to morals, an anomaly ? 
2. Another thing may be done, at once, and by all. We 
may learn to trace the relation between cause and effect. 
Some, for example, tell us that their colds almost always 
come upon them without any cause ; and so others say of 
their headaches and rheumatisms. Others., still, can almost 
always trace them to their proper causes. And what has 
been done by man, in this respect, man may do. 
I grant, indeed, that there are difficulties in this matter. 
The greatest arises from the want of right training. Did 
parents and teachers make it their business, from the very 
first, to ask their children and pupils the reasons why a thing 
is so or so, it would not be as difficult as we now find it to 
search out the causes of our complaints. Teachers should 
ask the whys and wherefores in every thing else, as well as 
in arithmetic. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
41 
Diseases, more frequently than most persons are aware, 
have their origin in a great number and variety of small 
causes, rather than in a single larger one. The Mississippi 
does not burst out a Mississippi at once. It has its origin in 
a multitude of small streams and springs. 
We may hence see why it is that so many either mistake 
the causes of their complaints, or think they come without 
any cause at all. And hence, too, the importance of culti- 
vating the reasoning powers, that we may not only learn to 
believe in cause and effect, but also to trace effects to their 
right causes, and to do it habitually; especially in all matters 
pertaining to health. 
The more deficient a person is in regard to ability to trace 
effects to their causes, the more confident he is of his supe- 
rior skill in this very particular; and hence a bar to all 
further improvement. When, however, we find ignorance 
coupled with modesty and less of assurance, we may enter- 
tain hope. The man who feels his ignorance is beginning to 
be wise. 
We may hope, in such a case, that mankind will not grow 
old in years without growing any wiser. We may hope they 
will not pass through the world without making it or them- 
selves any better. We may hope they will be creatures of 
progress. We may hope they will not become stereotyped. 
3. Most persons know well that they ought to live within 
their income. They have seen so much misery in the world 
around them which could be traced to a neglect of this rule 
as to deter them, one would think, from any unhappy tenden- 
cies in this direction. Thus, suppose a person has seen 
some misguided neighbor or friend, with moderate income, 
provoked by the demands of fashion to withdraw a few hun- 
dred dollars from his business capital. It was only for once ! 42 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
But it succeeded so well in enabling his family to compete 
with their neighbors, that he ventured to repeat it again 
and again, till it ended in bankruptcy. 
For a few years after the commencement of this down- 
ward course, all appeared unusually well externally. Our 
experimenter, or at least his family, seemed satisfied with the 
results. Most of his neighbors thought him actually more 
wealthy than before. But his factitious income only exalted 
him to render his fall so much the more conspicuous. 
So it is in regard to health. Thousands draw, every year, 
and every day, upon their physical capital. In other words, 
they over-stimulate. They live too fast. Those who only 
look on maybe deceived-often are so. They themselves 
may be so. I have known such cases by hundreds, if not by 
thousands. Some of you may have known as many. The 
increased redness and fulness, especially of the face, joined, 
perhaps, to much mental vivacity and a sparkling eye, may 
be, and often are, mistaken for an increase of health. Sud- 
denly, however, in quite too many instances, the cord snaps. 
They are bankrupt. 
How much better to live within our income than to borrow 
on the future ! How unwise it is to live at the expense of 
life ! They who do this arc not manufacturing health, but 
disease. They are rousing to activity every latent tendency 
to ill, whether hereditary or acquired, as well as sowing the 
seeds of other diseased tendencies 1 
This comparison, borrowed from the business world, leads 
to another, equally pertinent. As it is in pecuniary matters, 
so it is in the manufacture of health - the more active 
capital a person can really use, and use profitably, the 
greater* his gains. In other words, the more a person has, 
the more hg can get. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
43 
So it is with knowledge and intellectual gains. Here the 
more a man has, the more he can get. This every body ad- 
mits. So, too, in moral matters : the more progress we have 
made in excellence or holiness, the more we can make - other 
things remaining the same ; this nobody denies. Must it not, 
in the very nature of things, be so ? 
Why, then, should it not be so in regard to health ? The 
more health a man has, the more he can get. He who is 
feeble - with scarcely the means of holding on to life from 
day to day - can do but little in the way of adding to his 
stock or capital by manufacture or otherwise, though, from the 
nature of the case, the little he can do he is obligated to per- 
form. He who has much already can do more. 
Our meaning, when, as physiologists, we say this, is not 
that a person can be any more than perfectly healthy. But 
then health, like knowledge or excellence, is comparative. 
No one is perfectly healthy ; none so strong in lungs, mus- 
cles, or nervous system, that they can be no stronger. Rath- 
er, the stronger these parts are, or any other, the .more we 
can do for them to make them stronger. 
4. It may be objected by many individuals among us, 
that a want of knowledge of the laws of health puts it out of 
their power to make any considerable acquisitions, should they 
attempt it. They are convinced that health may be manu- 
factured ; but notwithstanding all I have said, it seems to them 
beyond their reach. 
Once, indeed, such knowledge was, as it were, locked up in 
the dead languages of the medical man's library. Within the 
last quarter of a century, it has, however, been brought out, 
and rendered into plain English, so that a tolerable knowledge 
of the house we live in is at every man's door. 
" Yes, if he only had time to read," you will say. And 44 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
has he not the time ? He has as much time to read as Frank- 
lin had at some of those periods of his life when he actually 
read a great deal. Besides, it is not true that you have no 
time to read. You do read an immense amount; though much 
of it, I admit, is but the scum and froth of the newspapers. 
But suppose it were true that you have no time to read, 
either on the manufacture of health, or any thing else ; one 
thing remains, which, as Christian parents, or as friends of 
our common country, you are under obligation to do. You 
are to see that your children have this most necessary 
knowledge. 
You are bound to see that anatomy, physiology and hygiene 
are taught-not in that profoundly scientific way which is 
desirable and even indispensable in the professional schools, 
but in a plain and popular manner - in all the schools of the 
land. If you have no other legacy for the next generation, 
you are bound to see that they possess this. 
Here I have more than once been reminded of what was 
thought to be a slight discrepancy in my views. I have op- 
posed, with all my might, the popular notion of having every 
one become his own physician, while here I come round, it is 
said, and indirectly recommend the same thing. 
But is there any contradiction, after all ? It is not the study 
of disease which I recommend, but the study of the laws 
of health. It is not cure, in any way, or any thing like it, 
but prevention. I would have people know enough to avoid 
the necessity of medicine or physicians, at least for the usual 
purposes. 
5. This reminds me of one thing more you can do, - a 
very important thing, - and that immediately. At least, you 
can begin it immediately. You can endeavor to make a high- 
er, nobler use of physicians than you have ever made before. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
45 
I have spoken, hitherto, as if they were condemned, for 
life, to the mere work of patching up the human constitution. 
The truth is, we have never made any other, any higher, de- 
mand on them. When we make the demand, it is to be 
hoped they will respond to it. 
Physicians who are worthy of the name are modest men, 
for science is always modest. They prefer to pursue their 
usual routine in a plain, unostentatious way. But this they 
should not be permitted to do. They should be drawn out, 
nay, compelled, to do something more than, as a body, they 
have ever yet done in the way of preventing disease. 
When I say that all good physicians are modest men, and 
that science is always modest, I do not by any means forget 
, that they ought to sustain a higher character, at the present 
day, than that of friends and lovers of science. They should 
be philanthropists ; they should be reformers. 
Or if the public can hardly claim their services in the great 
cause of philanthropy, they ought to volunteer them. It is 
time for them to rise above their station, and actuated by mo- 
tives which their position in society does by no means tend 
to inspire, endeavor to reform, at the least, their own pro- 
fession. 
What they can do, and should be compelled to do, by the 
public sentiment, I will not attempt to say fully, in this place; 
it would require a volume. It will occupy at least one lecture. 
I will only say, now, that as guides to the right physical edu- 
cation of our children, their aid would be invaluable. They 
might be instrumental in saving to society every year many 
thousands who now become useless. 
There is nothing - there can be nothing earthly - for 
which parents could better afford to pay a liberal fee, than for 
the means of giving their children strong and healthy bodies, 46 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
by adapting their studies, their employments, their food, their 
drink, their amusements even, to their constitutions, tempera- 
ments, tendencies, &c. 
As family friends and acquaintances, no less than as public 
men in whom you are accustomed to confide, they should be 
employed, if possible, to give public lectures on hygiene. 
One of our savans has said that such lectures are needed, 
every week, throughout the land. Let them be given, and let 
them be heeded. 
The subsequent lectures will afford an intimation of what is 
wanted every where, as well as serve to fill up, imperfectly, 
the course which has been indicated by these preliminary re- 
marks. They are not, however, intended as a full reply to 
the great question, What shall we do to manufacture health ? 
but to lead the way to something, if possible, which is wor- 
thier and better. My business is, and has been for these 
thirty years, to act as a pioneer. 
My hopes of the race to which I belong are very high. 
The laws of health, when fully understood and faithfully 
practised from the cradle to the grave, will prove a more im- 
portant means of human advancement than the most sanguine 
among us have ever yet supposed. 
The child of future blessed ages will not only die a hun- 
dred years old, but be healthy while he lives. And though 
the wicked cannot and ought not to live out half their days, 
the Christian world may. And such a world, and such bless- 
edness, the laws of hygiene, regarded as God's laws, will do 
much to introduce. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
47 
LECTURE II 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OE DIGESTION. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
I have, in the preceding lecture, stated my belief that we 
are at all times, and in all circumstances, under law ; and 
that this law extends to all the movements and functions of 
our bodies, as well as of our minds. The work of digestion 
forms no exception to the truth of this rule, though some 
have vainly endeavored to prove it a matter of mere instinct, 
with which God and conscience have little to do. We are as 
much more strongly bound to " keep under our bodies," that is, 
to keep them under law, than Paul was eighteen hundred 
years ago, as the light of physiology shines more resplen- 
dently on our path than it did on his. 
Your attention is invited, in the first place, to the mechanism 
and laws of digestion, not so much on account of the superior 
claims of the subject, in a course of lectures on health, as 
on account of its being first in the order of nature. Before 
the other functions - circulation, respiration, &c. - can be 
performed, the system must be supplied with something from 
which blood can be made - that fluid by means of which 
our bodies are nourished and sustained. 
Digestion, in the truly physiological sense of the term, is 
not a mere work of the stomach, though it is a function in 
which that organ largely participates. It is influenced, and 
even controlled, in a greater' or less degree, by a very extend- 
ed circle of machinery. Nor is it a mere mechanical solu- 
tion of the food in the saliva, gastric juice, bile, pancreatic 48 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
juice, and other fluids. It is indeed a solution, - a mechanical 
process, - but it is much more. It includes other changes, 
both chemical and vital - changes of great interest and im- 
portance. 
In order to understand what these changes are, and conse- 
quently what the laws of health are, so far as the mechanism 
and process of digestion are concerned, we must examine, 
somewhat in detail, the digestive machinery. 
I. THE MECHANISM OF DIGESTION. 
The parts more immediately concerned in the great work 
of digestion are, the mouth, teeth, salivary glands, oesophagus, 
stomach, liver, pancreas, and small intestines. To these, 
Magendie, a French physiologist, adds the superior extremi- 
ties, because with these we seize or apprehend our food and 
drink. Others add, to this already extended list, the brain and 
nervous system, the muscular system, and the skin. 
The mouth and teeth 
of an adult 
The four different kinds of teeth. 
The names of the parts have been mentioned here, rather 
than those of the more direct instrumentalities ; for it is the 
saliva, gastric juice, bile, pancreatic juice, &c., that, in strict THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
49 
ness of physiological language, should be regarded as the 
machinery or instruments of digestion. 
The mouth and teeth need not be described. A represen- 
tation of them is, on the whole, preferable. The situation of 
the salivary glands is highly favorable for proper action while 
we are masticating oi' chewing our food. They are on the 
sides of the face, near the angles of the lower jaws, and un- 
de* the tongue. There are three of them on each side - six 
? dd. See the preceding page. 
The salivary glands, as seen 
in their proper place. 
The principal salivary glands, 
as seen by themselves. 
These glands, if we eat slowly, and the food is of 
such a nature that we can masticate it properly, furnish 
the only needful drink for our food, and of a quality, 
too, which is best adapted, in every respect, for the work of 
digestion. 
The pharynx and oesophagus conduct tlie masticated and 
duly-moistened food to the stomach. Together, they are, in 
the adult, about a foot in length. They furnish a thick and 
somewhat ropy fluid, called muczis, which not only serves to 
lubricate the passage, but is supposed, by many physiologists, 
to aid in the work of digestion itself. 
When the mass which is swallowed reaches the stomach, 
it remains there, for a time. This organ, in the adult, is usu- 50 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
ally said to hold from a quart to three pints ; but this is prob- 
ably the smallest healthy size. Much, in this respect, depends 
on education and habit. There are stomachs to be found 
which will hold several quarts. 
The watery parts of our food, beyond what is necessary 
to bring the whole mass to a proper consistence, together with 
the water of our drinks, are taken up by the absorbent vessels 
of the stomach, and carried directly into the circulation. 
The stomach, with its entrance and outlet 
What remains is then ready to undergo a highly important 
change, called chymification. This is effected as follows : - 
From the lining or mucous membrane of the stomach a 
fluid now issues forth, called gastric juice, whose office, 
after being mingled with the exterior portion of the mass 
of food in the stomach, is to change it into a grayish 
substance, of about the thickness or consistence of cream, 
called chyme. This, at first, appears to ooze from the mem- 
brane like the small drops of perspiration from the forehead 
and hands of the laborer. These small drops, however, soon 
unite to form larger drops, and ultimately small streams. 
This gastric juice is not the mere serum or watery part of the THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
51 
blood, but a fluid which is secreted and formed from it, for a 
special purpose. 
When one layer, so to call it, of the mass in the stomach, 
is formed into chyme, it is carried out of the stomach, or, 
Here ere seen, first, the oesophagus, next the stomach, and last the small intestines, consti- 
tuting the whole alimentary canal, which is nearly thirty feet in length. The gall bladder may 
be seen on the left 52 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
rather, beyond it, into the small intestines. This is performed 
by a kind of churning motion, which will be described here- 
after. Another layer of chyme is thus formed and disposed 
of; then another ; and so on, till the work is finished. This 
work of chymification, as a general rule, takes up from three 
to four hours; but circumstances so greatly vary it, that the 
exceptions may seem to exceed the general rule. Few per- 
sons so far conform to the laws of digestion as to render 
this process at all natural, or healthful. 
The small intestines, which receive the chyme from the 
stomach, arc some twenty-five feet or more in length, and 
very crooked. Over the internal surface of this long, wind- 
ing canal, especially the first portion of it, the chyme is 
spread out, where it soon undergoes another change, not less 
important than the first. 
This change consists essentially in the addition to the 
chyme of two fluids, viz., the bile and the pancreatic juice • 
and the formation, by what is called secretion, of a new sub- 
stance, called chyle. 
In thia engraving, the stomach is removed to show the pancreas behind it. What you see on 
the right is the spleen, whose use is not well known. Above is the liver, turned up, so as to ex* 
hibit the gall bladder and the duct through which the bile flows into the intestines. 
The chyle is usually of a milky or pearl-colored appear- 
ance. It is first seen in small vessels called lacteals, (milk- THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
53 
vessels,) whose mouths open, in great numbers, on the inner 
coat of the intestines. 
This represents a portion of the small intestine laid open. 
These lacteals, beginning thus, by their open mouths, in 
ihe lining membrane of the intestines, pass through what is 
called the mesentery to a large reservoir or repository, at 
This is to exhibit the lacteals, the mesentery, the receptacle of the chyle, and the duct 
which carries the chyle to the vein at the left shoulder. 54 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
the back part of the abdomen, denominated the receptacle 
of the chyle. From this reservoir the chyle is carried, by a 
duct of considerable size, along upward, close to the spine, 
to a large vein near the left shoulder, into which it dis- 
charges its contents, which are thence carried, mingled with 
the dark, venous blood, to the right side of the heart, and 
afterwards to the lungs. 
What remains of the food, such as the skins or rinds of 
vegetables, the seeds of fruits and other substances, which 
are insoluble, together with (in certain diseased conditions of 
the system) unchanged portions of the food, is carried along 
the canal, to be in due time ejected from the body. The 
time required for this may be greater or loss, according to 
circumstances. 
Something depends, in this particular, on the frequency 
or infrequency of our meals. They who cat but two or three 
times a day, and eat regularly, require more time than 
they who eat oftener. They who eat five or six times a 
day, or are irregular with regard to their times of eating, 
have, in the same proportion, more frequent peristaltic move- 
ments. 
The chyle, though mingled with the venous blood and 
carried to the heart, appears'still to he chyle. It has, indeed, 
many of the properties of a living fluid, like blood ; but it is 
as yet imperfect - unfit to support life; nor is it nutritive 
till it has been carried from the heart to the lungs, when 
and where it receives its red color. But what the coloring 
matter of the blood is has been, and still is, a subject of much 
speculation, and not a little experiment. In practice, how- 
ever, like many other nice points of physiology, these are 
matters of no great importance. We know that it is chyle 
when it is first mingled with the blood ; we know that it is the Mechanism and laws of digestion. 
55 
blood after it has passed through the lungs. Perhaps this 
is enough. 
Thus we have seen that the work of digestion consists of 
three or four separate processes. First, the preparatory 
process, in the mouth ; secondly, the formation of chyme, in 
the stomach; thirdly, the change of chyme into chyle; 
finally, the change of chyle into blood. The last-mentioned 
process, however, is not usually considered as belonging to 
the work of digestion. 
This description, though brief,** sufficiently points out the 
offices of the organs concerned. The laws of digestion - 
as we shall see in passing - are, for the most part, based on 
structure, and derived from it; and are all in harmony with 
it. My constant appeal, in support of the doctrines I shall 
advance, both in this lecture and every other, will be " to the 
law and to the testimony." 
II. PARTICULAR LAWS IN RELATION TO DIGESTION. 
Law 1. Our Food must be well masticated, and commingled 
with Saliva. 
Some have supposed that, if our food were properly re- 
duced to pulp before entering the stomach, it made little 
difference how ; but this is a great mistake. And yet, if the 
notion were true, teeth and salivary glands would still be 
quite convenient. Not every individual is so fortunate, in 
the journey of life, as to have always at hand warm water or 
any other solvent, or a pestle and mortar. 
Much information on this subject has been obtained by 
the experiments of Dr. Beaumont, of Plattsburg. He had 
under his care, for many years, a young man with an un 56 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
natural opening to the stomaoh from the outside of the body. 
This opening was an inch or so in diameter. You could 
look into it, and observe what was going on. He was obliged 
to wear a compress to prevent the food and drink from flow 
ing out. I have had an opportunity of witnessing some ot 
the experiments alluded to. 
But aside from the evidence afforded by these and othci 
kindred experiments, there are one or two strong reasons for 
believing that teeth should be used as preliminary to the work 
of digestion, in preference to the mill, the mortar, or the 
stewpan. The proper and reasonable use of the teeth pre- 
serves them from decay. ' The teeth on that side of the face 
which is least used - provided those of the other side are 
not grossly abused, as in cracking nuts - are well known, 
by every dentist, to decay soonest. 
Another reason for this belief arises from the considera- 
tion that whenever we habitually substitute for saliva a 
quantity of liquid or liquid food which requires no mastica- 
tion, nor very much insalivation, not only the teeth and the 
salivary glands, but the stomach, also, becomes diseased. 
But if it is an established law that food should be well 
masticated and insalivated, it is manifest that no law was 
ever more frequently, more grossly, or more wickedly 
violated ; and this in nearly every circumstance and con- 
dition of human life. 
Those individuals violate it, of course, who bolt their food 
- an error which every where prevails, but nowhere more 
than in our own United States. Not one in a hundred but 
eats his food much too fast, and swallows it in pieces or 
masses quite too large. 
It was humorously said of a farmer in Connecticut, in the 
days of cider drinking, that he drank so much cider that when THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
57 
his large pieces of pork, beef, potato, and turnip fell down his 
throat, those who sat at the table with him could distinctly 
hear the cider dash against the walls of his stomach ! 
Some one says, we do not bolt our food, but throw it down 
our throats. And in order to apply still more forcibly the 
keen edge of ridicule, he says, we seem to be in a perpetual 
strife with each other, to see who can throw nearest the 
walls of the cesophagus without hitting ! 
An aged individual, who was accustomed to express, from 
time to time, as well she might, her abhorrence of a fretful 
temper in those around her, used to enforce her admonitions 
by an appeal, as she supposed, to the highest possible au- 
thority. " The Bible tells us," said she, " Fret not thy 
gizzard ! " Now, if man, like some of the gallinaceous tribe, 
really has a gizzard, or if the stomach has teeth, then it may 
be proper to bolt our food. But the well-known consequences 
of this bolting admonish us to doubt, at least, whether the 
the old lady's version of the Bible was quite legitimate. 
Digestion, as I have before said, is not solution, though it 
indudes solution. Food not soluble cannot be chymified. 
Again : food not easily dissolved is not easily reduced to 
chyme. And when food naturally difficult of solution is 
crowded into the stomach in large, tenacious, or adhesive 
masses, how can the results be otherwise than evil ? 
Never before, perhaps, was a period known, in the history 
of the world, when there was so much premature decay and 
disease of the teeth. Dentists and dentifrices have come up 
into the length and breadth of our land, in number like the 
frogs upon ancient Egypt, and they are multiplying every 
year. Moreover, they are every year better and better 
sustained. 
By the side of the last-mentioned fact, let us just place 58 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
another statement. Never before was so much food bolted 
down the throats of the same number of people in the 
same period of time as those of the people of the United 
States during the last fifty years. Is there no connection,, 
here, like that, of cause and effect ? 
Were there a combination of all the powers of earth and 
hell, that stand opposed to the true interests of man, to destroy 
the human gums and teeth, and, so far as it could go, make 
man wretched, the results could not be much worse than 
what our eyes now behold. For it is not by bolting our food, 
alone, that wo violate the great law I have endeavored here 
to illustrate. The same thing happens when food is hurried 
down by any other process. This may be done by heat, or 
oil, or even by simpler things than the latter, such as tea, 
coffee, and condiments. 
We must not forget that heated food, as a general rule, is 
swallowed with more ease and rapidity than food at a lower 
temperature. Thus a person will eat half a pound of hot 
bread, or biscuit, or pudding, or a pound of warm potatoes, 
much sooner than the same amount by weight of the same 
substances when cold. 
Perhaps it may be said that, in these instances, the undue 
heat excites an unusual flow of the saliva, which somewhat fa- 
cilitates the process of swallowing. Still all is not as it should 
be ; for whenever the saliva flows too rapidly, the teeth are not, 
and cannot be, used as much as they ought. 
The same general remarks are applicable to the use of hot 
liquid or semi-liquid food, as compared with that which is 
cooler. Thus hot gruel, hot. broths, hot hasty puddings, &c., 
are swallowed much sooner than the same food at a low tem- 
perature. In these cases there is very little action either of 
the salivary glands or the teeth. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
59 
Internal heat, - so to call it, - no less than heat which is in- 
dicated by the thermometer, hastens the eating process, and 
prevents the teeth, if not the salivary glands, from perform- 
ing their appointed task. I refer, here, to the use of heating 
condiments - mustard, pepper, spices, &c. 
One objection to the use of tea and coffee arises from the 
fact that they are usually taken hot. This, however, is not 
the principal objection. Taken between the mouthfuls of our 
food, as they commonly are, they prove a substitute for na- 
ture's own drink - the saliva; and arc hence a twofold viola- 
tion of the rule we arc considering. 
But whether taken in one form or at one temperature, or 
another, all drinking at meals - the use of the purest water 
not excepted - is a violation of this natural law of the human 
domain. God has set no less than six fountains in the mouth 
•- three on each side - for the express purpose of furnishing 
drink at our meals; and whenever we eat right, as has been 
seen at page 49, the supply is sufficient. 
Nor is it " according to law" to butter our food, or to cat 
it swimming with molasses, honey, milk, cream, and the like. 
Hot cakes, made of fine flour, especially hot short cakes, hot 
buckwheat cakes, &c., arc bad enough ; but how much worse 
when deluged with butter or any other liquid ! In short, all 
our unnatural customs in regard to eating - our bolting, 
heating, buttering, peppering ; sipping hot or cold drinks, &c. 
- are palpable violations of a law of the great Creator, im- 
planted in our very structure, viz., that our food should be 
properly masticated and insalivated. 
Other things and circumstances being equal, the more 
agreeable to our taste our food is, the more readily the teeth 
perform their work, the more freely the saliva flows, and, in 
all probability, the more healthful is its character. Perverted, 60 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
however, as our tastes are, -• fallen with the rest of the sys- 
tem, - there are apparent exceptions to the truth of this 
remark. Some few persons bolt that food most of which 
they are most fond. 
One thing should be remembered in this connection. When 
an individual becomes convinced of the superior hcalthfulness 
of an article, though at present it may be uninviting, or even 
disagreeable, to him, he may commence the use of it in mod- 
eration, but in full faith, and habit will ere long render it 
agreeable. 
Thus, suppose a person becomes convinced of the natural 
superiority of unbolted or Graham bread. It is unpalatable 
to him now, and even scratches his throat. But let him begin 
and persevere in the use of it, and in process of time the 
saliva will begin to flow while he eats it, and it will at length 
go down his throat quite smoothly. 
Law 2. Our Food should be taken at proper Intervals. 
Talleyrand, the famous French diplomatist, ate but once a 
day; and the Hon. Mr. Taliaferro, of Virginia, as I learn, 
does the same. The latter, moreover, if he misses his hour 
on a given day, omits his meal entirely till the following day ; 
thus eating but one meal in two days. 
O. S. and L. N. Fowler, phrenologists, have for several 
years, in their writings, advanced and defended the doctrine 
of eating only one meal a day. I do not know whether they 
are very persevering in their practice of it. The old Romans 
- some of them - arc said to have had but one set meal a 
day ; but I believe they had one or two of what we should 
call lunches or luncheons. 
Another and a much more considerable portion of man- 
kind, including most young children and savages, and not a THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
61 
few semi-savages, eat at all hours, when they please. Not a 
few families of children I have known appear to eat almost 
all day long. 
Between these two extremes - that of eating but once 
a day, and that of eating, as it were, all the while - we 
find many and very different customs or habits. Some 
persons eat two, some three, some four, and some five or six 
times. 
There are many families who, during the short days of 
winter, eat but twice a day. Others there are, in small num- 
bers, who eat but twice a day at any season of the year. 
Among these last arc several highly-respectable gentlemen 
of the medical profession, among whom is the celebrated 
Dr. Jackson, the elder, of Boston. 
Dr. J. takes his meals at eight A. M. and at two or 
three P. M. He is a man of excellent health - by no means 
an invalid. His singularity is the result of conviction and 
principle. He is seldom driven from his position by the 
strongest temptations. 
The great majority of mankind, however, take three meals 
a day - generally at six to eight in the morning, eleven 
to two in the middle of the day, and five to eight in the 
evening. This is an arrangement in which science and com- 
mon sense have alike concurred. 
Still there are many hard laborers - farmers, mechanics, 
&c. - who verily think they require a fourth and fifth meal, 
especially at certain seasons of the year. These meals, how- 
ever, are somewhat lighter in their character, and are called 
lunches or luncheons. 
In fashionable life, particularly in the cities and towns, 
besides the common luncheon, a sixth meal is taken. This is 
very late, often as late as ten or eleven o'clock. It con- 62 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
sists, frequently, of the most heavy, indigestible things which 
could possibly be selected. It is not usually a set meal, or 
a public one. The food is placed on a sideboard, or table, 
in a part of the house not very conspicuous, and every one is 
permitted and expected to go to it and help himself. Some- 
times, however, he helps others as well as himself, especially 
the pill carrier and the grave digger. 
I have seen delicate females, who would not have said or 
done a vulgar thing for the world, but who, after making it their 
boast, at the regular meal hours, what small eaters they were, 
would go at ten o'clock at night, and cat quite a hearty meal 
of these indigestibles. No wonder they were delicate and 
nervous. 
Three meals a day, for adults, is probably the highest or 
maximum number. It is at least the highest number com- 
patible with good health ; and there are some for whom two 
would be much better than three. Whether one is sufficient 
for the best purposes of the race, as a race, is a point yet 
unsettled. 
Very young children need food a little oftener than adults. 
Their digestion is somewhat quicker, as are their respiration, 
circulation, &c. They have, however, been usually fed too 
frequently, as well as too irregularly. The youngest children 
scarcely need food more than five or six times a day. 
What, then, shall we say to those mothers who nurse their 
babes, not only a dozen or twenty times a day, but also sev- 
eral times during the night? What, indeed, but that they 
are laying a foundation for much future suffering to the child, 
if not to themselves ! 
It is, on this account, hardly to be wondered at that Dr. 
Coles, in his Philosophy of Health, has gone to the strange 
extreme of inculcating the idea that the youngest child needs THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
63 
food but three times in twenty-four hours. He is right, how- 
ever, in his objections to nursing or feeding during the night 
There is not the least necessity for that. 
" But do not our very hard laborers, especially during the 
longest days and the great heat of summer, need food more 
than three times a day ? " I shall doubtless be asked. " Would 
they not otherwise be apt to injure themselves by over-eating 
at their regular meals ? " 
1 have seen both methods tried, and am fully convinced 
that the farmer, who takes but three meals a day, will perform 
his task with more ease, and be less worn out, at the end of 
haying and harvest, and other seasons of severe labor, than 
he who takes more. 
They would faint away without any nourishment oftener 
than once in five, or six, or seven hours, some tell us. Or, 
at least, they would experience such sensations of gnawing 
at the stomach and faintness, as would disqualify them for 
labor. 
These objections, though made in perfect sincerity, are 
founded in utter ignorance of this whole subject. Every one 
ought to know that the food he receives docs not nourish him, 
properly speaking, the next moment after he has swallowed 
it. It takes a considerable time to reduce it to blood. 
The gnawing and faintness do not arise from want of nour- 
ishment, but from nervous exhaustion, and sometimes from 
self-abuse. It is this very eating so often, in many instances, 
that induces it. Drinking too much and too often has a simi- 
lar effect. The more we drink, the more we may, and in- 
deed must. 
The truth is, that the stomach is one of those organs which 
require seasons of rest. It is, in part, a muscular or fleshy 
organ ; and it is a general physiological law that the mus- 64 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
cles or moving powers, if kept moving too long, without 
cessation, become over-fatigued, and for the time injured. 
Soon after food is taken, the muscular fibres that run length- 
wise in the coat of the stomach contract and shorten it. 
Then, in the next moment, the fibres that encircle the organ 
contract in their turn, and extend it. This produces a kind 
of churning motion. 
This motion continues till the food is reduced to chyme, of 
which I have already spoken. The length of time required 
for the completion of this work is ascertained, by Dr. Beau- 
mont and others, to vary, as has been said at page 51, from 
two or three to five or six hours. The work of reducing 
chyme to chyle probably requires one or two hours more. 
During the whole time of chylification, the stomach, of course, 
has to work. 
Now, if we eat but three times a day, the stomach, in all 
probability, can rest a little, if not between each meal, at 
least between some of our meals ; but if four or five of 
these are taken daily', the result will probably be otherwise. 
The stomach will be kept at work all day, and will be unpre- 
pared for rest even at night. 
For, as a consequence of keeping this organ employed all 
day long, the last meal, especially if we retire soon after tak- 
ing it, - and still more certainly if it is not a light meal,- 
will not be wholly disposed of, but will, in part or in whole, 
lie undigested all night. 
How many hard laborers and others, who have taken their 
lunches and their late heavy suppers, have slept, as they say, 
" like a log " all night, and waked unrefreshed in the morn- 
ing ; or, on the other hand, have tossed and dreamed all 
night, to wake next morning with a bad taste in the mouth 
and throat, and perhaps with headache ! THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
65 
For further proof that gnawing and faintness arc not natu- 
ral hunger, it should, I repeat, be understood that those who 
confine themselves to three meals a day, if their other habits 
arc correct, have the least of it, and those who eat luncheons 
the most. 
" But what is to be done, when we have this gnawing, and 
feel as if we should faint away ? " My reply is, Do what a 
large and general experience has found best and safest. 
Drink a little water. Rest a few moments. Tell or hear a 
story. Do not work too violently. 
Common sense, indeed, in this matter, sometimes prevails. 
We hear some few mothers, from time to time, advising their 
children not to eat between meals-, lest it should impair their 
appetite. And it is worthy to be repeated, continually, that 
those adults who cat but two or three meals a day have the 
best appetites and the most enjoyment. 
It will be objected, I know, that other animals eat at all 
times, just when they please. We must remember, however, 
that their stomachs- those of the ruminating animals in partic- 
ular- are constructed somewhat differently from ours. We 
should also call to mind a very important fact of physiology, 
that under the incessant eating, by the human race, the walls 
of the stomach grow thin and feeble ; whereas in beasts it is 
not so - God, in his wisdom, having ordered it otherwise. 
Thus we cannot always reason from the other animals to 
man. 
The largest, heaviest, or most difficult meals will be best 
borne in the morning or at noon. Our evening meals should 
be light and dry. Hence, perhaps, the saying in regard to fruit, 
that it is gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night. 
The worst violation of the rule we are considering is the 
custom of eating late in the evening. It is still worse when 66 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
the food taken at this hour consists of indigestibles, and is al- 
ternated with wine and other unnatural excitants. 
No wonder such persons suffer from nervousness, dyspepsia, 
and liver complaint. Nor is it much to be wondered at that 
those who are employed in groceries and other places where 
temptations abound - clerks, cooks, &c.- never have a firm 
appetite, and are frequently broken down before they have 
seen half the years divinely allotted to man. 
The sum is this: Our meals should be taken at regular 
hours. One meal may suffice, provided we do not, like Tal- 
leyrand and certain idiots, make ourselves gluttons. Two are 
probably better. Three is the maximum number for adults. 
But whether the number be one, two, three, five, or fifty, they 
should be taken at regular hours, and nothing nutritious, noth- 
ing but pure water, should be taken between them. 
In short, as may perhaps be more fully seen in another 
place, he who obeys the laws of digestion in general will 
not be greatly inclined to any other drink than water, either 
with his meals or between them; and many persons of 
very simple habits hardly require any drink at all. 
Some there are who admit all this in a sort of general 
way, and yet do not come into the full spirit of it. They do 
not eat between meals, they say. And yet how often do we 
see them with a little fruit in their mouths, or chewing cloves 
or aromatic seeds, or indulging in a little milk and water, 
soda water, &c. ! 
" But is there any harm," thousands are ready to ask, " in 
the use of milk and water, and other simply nutritious drinks ? 
We verily thought milk and water, molasses and water, &c., 
were healthy." 
They are so, for some persons, especially when taken as 
food. But he who wishes to have his stomach rest between THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
67 
his meals must not throw into it, at these times, - that is, be- 
tween his meals, - a particle of nutriment even in a fluid 
state; for, if he does, that organ, instead of resting, will be com- 
pelled to work to reduce it to chyme. Besides, the nutritious 
sediment of these drinks is harder of digestion than solid food, 
because it has had no mastication and insalivation. 
Pure water does not set the stomach at work again, - I 
mean at the work of chymification, - for it is absorbed at 
once, without any change ; while with every other common 
drink Ind water the result is otherwise. 
This may be the proper place for saying that regularity in 
all our habits - our evacuations among the rest - is as neces- 
sary as regularity about our meals. Locke, the philosopher, 
taught that children should be trained to one evacuation of 
the bowels, and one only, a day. And the healthiest men I 
have ever known were of this habit. But the more meals 
we cat, and the more irregularity there is about them, the 
more irregular our evacuations become. Here is another 
reason, not usually adduced, for eating but three times a day. 
The young of both sexes are exceedingly careless in re- 
gard to this matter. Instead of making it an almost sacred 
principle to obey promptly the calls of Nature, and at a regu- 
lar hour of the day, they often bid her wait, and for the most 
flimsy reasons, till she ceases to utter her warning voice, and 
costiveness and all its progeny follow in train. 
Law 3. Food should he taken in proper Quantity. 
This law has been faintly alluded to several times already ; 
but it requires further elucidation.' 
Attempts have been made to regulate this matter of quan- 
tity by weight and measure. Here, however, if nowhere 
else, " doctors disagree." Some have assumed, as the stan- 68 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
dard, a pound of dry bread, or its equivalent, a day; some 
have said a pound and a half; and some few, two pounds. 
I have been the guest of a man who had his scales on 
the dinner table, and weighed out his dinner with great exact- 
ness. This habit may, to some, be useful ; but there is dan- 
ger that it may lead us to watch, too closely for health, our 
sensations and feelings, and thus lead, inevitably, to dys- 
pepsia. 
One class of men there is, indeed, who might profitably 
weigh their food. Brought up in this land of abundance, 
they have acquired, gradually, very gluttonous habits. They 
may not, it is true, go quite as far as the Siberians, and cat 
fifteen or twenty pounds of flesh and fish, inclusive of two or 
three pounds of candles, a day ; but they go very far. 
I have labored, while a boy, in the same field with men 
who would eat of bread, meat, and vegetables,- including a 
dozen or twenty apples, and two quarts of milk, - at least 
twelve or fifteen pounds of food, daily. And yet, as they 
could " work it off" better than most men, they were not 
conscious, at the time, of any injury. 
It might do such persons good to weigh their food, at least 
for a few days. It might possibly do more than any thing 
else to cure them of their gluttonous habits. For most men, 
however, the practice of weighing food would be, as I said 
before, quite doubtful. 
Whenever we can ascertain the exact size of the stomach 
in a particular individual, the size and strength of his other 
organs of digestion, his early habits, the waste induced by his 
daily employment, and many other things in regard to which 
there is a great difference among men, then - perhaps not 
till then - can we fix, definitely, upon quantity. 
While, however, we can no more lay down fixed and THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
69 
certain rules for every body, in this particular, than we can in 
regard to the required amount of sleep, clothing, or exercise, 
wo can approximate to the truth in the case. We can lay 
down several rules which may be made highly serviceable. 
In the first place, it is a rule of almost universal application 
that we ought to eat less than we do; The testimony of all 
medical men and physiologists, as well as of many ancient 
and modern philosophers, is to this effect. Every body is in- 
clined to cat much more than nature requires. 
Among those who have given us their testimony is the 
Jewish King Solomon. He counsels us to put a knife to our 
throats in the hour of temptation. Franklin sometimes con- 
fined himself to very little food. Sir Isaac Newton was 
exceedingly rigid with himself. Under the same feeling, Dr. 
Dwight endeavored to subsist on twelve mouthfuls of food 
a day, but found it hardly sufficient. Louis Cornaro restricted 
himself to twelve ounces and a little wine. 
President Jefferson was accustomed to say that no man, 
when he comes to die, ever repents of having eaten so little. 
Dr. Caldwell, the phrenologist, says we generally eat twice 
as much as the purposes of nature require. I might multiply 
these testimonies indefinitely. 
Then, again, the Japanese, the Hindoo palanquin bearers, 
and the Turkish porters are universally known to be small 
eaters. The former subsist very well on a handful of rice 
and a little fruit a whole day. The Hindoo will perform his 
tedious task with only a very small quantity of rice and 
curry. The porters on the Mediterranean, living on a slice 
of bread and a few figs, with perhaps a herring a day, will 
carry burdens which would crush most men. 
The Roman soldiers, in the best days of Rome, subsisted 
on rations which would now be deemed as scanty as thej 70 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
wore simple. Had they lived fifteen years ago, they would 
have been called Grahamites. Yet they carried a weight of 
armor that would in these days be deemed insupportable, by 
human strength, for an hour together. 
We forget that we are not nourished in exact proportion to 
the quantity of food we consume ; that there is almost always 
in the stomach and intestines a surplus quantity of aliment; 
and that we tax too severely the vital forces when we com- 
pel Nature, day after day, to dispose of a burden which should 
never have been imposed on her. 
Another error, closely connected with this last, greatly mis- 
leads us. They who have severe tasks immediately before 
them seem to think they must load themselves heavily with 
food. But no skilful teamster would treat his ox or his horse 
in this way. If he has a hard day's work before him, he 
feeds his animals liberally, not in the morning, but the night 
previous. 
That immediate strength which men and beasts receive 
from food consists more in nervous gratification than any 
thing else. For immediate purposes, I know not but a 
dinner of sawdust, or chalk, would answer nearly as well, if 
it were equally agreeable to the taste. Perhaps it would be 
strictly correct to say that we arc nourished and supported, 
during our forenoon labor, much more by the food of the 
preceding day than by the breakfast we have just eaten. 
This fact in hygiene, if universally known, might be of great 
service. 
In the second place, it has usually been mentioned as an 
important rule, when we eat, to leave off hungry; or, in 
physiological language, we should contrive always to leave 
off with a good appetite. 
I have- elsewhere intimated that few persons know the THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
71 
blessedness of a good appetite. " A little bit, but nice," 
satisfies them, especially if they have a cup or two of hot tea 
or coffee to destroy what little of appetite remains. And yet, 
so far as the matter of gustatory enjoyment is concerned, 
they seem to think themselves kings and priests. 
A little reflection, however, or, if not, a little observation, 
might teach such people a very different doctrine. They 
might learn, one would think, that he alone is the man of 
true appetite, who, while he holds himself, as with a curb bit, 
scarcely knows any end of his power. 
Grant Thorburn, a venerable octogenarian, is wont to say 
he never ate enough in his life. So is an aged friend of mine 
in Ohio. Both of these, probably, have good appetites. The 
last mentioned was found, in his eighty-sixth year, mowing 
thistles, barefooted. And in one of the severe days of Janu- 
ary, 1852, when eighty-eight years old, I found him chop- 
ping in the woods. 
In truth, it is strength of appetite, in no trifling degree, 
that gives to one man more native force and more power to 
endure than another. It is idle, and worse than idle, to talk 
of treading under foot the appetites. It would be to change 
mankind into more than triple eunuchs. The stronger our 
appetites - the whole of them-the better. They are as a 
beetle to impel us onward. They must, it is true, be wisely 
directed, or they will drive us to destruction. The head 
must be a helmsman to the ship, or we shall certainly make 
shipwreck. 
There is, it is admitted, a wide difference between strength 
and irritability of an appetite. Most persons possess the 
latter, and as they know of nothing better, they, call it a good 
appetite. They who are always eating seldom have a good 
appetite. The same might be said of the other appetites. 72 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
In general, then, I repeat, leave off', at every meal, with a 
good appetite. He who does this, and at the same time 
obeys all the other physical and moral laws, will seldom pass 
the line of health and safety. But if an individual only half 
masticates his food, the case is altered. He is in danger of 
going much farther, before he approaches the region of sati- 
ety, than if every thing was reduced to a pulp in the mouth, 
and very slowly swallowed. 
There is, indeed, a much higher and nobler rule than the 
last. This is to eat no longer - provided still you eat right 
- than the food refreshes you in body and in mind. Ob- 
serve, I do not say exhilarates or excites you, but refreshes 
or restores you. 
For, though we are not, as has been seen, greatly nour- 
ished by our food till it has been some time in the body, yet, 
if taken right, there is a happy effect produced upon the 
sentient extremities in the stomach, which tends to produce a 
degree of satisfaction - I might even say of cheerfulness. 
Food, no less than drink, or any other sensual indulgence, 
within its appropriate limits, tends to make cheerful, or 
slightly to exhilarate. For this belief we have very high 
authority. Often in the Bible is the process of eating said to 
make merry. Not, I repeat, once for all, the merriment 
which tea or coffee produces, but one far less evanescent. 
This rule it has been my own steadfast purpose, for many 
years, to follow ; and though I will not say I have never, in a 
single instance, departed from it, yet I may say 1 have a 
thousand times profited from it, and can most cheerfully 
recommend it to others. 
Much has been said by physiologists about the fever of 
digestion. Richerand observes, " Digestion brings on a gen- 
eral action, analogous to a febrile paroxysm. As the stom- THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
73 
ach empties itself, the spasm of the skin goes off, the shiv- 
ering is followed by a gentle warmth, the pulse increases in 
fulness and frequency, and the insensible perspiration is 
augmented." 
This " fever of digestion," consisting, as we shall see by 
examining his Elements, pp. 110-112, of a cold stage, a 
hot stage, and a sweating stage, like other fevers, " is partic- 
ularly observable," he adds, " in women of great sensibility." 
And Richerand is by no means alone. He had his authori- 
ties, in great numbers, as he has his followers. 
That this fever of digestion, in very many instances, really 
exists, I am not at all disposed to deny. It is only when the 
inference begins to be made that a fever is compatible with 
health - I had almost said necessary to it - that I am com- 
pelled to enter my protest. 
Digestive fever, as I maintain, is as much a disease as 
typhus fever or brain fever. It is not a necessary appendage 
or condition of healthy action, but rather indicates a want of 
it. It is the penalty, like other diseases, of transgression. 
Let mankind eat and drink as they ought, work as they 
ought, sleep as they ought, and do all things which bear upon 
health as they ought, (and what is there that does not have a 
bearing upon health?) and we shall probably heai' no more 
about digestive fever. Or, if any were supposed to exist, it 
would be so trifling as to be unworthy of our notice. 
In truth, the remark of Richcrand, that this fever shows 
itself most readily in women of great sensibility, leads to the 
very conclusion to which I have arrived. Such persons, 
though they may not be very large eaters, most undoubtedly 
take too much for their feeble frames. Their vital energies 
arc not sufficient to enable the digestive organs to dispose of 
their load without difficulty. Hence agitation and fever. It 74 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
is they alone who task their stomachs too much for their 
general strength who have any digestive or gastric fever. 
I might not have been so particular in my notice of this 
error, but that another error has gone forth closely connected 
with it, and perhaps dependent upon it for its very existence. 
It is, that any considerable degree of exercise of body or 
mind, immediately after a meal, is injurious. 
If a fever were really present, such an opinion might be 
very correct. But except in cases of gross violation of law, 
there is no fever that will be much increased by a reasonable 
amount of exercise. Very violent mental or bodily exer- 
cise might, indeed, do harm, but not in the way usually 
supposed. 
Moderate action of the locomotive system, as well as of the 
brain and nerves, is not only entirely uninjurious, but actually 
favorable to healthy digestion. Away, then, with the anti- 
quated and erroneous notion that a person can hardly eat a 
meal without having a paroxysm of fever that, for a time, 
unfits him for business. 
Instead of retarding the march of body or mind, eating 
correctly should quicken our progress. I have said already 
that it makes us, and should make us, merry - somewhat 
so. We can work the better and the faster for it; and it is 
an excitement that is followed by little of what is called 
debility. 
It is an old saying, and as true physiologically as it is 
morally, that prayer and provender hinder no man's journey. 
If I were compelled to travel fifty miles a day, or hoe an acre 
of corn, I would by all means sit half an hour at the dinner 
table. 
To some persons I may seem to have wandered. But 
although I am at a little distance from the main road, I have, THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
75 
all along kept my eye steadily upon it, and am now prepared 
to return to it. 
The habit of eating too much and too rapidly is taught us, 
and that at a very early age. The child is no sooner old 
enough to desire food than he is over-fed. Nothing is more 
natural or more common than to urge him to take a little 
more, after he might otherwise desist. The stomach is thus 
unnaturally distended, and if the stuffing process is often 
repeated, it becomes enlarged. So, in truth, docs the whole 
system. The deposition of fat beyond a reasonable plump- 
ness, attractive as it rondel's the infant to most persons, 
is indicative of gluttony, or, if this expression seems too 
harsh, of over-feeding. This over-feeding is repeated and 
continued. 
Who among us has not seen the tender infant pressed and 
pressed again to take a little more, after nature had already 
said, Enough ? And then, in five minutes more, if it whim- 
pered or cried a little, whether from pain or not, who has not 
seen the feeding process repeated, as if this were not only 
the remedy for hunger, but the panacea for every ill ? No 
wonder children become over-fat, and in other respects mis- 
shapen. No wonder they gradually become gluttons. The 
stomach, like other muscular parts, enlarges by exercise. It 
is a wonder, perhaps, that they do not oftener become de- 
formed, like our pet lambs, pigs, and puppies. 
There is, however, one partial preventive of this deformity 
in the young human being, which is inoperative in the case 
of the pet animal, at least generally. These last I have sel- 
dom known to vomit. The human infant, on the contrary, 
when full to excess, oftentimes literally runs over, and thus is 
partially saved from destruction. 
A story is told of the mothers in Surinam, which is much 76 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
in point, though it may not be exactly true. It is said that, 
when their very young infants are so full fed that they begin 
to " run over," they take them on their knees, and by a 
peculiar trotting motion endeavor to shake down the milk in 
their stomachs, as farmers shake down apples or ears of 
corn in a basket, in order that it may hold a little more. 
Our mothers, in the United States, have not yet come to 
this; but they are bravely coming on -at least some of them. 
They crowd the stomach till it loses much of its tone and 
vigor; the child becomes flatulent; aromatics or wind-med- 
icines are given ; they afford relief for a time, but leave the 
stomach a little feebler than before; and thus the trouble goes 
on and increases. 
The food which is prepared by a kind Providence, though 
obviously all it requires till it has teeth to eat something 
else with, is deemed quite insufficient. The poor creature, it 
is thought, will never "come to much" without something 
stronger. In order to have the child fat, and lusty, and 
strong, it must learn to eat - so it is thought - such food as 
makes us strong. A little, from time to time, of such food as 
we happen to have at the table, is fed to it- perhaps to eke 
out one of the full meals of its natural food, of which I have 
just been speaking. 
As the child is at first quite indifferent about receiving the 
new and strange substances which are offered to it, and quite 
unacquainted with the process of mastication, they are some- 
times masticated for him by the mother; or, if not by her, it 
is done by some person who has a mouth and set of teeth in 
worse condition than her own. 
Perhaps it is a piece of apple which is administered, or a 
piece of potato. He scowls and slavers, and eschews it; but 
it must go down. The process is repeated, and again repeated, THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
77 
- lor mothers arc apt to be very persevering here, - till at 
length it goes down with a good deal of facility. 
It is not long, now, before the dear little creature comes tc 
the table. Tied into his little chair, he is the most prominent 
object of attention and conversation ; and all seem to vie 
with one another about the honor of feeding his stomach, and 
his rising self-consequence. He must, of course, like what 
the company like - down to the tea and coffee ; and he must 
be literally stuffed with it. The process is repeated from 
time to time till the precious art of eating and drinking - 
teeth or no teeth -7 is consummated. 
I have said consummated ; but it is never consummated, or 
finished. The arrangement of modern tables is such that all 
persons are led into temptation - adults no less than chil- 
dren. When we have eaten about as much as our systems 
really require, a new dish comes on. Of this we must eat a 
little. Another comes, and perhaps another. It would be im- 
polite not to taste them. We must eat, and be surfeited. 
Impolite to refuse, did I say ? Not to keep up the custom 
of stuffing ourselves and our children, at home and abroad, 
would be unpardonable. If the great end of cookery and 
housekeeping were to tempt people to indulgence and dis- 
ease, it could hardly be improved. 
Should the time ever come when a Christian housekeeper 
will endeavor to follow out the laws of physiology and hy- 
giene, in regard to the preparation and distribution of food, 
she must have quite a different sort of people around her 
from the present generation, or she will only be laughed at. 
Suppose such a person, in the full, practical belief that lea 
or pepper was hurtful, should withhold it from her guests, 
even though her most fashionable friends were with her 
w hat atonement could she make for her transgression ? 78 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
The laws of God have been, as yet, but little applied to 
matters of eating and drinking; or, rather, the laws on this 
subject have, so far as known, been regarded as a species of 
inferior law, which Christians are at liberty to obey or disobey, 
as they please. But these things ought not so to be. All 
law whatever is Jehovah's,'and is to be obeyed. This matter 
will not be thus lightly regarded much longer. 
The time is corning, and now is, when the dead in tres- 
passes and sins-physical transgressions among the rest - 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear 
shall live. At least, they shall Legin to live. It will be a 
long time before the physical part of the gospel will be fully 
understood and obeyed. 
The time is not far distant, when the question, What shall 
we eat, or what shall we drink ? will be asked, not so much 
of the stomach or epigastric centre, as of the higher organ, 
the head ; not at the hands of fools or gluttons, but at the 
hands of Science and Christianity. 
Law 4. Food should, be of proper Quality. 
There are several items or particulars, under this general 
head, which shall be considered in order. First, Simplici- 
ty. Secondly, Nutrition. Thirdly, Freedom from Disease. 
Fourthly, Medication. Fifthly, Elementary Properties. 
First. Our food should be simple. In fashionable life, the 
tendency is to the opposite extreme of this. Miss Leslie, in 
her collection of receipts for cooking, mentions eighteen in- 
gredients of a single mince pie I 
There are many things belonging to simplicity. I might 
speak of simplicity with respect to particular dishes, with 
respect to each meal, and with respect to exposure by cook- 
ery and other agencies which are liable to place the various THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
79 
properties of our food, as it were, in conflict with each 
other. 
Complicated or mixed food is objectionable, because it per- 
verts still more our already perverted tastes; because it is 
less healthy ; because it is not so economical; and because 
we lose by it, in the end, in gustatory enjoyment. 
To every one of these points I suppose all will assent, ex- 
cept to the second. Here some will probably demur. They 
will ask what reasons there arc for believing that simple food 
is any more healthy than that which is made up of a variety 
of articles. And it is right that the inquiry should be made. 
Take, foi' example, the ripe, mealy potato. For the man 
of giant stomach, and giant physical powers in every respect, 
it is a most excellent article of food. It is especially valuable 
to such a person if he labors hard in the open air. Baked, 
boiled, steamed, or roasted, it is a simple article, and will of 
itself sustain men in life and health. Nor is it rendered very 
unwholesome by so slight a departure from nature's own sim- 
plicity as the addition of a little salt. 
But suppose it not only cooked and salted, but mashed, but- 
tered, and peppered. Is it now a simple article ? Will it 
become so by the still further addition of gravy, or mustard, 
or vinegar ? It is, on the contrary, far less healthy than be- 
fore. Why so ? It receives less mastication and insalivation; 
nor can the saliva it receives be so well mixed with, and in- 
corporated into the mass. Nor can the gastric juice, when it 
reaches the stomach, act so well upon it. 
All this would be strictly true, if the butter used were fresh. 
But if long salted, it is not only troublesome on account of 
its mixing less readily with other fluids, but because long salt- 
ed buttci' is one of the most rebellious things which can be 
thrown into the human stomach. 80 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
If pepper is added, - a very common addition, by the way 
- it renders the whole mass in the stomach, not only hard of 
digestion, but irritating. The irritation may, indeed, hasten 
the mass through the stomach into the small intestines, but it 
does not favor the production of good chyme and chyle. 
Then, again, neither the butter nor the pepper adds much to 
the beauty of the complexion, or the smoothness and health 
of the skin. Of this, however, I shall have occasion to say 
more presently. 
I have anticipated, a little, already. My object was rather 
to explain the meaning of the word simplicity, as I here use 
it, than to point to particular dishes which are complicated. 
Our cookery is nearly all of it of the latter character. 
"Mince pies" and "hash" do not stand alone. 
Pies and pastry of every kind are preeminently compound 
dishes. Against these Dr. Paris, Dr. Pereira, Dr. Kitchener, 
and most other medical writers, have long. and loudly in- 
veighed. Even Peter Parley, in his Fireside Lectures, has pro- 
nounced them poisonous to the young, without qualification. 
Compounded or complicated dishes are made dishes. Does 
any one ask what made dishes are ? I will refer him to Pro- 
fessor Dunglison, to whom, as competent authority, I suppose no 
one will venture to object. In speaking of the present " com- 
plex condition of the culinary art," he observes, " Every 
preparation of eggs, and every made dish, are more or less 
rebellious ; " that is, as he defines it in another place, more 
or less indigestible. He had already mentioned the fact that, 
we are constantly taking some preparation of egg.* 
By proceeding to gather up his ideas on this subject, we 
come to the conclusion, that all sorts of dishes into which 
butter, milk, cream, lard, saleratus, or any other shortening 
* See his Elements of Hygiene, p. 283. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
81 
enters, are made dishes, no less than those into which eggs 
enter. 
If this is so, however, what a besom of destruction simpli 
city would be to most of our modern fashionable tables '. 
Eggs, milk, lard, or butter goes into almost every thing eaten. 
Governor Hill, in his Family Visitor, a few years since, said 
that butter was a necessary ingredient in almost every 
dish. Are eggs, milk, and lard much less so ? 
The worst remains to be told. Instead of meditating a re- 
turn to nature's simplicity, the great mass of society, even of 
those who profess to follow Christ, are going deeper and 
deeper into all that complication to which I have faintly ad- 
verted in the foregoing statements. The luxuries of to-day 
become the necessaries of to-morrow; and simplicity is fast 
becoming a stranger, if not an exile. 
Secondly. Food should not be too nutritious. It would 
seem as if the common sentiment, so far as we have any 
public sentiment on the subject, were entirely the reverse of 
this. The finer every thing is - the more carefully we ex- 
clude every coarse particle - the better we seem to regard 
it. " As a general rule," says Dr. Dunglison, from whom I 
have just quoted, " all dishes that contain a large quantity of 
nutriment in a small space are more unmanageable by the 
stomach." And this consideration, by the way, is one reason 
why he objects so strongly to " made dishes," as being rebel- 
lious. 
Much has been said, of late, about the superiority of un- 
bolted wheat meal bread to that which is made of fine flour. 
The reasons given why the former is preferable are various. 
Some say it is sweeter. Others say the coarser parts are lax- 
ative in their tendency. Others say that the bran, as they 
call it, serves to distend the stomach. 82 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
Now, all these statements are true, and have weight, except 
that it is not strictly correct to speak of bran in this connec- 
tion. For, properly speaking, there is neither bran nor flour 
about it. It is simply meal. 
And yet the far more important reason in favor of the use 
of unbolted wheat meal is, that it is not so nutritious as that 
which is bolted. Whether it is not still too nutritious to be 
eaten long by itself, is not so well ascertained. However, I 
have no doubt that an addition of fruit, at one or two meals 
of each day, (which is far less nutritious,) would improve it. 
All our grains should be ground coarsely, and without bolt- 
ing. There should be no such thing known as a bolter. I 
do not mean by this, that oats and buckwheat should be used 
without separating the husks or shells which cover them, and 
which no human being could digest. Of course they should 
not. Even wheat, rye, barley, and maize may be washed 
and scoured before grinding. 
On the principle we are now considering, milk is better 
than cream, butter, or cheese, because those last are more 
highly concentrated nutriment. So the lean meats of all ani- 
mals are preferable to the fat parts. 
Fat, however, which is nearly all pure nutriment, is objec- 
tionable on other grounds, as will yet be seen more fully, 
and is, in all ordinary circumstances, almost wholly indigesti- 
ble. It was forbidden to the Jews, as was pork also. Wo 
are deceived in regard to this article, because we have so 
long confounded digestibility and solubility. For similar 
reasons to the foregoing, it is, that rice, peas, beans, &c., are 
not so healthy as several other kinds of food. Yet they are 
almost pure nutriment. With potatoes and other coarse 
vegetables, however, or with fruit, they do very well. The 
latter serve as a balance or check to the former. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
83 
It is, again, for similar reasons that potatoes, turnips, 
squashes, and many of our fruits, are so very healthy, 
especially when eaten with bread, which, even in its coarsest 
state, is rather too nutritious to be eaten much alone. These 
vegetables have in them but a comparatively small proportion 
of nutritious substance. 
Does any one ask why it is that a considerable proportion 
of innutritions matter should be blended, in our stomachs, 
with the purer nutriment, in order to render the results most 
favorable to health ? 
We argue, on this subject, in the first place, from analogy. 
Man's organs do not seem adapted to any thing which is 
pure.* The very oxygen gas, in order to be permanently 
nutritive in the lungs, must be diluted with about four parts 
of nitrogen, or azote, which may be regarded as innu- 
tritious. 
The domestic animals do not long thrive on very pure 
nutriment. It is said, that at sea, when a storm has swept 
the fodder overboard, and nothing but grain is left for the 
horses or other animals which may happen to be on board, 
they will gnaw their cribs, and in various ways manifest 
uneasiness, and even grow thin, and lose their elasticity 
and vigor. But on mingling some coarse substance, which 
they can contrive to get into their stomachs, even though it 
were nothing more than very fine wood shavings, along with 
their grain, they soon improve. For similar reasons our 
* Some of the German writers maintain that man is not fit for pure 
truth, morally. Treviranus says, "Were the Father of our spirits to 
hold out to me in his right hand pure truth, and in his left the ever- 
active, longing- desire after it, and offer me my choice, I would most 
humbly bow to the left, saying, 'Father, give me this; pure truth is fit 
for thee alone.' " 84 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
farmers, when there is a scarcity of hay, sometimes mingle 
cut straw with grain or meal for fodder. 
Children, at first, have their food furnished them by the 
highest wisdom. This, the best of it, is about four fifths 
water, and not. more than one fifth of it pure nutriment. 
And even cow's milk, whenever that is used, is far less than 
one half of it nutritive ; and, in the hands of some of our city 
milkmen, much weaker still! 
But we have facts as well as analogies. They who live 
much on fat, pastry, rice, cheese, fine-flour bread, sago, 
tapioca, &c., are very liable to be constipated or irregular in 
their bowels, and finally dyspeptic ; whereas, the world over, 
those persons are the healthiest, other things being equal, 
who live on coarse food. 
Potatoes, taken alone, are hardly nutritious enough for the 
bes:; purposes of human health. I know well what is said of 
the Irish and Scotch, and I am not ignorant of the numerous 
experiments which have been made which seem to justify a 
different conclusion ; but they do not satisfy me, because they 
have not been extended far enough. 
That if we must eat any thing alone, potatoes are prefer- 
able to most other articles of food, I do not deny. But that 
even these alone are best for us, as a race, I have very 
many doubts. If we eat potatoes largely, we need a portion 
of bread with them. And so of fruits, as well as potatoes. 
It becomes necessary to say, here, that although fat meat, 
rice, &c., are nearly pure nutriment, it does not thence follow 
that our digestive systems can extract the nutriment in exact 
proportion. It is highly probable, not to say certain, that the 
less nutriment an article contains, the more our organs can 
procure from it, in proportion to the quantity existing in it. 
Rice, for example, though nearly all nutritious, may not THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
85 
afford to every person adequate nourishment; partly on 
account of the reason just alluded to, and partly for the want 
of saccharine matter. Some of the experiments of Magen- 
die, a French physiologist, seem to strengthen this view of 
the case. 
Fat meats, I again say, though easily enough dissolved, 
are with great difficulty digested. Indeed, it is doubtful 
whether they are, in ordinary circumstances, digested at all. 
Physiologists say that the whole course of nature, so far as 
our digestive apparatus is concerned, must be changed before 
this can happen. They say that the bile, which is alkaline, 
and which, in a natural course of things, should never come 
into the stomach, must first regurgitate into that organ. Is 
it so, then, that, in order to digest fat or oil, we must make 
soap tubs of our stomachs ? 
Thirdly. Food should not be diseased. The bare thought 
of using food which is diseased is disgusting, were it even 
possible to suppose it healthy. But this cannot be. Dis- 
eased food must be less readily elaborated into healthy 
chyme, chyle, and blood, than that which is free from 
disease; and must, in the nature of things, prove more 
irritating. 
I need not agitate the question, in this place, whether any 
of the articles we use from the mineral kingdom arc ever 
diseased, since I shall discuss this point hereafter. With re- 
gard to substances from the other two kingdoms, however, I 
have something to say. 
Vegetable food is occasionally diseased. The history of 
the potato disease is well known. Grain is also sometimes dis- 
eased- rye, corn, and wheat. I have once or twice known 
a species of disease among apples, and have, in a few in- 
stances, suspected it among other fruits. Compared, however, 86 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
with animal food, and with mixed and highly-complicated 
dishes generally, vegetables are but little liable to disease. 
Whenever they are diseased, the disease, as in the case of 
ergot in rye, is easily detected. 
Want of maturity, hotbed culture, and incipient decay 
can hardly be called diseases; for if they were so, it would 
be in strict accordance with physiological truth to say that a 
very large portion of our food, as it comes to our hands, is 
diseased, especially our fruits. Many of our summer fruits 
are in a state of perfection only a few hours, and some of 
them, as is well known, only a few moments. It is not safe 
to eat them before they are ripe, whether cooked or un- 
cooked ; but it is still less safe to eat them when they have 
begun to decay. Incipient putrefaction is almost disease. 
The grinders of our grain arc accustomed to say that they 
can sometimes detect, in the odor of the grain, the substances 
which were applied to the ground where it grew, as manures. 
If this is admitted to be true, it opens a field entirely new to 
the teacher and learner of the laws of health. 
For who does not know that we are falling more and more 
into the habit, as a dense population, of forcing our vines, 
our fruits, and our grains, by recent hot, acrid manures ? 
If, now, the particles of these foul substances can be detected 
in our grains, and in the fruits of our vines, &c., must they 
not be more or less unhealthy ? They must, at least, be 
disgusting. 
One thing, in any event, forces itself upon the inquiring 
mind. May it not be that the custom of stimulating our 
soils and obtaining large crops by hot manures - saying, 
nothing of their disgusting character - is hurrying on too 
rapidly the wheels of life ? Shall pecuniary gains be set 
over, in this way, against health ? THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
87 
It is a well-established fact that our domestic animals are, 
like man, the subjects of disease, only not to the same extent. 
Some of the wild animals are so; but in general their dis- 
eases are more acute and less complicated. They arc not 
subject to scrofula, consumption, asthma, gout, or cancer. 
No domestic animal among us is more frequently a sufferer 
from disease than the swine. He is not uniformly healthy 
when he runs wild in the woods, as in Maryland or Carolina ; 
but in a state of confinement in our pens and other en- 
closures he is never healthy, and never can be. 
I am not aware that the use of pork, with us, tends at all 
to leprosy, though I am pretty confident - nay, I am abso- 
lutely certain - that all predispositions to cutaneous com- 
plaints are apt to be roused by it into activity. And I have 
often ventured the inquiry, in my own mind, whether the 
divine prohibition of swine's flesh, three or four thousand 
years ago, ought not to give it a permanently suspicious 
character. 
There are numerous reasons why hogs, more readily than 
most other animals, become diseased. From the fact that we 
have been accustomed, time out of mind, to confine them in 
order to make them fatten more rapidly, it has been hastily 
concluded, by some, that they do not need much exercise; 
and hence, without compunction of conscience, we confine 
them to the narrowest limits possible. But it ought to be 
known that what little exercise this animal does really re- 
quire, is just as imperatively called for as if he were a cat or 
a squirrel, and that he suffers just as soon if it is withheld. 
If this is so, what animal of this sort can be found healthy ? 
Then, again, he needs pure air. His lungs, though smaller 
than ours in proportion to his whole frame, are yet con- 
structed on the same general principle; and if he does not 88 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
need quite as much air as we, he needs it just as pure, and 
suffers just about as soon if he is deprived of it. 
He needs wholesome food. True, he is, like man, some- 
what omnivorous ; that is, his capabilities have a wide range. 
He can subsist on mere offal, and almost every thing else. 
But, then, it is also true, and it* ought to be more extensively 
known than it is, that he is as much improved by good food 
as man, and as much injured by bad food, hot drinks, &c. 
Say you he will not fatten so fast ? That may be true. It 
should, however, be remembered, that to fatten fast is one 
thing; to grow healthy, quite another. Luckily, the old asso- 
ciation of fatness with health is beginning to pass away, ex- 
cept in the case of young animals. Fat pigs and fat babies 
are still regarded as healthy. 
The swine, like other animals, needs a clean skin. Most 
persons will demur at this ; but let them know it is true. The 
experiment of keeping a fattening swine clean has been tried 
several times, and always with satisfaction. The pork of the 
clean swine, moreover, is as sweet as that of the filthy one. 
If this animal, when slain for the market, has not tubercles 
on his lungs, ulcers in his liver, or measles or hydatids else- 
where, most assuredly the fault is not ours, who feed and take 
care of him. We have done our best to render him diseased. 
For nothing is more certain than that confined and impure 
air, want of exercise, hot liquid food, and a dirty skin will 
make any animal diseased, whether brute or human ; and if 
the swine is healthy in any degree, it is in spite of his treat- 
ment, and not on account of it. Most seriously do I doubt 
whether one swine in fifty, - the sucking pig perhaps ex- 
cepted,- that comes to our best markets, is free from disease 
The safest way for us, therefore, would be to abandon pork 
eating entirely. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
89 
But diseased swine are not alone. A professor of anatomy 
and physiology in' one of our western colleges told me, a few 
years since, that the fat cattle in Northern Ohio and Michigan 
were extensively diseased in their livers. And I hear sim- 
ilar accounts, very frequently, from others. 
The cow is often diseased. Dr. Clarke, a British writer 
of eminence, tell us that the milch cows of the city of Paris 
are almost always tuberculous. Tubercles, as you know, are 
what might be called the seeds of consumption. Their milk 
is indeed sweeter, and sometimes their flesh, when killed, 
but who would prefer it ? 
I remember a famous cow of my father's. No cow gave 
more or sweeter milk. Yet she was always feeble, had a bad 
cough, and had every external appearance of moderate con- 
sumption. Whether or not she was tuberculous, I cannot say 
positively; but I presume she was so. 
Next to the swine, however, no fattened animal is so cer- 
tainly diseased by the fattening process as the goose. I have 
known men who made it their business to buy up aged geese in 
autumn, feed and heat them, in a week or ten days, into liver 
disease, and then sell them at the -highest market price. 
The Strasburg mince pies, so famed in Europe and even in 
Philadelphia, are made of the engorged, half-putrid livers of 
geese, fattened in close, heated pens, to the floors of which 
their feet are sometimes nailed. Such, at least, is the testi- 
mony of several eminent physiologists ; and I am not aware- 
that the statement has ever been denied. 
All stall-fed animals are diseased, more or less. They are 
at the least plethoric ; and what is plethora but disease ? They 
are usually more than this, however. Besides the diseases 
already mentioned, they are liable to worms, murrain, horn 
distemper, staggers, eruptive complaints, swelled glands, &c 90 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
The foregoing remarks, as will be readily perceived, arc 
not applicable, in all their severity, to the unconfined, un- 
restrained occupants of fields and barn yards, though even 
these sometimes suffer from bad food, if not from bad air. 
Still less are they applicable to the beasts of the forest, the 
fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea. 
And yet these animals, even these, are occasionally affected 
with disease. Noah Webster, in his excellent little book on 
Pestilential Diseases, tells us that certain kinds of fish on the 
Atlantic coast of America are known to become diseased, 
occasionally, and to die in great numbers. I have myself 
known a load of oysters, brought along in the country, to 
produce a sort of cholera-not fatal, but troublesome - in 
all who tasted them. And the old vulgar saying is known, 
as I suppose, to every body, that they are unhealthy during 
every month whose name does not include the letter r. 
I have also heard sailors, when fishing off Cape Hatteras, 
during a calm, talk familiarly about the dolphin being dis- 
eased by sucking copper at the copper banks, and of boiling 
a piece of silver with the fish, to see whether it would be 
blackened by it; for, if so, it would, as they said, sicken them. 
I do not quote this for the sake of its philosophy, but for 
the sake of a fact. 
The partridge is occasionally poisoned. The cause is un- 
known. It has often been supposed to be a poisonous berry. 
Whatever may be the cause, the fact is undeniable. Other 
facts of kindred character might be mentioned. 
Some of the preparations of animal food, or the mixed 
dishes of which that forms a part, are peculiarly liable to be 
poisonous. Such is the sausage, especially the blood sausage, 
as it is called in Europe. In the kingdom of Wurtcmburg 
hundreds have died from eating it. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
91 
The animal products, particularly cheese, are occasionally 
poisonous. About the year 1827, a hundred persons in 
Plymouth, Connecticut, were poisoned by eating of a single 
cheese. A part of them were my own patients. None of 
them died ; but some of them barely escaped death. In 
Winchester, in Connecticut, several years before, a similar 
occurrence took place, and with similar results. Indeed, 
there have been many cases of poisoning from cheese. The 
nature of the poison which thus operates is unknown. 
Of the poisonous nature of putrid animal substances the 
public are pretty well informed. Thousands have perished 
from this cause, among whom have been many excellent 
physicians and surgeons. They inoculated themselves, as it 
were, while dissecting dead bodies. 
When I was very young, a near neighbor, while preparing 
some fat, a little putrid, for the process of trying, as it is 
called, cut her finger, upon which an inflammation came on, 
which soon destroyed her. But I shall advert to this subject 
again when I come to speak of food and cookery. 
Fourthly. Food and medicine do not belong together. 
As a general rule, food and medicine are, in their action, 
incompatible with each other. In other words, when food is 
in the stomach, medicine should not be there ; and when 
medicine is present in it, food should not be. They are 
antipodes to each other. 
The common sense of some persons has led them, with 
regard to a few things, to the very same conclusion. In 
general, however, the world has gone to an extreme in this 
matter which borders closely on downright insanity. 
Most medical men, of any science or skill, prescribe their 
medicine to be taken as far from meals as possible. Or, in 
any event, it is to be taken on an empty stomach, as it is 92 
THE MECHANISM AND 1AWS OF DIGESTION. 
termed. There are very few, indeed, who wish to have their 
medicine taken with food. 
You will say, perhaps, " But I do not understand you. The 
number of persons, in our American society, at least, who 
take medicine with their meals - so strange a course - must 
be few indeed ; hardly enough to require a passing notice." 
It may be larger than you are aware. There are, it is 
true, very few who use rum or tobacco with their meals. A 
larger number use beer, cider, and wine ; all of which arc 
medicines. But the number of even those is not so large as 
that of another class among us ; and is, it is hoped, daily 
diminishing. 
This last-mentioned class embraces almost our entire com- 
munity ; and the medicines to which I refer are used at al- 
most every table. In truth, our modern tables would hardly 
be regarded as decently set, till one, or two, or three small 
medicine chests were found in the array of dishes. 
It is not intended to affirm, in this statement, that nothing 
but medicine is found in the castors, at our tables ; for I have 
never examined one very closely. They may possibly con- 
tain, along with medicine, as simple articles as salt and 
sugar. 
What I would aim at, however, is not the salt and sugar, if, 
indeed, these are found there, but the mustard, catchup, pep- 
per, spices, and vinegar. The saleratus, I suppose, is not 
found there, but is incorporated with most of our dishes before 
they come to the table. 
All these and sundry other articles, which, in one form or 
another, have come into modern use, are medicines. They 
always were so. They ever will be so. That they are never 
needed, I do not now undertake to affirm, but only that they 
should have no place at our tables, or with our food. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
93 
Let no one object to this definition of the term medicine. 
1 know well that almost any thing, under particular circum- 
stances may have a medicinal effect; but I do not here use 
the word with this license. What I call medicines are sub- 
stances not only wholly indigestible, but actually opposed to 
the natural, healthy action of the stomach and other organs, 
and tending to disturb the natural course and order of things, 
wherever they go. 
Some individual may say, " I thought condiments had the 
effect to quicken the action of the stomach and digestive or- 
gans generally, rather than derange it ; as the spurs of the 
rider quicken the movements of the beast on which he rides." 
They do, indeed, quicken movement, at first; as the presence 
of an enemy might rouse an individual to a posture, and if 
needful to overt acts, of self-defence. At least, this is a very 
common explanation of the state of things in these circum- 
stances. 
Thus, suppose a person has taken a heavy dinner of any 
ordinary dish. Or suppose he has taken but an ordinary din- 
ner of something which is difficult of digestion. He now 
swallows half a gill or one third of a gill of brandy to pre- 
vent any evil effect. Let us watch the results. 
The overloaded, oppressed stomach was suffering before, 
but not so severely as to prevent its slowly rallying to its aid, 
in removing the load, all the disposable vital forces of the 
system. But now comes a foe still worse. Infuriated by this 
unceremonious attack, a demand is made still more strongly 
for aid, and the foe is at length expelled into the duodenum. 
'(Is this all ? " By no means. The cerebral and nervous 
system, the heart and arteries, and even the entire digestive 
apparatus, having been roused to exert themselves beyond 
their wonted ability, now fall back into a measure of inaction 94 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
or collapse, somewhat proportioned to their previous excite- 
ment. 
And yet the state of things is not precisely what it was 
before the attempt was made to render aid to the suffering 
stomach. There is a loss of tone and energy in the parts 
that have been overworked, which is not so easily restored as 
some may be foolhardy enough to believe. 
Now, I do not so much care what the substance is which 
has this effect. It is, to all intents and purposes, a medicine, 
and should ever be regarded as such. Of course the stronger 
oi- more active medicaments do more mischief than the weak- 
er ; but otherwise the difference is not very considerable. 
Should doubts remain in the mind of any individual wheth- 
er the contents of the castor deserve to be dignified with the 
name of medicine, let him make the following simple experi- 
ment- an experiment which, in essence, has been mentioned 
by many writers on this subject. 
Cantharidcs - Spanish flies - arc known to have the pow- 
er of blistering the human skin, and are therefore admitted 
by all to be a medicine or poison. Now, place a plaster of 
these on one arm, and a plaster of bruised mustard, or red or 
black pepper, on the other. Which will soonest produce heat, 
and redness, and pains? Docs not every body know ? And 
are not mustard and pepper medicines ? 
So of saleratus, whether taken from the castor, or incorpo- 
rated with the food by the cook. Dissolve a portion of it in 
water, put a piece of flesh meat in the solution, and let it re- 
main as long as our food, with saleratus in it, is accustomed 
to remain in the stomach : will not the flesh bo corroded ? 
And is not such a substance a medicine ? 
Let me only add to the list of table medicines, already in- 
dicated, the two common and popular beverages, tea and THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
95 
coffee. They should have been mentioned sooner, but that it 
was thought almost unnecessary to mention them at all. 
These are medicines, if nothing else were. In truth, they 
arc, in many instances, used as such. They are taken, espe- 
cially tea, at evening, to soothe the nerves after they have 
been over-excited by a hard day's work. But if taken as 
medicine, they should be used by themselves, apart from 
food of every kind. Nature's tendencies are, indeed, in this 
very direction; for the strong coffee and tea drinker eats, at 
the time, but very little food. The narcotics take away his 
appetite. 
There is a double objection to the common and free use of 
these two drinks - coffee and tea - as a beverage. It is not 
only combining medicine and food, but it is drinking with 
meals, which is obviously a palpable and inexcusable violation 
of one of the best established and best known physiological 
laws. 
The separate use of tea and coffee, to which I have just 
referred, is but an extension or revival of the truly Oriental 
method of taking them. Many a Spaniard and Turk makes 
a whole meal of his coffee, and many a Chinese of his tea. 
The lazy Spaniard often calls for his cup of coffee before he 
is out of bed, and this suffices him fora meal till nearly noon. 
I ought to state distinctly, in passing, that if the contents 
of the castor, or any other condiments, - salt, perhaps, still 
excepted, - arc used at all, it should be by themselves. 
Whether we have our castor or condiments once a day, once 
a week, or once a year, we should use nothing else at that 
meal. This is the only physiological way of using these or 
any othei' table medicines. 
Some may say, " But are you not behind the times ? Have 
you not against you such men as Liebig, and Pereira, and 96 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
M. Gasparin, and Emmons ? Not at all. Their arguments 
- Pereira, by the way, don't go with them - are as good 
for alcohol and opium, and even arsenic, as for tea and cof- 
fee. If these last - I mean tea and coffee - prevent waste, or 
save from waste, or are, as Dr. Emmons says, saviors, (of 
the body,) so are the former and stronger poisons. Yet 
Methuselah probably got along without any one of them. 
Fifthly. The last item I shall consider in connection with 
the quality of food is the following : Our aliments should 
contain all the necessary ingredients for building up or renew- 
ing the body. These are ftbrine, albumen, and caseine. 
There is, however, another mode of division, viz., into the 
azotized and non-azotized substances. The former are nutri- 
tious ; the latter furnish only carbon for combustion in the 
lungs. Many articles of food contain both these ingredients, 
though, of course, in very different proportions. 
Wheat contains the best admixture of these two substances 
or elements ; so that if it were best for mankind to live always 
on one kind of food, (which, however, is not the case,) this 
would be the best known article. It is even better than pota- 
toes. It not only abounds in starch to burn, but also in gluten 
to nourish us. 
Many suppose that vegetable substances do not contain 
much, if any, combustible matter for the lungs - i. e., carbon ; 
but Dr. Carpenter, in his Physiology, says that " four pounds 
of starch - and how full of starch most vegetable substances 
are ! - contain as much carbon as fifteen pounds of flesh." 
In general, however, as it must be admitted, the vegetable 
kingdom, while it furnishes us with a tolerable supply of car- 
bon for pulmonary combustion, is richest in nutrition. Fat 
meats, especially, though they are almost all carbon, are very 
unsuitable food, because very difficult of digestion. THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION 
97 
Law 5. Our whole System should he in a proper State. 
First. In order to secure healthy digestion, the digestive 
machinery itself must be in a good and healthy condition. 
The teeth, salivary glands, stomach, liver, pancreas, &c., 
must all be in a sound state, and must perform the work 
which Nature, in her wise plan, has assigned them. • 
I have more than once observed, that most persons confound 
solution and digestion. If a thing is dissolved, so as to pass 
through the system without uneasiness or pain any where in 
the abdominal region, - any pain, I mean, which can be read- 
ily referred to the stomach, - they suppose it is digested. 
But those who understand the structure, extent, and laws of 
the digestive system, as I have described and pointed them 
out, can never, for one moment, think so. They know well 
that the chyme or the chyle may be imperfect, or even both. 
Or, if the chyme and chyle are perfect, they know that in 
consequence of inhaling bad air, or for other reasons, known 
or unknown, the chyle may not make good and perfect blood. 
The fitness of the blood to sustain life and health depends 
much more on the complete digestion of the food than most 
persons are aware. 
There is, in short, every degree of what may be called 
healthy digestion, short of a state of things which is accom- 
panied by perceptible suffering. The results of digestion, in 
other words, and the purity and health of the blood, will be 
in proportion, always, to the vigor of the digestive machinery. 
Some digest their food so poorly that they barely contrive 
to keep themselves from the sick list. Others get along some- 
what better, and others better still, all the way up to the fa- 
vored individual who seems almost able to digest an iron 
wedge. 98 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION, 
Secondly. But much of healthy digestion depends also 
upon the health and vigor of other organs, and in particular 
the cerebral and nervous system. No one can have his food 
digest well, however perfect the machinery, unless a good 
deal of what we call nervous energy is duly manufactured 
by the brain, and sent down to its aid. On this account it is 
that qpnstant and severe study sometimes renders digestion 
imperfect. We use up -- so to speak - all the energy the 
brain and nerves can manufacture, till there is none to spare 
for the purposes of digestion. 
This lamentable result is doubtless often aggravated by 
neglect of exercise, constipation, &c. We are apt to neglect 
or despise the laws of the body, as if the latter were a mere 
appendage of the mind and soul ; or as if they had no bond 
of connection or sympathy. 
Every parent and educator should fully understand that, in 
order to secure the best bodily health, the mind should be 
fully and harmoniously developed, as well as properly culti- 
vated. Here, as I believe, great advantage would accrue to 
mankind from the study, not of the science of mere " head 
feeling," but of phrenology. 
Thirdly. But the feelings and affections - the moral part 
of man - must also be right, in order to insure perfect 
digestion. Under the habitual influence of fretfulness, mel- 
ancholy, envy, grief, fear, anger, hatred, &c., no person, 
however excellent the condition of his physical system, can 
long maintain this state of things. 
Consider, for example, the effects of fretfulness. No per- 
son who is habitually fretful can be healthy in any particular 
whatever. The world might be challenged to produce an 
habitual fretter who is not, in some respect or other, an 
m valid. TOE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
99 
If this is so, some will say, it presents a very sad condition 
of things. Would it not be impossible, at this rate, es- 
pecially in our American portion of the world, to find any 
specimens of perfect health ? For who is there, it will be 
asked, that does not occasionally fret ? Some fret about 
one thing ; others about something else. Some fret on 
occasions only ; others fret always. There arc those who 
seem to have been born fretting, and it is ten to one if they 
do not go out of the world fretting. 
There are, abroad, two kinds of fretting, as 1 have said 
before ; just as there are two kinds of intemperance. There 
is the occasional outburst, and habitual worrying. The 
first is bad enough ; but the last is as much worse for the 
physical frame as habitual sipping is worse than occasional 
drunkenness. 
But if mere frctfulncss-is injurious to digestion, what shall 
we say of the other feelings and affections I have named, 
- so depressing in their nature and tendency, - such as grief, 
fear, and hatred ? Are not these, in their habitual influence, 
still worse ? 
That God made us to grieve, fear, hate, &c., in certain 
circumstances, I know not that I could doubt. But that ha- 
bitual indulgence of any depressing passion impairs health - 
that of the digestive system among the rest - is as true as 
any law of the mathematics. 
Who has not known, for example, the immediate effects of 
grief and sorrow on the appetite ? A person may be sitting 
at dinner, with as good an appetite as ever he had in his 
life, when suddenly he receives distressing intelligence. 
Are not his desire and relish for food gone in a moment ? 
Now, can grief, in a large degree, be so suddenly opera- 
tive, and yet the habitual indulgence of the same feeling, 100 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
only in a smaller degree, be without any effect ? It is not 
so, most certainly. 
When I was young, and read that " Whoso hateth his 
brother is a murderer," I wondered what it meant. And 
some wise commentators seem to have little more than won- 
dered. But physiology has taught us that while it means 
what is commonly supposed, it means much more. 
Whoso hateth his brother is not only in danger of becom- 
ing a murderer, - having already caught the spirit of mur- 
der,- but he is a murderer. He is certainly a suicide, 
though he cuts away the threads of life by inches, only. 
And a suicide is a murderer ! 
In order to be healthy, and, of course, in order to have 
good digestion, we need the full influence of all the elevat- 
ing feelings and affections, rather than that of theii' opposites. 
We need especially to be cheerful. One writer on health 
has treated of cheerfulness as a fundamental law. 
Some among us seem almost afraid to be cheerful. Our 
Savior, they say, often wept, but never laughed. How is 
this known ? I have as much regard for antiquity as most 
men, but I cannot help distrusting such a notion as that, 
though of ever so long standing. 
All the graces that Christianity, pure and undefiled, tends 
to inspire, - faith, love, joy, peace, contentment, and general 
benevolence, - are as conducive to the health of the body 
as to that of the soul. And I have sometimes wondered that 
this doctrine was not oftencr made a part of our religious 
teaching. 
III. DISEASES OF DIGESTION. 
Foremost in the list of diseases of the digestive system 
stands that many-headed monster, known, in past years, by THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
101 
the name of dyspepsia - otherwise called, in plainer English, 
indigestion. 
This strange, almost incurable, but seldom fatal complaint 
may be induced in various ways, and is doubtless aggravated 
by every form of physical and moral transgression. It is, 
nevertheless, for the most part, traceable to some of the 
various forms of disobedience to the law's of digestion. 
It is, however, very frequently aggravated by ignorance, 
superstition, or quackery. No other class of invalids that I 
know have dabbled more with medicine, and been oftener the 
dupes of quackery, than dyspeptics. And among the thou- 
sands of patients I have had, affected with chronic disease, 
there were none I so much pitied. 
Johnson, in his work on indigestion, has hit off the trials of 
dyspeptic patients, and their liabilities and disabilities, in his 
usual felicitous manner; and I must be excused if I attempt 
to copy one of his most striking pictures. 
" Many an important undertaking has been ruined by a bit 
of undigested pickle ; many a well-laid scheme has failed in 
execution from a drop of green bile; many a terrible and 
merciless edict has gone forth in consequence of an irritated 
gastric nerve. The character of men's minds has often suf- 
fered from temporary derangements of the body ; and thus 
health may make the same man a hero in the field whom dys- 
pepsia may render imbecile in the cabinet." 
This is not the place for an essay on the treatment of dys- 
pepsia. I will only say, that the first thing to be done in this 
way is to stop the wheels of rational life as much as pos- 
sible, and only vegetate. Next, eat and drink very little. 
Lastly, use no medicine. And, in general, there must be a 
centrifugal tendency of iwind and body. 
By a centrifugal tendency, I mean simply a tendency 102 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
outward. The dyspeptic is apt to talk and think, almost in- 
cessantly, of his own complaints. Hardly any thing could 
be more injurious. The more he talks, and drugs and doses 
himself, the more he may. 
He must obey the laws of God, moral and physical, as well 
as he can, and trust the rest to God and nature. He must 
cultivate also the love and habit of caring for others. He 
must, in one word, trust in the Lord, and do good. 
Licntery is a frequent result of violating the laws of diges- 
tion. By licntery is meant a state of the system in which 
the food taken is cither little more than dissolved, or very im- 
perfectly digested. The stomach, liver, and intestines seem 
to be almost without action, and the food almost unchanged. 
This state of things, I know, is not generally regarded as 
a diseased state, but rather as a constitutional habit. The 
patient is usually thin, and does not seem well nourished by 
what he cats; but the reverse is sometimes true, and ho 
becomes corpulent. 
Licntery is least troublesome when the muscular and cuta- 
neous systems are most active, as in spring and summer. 
Much also depends on mode of employment. In the open 
air and sunlight, both of which improve the skin and increase 
the general vigor, the lienteric tendency is sometimes greatly 
diminished. 
I am acquainted with one or two families who have been 
lienteric through several generations. But though harassed 
in this way, they hardly know it to be disease. They seem 
not to understand that any thing better can fall to the lot 
of humanity. 
One of the evils incident to this state of things is, that it 
divests the individual of that energy^md courage which are 
so necessary in this world, especially moral courage. His THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
103 
religious faith is always feeble. You will seldom hear him 
speak on religion but he is talking about his religious cold- 
ness. This only makes him the colder himself, and helps to 
freeze others. 
Diarrhoea is frequently greatly aggravated - perhaps some- 
times induced - by violated digestive law. Or, as I shall say 
hereafter, diarrhoea is at first, for the greater part, a simple 
catarrh or cold on the bowels, which becomes aggravated by 
various other causes. The bowel complaints of summer and 
autumn have long been known to fall with greatest severity 
on those children and youth who are habitually guilty of trans- 
gressing the laws of digestion, especially those which relate 
to times of eating, and quality and quantity. 
Thousands of people are habitually subject to acidity of 
the stomach, which is indicated by a burning sensation at the 
upper orifice of the stomach, often called heartburn. There 
is also a bad taste - sometimes acidity - in the mouth and 
throat, especially on rising in the morning. There may also 
be flatulence. 
Connected with this state of things - often dependent upon 
it - are foul breath and a premature decay of the teeth. Of 
the latter I have spoken already. Induration and ulceration 
of the stomach are sometimes among the penalties of diges- 
tive transgression. 
Nervous or sick headache is another of the penalties at- 
tached to this form of violated law. I have sometimes been 
surprised at the suddenness of the disappearance of this 
complaint after the cause had been removed by a return to 
the path of unsinning obedience. 
Cold feet - so troublesome to thousands in these days - 
are not unfrequently dependent on a bad state of the stomach 
and digestive organs generally. The proof is found in the 104 
THE MECHANISM AND LAWS OF DIGESTION. 
fact that, when the tone of the stomach is restored, the cold- 
ness of the feet is no more heard of. 
Drowsiness is very often either an effect or an accompani- 
ment of derangement of the digestive system. It is, at least, 
a symptom of dyspepsia. I knew one man so sadly troubled 
with this affection, that he would sometimes fall asleep while 
eating his dinner. 
Liver complaint is one of the long catalogue of ills which 
belong to this same general class. It is often aggravated - 
occasionally originated - by the use of greasy food and strong 
coffee. This disease is becoming fearfully common, and is 
often made worse by the interference of quackery. Hot 
rooms, hot drinks, a bad position, neglect of the skin, mental 
depression, too much animal food, and a thousand other 
causes, conspire, no doubt, to injure the liver. And yet many 
of these very causes operate to bring about this result by first 
bringing on dyspepsia. 
Eruptive complaints, in many instances, - perhaps I should 
say most, - are the consequence of abuses of the stomach 
and other digestive organs. How often have I heard mothers 
speak of certain sores about the angles of children's mouths, 
and call them chestnut sores ! And how often have boils been 
traced, by the same sort of common sense, to substances 
equally crude and unwholesome ! 
A young woman in Dorchester was observed to have erup- 
tions on her face at times, after which they would disappear 
for a season, and then return again. On inquiry, she told me 
the eruptions were caused by the ordinary salted butter of the 
table ; and that by abstaining from its use a few months, she 
could, at any time, get rid of her disease. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
105 
LECTURE III. 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
The statement of Mr. Thackrah, that we subsist very 
largely on air, has already been alluded to. We receive 
food into our stomachs, at most, but a few times a day ; 
whereas we receive air into our lungs some fifteen or twenty 
times a minute; and this air undergoes, in the lungs, a spe- 
cies of digestion. Sleeping or waking, in sickness and in 
health, the process goes on. The amount we consume of it 
is, moreover, very great, as may bo seen by a moment's re- 
flection. For we inhale, at every breath, in ordinary circum- 
stances, about a pint. This is about fifty hogsheads a day. 
Every part and portion of all this should be pure atmospheric 
air. It should not be in any way contaminated by unhealthy 
gases, by animal or vegetable emanations, or by having been 
breathed over by any living being. Neither should it be in- 
jured by combustion. 
But before the great subjects of Breathing, and Ventilation 
or Purification, can be understood fully, it is necessary to at- 
tend, for a few moments, to the structure of the machinery 
designed by the great Creator for this special purpose. 
1. MECHANISM OF RESPIRATION OR BREATHING. 
The lungs, or, as they are vulgarly called, the lights, are 
the principal instruments of respiration. They are, essen- 
tially, a mass of air bladders, placed in the upper cavity of 106 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
the body, or chest, which they always fill. In general, then, 
he who has a large chest has large lungs. 
The size of the chest, and of its contents, depends on a 
great variety of causes. Among these are hereditary trans- 
mission, education, employment, and habit. Men who speak 
much, use their arms much, or labor much in the open air, 
generally have large lungs ; while females, and those of our 
own sex who lead a sedentary, studious, or merely contem- 
plative life, have their lungs less fully developed. 
ill'll' 
Outline of the Trunk. 
I have said that we ordinarily inhale about a pint of air at 
once. The lungs are seldom quite full, and still less frequent- 
ly are they quite exhausted. By an effort we can inhale sev- 
eral pints. It is seldom, however, that, in a quiescent state, 
the lungs hold a gallon. 
The lungs, thus filling the cavity of the chest, rest on an 
arched or umbrella-shaped bridge, which crosses the body BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
107 
obliquely, and separates the cavity of the chest from the cavity 
of the abdomen. This arched partition or bridge is called the 
diaphragm. It is, of course, convex upwards, and is, like the 
v/alls of the stomach, at once membranous and muscular. 
When we are about to inhale air, the muscular fibres in this 
membrane contract, or shrink, in such a manner as to bring 
the diaphragm more nearly to a level or plane than it was 
The lungs. 
before, and thus to enlarge the cavity of the chest, creating, 
in the first instant, a vacuum. But a vacuum, as it is well 
known, nature every where abhors ; and as soon as there is 
a tendency in this direction, the air rushes in through the 
mouth and nostrils, and then through the windpipe, which 
lies in the fore part of the throat, and fills it. Literally the 
wind blows into the lungs. < 108 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
Whether the word windpipe had its origin in this fact, I am 
not informed. A chimney flue or a stove pipe is a windpipe 
on a somewhat similar principle, only on a larger scale. 
There is this difference, however: the current of air is set 
a-going in one case, in consequence of rarefying the air by 
heat, and in the other by forcibly forming a vacuum. 
Chest contracted after the 
breath is thrown out 
Bony cavity of the chest, ex- 
Xianded, as in inspiration. 
In forming this vacuum, however, the diaphragm should be 
assisted by a set of short muscles, called intercostals, lying 
between the ribs, and so applied that, when they all contract, 
- and they all do contract, when any one of them does, - 
they enlarge the whole cavity. They increase both its depth 
and its circumference. This, I say, should be the case. But 
owing to bacRrabits, induced by early education and in various BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
109 
ways, they seldom contract much ; so that what is done at all 
is chiefly done by the diaphragm. We shall see, more par- 
ticularly, why this is so, hereafter. 
The air, having entered the lungs through the windpipe, is 
carried through the bronchial tubes. These last are simply 
branches of the windpipe. They begin at the top of the 
Trachea and bronchial tubes. 
chest. The lungs are in two great divisions, one for each 
side of the chest. The bronchial tubes divide and subdivide 
into branches almost innumerable. 
These hollow branches of the windpipe - the bronchial 
tubes - at length terminate in clusters of air bladders, in size 
exceedingly small, but in number beyond computation. 
10 110 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
* 
They have a slight resemblance, in shape, to clusters of 
grapes, but are, of course, much smaller. Some of them are 
not the hundredth part of an inch in diameter. 
These air bladders, we have seen, are never wholly empty, 
nor are they often so full that no more air can be admitted. 
They should be filled at all times, if possible ; otherwise the 
lungs, sooner or later, become diseased. 
Air cells of the lungs. 
II. OFFICES OR USES OF THE LUNGS. 
The lungs have many offices; some of more, others of 
less importance. There are, however, but three or four 
which anatomists and physiologists usually mention. 
1. One of the most important offices of the lungs is to re- 
ceive the chyle, and form it into blood. We might be tempt- 
ed to regard this as. a part of the digestive process. The 
truth is, it properly belongs both to digestion and respiration. 
How is the chyle formed into blood ? We are accustomed 
to say in general, without well understanding the nature of 
the process, that it is by the union of oxygen in the air cells 
of the lungs with that admixture of chyle and venous blood 
which is always found there, in such a manner as to impart 
vital energy to the chyle, and fit it to aid in building up or 
renewing the system. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
111 
2. The second office of the lungs is a depurating or cleans- 
ing office. The blood, to the extent of three gallons or more, 
in the adult, is sent by the heart to all parts of the body with 
great rapidity, to nourish it. In the performance of this duty, 
its vitality, heat, and nutritious powers are gradually exhaust- 
ed, and it becomes loaded with carbon and other impurities. 
The blood, with its impurities, comes back from all parts 
of the system through the veins to the right side of the heart, 
whence it is immediately sent, - commingled with the chyle, 
of which I have before spoken, - through what are called 
pulmonary arteries, into the lungs. By means of tire very 
minute division and subdivision of these arteries in the 
lungs, it is, lastly, spread over the coats of the innumerable 
air cells which are found there. Here, from the thinness of 
these cells, it is supposed that the blood parts with its carbon, 
and becomes what the chemists call oxidated or oxygenated. 
1 shall not in a brief lecture undertake to say how this oxida- 
tion takes place. It is sufficient for every practical purpose 
to know that the blood is depurated or cleansed by it. 
3. Another office of the lungs is to serve as the great fire- 
place of the system; for though heat is probably generated 
more or less by all the more active and vital parts of the body, 
yet it is admitted, on all hands, that the work of calorification 
is especially performed in the lungs. Our power to resist cold 
or heat in excess depends more on the strength of our lungs 
than on every thing else. 
One more pulmonary office remains to be mentioned. The 
lungs have power to transmit or transude much water in the 
state of vapor, which in warm air is invisible, but in cold or 
damp weather is discernible, as if it were a dense steam issu- 
ing from the body. Whether the lungs really absorb, - I 
mean in a natural and healthy state, - as it is known the skit 112 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
does, is not so well established. In extreme cases, however 
it is highly probable that, instead of transudation, their office 
is inverted, and they imbibe water, at least to some small ex- 
tent. I have several times wholly abstained from drink from 
six to nine or ten months in succession. True, my food em- 
braced fruits and many succulent vegetables; yet the fluid 
excretions of the body during these experiments appeared to 
exceed the amount of liquid existing in my food. Whence 
could this excess have been obtained except through the 
lungs ? 
in... LAWS OF THE LUNGS. 
Law 1. The Lungs should he made as capacious as possible. 
By this is not only meant that they should be made by edu- 
cation as large as possible, but that they should be expanded 
or distended as much as possible at every inspiration. 
The importance of capacious lungs is every day seen. 
Men with large chests are not only stronger and less liable 
than others to diseases of these organs, but more tenacious 
of life generally. I have known instances where, for sev- 
eral days, life seemed almost extinct except in the lungs ; 
and yet these, as a well-fortified citadel, still held out. They 
are also better able, as we have seen, to resist the extremes 
of heat and cold. 
But their importance is revealed most clearly by sci- 
ence. If their great offices are to form and purify the 
blood, and if this purification depends chiefly op having an 
abundant supply of good air at all times within the vital do- 
main, then does it not follow that, other things being equal, 
the larger the lungs are the better ? And can we attach toe 
much importance, in this point of view, to mere capacity ? BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
113 
Laboiers, soldiers, sailors, housekeepers, and such mechan- 
ics as have widely-varied exercises and an abundance of free 
air, have larger lungs than those who are sedentary in their 
habits and are ■compelled to breathe bad air. Every one 
knows that, as a general rule, if temperate, they are the most 
healthy. Their inheritance is better. Injurious customs have 
not »so much affected them as others. Their position of body 
is more favorable ; they sit less, and when they do sit, they 
do not bend forward as much as others. Few things do more 
mischief to the lungs than standing or sitting day after day 
with the head and shoulders pitched forward, as in the 
case of tailors, shoemakers, stonecutters, engravers, and the 
like. 
All the airy exercises and employments I have mentioned 
- and many others which might be named - tend to keep 
the cells of the lungs fully inflated, and by degrees to 
enlarge the whole cavity of the chest. I have sometimes 
thought, moreover, that those who are employed in the open 
air sing and converse more than others ; and the Germans say 
that singing is so remedial as to cure even consumption. 
Law 2. The Lungs must have free Motion. 
This rule or law is intended to apply to both kinds of mo- 
tion - that of the diaphragm and that of the chest itself. 
Both are most sadly neglected, and the consequences are be- 
coming fearful in the extreme. 
The free motion of the diaphragm is overlooked from life's 
very threshold. The manner of holding infants in the arms 
is often very objectionable. I have seen the sternum, or 
breast bone, so distorted in this way as to leave quite a ridge 
at its junction with the ribs, something in shape like the keel 
of a boat. Children who are suffered to lie on their backs on 114 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
the bed or floor, and scramble about in their own way, a good 
deal, seldom have this strange appearance. 
It may be said by some that these deformities only take 
place in the case of children who are rickety or otherwise en- 
feebled, since many strong children are malti'eated in this way, 
and yet escape deformity. This is no doubt true ; but it only 
serves to enhance the importance of our rule. 
As soon as children begin to utter their little monosyllables, 
they are not only permitted to utter them in a listless manner, 
but practically taught to do so. We use them ourselves in 
talking with them. No wonder their lungs remain feeble, 
and that the diaphragm hardly seems to move while they are 
speaking. No wonder the chest is narrow and contracted. 
Let me be fully understood. I have no objection to mono- 
syllables. Let children be children, and let their words be as 
small as they please. Let them be encouraged, however, 
both by example and precept, to speak with energy. I would 
have no unnecessarily bad articulation. Every thing should 
be well done that is done at all. 
The parent need not, and should not, indulge in mere baby 
talk. What he says to the child, whether monosyllables or 
otherwise, should be spoken plainly and fully. He should 
speak with all his might, and encourage the child to do the 
same. He should speak not only with his throat, but with his 
lungs ; his diaphragm should move, and so should his very 
abdominal muscles. 
Few parents are aware of the great good they might ac- 
complish in this way, if they were but half as anxious to make 
men and women of their children as to transform them into 
monkeys and parrots, or at best into mere playthings. One 
third might be added to the capacity and power of the lungs 
by proper early cultivation. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
115 
Not only may the lungs be invigorated by proper attention 
to conversation, but also by early singing. It was a blessed 
day that first saw the Pestalozzian notions about singing fairly 
on our shores ; and were it for no other reason than that he 
was instrumental in this great work, the name of Woodbridge, 
the geographer, should be immortalized. He not only brought, 
us the Pestalozzian system, but roused public attention to it. 
When a child sings, as well as when he speaks, he should 
sing with all his might. I do not mean in either case that he 
should holla. There is a wide difference between speaking 
with a full voice and bawling. The lungs should be fully in- 
flated with air in the beginning, and kept so. 
I have watched many of our distinguished singers while 
they were performing, and have always found that they sung 
with their lungs full of air; that they never suffered their 
stock of air to be exhausted ; and that they never sung with 
the top of their throat merely. The lungs are a kind of bel- 
lows. Good singers work the whole bellows, and not only 
the bellows, but the bellows handles - the abdominal muscles. 
When a child is taught to read, - which, however, should 
be at a much later period, - he should pay the same attention to 
the right use of his lungs that is necessary in speaking and 
singing. Our reading aloud, both in family and in school, is 
almost any thing but what it should be. I am accustomed to 
attach almost as much importance to reading and speaking, as 
a means of strengthening the lungs, as the Germans are to 
singing. 
Were these three'things - speaking, singing, and reading 
- properly conducted, in family and school, I have not a 
doubt that the capacity and vigor of the lungs might be in- 
creased by it, in the progress of a century or two, some 
twenty or twenty-five per cent. 116 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
These remarks are applicable to after life, as well as to 
infancy and childhood. There are as few adults who can 
read or speak well, as there are of those who can sing well ; 
and I know not but the former are as susceptible of cultiva- 
tion and improvement as the latter. 
I have sometimes been led to the conclusion that one cause 
of bronchitis, in these latter days, 3 the lazy custom which 
prevails of reading at the top of the throat, instead of speak- 
ing in a more impassioned manner, and thus bringing into 
greater activity the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles. 
It is a great mistake to dress children too tightly about the 
chest, or, indeed, any where else. It is like placing a weight 
on a door which we wish to have open freely. The motion 
of the lungs, as a whole, is upward and downward, like the 
rising and falling of a trap door. Happy for coming gen- 
erations that common sense, in this particular, is beginning 
to prevail. Still there is error. I was credibly informed, 
not three years ago, of a young woman in the interior of 
Massachusetts,.whose dress was so tight as to require the 
united strength of two adult female companions to bring it 
together and fasten it. I might allude to other and kin- 
dred facts. 
Too little attention is paid to position of body in the case 
of the young, both at our employments and in school. We 
often find them sitting in a way not unlike that which is 
represented in the following engraving. The supervision of 
the young, in this and a thousand other particulars, should 
extend even to their amusements. We are not justified in 
permitting a child to injure his lungs at study, work, or play. 
Nor is this all ; not only is it our duty, as parents and teachers, 
to see that his lungs are not injured by any thing within our 
control, but we are under the highest possible obligation so BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
117 
Different positions of body in sitting. 
to direct his studies, labors, and amusements, as will lead to 
the highest possible development and improvement of those 
organs. 
Thirty years ago, in one of our New England states, there 
were not, I think, a dozen school houses which contained 
seats, for the smaller children, with backs. We are going now 
to the other extreme. We require them to sit on their seats 
because they hare backs till the internal organs are injured 
nearly as much as they were under the old system. For the 
work of making them " say A B and sit on a bench," we 
seem now fully licensed. 
Sitting long and standing long are both injurious. I will 
not say they are alike injurious, for this I should not be author- 
ized to do. The recumbent or reclining posture is often more 
favorable to health than either. Here is the representation of 
a bad position in standing. 118 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
Different positions of the body in standing. 
When the young are permitted to run about entirely free 
from restraint, there is so much and such frequent change of 
posture that the internal organs are seldom compressed undu- 
ly, or otherwise injured. Nor is much evil likely to arise from 
mere walking or riding, unless the walk or ride is too longcon- 
tinued. But when the young come to sit even for a single 
hour, the muscles of the back grow tired, and the body is 
suffered to fall forward, which compresses, in a greater or 
less degree, nearly all the internal organs. Thus the lungs, 
heart, stomach, liver, pancreas,and intestines all feel the pres- 
sure. The muscles of the back are also weakened. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
119 
With the young of both sexes there must be a good deal of 
romping and running about, even if Latin, Greek, and mathe- 
matics are compelled for a time to stand at a distance. Labor 
will answer a tolerable purpose, if it is of a kind which gives 
pleasure ; but when it is attended to as mere drudgery or 
task work, it is less useful. 
I cannot forbear to remark in this place, that, could the 
young be trained in the full spirit of gospel benevolence, 
many things that now seem irksome to them would then be 
deemed amusement. I could mention* a dozen - perhaps 
fifty - forms of doing good, which are perfectly within the 
reach of both sexes, which would then be as purely pastime 
as their sports are now. 
Of all the summer exercises of the young, swimming has 
the most favorable tendency on the lungs and chest; and it 
were greatly to -be wished that arrangements were made, not 
merely in cities and towns, but every where, so that the young 
could enjoy it. 
What a pity it is that in a country like the United States, 
especially the north-eastern parts of it, where, to say nothing 
of our numerous larger and smaller streams and ponds, we 
collect from the roofs of our houses every year several hun- 
dred, perhaps a thousand, hogsheads of water,-where we 
have to dig but a few feet, as it were, in the earth, and 
whole fountains of water rise up to meet us, - all cannot have 
their ponds and fonts for bathing and swimming at pleasure ! 
Perhaps the town in which I reside is as economical as the 
average of American towns ; and yet I am fully prepared 
to show, whenever occasion shall require it, that we expend, 
for things that only injure us in the end, every ten years, quite 
enough to provide every one of our one thousand families 
with the means of swimming for both sexes. 120 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
Some persons, especially literary and professional men, en- 
deavor to expand the lungs and increase their power of mo- 
tion by artificial means of a very different nature from any I 
have yet mentioned. Among these is the use of a silver 
tube, through which air is drawn into the lungs, and then 
thrown out again. A little valve partly closes the opening in 
the tube as soon as the breath begins to pass out, so that wo 
cannot empty the lungs as fast as we are accustomed. This 
keeps the air cells inflated longer than they would be otherwise. 
Others have thought that the tube which the God of nature 
has given them is as good as a silver one, and have en- 
deavored to contrive their own plans of expanding and 
strengthening the lungs. Some inflate them as much as pos- 
sible, and then count one, two, &c., or repeat the names of 
the letters of the alphabet, as far as can be done without tak- 
ing new breath. A most able and eloquent, and at present 
very healthy clergyman, whose lungs were once so small 
and weak that he could only repeat the letters of the alpha- 
bet once at a single breath, by long practice and effort be- 
came able to repeat them two or three times. 
Many use dumb bells, saw wood, pitch quoits, climb ladders 
or trees, prastise fencing, &c. All these exercises have their 
advantages ; and, with a few, horseback exercise is preferable 
to every other. 
One man, whom I well know, has, as he thinks, greatly 
strengthened his lungs by the following practice. Having in- 
flated them by a full inspiration, he raises his body as high as 
possible on the tips of his toes, and then suddenly lets himself 
down as far as he can, so as to shake well the chest. This 
motion is repeated many times, sometimes with momentary 
intervals, for half an hour. I know of others who have been 
benefited in the same way. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
121 
Law 3. The Lungs require pure Air. 
Not only must the lungs be capacious, and have free 
motion, as indispensable conditions to health, but they must 
have an abundance of pure atmospheric air. Every ad- 
mixture is, as was stated in the beginning of this lecture, 
more or less injurious. 
But what is pure atmospheric air ? Not oxygen, surely ; 
for this, though the great supporter of animal life, is seldom 
found in a pure state, except in the hands of the chemist. 
Nor can any animal live long in it. A mouse placed in a 
jar of pure oxygen, though he is very lively at first, soon 
expires. A man would be thus affected as well as a mouse. 
Chemistry assures us that, in its purest and best state, the 
atmosphere consists of about twenty-one parts of oxygen and 
seventy-eight parts of nitrogen; commingled with which is a 
very little carbonic acid gas. It should also hold in solution 
- probably always does hold in solution - a little water. 
There are, indeed, usually found in the atmosphere - though 
hardly constituting a part of it - other agents, such as elec- 
tricity, light, and the odoriferous particles and effluvia of 
many bodies, both animal and vegetable. 
When we inhale a quantity, greater or less, of atmospheric 
air, and throw it out again, a part of the oxygen - say one 
fourth-disappears; while there is an increase of carbonic 
acid gas in the same proportion, as well as of nitrogen and 
watery vapor. Inhale this same air a second time, and more 
of the oxygen disappears ; more still at the third inhalation, 
and so on. Yet, in general, long before we have inhaled air 
twice over, we begin to feel languid and stupid; and if the 
same thing is continued, we suffer seriously in our health. 
Franklin used to say that a healthy adult spoiled a gallon 122 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
of air a minute. But a gallon is only eight pints, and if we 
breathe eighteen times a minute, we should, at this rate, 
require two gallons and one fourth of air a minute, in order 
that none might be breathed but once. We shall see, in 
another place, that we injure air by breathing it much 
faster than all this. 
The gas which does most mischief to human health, every 
where, is carbonic acid gas. It is most mischievous because 
most constantly present, and yet least perceptible by the 
senses. It can neither be smelled nor tasted, whereas most 
of the deadly gases are perceptible by the sense of smell. 
Carbonic acid gas destroys life by taking the place, for the 
time, in the lungs, of that space which should be occupied 
with atmospheric air containing oxygen. The blood is thus 
unable to get rid of its carbon fast enough, as well as to im- 
bibe a sufficient supply of oxygen. But it also does harm 
directly. When in large quantity, it appears to irritate the 
lungs, and if it does not actually poison them, it seems to 
paralyze their efforts, and produce spasms about the top of 
the throat. 
Carbonic acid is much heavier than common air; hence 
its tendency to the floors of rooms and the bottoms of cellars, 
wells, and caves, is so great that larger or taller animals may 
sometimes breathe, when those that are shorter or smaller 
soon perish. On this account the Grotta del Cane, or Dog 
Grotto, in Europe, has attracted much attention. The trav- 
eller walks through it with safety, while his dog expires, or is 
at least thrown into convulsions, by his side. So many a 
person has perished in other low places or cavities where this 
gas had accumulated from its mere weight. 
What is called, by some, choke damp, as in wells, is the 
mere accumulation of carbonic acid. This acid is formed by BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
123 
combustion as well as by respiration, and in nearly the same 
manner. The oxygen present is used up, and carbonic acid 
is left in its place. Wolfs are sometimes found abounding 
with this gas, just after there has been a fire near them. 
It is this gas, also, which so often destroys life in tight bed 
rooms, cabins, &c. Accounts of these casualties are often 
headed " Death by Charcoal." The reason is, that the com- 
bustion of the charcoal - usually, in these cases, without a 
chimney or flue - greatly increases the quantity of carbonic 
acid formed by the breathing process. They should be 
called simply, " Death from breathing bad Air." 
The gas, in these cases, fills up the room gradually, as 
water would a pail or tub, till those who are sleeping are im- 
mersed in it; and, unless they arc roused by sensations of 
distress, or by a friendly voice or hand, they are suffocated. 
Thousands perish in this way every year- not a few of 
them in tight bed rooms. For one who actually dies in this 
way, however, some hundreds are only slightly injured, during 
any single night; but by repeating the injury, from night to 
night, disease is induced, or old tendencies to disease rendered 
more active, till health is completely lost; and yet the cause, 
to the careless, may seem to be obscure or " mysterious." 
The loss of health and vigor thus experienced, in civilized 
society, every year, defies all human calculation. The ma- 
jority of our race have their lives, in this way, somewhat 
shortened, as well as rendered less joyous and useful while 
they remain. I say less joyous; for no person can breathe 
this gas without some of the following symptoms, viz. : 
1. Great heaviness, almost as though there were a weight 
resting on the head. 2. An inclination to sleep. 3. Pain in 
the head, or ringing in the ears. 4. Difficulty of breathing, 
and sometimes actual suspension of it. 5. Great loss of 124 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
power to move. 6. Palpitation of the heart. 7. A distress- 
ing thirst. 8. In severe or protracted cases, a raging fever. 
I have said that these smaller sufferings, short of death, are 
immense. One is rendered a little more feeble ; another 
much more so. One is already afflicted by scrofula, asthma, 
neuralgia, or some other chronic disease, which is gradually 
made worse by it. Another, still, has his system brought by 
it into such a state that a disease which overtakes him, and 
which he would otherwise have withstood, proves fatal. All 
these clippings, so to call them, from the sum total of what 
might have been life's duration and enjoyment, probably 
amount, in the United States alone, during the time usually 
allotted to a single generation, to many thousand lives. But 
this subject will be treated more fully hereafter. 
But the law we are considering is violated by breathing 
several other gases besides that of which I have spoken ; 
particularly carburctted hydrogen, sulphuric acid, and sul- 
phuretted hydrogen. We will consider them separately. 
Carburetted hydrogen is not only offensive to the smell, but 
positively and greatly poisonous. It is the gas which is 
called, by those who work in mines, the fire damp; and 
which, till Humphrey Davy invented the safety lamp, was 
very destructive to human life in those mines, by its frequent 
explosions. 
This gas is formed by the spontaneous decomposition of 
vegetable substances. Hence it is found, in some instances, 
about our sinks, wells, and pumps. Some towns and cities 
are lighted by it. It is easily detected by the smell ; and it 
is well for us that it is so, for otherwise it would be very de- 
structive. 
So poisonous is this gas to inhale, that when largely 
diluted with common air, as Dr. Dunglison affirms, it causes BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
125 
giddiness, sickness, and much nervous and general prostra- 
tion. In an undiluted state it can hardly be breathed at all; 
as one would be apt to judge who had ever been present 
when it has escaped from our fixtures for lighting. 
Who has not seen small bubbles rise to the surface of a 
pond or mud puddle when stirred from the bottom ? These 
bubbles are collections of carburetted hydrogen gas. Ap- 
ply a torch to them, and they burn with a pale flame. 
Poisonous as carburetted hydrogen is, however, we have 
another gas of kindred character which is still more so - I 
mean sulphuretted hydrogen. This last is much more fre- 
quently inhaled than the other. It does more mischief in 
society than most persons are aware. It is hardly neces- 
sary to describe it, except to say that it is the gas so often 
present in vaults, sinks, &c., and which exhales from putrid 
broken eggs. It is also sometimes formed in the diseased 
and debilitated alimentary canal of men and domestic ani- 
mals. Like oxygen and several other gases, it is very pen- 
etrating, as well as offensive. 
Atmospheric air which contains a thousandth part of sul- 
phuretted hydrogen will, if inhaled, kill small birds instantly. 
In the proportion of a hundredth part it will destroy dogs ; 
and in the proportion of a hundred and fiftieth part, horses. 
Such a gas should, of course, be assiduously avoided by all 
who value health and life. 
When this gas is breathed by human beings, even in a very 
diluted state, it weakens the pulse, enfeebles the muscles, 
stupefies the brain, and greatly prostrates the whole system. 
It is a long time before those who are severely affected by it 
recover their usual strength and elasticity. 
Sulphuretted hydrogen gas differs from carburetted hydro- 
gen in one important particular. The latter is only about 126 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
half as heavy as common air, hence it soon rises above our 
heads, whenever the space permits it to do so ; but the former 
is heavier than, air, like carbonic acid. What shall we say, 
then, to the strange mistake of some people, that the power 
to eject this gas from the body with great force and noise, 
is a sign of health ? The truth is, that if we were perfectly 
well, there could be no gases of any kind in the alimentary 
canal. 
It may not be easy to determine which is most injurious to 
the individual himself - the presence of sulphuretted hy- 
drogen in his body, or its presence in the atmosphere he 
breathes; since it pierces and penetrates all the tissues of 
the system. But he who retains it in his body docs not so 
rapidly poison others as if it were set free. 
A fourth gas, to be avoided with great care and solici- 
tude, is sulphurous acid. It is more common, perhaps, than 
carburetted hydrogen, especially where anthracite coal is 
burned ; but it is not more poisonous. Neither of them should 
be inhaled if possible to prevent it; though neither of these 
is so deadly as either of the other two I have mentioned. 
The laws of ventilation, when we come to consider them, 
must have special reference to the character of these gases. 
Carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and sulphurous acid, 
from their great density, require an arrangement entirely 
different from the other. 
Next in the long list of substances whose inhalation is a 
gross and palpable violation of the laws concerning pure air, 
are what may be called emanations. By these I mean par- 
ticles of matter flying off from animal and vegetable bodies, 
while in a state of change or decomposition. Two of the 
gases I have mentioned above might have been classed with 
emanations; but I preferred another arrangement. Those BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
127 
which we are about to consider are of two classes, animal 
and vegetable. The former are most common. 
It is generally supposed that purely animal substances, 
though they may, in a highly-concentrated form, be unpleasant 
to the smell, are not, after all, productive of disease, at least 
to any considerable extent. 
This opinion, however, is doubted by some, and, as I think, 
justly. To say nothing of the presumptive evidence found in 
the fact that they are exceedingly offensive to the smell, 
which is usually a sign of deleterious character and ten- 
dency, they are avoided by the common sense of mankind, 
as if they were poisonous. Who is willing to live near a 
burying ground, or a slaughter house ? 
But there are facts. A well in Connecticut, where I once 
resided, became highly offensive, and the members of a con- 
siderable family drank its water freely for some time. At 
last the well was cleaned, but the stench of the putrid reptiles 
at its bottom was so great, on uncovering them, that one 
could hardly breathe the contiguous air. During the autumn 
which followed, those three members of the family who had 
the feeblest constitutions sickened in a way somewhat pecu- 
liar, and yet somewhat similar. They recovered, after much 
and long suffering - two of them, however, having been 
given up by their physicians. 
Now, I cannot say, positively, that these facts stood in the 
precise relation of cause and effect, much less that the offen- 
sive particles from the water were the sole cause of the sick- 
ness. Injury may have been done to the stomach as well as 
to the nasal organs. I will only say that the facts themselves 
took place, and then leave it to others to make their own in- 
ferences. But before they do this, let me present, one fact 
more, closely allied in character to the former 128 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
In Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, I found two families living 
in the same tenement, and using water from the same well. 
Some eight months before, the well had been cleaned, and pu- 
trid toads had been found in it, as in the one before mentioned. 
For a considerable time, every person but one who had usen 
the water - sh? was a very robust woman - in both families, 
had been sufferers from a severe disease of the skin. 
I will only add that sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which is, I 
think, one of the frequent products of animal decomposition, 
is, as we have just seen, one of the most deleterious sub- 
stances in the whole catalogue of gaseous poisons. By what 
means,* then, can it possibly be inert, merely because it is 
evolved from animal matter ? , 
Emanations from putrefying vegetable matter have long 
been known to be injurious. On this point, I do not know 
that there is a dissenting scientific voice. Some of this class 
of substances have been called malaria, and are supposed to 
have originated or perpetuated particular forms of fever. 
Short of this, however, there can be no doubt that mis- 
chief is often done. When disease is not actually induced, 
the vital energies maybe, and I have no doubt, often are, 
more or less crippled ; so that the system cannot so well with- 
stand the influence of other injurious causes. 
I think it not improbable, that in most cases of disease 
from these causes, both animal and vegetable emanations are 
present; and though the latter may be much more active than 
the former, I have not a doubt that both have their influence. 
Let me illustrate the force and bearing of these last re- 
marks, as well as prepare the inquiring mind for what I have 
to say, ere long, on ventilation. 
In the early part of my career as a medical practitioner, I 
was called to the housS of a wealthy farmer, whose numerous BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
129 
family had been alarmed by the sudden appearance in their 
midst of a severe disease of the typhoid dysenteric character. 
I found the family in great trouble ; and, indeed, the whole 
neighborhood greatly agitated and distressed. On examina- 
tion for local causes of what seemed to be a local disease,- 
it was the month of September, - I found the cellar, and, 
indeed, all the premises, in a condition which left little 
room for doubt. 
The cellar had not been cleaned that year, if, indeed, in 
two or three years. It was full, so to speak, of half putrid 
cabbage and cabbage leaves, decayed potatoes and apples, 
cider lees, remnants of animal substances, - some of them 
quite putrescent, - and mouldy shelves and bins. The house, 
well, vault, sty, and I had almost said the barn and barn 
yard, were in a sort of concavity or basin; and their filthy 
contents, when put in a liquid state by the rains or otherwise, 
appeared likely to have intercommunication. Besides this, 
the sink was close to the well, the water of which was low. 
The premises were cleaned and ventilated ; the sick - 
what had not died - were taken care of, and no longer per- 
mitted to inhale carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen gas; 
the alarm ceased; the rest of the patients, except one, re- 
covered ; and no more disease prevailed among them, as far 
as I could learn, for many years. 
In the town where I now reside (Newton, Massachusetts) 
is a large manufacturing village, which, till ten or twelve 
years ago, had the reputation of being sickly at the close of 
summer or beginning of autumn, every year. A leading 
citizen who had just removed to the village - a man of great 
influence - declared publicly that, from the nature of the 
case, the disease must be of local origin. 
The result, after some delay, was a thorough depuration 130 
breathing and ventilation. 
and ventilation throughout the village. Cellars and wells 
were cleaned; bed rooms enlarged or ventilated; sties and 
vaults attended to or removed to a distant part of the prem- 
ises, and arrangements made to have fewer occupants in 
each tenement. And mark, the sequel. For though I do 
not presume to say that the whole change has arisen from 
breathing a better atmosphere, yet I will state such facts in 
the case as can be substantiated. For about twelve years 
the " mysterious " annual visitor has neglected to pay his 
visits, and the villagers have enjoyed at least their average 
amount of health. 
Medicated gases, airs, and vapors are sometimes dele- 
terious. My remarks, under this head, will have very little 
reference to the use of substances for remedial purposes, 
except where I make a special application of this kind • 
but rather to those abuses among us that have little to do, 
directly, with the medical profession in any of its schools or 
forms. 
First in the list of medicated gases I shall place the 
nitrous oxide, sometimes called the exhilarating gas. It is 
the gas which is so often administered by a certain class of 
lecturers among us, whose twofold object is to make people 
stare, and to fill their own purses. 
Chemists and physiologists, it is true, assure us that no 
exhaustion of any consequence follows the administration of 
this gas; and hence the idea has been eagerly grasped that 
<t does no harm. But is this a fair conclusion from the 
premises ? Many things might be inhaled or taken which 
produce no immediate exhaustion, and yet do immense re- 
mote mischief. It is testified by high authority, that " ani- 
mals, when immersed in this gas, are soon killed," and that 
it " should not be taken by those who are predisposed to BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
131 
pulmonary complaints." Will any one who receives this 
testimony contend longer for the safety of inhaling it ? 
Then there is ether, a very fashionable preparation, on 
which a good deal of stress is laid, both in the world of 
medicine and that of surgery. Indeed it has, for several 
past years, been quite common to allay pain by inhaling a 
portion of this quick, penetrating agent. 
But chloroform is still more popular than ether, or was so 
at no distant period of time. What will be the effect on the 
public mind of the late sudden deaths which have resulted 
under the careless or misdirected use of this substance, I do 
not know. But I doubt whether many will be affected by 
them. They will probably go on in their folly. 
That it may be right to use this article, as well as ether, 
for remedial purposes, and as a dernier resort, is not denied. 
Nay, I have not a doubt that, in judicious hands, they may 
both sometimes prove of inestimable value, especially in 
cases which properly belong to the department of surgery. 
What I now aim at is, to dissuade people from their use, except 
in those extreme cases. Chloroform is the more dangerous ; 
but both of them are sufficiently so. Both of them - chloro- 
form most certainly - have effects on the system not unlike 
those of a fit of alcoholic intoxication. And is it necessary 
or desirable that a person should get drunk merely to have 
a tooth extracted, or a simple wound dressed ? 
While lecturing, a few years ago, in a flourishing village 
in Massachusetts, a worthy young man came towards me, one 
day, reeling and staggering, exclaiming, " Doctor, I'm drunk." 
" How is that ? " I inquired. " Why," said he, " I've been 
taking chloroform in order to have a tooth extracted." 
Now, I have known men and women in the world, who, 
with only half the physical energy of this young man, have 132 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
had two sets of teeth extracted without the aid of chloroform ; 
and, wonderful to tell, they are yet alive ! Nor is this all; 
for some of them are likely to live many years to come. 
In fine, this perpetual running after chloroform is a wrong 
to surgeons, dentists, and physicians. I have heard them 
complain, most bitterly, of the necessity imposed on them of 
having chloroform and ether about them constantly, and of 
being thus compelled to inhale them till they were breaking 
down their health. 
Of medicated vapors, such as some medical men are 
accustomed to administer, in connection with baths and 
otherwise, I purposely say nothing, because it does not 
belong to the province of hygiene. It is only when they 
are taken at random, and especially for amusement, and at 
improper hands, that I find it necessary to lift a warning 
voice. 
But if gases, emanations, and medicated vapors, by injur- 
ing the lungs, destroy their thousands yearly, and greatly 
injure, for life, other thousands, - and I have little doubt that 
they do, - dust destroys its ten thousands. There is, how- 
ever, one gas that should not be omitted in the comparison, 
viz., carbonic acid. This is probably a more deadly foe to 
the lungs than any thing else, because it is almost always 
present. Still, I repeat, dust, in its various forms, is exceed- 
ingly deleterious. It falls on a membrane, when it is inhaled, 
which was never made to receive dust. The lining of the 
lungs is almost as delicate as that of the eye, and every one 
knows how dust irritates the latter. 
I must call attention, briefly, to four kinds of dust. 
1. Common dust, or dirt. 2. Dust of minerals and fossils. 
3. Dust of metallic substances. 4. Dust of tobacco. 
1. There is a vulgar saying, that every individual, during BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
133 
his lifetime, cats his " peck of dirt." But this saying is as 
untrue as that which ind''cates a necessity of breathing dirt 
in order to be healthy. The truth is, that no living being 
ever was benefited either by eating or breathing it. The 
most we can truly say, in this respect, of feeble people, is, 
that their health is improved by being out of doors, and en- 
gaged in certain dirty employments, in spite of the dirt, and 
not on account of it. They are healthier for the light, the 
air, and the exercise. The balance, at least, of health-giving 
circumstances is in their favor. 
The German physicians have so thorough a conviction of 
the evils of breathing dust, that they object to carpets on 
floors. Treading upon them, they say, raises a cloud of dust 
which injures the lungs in a greater or less degree, and, with 
those who are at all predisposed to that disease, hastens on, 
apace, the consumption. 
It is sometimes said that the dust we inhale does not reach 
the delicate lining membrane of the lungs, but is stopped in 
the larynx. Some of it is certainly retained there ; but a 
considerable part of it reaches the interior of the lungs, after 
all. Thus deposited, it proves irritating; and if the process 
is often repeated, the lungs finally become diseased; and the 
most fearful consequences may ensue. This is the result 
even to those who are comparatively healthy ; how much 
more so to those whose lungs arc already enfeebled or 
diseased ! 
2. But if common dust is unhealthy, as we see it is, the 
dust of mineral and fossil substances is much more so. I re- 
fer to the dust which is inhaled in pursuing certain employ- 
ments ; such as stonecutting, brickmaking, grinding paints, 
preparing medicines, &c. In these last instances, as well as 
in former ones, the dust is deposited on the lining membrane 134 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
of the lungs, where it remains for some time. It can neither 
be absorbed - that is, taken up and carried out of the system 
by small vessels - nor removed readily by hemming and 
coughing. 
Many, I know, are not convinced on this subject. Now 
my acquaintance with the world has been somewhat extensive, 
and I have endeavored to keep my eyes open as I have passed 
along through it; yet I can truly and confidently say, that 
never, to this hour, have I found a healthy stonecutter, who 
had followed his business for any considerable time. His 
position of body is, indeed, unfavorable, but the dust he 
inhales is not less so. 
The axe grinders, in Douglass, Massachusetts, and else- 
where, last but a few years. Whether it is the particles of 
stone that adhere to the mucous lining of the bronchial tubes, 
or those of the steel, makes little practical difference as to 
the final result. Probably, however, it is the steel. The par- 
ticles must be very fine. 
3. Metallic dusts arc worse still. Not of the pure metals, 
but their oxides. Particles of pure metal can have no effect, 
except a mechanical one. They operate, like mineral and 
fossil substances, simply by irritating and inflaming the deli- 
cate lining membrane of the bronchial tubes and the cells. I 
doubt whether even pure lead is poisonous in any other way. 
The oxides of metals, however, are not all poisonous. The 
red oxide - the carbonate - of iron is no more poisonous 
than a mineral or fossil; while the oxides of lead, copper, 
arsenic, &c., when breathed, arc most fearfully destructive of 
health and life, even in very small quantity. 
While residing in the suburbs of Boston, many years ago, 
I was in the habit of visiting the white lead factory in Rox- 
bury. The operatives were generally aware of the danger BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
135 
of their situation, but flattered themselves that, though others 
had fallen, they should escape. Yet I never found a healthy 
individual who had been there many years. Some, find- 
ing themselves declining in health, removed, and soon after 
died. Others, too poor to remove, remained on the spot, 
to droop and die there. A few of both these classes survived 
many years; but none, so far as I could learn, ever entirely 
recovered. Mr. Prince, the late worthy and respectable over- 
seer of the establishment, who was not compelled, in order to 
the performance of his duty, to breathe the poisonous fumes 
much, told me he thought he could withstand the danger; but 
his remains are now covered with the sods of the valley. 
There is one thing very deceptive in this matter. Because 
no part of the penalty of transgression, in certain instances, 
comes immediately, many fancy themselves exceptions to the 
general rule, and that it never will come. Whereas the 
whole history of the past should teach them that there is no 
possibility of escape. The lapse of twenty years would not 
render us secure. A man in Litchfield, Connecticut, perished 
of lead disease eighteen years after he had left his business en- 
tirely ; and this, though he had taken special pains to be, as 
much as possible, in the open air. 
The fumes of copper are little less dangerous than those 
of lead. The operatives in Taunton, Norton, and elsewhere 
in Massachusetts, are unable long to endure their employ- 
ment. And while they remain, though only a few months, 
some of them suffer. 
4. One species of dust, which is greatly injurious to the 
lungs, remains to be noticed. It is the dust of tobacco. Not 
the small amount of this substance which reaches the lungs 
of the snufftaker, - for this is in quantity so small as to be 
hardly appreciable, - but the dust made by the smoker. 136 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
♦ 
Some unreflecting person may say, " But is there dust, 
then, in tobacco smoke ? " I reply by asking another ques- 
tion. What is smoke - the smoke of the fireplace, for ex- 
ample ? Is it a mere nonentity ? Or is it a something ? 
Most unquestionably smoke is volatilized carbonaceous matter. 
Tobacco smoke is small dust. Tobacco smoke is tobacco. 
But tobacco contains a most virulent poison. Dr. Mussey 
and others have found it so penetrating as to destroy the life 
of small animals in a very few minutes. This poison is in 
the tobacco. It is not produced by any fermentative process. 
It is, I say, in small quantity in the tobacco. The thousands, 
then, among us, that smoke tobacco, poison their lungs by it, 
and what is worse still, those of all other persons near them. 
Of the twenty-five millions now in the United States, I sup- 
pose that at least twenty millions have inhaled more or less 
the smoke of tobacco. Tn truth, I do not know how any one 
can escape it entirely. But if this is so, every one is, in 
greater or less degree, poisoned by it. 
How painful the thought that many, who would fain be 
Christian men and women, are not only poisoning themselves 
daily and hourly, but poisoning their families and friends - 
it may be their very wives and children ! A father, for ex- 
ample, smoking in the room with a consumptive son or daugh 
ter I Does he love his children and wife ? Why, then, does 
he poison them ? 
Some of our smokers, it will be said, live to old age. 
Yes, to what is called old age; that is, to sixty or seventy 
years. This, however, as was shown in my preliminary re- 
marks, is not the utmost duration of human life. Drunkards 
occasionally live on to these periods, but they die with all the. 
marks of violence, that is, of disease. 
You will perhaps still say, in defence of smokers, " But BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
137 
1'hey enjoy pretty good health." How good ? " Why, as 
good as other people." And what does ttys prove ? Other 
people are but so many bundles of transgression, and perish 
before their time. The wicked-the transgressors of moral 
and physical law - do not, cannot, should not, live out half 
their days. And all mankind are in one way or another 
transgressors. 
There is something more to be said in regard to this slow 
poisoning. Not only are the already enfeebled lungs of man- 
kind rendered still more feeble by this poison, in the form of 
tobacco smoke, but the tone or energy of all the vital organs 
is impaired by it. There is no part of the system that does 
not participate in the suffering. And then, when we come to 
be sick from other causes, the effects of the tobacco smoke 
we have inhaled are still felt. They have so crippled or low- 
ered our vital energies, that the disease is but the more severe 
and unmanageable. No matter what disease it is, the fearful 
consequences thus follow at a distance. Thousands who never 
held a pipe or cigar in their mouths as truly perish from 
tobacco as they who smoke or chew it. The disease with 
which they are afflicted is more severe than if no tobacco 
smoke had ever been inhaled ; the medicine they take is more 
likely to operate unfavorably, and the disease more likely to 
prove fatal. 
This last doctrine may be new to some ; but this does not 
militate against its truth. New or old, it will bear investiga- 
tion, and will be found as irrevocable as the law of the Medo- 
Persians. It is, moreover, a doctrine which ought to be in- 
culcated from the rising to the setting sun, and from pole to 
pole. Wherever the command has been proclaimed, Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, this should be placed be- 
side it. 138 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
Let us think what becomes of the tobacco which mankind 
inhale. There arc men - ay, and women too - who have 
drawn into their lungs, during a long course of years, wnole 
ounces of volatilized tobacco. What became of it ? I say. 
That which lodged on pipes, collars, cravats, books, white walls, 
&c., may be perceived. The smoke of our fireplaces blackens 
the jambs and the chimney ; but the nose and windpipe, though 
transformed into chimneys ever so long, remain tolerably 
clean and white. Why do they not become blackened with 
soot, like any other chimneys ? Why are they not, to say the 
least, as black as some of our old tobacco pipes? Simply be- 
cause the tobacco deposited in these cavities is»absorbed, car- 
ried into the circulation, and in the end carried out of the 
body. Not, however, till it has done its work of death in 
every part of the system in which the blood circulates. Not 
till it has poisoned us ! Not till it has impaired our health by 
lowering the tone of our vital energies, and in a greater or 
less degree shortened our lives ! 
Law 4. The Air ice hr eat,he must he of proper Temperature 
and Moisture. 
The denser the air' we breathe, the greater is the amount of 
oxygen it contains. Not the greater the amount in proportion 
to the volume, for this remains the same, - about twenty-one 
per cent., - but the greater absolutely. 
Thus, if we inhale, forexample, a pint of air at thirty-two 
degrees Fahr., we inhale, of course, nearly a gill of oxygen. 
If, now, we raise the temperature of that air till one pint be- 
comes two, it is manifest that while the proportion of the oxy- 
gen remains the same in either pint of the heated and rarefied 
air, the absolute amount is only one half of what it was before, 
when cooler; and in order to inhale the same quantity of oxy- BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
139 
gen, we should have to inhale two pints, instead of one. And, 
since it is true that the more oxygen we have in the lungs - 
provided always it is tempered, with four fifths of nitrogen - 
the better it is for the purposes of respiration, it follows that 
the lower the temperature of the air we breathe, if it does not 
chill us, the better it is for our health. 
There is, undoubtedly, a limit in this particular, but this 
limit is not to be ascertained by any arbitrary rule, so much 
as by the experience of the individual himself, aided, perhaps, 
by the suggestion of his physician. For one, however, who 
suffers from breathing air too cold, twenty suffer from breath- 
ing that winch is too warm. 
There can hardly be an error more fatal to those who have 
enfeebled or diseased lungs than that of keeping them habit- 
ually in too warm an atmosphere, whether natural or artificial. 
For though they may seem to thrive for a time in such cir- 
cumstances, yet, like the mouse in a jar of oxygen, they soon 
perish. Many an individual, laboring under complicated dif- 
ficulties, who might, perhaps, with proper pains, have survived 
five, ten, or fifteen years, has been sent to a warmer climate 
only to come back in a year or two, and be buried here, or, 
perchance, to die on the road. And some have made a warm 
climate by artificial means in their own houses, only to hasten 
their final exit. 
Four or five years ago, I was called to see a young woman 
near Worcester, Massachusetts, who was bleeding at the lungs. 
I found her room at a temperature of about eighty degrees 
Fahr., in October. Her sleeping room was contiguous to it, 
and was purposely kept at a temperature almost as much ele- 
vated. No wonder she bled at the lungs. 
My attention was directed principally to this very point, 
but without much hope of effecting a change in her habitp. 140 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
Physicians, - one of whom was eminent,- to my surprise, 
did not oppose the change; and I have since learned that, 
after the lapse of some time, she recovered. 
This error of keeping the rooms of persons who have 
diseases too warm is quite common, and is becoming more 
and more prevalent. It is hastening every consumptive ten- 
dency to a crisis, and sowing the seeds of new complaints 
where none existed before. 
Is it asked, What is the right temperature ? This can no 
more be answered, in a general rule, than the question, How 
much shall a person eat, or drink, or sleep, or take exercise ? 
Still it is not impossible to present certain principles, which 
will greatly assist the earnest inquirer in answering the ques- 
tion for himself. 
Since the lungs are the great fireplace of the human 
system, the bettei' they perform their work, the more steady 
will be our heat. Where they begin to fail, our food should 
be improved, or a little more exercise should be taken ; but if 
this should not be practicable, or should not succeed, a little 
more clothing should be added. The temperature of our 
rooms should not be raised, except as a last resort. 
Here let me say that there are few greater errors, in regard 
to health, than that of relying, almost exclusively, on the 
direct radiating heat of fires and stoves to raise our tempera- 
ture. Such external dependence always puts out the fires in- 
ternally. The more we warm ourselves by means of the fire, 
the feebler the flame in the interior of our system. 
Clothes, though necessary, should not be so abundant as to 
produce a similar effect by extinguishing the internal flame. 
They should be as few as possible, provided we are not chilly. 
Much flannel next the skin, habitually, is worse than none at 
all. If it does no other mischief, it throws water into nature's, 
own fireplace. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
141 
Fires should never be made for us to crouch over, or hud- 
dle around, but to prevent any such necessity. We should 
build our fires not that we may stand or sit by them, but 
rather that we may keep at a distance from them. The tem- 
perature of the room should be raised to such a degree that, 
with proper food, drink, clothing, and mental condition, we 
can be warm enough at the most remote parts of it. 
We ought so to eat, drink, sleep, dress, think, and feel 
as to be comfortable in the morning, even without much 
exercise at a temperature of about sixty degrees Fahr. 
Some persons, who are feeble, may require a few degrees of 
heat more. Towards evening, especially when much fa- 
tigued, the strongest and healthiest, as well as the feeble, will 
require' a little more external heat than in the morning. 
Great care - I repeat it - should be taken, by all, not to 
have the temperature, induced by clothing, fires, &c., too 
high. It is easy to increase our heat by these means, but. not 
easy to lower it. I could be pretty comfortable, at any time, 
in ten or even twenty degrees more of heat than I really 
need, provided it is applied gradually ; but reduce this 
high temperature but five degrees, even somewhat slowly, 
and I suffer. 
Let me present a better illustration of this thought. Sup- 
pose a person perfectly comfortable at sixty degrees. It is 
just what he needs, but he needs no more. Raise the heat of 
his room gradually, in two hours, to eighty degrees, and he is 
still only comfortable. But why not ? Because, while the 
external heat has been rising, the internal fire, as I have 
called it in my preceding remarks, has been growing 
feebler ; and now that the external heat has arrived at 
eighty .degrees, the calorific function, or the power of gener- 
. ating heat within, has been weakened in the same propor- 
tion, and he is no warmer than before. 142 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION, 
Now, for explanation and proof, bring back the temper- 
ature of the room suddenly to sixty degrees. Is the occu- 
pant then comfortable ? Not at all. He is quite chilly. But 
why? For reasons substantially just given. Nor will it 
mend the matter very much to lower the temperature from 
eighty to sixty degrees, gradually. It will do little more than 
prolong his suffering. Nature will, indeed, rally somewhat, 
if we give her time, but not at once. And in truth a single 
experiment of this kind is a draft upon the vital energies of 
the lungs that is never wholly paid. 
It is stated in the memoirs of Cardinal Cheverus, of Boston, 
that he had no fires or other means of keeping up artificial heat 
in his room, cither in summer or in winter. His object was 
twofold - to harden himself, and to save money for daily 
charities. But this course would tax too severely most con- 
stitutions in ordinary life, and was probably a little too severe, 
even for his. It doubtless exhausted, somewhat prematurely, 
his vital energy. 
One evil, incident to a very high temperature in our rooms, 
is, that it reduces, quite too much, the proportion of moisture 
in the air. At a temperature of sixty degrees, the atmosphere 
should contain in vapor at least one grain of water for every 
cubic foot of air ; and if we raise the temperature, more 
water still is necessary. In this way, the skin and lungs are 
subjected, quite too often, to the influence of an atmosphere 
so dry as to prove irritating. Who has not noticed the 
chapped hands of those persons who are compelled by cus- 
tom, or habit, or employment, to occupy such dry rooms as I 
have alluded to, whether school rooms, parlors, or kitchens ? 
But are not the hands tougher than the delicate lining of 
the lungs ? 
Constant evaporation, by extra arrangement, in all our BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
143 
rooms, would be an improvement. Whether we use stoves 
or fireplaces makes little difference, except that we are apt to 
heat our rooms higher with the former than with the latter. 
Besides rendering the air less irritating, evaporation lowers, 
somewhat, the temperature. 
IV. DISEASES OF THE LUNGS. 
Connected with the usual violations of the foregoing laws, 
are their various penalties, in the form of disease, more 
or less severe, not only of the lungs themselves, but of parts 
contiguous, as well as those between which and the lungs 
there is a very strong sympathy. Among these diseases 
are colds, consumption, bronchitis, pleurisy, peripneumony, 
asthma, dropsy, apoplexy (pulmonary), goitre, croup, and 
fever. We are also accustomed to speak of other diseases 
of the lungs, or the cavity in which they are situated ; such 
as hydrothorax, haemorrhage, asphyxia, hepatization, cancer, 
and emphysema. 
Besides, it should be well understood that, in general, what- 
ever impedes, obstructs, or in any way deranges the heart, 
liver, and stomach, affects unfavorably, in greater or less 
degree, the lungs ; and the contrary. The contents of the 
two cavities - the chest and the abdomen - are too near 
together to remain unaffected by each others' diseases. 
Colds, though they have their origin, almost always, in neg- - 
lect or disobedience of the laws of the skin, do, nevertheless, 
often fall upon the lungs. We shall see, in due time, that 
they may fall on any part lined with mucous membrane ; but 
that they are most likely to fall on such parts, of this descrip- 
tion, as are debilitated or already diseased. If that part is the 
lungs, as often happens, then we have colds of the lungs. 144 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
These colds on the lungs, if often repeated, may originate 
consumption, even in those who are not already predisposed 
to it. In general, however, they prove injurious by rousing 
into activity those latent tendencies to disease, which might 
otherwise have slumbered. But of all this I shall treat more 
fully when I come to a separate consideration of consump- 
tion. i 
Bronchitis is regarded by many as a species of consump- 
tion. In any event, it is a frequent and increasing disease. 
It is not now confined to public speakers. I have alluded, 
very briefly, to some of its causes already. Let us hope 
that correct physical education will in due time prevent it. 
Many a pleurisy, peripneumony, and lung fever have ori- 
ginated in disobedience of the laws of the lungs. Nothing is 
more common than to find children who attend school in win- 
ter afflicted with severe lung diseases, many of which prove 
fatal. 
While I was employed, many years ago, in visiting the 
schools in Hartford, Dr. S., a physician, asked permission of 
me and my associate to accompany us. He said he was anx- 
ious to know why so many of the school children suffered 
severely, at the end of winter and towards spring, from lung 
and brain diseases. He did not accompany us long, however, 
before he was satisfied. The school rooms of the city were 
heated in such a way that the heads of the pupils were fre- 
quently in a temperature of seventy-five or eighty degrees of 
Fahrenheit, while their feet were at the reduced temperature 
of forty-five or fifty degrees, and sometimes forty, inducing 
a tendency of the blood to the head and lungs. 
This condition of things was greatly aggravated by the in- 
activity of the lower limbs. For though it is not easy to keep 
children entirely motionless in school, yet their feet and lower BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
145 
limbs have comparatively little exercise-hardly enough to 
impel the blood in its due course in the veins. Then, too, 
the air they breathe is never too pure. And, finally, this 
tendency of the blood upward, so as to increase the natural 
liability of the young to acute diseases of the lungs, and 
heart, and brain, is made worse by their studies. We do not 
usually find the brains of children over active, I know; but 
whatever activity there is adds to the danger. Besides, there 
are a few children, - usually, as I suppose, precocious, - 
who study very hard. 
When we can so heat our school rooms, and other rooms 
where children are, as to have their feet nearly as warm as 
heir heads, or, if possible, a little warmer, there will be fewer 
lung diseases of every kind, and what there are will be less 
fatal. But before this blessed period fully arrives, we must 
make our floors hottest, and not our ceilings; or children 
must be out of the room, or in exercise more ; or they 
must learn to sit with their feet upwards; or, finally, they 
must learn to think and study with their heels instead of 
their brains. 
Asthma is a disease of the lungs, and very troublesome. 
In truth, when it has its origin in a bad constitution, or has 
been of long standing, I do not know that it is curable. It 
may, however, be greatly palliated. And yet those who suf- 
fer under it are very apt to run continually for medical aid. 
I knew a man in Hingham, Massachusetts, four or five years 
ago, who told me he had, in fourteen years, expended six 
hundred dollars for medicine, and was no better. Yet he was 
still trying every nostrum he could hear of. 
The only thing which can safely and properly be done, in 
these terrible cases, is to avoid the causes and occasions that 
excite ibis disease, such as damp air, distressing odors or 146 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION 
dusts, and debilitating colds. Between the paroxysms, that is, 
when most free from the disease, the laws of health should be 
carefully studied and obeyed, especially the laws of the lungs. 
Scrofula is not a disease of the lungs, but of the glandular 
system. And yet, in scrofulous cases, the lungs are quite apt 
to be diseased. In order, therefore, to prevent scrofula, care 
must be taken to have sound lungs. I shall say more of this 
in Lecture VI. 
V. VENTILATION. 
No one can ponder the subject of respiration, in the light 
of those facts which modern science reveals, without being 
deeply impressed with the importance and necessity of taking 
pains to purify or ventilate our rooms and buildings. Some 
of these require more attention, some less. 
As long ago as the'days of Franklin, this subject was be 
ginning to be understood. His statement that we spoil a gal- 
lon of air a minute has been mentioned. It shows what his 
deep convictions -were. So do his frequent exhortations to be 
much in the open air, as well as to change our air often, 
both by night and by day. 
You remember, perhaps, his story of Methuselah. He 
does not tell us how he came by it. " It is recorded," he 
says ; but where, except in his own curious and inventive im- 
agination, it would puzzle a Jesuit himself to find out. The 
substance of the story is this : 
When Methuselah had lived five hundred years, an angel 
appeared to him, and advised him to build a house; for, says 
he, you are to live five hundred years longer. But Methuse- 
lah said that, if he were to live only that short period, it was 
hardly worth the pains, and he would, in preference, continue 
to sleep in the open air. BREATHING AND VENTILATION, 
147 
But " times are altered." At present, few persons can 
even work or walk in the open air. Their delicate faces or 
lily hands might, perchance, be a little darkened by it; or 
their susceptible skins might be interrupted in the performance 
of their healthful and very useful labors ; or, if the pure, cool 
air should reach their lungs, they might take cold. 
Once we travelled in the open air; but now we arc hardly 
willing to do that. If we are so vulgar as to walk, we must 
be well protected with gloves, and umbrellas, and veils. Our 
carriages must be covered ones; and the windows, if they 
have any, must be kept closed. The greater part, however, 
travel in steamboats, canal boats, or railroad cars ; which last 
are always closed, and sometimes heated. What will be the 
contrivance for shelter, when we come to ride midway be- 
tween the earth and the sun, in balloons, or on electro-mag- 
netic wires, it remains for human ingenuity to determine. 
Many employments which were once carried on, either 
partly or wholly, in the open light and air, unsheltered, are now 
conducted within doors, or under cover. Such are ropemak- 
ing, stonecutting, carpentry, brickmaking, slaughtering, &c. 
Not a little farming is even done under shelter, and still more 
of fashionable gardening. 
The housekeeper, that used, in days of yore, to be much 
in the open air, must now, it would seem, draw close her 
blinds and shutters, and cage herself up in her own domain 
almost as closely as she does her canary birds, her parrots, 
and her squirrels. She does not even give herself as much 
light as she does her pet plants and flowers; for these are 
occasionally placed in the sunshine. 
If the housekeeper is caged up in this way, her children 
must be, of course ; at least during the first years of their 
existence. And why not, the fond mother may perhaps say, 148 
BREATHING- AND VENTILATION. 
when it makes them so superlatively delicate and beautiful ? 
For who that has any taste, or even any humanity, can bear 
to see the little cherubs with their skins tanned ? 
In my lecture on the skin, I shall show more fully why it 
is that this training in the shade is injurious, and why it is 
necessary to live more in the open air, even though the skin 
should be a littlp browned by it. Something has, indeed, 
been said on this subject already, but not enough. 
More attention should be paid to the laws of health in the 
erection of our buildings, especially our dwellings, school 
houses, and factories. If neglect is ever justifiable, it is in 
the case of churches and other public buildings, which are 
but seldom occupied, and then only for a very short time. 
But in regard to buildings in which large numbers congre- 
gate, to remain many consecutive hours of every day, the 
case is altered. Neglect, by the way, is not recommended in 
the case of public buildings; but here it is unpardonable. 
Here it is, precisely, that the common mind needs monition. 
Few persons of good sense will erect a dwelling, factory, 
or a school house near a stagnant pond or marsh. And yet 
not one in ten will take all the pains he might to build where 
he can enjoy the full benefit of air, light, and water, - three 
things so essential, and so abundantly bestowed by Heaven. 
True it is, that in the full exercise of an enlightened free 
agency, we cannot all have our choice of place. Every one 
cannot, in the very nature of things, have an elevated spot, 
with pure water, dry cellar, &c. Yet it is equally true that 
many among us, who cannot have all they might desire, have 
it in their power to make a better selection than is actually 
made. And to do the best we can, in our circumstances, is 
obviously all that can be required of us. 
In the case of school houses and factories there is less of BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
149 
difficulty than in the case of dwellings. The selection of a 
site for a school house is made with reference to the wants 
of many families. And surely there must be in the compass 
of several square miles, occupied by fifteen, twenty, or thirty 
families, one favored and highly-healthy spot. 
Formerly it was the custom, I am well aware, to locate a 
school house near the centre of the district, at all hazards 
and all sacrifices. Every consideration of health, comfort, 
or agreeableness must yield (so many thought) to this one 
thing-mere centrality. But may we not reasonably hope 
that this day of ignorance and folly has passed away ? 
The location of factories has been a subject of far less 
thought. In general, they have been erected according to 
convenience, or supposed economy. The object has not 
been to accomplish the most good, but to make the greatest 
amount of money. Did the great law of love pervade the 
breast of eveiy master manufacturer, factories would doubt- 
less often stand in very different places from what they now do. 
I am not, by any means, ignorant that, where the power to 
be employed is water, the factory must stand where that 
power can be applied. I do not say where it can best, be 
applied; for its most favorable application might involve 
more of danger to the health of the operatives than one less 
favorable. Health is to be placed always before money 
making. 
In selecting a spot for a dwelling house, not a few among 
us-I mean, of course, in country places - have it in our 
power to select a spot where we can have light, air, and 
water in the most healthful abundance. And where we have 
this power, are we not greatly culpable if we neglect to 
use it? Our duty, then, is plain. We must, in the first 
place, do all we can to prevent the necessity of paying 
13* 150 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
particular attention to the ventilation of buildings by observ- 
ing the laws of health in their location. When we have done 
this, when we have done all that God has put in our power 
in a general way, we may and should go farther, and apply 
our knowledge and exercise our sense of duty in particulars. 
In coming to these particulars, - what arc commonly called 
the laws of ventilation, - I propose to speak according to the 
order indicated in the foregoing paragraphs: first, of school 
houses ; secondly, of factories and shops ; and thirdly, of 
dwelling houses. Some thoughts may be added concerning 
churches and public buildings. 
Although increased attention has been paid, during the last 
twenty years, to the location and construction of school 
houses, there is still, in many places, a most unpardonable 
neglect. And they who have done most are in some in- 
stances behind the wants of the pupils and the spirit and 
demands of the age. Children should improve in health at 
school, as well as in knowledge and good behavior. 
Let us suppose, however, that the school house is erected 
on an eminence where not only the light of the sun can 
reach it, but where Boreas can sweep over it at his pleasure. 
Let us suppose it to be well constructed, with this single ex- 
ception, that ventilation, as happens in most cases, has been 
overlooked. What is to be done ? 
Dr. Jarvis supposes - I believe with good reason - that 
every adult person requires, in order to secure the best of 
health, at least seven cubic feet of air a minute. This can be 
had in the open air ; but can it be obtained in the school 
room ? Let us inquire. 
Children at school need rather less air than adults, because 
their lungs are smaller. Suppose they need but/owr cubic 
feet a minute. This is two hundred and forty feet an hour. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
151 
Let a school of fifty scholars occupy a room twenty-four feet 
long by eighteen wide and ten high. This is a much larger 
allowance of space than is afforded by the average of our 
country school houses. Such a school room would contain 
four thousand three hundred and twenty cubic feet. Now, if 
every pupil requires, at the least, two hundred and forty feet 
of air an hour, fifty pupils would require twelve thousand 
feet. But four thousand three hundred and twenty are little 
more than one third of twelve thousand. If the last is 
" required," according to the testimony of Dr. J., is not the 
former quite insufficient ? 
I know well that our school houses are not, all of them, 
air tight. There is considerable change of air about the 
doors and windows, and perhaps elsewhere. They are some- 
times very freely ventilated through crevices in the floor; 
yet there is not so much of change or ventilation in this way 
but that thousands suffer; and in not a few instances the 
rooms are nearly air tight. 
Thousands, did I say ? I might have said millions. There 
is no evidence abroad, on the face of things, going to prove 
that one scholar in a hundred, at school, breathes pure air the 
whole time. Is he not, then, injured ? The injury may not 
be perceived for years, because the current of life is onward 
- God having made it so. But what then ? Is it the less 
an injury ? 
Indeed, I might say, that, with many, the suffering is per- 
ceived at the time. The dulness and heaviness induced by 
bad air have been felt a thousand times, and the pain and 
mortification of a severe box on the ear, besides. Many a 
headache has been caused in the same way ; nor has it been 
greatly diminished by the violent application of a wooden rule 
on De top of the cranium, or a hand or book at the side of it 152 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
Whenever it can be shown to be the plain duty of the 
seats or desks at school to resist the law of gravitation, and 
dance about, as it is said tables do, in modern times, at Roch- 
ester and elsewhere, then may it be right, perhaps, to box 
ears and break rules over the heads of those who are breath- 
ing the stupefying, life-destroying carbonic acid, and strug- 
gling under its influences. 
Some, in their distress, - but without malice prepense, - 
have picked their faces, or their nails, or their books; or cut 
their seats with a knife, or written on them with a pencil; 
or, perchance, to " raise a breeze " of some sort, have 
pinched a companion or pulled his hair. It would take a 
huge volume - nay, many a " mighty tome " -to record all 
the facts of this kind that have occurred since the world of 
school houses began. 
I am acquainted with an individual, who, more than fifty 
years ago,-contracted a habit of picking his nails*under cir- 
cumstances like the foregoing, which has never yet been 
overcome; and concerning which it would be difficult to 
say whether it is most an annoyance to himself or to those 
around him. 
Nothing is more easy than to prevent suffering of the kind 
alluded to, in our school rooms, whenever public attention 
can be so turned to the subject as to have every body feel its 
importance. For if it should still be true that not every 
one understands precisely what ought to be done, yet if all 
felt the necessity, somebody would be found who could 
remedy the evil. 
In constructing a school house, it must be considered well 
what are to be the peculiar dangers of the children. Are 
they to be annoyed with dust - with emanations or exhala- 
tions - with fumes of metallic or other substances ? Is BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
153 
anthracite coal to be used, so as to expose them to breathe 
sulphurous acid ? 
When a school house is properly located and constructed, 
and a due regard paid to the health of the children, there will 
be no dangers of this sort to encounter. The house will be 
warmed by a good fire, in an open fireplace or stove, or by a 
furnace in the cellar. In cither case, except that of the fur- 
nace, the fuel used will be wood. 
The gases to which children at school will be chiefly 
exposed are carbonic acid gas and sulphuretted hydrogen. 
The latter, however, it is desirable and possible chiefly to 
avoid. The carbonic acid will be present wherever there are 
lungs, skins, or fires. 
To have a school room healthy, there should be a constant 
supply of pure air. If a furnace in the cellar is used, this 
will, in part, furnish the supply. If not, it must be intro- 
duced in some other way. Perhaps the best way is the fol- 
lowing : - 
Let an air conductor be used. It may be of wood, or some 
other substance. Let it communicate with the air outside of 
the house through the underpinning or the sill, and let a piece 
of wire gauze be fastened over it externally to prevent the 
introduction of small animals or any foreign substances. If 
there is a fireplace, let this conductor bring the air to the 
back part of the chimney near the hearth. Under the hearth, 
and behind the jambs, let there be hollow cavities, communi- 
cating with each other. The air from without, whenever 
there is a fire within, will be warmed in these cavities, and 
may be introduced by means of an opening and register at 
the side of the fireplace, as low down as possible. Fresh 
air may be introduced in a similar manner when a stove is 
used. In truth, whether we use a stove or a fireplace, a 154 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
supply of pure air will be constantly necessary ; and the 
above is the best way of introducing it, at a somewhat ele- 
vated temperature. 
But in order to have the air circulate in the room, some- 
thing more is necessary. We have seen that in the case of 
the furnace, as well as that of the fireplace or stove, there is 
a way to introduce pure air. But this is not enough. There 
must be a place for the bad air to escape. That our school 
rooms are not air tight, I have already admitted. So that, in 
any event, there will a partial circulation. Still it is not suf- 
ficient. Carbonic acid gas, heavy as it is, will linger and 
accumulate near the floor ; and after the lapse of an hour or 
so, - perhaps, in small rooms, in half an hour, - it will 
begin to be inhaled. 
If a furnace is used, there must be an opening near the 
bottom of the room, somewhere. The fireplace is sufficient, 
where one exists, and is not closed. If there is no fireplace 
or stove pipe, an opening must be made ; and the nearer the 
floor of the school room the better. It may be five or six 
inches in diameter, and so constructed as to be opened and 
closed at pleasure. It should be as central as possible, in 
order that the air in the upward tube or flue through which it 
escapes may be duly ratified. It must not, of course, com- 
municate directly with the external cold air. 
The great principle to be kept in view is, to establish in 
our rooms free circulation of air. This is done by admitting 
purer and somewhat denser and heavier air at the bottom ; 
and, in part, by letting out the rarer and less pure air through 
the fireplace or stove pipe. This, however, is not all. 
The upper layers of the air in the room will not, in this 
way, be sufficiently changed. On this account there should 
be an opening near the ceiling. A very common way, in BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
155 
these days, is to erect a wooden flue or chimney at one end 
of the room, from the top of the room upward ; but some 
merely have an opening with a valve into the chamber or 
attic. The flue, however, should not be at the end, but, as I 
have before said, more central. 
With an arrangement something like this, there will be no 
O O' 
great difficulty in ventilating school rooms, either in winter or 
in summer. The teacher must understand the general prin- 
ciples of the case, and must attend to his duty; never for- 
getting it for a single day or hour. 
Where nothing more can be done, care should be taken to 
open all the doors and windows, at morning, noon, and night, 
- and, if practicable, at the recesses,- and let the wind 
sweep out the carbonic acid. If he has reason to suspect 
that a cloud of bad air still lingers above, let him make a 
hole through the wall close to the ceiling, or through the 
ceiling itself.* 
Some teachers lower their windows or raise them, or open 
doors, during the school hours. This is at times safe, at 
others unsafe. In general it is not to be relied on. Lower- 
ing windows from the top, in cold weather, especially if they 
are much lowered, does not work well ; and by raising 
them, on the other hand, many colds have been caught at 
every season. 
One or two more cautions to teachers may be necessary. 
Partly from ignorance, but still more from thoughtlessness, not 
a few individuals confound heat and impurity. For example, 
I spoke to a young woman, one hot summer day, in a gentle 
way, about the impurity of the air in her room, when she 
* This is recommended on the supposition of neglect on the part of 
the school committee. 156 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
replied, " Impossible, sir, that our air should be impure : we 
have the coolest school room in the city." 
That impurities are more readily diffused abroad, where 
the temperature is elevated, I admit; but we manufacture as 
much carbonic acid in cold weather, or in a cold room, as in 
any other circumstances, and it is, if breathed, about as dele- 
terious in cold weather, or in cold rooms, as elsewhere. 
This reminds me of another error. Many teachers, who 
have obtained a mere smattering on this subject, seem to sup- 
pose that because carbonic acid is heavier than common air, 
and fills up a room as water fills a vessel, therefore no injury 
can arise to their pupils if it does not rise as high as their 
heads. This is partly true and partly untrue : the fact is, that in 
a school room, the necessary motion stirs it up somewhat, so 
that if the main body of it were but three feet deep, for ex- 
ample, the lungs would not be safe from it at an elevation of 
four feet. 
As things are in our schools, ventilation is seldom so much 
neglected that the pupils get sick at once; but then, on the 
other hand, it is not so well attended to but that the seeds of 
disease are every day and hour sown, to germinate and grow 
in the future, when the occasion is forgotten. On the whole, 
the march of improvement in this matter is onward. Credit 
is duo to many teachers and committees. Still it will be a 
long time before, as a general rule, children, while at school, 
will improve as much in health as they do in knowledge. 
Practically I am less familiar with factories than with 
school houses ; and yet I know something of both. Those 
in Lowell have high reputation, comparatively ; yet I never 
visited them without excessive pain. And if it is painful to 
visit Lowell, how much more so many less favored cities of our 
country - saying nothing of the old world ! The rooms in most BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
157 
manufacturing establishments are kept quite too hot. But this 
is not the worst: impure air is much worse than hot air. The 
health of the operatives suffers, and those who subsequently 
become the heads of families have diseased or suffering chil- 
dren. Besides an abundance of carbonic acid gas, and some 
sulphuretted hydrogen, there is occasionally an escape into 
these rooms of sulphurous acid. It is easily known by its 
sour smell. The bleachers of straw, &c., suffer most by it. 
But in those factories of every kind-where anthracite coal is 
used, the suffering is considerable. In cotton mills and many 
other places there is much dust of various kinds present. 
How far this lighter, coarser dust, of which I now speak, de- 
scends in the passages to the lungs I am not able to say. In 
any event, there is not a little smaller and finer dust inhaled, 
that must inevitably reach the remotest air cells, and produce 
irritation. To what extent this condition of things is suscep- 
tible of improvement I do not say. I have seen an ivory 
comb factory in which the dust was blown away, so as not to 
be inhaled at all. The removal of other dusts, in a similar 
way, is a desideratum, and is, perhaps, attainable. A method 
has been devised, we are told, to blow away, or at least ex- 
clude, dust from railroad cars. Why not blow it away from 
factory rooms ? 
But if nothing of this kind can be done, so much greater 
is the necessity of doing what remains within our power. By 
following out the principles adverted to while I was speaking 
of school houses, I have .no doubt the health of the operatives 
in most factories might be greatly improved. 
The best possible fixtures for heating factory rooms, to- 
gether with the best arrangement for ventilation, are obviously 
demanded every where, and cannot by those who mean to 
retain the character of Christians, or even of gentlemen, be 158 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
much longer denied. Such a denial were to act against their 
own pecuniary interest no less than against the laws of hu- 
manity. 
So will it be in shops as well as in factories. So also in 
all our boarding houses and other places where great numbers 
of operatives are congregated. It is not for the interest of 
their keepers, even, to have sickness break out among them ; 
and this will ere long be perceived and admitted. 
Perhaps the means of properly ventilating our dwelling 
houses are, after all, more important than those of ventilating 
school houses, shops, or factories ; for though larger numbers 
are thrown together in the latter, yet our earliest years - the 
season when we are most susceptible physically, no less than 
intellectually and morally - are spent in the former. 
The danger is greatest of all in our sleeping rooms. It is 
here, as we have before seen, that we spend the greatest num- 
ber of consecutive hours. The school-room exercises usually 
last only three hours of each half day, and these are broken 
in upon, for the most part, by a recess; but we immure our- 
selves in our sleeping rooms, without any recess, from six to 
ten hours. 
This consideration alone should serve to convince us of the 
immense importance of having the air of these rooms pure. 
I have mentioned this necessity at page 123, but have not 
dwelt upon it so long as the urgency of. the case requires. 
Let us then recur to the subject. I have said that we spend 
from six to ten consecutive hours in these rooms. We have 
seen, page 150, that we require seven cubic feet of air a 
.minute. This would be three thousand three hundred and 
sixty feet in eight hours. Now, we have in our country many 
a sleeping room, which, from bottom to top, does not hold more 
than five or six hundred cubic feet; tens of thousands of these BREATHING AND VENTILATION. . 
159 
rooms may be found that do not hold more than eight hun- 
dred, and the number is comparatively few that will hold 
much over' one thousand. 
Suppose, now, a person were shut up closely in one of 
these rooms, which was perfectly air tight. I will not take for 
an example the very smallest, but one of medium size, hold- 
ing eight hundred feet of. air. How long, at seven feet per 
minute, would this last him ? Why, less than two hours ! 
But suppose, for once, a more favorable case. Suppose the 
sleeping room to hold one thousand cubic feet of air - quite 
a luxury, since it does not fall to the lot of more than one in 
ten or twelve of our citizens. It would last the adult occu- 
pant only two hours and twenty-three minutes. 
Let us remember, however, that a person reclining on a bed 
is not at the top of the room, but near the bottom. As the car- 
bonic acid - the gas which we have chiefly to fear - is heavier 
than other air, it must necessarily accumulate at the bottom, 
and the room must fill gradually, like a vessel with water. 
In a perfectly tight room holding about one thousand feet, the 
occupant of a common bed would be immersed in air unfit 
for breathing in about one hour ! 
I do not say - neither does Dr. Jarvis - that a person can- 
not survive longer than one moment in seven cubic feet of 
air; but only that he is not so well off in it as he ought to 
be, any longer than one minute. In other words, he begins 
to suffer more or less, directly or indirectly, as soon as the 
one minute has expired. 
The sum is this : The vast majority sleep - or at least 
remain - seven or eight hours or more, in places where, if 
air tight, there would be the beginning of suffering in about 
one hour. But as the tightest bed rooms are not perfectly 
air tight, we must make some allowance. We may say, then, 160 
•BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
that suffering commences, at the farthest, in about two hours. 
This, then, taken for granted, there remain six hours of suf- 
fering ; and this suffering becomes greater and greater every 
hour. If there is more than one person in the room, the suf- 
fering commences in one hour, and continues seven hours. 
If three or four persons, as sometimes happens, the bad air 
accumulates so much the faster ; and it is to be borne so 
much the longer. If, in addition to the breathing of the occu- 
pants, there are plants in the room ; or domestic animals, as 
cats and dogs ; or, worse still, by far, a furnace of coals, or 
a foot stove, with no place for the escape of carbonic acid 
gas, or for the smoke, should there be any, then the occu- 
pants of the room will begin to suffer still sooner. 
I have taken for granted that these sleeping rooms are 
without fireplaces or any other flues, which is generally the 
fact, though not universally. But the opening or flue, in con- 
nection with the stove or fireplace, is not so useful in the way 
of ventilation, as when there is fire in it, to rarefy the air and 
create a current upward. 
Perhaps I have made it sufficiently plain that there is much 
of suffering in our sleeping rooms. Is it asked why do we 
not perceive it ? For the same reason that we do not imme- 
diately perceive the same kind of suffering when we are 
awake. It makes us dull, at first, when awake; and prob- 
ably makes us more sleepy, or, rather, more stupid, when 
asleep. But after an hour or two of increased soundness of 
sleep, nature, it is to be supposed, begins to rally, as if con- 
scious of the presence of a foe, and our sleep begins to be 
unsound and dreamy. And it is by no means uncommon for 
persons sleeping thus to be conscious, towards morning, of 
suffering, and to awake with headache and other unpleasan 
feelings. Some, as before shown, sleep to wake no more. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
161 
Cornelius Sullivan, an Irishman, died suddenly in Broad 
Street, in Boston, a little while since. An inquest being 
made, the jury declared he came to his death by a fit, in a 
cellar; and pronounced the cellar unfit for a sleeping room for 
want of ventilation. It was only eighteen feet square, and 
five and a half feet high, and yet it was occupied every night 
by thirteen or fourteen persons. 
But I know of nothing on record, of an entirely authen- 
tic kind, which better illustrates the tendency and influence 
of carbonic acid gas, whether in sleeping rooms or else- 
where, than the story of suffering in what has usually been 
called the Black Hole, at Calcutta, about a hundred years 
ago. It was at the capture of Fort William by the Nabob 
of Bengal. 
One hundred and forty-six persons were confined in a room 
eighteen feet square, and of moderate height. This gave to 
each a space twenty-six and a half inches by twelve, just 
large enough to stand in without pressing hard on his neigh- 
bor. To this dungeon there was but one window, and that 
was very small; and the weather hot and sultry. 
" In less than an hour, many of the prisoners were attacked 
with extreme difficulty of breathing ; several were delirious ; 
and the place was filled with incoherent ravings, in which the 
cry for water was predominant. This was handed to them by 
the sentinels, but without the effect of allaying their thirst. 
In less than four hours, many were suffocated, or died in vio- 
lent delirium. In an hour more, that is, in five hours from 
the first, the survivors, except those at the grate, were frantic 
and outrageous. At length most of them became insensible. 
• Eleven hours after they were imprisoned, twenty-three only, 
of the one hundred and forty-six who were shut up, came out 
alive, and these were in a highly putrid fever; from which, 162 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
however, by fresh air and proper attention, they finally recov- 
ered." * 
There are other instances on record, similar to this, only 
not quite so dreadful, because the number of sufferers was 
smaller. But the foregoing must suffice for our present pur- 
pose. No one who accredits this story will longer doubt of 
the deleterious nature of carbonic acid gas. 
My former conjecture concerning the loss which must be 
sustained yearly, in the United States, from this source, will, 
moreover, be now better understood, as well as appear more 
credible. In estimating the aggregate yearly loss at " many 
thousand " lives, I do not think I exaggerated. Twenty mil- 
lions of our population have their stock of health diminished 
more or less, and their lives more or less shortened, in this 
very way. Sleeping rooms are designed, legitimately, to be 
places of restoration. And yet how often we rise from them 
as weary, almost so, as when we lay down ! Why is this ? 
Why should not 
" Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep " 
accomplish its full and perfect work ? Do our many aches 
and bad feelings spring out of the ground ? 
I believe I have not yet mentioned the very foolish custom 
of burning candles or lamps in sleeping rooms-into which 
so many fall. To say nothing of its danger by increasing 
our exposure to fire, it tends to diminish the purity of the air, 
and, except in-particular cases of sickness, is inadmissible. 
I have thus exposed, very fully, the evil which exists, and 
set forth the necessity of ventilation. The question arises, - 
and no question can be more appropriate, - What is to be 
* Elements of Hygiene, by Dr. Dunglison, p. 87. BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
163 
done ? In what manner shall our sleeping rooms be venti- 
lated ? 
Let me say, then, in the first place, that all sleeping- rooms 
should, if possible, be much larger than we now find them. 
It is certainly desirable to have our sitting rooms, dining 
rooms, and parlors - above all, our kitchens - large. Few 
of us will be willing to reduce their size. And yet there are 
none of them, except, perhaps, the kitchen, that need more 
to be spacious than the sleeping room. And even the 
kitchen, by means of its numerous doors, &c., is apt to be 
better ventilated. 
Let us consider a moment. Some of the rooms alluded to 
are scarcely used once a week, and then only to receive 
a fashionable call of fifteen minutes or half an hour. But 
the kitchen is occupied many hours of the day ; and the 
sleeping room a whole night without intermission, including, 
it may be, a part of the next day. It seems to me, therefore, 
absurd in the highest degree to make our spare rooms large, 
at the expense of those rooms which are constantly used. 
Have them all spacious, if you can afford it; but do not, on 
any account, turn your sleeping rooms into mere bird cages 
or pigeon boxes. 
But if the present custom, in this particular, must be fol- 
lowed,- if these Black Holes, not of Calcutta, but of the 
United States, must be used, - let us see what can be done, 
taking them as they are, to render them more tolerable. 
There is a dwelling house in Boston, built at an expense of 
seventy thousand dollars, every room of which has its own 
ventilator. A tube begins at the top, and extends along, in as 
much seclusion as possible, to the roof of the house, where 
it projects, with scores of others, under cover of a kind 
of dome. But this is more expensive than is necessary ; be- 164 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
sides, it does not answer the purpose. The ventilating tube 
should make its exit at or near the bottom of the room, and 
not at the top. I know, indeed, that there will be a current 
or circulation in the room, even in this way, but it will not 
fully remove the carbonic acid. 
One way to ventilate houses - bed rooms among the rest 
- is by means of openings at the top of each room, com- 
municating through spaces which exist within the hollows at 
the sides of the house, between the furring and the wall. 
The rarefied bad air here ascends to the top of the house, and 
escapes. Still it does not all ascend ; and cannot. Another 
method is to have a large wooden tube, from the bottom to 
the top of the house, into which there is an opening from 
each room, with a register. The rarefied impure air ascends 
through this tube. Another method still is to have the venti- 
lating tube consist in a false flue in the chimney. Or if there 
are several chimneys, there should be one to each. The 
great advantage of this method is, that the heat of the chim- 
ney, whenever we have fires, facilitates the progress of the 
upward current. 
Some have suggested what they regard as an improve- 
' ment upon all these methods, especially as we do not always 
have fires in our houses. It is to ventilate through spaces 
between the partitions of our rooms. These ventilating flues, 
they suppose, would be less liable than most others to counter 
currents. 
Let me say, once for all, that no method of ventilation ia 
perfect which does not provide for the admission of pure air 
and the escape of carbonic acid at or near the bottoms of our 
rooms, in addition to which there ought to be a smaller open- 
ing near the top. 
The question recurs, What shall be done where there are BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
165 
no such means of ventilating our rooms - especially our 
sleeping rooms - as I have described ? Is nothing to be 
accomplished by means of the doors and windows ? 
One door and one window are frequently as many as we 
seem able to afford to each sleeping room. The kitchen is 
more fortunate, and our health, as I hinted just now, is thus 
partly saved. Few sleeping chambers have any fireplaces, 
and some of them not even an opening for a stove pipe. Or 
if there are fireplaces, they are closed in the warm part of 
the season. 
If a sleeping room is small, and without a fireplace or stove, 
or any opening in the form of flue or ventilator, we must be 
careful, on lying down, to leave open a door oi' window, or 
both. An open door is preferable, whenever it communicates 
• with a large unoccupied room or spacious hall; because the 
carbonic acid which accumulates can be diffused over the 
floor of a larger space, and will not so soon endanger our 
health. 
If otherwise' however, - if, as sometimes happens, the 
door cannot be left open, - then we must leave a window 
open. Not the upper division, when it is near the bed; 
though some have advised thus. The cooler, denser - 
perhaps damper-night air, by falling directly on the bed, 
" in full volley," might give cold. 
Experience and observation have led me to the following 
course, which I recommend to others : Raise the lower half 
of the window, and then place something before it, to serve 
as a screen by turning the current of air so that it may not 
fall directly on the bed. This, I admit, does not ventilate 
very perfectly, because it does not create a free current. 
But it is vastly better than no ventilation at all. Hundreds 
have tried it, mid with great success. Nor is there so much 166 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
^danger to be apprehended, as many suppose, of taking cold 
by it. 
Among thousands who have been influenced by hints like 
these, I never knew but one instance of injury. This was a 
little child near Hartford, Connecticut. The father, having 
read my tract on " Breathing Bad Air," undertook to profit 
from it, by raising his window at night, and sleeping with it 
open. The father was benefited ; the mother was not in- 
jured ; but the child caught cold, and suffered considerably. 
One of the individuals who have profited most from 
sleeping with his window open during the night is a son 
of Fisher Ames, of Dedham, Massachusetts. He has thus 
slept for nearly twenty years, both in summer and winter; 
and I cannot learn that he ever caught cold in this way in 
his life. 
But let me be fully understood ; I do not recommend the 
practice, except as a choice of evils. It is safer-very 
much safer - than no ventilation at all. It is, indeed, some- 
times quite safe. It is better, however, in gerferal, to have an 
opening ncai' the bottom of the room, even if it is no larger 
than a common stove pipe ; but the opening, if not into a 
chimney, should be central. 
There will be far less of suffering for want of proper ven- 
tilation when we return to the good old custom of using fire- 
places. Not such fireplaces as I havo. seen, - large enough 
almost to hold half a cord of wood, - but fireplaces of mod 
erate dimensions. 
One obvious advantage to be derived from the general use 
of fireplaces is this : When we can see the fire, we are far 
better satisfied with a lower temperature than when it is hid 
from our view. I think the majority of mankind would be as 
well satisfied with sixty degrees of Fahrenheit, when they BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
167 
have a fire in sight, as with sixty-eight or seventy degrees in* 
other circumstances. 
Another advantage is, that they are healthier. For, say 
what we will, there are no fixtures for heating our rooms 
which are so conducive to health as the reasonable fireplace. 
Our rooms are not apt to become so hot under its use, and it 
ventilates better. We spend a little more for fuel, perhaps, 
but less for medicine, physicians, and grave diggers. Indeed, 
if an estimate could be made of the expense of all the 
stoves which have been made - old fashioned and new 
fashioned - during the last twenty-five years, and if this 
were added to the expense for fuel, I think the sum total 
would be greatei' than the expense of .furnishing wood for 
fireplaces of reasonable dimensions for the same time. 
Unpopular, therefore, as it may be, I do most earnestly 
and sincerely look forward to a period when there will be a 
return to the custom of depending chiefly on fireplaces for 
warming our rooms - not only the rooms of our dwelling 
houses, but our school rooms, counting rooms, &c. Not but 
that, in some few instances, here and there the stove will 
continue to be used; as, perhaps, the cooking stove or cook- 
ing range in our kitchens. To use the article, however, will 
not be, as now, the general rule, but only the exception. 
As for the air-tight stove, of which so much is made by 
many, I can hardly believe it will be found indispensably 
necessary. In our efforts to retain the heat, we retain also 
the bad air ; and in a proportion exactly commensurate. Of 
all our stoves, therefore, they are the worst. 
Our churches - the main body of the buildings, I mean - 
are of late tolerably well ventilated. More improvement has 
taken place in this direction than in any other. Still there 
are ministers who have the reputation of delivering sleepy 168 
BREATHING AND VENTILATION. 
* sermons, and many more hearers who are reputed to be 
' sleepy, when the fault is as much with the air as with any 
thing else, except, perhaps, heavy dinners. And yet, not- 
withstanding the increasing attention to our churches, thou- 
sands of lecture rooms or vestries, to say nothing of other 
public buildings, are as much neglected as our school houses 
and sleeping rooms. Sextons are nearly as ignorant of the 
laws of ventilation as teachers; and some of them appear to 
be still more reckless. We do not uniformly select this kind 
of public servants from the more intelligent of society, but 
frequently from a very different class. CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
169 
LECTURE IV. 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
The blood is a very important part of the human ma- 
chinery ; and its nature and offices, as well as the means of 
preserving it in health, can never be too fully understood. 
It is usually said to amount to twenty-five or thirty pints or 
pounds ; and to constitute about a fifth of the whole weight. 
It varies, however, very greatly. Some adult individuals 
have little more than twenty pounds of blood in them ; others 
have twenty-five ; and others thirty, perhaps even more. 
There are other fluids in the human system, most of which 
are secreted or made from the blood; but they can hardly be 
considered as forming component parts of it. Reckoning up 
every thing which can, by possibility, be resolved into a liquid 
or semi-liquid, we have at least four fifths of the body liquid, 
and only one fifth of it solid. Some place the fluid parts at 
more than five sixths. The particular character of this won- 
derful fluid, made from our food in so wonderful a manner, 
and performing offices apparently little short of miraculous, 
will appear more fully in the progress of my remarks. 
Let us, then, proceed to consider, 1. The mechanism of cir- 
culation ; 2. Its offices ; 3. Its laics; and, 4. Its diseases. On 
all these points, however, I must be short. 
I. MECHANISM OF THE CIRCULATION. 
The human circulation is performed chiefly by the heart. 170 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
the arteries, the veins, and the capillaries. There are other 
agents, but these are the principal. 
The heart, in man, is double, as if two hearts, placed in 
close contact, were made to adhere. It is about the size of 
the clinched or doubled fist. In many of the lower animals, 
such as fishes and reptiles, the heart is single. 
The Heart. 
Each division of the human heart has two cavities or hol- 
lows. One is called the auricle the other the ventricle. 
The auricle is much smaller than the ventricle. Both, how- 
ever, are fleshy in their construction, and very strong. 
The right auricle and right ventricle contain what is called 
venous blood ; the left, arterial blood. Except in a diseased 
state of this important organ, there is no connection or com- CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
171 
munication, directly, between the two hearts or hollows, any 
more than there is between the eyes and the ears. 
The venous blood, collected from all parts of the body into 
two great veins, is poured through the right auricle into the 
right ventricle. Two large vessels, called pulmonary arte- 
ries, carry it thence into the lungs. From the lungs, it is 
Divisions of tire heart and its cavities. 
sent back, purified, to the left auricle, and through that into 
the left ventricle ; from which it is sent, by one large ar- 
tery, called the aorta, to all parts of the body. 
The heart alternately contracts and relaxes, to facilitate 
this motion of the blood. Some have called it a great forcing 
and sucking pump. When it relaxes, the blood flows from 
the veins into the heart, and also from the lungs into the 
heart; and when it contracts, the blood rushes at once into 
the lungs and into the aorta. 
The blood, therefore, performs a double circuit in the sys 172 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
tem, which might be represented by the figure 8 ; the upper 
circle represents the course of the blood from the right ventri- 
cle, through the lungs and back to the heart; the lower one 
represents the circuit from the left ventricle through the arte- 
ries, capillaries, and veins, to the right auricle. The heart is 
placed at the junction of tl. e two. 
The heart of an adult contracts or beats fifty to eighty 
times a minute. The number of beats may be counted by 
placing the hand on the left side of the thorax or chest, near 
the edge of the lower ribs. The force of the heart at each 
contraction is such as to agitate, slightly, the whole frame. 
What is called the pulse is this agitation of the systejn, felt at 
certain places or points where the blood runs over a joint, or 
across a bone, which thus presents some degree of resistance 
to its passage. It is feebler or stronger, quicker or slower, 
harder or softer, according to circumstances. 
I have said that, in the healthy adult, the heart beats from- 
fifty to eighty times in a minute. The motion of the heart 
corresponds, in some measure, with the motion of the lungs. 
If the heart beats faster, from any cause whatever, the lungs 
move faster also ; and the contrary. 
The motion of the heart and lungs in children is much more 
rapid than in adults. For a little while after birth, it is twice 
as rapid. Whether the other functions are performed as rap- 
idly in proportion - digestion, for example - is uncertain, 
but there is reason to believe that they are. But if this is so, 
what then becomes of the newly-promulgated theory of some 
of our physiologists, of which I have already spoken, that in- 
fants need food no oftener than adults ; that is, three times a 
day ? Is it not, at the least, rendered quite improbable ? 
I have alluded to the force of this organ in propelling the 
blood. The greatest variety of estimates concerning this CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
173 
force has been made by different physiologists. Some have 
placed it at one hundred and eighty thousand pounds, others 
at only a few ounces. The general opinion at the present 
time is, that its propulsive power is equal to about fourteen 
pounds. 
The aorta, which carries the blood from the heart to all 
parts of the body, is very large at the beginning, but divides 
and subdivides into branches almost innumerable. 
Arteries. 
Veins. 174 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
The arteries are branches of the great aorta, which, as I 
have before said, proceeds from the left ventricle. They sep- 
arate wherever they are needed. They divide and subdivide 
almost without number. About one thousand have names 
They terminate in the capillaries. (See preceding page.) 
The capillaries are very small vessels, in which the arteries 
terminate, both in the extremities and on the surface of the 
body. In fact, wherever there arc minute branches of an ar- 
tery, there are capillaries. They themselves terminate in or 
begin the veins, and form the bond or connection between the 
two great sets of vessels. 
The veins begin in all extreme parts of the body, just op- 
posite, as it were, to the places where the arteries end ; but 
are generally nearer the surface than the latter, and in 
greater numbers. Names have been given by anatomists 
to a very great number, and three thousand have been 
counted. But it is hardly possible to say what is their exact 
number. 
While the heart and arteries are strong, elastic, and muscu- 
lar, the capillaries and veins are more inelastic, membranous, 
and yielding. The veins have small valves in them, so that 
the blood cannot easily flow backwards ; and this is probably 
one means of promoting the general circulation. For the 
heart is continually propelling the blood onward; and as it 
cannot recede in the veins, it must ultimately reach the right 
side of the heart. 
II. FUNCTIONS OF THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 
If the human blood were to remain stationary but a single 
day, we should become languid and diseased, and should 
probably perish. It is not only necessary that it should CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
175 
have motion, but this motion should be rapid, and should 
be extended to every part of the system. 
The circulation of the blood accomplishes at least three or 
four great purposes. The first of these is to furnish every 
part of the human frame with material for its growth and re- 
newal. It is to furnish blood, newly formed from chyle, as 
well as old but constantly-renewed blood, to all parts of the 
body. 
The second office, or function, of the circulatory system is 
to carry off the waste particles which are constantly set free, 
and place them at such outposts and other parts of the body 
as may have facilities for getting them out of it. 
A third office is to furnish material for the manufacture of 
certain fluids, to be used for various purposes in the system, 
such as tears, saliva, gastric and pancreatic juice, bile, &c. 
All these are made from the blood, and, what is vastly more 
important, depend upon it for their quality. 
A fourth office of the circulatory system is to diffuse, 
through all parts of the body, a portion of the heat newly ac- 
quired in the lungs. For as the capacity of the blood for 
caloric diminishes just in proportion to its distance from the 
lungs and heart, so in the same proportion is the latent caloric 
set free to keep up our temperature. 
But in order more fully to understand this subject, it may 
be necessary to go a little more into particulars concerning 
the nature of nutrition, growth, waste, and renovation. 
We have already seen, more than once, that the blood is 
made from our food ; and that, in order to have our blood 
what it should be, we must not only have good food, wrought 
into good and healthy chyle, but this chyle must be submitted 
to the full action of pure air, in good and healthy lungs. So 
long, then, as we are yet immature, it is necessary, in order to 176 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
have our bodies grow, that the warm and fresh blood, just 
from the lungs, full of healthy particles, should be carried to 
every part of them, even to the very interior of the hardest 
and firmest bones. 
Some few individuals, who have never been informed on 
this subject, may be a little surprised to know, for the first time, 
that there is blood in our bones ; but the bones are far enough 
from being solid, like a piece of marble. Large arteries en- 
ter them, obliquely, in several places. A part of them are 
hollow, with a substance in the hollows called marrow. And 
when they are not hollow, they arc usually spongy, and small 
blood vessels are found even lierc. I do not say that there 
are as many blood vessels and as much blood in the bones 
as in the soft parts, but only that they contain blood, or 
the processes of growth and repair could not be accom- 
plished. 
The amount, then, is this : The heart sends out blood from 
its left ventricle to every part of the body; and every part 
of the body thus receiving blood has power to select, from 
the mass of small arteries and capillaries found in its sub- 
stance, just such particles as will build up that part, and no 
other. The skin, for example, has power to take out particles 
to make skin; the flesh, or muscular parts, to take out parti- 
cles to make flesh ; the bones those that will make bone, &c. 
Even the nails and hair must grow from their roots in the 
same way, or they could not grow at all. 
This power of selecting particles from the blood, by a part 
through which the blood is passing, and of applying it in cuch 
a way as to build up or increase the size of that part, is ceiled 
nutrition, and the enlargement which follows is called 
The general work of preparing the particles of the bloo ? 
this purpose is sometimes called assimilation. CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
177 
You see, therefore, that man- and it is the same with most 
other animals - does not grow as a tree does, not even his 
bones. Instead of adding a new layer, like a new ring or 
circle to a tree, he enlarges by a kind of swelling of every 
part. Still less is his growth like that of minerals, by having 
new matter, as it were, plastered on. 
As the blood, in consequence of having its best particles 
constantly taken out by every part through which it passes, 
soon becomes deteriorated, it is necessary that every part 
should be frequently supplied with the new material, or pab- 
ulum ; and the more frequently the better. And hence pro- 
vision is made for a very rapid circulation. 
This is accomplished, in part, by the forcing power of the 
heart. The organ sends out, from the left ventricle, some- 
thing like two ounces of blood at every beat. It is obvious, 
therefore, that a quantity of blood equal to nearly thirty 
pounds, or more than a common pail full, passes through the 
heart in less than three minutes. 
The work is chiefly done by the heart, as I have before in- 
timated ; and yet it is quite possible the capillaries afford to 
this organ a little aid. The late Professor Nathan Smith, of 
Yale College, was of opinion that the capillaries performed 
the whole work. 
I would not be understood to say that all the nutritious par- 
ticles which are applied to the various parts through which 
the blood flows are taken up at once, or even at all. Some 
are received, and some arc rejected. Nor are all the parti- 
cles which are presented, nutritious in their character. There 
are always waste particles in the blood, as well as those which 
are nutritious. 
In these last paragraphs I have explained briefly the great 
principles of nutrition and growth ; but at a certain age, it is 178 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
well known we cease to grow ; yet we continue to eat and 
drink, and to make chyme, and chyle, and blood; and the 
heart continues to propel the latter to all parts of the system. 
What good purpose does it answer, then, if our bodies have 
now become nearly stationary ? 
The truth is, - and it is a great and important truth, - that 
there is no standing still in the human body. Particles in us, 
every where, even in the most solid bones, at every instant of 
our lives, from the cradle to the grave, are losing their vitality 
- dying, as we should say, and becoming useless. These par- 
ticles, moreover, not only become useless, but are in the way. 
They become, practically, foreign matter. Let them alone, 
and they would cause great trouble ; they might even pro- 
duce irritation and inflammation ; they might putrefy in our 
bodies. They are, therefore, removed, as wo have seen, from 
the system, and new particles put in their places. This, of 
course, will cause a change in our systems. The time must 
arrive - if a person lives long - when every old particle 
will have had its day, and will have perished, and been carried 
out of the body. The system, in other words, will have been 
renovated, or built up anew. 
It was an old notion that we were thus changed every seven 
years. It is not improbable that we are changed, in early 
life, in a very few weeks. In later life, the change is slower ; 
and very late in life, exceedingly slow ; perhaps not once in 
twenty years. In any event, we are constantly changing. 
It is highly probable we arc changed in our whole lives, if we 
live to the age of seventy, many times over. 
These changes, moreover, ought always to be for the bet- 
ter. The new particles should always be healthier than the 
old ones. But whether they are so, will depend in no small 
degree on ourselves. If we are every day obeying, more and CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
179 
more perfectly, the laws of health and life, then the house we 
live in will be every day improving. 
Here, by the way, is one of the most glorious truths, in the 
world of health, which can possibly be presented to the mind 
of man. What though we come into existence with enfee- 
bled constitutions ? If we can but get safely over life's 
threshold, why should we not then go on to old age 4 If 
every new brick which is applied to the old edifice is prefera- 
ble to that for which it is substituted, and if such changes of 
the old and deteriorated bricks for better ones are perpetual- 
ly going on, must not a time come when the building will ap- 
pear in a new and improved form ? 
To what extent this can be carried I do not know. I 
suppose there are limits, as to almost every thing else below 
the sun ; but at present they arc unknown. Nor need we in- 
quire ; we are in no immediate danger of overstepping them. 
III. LAWS OF THE CIRCULATION. 
Law 1. The Machinery of Circulation, especially the Heart 
and great Arteries, in order to he healthy, must he free and 
unembarrassed. 
The heart beats some fifty to eighty times a minute, as we 
have already seen. In general, we say about sixty to seventy. 
It sends the blood through the great aorta and its branches to 
all parts of the body. 
The aorta, at its commencement, is nearly an inch in diam- 
eter. It proceeds upwards, then backwards, and soon down- 
wards, forming quite a curve. At the upper portion of this 
curve, it gives off branches to the head and upper extremities. 
In the abdomen, it divides and sends a very large branch to each 180 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
lower extremity. Now, any thing which serves to compress 
'the chest directly over the region of the heart, by impeding, 
in only a slight degree, its motion, will be injurious. It will 
be particularly injurious to those whose heart and arterial 
system are constitutionally feeble. 
All tight clothing is of this description. They who wear 
a tigkt garment on the chest but a single hour do harm : 
what, then, shall I say of those who wear such clothing habit- 
ually ? Then, if the mere pressure of a tight garment is 
injurious, how much more so the constant compression which 
sometimes exists, not only from having the dress in general 
too tight, but also from bad position at study or occupation! 
On the subject of dress, much might be said. Every form 
of compression is deeply injurious, though I doubt not that 
it is worse to compress the chest than any other part. But 
compression of the -neck, limbs, wrists, ankles, and even of 
the feet and hands, is injurious to the circulation, as well as 
in other and various ways. 
It is sometimes said, of late, that compression of the chest, 
by dress, is becoming unfashionable. It may be so ; indeed, I 
trust it is so. But the same story has always been told. In 
truth, I never found an individual who pleaded guilty, in this 
particular, at the time. They may have confessed to former 
guilt; but insisted they were now wiser! In general, how- 
ever, it was not they, even, who had, been guilty ; but some- 
body else, cither in this world, or the world of the moon ! 
On this subject, facts might be given which, while they would 
excite surprise in some, would raise the smile of incredulity 
in others. But I forbear, only adding that several other forms 
of compression by dress are almost equally reprehensi- 
ble. The dependence of the female dress upon the hips 
and lower part of the abdomen tends to obstruct the circu- CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
181 
lation, besides being attended or followed by a long train of 
other evils. 
Among the worst appendages of dress, since the days of 
corsets began to pass by, are elastics, or garters. The 
evil they produce manifests itself in many ways ; but es- 
pecially in preventing a free return of the venous blood of 
the lower lijnbs to the heart. 
Nothing is plainer than that the blood of the lower limbs, 
in returning to the heart, is obliged to act against its own spe- 
cific gravity. This renders its progress slow, at best; but 
especially so in those who arc feeble. Hence the want of 
action in the capillary and venous system of these parts ; and 
hence cold feet and many other difficulties. But when, in 
addition to all these natural difficulties to which I refer, we 
add artificial ones, the evil is greatly increased; and not only 
cold feet, are the consequence, but serious diseases. All liga- 
tures, should be especially avoided. But I must not omit, in 
this place, a remark or two on that terrible evil, now ex- 
tremely common - of varicose veins. They are, essentially, 
enlargements of these vessels, at various points below the 
hip. They are caused, or at least aggravated, by garters. 
Sometimes these swellings become open and extremely trou- 
blesome ulcers. They are incurable. 
I have alluded to position. The seeds of heart diseases are 
often sown in early school life. Children are not only re- 
quired to sit too long, but they are very apt to bend forward 
too much. They do so, in the first instance, from sheer care- 
lessness or downright laziness.* But they do so, in the second 
place, from the very fatigue a bad position induces. And the 
* Or from neglected ventilation, as was shown in the preceding 
lecture. 182 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
more they yield to the temptation, and sit badly, the more 
they think they must. 
Many, who might otherwise avoid a bad position, are kept 
on the bench so long that the muscles of the back, though 
naturally strong enough, become fatigued, and they bend for- 
ward for relief. This is the condition of most of those who 
sit long, in school or elsewhere, on benches without backs. 
I(am no advocate for benches or seats with backs, simply 
that teachers may feel themselves fully licensed to compel 
their pupils to sit, without recess, two or three hours at a 
time. But if they must be confined in this barbarous way, 
let their backs, by all means, be supported. 
Those who have their backs supported, and good desks be- 
fore them, do not always sit in a position most favorable to 
the full and free action of the heart. They are very apt to 
sit in a crouching posture, notwithstanding; and thus to injure 
both the organs of the chest and those of the abdomen. 
The heart has usually been called the seat of life. And it 
is so in many respects. I know of no organ that is so worthy 
of this name, except, perhaps, the brain. The latter is better 
guarded against external injury than the former. Here is one 
reason why extra care of the heart is demanded. 
Law 2. The Circulatory System must not be irritated. 
Plain food and drink do not irritate. The chyle made from 
the former, being bland and congenial, passes at once into the 
circulation, and has an effect to soothe rather than to irritate. 
I have already shown, in another place, that what is called the 
fever of digestion is the result of irritation ; and is, in fact, a 
state of disease. 
Drinks are not digested. Pure and perfect water goes, at 
once, by the intervention of the absorbents in the walls of the CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
183 
stomach, into the circulation. Hard water is slightly irri- 
tating, but not greatly so, as even this is soon disposed of. 
Water in large quantities, or at an improper temperature, 
may oppress the stomach, and irritate the heart, indirectly ; 
but not very seriously. 
I have not found those who drink large quantities of water, 
provided they do not use it at an improper temperature, much 
affected by it. A man near New Bedford, Massachusetts, will 
drink several quarts of water in a few successive moments of 
time. I have also seen men drink two quarts of mineral wa- 
ter at a time. In neither case was there any direct injury. 
Very large quantities of plain food, though they injure the 
whole digestive system in a direct way, only injure the rest 
of the organs, as the brain and heart, in an indirect manner. 
But when we go beyond plain food and drink, we approach 
the region of direct injury. AH our high seasonings, whether 
they arc incorporated with the food previous to cookery or 
added to it afterwards, render it irritating to the delicate lining 
membrane of the heart and the blood vessels, and their still 
more delicate nerves. 
When I speak of seasonings in our food, perhaps I ought to 
make a single exception. The use of salt, applied to our food 
after it comes to the table, is so common, and has so long 
been common, that it can hardly be dispensed with. But 
even this must be irritating when used in excess. 
The worst dietetic use of salt is its application to various 
articles of food to preserve them. All pickled or long pre- 
served meats or vegetables - such as pork, beef, mackerel, 
shad, or cod, and cucumbers - are exceedingly irritating to 
the circulatory system, and ought forever to go into disuse. 
But leaving, for the present, the moderate use of salt, with the 
restrictions aforesaid, it is necessary to say that the whole 184 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
tribe of heating condiments - aromatics, spices, pepper, mus- 
tard, catsup, saltpetre, and saleratus - are little less than rank 
poison to the blood, and to all the machinery of circulation. 
Suppose a person has taken, with his dinner or his supper, 
a quantity of mustard, such as is frequently taken by our 
farmers at their meals. It is soon mingled with the food 
in the stomach, and carried into the duodenum with the 
chyme. It disturbs, though it does not wholly defeat, the 
work of digestion. 
What becomes of it ? Does it not go into the lacteals with 
the chyle, and thence into the circulation, to be spread, by 
hundreds of arteries and thousands of veins, - with, per- 
haps, millions of capillaries, - all over the system, irritating 
wherever it goes ? 
And do we consider what a vast amount of surface - of 
delicate mucous and serous membrane - is thus irritated ? 
Do we consider well how many little nerves, having their 
terminations in these membranes, are sufferers at the same 
time, and send up a report of their suffering to the fountain 
head - the brain ? 
• If any individual has doubts, let him but recur to the 
experiments I have suggested, at page 93. He will then see 
that at least one of the condiments - I mean mustard - is 
highly irritating to the skin ; and, as we have reason to be- 
lieve, to the stomach. Why, then, should it not be equally 
so to the circulatory organs ? 
These, however,- the condiments, - are by no means the 
only things taken into our stomachs that irritate the lining 
membrane of the circulatory tubes. Tea and coffee do this ; 
perhaps chocolate. So do most of the other medicines - 
small and great - taken in these days, whatever may be their 
form, circumstances, or accompaniments. CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION 
185 
There can be little doubt that the use of tea has a very ill 
effect on the heart and arteries, as well as on the nerves and 
brain. These remarks, however, arc particularly applicable 
to green tea. Black tea is irritating, but in an inferior degree. 
So striking is the effect of tea on the delicate machinery of 
the human system, that Dr. Cole, an eminent English writer, 
who has made numerous experiments and still more numer- 
ous observations on this article, speaks of its effects, when 
long continued, under the name of the tea disease, in the 
following manner: - 
" By degrees a fluttering, as of a bird, in the left side, 
comes on, and a feeling of fulness pervades the chest, with 
breathless and frequent sighing." This, however, is the effect 
of black tea. In regard to green tea, he says, " If green 
tea has been taken, the pulse is feeble, quick, and fluttering, 
or slow and weak." " This," he adds, " is the mild form of 
the disease - the one which is most commonly seen; but 
occasionally a variety of aggravated symptoms arise. To 
the feeling of fulness in the chest and about the shoulder 
blades are added threatening of suffocation, insensibility, and 
convulsions. The fluttering at the heart becomes pain, vio- 
lent palpitation, or enfeebled action, bringing on a syncope." 
Now, is it possible to doubt whether or not tea irritates the 
heart? Can an agent which has all these influences be other- 
wise than injurious ? But if so, how many millions must 
every day be sowing the seeds of future suffering ! 
Coffee, in its attacks on the human being, levels its deadli- 
est shafts at the liver and stomach ; though even this article 
is not without its agency in those heart complaints which are 
already existing. Most of them it greatly aggravates, and 
some of them it renders fatal. 
So it is, I repeat, with other medicines, as well as tea and 186 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
coffee. I do not mean by this that they all have an exactly 
similar effect. By no means. Coffee has a very different 
effect from tea; and tobacco in its effects is entirely unlike 
rum. All are injurious by irritating the blood vessels, and the 
parts through which they pass; but all do not irritate alike. 
Observe, however, I am not here speaking of medicine in its 
application to acute disease ; this I leave, for the present, to 
the physician. 
While writing this very article, a female friend of mine 
has been advised, by one of her neighbors, to take bark and 
wine. She is nearly worn out with care and labor, and her 
heart flutters, and she more than half believes her heart is 
already diseased ; and yet ignorance and superstition would 
have her take medicine ! 
The medicine might indeed soothe her nervesand quiet her 
heart for a few minutes, or an hour - perhaps for a day. But 
should the same causes conspire to affect her again in the 
same way, her heart would flutter a little worse than it did 
before. 
Nothing, then, as wo sec, should have a place in the healthy 
human stomach but plain, unstimulating, yet nutritious food, and 
soft and pure water. Starting in life with health, and obeying 
all the physical and moral laws, there could seldom be found 
such a thing in the world we livn in as heart complaint. 
Law 3. There should be Equality of Temperature in the 
System. 
A centrifugal tendency in the human system is, in every 
point of view, favorable ; but it is especially so to the free 
and unembarrassed action of the heart and arteries. A good 
temperature of the system greatly contributes to this tendency 
by keeping the skin plump, active, and vigorous. This tern- CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
187 
perature is best maintained, at least in our ever-varying cli- 
mate, by that entire obedience to all the laws of health which 
inevitably secures the full and perfect performance of all the 
functions of the cutaneous system. 
Hence it is that obedience to all the laws of the skin, as we 
shall see in the next lecture, is one of the best means of keep- 
ing up that equable temperature of the whole surface of the 
body which is so highly desirable. In a word, whatever is 
best for the skin is best also for the heart, arteries, capillaries, 
and blood. 
Among these things is a proper attention to bathing, cloth- 
ing, and quiet. The kind of bathing which may be best after 
the heart has become severely diseased, may not be at once 
obvious, and will require medical counsel. 
Proper exercise of the locomotive system will also do much 
towards keeping up a proper and healthful equality of tem- 
perature. So will a proper state of the mind and heart. 
Law 4. There must be a good Degree of what Medical 
Men call Innervation. . • 
No part of the human system, except perhaps the stomach, 
so soon suffers for want of its due proportion of what is called 
nervous or vital energy, as the circulatory system, especially 
the heart. 
For when this stimulus is withheld for any considerable 
time, the heart beats more languidly, and the pulse is more 
feeble. Its frequency is not, indeed, always increased, but 
there is every other evidence of an enfeebled circulation. 
There is one evidence, in particular, viz., an enfeebled state 
of the capillaries. 
The skin, in these cases, has a delicate, if not a pale ap- 
pearance. It is also more shrunk than usual, and it is per- 188 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
haps rather softer. There may be a more free perspiration ; 
but then it is a mere leaking out of the watery parts or serum 
of the blood, rather than an active, healthy, vigorous, natural 
effort. 
In order to insure the best action of the heart and other 
organs of circulation, the brain must not only be an active, 
but at the same time a vigorous working organ. It must be 
duly cultivated. This cultivation is desirable for a thousand 
reasons ; but our present concern is chiefly with its effects on 
a particular portion of the system. 
Great care should be used, during the first years of human 
life, not to overtask the mental faculties - a thing which is, 
most unhappily, becoming quite common. In these cases, the 
circulation, instead of being increased in activity or energy, 
is rendered more feeble ; and the whole, as a consequence, 
suffers. 
But these considerations trench very closely on another 
condition, or law, of healthy action in the circulatory system, 
upon which I must treat at considerable length. 
Law 5. The Passions and Affections must he healthful. 
The state of the passions and affections - both occasionally 
and habitually - has much more to do in the way of pre- 
serving and promoting health than is usually supposed. Per- 
haps no one thing can be mentioned which deserves a larger 
share of our attention. 
" The passions founded on pleasure," says Sweetser," * 
" cause a universal expansion, if it may bo so expressed, of 
vital action. The blood, under their animating influence, 
flows more liberally to the superficies, and playing freely 
* See his work on Mental Hygiene, p. 86. CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
189 
through the capillary vessels, the countenance becomes ex- 
panded ; its expression brightens; and the whole surface 
acquires the ruddy and genial warmth of health. 
" Nothing," he adds, " contributes more to the healthful 
and harmonious action of our organism than an equal dis- 
tribution of the blood to its various parts, and especially the 
free circulation of this fluid in the extreme vessels of the 
surface." A truth which well nigh deserves to be written in 
letters of gold ! 
" Love, hope, and joy," says Haller, in his work on'physi- 
ology, " quicken the pulse, promote the circulation, increase 
the appetite, and facilitate the cure of diseases-." This is 
equally true of all the elevating affections and feelings,, as 
well as of love, hope, and joy. It is particularly true of faith 
and moral courage. 
That there is an excess of these feelings which is quite as 
injurious to health as their moderate indulgence is favorable, 
there can be no doubt. I could fill up an hour with facts of 
this kind, which would be pertinent, and some of them 
striking. 
" Extravagant and unexpected joy," says Sweetser, " in- 
creases unnaturally and unequally the circulation, and occa- 
sions a painful stricture of the heart and lungs, accompanied 
with sighing, sobbing, and panting. Under its influence even 
instant death may ensue." 
How amazingly important, then, to the well being of the 
heart, and the whole circulatory system, the proper restraint 
. and due regulation and direction of the passions ! Fear and 
grief have as much influence as hope and joy, and are, in 
their various shades and degrees, much more frequently 
operative. 
How' common it is, among us. to find persons of every 190 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
description giving way, not merely on those occasions when 
the voice of Providence calls us to grieve in moderation, but 
to an habitual indulgence in grief about that which cannot be 
helped, but which is only made worse by that very indul- 
gence ! 
You may have heard the story related by Dr. Rush, of the 
rebuke administered by the kind Quaker. His much-valued 
friend and acquaintance had lost her husband, and the loss was 
severely felt. After the lapse of a reasonable time for her 
grief to subside, he called on her, and found her still in tears. 
A long time afterwards he called again, but she was still 
grieving. " Ah ! " said lie, " hast thou not yet done blaming 
the Almighty ? " 
He might have told her of the violence - the suicidal vio- 
lence - she was doing to her whole frame, especially the 
nervous system and the heart. He might have spoken of the 
threads of life she was daily and hourly sundering, and of the 
account she must one day render for her every act of self- 
immolation. 
This subject is one whose importance is so generally over- 
looked that 1 hardly need to apologize for dwelling on it a 
little longer than at first view might seem necessary. 
Sweetser says, " On the first strong impulse of mental 
affliction, an agonizing sense of oppression and stricture is 
experienced af the heart and lungs, accompanied by a dread- 
ful feeling of impending suffocation. The whole chest, in- 
deed, will oftentimes seem as if it were bound tightly with a 
cord. The want of fresh air becomes at the same time most 
urgent, giving occasion to the deep and frequent sighing so 
commonly observed in those stricken with calamity. 
" This act, or sighing, consists in a long-drawn or protracted 
inspiration, succeeded by a corresponding expiration, which, CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
191 
besides furnishing an increased supply of air, may, by dis- 
tending the lungs, facilitate the passage of blood through 
them, and thus serve, in a measure, to alleviate the painful 
oppression felt in these organs and at the heart. 
" So distinct and remarkable is the suffering at the heart 
in deep grief, that the term heartache is used to express it, 
and its victims are said to die broken-hearted. Under its ag- 
gravated influence, even sharp pains of the heart, shooting, 
perhaps, to the shoulder, are experienced ; and every pulsa- 
tion of this organ is attended with the most thrilling distress." 
But the sensations in grief, which, though less deep, are 
more permanent, do not differ so essentially from these as 
might be supposed. There are thousands who have had their 
hearts almost suspend their motion on account of slight but 
sudden troubles. 
I might call your attention, at great length, to the inroads 
which arc made upon the blood and the organs of circulation, 
by the depressing passions. But it may be sufficient to say 
that what is so injurious, in large measure, as anger, fear, 
grief, hatred, &c., are found to be, cannot prove otherwise 
than injurious in those measures and degrees which, though 
much smaller, are more common. 
Our Savior has said, " Be not anxious," &c. How far 
he spoke with a wise reference to the physiological effects of 
that undue anxiety with which our earth is filled, cannot now 
be determined ; but every student of human nature knows 
with what emphasis the injunction might be made ; as well as 
the terrible consequences which its neglect brings to society. 
The size of the heart was mentioned at page 170. But 
this is a general rule only, to which there may be some ex- 
ceptions. The relative size of this organ depends much on 
the character of its owner. The greater the physical courage 192 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
and energy, the larger and stronger the machinery of 
circulation. 
This difference is perceptible to the feeling, externally. 
Find a feeble person,-one to whom we are accustomed to 
apply the epithet hen-hearted or chicken-hearted, - and the 
heart. is feeble, and the pulse beats feebly. On the other 
hand, a person of a contrary character has a strong heart, 
and firm and strong pulse. 
Thus there is, as it were, a phrenology of the heart, as 
well as of the head, which deserves our study and attention. 
That the character depends, in no small degree, upon the due 
development and relative proportion of the different parts of 
the brain, I fully believe; but I believe also that much de- 
pends on the size and energy of the lungs, heart, stomach, 
liver, &c. 
But be this as it may, there is certainly a mutual connec- 
tion and dependence. The day may arrive when it will be 
possible to determine the character, especially some of its 
phases, by knowing the size and structure of the heart, and 
the general force and vigor of that and the arteries. 
In visiting our schools, I sometimes amuse myself, and, as 
1 trust, do the pupils a little good, by the following general 
train of instruction, having first shown them a diagram of the 
heart, or a coarse drawing of it on the blackboard. 
" You have heard about hen-hearted people; shall I tell 
you what it is to be hen-hearted ? Well, then, people who 
are hen-hearted have very small and feeble hearts, and their 
pulse beats very feebly and faintly. I have known some 
children who were chicken-hearted. 
" On the other hand, there are persons who might be called 
lion-hearted. These have large and strong hearts, and a 
strong, bounding pulse. There are some of these to be CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
193 
found in nearly every school. I trust there are some in this 
school. 
" Those children who are resolute and decided about their 
lessons - who never say, I can't, but always say, I'll try, or 
at least think so - generally have strong hearts and arteries. 
Or if they are not very large and strong now, their resolution 
and courage will tend to make them so. 
" In many instances, however, we find children hen- 
hearted about their studies. They are almost always com- 
plaining about their lessons - that they are too long or too 
difficult. They allow themselves, very often, in saying, I 
can't, or at least in thinking so. 
" Now, if you wish to be strong and healthy, as long as 
you live, never indulge yourselves in saying, I can't, when 
it is your duty to say, I can, or even, I'll try. 1 can't 
never accomplished any thing noble. I'll try has done 
wonders.'-' 
Remarks like these, by way of illustrating a broad, general, 
and important principle, have sometimes interested grown 
people, as well as children. They are founded on truth, and 
are very simple; why should they not be listened to with 
pleasure ? More than this, why should they not be put in 
practice ? 
What has been said will serve to make known my mean- 
ing when I say that the influence of the elevating passions 
and affections is necessary to the proper development and 
energy of the circulatory system. It will also show what is 
meant when we affirm that the depressing passions and affec- 
tions have a contrary tendency. 
It is not too much to say that the application of pure Chris- 
tianity in the education of the young will yet work wonders 
in the transformation of our world. Surely the apostle was 194 
CIRCULATION ANO RENOVATION. 
not mistaken when he said, " Godliness hath promise of the 
life that now is, and of that which is to come." 
Nor was the wise man under a mistake when he said, 
" Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is 
old he will not depart from it." We may safely challenge 
the world to produce an instance where this promise has 
failed. 
IV. DISEASES OF THE BLOOD AND ORGANS OF CIRCULATION. 
No error is more widely diffused than the doctrine that the 
blood is subject to disease. It is an error in which quackery 
loves to revel, and in which it seems likely to revel for some 
time to come. 
The fanciful idea of purifying or cleansing the blood seems 
to have become a part of almost every human mind, in all 
states and stages of society. It is not confined to those who 
are generally uncultivated, nor, strange to say it, to those who 
are ignorant of the laws of physiology and hygiene. 
Some rely on pills for the purpose ; some on powders. 
Some use old Doctor Toicnsend's sarsaparilla, and some that 
of the young doctor. Some use " no medicine," but procure an 
alcoholic mixture, and drink of that seven or nine " mornings 
running." Some prepare a sirup, into which they make it a 
principle to put as many herbs and roots, " good for the 
blood," as they can find in all the fields and woods of the 
country. The virtue of the sirup is supposed to be in pro- 
portion to the number of strange ingredients of which it is 
composed. These sirups, moreover, are frequently regarded 
as greatly improved by adding a little spirits, " to make them 
keep ; " and by being made according to the prescription of 
some seventh son of a seventh son, some female doctor, or a CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
195 
half-drunken or quite worthless Indian. They have, more- 
over, a peculiar vartu, in " the spring of the year." 
Not a few of the popular nostrums of the day owe their 
success almost entirely to a supposed efficacy in purifying or 
cleansing the blood. Remove from the public mind their 
faith and hope in this property of the far-famed curative, and 
its hold on it would be as evanescent as the early clouds 
and morning dew. 
But let us look into this matter for a moment - not, how- 
ever, in the light of physiology exclusively, but also in that 
of common sense. Suppose it were possible for the blood to 
be really diseased, in a manner so independent of the solids 
as to require special treatment. Would there be the smallest 
probability of its restoration? For this fluid is scattered 
through a multitude of vessels which no naked eye can num- 
ber, and perhaps no microscope. The anatomist can, in- 
deed, reckon up some one thousand arteries and three thou- 
sand veins ; but these are only the larger branches. All 
these vessels are so many small rivers of blood, coursing their 
way outward in the arteries, and inward - that is, towards 
. the heart - in the veins and capillaries. Their course is ex- 
ceedingly rapid - so rapid that the whole mass of blood, or a 
quantity equivalent to the whole mass, passes through the heart, 
as we have seen, every three or four minutes. This mass of 
blood, moreover, is continually cnanging-never for a moment 
the same. The best particles for building up the system are 
continually taken out and applied to repair the old wastes, or 
to increase the size of the body ; the watery parts go off by 
perspiration and otherwise, and their place is as constantly 
supplied by new chyle made from new food and drink. 
Suppose, I have said just now, that the contents of these 
rivers of blood could he diseased, and the diseased blood in them 196 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
have no influence on the vessels themselves ; suppose, too, yo 
could throw into them some medicament which had real' 
ly a cleansing power - how long would they remain 
cleansed ? 
The blood of to-day will not be the blood of to-morrow. Il 
will have passed away in part, and new currents will have been 
substituted. Will not these need cleansing, too ? For re- 
member that the vessels arc emptied and replenished by 
degrees only, and what shall hinder the new mass just made 
from new chyle, from becoming assimilated to the old 
diseased mass to which it is introduced ? And how long 
will it take, in this way, to complete the work of renovation ? 
The idea - I repeat - of renovating or purifying the ever- 
changing mass of blood by direct efforts applied to the hlood 
itself is utterly futile - almost ridiculous. You might as well 
think of changing the character of the mass of waters that 
constitute the mighty Mississippi. But who does not know 
that if he could change the Mississippi of to-day, it would not 
reach the Mississippi of to-morrow, and that his work must 
be repeated daily, without end ? 
I do not say that nothing can be done in the way of purify- 
ing the blood. Much may be done ; but it must be done 
indirectly. The blood is not to be purified as we would 
clarify the foul, stagnant contents of a tub or vat. It can 
only bo done to any practical purpose by invigorating the 
machinery by means of which blood is formed, and by mak- 
ing a wise selection in regard to the material from which we 
form it. In short, the only pill to be taken for the blood - 
and a bitter one it indeed proves to many - is obedience. 
Thus, as you see, I admit that the blood may be purified 
by obedience to the whole code of- divine law, physical and 
moral. This is equivalent to admitting that there are diseased CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
197 
slates or conditions of the blood, and that these conditions of 
this great mass of fluid are not wholly unworthy of our atten- 
tion ; but it is not admitting the popular notions about cleans- 
ing it. I have known an intemperate man - one who had 
been intemperate in the use of cider, spirits, tobacco, &c., 
forty years - whose solids and fluids both seemed to be most 
sadly diseased. The blood which flowed from a cut or lacer- 
ated surface appeared to be in a watery, discolored, unnatural 
state, and the wound would be whole months - sometimes 
six months - in healing. 
But let us come at once to diseases of the machinery of 
the circulation - the heart, arteries, veins, and capillaries. 
And, first, let us consider those of the heart. 
The most troublesome disease of the heart is that which has 
been sometimes called cyania or blue skin. The skin is 
really more blue than is natural, owing to the fact that the 
blood is not well cleansed of its impurities. This disease is 
quite incurable ; though with regularity of the appetites and 
passions, the sufferer may live on for several years. The 
cause of this strange disease is born with the individual, and 
consists in a wrong formation of some portion of the heart. 
The most common of these wrong formations is that in 
which the heart, instead of being a double heart, with no com- 
munication between its right and left sides, is, to all intents 
and purposes, a single organ; there being an opening in the 
partition between, which permits the venous or black blood 
to gurgle through into the arterial or left half, without 
being changed. 
Another heart disease is called in books hydrocardia. In 
other words, it is a species of dropsy. The heart is naturally 
enclosed, like some of the other organs of the body, in a bag 
or sac ; and in the sac, fluid sometimes collects. The disease 198 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
is accompanied by violent, palpitations, and many other Iron 
blesomc symptoms, and is incurable. 
Angina pectoris, a very painful disease, - one which is 
almost as difficult of cure as any other, - is now, by most, 
considered a disease of the heart; though it must be con- 
fessed that there is considerable doubt among medical men 
both with regard to its seat and general nature. The 
celebrated Dr. John Hunter is usually said to have died of 
it; though the immediate or exciting cause of his death 
was a fit of anger. 
There is another species of disease to which the heart is 
liable, which is probably somewhat within human control. I 
refer to a gradual increase or diminution of thickness in the 
walls, or fleshy sides of this organ. The increase of thick- 
ness is sometimes so great that the heart appears to be twice 
as large as before. The disease is called active aneurism. 
But the opposite condition is probably most common, and 
most fatal. In these circumstances, the walls of the ventricles 
may become so soft and thin as to give way under a violent 
effort, as in jumping, lifting, falling, &c., as well as in a violent 
fit of anger, the transports of joy, or the excesses of grief. 
I have intimated that these last diseases are more within 
our control than the former. This is judged to be so because 
we understand better their causes. No person who comes 
into the world with a tolerable constitution, and obeys well 
those laws of circulation which I have elsewhere mentioned, 
will ever be likely to suffer in this way. Or, if suffering 
should come on, obedience to these laws would render it 
more tolerable. 
Aneurism of the great aorta is one of the most common 
diseases of the circulatory system, and by far the most fatal. 
It consists in the bursting and protrusion of the blood through CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
199 
one of the coats of the artery, so as ultimately to form a sac, 
of greater or smaller dimensions. These sacs themselves 
are also apt to burst, and when they do, the most certain and 
sudden death follows. 
The bursting of an artery is caused remotely by ossifica- 
tion. There really ought to be no ossification, or change into 
bone, in any of these organs or parts ; but it sometimes hap- 
pens that, owing to ill health, intemperance, a permanently 
bad position of body, premature decline, or other causes, the 
muscular coats of the artery ossify, and it becomes so brittle 
as to break or burst. It is not the aorta alone, however, which 
is liable to this disease, though, from its nearness to the heart, 
aneurisms of this vessel are most fatal. All the arteries are 
liable to disease of this sort, but they are especially so at 
their acute angles, and at points where they are most exposed 
to compression. 
Diseases of the heart, and such diseases *of the aorta as 
have an immediate effect upon the heart, are becoming very 
common in all civilized countries which give free scope 
to the powers, passions, and appetites of mankind. Several 
thousand persons in Great Britain perish yearly in this way, 
and a number not much smaller in the United States. The 
mortality from this source is, moreover, every year increasing. 
So far as I have observed, heart diseases are most common 
and dangerous among that class of sedentary persons whose 
position is bad, and who give up the reins to appetite and 
passion. Several popular editors of daily periodicals, espe- 
cially in times of high political excitement, have fallen vic- 
tims to ossification, and consequent aneurism. 
Much is said of sudden death, as if it came by chance or 
haphazard. We frequently hear it spoken of as if the per- 
son, up to the moment of death, was in perfect health. Now, 200 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
it is obvious that death and perfect health are terms incom- 
patible with each other. No person ever died in perfect 
health, except by miracle, accident, or exterior violence. 
Many, however, die suddenly, - as Dr. Hunter and George 
II. did, - who appear externally free from disease. It is, 
however, very probable that a large proportion of these sud- 
den deaths are from causes of the kind referred to in the 
preceding paragraph. Should not the hopelessness of cure, in 
these terrible diseases, be a powerful motive to impel us along 
in the path of obedience ? 
Of diseases in the veins and capillaries I may have some- 
thing to say when we come to consider the penalties which 
God, in nature, has attached to the violation of his laws of 
health, in relation to the moving powers of the system. For 
the present, I will only relate a single anecdote. 
When I was a student of medicine, a man came to the of- 
fice and desireckto be bled. He did not give his reasons : he 
was one of those strong-headed men who deem it almost an 
insult to be asked, even by their family physician, to give 
reasons for any thing to which their fancy or inclination 
prompts them. 
He was, however, near sixty years of age, of plethoric ap- 
pearance and luxurious habits, laboring little, but living on 
high-seasoned food, and using some wine and cider. He was, 
moreover, a man of highly excitable passions. Attempts 
were made repeatedly to procure blood, but in vain; and 
he went home with about as much " bad blood " in him as 
he brought. Had he changed his habits, even at this late 
hour, he might have been spared ; but he went on in his usual 
course a few months, when he died suddenly, as the world 
said, in perfect health. 
I asked the physician what the reason was why the blood CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
201 
did not flow, when he used his lancet on Mr. U. " Beason 
enough," said he ; " his veins were all ossified ! " 
Now, I have no doubt he was ossified at every point where 
arteries and other vessels ever do ossify; but it is rathex diffi- 
cult for me to believe that the veins of the arm were ossified. 
However, I believed it then, and the statement may have 
been true ! But if so,- what a loud call on us to betake our- 
selves to plain living, active and industrious habits, and the 
cultivation of all the Christian graces and affections ! 
So common, and troublesome, and fatal are these diseases 
of the heart, that it should be made the duty of every parent 
and teacher to give full and free instruction on this subject at 
the earliest possible period. Or, rather, children should be 
formed to correct habits before they are old enough to have 
any physiological knowledge of their own. But as this train- 
ing has been omitted with most of us, either for want of 
knowledge ourselves, or for want of conscience, it only re- 
mains to us, of the present generation, to reform and correct 
what has thus far been either wholly neglected or performed 
amiss. 
A teacher, whom I knew, was accustomed to give, on the 
blackboard, a profile view of the body in two positions. One 
of these was the healthy sitting position; the other the dan- 
gerous one. When he found his pupils sitting in a bad posi- 
tion, he would direct their attention to the drawing. 
An ingenious parent or teacher might be ever and anon 
devising methods for meeting and obviating this tendency in 
the young to sit in a crouching position. The great thing, I 
grant, is to remove the temptation as far as possible. In a 
world like this, however, it cannot, I fear, be removed entirely. 
One who has but the slightest knowledge of the human 
frame may use the device already alluded to. We may have 202 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
blackboards in the family as well as in the school. And few 
parents can justly complain of want of time to perform such 
indispensable little offices for their children as these. 
It is greatly useful, in many instances, to draw on the black- 
board, both in family and school, an outline like that at page 
106. It requires no special training ; you need not, therefore, 
hesitate. The diagram may be sketched in a moment, as it 
were, and yet it is one of great importance, and may be made 
a source of much instruction. The situation of the heart, 
of the lungs, of the stomach, and the liver, might be thus 
shown at a single glance, and a brief account given of their 
various movements. Children are forgetful. I know ; but there 
is not one child in a hundred so stupid as not to be interested 
in these subjects, for the time. And when they forget, the in- 
struction must be repeated and reiterated. The old rule is 
" line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there 
a little." « 
With the aid of such a mere outline, any child may be 
shown, in five minutes, why and how he endangers his heart, 
his lungs, his stomach, or his liver, by sitting in a position 
which compresses the organ. A further illustration of the 
manner in which injury is done to the heart may be given 
with the aid of the diagram seen at page 117. 
The great arch or curve of the aorta, with its upward 
branches, may be shown, and the natural and certain conse- 
quences may be pointed out, of compressing the aorta and 
thus compelling the struggling heart to force the blood 
through a passage rendered too narrow. And if the parent 
or teacher feels himself competent to the task, he may. go 
still further, and teach his child or pupil something of the 
delicate internal construction of the heart itself, and show him 
how it may be injured by being crowded out of its place or CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
203 
compelled to a constant struggle by the pressure of a con 
strained and unnatural posture. 
It should be distinctly understood by all, that it is not by 
compressing the heart, for a moment, during a natural and 
necessary bend of the body, either in exercise or amusement, 
that mischief is done, but by a constraint or force which is 
long continued. And so of the compression of any othei 
internal organ or part. 
But this reminds me of a frequent parental error. It 
is that of confining young children of both sexes, but par- 
ticularly boys, for ten, twelve, or fourteen hours a day, in a 
position which must inevitably injure their hearts, as well as 
their lungs, stomachs, &c. 
This error is more common in the old world than in the new, 
but is becoming quite too common even among us. A father 
in Massachusetts, who has a son ten years old, - I believe an 
only son,- confines him, from morning to evening, at pegging 
the heels of boots ; and consoles himself with the thought 
that he gives him his evenings ! Yet his evenings are worth 
very little, after such a day of toil. I have seen him sit, at 
evening, as stupid almost as the mere machine or automaton, 
preferring the chimney corner to the bat and ball, the skating, 
or the coasting ; and finally, " tired nature " overcome, sink- 
ing into rest, only to rise next morning and renew the same 
mill-horse round of toil. 
The father had an apology, as well as a consolation. This 
was his poverty. Alas for the causes of his poverty ! Theo- 
logians, statesmen, and politicians should see to this. But I 
will not digress. Did he not know that, by sowing the seeds 
of heart or pulmonary disease, he might be preparing the way 
for years of future suffering ? Perhaps not. Thrice blessed 
then the day that, by its flood of light, shall compel parents 204 
CIRCULATION AND RENOVATION. 
to think of such things ! The deed of destruction may be 
done, even then; but it will be a deed which should consign 
to infamy eternal even a demon himself. A father might 
defraud himself, and be comparatively guiltless ; but there is 
no name for a crime so black as that of robbing a son of half 
a life for the sake of indulgence in mere luxuries ! 
Shoe and boot makers, and perhaps tailors are more lia- 
ble to heart diseases than any other class of mechanics or 
manufacturers with which I am acquainted. I have some- 
times, when travelling as a lecturer, found from fifty to a 
hundred of them, in a single boot and shoe making village. 
I have prescribed for dozens, if not scores of them, in a day. 
Of those who die of heart complaints outright, a large pro- 
portion are from those persons in society who are subjected 
not only to a bad position of body, but to much wear and tear 
of mind, much depressed feeling, and much deep anguish of 
the soul. 
Fewer persons die of these complaints in plain than in 
high life, fewer in agricultural districts than among manu- 
facturers, and fewer in town than in city. There are fewer, 
also, in despotic governments than in those which give the 
people more freedom of action. This, however, need not be 
an objection to freedom, in itself considered ; but only to 
freedom without intelligence. 
I must say, once more, in closing, that no one thing prom- 
ises so much for heart complaints as the religion of Christ. 
This not only binds up the broken-hearted morally, but phys- 
ically. It is more than any other medicine, - I may say, 
more than all. Yet even this cannot wholly cure. It will 
only prevent, and soothe, and allay. In the most glorious 
days of earth, when obedience, in the race, is universal, heart 
diseases will be unknown. THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
205 
LECTURE V. 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
Many persons regard the skin as a mere wrapper or cov- ■ 
ering. They have very little idea - perhaps the thought 
never entered their heads - that it is a highly important 
organ, fearfully and wonderfully made, like the rest of the 
organism it covers, and that it has highly important func- 
tions or offices to perform. A few among us have, indeed, 
risen a little higher, and have imbibed some general ideas of 
its usefulness; though their notions are very inadequate and 
unworthy. They may suppose it to be a sort of sieve or 
strainer, through which the fluid of perspiration oozes, as 
water out of a sponge, when pressed. Hence the common 
idea of pores in the skin, and of these being shut or opened. 
Hence, too, the common but erroneous idea that, in order to 
cure a cold, we must force open the pores. 
Now, the skin is certainly a wrapper, - a strainer, too, if 
you choose to regard it as such, - but it is much more. It is 
a depurating or purifying apparatus. The lungs are, indeed, 
the more special depurating organs ; but both the skin and 
kidneys greatly aid the lungs in their work of depuration. 
Whatever the lungs do, in other words, the skin aids in doing. 
We may, therefore, be said to respire or breathe all over. 
But this will be better understood presently. 
The skin, both as an aid to the lungs and as an independ- 
ent organ, may be regarded as having the same relation to 206 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
the system, generally, which the safety valve has to the boiler 
of the steamboat, or railroad engine. As the steamboat 
boiler, under heavy pressure, would often burst, were it not 
for the safety valve, so will there be many explosions of the 
human body, if the skin ceases to perform its offices. 
There is one qualifying remark necessary here. I do not 
mean to say that the boiler will burst under a momentary 
compression for the first time. I mean only, that, when the 
boiler has been strained repeatedly and long, the attraction 
of cohesion in its substance becomes so much reduced, that 
the pressure at length overcomes the resistance, and there is 
an outburst. 
Hence it is, that, in order to perfect health, the skin must 
perform, unremitthigly, its great work of depuration. To ac- 
complish this, it must be plump, active, and energetic; and, 
with the aid of other organs, must keep up constantly, in 
the body, a strong centrifugal or outward tendency. This 
centrifugal tendency exists, moreover, in the greatest possi- 
ble degree, when the skin best performs the work or offices 
assigned to it. It must absorb, secrete, excrete, and sympathize. 
To understand well our subject, let us look briefly, in the 
first place, at the mechanism of the skin ; then at its offices ; 
afterwards at its laws ; and, lastly, at the penalties annexed 
to the violation of those laws ; or, in other words, at its 
DISEASES. 
I. MECHANISM OF THE SKIN. 
The skin is not a single layer, or membrane, but is made 
up of several. Different anatomists speak of a widely differ- 
ent number of these layers ; but we usually say there are 
three ; 1. The cuticle, or scarf skin ; 2. The rete mucosum, 
or mucous layer; 3. The cutis vera, or true skin. THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
207 
The cuticle is to the human body what the scarf covering 
of the shrub or tree is to the interior. It has no vessels oi 
nerves of its own; and, consequently, has no life or feeling. 
It has only innumerable small openings. These openings, 
for want of a better name, are called pores. It is through 
them that the perspiratory fluid and the sebaceous matter (to 
be spoken of presently) find their way. They are hardly 
discernible by the naked eye. 
The cuticle is said to be scaly in its structure. It is easily 
removed - almost without pain, and without shedding blood. 
Thus we sometimes graze our skin, and remove large por- 
tions of it in a moment. It is renewed very rapidly - 
almost as soon as it has been destroyed. It is also easily de- 
tached by a blister. 
Immediately under the cuticle, or, as some say, forming a 
part of it, is a species of thin and delicate network, in which 
arc numerous little cells, containing coloring matter. In the 
African it is black, in our own European race it is white, &c. 
This layer of the skin is called rete mucosum. 
The cutis vera, or true skin, - that alone from which, by 
tanning, leather can be formed, - is the third and most im- 
portant of the several layers. It is principally by means of 
this and its machinery, that the skin performs its numerous 
and varied offices. 
To give some faint idea of this layer or membrane, suppose 
only a square inch of it, while in healthful activity, could be 
brought to view through a microscope which magnifies three 
hundred thousand times, like Humboldt's, or many millions, 
like Lardner's. The vast amount of curious machinery 
would astonish, if not overwhelm, the mind. Why, the 
mechanism of a green leaf is astonishing; but that of the 
skin far more so. 208 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
Perhaps you have seen some huge factory, - say the ging- 
ham factory, at Clinton, Massachusetts, - where, at one view 
you can beholdabout an acre of spinning and weaving 
machinery, with the hundreds of operatives required to 
work it; or you may imagine yourself on the top of the 
famous Crystal Palace in New York, surveying the wonders 
collected there for public exhibition ; or you may witness the 
dissection of a steam engine into its more than five thousand 
pieces ; and yet, surprising and overwhelming as either view 
might be, what is it to the view alluded to through the micro- 
Internal structure of a green leaf. 
scope ? What is it compared with the sight of hundreds of 
rivers of blood coursing their way, and that, too, side by side, 
in opposite directions, with hundreds of nerves, lymphatics, 
perspiratory vessels, sebaceous glands, &c. ? Is it too much 
to say that in this little spot-this square inch of human 
skin - there appears to be vastly more of living machinery 
than there is of dead machinery in a whole acre of spinning 
jennies and power looms ? * 
* Carpenter, in his Principles of Unman Physiology, estimates the 
pores of the skin at seven millions, and " the length of the perspiratory THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
209 
For here it is, as I just now observed, in the interior 
of this wonderful cutis vera, or true skin, that the various 
Mechanism of the skin. 
offices of this part of the human mechanism are performed. 
From birth to death, moreover,-in sleeping and in waking, 
Lymphatics and capillaries. 
- there is no suspension of the labor, unless in sickness or 
disease. 
tubing" at one hundred and forty-five thousand eight hundred and 
eighty-three feet, or nearly twenty-eight miles. This, of itself, is some- 
thing. It is seventy or eighty feet of tubing for a single square inch 
of skin. 210 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
The color and texture of this membrane, when the cuticle 
and mucous coat have been removed, are essentially the same. 
God has thus not only made of one blood all the nations of 
the earth, but, in strictness of physiological language, he has 
made them all of one skin. 
The hairs do not originate in the skin, but merely pass 
through it. The nails are inserted into it, somewhat as the 
hand is inserted into a mitten or glove. The nail does not 
pass through it, like the hairs. 
This whole triple membrane is connected loosely with 
the parts underneath it, by means of a cotton-looking sub- 
stance, called, in the language of the books, cellular mem- 
brane. What appear like large veins in the skin, especially 
that of laborers, are usually found in this cellular membrane, 
underneath it. 
Why the skin appears to be so much thicker on the back 
part of the body and limbs, and on the palms of the hands 
and soles of the feet, is chiefly because the cuticle, or scarf 
skin, is so much thicker there. On the feet of certain laborers 
who go barefooted, the skin seems almost like sole leather 
for thickness. 
The surface of the human body, or, in other words, the 
extent of the skin, is generally spoken of, in books of anato- 
my and physiology, as being about fourteen or fifteen square 
feet, in an adult of ordinary size. Its thickness and conse- 
quent weight are very different, according to the difference 
of temperament, and various other circumstances. 
II. OFFICES OF THE SKIN. 
The first office or function of the skin which I shall men- 
tion is its power of absorption. It is able to absorb or imbibe THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
211 
many substances, especially when they are applied to it in a 
semi-solid or liquid state, and conduct them to the interior of 
the general system. 
Thus the sailor, when destitute of fresh water, can allay his 
thirst, in some measure, by the application of cloths wet in 
salt water to his skin, when its presence in considerable 
quantity in his mouth, throat, and stomach, would only in- 
crease his tortures. Thus, too, the physician can introduce 
poisonous or medicinal substances, by heat or friction, within 
the living domain, when they could not be introduced in any 
other manner. The skin is also said, by some, to have the 
power of absorbing oxygen ; but of this I shall say something 
in another place. 
But a still higher duty is assigned to the skin, viz., the 
power of secreting, or, in other words, culling out from all 
parts of the body beneath it, both solid and fluid, certain de- 
cayed or waste particles, and transforming them into the fluid 
of perspiration, and into an oily substance usually called seba- 
ceous matter. 
The work of perspiration is not a mere escape of the serum 
or water of the blood, as we have seen already : it is much 
more than this. It is not a mere pumping out, indiscriminate- 
ly, at the pores, such particles as can be reached. It is as if 
the skin had a sort of discretionary power to remove all effete 
or dead particles of matter, which, if not removed, would - so 
to speak - clog the internal system, become corrupt or putrid, 
and gradually destroy health and life. Nor is this, even, the 
whole which is done ; for in removing dead particles from 
the internal parts of the system to its surface, the skin has 
power to change them either into the matter of perspiration, 
or into that oily substance found in the sebaceous glands. 
They are both entirely new substances. 212 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
The sebaceous matter appears to be designed to lubricate 
the skin, and is hence found most in those parts of the body 
and limbs where there is the most attrition or friction. Per- 
spiration also aids in keeping the skin supple; but, still more, 
it serves to keep it cool. 
But the secretion of both these substances, taking out, as it 
does, the waste particles of the body, is at the same time an 
excretion. Both the matter of perspiration and the sebaceous 
Sweat glands. 
Sebaceous or oil glands. 
matter are as truly excreted, or excluded from the body,- 
and intended to be so, - as the faeces. 
In assisting the lungs, also, to get rid of the superfluous car- 
bon found in the venous blood, the skin, like those organs, be- 
comes an excreting agent, and thus proves itself to be a depu- 
rating organ of the very highest rank and importance. 
The skin is, lastly, an organ of sympathy. I do not place 
this office last because it is of least importance, but because it 
is an office which may be regarded as somewhat extraordi- THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
213 
nary, or out of the way, and which, to be perfectly under- 
stood, deserves a little anatomical and physiological expla- 
nation. 
All parts of the human system are indeed sympathizing or- 
gans, since they have all the marks of brotherhood. The eye 
cannot say to the car, nor the hand to the foot, " I have no 
need of you." Still more than even this is true, viz., that if 
one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one 
member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. But the 
sympathies of the skin arc very peculiar. All the internal 
parts or organs of the body, which hold direct intercommuni- 
cation with the open air, have a very delicate lining, which 
seems to be a kind of continuation of the skin, called mucous 
Membrane. With all these parts, thus lined by mucous mem- 
brane, the skin has a very active sympathy. 
Now, if any of these parts, thus lined, suffer from being irri- 
tated, overloaded, or otherwise crippled, the skin seems to 
feel it, and to suffer with them ; and on the contrary, if the 
skin suffers, the internal parts alluded to suffer with it. If the 
functions or offices of the skin are even tardily performed, the 
internal organs to which I have alluded suffer. It is also 
equally true,- and the fact is one of great practical impor- 
tance,- that if either the skin on the one hand, or the parts 
lined by mucous membrane on the other, can by any means 
be made more vigorous and healthful, an improvement of con- 
dition is perceptible in both. 
Besides these three or four leading offices of the skin, it 
has also several subsidiary or secondary uses, to which, in 
passing, I must be allowed to call your attention - promis- 
ing, however, to be short. 
1. The skin is an ornament, or would be so in a state of 
health. Unhappily, the true, healthful color of the human 214 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING, 
skin is seldom seen. We more commonly find, on the one 
hand, a delicacy which amounts nearly to transparency ; or, 
on the other, a deep red, or almost liver-colored skin, as if 
it were surcharged with dark, venous blood. 
Both these, in their turn, have been mistaken for indications 
of health, while they more certainly indicate disease. The 
transparent or semi-transparent skin, so frequently seen among 
us, often denotes consumption or scrofula; while the turgid, 
liver-looking skin is quite as often the sign of disease in the 
region of the liver or stomach. As wise a man as the philos- 
opher George Combe has called the American ladies beau- 
tiful because they have, many of them, a skin so delicate 
that you might almost see your face in it. And thousands 
make the mistake of calling the other class referred ft) 
healthy. It is a strange misnomer to call a diseased skin 
either beautiful or healthy. 
Nor are the circumscribed red cheeks, so often met with, 
especially among children, to be considered beautiful. There 
is, of course, a native difference among mankind. Few, 
however, as I have before intimated, possess the true flesh- 
colored, healthy-looking skin. They do not possess it, in any 
event, whose cheeks look as if they were painted. 
2. It should not be forgotten, by any means, that, the skin 
is a covering and a defence of the larger nerves and vessels 
which abound immediately under it, and which would other- 
wise be frequently irritated or torn by contact. The veins 
that are so prominent on the skins of some people, especially 
emaciated laborers, are not, as we have already seen, in the 
skin, but under it. The veins of the skin can hardly be seen 
by the naked eye. They are so numerous that you cannot 
penetrate this organ with the finest needle without piercing 
one or more of them. THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
215 
3. Nor should we forget, lastly, that by its very great ex- 
tent, and the almost infinite number of its nerves, the skin is 
the seat of the general sense of feeling, thus enabling us to 
hold a ready communication with the external world, and 
to avoid many of its pains, as well as secure many of its 
pleasures. 
HI. LAWS OF THE SKIN. 
Law 1. We must avoid being long in Contact with such Things 
- solid, liquid, or aeriform - as ought not to be absorbed 
into the System. 
This first law of the skin is founded on what I have called its 
first office. True it is that the skin does not absorb every thing 
with equal readiness and facility. Pure water, from its mild- 
ness and want of irritation, is probably absorbed most read- 
ily, especially when warm or tepid. Poisonous substances, 
though often absorbed, appear to meet with more difficulty ; 
and there are certain poisons I could name, which, by the skin 
of many individuals, cannot be absorbed at all. 
When, however, the medical man is fully determined on 
getting his poisons into the human 'skin by force, he places 
them on the surface, and keeps them there as in the form of 
a plaster ; or else he rubs the skin with them, in the shape of 
an ointment. In either case, a small portion of them is ab- 
sorbed. Thus cantharides, (Spanish flies,) mercurial oint- 
ment, corrosive sublimate in solution, &c., have been intro- 
duced into the system by means of absorption. 
For this and other reasons, great care should be taken by 
the healthy to avoid all cosmetics, medicated washes, and 
rouge. Some of these are highly poisonous, and if absorbed 
might do serious and even irreparable injury to the constitu- 216 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
tion. In truth, I do not doubt that a large amount of mischief 
has been done in this very way. 
Who has not heard of the absorption of poisonous matter 
into a wound by handling an animal that died of disease ? 
Many excellent surgeons and physicians have lost their lives 
in this very way. It is on this principle - that is, by absorp- 
tion- that the vaccine disease is induced upon the human 
system. 
Now, poisons which affect denuded surfaces may affect the 
sound and comparatively healthy skin, when long applied to 
it. Hence, I repeat, avoid the use of them. I am not cer- 
tain even of the safety of some of our eye washes and tooth 
powders. The best eye wash is water; and I am not quite 
certain it is not the best and safest dentifrice. 
There is a great fondness for ointments all over the coun- 
try. Some are supposed to be healing ; some drawing ; some 
opening ; some cleansing ; and some discutient or scattering. 
In short, I could name a dozen different offices supposed 
to be performed by ointments or plasters of various descrip- 
tions. But I need not, for every body is perfectly familiar 
with them. 
I never shall forget a lesson I received on this subject while 
quite a boy. A man had cut his foot badly at the instep, and 
according to the custom of the country, had applied a plaster 
to it. I met him, in a shop, soon afterwards, showing it to a 
common-sense but vulgar-tongued surgeon. " Take away," 
said he, " your filthy ointment. When you have wounded 
your flesh in this way, you have nothing to do but to put to- 
gether the divided edges of the wound, and keep them togeth- 
er, and nature will take care of the rest." 
He might have said much more. He might have said that 
Nature no- only will do the work, if we will allow her to do THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
217 
it, but she must perform it. It cannot be done by any thing 
else. An ointment or plaster can no more draw, or heal, or 
scatter, as these terms are generally understood, than it can 
ignite, or fuse, or weld. You may as well attempt to draw a 
nail or a wooden pin, from a board or tree, with one of them, 
as any thing from the human body. 
If it is asked, how, then, such a prejudice in their favor had 
its origin, I cannot answer the question. It is possible it origi- 
nated in the same way that it is perpetuated ; that is, by false 
experience. A person with a wound or sore is anxious to be 
doing something. An ointment is applied, and reapplied. 
Meanwhile the diseased part improves. The ointment is sup- 
posed to have wrought the cure, when the truth is, Nature has 
done it, notwithstanding the ointment; or, rather, in spite of it. 
Occasionally, I grant, Nature is disturbed by the ointment, 
and even foiled in her curative efforts. A friend of mine 
placed a medicated ointment over a large portion of his child's 
abdomen. Absorption took place, convulsions came on, and 
the child sunk under them. 
In my early boyhood, in leaping from a fence to the ground, 
one day, a small stump pierced my foot, and a piece of it re- 
mained imbedded in the flesh. A plaster of beef's gall, it 
was said, would draw it out. The plaster was applied, and in 
a few days the foreign body was removed. 
But what was the real process ? Why, simply and essen- 
tially, that which usually takes place, whenever foreign bodies 
are removed in this way. A suppuration or softening of the 
parts in contact with the foreign substance comes on, and Na- 
ture gradually pushes it out; after which she heals the wound, 
always beginning at the bottom. No plasters, or washes, or 
salves essentially aid her. It is sometimes well to keep the 
part warm, or perchance to cool it. 218 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, ANO OF BATHING. 
But suppose medicated substances thus applied were useful. 
Would not very great caution still be necessary ? Would 
there not - must there not - always be much of hazard in 
applying medicated ointments to a surface which has such 
power to absorb ? 
Pure air and water, as a general thing, with clean and 
wholesome clothing, are nearly or quite the only substances 
which can be safely kept in contact with the human skin. 
Even the filth which accumulates on it, from neglect of 
proper ablution, or from wearing foul clothing, or sleeping in 
foul beds, may possibly be absorbed. I shall allude to this 
again. 
Law 2. The Skin should not be compressed, but should 
have full, free, and extensive Motion. 
If the human skin is really as full of machinery as I have 
represented at page 207, is it not obviously quite hazardous 
to confine or embarrass it in its operations ? Let a compress, 
for example, be placed upon the looms and jennies at Clinton, 
and let the whole mass of moving machinery be suddenly 
reduced to one half its present thickness. Must not derange- 
ment ensue ? Could a single wheel or loom go on till it had 
undergone a repairing process ? And has it no ill effect to 
compress, to half or two thirds its natural thickness, the com- 
plicated machinery of the human skin ? Has it undergone 
the process of compression, till it has become used to it, as 
eels are vulgarly said to get used to -being flayed alive ? 
There is one striking difference in the two cases. Remove 
the compress from the acre of factory machinery, still there 
will be no proper action again till the machinery has under- 
gone extensive and costly repairs, which will take up weeks 
and months of time. But in the other instance, as soon as THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
219 
the compression ceases, a sort of hobbling motion begins. 
The work of reparation, however, takes up more time, at 
least if the compression is a matter of habit, or thing of 
many years' standing. I do not know, even, that the injury is 
ever wholly repaired. 
Much has been said of the evil consequences of dressing 
too tightly about the chest; nor have these, so far as I know, 
been exaggerated. But in making an estimate of the injury, 
in these cases, we have usually confined ourselves to a con- 
sideration of the results of this compression to the lungs, 
heart, stomach, liver, &c. Now, the injury done to these 
parts is indeed fearful, and cannot be undone in a dozen 
generations. But the skin is injured, as well as the internal 
organs. The habitual compression of several square feet of 
it has wrought changes in the health of thousands and mil- 
ions - to be as lasting as life. 
Compression of any part of the skin is hurtful, especially 
if permanently applied. Tight boots, stockings, cravats, pan- 
taloons, and even tight hats and gloves, are very undesirable. 
I have had a most severe headache, many a time, from wear- 
ing my hat too tightly for some time, on the forehead. And 
many a sedentary and studious man, by sitting with a tight 
stock or cravat on, and with his head bent forward, has in- 
jured his health by impeding the circulation of the blood, or 
preventing its return from the brain to the heart. 
The permanent influence of any one of the forms of com- 
pression alluded to in the last paragraph - though it may to 
some appear a trivial matter - is sufficient to derange the 
whole system. The clothing should be loose, if possible, 
every square inch of it. 
One word here respecting hard beds. Some have said, 
from the days of Locke till now, that a hard bed is as good 220 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
as any, provided we get sound sleep. And a few, as if to 
enforce the opinion with more emphasis, have said that the 
soft side of a plank is as good for a bed as any thing else, 
when we get a little used to it. 
Now, although the evils of sleeping on a hard bed are not 
quite so great as they would be were we to lie in bed as long 
as we wear our clothes by day, yet it is even a slight evil, in 
itself considered, to sleep six or eight successive hours on 
a board. Contrasted with a bed of cider down, the latter may 
be preferable ; but contrasted with the elastic wire bed - 
which allows the whole body to have a resting-place, as well 
as a few parts or points - it is at least undesirable. 
Comparisons have been made, too, between hard and soft 
seats. Now, it is contrary to nature's plan - entirely so - 
for people to sit on any thing for hours together; and matters 
might be so contrived, in most instances, in school, in shop, 
in factory, in church, and every where, that we might stand, 
a part of the time. Better, however, to have soft seats than 
to sit on planks for hours together. 
I have said, elsewhere, that one office of the skin is to 
serve as a bond of sympathy or brotherly love in the human 
system, and that, if certain parts suffer, the skin also suffers 
with them. But it is particularly to be noticed that if any 
part of the skin, be it ever so small, comes to suffer in con- 
sequence of compression, every other part participates in the 
suffering. 
This law commends itself to all who live, and move, and 
breathe; but especially to all Christian parents. It is high 
time for reason, and science, and Christianity to triumph 
over the customs of ignorance, superstition, and heathenism. 
It is, indeed, true that the particular forms of bodily com- 
pression which prevailed half a century or a century ago THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
221 
may have passed away, but the ignorance on which it was 
founded still remains ; especially our neglect of health, and 
of those customs which conduce to health during infancy 
and childhood. 
Law 3. The Skin must not he irritated. 
By this is meant that there must be no internal irrita- 
tion. Of external irritation I have said something already. 
I might advert also to external irritation from another source 
- I mean harsh clothing. But this is of too little importance, 
comparatively, to require more than a mere passing allusion. 
By internal irritation of the cutaneous system, or skin, I 
mean now, principally, that kind of irritation which is caused 
by the presence, in the system, of improper substances, in- 
troduced there in the blood. We have seen, at page 208, 
and also in the lecture on the circulation, that the skin is full 
of blood vessels. If these vessels hold blood which contains 
irritating substances, the skin must be irritated, of course. 
I have already stated, with sufficient distinctness, in the 
preceding lecture, that mere liquids, and poisons or med- 
icines, are not digested. As soon as they reach the stomach 
and small intestines, they are taken up, - the finer particles 
of them, - and carried at once into the circulation; travers- 
ing, of course, all parts of the skin. Take, for example, a 
small quantity of rum, cider, or beer. This is absorbed 
almost as soon as it reaches the interior of the stomach. The 
watery part - nearly one half of the whole in the rum, and 
almost all in the beer- dilutes the blood. But the alcohol 
and the acids irritate all the parts with which they come in 
contact. 
The. first effect of these irritants on the skin, I admit, is to 
quicken its action. But this is soon followed by a debilitated 222 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
or collapsed stage. In this condition, instead of performing 
its offices more rapidly than before, the skin does its work 
too feebly and slowly, if not more imperfectly. This in- 
creased activity, followed by a proportionate debility, will be 
likely to continue as long as the cause continues to be ap- 
plied. And as long as it continues, the vital energy of this 
whole covering of the body will become more and more 
lowered, till its power to perform its functions or duties is 
greatly impaired. In these circumstances, it seems almost 
unable to propel the blood at all. Hence the latter assumes 
a dark-red or brownish appearance, as in the case of the 
strong drinker, or even the tobacco smoker or chewer. 
So also, in some degree, with those who drink tea or coffee, 
or are addicted to a very free use of high seasonings in their 
food. Indeed, a few have gone so far as to say that the 
tan, or tannin, of green tea, by combining with the gelatine 
of the skin, produces a leathery appearance. I admit the 
effect, but regard the explanation wholly fanciful. Other 
things, which irritate the skin internally, produce this leathery 
appearance, without tan. Coffee will do this nearly as well 
as tea. 
One class of poisons in the skin, instead of giving it that 
thick, turgid appearance of which I have spoken, as if the 
vessels were clogged with their contents, seem to dilute the 
blood, and give to the individual the delicate waxwork ap- 
pearance - an appearance quite as far frem that of true 
health as the other. 
In intimating, just now, that the skin is injured by high 
seasonings, as well as by rum, wine, cider, beer, tobacco, 
opium, &c., it was by no means intended to affirm that it is 
equally so. All I intended to say was, that to a greater or 
less extent, and in every possible case, they do injury. THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
223 
It is, I believe, generally understood and admitted that a 
part of these seasonings injure the skin. Thus the half-putrid 
liquid called vinegar has a well-known influence on the skin 
in rendering it more pale and semi-transparent. So also of 
long-salted flesh, fish, and butter. But it ought also to be 
known that all the contents of the castor have the same gen- 
eral effect, though the difference in degree maybe very great. 
Salt in moderation, added to our food, while on our plates, 
injures the skin far less, if it injures it at all, than mustard, 
pepper, saleratus, &c. So tea and coffee injure it less than 
cider, beer, and other alcoholic drinks. 
Law 4. The Skin, in order to do its Work well, should be 
kept, as a general Ride, at a proper Temperature. 
So important to be observed is this rule, that Nature her- 
self has gone very far towards enforcing it. Perspiration and 
the excretion of sebaceous matter do much towards keeping 
down an excess of temperature. Every one knows how 
rapidly the moisture on the surface of the body evaporates, 
and that evaporation produces cold. In extreme cold, on the 
contrary, the caJorific powers seem to exert themselves, and 
an increased amount of heat is generated. 
When I say that the skin should be kept at a proper tem- 
perature, I do not mean to affirm that we must or can always 
graduate our heat by the thermometer, or that slight depart- 
ures from what we might be tempted to regard as a standard 
temperature, in cither direction, are greatly, if at all, inju- 
rious, especially when the change is only for a moment. Sir 
Charles Blagden, who entered an oven, and remained in it till 
it was heated to four hundred and eighty degrees of Fahren- 
heit,- till it would bake meats in a very short time,-was 
not materially injured. A copious perspiration, and conse- THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
224 
quent large evaporation, served, in part, to keep down the 
great external heat. 
In like manner, he who plunges into water at a tempera- 
ture of thirty-two degrees- which is sixty-five to seventy 
degrees lower than the heat of his blood - may experience a 
sudden and temporary shrivelling of his skin, but the effect 
is only temporary. Indeed, as we shall see presently, there 
may be ultimate benefit from it. 
It is, however, a very different thing to go permanently 
chilly. This can never, in any possible case, be desirable, 
or even safe, unless it were the case of insanity. And yet, 
in practical life, this idea is adhered to by hundreds and 
thousands, and is the cause of millions of colds, with their 
terrible consequences - pleurisies, lung fevers, consump- 
tions, &c. 
Many tell us, for example, during the progress of the cold, 
bleak, homely days of November, that they do not put on 
mittens, stockings, and flannel, because, if they do this now, 
thus early in the cold season, they shall be obliged to wear 
two sets of them by the middle of winter. Thus they go 
about with a pale, shrunk, and consequently inactive skin, 
and actually take cold, and bring upon themselves that very 
suffering that they so much dread, and which they would 
gladly avoid. 
Now, there is hardly any thing in practical life more erro- 
neous. He who would be chilly all winter may go chilly al 1 
the autumn. But he who would be comfortable in Decem- 
ber, January, and February, must make himself comfortable 
in October and November. By keeping ourselves warm, - 
that is, free from any thing like a permanent chilliness in 
autumn, - we do not put ourselves in a condition to be more 
susceptible to the severe cold of the coming winter, but less THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
225 
to. It were far more safe to go chilly in January or Feb- 
ruary than in November. 
Few persons are fully aware - though some are so -how 
this going chilly in autumn only makes us the more tender 
and susceptible of cold afterwards. An eminent physician of 
Boston has repeatedly told me that he once lost his way in 
the woods on a cold winter's night, and wandered about till 
he was nearly frozen; and that for many subsequent years 
- nay, even to the hour of his giving me this information - 
he had been compelled to wear twice the amount of clothing 
he had ever worn before ! 
I remember an anecdote in my own history which goes far 
towards confirming the opinion in question. Being about to 
set out in the mail stage from Boston to Hartford, late in the 
evening, some twenty years ago, I met the distinguished 
Jacob Abbott in the street, who jocosely observed to me, 
" Now, doctor, take care of yourself to-night. Remember 
that none go cold but fools and beggars." The caution was 
timely, but was not sufficiently heeded, for I was so chilled 
by the journey, that I did not get over the effects of it dur- 
ing the whole winter. 
In general, the extremes of heat and cold should be avoid- 
ed as much as possible. The evils of long-continued heat 
m excess may be worse than continued cold ; but both are 
bad enough. Lot no one think himself absolved, by his great 
strength and health, from obligation to pay a reasonable 
regard to this law; for repentance may come too late, even 
to him. 
He who would have a healthy skin must keep it as cool as 
nossible, provided it is not permanently chilly. On the basis 
of this single rule we might found all our fashions in regard 
to dress and clothing, all our arrangements for warming and 226 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
ventilating, &c. But we need not do so ; for there arc other 
laws and considerations to be taken into the account. 
I have said that the skin is a sort of handmaid to the lungs. 
It is so in one particular to which I believe I have not in this 
lecture adverted. It aids those organs, as I am compelled to 
believe, in the great work of generating heat. 
The body, you know, in winter as well as in summer, 
is to be kept up to a heat of ninety-eight or one hundred 
degrees. Now, the power of the skin to perform this part of 
its mission will be always in proportion to its health and ' 
energy. But these last, too, will be greatest when it is left 
to itself, compelled to do its own work, and aided as little 
as possible by external sources of heat. 
Let it not be hastily inferred that I would have mankind 
return to a savage state. The charge is sometimes made 
against me by the thoughtless or the malevolent. A savage 
state is no more a state of nature than that over-refined con- 
dition of things which prevails all around us. Both are in 
open violation of those laws which tend to the highest human 
advancement. I do, indeed, contend for a return to nature ; 
or, to express the idea more exactly, a gradual ascent to nature. 
Man's nature is intended, most certainly, to include art, and 
to be affected and modified by science. But in making our 
ascent up the mount whence wo have fallen, it is by no 
means necessary that we should return to barbarism. 
To apply these remarks closely to the subject before us: 
In order to keep the skin cool, I do not urge the necessity of 
going naked, by any means ; and yet it is necessary, always, 
io the best health of the skin, that we should wear as few and 
as light and porous clothes as possible. 
In summer, even in our high northern latitudes, the clothes 
may be very light indeed. Even in winter, they may bo THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
227 
much lighter than is usually supposed, if we only manage 
right in other particulars: I mean, if we do but obey the 
other laws, moral and physical. 
The health of the skin depends in no small degree - need 
I repeat it ? - on the health of the system generally ; and 
this, of course, on our obedience to the whole code of the 
great Creator's laws. We should, therefore, keep up the 
warmth of our bodies at all seasons, as much as possible, by 
means of proper food, drink, and exercise, and a proper* at- 
tention to and regulation of the mind and heart. 
A very little clothing will suffice to prevent a too rapid 
escape of caloric from the human body, whenever we come 
to be trained, from our earliest years, in the way of obedi- 
ence. But when it happens that our clothing is really insuffi- 
cient, as in severely cold weather, or when we are so situated 
as to be unable to take but little exercise, or our food is poor 
or scanty, or our mind perplexed or jaded, more than " a very 
little " is sometimes necessary. 
But there are circumstances, undoubtedly, when we are 
justified in resorting to external heat, at least for the mo- 
ment. The skin is not materially injured by remaining in a 
room heated to fifty, sixty, or even seventy degrees for a very 
short time. It is the long-continued application of this agent, 
or very sudden changes, that do the mischief. 
Sudden warming the skin, when we have been for some 
time subjected to extreme cold, is peculiarly hurtful in a great 
variety of ways. It renders it tender and delicate, and even 
irritable ; and by its powerful sympathies with the internal or- 
gans, renders them also delicate, susceptible, and irritable. 
The more we indulge in sudden warming, moreover, the 
more we must. They who begin the habit of crouching over 
the stove, or crowding around the fireplace, suddenly, every 228 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
time they come near it, soon find themselves compelled to 
do so. They have submitted to a slavery which becomes 
every day more and more severe, as well as more and more 
intolerable. 
Special pains should be taken to keep the skin cool by 
night ■; yet no injunction is more universally disregarded than 
this. Under the fear of sleeping too cold,- a very reasona- 
ble fear, in itself considered, - many an individual goes to the 
opposite extreme, and swelters all night under one fourth 
or one third too much clothing. 
The error consists in being in too great haste to get warm, 
immediately after they retire. They pile on clothing, or re- 
quire it to be piled on them, in order, if possible, to be warm 
immediately, when, would they exercise a little patience, they 
would be happier, and much more refreshed by their sleep. 
Law 5. In order to have the Skin healthy, it must have an 
Abundance of Air and Light. 
This, though a highly important law, is not based so direct- 
ly on the laws of structure and function as the others. Here 
I make my appeal, not mainly to anatomy and physiology, 
but rather, for the most part, to analogy and to reasonings 
from fact. 
It must be obvious, however, from mere attention to the 
laws of physiology, that the skin needs air. If it aids the 
lungs by throwing off carbon from the blood and receiving 
oxygen, then it as certainly requires pure air as the lungs. 
But that this is the fact we know from numerous experiments, 
among which the following is the most palpable, and to the 
public mind the most satisfactory : - 
Suppose a person has slept long in a bed where there is 
little or no circulation of the air. If you raise the bed cloth- THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
229 
ing quickly, but gently, and place a lamp or candle under- 
neath, it will go out. Now, why will not combustion go on in 
such circumstances ? Simply because the oxygen is used up, 
and the confined air consists chiefly of carbonic acid and 
nitrogen gas, neither of which can support either combustion 
or respiration. For proof, raise the clothing and jerk it 
down again, or throw open the bed a while, and combustion 
will then go on underneath the covering. 
Then we reason, also, from comparison and analogy. The 
lower animals in the scale of being, not a few of them, 
breathe wholly by means of their skin. As we ascend in the 
scale, we come at length to those animals which have gills, or 
smaller lungs. In these the blood is partly depurated by the 
lungs, and partly by the skin. As we ascend still higher, we 
come at length to man, whose large lungs do the greater part 
of the work. But though the lungs perform nearly the whole 
of the work of depuration in man, the skin, as we have seen, 
docs a small part of it. And what there is to be done by the 
skin, it is highly important the skin should do, else it suffers, 
and with it the whole system. 
Finally, we know by observation how important the air is 
to health. They who are most abroad in it, as all experience 
testifies, arc the most healthy; provided, always, they obey 
all the other physical and moral laws as perfectly as those in- 
dividuals do with whom we compare them. 
No reflecting person will doubt with regard to the influence 
of air on the skin. Whether light is equally indispensable, 
there may be more hesitancy. But let us look at the matter 
as it is, and trace its analogies. The vegetable that grows 
in seclusion and darkness - as the potato in a dark cellar - 
is uniformly pale, delicate, and feeble ; expose it suddenly to 230 
THE LAWS OE THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
the influence of the air, the rain, the cold, or the heat, and il 
suffers. So does the animal, and probably for similar rea- 
sons. The light of the sun is necessary to both. 
And as a plain matter of fact, they who are seldom abroad 
in the open air, or, when they are, very carefully protect them- 
selves from the sunlight by broad-brimmed hats, bonnets, 
gloves, umbrellas, veils, and covered carriages, and, when 
within doors, close the shutters and draw close the blinds and 
curtains, have much more of that delicate, semi-transparent, 
waxwork appearance, of which I have spoken elsewhere, 
than they who are more exposed. 
It is not so terrible an evil to have the skin a little browned 
or tanned as many suppose. It is, at the same time, a little 
thickened and hardened. Not a few individuals would be 
gainers in point of health, especially children and females, 
by being slightly tanned all over their surface. 
Let no one construe these remarks into an encouragement 
to that sudden exposure which, in our own climate, in July and 
August, might sometimes blister the skin, and which, in a 
tropical climate, might be followed, immediately, by what is 
called coup de soleil., or a stroke of the sun. For, educated 
as we now arc, we might, without due care, frequently sutler 
in both these ways, though the sunstroke is of rare occur- 
rence. Some caution, in very hot weather, is certainly neces- 
sary. It were better still, however, if we were trained so 
that no such thing could possibly befall us. 
There can be little doubt that, in order to the best of health, 
mankind require not only a certain amount of moral and in- 
tellectual light, but also a certain amount of sunlight. Light, 
moreover, does much to establish and perpetuate what I have 
elsewhere called a centrifugal tendency in the system. THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
231 
Law 6. One of the most important Conditions of Health 
in the Skin is, that it should he kept clean. 
Here, again, I make my appeal to anatomy and physiology. 
For if the skin is a secretory organ, its surface, so long as life 
and health last, is covered with a mixture of perspirable mat- 
ter, oil, and dust. Is it not obvious that it should be frequently 
cleansed from the foul remains of these deposits ? The 
necessity is increased, if we suppose this filth liable to be 
absorbed and carried again into the system. 
How often the skin should be washed, bathed, or cleansed 
is quite another question - one which has not, as yet, been 
fully settled. Some have insisted on daily ablution ; others 
have supposed once a day too often. We shall consider' the 
matter in detail. 
Certain parts of the system undoubtedly demand more of 
our care than others. Thus the hands and face, and the vari- 
ous outlets of the body, require, and to some extent receive, 
attention daily. There are few in civilized life who do not 
wash their hands and face every day. At least they wash the 
palms of their hands and the tips of their noses and chins. 
They forget, however, - at least some of them, - that the 
neck, armpits, and wrists, together with all parts of the sys- 
tem where there are folds or flexures, require almost as much 
attention as the face and hands. More sebaceous matter and 
more dust accumulate on these parts; which create the 
necessity. 
Employment is to be considered. He whose life is studi- 
ous or in any way sedentary, who is almost wholly denied 
physical exercise, needs ablution, both general and particular, 
much oftener than he whose employment is more active. 
Children at school should bathe oftener than is absolutely 232 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
necessary to those who work or play all the while. All these 
should bathe daily, at least in warm weather. 
I do not mean to say that they who have an abundance of 
active exercise in the open air have no need of daily bath- • 
ing. All I wish now to affirm is, that, whatever others may ■ 
do or refrain from doing in this matter, daily bathing is, to 
the studious and sedentary, absolutely indispensable. 
Some people'hear these last statements with a good deal 
of surprise, if not of scepticism, although they are based on 
sound physiological principles. " We thought," say they, 
" that the reverse was true. We thought that the farmer, the 
smith, the housekeeper, &c., were the persons who require 
frequent bathing, and not the sedentary and studious. But 
they forget or overlook one important fact, viz., that the ac- 
tive exercise of these laboring persons tends to break up that 
coating, or varnish, which, being constantly collecting on the 
skin, prevents its full and free action ; while the sedentary 
and inactive remain, as it wore, varnished over. 
Another objection has been made by some who ought to 
have known better than to make it. " If we bathe daily," 
say they, " there is danger of removing, too often, from the 
skin, that oil which Nature has formed in it for very impor- 
tant purposes." 
Such an objection is not only gratuitous, - wholly so, - but 
almost ridiculous. Has not Nature on hand, at all times, am- 
ple materials for furnishing new supplies of sebaceous matter, 
whenever such supplies arc needed ? And does she not de- 
light thus to furnish it ? 
Something, in this particular, depends upon our food and 
drink. He who over-eats, and especially he who indulges in 
gieasy and high-seasoned dishes, requires more frequent and 
careful ablution than other men. So does he who uses, ha- THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
233 
bitually, any medicinal substances - tobacco, opium, alcohol, 
and even coffee and tea. The carnivorous require more 
bathins than the frusivorous. 
o o 
Something also depends on the manner of ablution or 
washing. For the mere purpose of cleanliness, warm water, 
with soap, will have a better effect than mere cold water ; 
and it need not be used more than half as often. 
But there are objections to the frequent and very general 
use of soap and water, especially by the young ; and some 
of them have weight. Soap is rather too stimulating for the 
tender cutaneous vessels; and hence those who use it much 
are apt to have rough skins. Some parents and teachers en- 
tirely interdict its use. The Rev. Mr. Wells, once of the 
Moral Reform School at South Boston, was of this number. 
To me its use seems only necessary in those extreme cases 
whore the skin has been long neglected. 
Even the very frequent use of warm water, - say at ninety- 
five to one hundred degrees, - without the addition of soap, 
is of very doubtful utility, except for remedial purposes. It 
is apt to debilitate, in the end. If used at all, it is best at go- 
ing to bed ; and it should not be used, even in this way, more 
than three times a week. 
Cold water, by which I mean water of the temperature 
which it acquires by contact with the atmosphere, is, for the 
most part, to be preferred, as an application to the human body, 
for every ordinary purpose of health, and for not a few forms 
of disease. " But will it be sufficient to keep the skin clean ? " 
you may perhaps ask. It certainly will, if you begin, in 
early life, with a tolerably clean skin, and use it daily ; espe- 
cially if you follow it with a good flesh brush, crash mittens, 
a coarse towel, or even the hand. 
Those who have never washed themselves may need, at 234 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
first, one thorough scouring of the surface with soap and 
warm water ; after which, daily ablution with cold water, fol- 
lowed by a good deal of friction, will be sufficient. 
The hour for ablution is of some importance. It should 
not immediately precede a meal; nor should it directly follow 
it. Nor is it so useful, as a general rule, in the afternoon as 
in the forenoon. The best time is about two or three hours 
after breakfast. " But why at this hour ? " I may be asked. 
" We thought the hour of rising was the best." It is, for 
many, the most convenient hour; and to the strong and 
healthy, it is even a tolerably healthful hour; but for those 
who can choose their hour, it is seldom, if ever, quite the lest 
hour, physiologically. I will give the reasons. 
For every other purpose but that of mere cleanliness, a 
reaction after bathing is indispensable. And even where the 
only object is cleanliness, bathing cannot be long safely fol- 
lowed without, a reaction. The system may bear up under it a 
few years, but will ultimately, in most instances, break down. 
Does any one ask what is meant by a reaction ? When 
the cold water strikes us, it seems to repress the natural 
activities of the system, at least for the moment. But in 
most cases of tolerable health, this state of things is followed 
oy action somewhat increased. The mind and body seem 
brightened by it; and there is a warm glow over the whole 
surface. This reaction, I say, is the test of usefulness in 
cold bathing. If this is obtained, either with or without a little 
"riction, we are generally benefited by it. If, on the contrary, 
we are languid in body and mind, and the skin looks blue on 
the one hand, or like marble on the other, we are probably 
somewhat injured. 
The reason why an early hour of the forenoon is the best 
hour for cold bathing is, that we have more real vigor at that THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
235 
time than at any other, and arc therefore most sure of a 
reaction. Our arterial, muscular, cerebral, and digestive 
systems are then so strong that it may, with great truth, be 
said the system is at flood tide. From about the middle of 
the forenoon till we retire to rest, this tide of life is ebbing ; 
so that the worst time for cold bathing is at bed time. We are 
partly restored by rest, but not wholly. For complete resto- 
ration we need a light breakfast, and a little exercise. These 
are the general rules. Still, for those who cannot choose 
their time, the hour of rising will do very well -I mean for 
many persons ; and it will for most, when they once get 
accustomed to the use of water by beginning at another and 
a better hour. 
Many are afraid of cold bathing in the middle of the fore- 
noon, after they have had some exercise, lest it should give 
them cold. " For is it not dangerous," they ask, " to apply 
cold water to the body when in a perspiration ? Have not 
many lost their lives by it ? " 
The way in which so many have lost their health and life, 
by going into cold water when hot, is as follows : They go 
in when they are not only hot, but fatigued. Or, instead of 
remaining in the water but a few moments, - in which case 
they might have a reaction, - they stay so long that a reac- 
tion is impossible. Many have destroyed themselves in this 
way, after long afternoon or evening walks, hard days' works 
in the heat and sun, or hard weeks' works in the long, hot 
days of the summer. I might state a hundred facts of this 
kind, but it seems hardly necessary. I will'detain you with 
a few only. 
Alexander th6 Great, at the close of a day of great heat 
and fatigue, was approaching the city of Tarsus in Asia 
Minor, through which flows a stream of very cold water. 236 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
No entreaties could prevail to dissuade him from bathing in 
the Cydnus. The rash act threw him into a fever, which 
came near destroying his life. 
Two students of Edinburgh, after some thirty miles or 
more of hard walking, in a most sultry day, came at about 
sunset to a stream, whose waters were so tempting that they 
ventured to bury themselves in4hem for a few moments. An 
acute disease immediately followed. They recovered, but 
with shattered constitutions. 
When I was young, it was customary on Saturday even- 
ing, at sunset, to go and bathe in a very cold mill pond. Some, 
who were apprehensive of danger, sat down on their arrival 
at the borders of the pond, and cooled themselves before they 
ventured in. Many suffered ; but those who plunged in on 
their arrival suffered less than those who first cooled them- 
selves. They got a better reaction. 
To go into the water early in the day, while the tide is - so to 
speak - rising in us, and we arc not yet much fatigued, even 
if there is a little perspiration visible on the skin, will do no 
harm. The hard laborer might just plunge in, and come im- 
mediately out and resume his labors. It would probably do 
him good. So taught Rush and Coffin. So teach physiol- 
ogy and hygiene. 
This may be the appropriate place for saying that they who 
use the warm, tepid, or vapor bath for its invigorating powers 
and purposes, and would so use it as not to take cold, should 
bathe on going to bed ; that is, at precisely the contrary period 
from that in which the cold bath should be taken, and un- 
der exactly opposite circumstances of the system. 
" But can water be made to invigorate the system ? " some 
may be disposed to inquire. Most certainly it can. One 
prominent object in its use is, indeed, its cleansing efficacy. THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
237 
and this it is that seems to fill the mind of most persons when 
they think of bathing, cold or warm -I mean unless they com- 
bine with it the idea of swimming as an amusement, or of 
cooling themselves. 
But in the frequent and proper use of cold ablution we gain 
two great objects : 1. Depuration, or cleanliness ; 2. Strength 
and vigor of constitution. We do so, I mean, if we manage 
the matter well - on the strict principles of physiology and 
hygiene. Both these results are worth all they cost, and 
much more ; but in a world like our own, where there are so 
many debilitating or downhill tendencies, the invigorating 
effect is vastly more important than the other. 
For let it ever be remembered, that when the cold bath, for 
example, invigorates us, it is not the skin merely that is invig- 
orated, but all the parts and organs that readily and deeply 
sympathize with it, especially the cerebral and nervous sys- 
tems, and all parts lined with mucous membrane. 
In this view it is impossible to predict, or even to conjec- 
ture, how much good is yet to come to our diseased race 
through the instrumentality of bathing, especially cold bath- 
ing - begun, as it should be, at life's threshold, and continued 
to its termination. 
The positive and positively invigorating effects of cold 
water, used both externally and internally, seem to me as yet 
hardly dreamed of. Hydropathy, I know, talks about the posi- 
tive effects of water in disease ; but I refer now to its agency 
in the great work of prevention, and the still greater work of 
manufacturing health. 
Appropriate directions might be given to those who have 
never used cold ablutions about the manner of making a 
beginning. To those who are already so strong and vigorous 
that nothing seems to hurt them, my advice is, simply, Begin 238 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
•-begin immediately-without much regard to time or cir- 
cumstance. But to those who are constitutionally feeble, who 
have hereditary or acquired ailments, or who are far advanced 
in life, certain precautions are requisite ; for want of which, 
I have, in one or two instances, known slight temporary dis- 
advantages to follow. 
Begin, as I have before said, some two hours or more after 
breakfast, while the tide is still rising. It is even desirable 
that there should be a slightly-increased activity of the circu- 
latory system at the time, as manifested by a moderate de- 
gree of redness of the skin, and of perspiration. 
The timid may begin with what Franklin called the air 
bath. Thus, after removing the clothing, take something 
coarse, or, if you prefer it, the hand, rub the skin well, and 
then replace the clothing. The feeble may with profit make 
use of the hand of an assistant. The next day, repeat the 
process, with additions. Rub a little harder, or continue the 
process a little longer. The third day, besides using the air 
bath, apply a little water to the chest, and immediately w'ipe 
dry, and replace the clothing, as before. All this while - 
the reaction being thus secured - courage and confidence 
will be increasing. 
The water may be applied to the chest, and at subsequent 
bathings may be extended, gradually, to the arms, one after 
the other, to the back, to the abdomen, and finally to the 
whole body. In applying the water over more or less sur- 
face, either use a cloth or a sponge. Some use the hand, 
but it is not so good at first. 
Another caution : The colder the water first used in this 
way the better. Many imagine it preferable to have it a 
little tepid. This is quite a mistake. The first sensations, 
I grant, arc more agreeable ; but the reaction is not so THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
239 
good. A chill is much more likely to follow. Use as little 
water as you please ; but remember to have it as cold as 
possible. 
Many think it desirable to perform their ablutions by a fire, 
or at least in a warm room. For the feeble this may do ; 
but for those who can, it is better to bathe in a cool or cold 
room. There is no special harm to any but the very strong 
to stand .in a warm room while applying the friction. 
I may have spoken as if the hand bath or sponge bath, so 
far as mode is concerned, were preferable. To those who 
can withstand the shock, I think the shower bath best adapted. 
Few constitutions will bear the cold tub bath, except in very 
warm weather. For those, however, who feel oppressed, or 
in any way injured by showering, the wet towel, the sponge, 
and the hand remain. 
The vapor bath, except for remedial purposes, has no 
special advantages, so far as I know, over the common warm 
bath; and is subject to similar rules. With the medicated 
vapor baths I have but little acquaintance. 
Much may be done, in the way of keeping the skin clean, by 
a proper and timely regard to clothing, both by night and day. 
It is perfectly astonishing to observe the neglect on this sub- 
ject which prevails, even among intelligent Christian people. 
I wonder there is not much more sickness than we find. 
Most persons, for example, within the range of my own 
acquaintance, wear the same clothing by night - a part of 
the same - that they have worn by day. Some very delicate 
persons, who wear two or three thicknesses of flannels and 
washleather underclothes, actually retain them all during the 
whole night. Now, every one should have a dress entirely 
separate from any part of his day attire. When he lies down 
at night, his underclothes should all be removed and hung 240 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
up, one by one, that they may be properly ventilated. In 
the morning, the same thing should be done with every 
article of night clothing. 
Is this a digression? Let us return, then, to bathing. 
Many say, " But what is the advantage of bathing every day ? 
Why may not every other day, or even twice a week, answer 
the purpose ? To bathe every day is quite a heavy tax upon 
one's time." 
My reply is, It is perfectly easy, as I know from experi- 
ence, to wash ourselves every day at rising, if we can only 
feel its importance. It soon becomes a matter of mere habit, 
and the tax is not felt. Any thing short of this is apt to lead 
to irregularity, or even omission. Besides, I do not believe 
once a day, for most persons, is too often. 
Others say, " If once a day is enough in warm weather, 
why will not once in two or three days do very well in 
winter ? " This is a question less easily disposed of than 
the former. 
It should be noticed, in the first place, that I have not 
affirmed once a day, in hot weather, to be sufficient, but only 
that at least once a day is indispensable. But then it is not 
yet proved that, for the purposes of mere cleanliness, we need 
bathing any oftener in summer than in winter. We certainly 
exercise less - the most of us-in winter than in summer; 
and we certainly load our skins with as many impurities, 
through the medium of the stomach. Then, too, we wear 
more clothing in the winter, and more flannel, and get var- 
nished over more readily. 
It is said by some that bathing is an unnatural process ; 
that he who made the human frame, and fitted it for an abode 
in all countries and climes, in some of which very little 
water is found, could hardly have had in view the necessity THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
241 
of washing every day : must it not, then, be a departure from 
nature ? 
Let us inquire. If it is so, a part of the animals below us 
depart from nature ; for they bathe. But what is nature, 
especially human nature ? Does it not take in the arts of 
life ? These certainly bring with them the necessity of 
attending, more or less, to the law of cleanliness. He who 
objects to nature should, in order to be consistent, object also 
to civilization and the arts and conveniences of life. He 
should contend for remaining always me-re children of na- 
ture. He should contend for having barbarism stereotyped. 
Law 7. In order to have, a healthy Skin, the internal or 
spiritual Part must be in a good and healthy Condition. 
The old maxim, A sound mind in a sound body, is al^o 
true in another form - A sound body to insure a sound 
mind. In any event, we can no more have a perfectly sound 
mind in connection with a sickly, crazy body, than we can 
have a railroad to Jupiter. 
Dr. Darwin, in his Zoonomia, marks not only the excess of 
grief as a disease, which he calls mar or, but also the fear 
of poverty, the fear of death, the fear of hell, &c., - I mean 
whenever this feeling is in excess. Now, I may safely say, 
in this connection, that no person under the protracted influ- 
ence of grief, fear, hatred, envy, or any of the depressing 
passions or affections, can have his skin duly perform its 
offices. 
Who has not, for example, observed the condition of the 
skin while influenced by fear ? Who has not seen the hairs 
which pierce it stand erect, surrounded by little prominences 
or hillocks ? Why this appearance ? Simply because the 
skin is shrunk or collapsed every where except at its connec- 242 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND 01' BATHING. 
tion with the roots of the hairs which pierce it, where it re- 
mains in its natural place and position, and thus, in contras* 
with thejest of the skin, in its shrunk or shrivelled state, ap- 
pears like so many little papillae or eminences. 
Now, is it to be believed, that, in such a shrivelled or 
shrunk condition, the skin can perform its wonted offices ? 
Could the wheelwork of a vast machine do this when shrunk 
or contracted to one half its diameter or thickness ? Could 
the fluids in our trees and plants do this when they were so 
collapsed or shrunk as greatly to reduce the diameter of all 
their little vessels ? 
Not only fear and grief, but also hatred, envy, jealousy, 
discontent, melancholy, over-anxiety or fretfulness, and the 
whole tribe of depressing passions and tendencies, as I have 
before asserted, may, by their continued influence, and even 
by their occasional indulgence, be productive of the same 
results in a degree, and are to be studiously avoided. 
The habit of being over-anxious or fretful - so touching- 
ly referred to by our Savior on the mount - is as unfavorable 
to the proper and healthful activity of the whole cutaneous 
system as it is to the health and peace of the soul. Here I 
might again quote the apostle Paul, on the profitableness of 
godliness to both worlds ; but I forbear. 
It is most certain that the mere habit of fretting - not so 
much the occasional outburst - is of itself quite sufficient to 
break down the healthy action of the skin, and make a stout, 
robust person an invalid for the rest of his life. How much 
worse, then, the whole host of depressing tendencies 1 
I have said elsewhere, page 208, that a strong centrifugal 
tendency in the system, as manifested by a plump and 
healthy action of the skin, is desirable. It is, indeed, one of 
the best safeguards when we are exposed to contagion. I THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, ANH OF BATHING. 
243 
know that amulets and charms, and other things equally 
frivolous, not to say ridiculous, have accomplished the same 
object; but how did they do it ? Most certainly by inspir- 
ing confidence and reviving a degree of hope ; and this hope 
acted on the physical system to aid in giving it that centrif- 
ugal tendency of which I have often spoken. 
But this brings us to one more important remark under this 
head. The proper cultivation of the intellectual, no less than 
the moral, faculties should be kept in view, by all parents and 
teachers who would wisely conduct and control the education 
of their children and pupils. The better the intellect, other 
things being equal, the better the health. To what heights, 
in this particular,' the development and cultivation of body, 
head, and heart may yet carry us, is utterly unknown. 
IV. DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 
One of the most certain penalties attached to disobedience 
of the laws of the skin, is what is called a cold. A cold, it is 
true, is not itself a disease of the skin, but a penalty at- 
tached to violations of the laws of the skin, falling upon 
some part with which the skin is in sympathy, especially 
upon parts lined*with mucous membrane. 
The cold, in these cases, is particularly apt to fall on a 
part of the system which is already suffering under diseased 
tendencies, either inherited or acquired. Should any one 
regard this as not a little unfair, and be disposed to think 
that the cold ought to fall upon the stronger part, since that is 
better able to bear it, I have only to say that I cannot help it. 
I am not the maker, but only the expounder, of the law. Be- 
sides, we should never forget that any increase of vigor in the 
skin is transferred also to the weak part - so that the law 
after all, is just and good. 244 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
I have said that a cold is a disease, usually, of some part 
of the system which is lined by mucous membrane. Thus 
we may not only have colds of the head, as we call them, 
and of the lungs, but also of the eyes, ears, stomach, intestines, 
bladder, &c. 
And whatever may be the common opinion on this sub- 
ject, I have not a doubt that a very large proportion of our 
diarrhoeas, our dysenteries, and even our choleras, are, in the 
beginning, neither more nor less than colds. Treated wrong 
on the one hand, or neglected on the other, they proceed to 
that termination of which I have spoken. 
" But what is a cold ? " you will perhaps say. I will not 
attempt an answer. This is not the placfe for it; nor is it 
necessary that I should present theories on this or any other 
subject. It is sufficient if I point out the causes of colds, and 
show you how to avoid them. 
For every practical purpose it is sufficient to say, what I 
have already more than intimated, that under the influence 
of cold or catarrh, there is suffering, greater or less, of some 
part or parts lined with mucous membrane; and this happens 
as the divinely-appointed consequence of diminished or sus- 
pended action of the skin. 
A cold is, of itself, a disease, as much as small-pox or 
cholera. There are not less, probably, than one hundred 
million colds, in the United States, every year. I should not 
be greatly surprised to know that, including every slight affec- 
tion of the kind, the number was twice that. 
But we are not only, in this climate, very large sufferers 
from colds directly, but also from numerous diseases which 
colds are apt to excite or aggravate. Among these are 
consumptions, pleurisies, peripneumonies, rheumatisms, fe- 
vers, and, as I have before said, diarrhoeas, dysenteries, and 
choleras. THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
245 
There is ample reason for believing that the skin, as an 
organ of excretion, should carry off, in the case of the adult, 
at least one hundred grains of azotized or waste matter 
daily. Now, whenever the proper activities of the skin are 
suspended, additional labor is thrown on the kidneys; and 
thus, at least in our climate, these organs are liable to almost 
continual derangement. 
Nor must we forget that colds either produce or aggra- 
vate many diseases of the skin itself. I hardly know of a 
single eruptive disease of this organ that is not more trouble- 
some, as well as more difficult of cure, in persons who ha- 
bitually neglect the laws of the skin, than in other persons. 
It was said that diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera some- 
times have their origin in colds. But habitual neglect of the 
skin has, in a thousand instances, transformed mild attacks of 
diarrhoea into severe chronic affections, incurable by medicine, 
but not always beyond the salutary influence of a speedy re- 
turn " to the law and to the testimony." 
Colds on the eyes have been alluded to. Those whose 
eyes are constitutionally weak, arc extremely apt to take cold 
on these organs ; and some individuals whom I know, whose 
skins .are peculiarly susceptible, are almost always found 
complaining of their eyes. 
One proof of the connection between the eyes and the 
skin is found in the fact that whatever invigorates the skin, 
and hardens persons against taking cold, does, at the same 
time, strengthen and invigorate the eyes. It is also true, to a 
moderate extent, that whatever materially improves the eyes 
at the same time benefits the skin. 
I have not a doubt that one of the most serious evils re- 
sulting from sudden warming, when we are excessively cold, 
is the effects it has on the eyesight. No individual addicted 246 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
_o this habit ever maintains, for any considerable time, good 
eyes. This evil of rushing to the fire when we are extreme- 
ly cold, and of roasting over fires and stoves, and sweltering 
in hot rooms, is becoming so great in this country, and is be- 
sides so closely connected with the habit of taking cold, that 
I must be permitted to dwell on it for a few moments. 
One of the severest mornings of the winter of 1851-2, at 
about half past nine o'clock, I went into a primary school 
room in Cleveland, Ohio ; and as soon as I entered, I found 
a girl ten or twelve years old lying down, with her head sup- 
ported by a pillow, and looking quite ill. It appeared that 
she came to the school room extremely cold, - almost, but not 
quite frozen, - went immediately to the stove, which was 
very large and hot, and stood as near it as possible, till sud- 
denly she fell to the floor in convulsions. She was, however, 
now slowly recovering. 
A somewhat similar occurrence took place at Seville, about 
forty miles southward of Cleveland, on the same day. The 
only difference in the two cases was, that in the last mentioned 
the individual only fainted. In truth, such occurrences are 
not at all uncommon. A case of instant death from this 
cause took place a few years ago in the State of Maine: 
Most people understand, perfectly well, that if their extrem- 
ities are quite frozen, it is unsafe to approach the fire too sud- 
denly. They know that the temperature of the parts must 
be raised slowly. First they would apply ice, perhaps; 
then snow ; then cold water, &c. But how few seem to know 
that there is but little difference between thirty-two and thirty- 
three degrees ! That is, if the ears or toes are cooled down to 
thirty-two degrees, - frozen, as we say, - they dare not bring 
them suddenly to the fire ; but if they are cooled to thirty- 
three degrees only, they seem to think themselves licensed to 
'do so with impunff /! THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING. 
247 
Now, I will not say that the difference between thirty-two 
and thirty-three is not greater than that between thirty-three 
and thirty-four degrees ; but I will say - for truth compels me 
to do so - that the difference is not so great as the practi- 
cal errors of mankind would seem to suppose. The differ- 
ence is not so great as to render sudden warming entirely un- 
safe in the one instance, and entirely safe in the other. For 
all sudden warming of colder parts endangers the vitality of 
those parts, and, if it produces no other mischief, has a ten- 
dency to render them delicate. I have met with individuals 
who would never go to a stove or fire at all for the whole 
winter, but would always remain at the back part of the room. 
I have myself seen the time when I could say to young 
men around me, who were making themselves tender and ef- 
eminate by sitting with their feet at the fire, that I had not 
warmed my feet in that way for five years ; and, indeed, I have 
hardly done so half a dozen times in a quarter of a century. 
When I was a teacher of youth, some thirty years ago, or 
more, I used to take notice of a little black-eyed girl, eight 
years old, who came a long way to school, and seldom lost a 
day, even in the severest winter. She often came to the 
school room in the morning with her feet very cold, and, when 
she did, she would always rush to the fire, unless forbidden. 
This poor girl was a great sufferer from chilblains, and almost 
always so from sore eyes and hard colds. At that time I 
had not so closely studied the relations of cause and effect as 
I have since, or I might have clearly seen that her troubles 
arose, in part at least, from sudden warming. 
On this subject, I find the following excellent remarks from 
Dr. Du*tglison. They are copied, verbatim, from his Elements 
of Hygiene, at pages 74 and 75. He had been giving di- 
rections with regard to the treatment of frozen parts, when 
he immediately added,- 248 
THE LAWS OF THE SKIN, AND OF BATHING, 
" When the effect of depressed temperature upon the ex- 
tremities is, to a less extent, diminishing merely the calibre 
of the vessels, and they are exposed, under such circum- 
stances, to the heat of the fire, increased action takes place in 
the unaffected extremities of the blood vessels that are continu- 
ous with the affected capillaries ; blood is forced into them in 
undue quantity, so as to over-distend them, and inflammation 
results, constituting the affection known by the name of chil- 
blains. 
"It need scarcely be added," he observes, " that a sudden 
and rapid change from cold to heat may develop irritations 
and inflammations in various structures, according to their pre- 
disposition, at the time, to be morbidly affected; and that 
haemorrhages and other affections, occasioned by heat, and by 
diminished atmospheric pressure, might be the result in such 
cases." 
But I shall have occasion to say more on this particular 
topic when I come to speak on the means which consumptive 
people should employ to harden themselves against the excit- 
ing causes of that fearful and generally fatal disease. 
To conclude: Cold feet, sick headaches, many nervous 
affections, - in short, almost any complaint to which flesh is 
heir, - may have a very intimate connection with a foul or 
neglected skin. If the latter is not their sole cause, it is 
often a means of rendering them more habitual and more 
severe. 
The penalties of transgressing the laws of the skin may for 
a time be evaded ; but, like the penalties attached to the viola- 
tion of the other' physical laws, they must finally come. No 
medicine has power to avert them. Active treatment of a 
cold, though highly popular, for the most part only transfers 
the effects of the punishment to some other part, or postpones 
them to another occasion or season. HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
249 
LECTURE VI. 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
According to the best estimates I have seen, not far from 
seventy thousand persons die of consumption, in its various 
forms, in the United States, every year ; and the mortality 
from this source is constantly increasing - in some places, 
wjth fearful rapidity. 
Should the cholera take away seventy thousand persons 
but once in ten years, the voice of lamentation and woe would 
be heard all over the land, and much would be said about 
the causes of such a destructive disease. But consumption 
may take from us the same number every year, or seven 
hundred thousand in ten years, and hardly a word is said. 
As good Mohammedan^, we submit to our fate. . 
It is now about twenty years since the cholera first reached 
our country. What our loss, during that time, from this ter- 
rible disease, may have been, I will not undertake to say ; but 
I suppose it cannot possibly have exceeded two hundred 
thousand. Perhaps it is little more than one hundred thou- 
sand. Yet our loss from consumption, during the same 
period, cannot have been less than one million. 
There is another striking point of comparison between the 
two diseases. Cholera takes from us that class of persons 
whom we can best spare. This is, at least, a general rule - 
to which I grant there are many apparent exceptions, and 
some few real ones. How was it in New York ? How in 
Cincinnati ? How in St. Louis and New Orleans ? 
This fact was most remarkable in Paris, in 1831. It seized. 250 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
first, at least very largely, the most abandoned. Next it fast- 
ened itself upon the other extreme of society - for extremes, 
as you know, are said sometimes to meet. The wine drinkers 
- among whom was Casimir Perier, the prime minister 
- now began to fall. The middling class very largely 
escaped. 
But consumption docs no such thing. If any thing in the 
world could justify the saying, that Death delights in a shining 
mark, it is pulmonary consumption. The most virtuous and 
promising, in large numbers, arc among its first victims. A 
majority are females. What the proportion is of the two 
sexes, in the United States, is not exactly known. In Nor- 
wich, in Connecticut, it is nearly two females to one male. 
In other places, it is three females to two males. In general, 
however, the proportion of females is not probably so 
great as three fifths; but it is always greater than that of 
males. 
The average age of those who die of this disease is not far 
from thirty - probably something less. This is about two 
thirds the average existence of our race in this country. 
Thus fifteen years to each person are cut off, as I have else- 
where said, from the lives of seventy thousand individuals, 
in active and useful life, every year. 
There is another fact to be noticed in this connection. 
This terrible destroyer is every year extending its ravages. I 
can well remember when it was hardly known beyond Mason 
and Dixon's line, or the Alleghany. It is but little more than 
thirty years since I was quite a traveller in the Southern 
States, where I do not at present recollect ever having met 
with a case. Now, it is, in some places, becoming quite 
common. Up to ten years ago, even, consumption was rare 
in the Western States. Now, in Northern Ohio, it is almost HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
251 
as common as in New England. The mortality in New 
York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, from this cause,* is rela- 
tively, as well as absolutely increasing, and though still less 
than in Boston, seems fast coming up with it. 
What then is to be done ?■ Shall we continue to fold our 
hands, like good Mussulmans, and blindly submit to fate ? 
Or shall we, as Christians, - as believers in the rela- 
tion of cause and effect, and in the general doctrine that 
disease is the penalty of transgression, - endeavor to do 
something ? 
It is the general belief that consumption cannot be cured, 
when once fairly seated - I mean when fairly seated on the 
lungs. That form of consumption which has sometimes 
been called dyspeptic consumption-with all those varieties 
of the disease in which this wasting away is not attended with 
positive and deep ulceration of parts so vital as the lungs - 
may sometimes, perhaps, be considered as within the reach 
of judicious medical treatment. 
I know there is, in this particular, a wide difference of 
opinion. Dr. S. S. Fitch, on the title page of a sheet of 
recommendations to his Six Lectures on the Uses of the 
Lungs, says, " Five thousand persons, in one year, cured of 
consumption by following the teachings of this book." Dr. 
Rose, of Philadelphia, makes large claims, but not so large 
as these. Out of one hundred and twenty or one hundred 
and thirty patients, he professes, I believe, to have cured 
about sixty. 
Of the truth of the statement by Dr. Rose, I know noth- 
* During some of the summer and autumnal weeks of 1852, the mor- 
tality in Baltimore from consumption, as stated in the papers, was 
greater, in proportion to the population, than that of Boston or New 
York. 252 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
ing. But of Dr. Fitch I have known much for many years. 
I have travelled with him and after him. I have seen many 
of his patients, and heard, through accredited sources, of 
many more. Yet truth compels me to say that I have never 
known but one of his patients who was benefited permanently 
by his treatment, and her case was an equivocal one. I have 
indeed heard of one more, but I had reason to doubt whether 
it was a case of genuine consumption. 
Others have made their boast of skill in curing consump- 
tion, and several books have been written declaring " con- 
sumption curable; " but I have not read them. Much has 
been said, of late years, about the virtues of cod liver oil; 
but in all my travels I have met with but two or three 
persons who would say, confidently, they believed themselves 
benefited by it. 
It is certainly possible that different medical men and wri- 
ters attach very different meanings to the word cure, when 
they speak of curing consumption. If they mean by it a 
mere palliation of symptoms, so as to enable a person to live 
on comfortably, five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years - some- 
times still more, then I admit that consumption may be cured. 
But if it is pretended that when there have been large inroads 
made upon the substance of the lungs, and portions of them 
have actually perished by ulceration, these organs may grow 
again, - or if it is even pretended that those who have 
tubercles in their lungs, which have ulcerated extensively, 
can be so restored as to have no strong tendency to 
lung disease afterwards, - then I do not believe one word 
about it. 
The lungs, in some instances, become hepatized, or ren- 
dered solid, somewhat like liver, especially at their upper part. 
This is quite a serious affair. If any one pretends, too, that HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
253 
this state of the system can be changed, and perfect health 
restored to the parts, I must dissent from him. 
If any man in the world can claim to have been cured of 
consumption, I can. The symptoms of this disease were 
threatening for many years, till I reached the most dangerous 
period of my existence. At length, by means of a general 
course of obedience to the physical and moral laws, I became 
partially restored ; and have lived on very comfortably more 
than a quarter of a century. But am I therefore' cured ? 
Not at all. It is with the utmost care and the most rigid ad- 
herence to " law," that I live at all. I have, indeed, very 
seldom any consumptive symptoms about me ; but should I 
take cold, I should soon suffer; and two or three severe colds, 
in rapid succession, would probably destroy me. 
It is a very wrong thing to hold out the idea, unqualifiedly, 
that consumption can be cured ; above all, that it can be cured 
as extensively and readily as some have represented. It leads 
to unreasonable expectations from medicine, and thus favors 
quackery and credulity. And any man who shall hold out 
such views, and talk about five thousand being cured of con- 
sumption in a year, without, an explanation of his terms, will 
be suspected, by many, either of quackery or ignorance. 
However, I am anticipating. I have not told you what con- 
sumption is, except that it is a disease of the lungs which is 
very general, and very generally increasing, and which it is 
almost, if not quite, impossible to cure. This, then, must, for 
a few moments, receive our attention. 
Before proceeding to the subject, however, let me say to 
you that medical men, in speaking of the causes of disease, 
make a division of those causes, into predisposing and ex- 
citing. The predisposing cause is often beyond our control; 
the exciting cause is usually within our reach and direc- 254 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
lion, provided we are informed concerning it in due 
season. 
Let me make a very simple, but a very intelligible compari- 
son. A musket may be loaded in the very best manner - 
ball, powder, &c., all duly arranged, and the musket in good 
order ; it may even be primed, as huntsmen call it; yet if 
this is all which is done, it will not go off for ages. It is only 
prepared for an explosion whenever an igniting spark is ap- 
plied. It is only predisposed to go off. 
The over-careful mother who said, "Don't meddle with 
that gun, Billy; it may go off and shoot you, without 
lock, stock, or barrel," would doubtless think otherwise. 
But she would be mistaken. No preparation or predispo- 
sition would make it go, till an exciting cause was applied - 
till the powder in the pan is ignited - till the musket is 
" touched off." In like manner, the human system may be 
prepared for disease by inheritance or wrong-acquired habits, 
and the preparation or predisposition may be ever so strong, 
and yet it may happen - it often does so happen - that with- 
out the application of an exciting cause, it will not " go off." 
If a person has a tolerable constitution on coming into the 
world, and if he is trained in the way he should go, physi- 
cally as well as intellectually, socially, and morally, I see 
not why there is the slightest necessity of his suffering from 
disease, till, of his own free will and accord, he departs from 
that course - till, in other words, he has by transgression ex- 
posed himself to disease, and the exciting spark has been 
applied. 
True it is, that few are free from any disease or taint. 
Still fewer are trained, in early life, in the way they should 
go. And fewer still maintain even a partial integrity when 
they become old enough to take the- responsibility of their HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
255 
own management. I hardly know how far we should be 
obliged to go to find a person who is not predisposed to one 
disease or another. 
But admit an hereditary tendency to disease. Admit the 
child is feeble-consumptively inclined. Yet if he can be 
kept along without colds and other exciting causes of this 
terrible disease for one year, I see not why he cannot be for 
two years ; and if for two years, for six, ten, twenty, or fifty. 
Why should the predisposition ever be roused, if the exciting 
causes can be avoided ? 
Here, then, precisely at this point, is the great difficulty. 
And it is, I admit, a very serious difficulty. Still it can be 
met, and, as I believe, partially overcome. The exciting 
causes may, to a very large extent, be avoided. And if these 
are avoided, the disease is avoided. A person may thus be 
predisposed to disease a thousand years, and yet never die 
of it. Let me be fully understood. I do not say - for I am 
unauthorized to say so - that by avoiding all the exciting 
causes of disease from the first, no one would ever die of 
disease ; but only that, as a general rule, no such thing would 
happen. A few come into the world with so strong a pre- 
disposing tendency to disease that it will be excited. Rather, 
they come into the world already diseased. In a few in- 
stances, there is such a formidable array of exciting causes, 
that the person is overcome unawares. 
I am now prepared to state, briefly, in what the predispo- 
sition to pulmonary consumption exists - so far, I mean, as 
it has been ascertained. Some things ^connection with this 
subject are still involved in not a little obscurity. I shall, of 
course, only attempt to state what is known and certain. 
There is to be found in society a very large and increasing 
class of persons who incline to be tall and slender, - perhaps 256 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
prematurely so, - with fair skin, light or rosy complexion, 
light hair, and blue eyes. The neck is long and lean, the 
chest narrow, and often very thin, and the shoulders stand 
out from the body like wings. The eyes are also not unfre- 
quently prominent. The temperament is usually what is 
called sanguine and nervous. Sometimes, however, there is a 
shade of the bilious temperament combined with the others. 
In this last case, the eyes, instead of being blue, will be 
black ; and the hair, instead of being light or reddish, will be 
dark also. In both cases there will be a readiness and apt- 
ness to take cold. These colds do not always fix themselves 
on the lungs. Sometimes they affect the head, or nasal 
cavities of the head, as frequently as they do the lungs. In 
other instances, the throat is apt to be affected with soreness, 
or swelling, or both, accompanied with a tendency to glandu- 
lar swellings under the chin or in the groin, armpit, &c. It 
is seldom, however, that the lungs wholly escape. 
The mind corresponds somewhat with the body. Both are 
apt to be forward, active, and delicate. There are exceptions 
to this rule, however. Some few consumptive people are, 
for many of their early years, the very reverse of precocious. 
They are stinted in mind and body. The temper, in either 
case, is usually excitable, not to say irritable. 
AH this is very frequently inherited. Not wholly, I grant; 
for circumstances, during every year of existence, may con- 
tinually increase or aggravate it. So far as I have observed, 
however, it is not common for all these appearances to be 
acquired. There is usually something inherited to begin 
5vith. 
I have spoken of the external marks of a consumptive ten- 
dency or predisposition. The internal marks are not so obvi- 
ous to those who are unaccustomed to disease, but are equally HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
257 
well known to medical men, and equally striking; though post 
mortem examination does not detect them so often during the 
first stage of life. But if a child, with the external conformation 
I have mentioned, dies at a later age than one or two years, 
there will usually be found in the substance of the lungs, im- 
bedded as it were between the cells, a greater or smaller 
number of what are called tubercles. These are small tu- 
mors, which have the appearance of hardened glands, or, as 
they are vulgarly called, kernels. They are frequently said 
to be of the size of millet seeds ; but the truth is, they are of 
various sizes. They are often found in clusters. When un- 
infiamed, they are pretty firm, so that, if cut open, the^ ap- 
pear of the consistence and even the color of gristle. When 
they arc found in young persons who have had no cough of 
long standing, no pain or soreness in the chest, nor any symp- 
toms of hectic fever, they appear to be quite harmless sub- 
stances. In persons who are scrofulous as well as consump- 
tive, they may be found in many other parts as well as the 
lungs. 
Later in life, where the tendency to disease is more obvious 
and rapid, these tubercles are sometimes found ulcerated; 
and several of them, running together, form an abscess or ul- 
cer. They are oftener found in the left division of the lungs 
than in the right, and they are more dangerous there, partly 
because this division of the lungs is smaller than the other, 
and partly because of their nearness to the heart. 
Yet notwithstanding all the signs, external and internal, of 
this fell disease, it is my most deliberate conviction that few 
persons would ever die of it, as was said just now, did they 
not increase the predisposition, or rouse it into activity. This 
may be done in various ways'. 
Among the causes which increase or aggravate the predis 258 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
position to consumption are, 1. Certain diseases, such as 
syphilis, scrofula, small-pox, and measles. 2. The dusts 
which are inhaled by following certain employments, such 
as axe grinding, needle pointing, stone cutting, and, as some 
suppose, grinding grain. Even common dust is injurious. 
3. The fumes of metals and minerals. 4. Impure air and 
want of light. 5. Depressing passions and affections. 6. Ex- 
cessive and long-continued labor. 7. Abuse of medicine. 
8. Too much exhaustion of the vital energies, by indulging 
the appetites too much, or by any thing which tends, perma- 
nently, to debilitate the system. 9. Too little use of the 
lungs. 
A part of these causes not only predispose to pulmonary 
disease, but also rouse it into activity, or excite it. They are, 
therefore, both predisposing and exciting. But there are some 
which, when applied, rouse it into action almost immediately. 
Not that they immediately destroy ; but consumption, under 
their influence, creeps on with a steady and certain pace. It 
is occasionally many years coming to a crisis, and its average 
duration is about two years. 
Among the exciting causes, properly so called, are taking 
cold on the lungs, lung fevers, peripneumony, pleurisy, bleed- 
ing at the lungs, the use of mercurial medicine, sexual abuse, 
eating and drinking to excess, a scanty or meagre diet, night 
revels and debaucheries, profuse evacuations, as in diarrffoea, 
diabetes, &c., late night studies, violent passions, and the sup- 
pression of any evacuation to which the system has been 
long accustomed. Now , it must be obvious to any who will 
look carefully at the facts in the case, that if they are facts, 
consumption, though it cannot be cured, can usually be pre- 
vented, at least in part; and in some instances - perhaps in 
most - be palliated. HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
259 
I have said elsewhere that the average duration of life, 
in consumptive people, is only thirty years ; whereas oth- 
ers last to about forty-five. Now, I have not the slightest 
doubt that though the consumption cannot be cured, the aver- 
age duration of the lives of its subjects may be lengthened 
ten years. Not simply that they may drag out a miserable 
existence, but that they may add to their lives ten years of 
usefulness. 
It is not by palliation, however, that this result is to be ac- 
complished, but chiefly by prevention. And this preventive 
course or treatment may be regarded as applicable in two 
ways. First, to the consumptive themselves. Secondly, to 
each rising generation. This terrible scourge, however, will 
never be removed, till we attend to both these things. 
The first kind of prevention consists chiefly in five partic- 
ulars. 1. Avoiding cold. 2. Invigorating the lungs. 3. 
Avoiding medicine. 4. Keeping the mind and heart right. 
5. Hardening the constitution. I shall consider all these in 
their order. 
1. Horace Mann, in one of his Reports on Education, has 
spoken of New England, with her variable - and, as many 
have called it, treacherous - climate, as the battle ground 
between the arctic and the torrid regions. And surely a 
region so changeable as to require of its inhabitants several 
acclimations in a year is not undeserving of this name. And 
yet New England is not the only country which has a varia- 
ble climate. The late Professor Smith, of Yale College, used 
to speak of Virginia as being the worst part of the United 
States to winter in, on account of its sudden changes; and 
my own experience, in wintering both there and in the West- 
ern States, has by no means confirmed my early prejudices 
in this particular against New England. 260 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
Then, again, Old England, despite of her climate is but a 
little behind New England for colds and consumptions; the 
latter, most certainly. According to Dr. Clark, in his work 
on Consumption, the proportionate mortality from this disease 
is about as great there as it is with us. Almost one fourth of 
the population perish from consumption and scrofula. Some 
have even said the proportion is more nearly one third. 
But the habit of taking cold - there or here - may be in 
a measure broken up ; sometimes wholly so. I know of a 
very large number of individuals in the United States, who, 
by a discipline of from two or three to ten years, have be- 
come almost or quite proof against the vicissitudes of Mr. 
Mann's battle ground. 
I was once singularly subject to the habit of taking cold. 
In winter and spring I was almost constantly a sufferer. In 
the end of the spring, I seemed to be in a confirmed con- 
sumption for many years. In summer and autumn, I suf- 
fered still, but not so much. My system rallied, in part, to 
meet the trials of another winter and spring. But, now, 
for many years, I have scarcely had one cold a year, 
and these few are the result of great carelessness. These 
colds, when they come, are very slight. I scarcely have one 
in ten years that affects my lungs severely, and it is well 
that I do not; for if I did, I should soon perish. I have, in 
one word, learned how to avoid them. 
And what man has done, man may do. Myself, and those 
who, like me, have become emancipated from the unhappy 
bondage to which I allude, are made of the same general 
materials with other men. The same painstaking, guided 
by the same simple physiological principles, would lead to 
the same results. 
Let me say, then, briefly, how the work is to be accom- HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
♦ 
261 
plished. You do not forget what was said about cold bathing 
- its salutary effects. I believe I only just alluded to its 
effects in preventing cold. But this is one of its highest 
recommendations. It does this, usually, though it does much 
more than this. Habitual cold bathers have few colds, if any. 
I have, indeed, met with a few who practised cold bath- 
ing, or said they did, who still suffered from cold, to some 
extent. But I always doubt, in such cases, whether they are 
as thorough in the matter as they should be; and whether 
there is not some error in regard to the mode, whose effects 
operate as a drawback upon its natural and legitimate 
benefits. 
My doubts have been confirmed by observation. I have 
met with those who made it their practice, on rising in the 
morning, to take a cold or shower bath. But instead of 
rising with a strong resolution to do their duty, and do it with 
all their might, - with a kind of desperation, even, if need be, 
- they have been faint-hearted. It has been cold weather, 
or they have felt bad in the head, or the stomach ; or they 
have been timid from some cause or other. Hence they 
have lain in bed a little while after they ought to have risen, 
dreading the operation. Then, with a feeble impulse,- 
perhaps with reluctance, - they have dragged themselves to 
the bath. 
Others have risen and gone immediately to the bathing 
room, but have shivered a while, in dread, on the spot. And 
the more they have dreaded it, the more they have unfitted 
themselves for the process. Some have even warmed them- 
selves at the fire before they ventured. 
Others, still, have showered too long. In general, the 
quicker the process, and the more rapid the wiping and the fric- 
tion, the better. Yet I have seen the very persons who were 262 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
most languid in body and mind, and most poorly prepared for 
securing a good reaction, remain in the water the longest. 
Need I repeat that these three errors all stand in the way 
of effecting the object which it is desired to attain ? The in- 
dividual who goes to the bath hen-hearted must expect to 
come away from it with a feeble reaction. It would be 
almost a miracle were it otherwise. lie will not only be 
more languid and feeble than before, but more liable to 
take cold. 
I found a woman on Cape Cod, who, having received a few 
crude and imperfect ideas about the beneficial effects of cold 
bathing, and being a great sufferer from debilitating diseases, 
had begun the practice of bathing in the morning. But how ? 
Why, after lying late, she would get up and remain in a cold 
tub from ten to fifteen minutes. She was not, indeed, so great 
a loser by the process as I should have expected. She had 
actually an iron constitution. She had abandoned medicine, 
and had unbounded faith in water. Her freedom from the 
effects of drugging, and her great faith, prevented her from 
being rapidly injured. A little good advice, carefully heeded, 
was, however, of great service to her, and greatly facilitated 
her recovery. 
I have met with some few, who, in spite of the light shed 
abroad on this subject, used the cold bath at evening, and 
wondered why they received no benefit from it. Others I 
have found using the warm bath in the forenoon, or late at 
evening, and then walking home a half a mile or so in the 
damp night air; and then denouncing the bath, because it 
made them take cold ! 
They, in short, who expect to harden their systems against 
cold, must use a little common sense about it. All blessings 
may be turned into curses. So efficient an agent as the cold HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
263 
bath is like a sword with two edges, that, if it does not cut in 
the right direction, will be sure to cut wrong. 
He who would break the habit of taking cold must set out 
with the determination to break it. He must count the cost. 
He must believe he shall succeed. And he must persevere 
till success is attained, whether it requires two years of effort, 
or ten, or twenty. With some it will require a longer, with 
others a shorter period. To the consumptive person the 
price paid could not be too great if it required twenty-five 
years. 
But there are many more things to be done in order to pre- 
vent taking cold. At least there are many which may be 
done. Nothing is lost in this warfare. If the cold bathing, 
of itself, is sufficient, so far as mere taking cold is concerned, 
yet the other measures which I am about to recommend will 
invigorate the whole frame - a matter which, of itself, is 
vastly important to consumptive people. • 
Medicine must be avoided with great solicitude. There is 
a confused idea, in most men's minds who have come in con- 
tact with calomel at all, that its use exposes a person to take 
cold. And it certainly does so. It disturbs the functions or 
offices of the skin, and leaves this organ somewhat crippled ; 
and whatever does this exposes us to colds. 
But mercurial medicines are not the only medicines that 
have this effect. It is so, in a degree, with all medicines, 
from the strongest to the weakest. They disturb, somewhat, 
the action of the skin, and leave it, for the time at least, less 
active and energetic, and less able to resist the tendencies of 
sudden changes. 
Or, if the first effect of some of them seems to be to in- 
crease the cutaneous action, as from their known character 
might be expected, yet they are followed at no great distance 264 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
by a degree of debility which only exposes us the more. 
Thus the drinker of hot tea has the action of the skin some- 
what raised for the time, but it is only to be followed by a 
collapse, which increases his danger of taking cold. 
And herein is one objection to the use of high-seasoned 
food. By its first or stimulating effect, we are indeed a little 
warmer for a short time, and a little less likely to take cold ; 
but this stage of increased excitement soon passes away, and 
unless the same beverage or excitant is renewed, or some 
other extra stimulant substituted, we fall into a sort of col- 
lapse, under whose influence we arc more likely to suffer 
than we were before. High seasonings arc medicines, as 
truly so as mercury. 
This leads me to say that they who will be thorough in 
their efforts to break the habit of taking cold must be careful 
to exclude from their tables all hot food and drink. Whatev- 
er is received, whether solid or fluid, or whatever its quality, 
should be cool and unirritating. Observe, however, I do not 
say cold, that is, as cold as ice, but cool. 
It is surprising to observe how generally - how almost uni- 
versally- consumptive people are fond of hot things ; hot 1 
mean in their internal character and nature, and also of an 
elevated temperature. But singular as it may be, the obser- 
vation of every one who has his eyes at all open will confirm 
the statement. Well do I remember a consumptive man, 
who, in my earliest years, was a frequent guest at my father's 
table. No food was too hot for him, or too stimulating. 
Grahamism would have had no charms for him. High-sea- 
soned meats, strong and hot tea, long-salted food, hot new 
bread and butter, hot shortcake, hot buckwheat cakes, hot 
doughnuts, - these were bis element. He swam in them a 
little while, however, and perished. HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
265 
And well do I remember an oft-repeated injunction of my 
own shrewd and honored mother, when she saw me so eager 
after hot and unwholesome food - "Beware; consumptive 
people are always fond of that." And 0, how many a time 
has this injunction come to my mind, both in early and later 
life, and saved me from excess ! Would that it had saved me 
from its use entirely ! 
Consumptive people arc usually fond of every form of 
sensual indulgence. This is the more surprising, as the in- 
dulgence of their appetites is, in just about the same propor- 
tion, more dangerous than in other people. They have no 
vital energies to spare in eating, drinking, or licentiousness. 
They are crushed by them almost immediately. Their colds 
are numerous, and severe in proportion to their indulgence, 
and consumption is hastened apace. 
It will be difficult - though I grant not impossible - to 
break the habit of taking cold till obedience is secured to the 
physical laws generally. But to present all these in detail, 
and in this connection, would be both to repeat and to anti- 
cipate. I will, therefore, mention only one or two things 
more. 
It is of the utmost importance, in order to be free from 
colds, that we train our systems - our calorific powers in 
particular - to the great work of generating their own heat. 
There is no one thing, perhaps, in which the practice of man- 
kind differs more than in this particular. Some are constant- 
ly dependent for their heat on external sources - I mean as 
long as the temperature of the atmosphere is a little low ; 
others almost never. 
And, what is particularly unfortunate in this matter, the 
more we yield to the inclination to indulge in hot rooms, hot 
beds, hot clothing, and hot food and drink, the more we may. 266 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
Give an inch and take an ell, is an old maxim ; and he who 
gives to perverted Nature but a single inch, soon finds her 
loudly demanding an ell. 
A dealer in horses, of some repute, at least for veracity, 
in Hartford, Connecticut, was often heard to affirm that with 
only a good great coat and mittens he could drive sixty miles 
in the teeth of a north-west wind, on the coldest Vermont day 
ever known. On being asked the secret he had learned, 
he said it was only to stand up and face the cold without 
shrinking. The moment he began to shrink from it, as he) 
said, that moment he began to be chilly. 
This is one of the secrets of preventing cold. Stand up 
resolutely, and determine to be a live man, and the very ele- 
ments will seem to bend their heads as you pass. But begin 
to yield to their demands, and look this way and that, with 
fear and trembling, and you are attacked and worsted. 
The younger a person is, and the more he is so situated as 
to be much in the open air, the sooner, with equal effort, will 
he break the habit of which I am now speaking. Hence one 
reason why I recommend to all consumptive people to be as 
much as possible in the open air. 
2. But in order more fully to inculcate the art of prevent- 
ing consumption, it is necessary that I should speak not only 
of general methods and means, but also of particular meas- 
ures, for invigorating the lungs. 
There is one universal rule to be given, with regard to the 
means of strengthening the lungs. It is to use them. It is 
so with almost every part and organ of the system. It is to 
be improved and perfected by use. The cerebral system, 
the muscles, the senses, the teeth even, are made perfect by 
being, not abused, but properly used. 
I have spoken of the education of the lungs already, HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
267 
although it is quite possible I may recur to it hereafter. But 
what I have to say here is addressed rather to those who 
are already arrived at the period of adolescence - or at least 
have begun to take upon themselves the " responsibility." 
At the close of a lecture in North Brookfield, Massachu- 
setts, the late secretary of the state, Hon. Amasa Walker, 
came to me and inquired what I had done during the last twelve 
or fifteen years to strengthen my lungs ; observing that my 
power of voice seemed to him to have been doubled during 
that time. My reply was, that I had done very little with my 
lungs, except to use them. He had known me chiefly as the 
teacher of a Bible class. Since our first acquaintance, I had 
been a traveller and lecturer, and an almost constant talker ; 
and from having feeble lungs, in a slender and diseased chest, 
I had come to possess a good deal of power in this direction, 
and still more of endurance. 
Twenty-five or thirty years ago, I could hardly hold an 
earnest conversation with a friend for half an hour without 
getting hoarse; now I can converse and lecture from morning 
till night, and rise next day to a repetition of the same course 
of toil. Occasionally, even now, I become slightly hoarse at 
night, but am perfectly restored next morning. 
Within a few months, I have tried my powers of endurance, 
m this particular, very severely. In one instance, I gave, in 
all, including a number given in schools, thirteen lectures on 
hygiene in a day and evening. These lectures averaged 
forty minutes in length, making, in all, something more than 
eight hours of this exercise. 
It is not, however, on the basis of a few isolated facts that 
I rest my assertion, when I speak of the great importance of 
invigorating the lungs by constant use. The world is, as it 
were, full of such facts. But I will not be tedious. 268 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
The Pestalozzian system of music has done much for this 
country, and still more for the old world, in this particular. 
True, it came too late to save the generation then on the 
stage; • and the generation now appearing is, by the law of 
hereditary descent, so much affected, that little change for the 
better will be perceptible in our own day. But may we not 
hope that a better day is coming ? If singing will not quite 
cure the consumption, - though not a few of the German phy- 
sicians affirm this very strongly, - it will at least do much to 
prevent it, especially when it is begun at a.very early period. 
I have spoken of this, and of reading and conversation, else- 
where. 
The reflection has sometimes forced itself upon my mind, 
that our Savior never would have died of consumption, what- 
ever might have been his physical inheritance. Not because he 
was taught vocal music ; for of this we know nothing. Not 
because he was in the habit of reading aloud in the syna- 
gogues and elsewhere ; though this may have had its effect. 
But, then, why not ? Because he was constantly strengthen- 
ing his lungs by constantly using them - as it were from 
morning till night; and that, too, much of the time, in the 
open air. Because, too, he did not spoil his constitution by 
indolence, effeminacy, indulgence, medicine, or any other 
forms of transgression. 
Let his disciples be more like him, - let them be trained 
to do what he did, - not indeed to perform the very things 
he performed, or travel about just as he did, but to be as much 
in earnest as he was, and to be opening their mouths in his 
name to inculcate, every where, mercy, charity, justice, hu- 
manity, and piety to God ; and we should probably soon see 
consumption on the wane. 
3. I have treated of the tendency of medication to induce HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
269 
or perpetuate the habit of taking cold, as well as -in a gen- 
eral way - of its other evils. But there are reasons why 
those who are predisposed to consumption should avoid it 
with a thousand times more care than other people. Some 
of these will be given. 
In the first place, we are to remember their extreme suscep- 
tibility of impression. No class of our citizens, except the 
scrofulous and nervous, arc half as sensitive - I mean half as 
susceptible of impression. Their thin skin, quick pulse, rapid 
breathing, and lively muscular movements, - to say nothing 
of the rapid movements of their minds, - would indicate 
this. 
I have seldom known a consumptive person take medicine 
without receiving injury from it. The bilious and phlegmatic 
- they who are more inclined to disease of the stomach, 
liver, and bowels - endure it far better ; not acrid medicines 
- calomel, gamboge, scammony, jalap, castor oil, &c.- 
alone, but every thing, or almost every thing, in the shape of 
medicine. Of course I do not affirm that these last arc often 
benefited by medicine. I only say they bear up under it 
better than others. Few people arc really benefited in the 
end by medicine - perhaps none. But if all the rest of the 
world were licensed to dose and drug themselves, or to be 
dosed and drugged, consumptive people should not be. 
Then we must remember, in the second place, that they 
are peculiarly prone to this running after medicine. Few 
consumptive people really believe they have any mortal 
disease about them. Their digestive system is tolerably 
good, or at least pretty active ; their natural temperament 
is favorable ; theii' mind is cheerful and buoyant; and they are 
expecting to live, not to die. Under these circumstances, 
they are constantly annoyed by a set of human beings, whe 270 
IIOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
seem to have nothing to do - or who are at least determined to 
dp nothing else - but concern themselves with other people's 
business. One advises to take Ayer's Pectoral; another Wis- 
tar's Balsam of Cherry; another, something else ; and an- 
other, something else still. 
Now, all this is done in kindness. The friends perceive 
the danger more readily than the patient himself, and, just in 
proportion to the improbability of its doing any good, are im- 
portunate in their entreaties to have something done. They 
will hardly be denied. They call those who hesitate reckless 
.or obstinate. 
And what is thus done in kindness is received in kind- 
mess- in truth, too much kindness. It is one of the misfor- 
tunes of consumptive people that they cannot say no. They 
can say it to themselves better than to other people ;- though 
.even here they are a little below par, as we have seen in the 
cease of hot food and hot drink. 
They are not famous for self-denial. " I tremble for the 
>man that does not tremble for himself." His consciousness 
>of danger is his only security. In like manner I tremble for 
tthe consumptive person who does not .understand, fully, how 
^susceptible he is to external impressions, and how hard it is 
fox ihim to say no. 
Consumptive people, moreover, should be taught to con- 
:der .another thing. They descend, too often, from families 
■> know nothing, or almost nothing, of the blessedness 
S' mmupieating good to others. They are, indeed, amia- 
' excellent; as I have said before, they are among the 
ues.. They smile on every body, speak kindly to 
foining 0 and we^ to every body. But beyond words 
■foody, 'T &ot aptto g°- The reason is, they have 
nd looks the} 'd 19 it. Their sympathies are too passive, 
not been HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
271 
They end in sighs, and perhaps tears. They have worn soft 
clothing and lived on delicate fare. " A little, but nice," 
satisfies them, of clothing, food, society, books, &c. ; but that 
which they do have must be nice. 
Their thoughts centre too much, therefore, on themselves. 
I repeat, they are not gluttonous, vain, sensual, or avaricious, 
in the worst sense of those terms; and yet they care, practi- 
cally, but very little for any body but themselves and theii 
own circle of dear friends. 
Constitutionally, they are formed for benevolence - for 
laboring for others. They were not framed by the plastic 
hand of the great Creator for a life of selfishness, of that 
refined sort which now so largely prevails. They were 
spoiled by education. I will say even more than this. A 
benevolent life - such a life as our Savior would direct 
them to follow, were he on earth - a life of going about 
and doing good - is the very life which even now, spoiled 
as they are by education, will save them from sjjeedy and 
certain destruction. The gospel is adapted to all mankind ; 
but if it were adapted to none else, it is so to the con- 
sumptive. 
What a pity it is, some may say, that this fatal disease 
should so often fasten itself upon the very persons who are 
least of all fitted to pursue the proper course under it! Why, 
in the providence of God, should it not fall upon the actively 
benevolent ? Why not on some Hannah More or Mary Lyon, 
rather than on a Hernans or a Davidson ? 
But I may seem to be digressing. My aim was to show 
why it is that the consumptive are so often found running for 
relief to medicine - leaning on a broken reed, which is sure to 
pierce them. It is because they are trained to think so much 
about themselves, - their food, drink, dress, pretty faces and 272 
forms, - and to ask so assiduously, " What will people say ? " 
and to pay so much heed, in over-kindness, to what people 
do say. 
4. We are now prepared to consider another item under 
the head of prevention of this terrible disease. It is this: 
The mind and heart must be kept right. I have trenched a 
little on one part of this subject in the preceding paragraphs; 
but more needs to be said. 
Consumptive people are generally precocious. Bright, and 
active, and forward, they are ready to receive eagerly every 
attention and every impression. And as if to meet this ten- 
dency, most unfortunately, they are apt to be favorites. 
Their whole character, physical, mental, and moral, is has- 
tened into prematurity. They are especially fond of books, 
music, and the fine arts. Sometimes they are fond of nature ; 
but this depends more on those around them than on them- 
selves - in other words, it is much more controlled by educa- 
tion. They are especially fond of the lighter sort of books 
and studies, and in these last they particularly excel. 
As they are not fond of labor - continued labor - of any 
kind, and as they make ready and rapid progress in learning, 
of every sort, to which you can secure thcii' attention, they 
are usually impelled forward in this line of direction. If 
voung men, they are destined to a profession, as it is called ; 
if young women, they go first to the fashionable high school 
for females, and afterwards to that family relation, for which, 
they are, of all their sex, most poorly prepared. 
This, I mean to say, is their destination ; but alas ! they do 
not all reach the goal. Many break down during their studies, 
and are forced to some other employment; many times to 
one which is worse than study. Thus females who are scrof- 
ulous and consumptive often find their way into a factory, to 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
273 
hasten on their troubles rather than to relieve them ; and to 
prove themselves, ultimately, the mothers of sickly families. 
But some, who arc highly stimulated by emulation or natu 
ral ambition, or both, push on with studies and novels till the 
brain gives way ; or, if not, till the lungs give out. Then, too 
late, a course of " doctoring " is tried ; till at length confirmed 
consumption is announced, and death closes the scene. 
The common custom of pushing forward the intellect at 
the expense of the body and the moral powers is effeminating 
and weakening, every where. If there is no scrofula, ner- 
vousness, or consumption, it is highly injurious to the health 
.in future years; but if there is, it is the worst course which 
can possibly be taken. 
My advice, in all cases of predisposition to consumption, is, 
Keep back the intellect. These precocious children will have 
more intellect than body or heart, when we have done the 
best we can to repress the former, and bring forward the lat- 
ter. To do this effectually - I speak here from- experience 
- will require the united wisdom of parents and teachers, 
and sometimes the united and absolute interposition of au- 
thority. 
When in Hartford, one day, some twenty-four or five years 
ago, I sought the acquaintance of Rev. Mr. Woodbridge, the 
geographer. He had just returned from Europe, where he 
had spent several years studying the subject of education, 
that he might be thereby prepared to benefit his own country- 
men. Till this interview we were strangers to each other. 
The first compliments over, he inquired what, in my view, was 
the capital error in American education. " This cultivation," 
said I, " of the intellect, at the expense of the health and the 
morals." The reply bound us together, as friends and fellow- 
laborers, forever. 274 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
But I do not wish to be misunderstood. To neglect the in- 
tellect wholly would be but to rush on an opposite extreme. 
There should be an harmonious education of the whole be- 
ing ; but the tendencies of things, in the consumptive, are 
forever against this. Our efforts should be to establish and 
perpetuate harmony. 
That a proper cultivation of the intellect, in every one, 
even the scrofulous and consumptive, is highly conducive to 
health, I cannot, for one moment, bring myself to doubt. 
What is wanted is, to understand the subject of our education, 
- his character and tendencies, physiological and pathological, 
- and then proceed accordingly. 
But if we must be guarded in the cultivation of the intel- 
lect, how much more in the regulation of the desires, the af- 
fections, and the passions ! Not that the tendency Of books, 
and school, and piano, and concert is so unfavorable to these 
as to the intellect; and yet it brings with it, in many instances, 
not a few errors. In order to have those who are predisposed 
to consumption receive the best possible direction in all 
which belongs to their moral education and conduct, they 
must bring themselves as mueh as possible under the domin- 
ion and influence of such feelings as are pleasurable, and 
cheerful, and elevating. 
Most happy is it that the consumptive person is, in general, 
cheerful and full of hope. Were he not so, he would perish 
much sooner and much more certainly than he now does. 
And yet there arc exceptions to the justice of this remark. 
There are those who are liable to seasons of depression and 
gloom, and a few who are habitually so. And yet full of 
hope as the consumptive person usually is, I have not found 
it to be what I would call a large and liberal hope. It is ac- 
tive, rather than large. The idea of doing something worthy HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
275 
of himself,- something worth living for, - as I have before 
intimated, hardly enters into his mind. He is amiable and 
excellent, yet selfish. The heaven to which he aspires, either 
in this life or any other, is little more than a Mohamme- 
dan one. 
It will be of great service, in these cases, not only to the 
lungs, but to all the functions of the body,- for the sake of 
the lungs, - if the individual can have something before him 
which is well calculated to rouse him, and call forth and con- ' 
centrate all his energies - provided, however, it does not car- 
ry him so far as to prove exhausting beyond his physical 
power to endure it. „ 
Few things are better calculated to prolong life, under 
tendencies to death from disease of any kind, - pulmonary 
consumption among the rest,- than the expectation of life, 
and such a hope of doing something as will carry the person 
out of and beyond himself. I repeat this idea by intention, 
that it may be firmly fixed, and will proceed to illustrate it. 
Let a consumptive person, for example, become filled with 
that dream of so many fools, and of some wiser nien - the 
desire to dig for gold in California. He is almost too feeble to 
enter upon the journey ; at least his friends think so. But he 
thinks otherwise ; and on the whole he determines to set out 
for the land of gold. Nov/, I do not say that he will certainly 
arrive there ; but I do say, that if not too far gone, - that is, 
if his lungs are not so far disorganized that nature has no 
possible chance of holding out as long as the journey actually 
requires, - he will be more likely to recover than if he had 
staid at home with no high or commanding motive before him 
to make exertion. 
Twenty-seven years ago, I was apparently going the usual 
way of the consumptive. The day of celebrating our na 276 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
tional independence came, and brought with it a new train of 
thought. I resolved on making one effort, one deathlike 
struggle, to save myself. And yet I was so far gone that it 
seemed like hoping against hope. However, I contrived to 
raise in my bosom a strong desire to see certain objects 
which apparently I had not strength to reach. But one of 
them was reached - though twelve or fifteen miles distant. 
This gave courage to make another attempt; success in that, 
another; and so on, till I found myself actually gaining 
strength, and some of the more threatening symptoms of 
consumption actually abating. And it was through this loop- 
hole, and a subsequent resolute adherence to " law," that I 
escaped. 
Cheering views of the way of God with man, and great 
faith in the final happy issues of all things, will do much for 
the consumptive. And to indulge such cheering views he 
has every encouragement. The gospel of oui- Lord and 
Savior is full of encouragement to faith and hope. " Though 
outwardly I perish, yet others will live," the consumptive per- 
son should say to himself. " God lives, at any rate; and 
because he lives, I shall live also." 
But valuable as all those are, there is one more grace that 
exceeds them ; to which, indeed, 1 have already adverted. 
It is the love of God and of his creatures, or general benev- 
olence. There is nothing that will do more to keep down a 
forming hectic, prevent the increasing night sweats, or even 
allay the rising cough and pain, than that burning love of God 
and man, which, though much talked of, is, after all, but little 
known, especially as regards its good physical influence. 
Finally, to prevent the progress of consumption in those 
who are predisposed to it, we must harden the constitution. 
Not, in the way, of some, by measures of an exclusive or HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
277 
special character, that are expected to do the work in a very 
short time, -a few weeks or a few months, - but on the strict 
principles of physiology and hygiene. 
Nearly all that I have recommended from the beginning 
of my lectures to the present time, if followed in the true 
spirit of reform, tends to harden the constitution. Several 
things, however, which I have said, deserve to be repeated ; 
and there are other things which need to be particularly 
enforced. 
I wish to speak more particularly of employments. If 
there be any one class of persons that more than all others 
need particular attention with regard to their daily employ- 
ments, it is the consumptive and the scrofulous. Thousands 
perish for want of proper attention to this subject. 
In general, it may be said that those employments are most 
healthy and most invigorating to the human constitution 
which are most useful and necessary. This is a wise pro- 
vision ; and yet, on reflection, it seems quite a natural one. 
Would the God of nature require his creatures to pursue em- 
ployments directly and unavoidably calculated to injure their 
health ? He has not done it, I say again, as a general rule ; 
to which, however, there may seem to be a few exceptions. 
Let me make good my assertion, and, in this respect, vindi- 
cate the ways of God to man. 
Air is indispensable; but this is made ready in the most 
ample and healthful abundance for all - provided they do 
not adulterate or otherwise spoil it. Surely there can be no * 
suffering from this source in a world surrounded by an atmos- 
phere forty-five miles high! 
Our drink requires as little labor, or nearly so, as our air. 
For the most part, it is furnished in springs, and brooks, and 
rivers, whose main designs cannot be mistaken. Or if these HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
278 
are impregnated too strongly with salts, or mineral sub- 
stances, we need not deteriorate as a race, nor even as 
consumptive individuals, very greatly, before we can devise 
means for retaining and preserving rain water. 
Hard water has been set down, time immemorial, as inju- 
rious to consumptive people ; but the invigorating or hard- 
ening effects of pure soft water, like almost every thing else 
belonging to the department of prevention, seem to have been 
overlooked. No writer, that I can recollect, condescends to 
dwell much upon it. 
It costs a little pains, I know, - a little of human labor, - 
to secure and preserve a supply of this necessary of life. 
But, then, rains come pretty often in this country ; and if they 
did not, a cistern is easily and quickly made. Some are 
giving up the idea of having wells, and are beginning to de- 
pend wholly on cisterns for all purposes. 
Food costs us a little more labor than drink. But this, in its 
simplest and most healthful forms, is not veiy costly. In the 
regions where man was first placed, and even half way, or 
nearly half way, from the equator to the pole, - as far, per- 
haps, as, in the present state of the arts and sciences, man is 
prepared to reside, - much of this food is furnished for him 
by his Creator and Benefactor. 
Here, surely, employment is healthy. If laboring to 
gather up or pluck from vines and trees, in Heaven's own 
air and sunshine, those rich products which Nature has fur- 
nished, and in her own way and by her own processes ren- 
dered agreeable to every unperverted taste, be not healthful 
and health-giving to the consumptive, and every body else, I 
know not what is. 
But suppose ploughing, hoeing, spading, setting out and 
pruning trees, and gathering corn, and grain, and esculent HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
279 
roots, have become necessary by reason of greater contiguity 
to the polar regions, a denser population, or perverted tastes. 
These involve more of labor; but is it not healthy labor still ? 
Is it not performed in the open air, in the sunshine, and with 
a great variety of muscular movement ? Is it not performed 
with cheerfulness ? 
Then, when it comes to the kitchen, the processes of cook- 
ing, though not like nature's own, are still simple, and may be 
comparatively uninjurious. The simple boiling, baking, or 
parching of grain, cither in whole kernels or in coarse meal, 
is not bad for health. It is complicated mixtures, involving, 
directly or indirectly, the use of seasonings, grease, &c., 
with the fumes of frying, steaming, and the like, that de- 
stroy much of the health of housekeepers. 
If we need houses, - though, according to Franklin, Methu- 
selah lived in open air, - to build these is by no means un- 
healthy. Whether made of brick, stone, wood, logs, or mud, 
they can be rendered very comfortable by means of labor 
chiefly performed in the open air. As for paint, inside or 
out, it is even now a mooted question, with competent and in- 
telligent mechanics, whether it is good economy to use it. 
Certainly it is not healthy. Then our shoes and clothes need 
not be so made as to shorten the lives of every one concerned. 
I know from observation that a moderate supply of plain, 
necessary clothing for these bodies of ours, from top to toe, 
can be made by those who are not too far gone with con- 
sumption, and that, too, without much prejudice to their health. 
It is working in the fumes of white lead or copper, making 
cigars, snuff making, brewing, making fine flour, soap and 
candle making, singeing cloths, roasting coffee, blowing 
glass, sweeping chimneys, working in brass, distilling spirits, 
working in lime, dyeing cloth, painting houses, &c., prepar- 280 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
ing confectionery, and the like, that so much impair 
human health. 
Do you say that some of these employments are indispen- 
sable to human happiness ? Very few of them, indeed. And 
that small number which are, may be so modified as to make 
a world of difference in the result. Or, another thing, still, 
can be done. The healthy can pursue the more doubtful 
employments - the consumptive or otherwise enfeebled, only 
those whose healthful character is well known and established. 
This brings me precisely to the main point now aimed at. 
In order to harden the constitution of those inclined to con- 
sumption, they should be placed at those occupations, and those 
alone, which are either healthy in themselves, or can easily be 
made so. The healthfulness of an employment, in deciding 
whether to follow it, should be our first inquiry-at least, 
it should be next to the inquiry about its morality and 
righteousness. 
Some may say, " But have our preferences - our likes and 
dislikes - nothing to do in this matter ? If a person engages 
in an employment which is perfectly and wholly disagreeable 
to him, will it still have a good effect on his health ? Is not 
the feeling of contentment and pleasure, in our work, a very 
useful and healthful element ? " It certainly is, as I have 
again and again said. It will do much to counteract a mod- 
erate degree of influence which is in the other direction. 
But it will not do every thing. Farming is, for example, the 
most healthful employment in the world. Suppose, now, a 
person dislikes it, but likes cigar making, or stone cutting. No 
likes or dislikes, though they may modify, will change nature, 
and render the latter employments as healthful as the former. 
I am far from supposing that all consumptive and scrofu- 
lous people can be induced to follow farming - I mean at HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
281 
once ; though I do look forward with confidence to a period 
in the world's history when the best interests of mankind, as 
a whole, will be seen to involve the necessity of agricultural 
or horticultural labor three or four hours a day, by every one 
who is old enough. Much, however, depends on motive. If 
a person, young or old, fully understands the necessities of 
the case, he must be strangely constituted, or it will have 
considerable influence on his mind to reconcile him to what 
might otherwise be more trying, or even disgusting. Satan 
is shrewd enough to observe that " all that a man hath he 
will give for his life." 
I know that an agricultural life, in the old-fashioned, plain 
way, has been for half a century becoming unfashionable. 
So many men, who are not willing to earn their bread in the 
sweat of their face as long as they can get it by some kind 
of speculation, have been caressed, or at least allowed to hold 
up their heads as high as other men, that farming, for a time, 
was disreputable. 
It is not necessary, however, to pursue it according to the 
old fashion. There are improvements among our modern 
innovations, and why not avail ourselves of them ? With 
these, a person will not be quite out of fashion. Agriculture, 
like housekeeping, in some shape or other, must always be in 
fashion as long as men have palates and stomachs One 
thing besides. Addison - and Pythagoras before him - has 
said, in regard to the small matters in life, that it is well to fix 
on that which is best for us, and custom will soon render it 
agreeable. The remark might be applicable in the case 
before us. An agricultural life is so true tg nature - so con- 
genial - that he who should pursue it a few years, from a 
mere sense of duty, would probably come, at length, to 
relish it. 282 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
I have dwelt on this point at considerable length, because 
I regard it as a matter of no ordinary consequence. There 
are other employments for the consumptive, such as carpen- 
try, cabinet making, engineering, coopering, practising medi- 
cine, &c., which will do very well; but after all which can 
he said in their favor, they cannot for one moment, for hard- 
ening the constitution, be compared with agriculture. So for 
females, while there are various employments which will be 
more safe for them than working in cotton factories, painting, 
bonnet making and bleaching, sewing, weaving, knitting, and 
the like, there are none like housekeeping - provided always 
the housekeeping is conducted in a truly rational and 
" physiological " manner. 
I have alluded faintly to cotton factories for females, as I 
did formerly to axe factories and lead factories for males. 
Both these prove the graves of thousands. The former 
however, as I am persuaded, may be rendered much more 
healthy than they now are, were human ingenuity to be ap- 
plied to the subject with half the earnestness which resulted 
in Sir Humphrey Davy's discovery of the safety lamp. 
I have elsewhere doubted whether there is any insurmount- 
able difficulty in blowing aside the dust in cotton mills, as 
well as in most other places where dust is slowly destroying 
the operatives. If this can be done, scrofulous and con- 
sumptive patients may, for a time, continue to exist in fac- 
tories ; but they cannot be greatly hardened. 
Having alluded to the unpopularity of agricultural life, it 
may not be amiss to allude to one of the causes which are in 
continual operatio<to perpetuate it, which I fear is not likely 
very soon to be removed. For, since few parents them- 
selves relish rural or agricultural life, but are enamoured of 
pomp, and show, and bustle, they very naturally transmit tc HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
283 
their children, in a thousand ways, - but especially by that 
example which is always vastly more efficient than precept, 
- the same feeling and spirit. 
Let me remind you of a very common case. A father shall 
have in his hand a new book, - say one of Peter Parley's, - 
and his little child shall be leaning against him looking at the 
pictures. To which of these will the parent call the attention 
of his child - to those which represent agricultural life, the 
ploughman, the load of hay, threshing grain, &c., or to some- 
thing which pertains to more fashionable life ? Or, in con- 
versation at the table, where the parent, if beloved, is a sort 
of demigod to his children, to which subject will the con- 
versation most readily turn - to fashionable employments, or 
to the primitive occupation of agriculture ? Can there be a 
possible doubt ? Can we doubt, therefore, where children 
obtain a bias ? 
Then what shall we say to those who take for granted 
that our tastes and predilections in this matter are uncontrol- 
lable, - practically that they are instamped upon us by the 
great Creator, - and that if the consumptive persop has a taste 
which would lead him to a wrong employment, that taste and 
inclination cannot be overcome ? 
In thus freely and unqualifiedly recommending to the con- 
sumptive and scrofulous, as a means of hardening their sys- 
tems and preventing consumption, an agricultural life, I do 
not forget the dangers to which they are at the same time ex- 
posed. I do not forget that they are thereby the more cer- 
tainly tempted, taking society as it now is, to break a large 
number of the general laws of health. But it ought not to 
be so ; and, in truth, it need not be so. If any body can 
have proper clothing, exercise, food and drink, it is the farm- 
er, provided he will only take the necessary pains. He is 284 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
not compelled to long-salted flesh, fish, and butter, nor to 
greasy or pasty compounds of every sort. He might have 
the very best, while men of other occupation are often forced 
to Hobson's choice - what they can get or none. 
All I have said with respect to the lungs and skin, in for- 
mer lectures, - especially with respect to their laws,- is tc 
be studied and obeyed by those who would harden themselves 
against consumptive disease; so, also, what is to be said by 
and by, in lectures on clothing and temperature, exercise and 
rest, and food and cookery. In short, whatever makes 
healthy at the same time hardens.. 
We must never forget the great principle of renovation, 
which I have elsewhere fully explained. Let us obey and 
trust to this, even if we can do no more. Let us possess our 
souls in patience. If wo can live on a year without deterio- 
ration, why should we not live longer still ? Will not the 
house we live in be better than now ? So of two years - of 
three - of thirty. 
The question will be asked, - it often is, - "What do 
you think of a change of climate ? " The inquiry is an im- 
portant one. Many go to a southern clime ; some partially 
recover; some are better, set out for home, but are worse on 
their return ; others still are hastened out of the world by 
migration. 
My judgment in the matter is just this. If a consumptive 
person can go to Santa Cruz, San Francisco, or some such 
place, make it a permanent residence, and be contented, it 
may prolong his life, in some particular cases, and add great- 
ly to his usefulness ; but if he goes to stay one winter, and 
then returns, perhaps in the teeth of a cold north-eastern 
storm, let him beware. Or if, in order to go there, he must 
relinquish all the little things which he has been accustomed HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
285 
to call the comforts of life, as well as his family and friends, 
- perhaps a family of his own, - and be a sort of exile, sur- 
rounded only by hirelings, and deprived of all sympathy but 
a sympathy with his purse, I must still say, " Better to stay 
at home." 
I have doubts whether climate has as much to do with con- 
sumption as many suppose. Were I to recommend a olimate 
to the consumptive, I should hesitate long before expressing my 
preference for a southern, or especially a tropical climate, 
except, as I have just now said, in particular cases, and by 
way of exchange. 
There is a very common belief abroad that Eastern New 
England - Cape Cod especially - is peculiarly unfavora- 
ble to the consumptive. It may be so to some ; yet it has 
hardened me - so I believe. 
Almost a quarter of a century ago, I came to Boston, and 
made it my residence, near which I have for the most part 
ever since resided. My friends foretold my dissolution within 
six months. Yet here I am still. Two successive winters, 
moreover, during the time, I have spent on Cape Cod. 
When I first visited the latter place, I stopped for a few 
weeks at Sandwich, at the gateway, as it were, of the cape. 
While there, inquiries were daily made of those who belong 
below, as they came up to Sandwich, " What is the news ? " 
&c. " No news," was the frequent reply, " except that we are 
all dying of consumption." And when I proceeded along the 
cape to these towns, so fatal to phthisical people, it was at 
first with a kind of latent dread, lest I should run down ; for 
I heard every where, in explanation of the general prevalence 
of lung disease, " O, this wretched climate ! " 
But it was not necessary for me to stay in that region two 
winters, nor even one, in order to come to the conclusion 286 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
that what was attributed to climate could be referred to 
other causes ; and I was compelled to fall back on the good 
old inquiry, whether it is philosophical to seek for another 
cause of a given effect, when well-known causes are fully 
adequate to its production. 
It is certainly true that pulmonary consumption is very 
common and very fatal on Cape Cod ; but I doubt whether i 
is more so than in many other parts of New England which 
are not maritime. I examined the bills of mortality, and 
could not find that the proportion of deaths from this cause va- 
ried greatly from those of Worcester and Providence. 
But, admitting it were so, there are, as I have said, other 
causes than climate. The people of Cape Cod are fisher- 
men, and have the habits of fishermen. In the summer they 
have, of course, many privations ; in the winter, they are at 
home generally, where they mean to enjoy themselves. They 
have money, and they expend it as freely as any other sailors. 
But how ? Why, they procure from Boston and other 
places the richest materials for their table ; and their families 
work them up. Wednesday and Saturday of each week 
seem to be specially set apart for cooking processes. And 
the housekeepers compete with each other in the matter of 
extravagant cookery. It is not true - though many have im- 
bibed the idea - that the people of Cape Cod subsist miser- 
ably. I have been a traveller one third of a century, and a 
more luxurious or a more extravagant people in their eating 
and drinking I have never seen 
True it is that there may not be many drunkards; but they 
live high. The wives not only cook, but the husbands and 
children eat. They visit much, and by families, and prolong 
their visits often for nearly the whole day and evening. 
Other items of indulgence might be mentioned. They arc HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
287 
thus prepared for a gradual approach of that formidable dis- 
ease which prevails all over that region - I mean dyspepsia. 
Captain W., of Fairhaven, told me he hardly knew of a ship 
master all the way from New Bedford to Provincetown that 
was not more or less afflicted with it. 
They begin to suffer from it early, and are seldom rid of 
it. Their habits at sea do not, on the whole, improve them - 
I mean while they have families. These follow the laws of 
hereditary descent, and as sure as they take the constitution 
of a dyspeptic father, they are themselves scrofulous. They 
may, indeed, follow the mother, or some other relative, and 
thus escape, but many are sufferers. But scrofula paves the 
way for consumption, either in the individual himself, or in 
the next generation ; and the inhabitants of the cape have 
now reached this point of inherited scrofula and consump- 
tion. Dyspepsia is the grandparent, scrofula the parent, and 
pulmonary consumption the child. Consumption, therefore, 
is now fed from three sources, consumption itself, scrofula, 
and dyspepsia. 
My own belief is, that consumption, all over the country, 
may be traced very largely to these united sources. But if 
so, the remedy lies not in a change of climate, but in a 
change of habits. It lies not in going deeper and deeper 
in luxury, but in abstemious living. It lies in hardening 
the constitution. 
But such considerations as these bring us to another divis- 
ion of the great subject of prevention of which I promised 
to speak. I was to say something of the means to be 
employed to save from this fell destroyer the rising gen- 
eration. 
I have spoken of the great importance of correct physical 
education, in all its various departments - of educating the 288 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
lungs, in conversing, singing, reading, and public speaking. 
I have also alluded to the importance of particular exercises 
and amusements for the chest - sawing wood, spading, 
climbing, swinging running, swimming, &c. Some of 
these last, however, require more than a passing recommen- 
dation. 
Sawing wood is an admirable exercise for the chest. It 
brings into activity a very large number of muscles, which 
have something to do in expanding the chest; besides 
encouraging those deep and strong inspirations which compel 
us to work, well, the handle of the bellows - the abdominal 
muscles. If the saw is not too heavy, children of both sexes 
might saw wood very early. 
Spading is too severe an exercise for very young children, 
or for females at any age. For boys who are somewhat 
advanced, it is admirable. It may be alternated with amuse- 
ments and with lighter exercises. 
Climbing, for boys whose caution is largely developed, is 
an admirable exercise. It tends greatly to strengthen the 
chest, and harden the constitution. Clinging to the rounds 
of a horizontal ladder, and passing along under it hand over 
hand, is still better for the shoulders and chest, and, indeed, 
for the whole frame. Consumptive people arc frequently 
known by their tendency to stoop. The horizontal ladder will 
turn the shoulders backward, but it should be followed up by 
correct walking and sitting. The youth who sits or walks in 
a crouching position, with the shoulders projecting forward, 
can never " endure hardness as a good soldier." 
Artificial aid, in keeping the shoulders backward and the 
body erect, is worse than nothing at all, as a permanent sup- 
port. It only increases the necessity which it temporarily 
supplies. All it can safely do is to serve as a monitor to the HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
289 
unwilling or forgetful. When it has prompted us till the mem- 
ory and the will perform their office, it has done its work. 
But in regard to preventing consumption in society, there 
is one thing lying back of all this, in what might, for want of 
a better name, be called prospective education. I refer to 
the tendency given in the very first formation of the child's 
constitution. 
On this subject, till the appearance of Willich, an old 
English writer, the world seemed shrouded in thick darkness, 
such as might almost, like that of ancient Egypt, be felt One 
cause of the increasing debility and scrofulous tendency of 
each rising generation was unveiled in his work ; and the 
Fowlers, of New York, have followed up his idea- perhaps 
u. little too far. 
Dr. Clark, to whose work on consumption I have before 
alluded, has shown, most conclusively, that every thing which 
tends to lower the strength of a parent, or of one who is to 
be a parent, below its natural line, tends to sow the seeds 
of a tuberculous constitution in offspring. This is true, with- 
out doubt, to its utmost limit. And yet who thinks of it ? 
Who has been taught to think of it ? Who among us realizes 
that, as a parent, he is, by his indulgences of every kind, - I 
mean his over-indulgences,- prospectively undermining the 
physical constitution of all who are to come after him ? 
Should this exposition of a general law, designed for the 
general good of mankind, and, therefore, made obligatory 
upon all, raise a sneer from some individual who is solacing 
himself with the idea that the world is to be neither better 
nor worse for any progeny of his, he only has our pity 
and contempt. He does not, however, deserve the protec- 
tion of those wise and good laws which in his heart he 
desnises. 290 
HOW TO PREVENT CONSUMPTION. 
But there is a class of individuals - thank Heaven - 
who arc not, as yet, so callous to the voice of God or 
humanity. There are those who are not invested by a 
moral coating - rather an immoral one - which, like the cu- 
ticle of the rhinoceros, is impenetrable. Bring truth before 
their minds, and they will for the moment, at least, listen to it. 
Such individuals should know - they shall know, if I can 
bring these words to their ears - that for every act, at every 
age, which weakens their constitution, they are answerable, 
if not to any human tribunal, at least to a divine. Physical 
law - the law of hereditary descent among the rest - is 
God's law, and must be obeyed, or the world must suffer - 
a world made up of individuals who have but one common 
interest. 
There is more to be said, were this the place for it. The 
world is old enough to attend to something more than mere 
negatives. Prevention, though acknowledged to be worth 
many times as much as cure, does not look high enough, 
at least from the stand point which is usually taken. It looks 
high, indeed ; but there is something beyond its ordinary ken. 
With the known fact before us, that every thing tending 
to weaken our physical constitutions, and bring our strength 
below par, is injurious, and even remotely a cause of tuber- 
culous disease, and hence sinful, should be coupled, in ouj 
minds, the kindred or affirmative fact, that not to do every 
thing in our power to raise the physical constitution still 
•higher than it is, is sinful also. How much can be done 
to improve the constitution, and how great the measure of 
guilt incurred by such sins of omission, it is, of course, utterly 
out of our power to determine; but that there is guilt in 
degree, as truly as there is when we violate any of the com- 
mands of the decalogue, can neither be gainsaid nor denied. CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
291 
LECTURE VII. 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
In several of the preceding lectures, I have, at various 
points, trenched upon the general subject of clothing and 
temperature. There may, therefore, be a little repetition in 
what now follows. I will, however, avoid repetition as much 
as possible. 
The general object of dress is threefold : 1. To serve as a 
covering. 2. To defend us. 3. To assist in regulating our 
temperature. A fourth use of clothing - one on which some 
good men and women, who have written on this subject for 
the young, seem inclined to say much, - is, to ornament us ; 
or rather to improve our appearance. 
In truth, I know of no very strong objection to making use 
of clothing to cover personal deformities. If a wicked nurse 
or careless mother has left the bony cavity of the thorax 
more in the shape of the keel of a boat than of a proper de- 
pository of these most important vital organs, is there any 
wrong in so arranging our dress as to cover up the de- 
formity ? 
Where the wrong shape of the chest is such as I have 
sometimes seen, - such as might be better represented by the 
letter V than by an old-fashioned beehive, - it may, perhaps, 
be otherwise. The sin of dressing too tightly, and spoiling 
the chest thereby, even though it were the sin of the owner, 
and not of the parents, is of too deep a dye to be concealed- 292 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
Here, on the left, is a representation of the deformity some 
times induced by dress. 
The subject of dress and clothing has not received that 
attention which its importance deserves. In truth, it has 
received no attention at all, except from a few. Among these 
last there is a diversity of opinion. Part of us worship 
dress, and part go- to the opposite extreme of despising it. 
Others of the same " few " care for it only to take the lead 
in the fashion. 
We profess to be a Christian people - a consecrated peo- 
ple. We have consecrated, " before God, angels, and men," 
not only ourselves, but all that pertains to us. In doing this, 
we mean-if we mean anything-to include our posses- 
sions, from the largest to the smallest. Is there aught that we 
can reserve ? If so, what is it ? 
Such, I say, are our professions. Now, what is the reality ? 
Have we consecrated our dress ? Has it been- so to speak 
- " baptized " ? Has " Holiness to the Lord" evei' been 
written on it ? If so, when, where, and how ? I have yet to 
learn that we have taken the first step in this direction. So 
far are we, as a general rule, from asking at the hands of 
Christianity, or even of Science, her handmaid, how we shall 
dress, that we have not asked a single question of either. CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
293 
We have asked - if we have asked at all - at quite another 
source. 
We have followed the fashions, we shall perhaps say. Yes, 
and who has instituted or led the fashions ? Not Christians, 
most certainly. They came, did they not, from our large 
cities, New York, Boston, &c. ? And they took them, did 
they not, from London and Paris ? Does it not then come to 
this, that while we profess to be the disciples of Christ, and 
to do, in all circumstances, what we suppose he would do in 
the same circumstances, instead of asking at the hands of sci- 
ence or Christianity how we should dress, we have practically 
been directed by the dandies and prostitutes of the old world ? 
No wonder some, who see this thing as it truly is, are a 
little disposed to rebel. No wonder we have Bloomer dresses 
and pseudo-Bloomer dresses. No wonder would it be, if we 
should even go to the opposite extreme of that which physi- 
ology and religion would direct. The wonder is rather that 
we have not done this long ago. 
In order that our clothing may accomplish the three legiti- 
mate and most important purposes of dress, we must study 
the form, the material, and the quantity. And as quantity 
is influenced very much by habit, especially early habit, it 
will be advisable to look at the subject as a matter of 
early education. 
I. THE FORM OF OUR DRESS. 
In this particular I shall be compelled to depart not a little 
from the current of received opinion on this subject - or 
rather from the fashion. For the infam, at least, I must en- 
tirely dissent from the prevailing custom. The young, above 
all, should not be sacrificed at folly's shrine. 294 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
Canova, the sculptor, says, that the ancient artists threw all 
their energies into an endeavor to make the countenance and 
attitude expressive, y^ith but little regard to the dress ; whereas 
the moderns place all their skill in what might be called the 
expression and movement of their garments. 
So it is with modern education, especially female educa- 
tion. The infant must look pretty, whether he is comfortable, 
secure, and healthful, or not. Consecrated to God or not, he 
must be made a doll of, with no earthly advantage at all - 
to say nothing of heavenly tendencies - but that he may be 
a mere plaything. 
If a good deal of boldness on this subject was called for 
seventeen years ago, when 1 wrote my Young Mother, it 
is needed still more at this time. As I ventured to declare 
the truth then, why should I not be bold enough to declare 
it now ? Besides, ought I not to gather courage from the 
fact that others have since come to my support? Indeed, 
almost every writer of any note, from that day to this, has 
sustained my views. I began, at that- time, with a quotation 
from the London Literary Gazette, then of eight or ten years' 
standing. That writer said as follows : - 
" All that a child requires, so far as regards clothing, dur- 
ing the first month of its existence, is a simple covering for 
the trunk and extremities of the body, made of a material soft 
and agreeable to the skin, and which can retain in an equable 
degree the animal temperature. These qualities arc to be 
found in perfection in fine flannel, and I recommend that the 
only clothing, for the first month or six weeks, be a square 
piece of flannel, large enough to involve fully and overlap 
the whole of the babe, with the exception of the head, which 
should be left totally uncovered. This wrapper should be 
fixed by a button near the breast, and left so loose as to per- CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
295 
mit the arms and legs to be freely stretched and moved in 
every direction. It should be succeeded by a loose flannel 
gown with sleeves, which should be worn till the end of the 
second month, after which it may be changed to the common 
clothing used by children of this age." 
Was I not right in quoting this writer, and making his di- 
rections the basis of my own ? This doctrine, you see, is 
now of more than a quarter of a century's standing. Besides, 
it was corroborated, the very next year, by Dr. Dick, in his 
work on the Mental Illumination and Moral Improvement 
of Mankind. The doctor says, - 
"The time has not long gone by (if it have yet passed) 
since a poor child, as soon as it breathed the vital air, had as 
many rollers and wrappers - sometimes ten feet in length - 
applied to its body as if every bone had been fractured in 
the birth, and these were often drawn so tight as to gall its 
tender frame, and even obstruct its vital organs. 
" Tills is a piece of 'folly so repugnant to the dictates of 
nature, that even savage nations never commit it, and hence 
deformed children are seldom or never found among them. 
By the weight and pressure, moreover, of stays, bandages, 
heavy and tight clothes, children who were well proportioned 
at their birth have afterwards appeared with flat breasts, high 
shoulders, crooked spines, and other deformities. For when 
a child is cramped in its clothes, it naturally shrinks from the 
part that is hurt, and puts its body into unnatural postures ; 
and every part of it, even the bones themselves, being soft 
and flexible, deformity, of some kind or other, is the natural 
result. To this cause physicians have ascribed the numerous 
instances of children dying of convulsions, soon after their 
birth. 
" The general rule which reason suggests, in regard to the clothing of children is, that a child have no more clothes 
than are necessary to keep it warm, and that they be quite 
easy for its body.. In conformity to this rule, the dress of 
children should be simple, clean, light, and cheap - free, wide, 
and open, so as neither to impede the vital functions, nor the 
free and easy motions of the body, nor prevent the access of 
fresh air, and be easily put on or taken off." 
296 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
After exhibiting, by means of a cut, what he conceives to 
be the simple and appropriate dress of a little girl, which, by 
the way, does not, as it happens, differ greatly from the more 
simple of the Bloomer dresses, the doctor adds, - 
Rational dress for the young. CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
297 
" Pins should be used as little as possible, and the clothes 
chiefly fastened with strings, which would prevent the occa- 
sional scratching of their tender skins, and those alarming 
cries which so frequently proceed from this cause. Such a 
light and simple dress would induce children to live with less 
restraint in the society of each other, and check that silly 
pride which leads them to ape the fashions of their superiors, 
and to value themselves on account of the finery of their 
clothes." 
I am not given to long quotations, but these arc so apposite 
that I could hardly deny myself. I am obliged to dissent from 
the writer in the London Literary Gazette, when he tells us 
that, after the second month of a child's existence, he would 
have it dressed in the usual manner. I would never have it 
thus dressed. I would continue the simple mode through 
life. One caution is, indeed, necessary on this subject. Un- 
der the idea that we use too much clothing - than which noth- 
ing can be more true, - some writers have recommended that 
we should begin with very little, in infancy. And there seems 
to be a popular leaning to this notion. Now, no error can be 
greater, as we shall see presently. 
The simple garment recommended by the transatlantic 
writer from whom I have quoted is sufficient for the climate 
of England in summer, and perhaps also in winter, when the 
nursery is kept night and day at a temperature of sixty-two 
or sixty-five degrees. But in our United States, and in the 
cold season, - indeed, in any season but midsummer,- it 
would hardly be sufficient. 
The greatest care, in short, is required in the management 
of infants, and the most profound knowledge of their physio- 
logical character and hygienic relations. Parents who are ig- 
norant may indeed blunder along, do something in a plain 298 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
but unskilful way, and raise to adult years a part of their ris- 
ing charge. But, as I have shown elsewhere, only about three 
fifths of them survive the fifth year of life. And herein is 
one of the greatest common mysteries I meet with in life's 
journey. The divine command is, " Train up a child in the 
way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from 
it;" and yet how to train them, the divine Lawgiver seems 
not to have shown ! 
True it is that few, if any, act up to the knowledge they 
possess ; but then it is equally true that few have an opportu- 
nity of gaining that knowledge which would seem indispensa- 
ble, especially in regard to physical education. Eliot, the 
Indian apostle, certainly thought so, when, two hundred years 
ago, he tried in vain to get a professor from England to teach 
anatomy and physiology to the Natick Indians. 
It is a consolation, however, to reflect that we live under 
an administration where nothing more is required of us than 
a right use of the talents - few or many - which are com- 
mitted to us ; with a childlike confidence and trust in Him 
who is able to afford us wisdom from above, whenever, in the 
right spirit, we ask for it. 
My belief is, that while the child is in its mother's arms, 
and sleeps at her side, about three pieces of clothing - 
the shirt, petticoat, and frock - are all that are needed. All 
these should be loose, very loose. At four or five years of 
age-- possibly a little sooner-loose trousers, for boys, 
may be substituted for the petticoat. 
The Rev. Ezekiel Rich, a distinguished teacher and origi- 
nal thinker, in a communication to the Water Cure Journal, 
of New York, about the middle of the year 1852, recom- 
mends to people of every age a form of dress quite as sim- 
ple as that which other writers and myself have recommended CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
299 
for children. • It is among the curiosities of the day ; but the 
communication is long, and yet is of such a nature that it 
cannot well be abridged. 1 will only say here, that it consists, 
essentially, of only two pieces of cloth, fastened loosely 
around the body, together with very simple shoes and head- 
dress. 
I am not, however, without fear that, there is one sad omis- 
sion more or less pervading the views of almost all our wri- 
ters on dress. They seem to forget or overlook the necessity 
which exists of using a very considerable amount of clothing, 
in the winter season, from the time the child begins to be out 
of the nursery till he has reached his eighth or tenth year, 
and can run and face a good north-west wind. 
For during this period, - the beginning of what Dr. John- 
son would call the second septenniad of human life, - the 
child is left to run about and expose himself to all sorts of 
weather; indeed, it is indispensably necessary thatohe should 
be in the open air, while his power to generate heat is, as yet, 
comparatively feeble. 
Now, at this period, - the time at which he is being 
weaned, as it were, from the mother's watch-care and the 
nursery, - he needs a good deal of clothing in winter, more 
than at any other period in his life. He also needs, for the 
same reason, less than at any other period in summer. The 
form is of less consequence. But in speaking of quantity I 
am somewhat anticipating. 
As to the headdress for either sex, I think with Dr. Dick, 
that, " as soon as the hair is sufficiently long to afford protec- 
tion, there is little necessity for either caps or hats, unless in 
seasons of rain or cold," or in the case of peculiar diseased 
tendencies. 
With regard to the dress of the feet, much more needs to 300 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE, 
be said. The form of the socks or stockings is usually well 
enough, but that of the boots and shoes is as bad as bad can 
be. Thousands suffer in various ways on account of the un- 
natural form of these coverings. They are wrongly shaped 
from the very first. 
The truth is, that children who arc able to run about, and 
who have reached seven years of age, require shoes but a 
part of the year. It is far better for them, in every point of 
view, to go barefooted. It would be better for us all, at later 
periods, to go barefooted a considerable part of each year. 
As, however, there is a part of each year in which shoes 
ought to be worn, - and as there are circumstances at all 
times of the year, and at every age, which may require it, 
since shoes and boots are a defence in many cases where they 
are not needed for warmth, - it is important to speak of their 
form more fully. 
Says D# Dick, " The form of the human foot is such that 
at the toes it is broad, at the heel narrow, and the inside of the 
foot is longer than the outside - a form which was evidently 
intended by nature to enable us to stand and walk with firm- 
ness and ease. It is therefore a dictate of nature that shoes 
should be made in the same form as the feet, and be suf- 
ficiently roomy for the toes to move with ease. And in order 
to this they must be formed on two separate lasts, corre- 
sponding to the right and left foot. (See the engraving at 
page 312.) 
" How shoes at first came to be made tapering to a point 
at the toes, almost like a bodkin; how high heels became the 
daily fashion of the ladies ; and how a small foot came to be 
genteel, - I pretend not to determine; but certainly nothing 
can be more absurd and preposterous." 
Mr. Rich says, " Let the feet be kept dry, have plenty of CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
301 
room, and be well ventilated." But to keep the feet dry, as 
a principal means of preserving health, had been the advice 
of the medical world long before Mr. Rich. However, Mr. 
Rich's cogitations on the subject are highly valuable ; the best 
covering for the feet he knows of is this : - 
" The soles should be of light, pliant, tough leather, with 
no increase of thickness at the heel, being connected with 
strips of upper leather of three inches wide at the ends, grad- 
ually diminishing towards the middle to an inch and a half 
wide. These should be connected with stout porous cloth, - 
perhaps knit stuff, - to extend up as far as requisite, and an- 
swering for feetings as well as shoes." 
It is obvious that something more than this is required at 
certain seasons, in this country, if wo would keep the feet 
dry ; but the subject will be further discussed presently, under 
another head. It is desirable to banish leather, for the most 
part, from general use ; we may then see, perhaps, whether it. 
can be done. 
II. AMOUNT OF CLOTHING. 
In general, as we have elsewhere seen, the leading object 
of clothins is to entangle or retain the caloric which is con- 
stantly passing from our bodies, and prevent that sensation 
of chilliness which otherwise we should be apt to experience. 
Few are aware of the immense power which the human 
body possesses of generating heat. This power to generate 
heat - this calorific office or function - must be exercised, 
in order to the best of health. And yet it may be, and often 
is, over-exercised. The general temperature of the human 
body, as you know, is about ninety-eight or one hundred de- 
grees. Now, it is no trifling task for the calorific function - 
the internal fireplace - to keep up a flame that will preserve 302 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
a mass of one hundred and fifty pounds of solids and fluids, 
at this degree of heat, while the air and every thing else is 
cooled down to zero. 
Yet this is done, in some instances, for many hours in suc- 
cession. I know not but some strong men might live twenty- 
four hours in such a temperature ; though it is not easy to 
conceive how. Many feeble persons would perish in one 
half that time. 
One of the most remarkable cases of endurance is found 
in the iron man, as he is sometimes called, on Lake Erie. 
He stood at the helm of the steamboat Mayflower on Lake 
Eric, at the time she was driven ashore, in the fall of 1851, 
for thirteen hours, in a degree of cold which no one on board 
but himself could have withstood for half that time. 
In order to conceive of the power which the calorific func- 
tion exerts in such instances, we may suppose the case of a 
man killed accidentally in the street, when the mercury is 
down to zero. How long would his lifeless body remain at 
ninety-eight degrees ? And what an amount of external heat 
it would take to keep that lifeless mass up to the living stan- 
dard ! You might, in such a case, put on to the dead body a 
dozen of the warmest suits of clothing which could be found, 
and it would make no difference. Why not ? Because they 
could not communicate any heat of their own, and there would 
be none radiating from the dead body for them to retard or 
imprison. 
This illustration, besides giving us some idea of the amaz- 
ing amount of heat which the human body, in an emergency, 
can generate, shows us the legitimate end and object of 
clothing, fires, and other external appliances for warming us, 
as we are wont to call it. These things do not really warm 
us; they only prevent our cooling too fast, and save our CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
303 
systems the necessity of working too hard. For, as I said just 
now, the calorific function may be overworked. The strongest 
man in the world could not endure the cold of zero very 
long, without other means of preventing the heat from passing 
from his body than ordinary clothing. He would be worn 
out and exhausted. The " iron man " could not have sur- 
vived many hours longer. 
Now, the necessity of clothing is in just proportion to the 
degree of cold which exists, and the strength and vigor of the 
calorific function. Extreme cold, if long continued, and we 
are long exposed to it, requires more clothing; and so does 
feeble health. So, also, early infancy and extreme age. 
In general, then, we see what is to determine the amount or 
quantity of our clothing. There arc no rules so fixed and arbi- 
trary that one might be told by another, at a distance, without 
taking into account any circumstances, except, perhaps, size 
and sex, just how much clothing, and of what kind, he needed. 
We must seek the golden mean in this matter, as in a 
thousand others. We must avoid, on the one hand, the ex- 
treme of so dressing as to tax the calorific function too much ; 
and, on the other hand, - an extreme which is quite as bad, 
if not worse, - that of taxing it too little. On one of those 
extremes the far greater part of mankind make shipwreck of 
a large portion of their health and happiness. Clothing and 
temperature are matters of very great moment. In general, 
the danger consists in taxing our calorific powers too much 
in early life, and too little ever afterwards. 
I have said before that I am not one of those who believe 
in the propriety or necessity - or even the safety - of a state 
of complete nudity. Such a state would certainly have its 
advantages; but I am compelled to think that the disadvan 
tages would overbalance, and more than overbalance them. 304 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
There is much false reasoning in the world. Alexander, it 
is said, asked the Scythian ambassador how, in his cold 
climate, he could go naked. " How can you go with your 
face naked ? " was the reply. " O, we are used to that," 
said the conqueror. " Think us, then, all face," said the 
ambassador. 
Now, the false reasoning of the ambassador-rather his 
inconclusive reasoning - has deceived thousands, as it prob- 
ably did himself. There is an almost infinite difference 
between going with the face and hands bare, and exposing 
the whole body. 
Suppose the face to occupy one fifteenth of the whole sur- 
face of the body ; it by no means follows that it costs one 
fifteenth as much internal vigor to keep it warm as it does to 
keep the whole surface warm. The energy demanded is 
more than doubled when we double the extent of exposed sur- 
face. 
True it is that the Scythian had brought himself by the 
power of habit, and in the progress of several generations, or, 
it may be, of several centuries, to manufacture internal heat 
somewhat in proportion to the supply which was demanded ; 
but then it had not been done at once, and could not be 
again. The calorific power necessary to do it would not be 
in the ratio of fifteen to one, as was probably supposed, but 
a ratio much greater. Another thing : That ambassador was 
not aware that, in thus compelling the system to manufacture 
heat, both they and all savage nations, in similar climes, arc 
living at the expense of life, and gradually shortening their 
existence as a race, if not individually. Thj$ i^ one cause 
- though not the only one - of the decline and disappearance 
of our North American savages. 
The conclusion then - the legitimate conclusion, I mean - iLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
305 
of the whole matter must be, that we should decide on the 
amount of clothing necessary to each individual, according to 
the circumstances in which he is placed. There are general 
rules, as we have seen, applicable to all; but there are par- 
ticular rules to be observed by each individual. 
Experience is the best schoolmaster, in this as in every 
thing else, as far as experience goes, and is true. But it hap- 
pens, most unfortunately for a race that has not yet been 
taught to reason very closely, that much which is called ex- 
perience is not truly such. Or, as Dr. Cullen used to say 
there were many false facts in the world, so there is not a 
little false experience. Besides, one's own experience does 
not go very far, after all. We have no method of transfer- 
ring the experience of one generation to another, except in 
matters of pure science ; so that when a person dies, his ex- 
perience, mostly, dies with him; and every individual and 
every generation have to begin the work of life anew. 
I must recur once more to parents. They need to know 
much concerning physical education, of which they are now 
ignorant, and of which, hitherto, it has not been regarded as 
the ofiice or duty of physicians to inform them. But they 
need especially to use the power of observation which they 
now possess. 
As I shall give some general directions in regard to the 
appropriate means of enlightening parents on this subject, in 
my last lecture, it must suffice for the present to throw out a 
few brief hints of the most truly simple and elementary sort, 
by way of preparation. 
The scrofulous, consumptive, and dyspeptic at every age, 
but especially in early life, manufacture heat very slowly, 
and consequently need a greater supply of clothing by night 
and by day than many other persons, unless, indeed, they 306 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
spend their lime in highly-heated rooms, which would, of 
course, be much worse than additional clothing. And yet these 
are the very first persons to be injured by any more clothing 
than is just necessary, either in summer or winter, and by 
night or by day. So that the greatest care is necessary here, 
as well as elsewhere, lest, in avoiding one rock of practical 
error, we run on another. 
It is ever worthy of our inquiry whether the languor which 
such persons feel on the arrival of the first warm days of 
spring is not owing to a fact which has not hitherto been no- 
ticed, but which properly belong-s to this part of our subject. 
Having been obliged all winter long to wear a great deal of 
clothing, in order to imprison the caloric, we come to the 
warm days of spring with an amount of it which is burdensome. 
The atmosphere being warmer, there is less of heat radiated 
from our bodies, and we feel oppressed by the internal heat. 
Under these circumstances, most persons are afraid to re- 
move any part of their winter clothing, lest they should be 
chilly at evening. I admit there is a difficulty, but it is a dif- 
ficulty which with most persons may be overcome, especially 
if their sense of the value of health is high enough to induce 
them to pay the tax of securing it. 
I knew one man who made it his practice, in our variable 
climate, to change his clothes, at every season, particularly 
in the spring, several times a day. Yet he was unusually 
free from colds, and considering the fact that he was addicted 
to many habits positively bad, his health was remarkable. 
Now, a large proportion of our busy community - busy as 
they are - might do the very same thing. They must, in- 
deed, lay their plans for it at rising in the morning. They 
must have their changes of clothing at the field or shop where 
their labor is to be performed. That simplicity of form in CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
307 
dress winch has been recommended in the preceding pages 
will be much in their favor. 
Many are in the habit of covering the face and throat, 
whenever they go out in the open air. There are a few 
individuals who, after speaking much, are liable to cold, un- 
less they protect themselves in this way, especially if they 
ride when they go out. I am as much exposed in this 
way as any person, and yet seldom do more than barely to 
turn up the collar of my overcoat. But, then, I never ride 
after speaking. I always walk or run home. Habit, in this 
respect, is almost omnipotent. Some nations go with the 
neck bare, even in high northern latitudes, and yet have 
fewer colds than we - the Prussians, for example. In gen- 
eral, the more we expose ourselves to cold, the better. 
One principle must never be lost sight of. All the work 
which the calorific powers of the system can perform without 
being overtasked - that is, tasked in such a way as to prove 
injurious, in the end, to the individual or to the race - should 
be performed. All our organs and parts are made to be - so 
to speak - working men. 
Those who are fed with high-seasoned food, - food, in par- 
ticular, which contains much shortening or grease, - and on 
the contrary, those whose food is too meagre and innutritious, 
will, for the time, at least, require more clothing than would 
be required in other circumstances. 
Then, again, sudden changes in our diet do, for a short 
time, impose upon us the very same necessity. The steady 
burning of the fire within us is very much affected by habit. 
The man of simple diet - the mere consumer of bread and 
fruits - finds nearly the same difficulty in passing suddenly 
from his accustomed diet to a more luxurious one, that the 
high liver does in passing to simplicity. 308 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE 
The man of sluggish temperament, especially if, with that 
temperament, there is - and we almost always find it so - a 
tinge of the bilious habit, will require more clothing, other 
things being equal, than the individual who possesses a more 
active and more energetic temperament. 
Some persons inherit such diseased tendencies as render it 
necessary they should wear more clothing in the morning 
than towards evening. The same class of persons frequently 
require but little clothing when they retire to rest, but need 
additional covering towards morning. 
They who exercise but little require more clothing than the 
active. Those who exercise too much,#on the other hand, 
and especially those who have, at times, profuse perspirations, 
have weakened calorific powers, and consequently require a 
larger amount of clothing in proportion. 
Living or sleeping in a bad atmosphere puts out the inter- 
nal fire. Hence it is that factory people, and students, and 
clerks often find themselves chilly, and often take cold ; while 
those who are employed chiefly in the open air are comforta- 
ble with a much smaller amount of clothing. 
I know a stage driver on Capo Cod, who assured me, when 
I last saw him, that for twelve years, during which time he 
had driven his coach every day from Chatham to Harwich, 
he had worn no stockings with his boots, and yet had been as 
comfortable as he was formerly when he wore them. I have 
known several similar instances. 
Many wonder how it is that the laborer can endure the 
cold so well. They forget that, like the stage driver, he 
always has an abundance of pure air. There are, indeed, 
other reasons for the fact; but this is one, and is a highly im- 
portant one. 
Mr. Rich says, " Let as little headdress be worn as will CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
309 
comport with the common ideas of decency ; and of whatever 
shape it may be, let it be light and porous." The latter part 
of the remark might be applied to dress in general. Every 
thing should sit loosely. 
III. MATERIALS FOR CLOTHING. 
I wish it were practicable to return to the custom of rais- 
■ng flax and manufacturing linen, as they did in Solomon's 
time.* Not for the sake of a few kings and princes, merely ; 
but that every body might be kings and princes in the sum- 
mer season - such kings and princes, I mean, as Christianity 
was designed to render us. 
For nothing could be more healthy in hot weather, except 
for those who, by reason of feebleness or violent exertion, 
perspire too freely, than linen clothing. It is a good con- 
ductor both of heat and electricity. Hence we call it cooler. 
But for those who are, from any cause whatever, enfeebled 
in their constitutions, and especially so enfeebled as to be 
liable to profuse perspiration, light, soft flannel, or at least 
cotton, will be preferable, even in midsummer, and in the hot- 
test climate. The linen such persons wear should be worn 
externally. 
Cotton is a worse conductor of heat and electricity; and 
is, therefore, in general, a better material of dress, except for 
hot weather, than linen. Besides, its cheapness is a tempta- 
tion which even some of the friends of free labor know not 
how to overcome. Some individuals find cotton, next to the 
skin, to be irritating, though less so than woollen. Such per- 
* There are at the present moment indications of such a return. 
Success to those who have set the ball in motion. 310 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
sons are obliged to use linen underclothes. But I have usu- 
ally found this class of persons much more able to bear cotton 
and woollen after abandoning a high-seasoned and ovei- 
stimulating diet. 
I am strongly inclined to believe that, when mankind have 
lived in strict accordance with all the laws of health for a few 
generations, linen may and will be made a staple article, and 
will constitute one fourth or one third of all the clothing 
worn among us. 
The time, however, is not far distant when cotton cloth 
will be the product, for the most part, of free labor, so that, 
as far as health requires it, the most scrupulous can use it in 
preference to linen, and, if they choose, as a substitute for 
nearly every other material. 
Woollen clothing, trained as we are, and in our very 
changeable and cold climate, will be for some time in very 
large demand, notwithstanding the cheapness and available- 
ness of cotton. 
Some individuals among us have supposed the use of wool- 
len clothing not only unnecessary, but wrong. They reason in 
this way : " A state of society," they tell us, " is fast approach- 
ing, when wool cannot be had in any considerable quantity ; 
and does not this indicate," they ask, " that the Author of 
nature did not intend its use ? " 
They refer to a future condition of the world, when, its 
population being increased fifty or a hundred fold, there will 
be, as it now is in Japan, no room for domestic animals; or, 
if any, for very few. So that precisely at the time when 
fifty or a hundred times the present amount of woollen clothing 
would seem to be needed, not a fiftieth or a hundreth part of 
what we now have can be obtained. 
It would bo difficult to show the fallacy of such reasoning, CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
311 
and yet mankind will generally reject the conclusions. " Such 
a dense population," they say, " may never exist. And sup- 
pose it should - why should I deny myself, at the present 
time, what is a manifest enjoyment, because people may be 
compelled to make the denial a hundred generations hence ? " 
But it is not claimed that such denial should be compelled. 
The object of this train of reasoning is to suggest important 
thoughts on a subject which most certainly demands consid- 
eration. The question such reasoners would raise is this : If in 
the latter-day ages woollen clothing cannot be had, - at least 
none worth mentioning, for so amazing a population,- has the 
Creator made it indispensable to human happiness now ? 
One argument in favor of the substitution of cotton, linen, 
and silk for woollen, is the consideration that it would involve 
less of bloodshed and other cruelties. If sheep could be dis- 
pensed with, how many lambs might be spared from the knife 
of the butcher! 
Some, however, tell us wool might be had without murder. 
The sheep sheds its wool without our interference, and can 
there be any great harm in picking it up ? They that say 
this should consider how small the quantity of wool we shall 
thus find will probably be, when we cease to domesticate the 
animal that furnishes it. 
Besides, the use of silk involves the destruction of much 
life of a certain kind, though not, I grant, in the same way. 
Vet who would deny himself silk vests and pocket handker- 
chiefs, or his wife and daughters silk dresses ? Or if it were 
worn next the skin only, as is the custom with some, it would 
be an article we should be slow to relinquish entirely. 
In general, silk, from its non-conducting character, is but a 
very indifferent material for underclothing. Yet there are 
seasons of the year, such as a portion of the spring, and par- 312 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
ticular days at almost every season, when its non-conducting 
qualities are desirable. Thus, when the weather is warm and 
the air moist, - surcharged with vapor, - and the electricity 
is conducted too rapidly from the body, so that we lose our 
elasticity of body and mind, and complain of faintness and lan- 
guor, silk next the skin has a most happy and healthful effect, 
and can hardly be too much commended. 
For my own part, I have very little doubt that we might 
train ourselves, in a few generations, to the disuse of wool- 
Improper shape of our shoes illustrated. 
lens, were it likely to be beneficial to do so. But if it were 
both beneficial and desirable, as I think it is, what shall we 
do for shoes, stockings, mittens, and hats ? 
There are few persons who need any thing more than Mr. 
Rich's contrivances for the feet, except for a very few times 
in the winter; and some would hardly need any thing else 
all winter long. Or a shoe might be made, partly on his plan 
and partly on that of a friend of mine, of gutta percha, and 
perhaps a little India rubber and cloth. 
But whatever the material may be, they should be large CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
313 
and loose, and shaped like the foot. Only a few days since 
a mother was complaining that the middle toes of her little 
daughter's foot were inclined to overlap the others. On look- 
ing at the foot, and comparing it with the shoe, the mystery 
stood revealed. The former was almost twice as broad as the 
shoe. (See the engraving.) 
If at eight, ten, or twelve years of age, a proper beginning 
were made, I have very little doubt that by the age of twenty- 
five or thirty, a person might be disciplined into a condition 
which would require but very little clothing on ordinary occa- 
sions. But the process must be slow - never hurried. 
I must not close this lecture without protesting against 
several errors in relation to the dress of both sexes. One is 
the use of thick, heavy hats. The thick wool hat keeps the 
head hot, even when the hair is closely cut; but when both 
are worn, - the hat and the hair, - the danger to the brain 
is quite considerable, and sometimes imminent. 
Boots are often too tight. In truth, tight and narrow shoes 
and boots arc quite the order of the day. Besides producing 
what are called corns, they have other evils. They deform 
the feet, and retard the venous circulation. They are es- 
pecially to be avoided by the young. 
Tight coats, stocks, cravats, vests, and pants are all of 
evil tendency. They have not a single redeeming quality 
So tight garters. These arc worse than the rest. They do 
infinite mischief. They are one cause of those terrible en- 
largements in the lower limbs, called varicose veins. But 1 
have treated of these elsewhere. 
I must call attention, particularly that of parents, to another 
evil. Young women go out at evening with thin shoes, and 
other light and thin garments, when they have worn thicker, 
and stouter, and warmer garments, in the house, all day long. 314 
CLOTHING AND TEMPERATURE. 
Thousands and thousands,, who have died of consumption, 
owed their death to the indulgence of that kind of vanity to 
which these remarks refer. 
But of all the abominations connected with this subject, 
tight dressing, bracing, and padding are the most reprehensi- 
ble. There is no apology for compressing the surface of the 
body. Let me sum up what I have to say on tight clothing in 
the following words : - 
1. Clothes moderately loose are warmest. 2. Tight clothes 
impede the venous circulation. 3. They obstruct perspira- 
tion. 4. They injure the internal organs by compression. 
5. Other parts are injured by sympathy. 6. They interfere 
with free muscular motion. 7. They obstruct the free circu- 
lation of the air on the surface of the body. 
The philosophy of braces has, perhaps, been fully ex- 
plained. They are designed to support the body, but in the . 
end weaken it. Edward VI. is said to have worn iron boots 
to support his ankles, which were weak ; but the more he wore 
them, the weaker and more crooked his legs became. This 
might have been expected, had his friends known any thing 
of physiology and hygiene. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
315 
LECTURE VIII. 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
There is a prejudice abroad against discussing the ques- 
tion , What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what 
shall we put on ? Now, as regards our dress, I have shown, 
in my last lecture, that such prejudice is wholly unworthy and 
unreasonable; to which I might have added, that the objec- 
tions made to a conscientious consideration of that subject 
come frorft a wrong quarter. It is somewhat so with the pre- 
judice against talking about what we shall- eat, and how we 
shall eat it. They who quote Paul so fluently, and tell us of 
his injunction, " Eat and drink what is set before you, asking 
no questions for conscience' sake," are seldom the first to 
obey his other injunction, " Whether, therefore, ye eat or 
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 
There is here no contradiction in the apostle's mind, nor is 
there any in the words ascribed to him. In the first instance, 
he is not talking of any qualities of the food, other than its 
having been set apart for idolatrous purposes : this, he prac- 
tically says, docs not injure it. But the last injunction covers 
the whole ground of food and cookery ; and not only permits, 
but requires, a reasonable consideration of whatever is set 
before us. 
There are those who, notwithstanding their zeal to glorify 
God, practically regard the human appetites, in themselves, 
us mean and vicious, and incapable of sanctification and 316 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
honor. They would tread them beneath their feet, - or, in 
other words, exterminate them, - and still think they were 
doing God service. 
True, I do not believe the number to be very large of 
those who think thus meanly of the Creator - who regard 
him, in a practical point of view, as having made a mistake 
in our formation. Most men of sense believe the appetites, 
as well as the affections, when duly " baptized " into Chris- 
tianity, to be an aid in the performance of our duty. 
And some believe even more than this-that in a morat 
and religious, as well as social and intellectual view, the 
stronger our appetites are, the better. This I have affirmed 
and illustrated in my second lecture ; it is, therefore, only 
necessary, in this place, to repeat the statement. 
The appetites, then, we may safely say, are given to pro- 
mote our happiness and usefulness. The more perfectly cor- 
rect they are, the better they fulfil the divine purposes con- 
cerning them. And can such an attention to the laws of 
health and life as will preserve them in a state of integrity be 
unworthy of our conscientious regard ? 
I might say even more than I have yet said, either here or 
elsewhere. I might say that, instead of being wrong to talk 
about our food, and think about it, and discuss the question, in 
our own minds, whether we will take this article or reject 
that, there are great moral advantages to be derived from it. 
One reason why Christians are not Christians, after all, - 
why they do not deny themselves more, in their every-day 
walk and conversation, - is precisely this : that they have 
never been trained to it. Dr. Emmons, of Massachusetts, it 
is said, never sat down to eat without agitating the question, 
at least in his own bosom, what he should eat; and when 
he had decided, no circumstances could prevent his acting FOOD AND COOKERY. 
317 
according to his convictions. The man who has been trained 
to be able to put a knife to his throat at the table and else- 
where, when temptations arise, is the only man who can-• 
or rather will - govern himself in the larger matters of human 
life. As arc the sources of the Mississippi, so is the Mississippi. 
It is quite another thing to watch over ourselves with fear 
and trembling ; this is always hurtful. So it is to think much 
about it after we have eaten ; but the question, " What shall we 
eat ? " properly and calmly discussed before eating and during 
a meal, and above all, an adherence to the judgment of the 
mind as to what is right for us, are almost indispensable to 
the formation of Christian character. 
It is thus that the question, " What shall we eat ? " is placed 
on high ground. It assumes a religious aspect. It becomes, as 
it ought, a matter of conscience - of duty - a matter between 
us and God our Creator. It becomes to us one of those 
" deeds " which are to be performed, as Paul again says, to 
the " glory of God." Neither our Savior nor Paul ever in- 
tended to set aside consideration, but only over-anxiety and 
superstition. 
In pursuance of this subject, as a semi-religious concern, I 
shall endeavor to show, 1. .Under what circumstances the 
preparation of food by culinary and other processes is legiti- 
mate ; 2. What are proper and what improper articles of 
food ; 3. I shall present a list of domestic poisons. 
WHEN COOKERY IS PROPER, AND WHEN IMPROPER. 
The preparation or cooking of food is legitimate when it 
renders it more agreeable, more nutritious, and more digesti- 
ble, or any one of these ; provided, however, the cooking pro- 
cess is not too expensive. For if the gain by cooking is so 318 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
trivial as to be unworthy of the time and money required by 
the process, then it may become unlawful, or illegitimate. 
The potato will serve as an illustration. It is the concur- 
rent testimony of all men of large experience, that the cooked 
potato is much more valuable as food, even for domestic ani- 
mals, than the uncooked. The difference is believed to con- 
sist chiefly in an increase, by cookery, of the nutrient prin- 
ciples. Why we believe thus is, that some of our domestic 
animals find it as agreeable to their taste - perhaps more so 
- when raw as when cooked ; and yet they do not thrive so 
well on it. Here, at least, is the testimony of analogy. As 
a plain matter of fact, too, we know that for man it is much 
more palatable, somewhat more nutritious, and vastly more 
digestible, when boiled, baked, or roasted, than in a raw state. 
Here, then, is still higher testimony, which I suppose will not 
be controverted. 
Take, for a second illustration, the article of rice. This, for 
aught I know, is as nutrient in its uncooked state, and perhaps 
nearly as agreeable, as when subjected to culinary processes ; 
but it is not, in its uncooked state, very easy of digestion. 
Still we believe the cookery of rice to be perfectly legitimate. 
Take, again, wheat, corn, or rye. Now, these can be eaten, 
by those who have good teeth, without any preparation, and 
they are by no means disagreeable to one who has a good 
appetite. Yet they are more agreeable when cooked, and, as 
is generally believed, rather more nutritious ; and if cooked 
properly, quite as digestible. Here, then, is some little gain 
from cookery, and no known loss ; I deem it, therefore, legit- 
imate. 
Again, still, take peas or beans. These can be eaten 
raw ; they are thus eaten by Dr. Schlemmer and his follow- 
ers. Rut they are at once more palatable, more nutritious. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
319 
and more digestible, when cooked. I need not say that the 
preparation of these vegetables, by boiling or otherwise, is 
legitimate. There are few this side the Atlantic that would 
eat them otherwise. 
Finally, the ripe, mellow apple, cooked - so to speak - 
in nature's own way, though more agreeable to the strong, 
healthy adult than when cooked, and nearly or quite as nu- 
tritive and digestible, is yet, for young children and feeble 
adults, somewhat improved by the simple process of baking. 
Is not this, too, legitimate ? 
But, on the other hand, take wheat flour, and rich, ripe ap- 
ples. Instead of making the flour into good bread, and either 
baking the apples or eating them raw, let a housekeeper toil 
several hours - nay, one hour; for that is too much - to make 
them into pics. Are the apples improved ? Is the pie crust 
an improved article ? 
Take the rich marrow squash, that, when simply boiled, is 
like a mass of meal, only sweeter, and is fit to stand before 
kings, as Solomon would say, and tftcr rolling out some paste 
from wheat flour, and adding other ingredients, put them to- 
gether to make a pie. Is either article improved ? 
Some may say, " But the pies, both of them, are made 
more agreeable by the cooking process; and did you not say 
that, when a thing was made more agreeable by cooking, the 
process wTas legitimate ? " Yes, certainly, whenever it does 
not occasion a wicked waste of time or money ; and when- 
ever, too, it is not made the worse in other respects. But 
when pics are made, they involve such a waste of precious 
time, and they are rendered so indigestible, that their prepara- 
tion can never be right. 
So, once more, take milk. Immediately from the cow, it 
is tolerable food for the young, and not very bad food foi 320 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
adults ; but when it has stood long enough for the cream to 
rise, it is less perfect in both divisions, the milk end the 
cream. When, however, we go still further, and spend time 
in manufacturing the cream into butter, we do what is so pal- 
pably wrong, as, in my own view, to admit of no apology. 
For let us recur to our rules. Is any thing gained to our 
palates ? Not unless they are strangely perverted. Is the 
food rendered more nutritious ? Not at all. More digestible ? 
On the contrary, far less. And the time spent is lost, wholly 
so, to say nothing of the loss by permitting the milk itself 
to deteriorate. 
But many set their milk for cheese. This is still worse 
than making butter. Why so ? Because it wastes more time, 
and nothing is gained which is worth naming. It would take 
one person nearly a whole summer to make three thousand 
pounds of cheese ; and what an immense amount of positive 
good might a well-trained and benevolent female accomplish 
in that time ! 
I have given these as mere examples of what is before us 
daily, in a thousand shapes. I have not presented the worst 
cases I could think of; but, rather, average ones. Mrs. Les- 
lie, as I have before told you, gives a receipt for making a 
mince pie, into which enter eighteen different ingredients. 
She who would make such a pie must have very little re- 
gard for a world lying in wickedness, or for a judgment to 
come. 
Though I am neither a preacher nor the son of a preacher, 
allow me to discuss this subject for a few moments. For I 
am quite aware of a supposed objection that is brought, at 
least in the minds of housekeepers, when they listen at all to 
such reasoning. " Why, females, as things are, can do 
but little if any good in the world," they say, " and is it not FOOD AND COOKERY. 
321 
better that they should spend their time in cooking than in 
idleness ? " 
But can they do no good ? Have they no brothers, sisters, 
uncles, aunts, parents, or grandparents, whom they might sol- 
ace by their conversation, reading, &c., or even by kind and 
cheerful looks ? Have they no sick, or ignorant, or vicious 
neighbors ? Have they no friends, sick or well, at a distance, to 
whom they could write, or in some way communicate good ? 
Should it ever become true that a female who is competent 
to make pies, cakes, puddings, fritters, jams, and I know not 
what, is incompetent to perform any of these acts of benevo- 
lence, or is unable to find any body in the wide world 
who needs charity, then let her, if she will, make pies and 
cakes. 
Let her do this, did I say ? Certainly I would, if I could 
not convince her that, besides doing no good, it was doing a 
great deal of harm. Let her do it, if she dare do it, with a 
knowledge of the laws of health. Let her do it, if she dare 
do it, in a world for which Christ lived and died. 
Should the true reasons for this fashionable cookery ever 
be given, they will be found very different from all this. 
They will be found not unlike those which the drinker of 
spirits, wine, cider, beer, tea, and coffee would give, if he 
spoke the truth, for using those beverages, viz., " Wo like 
them." Another reason will be, " We like to cook.'1'1 Or, 
rather, " We have been so trained as to be ambitious of 
setting out a table in good style. Our hearts are not on 
politics, or trade, or commerce, or money, even. But we 
cannot help having some pride in a well-set - that is, a 
fashionable - array of dishes." 
Yet Christian housekeepers ought to know - some of them 
do know - better. They understand, perfectly well, that 1c 322 
POOD AND COOKERY. 
him that knoweth how and where to do good, and doeth it 
not, to him it is sin. And yet they will sin on ! They would 
sin on - some of them - even if the grave yawned beneath 
their very feet ! 
If they were to cook as they know is best for health and 
economy, nobody, they tell us, would eat. Woman is to 
please others. Yes; but she might please others by setting 
before them rum and tobacco; for some females have even 
done this. Will she therefore do it ? She did it formerly ; 
why not do it again ? But I will not dwell. 
Suppose a family, one or two of whose members are 
severely sick, with a disease so alarming that they cannot 
obtain the necessary help. The mothers and daughters are 
compelled to expend every pound of strength they have to 
spare on their sick sons and brothers. Suppose, moreover, 
they are already supplied, or can be readily furnished with 
good, plain, wholesome food - that, too, which very well 
satisfies all their appetites. Will they suffer themselves to 
be drawn away from those duties to the sick, on which life 
appears to depend, for the sake of fashionable cookery ? 
But if plain food - bread, meats, potatoes, rice, peas, 
beans, beets, turnips, fruits, milk, &c. - is sufficient to satisfy 
the appetite and sustain the body in good health, even in 
unfavorable circumstances, why should it not answer the 
purpose at all times ? Why should any other be prepared ? 
The " dinner of herbs," as Solomon calls it, is not only better 
" where love is," but always and in all circumstances. Is it 
said that we are not always compelled by sickness to deny 
ourselves ? It ought to be no self-denial to Christian men 
and women to do right. Besides, do we remember that we 
are all brethren of one great family ? What if we have no 
sick brothei' or sister under our own roof; have we none in FOOD AND COOKERY. 
323 
the neighborhood - in the town - in the world? Or if 
none who are sick in body, are there none who are sick in 
mind or heart ? 
Not only is it true that mankind are one great family, but 
it is true, also, that the world is one great building for us to 
live in. Does it make as much difference as many people 
seem to suppose, whether the partitions between our various 
rooms are one inch, one mile, or ten thousand miles thick ? 
Will it, again, be said, " God made us for enjoyment, 
and who wants to do penance all his life long ? " There 
is no penance about it. Some say there is no such thing as 
self-denial. But there is. There is a denial of self for 
the present moment, to insure a future good. And there 
are those who can testify from experience - and their testi- 
mony is worth something, because it is positive, and that of 
all others is negative - that enjoyment in this world, so far 
as eating is concerned, is altogether in favor of those who are 
self-denying. 
II. WHAT IS PROPER. AND WHAT IMPROPER FOOD. 
The best practical classification of food, I know, is the 
following : 1. Farinaceozis articles, or breadstzzffs. 2. Fruits. 
3. Esculent roots. 4. Oily substances. Of these I will speak 
in their order. 
1. Farinaceous or Mealy Articles. - These are so nu- 
merous that I shall not attempt to speak of them all. Wheat, 
rye, barley, Indian corn, oats, peas, beans, rice, buckwheat, 
millet, chestnuts, potatoes, sago, tapioca, and the marrow 
squash are among the more important. These are essentially 
bread stuffs - commonly called the staff of life. I doubt, 
however, whether they are much better entitled to this name 324 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
than fruits. Life can be well sustained by either ; but a selec 
lion from the two is preferable. (See Appendix, Note A.) 
Most of these articles of bread corn, as they were once 
familiarly called, may be eaten raw, by those who choose to 
use them in that way. They are generally rich in nutrient 
particles, but are believed to be, for the most part, richer 
when cooked in a rational and healthful manner. 
A part of them, especially corn and buckwheat, are often 
parched. Others of the catalogue are roasted or torrefied. 
Parched grain is of very ancient date, and to most persons 
wholesome. South American armies sometimes subsist on 
it, during forced marches of many hundred miles. So, in 
substance, the North American Indians. 
Boiling these articles is by no means uncommon. Thus 
we boil rice, peas, beans, chestnuts, squashes, sago, tapioca, 
potatoes, wheat, and sometimes corn and rye. And I know 
no reason why a part of the other farinaceous articles might 
not be boiled with advantage. Boiling renders them easy 
of digestion. 
This third kind of bread (using the term in its enlarged 
sense) is believed to be, on the whole, preferable to the other 
two I have mentioned, for general use, and deserves to be 
brought into more extensive notice than it has been. Wheat, 
rye, and chestnuts, boiled properly, deserve to be staple arti- 
cles at all our tables. I do not, of course, mean to say that we 
should have them at every meal, or either of them, unless 
we prefer to do so; though there is no particular objection to 
such an arrangement. The world will be great gainers, 
however, when any one of the three shall find its way to 
every table once a day. 
Closely related to this is a fourth kind of bread. It has 
obtained the very general name of hominy. It is grain FOOD AND COOKERY. 
325 
bruised, or cracked, and then boiled. Indian corn and wheat 
are oftenest prepared in this way ; but there would be no ob- 
jection to making hominy from several of the others, were it 
but customary. 
But we must come to those preparations which have, more 
commonly than the others, been called bread? They consist, 
essentially, of masses of flour or meal, coarser or finer, mixed 
up with water or some other liquid, and baked in the shape 
either of cakes or loaves. To make these in greatest perfec- 
tion, they should be ground coarsely - cracked, rather - 
and baked in thin parcels or flakes. They should be baked 
quickly. The grain, moreover, should, in the first place, be 
washed clean. It is also an improvement to run it through 
a mill, as some do, and scrape off and blow away a part of 
the cuticle. 
If the question is still asked, " Why bake, or in any way 
cook, our grains at all ? If trained to eat them raw, would it 
not answer every purpose ? The Schlemmerites cat them 
so, as you have already told us. We should, then, be com- 
pelled to the work of mastication ; and this would certainly 
be an advantage." Yes, if we all had good teeth, and were 
willing and contented to use them freely, it is highly probable 
they would last longer for it. Dr. Schlemmer claims this 
in behalf of his system. But if our cakes are firmly baked, 
and thin, I think we shall be likely to masticate them very 
well, almost as well as we should the grains. 
Then I think that, as it is with the potato, in boiling, so it 
is with meal in baking. There is, somehow or other, a gain 
in nutrient particles quite sufficient to compensate for the 
loss of time and strength in preparing it. (See Appendix, 
Note B.) 
I have said that these cakes, of coarse meal, should be thin. 326 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
They are best so, for two reasons. First, there is more of 
the crust in proportion to the whole contents ; and the crust, 
you know, is both sweetest and most digestible. Secondly, 
they seem more light and porous when baked quickly ; which, 
with many, would be quite a recommendation, and to no one 
at all objectionable. 
If, however, any one chooses, he may make loaves of 
considerable thickness, from wheat, rye, and corn meal - 
taking for granted it is ground coarsely. Finely bolted flour, 
and perhaps buckwheat meal in any form, will be rather hard 
and heavy made into cakes or loaves of much thickness, if 
made in a simple way without yeast, or leaven. 
" Do you not, then, raise your bread at all ? " some one will 
here ask. Not this kind of which 1 am now speaking - this 
best, form of bread. Indeed, neither leaven nor yeast ought 
evei' to have been known. They are a filthy concern. Be- 
sides, fermented bread is semi-putrid bread; that is, it has ad- 
vanced one step in the highway to putrefaction. Lastly, it 
involves waste. (See Appendix, Note C.) 
" But is not bread which is not raised in any way rather 
hard of digestion ? " I do not know. I think it is slow of 
digestion ; but whether its digestion is hard or difficult is quite 
another question. To dyspeptics it may be rather hard. 
They ought, perhaps, to have the attraction of cohesion a 
little diminished, as happens in the process of baking after 
raising it. For this purpose, and for the accommodation of 
thousands of others whose stomachs have always been babied, 
- so to speak,- I prefer some of the effervescing mixtures 
of the day; such, for example, as consist, essentially, of 
muriatic acid and carbonate of soda. 
The chemical change which takes place in the mass, when 
these two ingredients are introduced, results in the disengage- FOOD AND COOKERY. 
327 
ment of a good deal of carbonic acid gas, which, in its efforts 
to escape, inflates the loaf, and the deposition, in the mass, of 
a little muriate of soda, or common salt. 
Let me be fully understood. The difference between fer- 
mentation and effervescence is just this : In fermentation, a 
portion of the saccharine matter - the life or vitality - of 
the bread is used up, and carried off as wine and carbonic 
acid gas ; while, in mere effervescence, the loaf is inflated 
without taking any thing away, and without adding any thing 
but a little salt. 
Observe, also, that I am not recommending the preparation 
of bread by any effervescing mixture. Only, .as it was of 
old that certain things were allowed for the hardness of the 
heart, so now certain things are allowed on account of the 
weakness of the stomach. From the beginning, however, in 
both cases, it was not so ; nor does true science indicate that 
it should be so. It is, however, most fully admitted that, did 
no individual transgress the physical code any farther than 
by eating good raised wheat meal, or rye meal bread, the 
world would not be as guilty before God as we now find it. 
But I must state the abstract truth, whether or not men are 
ready to come up to it. 
If people are not satisfied with unfermented bread of wheat, 
rye, or corn meal, coarsely ground, or if they arc tired of 
them, and wish for a change, as they say, they may use cer- 
tain sorts of mixed bread - rye and wheat, corn and wheat, 
corn and rye, wheq^, corn, and rye, &c. I shall be interrupted, 
here, by some supposed shrewd observer. " Now you are 
caught in at least one contradiction," he will say. " You are 
professedly a great enemy to mixed dishes, and a great 
stickler for simplicity; yet here you gravely tell us to mis 
the various grains, to render them a little more palatable." 328 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
And have I not a high example for making certain allow- 
ances for " hardness of heart " ? I verily thought so. In 
the present case, however, I have not availed myself of such 
an example. There is no mixture of opposites here recom- 
mended. It is only the mixture of farina with farina, after 
all. You may mix ground rice with the grains, - rather with 
their meal, - or, if you choose, chestnuts or potatoes, after 
the manner of the Southern Europeans. So you may add 
sago, or tapioca, or peas, or beans, or squash, to your meal. 
Some mix baked or boiled apples with their bread, but this I 
do not like so well. You may waste time in this way, I ad- 
mit ; but you alone must take the responsibility. 
The next form of bread I shall mention is that which is 
made of fine bolted meal. This is the only bread supposed, 
by most, in these days of pseudo-refinement, to be at all tol- 
erable. But it is, at best, a third-rate or fourth-rate article. 
It is objectionable for many reasons. Besides those already 
alluded to, viz., that it has been robbed of a part of its vitality, 
and that the coarser, innutritions particles of the grain, which 
are so necessary to health, are removed, it has a bad effect on 
the stomach and bowels. It tends readily to fermentation and 
to constipation. Still, if well baked, and kept till it is a day 
or two old, many stomachs are strong enough to get along 
with it. At least it is not worse than three fourths of the ar- 
ticles which come to our tables. Most of our cakes and pies, 
even the plainest, are more apt to run into paste in the stom- 
ach than stale flour bread. 
I have said " stale " bread. There are few worse things 
of the bread kind than hot bread and butter. It is not only 
hurtful to consumptive people, but to every body. Alone, it 
is almost intolerable ; but when butter is added, or any other 
greasy substance, it is quite so. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
329 
Ship broad, or, as it is sometimes called, pilot bread, is 
rather better, because it is made hard, and is not fermented. 
This is favorable to a good deal of mastication ; besides, we 
save all the sweetness. Common fine flour bread is almost 
always fermented. Unleavened cakes would not, by most 
persons, be tolerated at all. 
Crackers are usually a vile mixture of fine flour, lard, or 
miserable butter, and I know not what else. I seldom taste 
them, unless driven to very close quarters. I have, however, 
seen coarse meal water crackers, and Graham wafers, but 
these are becoming unfashionable. When well made, they 
are, however, very tolerable food. 
Gingerbread was once common, and not very objectionable. 
It was made of rye meal, or rye and wheat, -for pure wheat 
flour, it was thought, could not be afforded, - and a little gin- 
ger and molasses. But since the days of fine wheat, salera- 
tus, and butter, it has most sadly deteriorated. 
Beyond this, I am sure I need not go. There is good sense 
enough left in the world to forbid the necessity. You know 
well, that if crackers and gingerbread arc doubtful, the rest of 
our pastry cannot be safe. All cakes are bread ; that is, of 
the bread family ; but they are so vilely compounded as to 
deserve, if not execration, at least reprobation. 
Much is said, by many of our writers, on the subject of 
buckwheat cakes. As I suppose I shall not prevail with 
many to lay them aside, even till they are cool, let me here 
say, that, if eaten at all, they should be eaten alone, or with a 
very little sugar. They should have no other accompaniment. 
Once more : The objections which have been mentioned 
to the use of hot bread apply less forcibly whenever that 
bread is made of coarse meal. Hence it is that hot cakes 
made of Indian corn, (johnny cakes,) unbolted wheat meal, 330 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
and oatmeal, are comparatively uninjurious. These, however, 
to the normal appetite, are quite tolerable when cold, and 
much more healthy. 
We come, now, to the world of puddings. These are nu- 
merous ; but there are few which deserve notice, except to 
condemn them. They are much more liable to produce fer- 
mentation and acidity than breadstuffs, which are more solid, 
and which require, for that very reason, more mastication. 
Of all the puddings I have seen, - for there is a vast 
variety in the old countries, if not in our own, which I have 
not yet seen, - the common bread pudding is the best. 
A loaf of bread, whatever the material may be from which 
it is made, requires more or less of age - a species of ripe- 
ness. Then, too, it has its period of old age, or decay, when 
it is not so good. It may not yet be mouldy, but it is not so 
sweet as it once was. 
Now, it is precisely at this stage that it makes a good pud- 
ding. In other words, it takes the loaf when it would other- 
wise begin to be worthless, and not only redeems it to the 
world, but furnishes us with a new, palatable, and wholesome 
dish. No seasoning is required, to those who have stomachs 
of integrity ; but to those who have not, the world of condi- 
ments is open, though milk, molasses, cream, &c., are not so 
good as sugar. All sauces and gravies are to be positively 
interdicted. 
Oatmeal puddings are comparatively excellent. The oat- 
meal cake or broad, made from half an incl^to an inch thick, 
like the wheat meal cake, or the johnny cake, is certainly 
preferable on the score of health ; but he who does no worse 
than to eat good oatmeal pudding, either alone or with a little 
sugar, will not materially transgress. 
The Indian pudding is made in various ways. The old FOOD AND COOKERY. 
331 
fashioned way is the best. This is to boil it in a bag or close 
vessel till thoroughly cooked. It is eaten with sauce, or with 
cream, or molasses and butter. Better, however, with dry 
sugar, and better still alone. This pudding is one of those arti- 
cles of food that have been in vogue from a period " beyond 
which the memory of man runneth not." It is said, jocose- 
ly, to have been considered perfectly prepared in olden time, 
when it could be taken from the kettle, and thrown over the 
house without breaking it! 
Then comes the hasty pudding. This is not so good. It 
is prepared by stirring Indian meal into boiling water till of a 
proper consistence ; which is usually thin. As a conse- 
quence, it is not very well cooked, and is never well masti- 
cated. It is, for the most part, eaten with milk, and at 
evening. It would not be so objectionable eaten alone, or 
even with something dry added. 
Intermediately between this and what is usually called hom- 
iny, was, in former times, another coarse dish. It consisted 
of corn plucked before it is ripe enough to grind very finely, 
and only broken to pieces in a mill or a mortar. It is health- 
ier than hasty pudding, but should not be eaten with milk 
at evening. Either of t^ese last dishes, taken in the morning, 
by the strong and healthy, after standing over night and 
gradually cooling and consolidating, and taken alone or with 
a little sugar, will answer a tolerable purpose. Still, I say 
again, food which requires more mastication would be prefer- 
able. But the worst way of eating hasty pudding is that of 
frying it, and eating it with molasses. They who take such 
a dish as this, ought to expect what they call rising of their 
food on the stomach, and heartburn. The stomach must be 
made - so to speak-of whalebone, that can manage fried 
pudding. 332 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
There are minute puddings, plum puddings, batter pud- 
dings, bird's nest puddings, suet puddings, rice puddings, and 
a score, if not a thousand, other sorts of puddings. Dumplings 
belong to the same family. So do porridge and gruel ; but 
the latter forms of bread arc so diluted as hardly to deserve 
the name. 
The most common way of eating peas, beans, sago, and 
tapioca is when boiled. After boiling, they are sometimes 
set in the oven and baked. It was customary, once, to bake 
pork with dried beans, whenever we cooked them ; but peo- 
ple have found out that they can be relished by hungry 
stomachs when cooked alone.* 
It is still quite customary to add butter to some of these 
last-mentioned articles. But the custom is semi-barbarous. 
Whatever other uses may be made of butter, it should not be 
eaten with green peas, or beans, or squashes. Nobody thinks 
of putting butter into chestnuts, though ever so dry and mealy, 
or on baked apples. 
The potato, both the common and the sweet potato, is al- 
most bread. If of good quality, it is exceedingly rich and 
mealy. It lies on the confines between the great class of 
* Fifteen or twenty years ago, a wealthy family in Marblehead, Mas- 
sachusetts, found out, in some way, that beans were very tolerable baked 
without pork. Yet they hardly dared to speak of it to their neighbors, 
lest it should be misconstrued. They were afraid the idea of vul- 
garity or meanness would attach to it. 
This, by the way, is like the boasted independence of thousands in our 
country, especially of those who consider themselves people of influence. 
They are not satisfied to do a thing because it is right, but must watch 
the weathercock of public opinion. They ask, first and above all, what 
people will say about it. Were this class of our citizens a little bolder 
- had they more of Christianity - the latter glorious days of the world 
we live in would come much earlier. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
333 
food of which I am speaking, and the esculent roots, though 
it is usually regarded as belonging to the bread family ; and' 
some have called it nature's own loaf. 
Something has been said, of late years, about the artichoke, 
and the root of the garden comfrey. When the potato was 
thought about to be lost by disease, it was hoped, by many, that 
one of these might prove a substitute. But artichokes are, 
at best, a very inferior article of food. They hardly seem 
entitled to a place alongside of the potato, and the comfrey 
root is more doubtful still. 
I have spoken freely of the farinaceous articles; for their 
importance demanded it. I might have said much more. 
This, however, is all I can do in a single lecture. 
2. Fruits. - The fruits of greatest importance in this coun- 
try arc the apple, pear, peach, nectarine, apricot, grape, 
plum, quince, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, whortle- 
berry, cherry, currant, gooseberry, mulberry, cranberry, 
melon, cucumber, and tomato. Some class the squash and 
pumpkin among the fruits ; others do not. 
I have spoken of our domestic fruits alone. Among the 
foreign fruits are the orange, fig, date, banana, pineapple, 
tamarind, prune, lemon, citron, shaddock, the dried grape 
or raisin, and the currant. Some of these are raised in the 
southern sections of this country; but in general they are 
imported. 
Preliminary to every other remark, allow me to say that 
fruits are food, and not mere indulgences. If made to be 
eaten at all, they are to be eaten as other things are. If we 
have set meals, they are to form a part of them. They are 
not to be eaten according to fancy and inclination, at all hours 
of the day and in all circumstances. And he who eats them 
thus must suffer the just penalty. Neither are they to be 334 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
used at the end of a meal, after we have eaten quite enough, 
"if not too much, of something else. This is the way in 
which fruit has, for the most part, been eaten. If this use of 
it were only a wicked waste, it would be more tolerable ; but 
it is a source of much disease. 
An old adage says, Fruit is gold in the morning, silver at 
noon, and lead at night. With Dr. Trail and others, I think 
this saying adapted to man as he is, rather than as he should 
be. Taking him as he is, the morning and noon meals are 
certainly the most appropriate seasons for fruit eating. 
There are a few individuals to be met with, who, from 
idiosyncrasy, age, luxurious living, tobacco chewing, or some 
other unnatural habit or circumstance, have no natural rel- 
ish for fruits, and vainly try to make mankind believe that, 
as a part of human diet, they have, by Liebig, Graham, and 
others, been thought too highly of. But there arc many 
strong reasons for encouraging the dietetic use of fruit. The 
following are a few of them : - 
First. As a general thing, it is highly agreeable. Our firs* 
parents, as Locke says, ventured Paradise for it; and chil- 
dren, even before their powers of digestion are sufficiently 
strong, are so greedy for it, that they will sometimes greatly 
injure themselves by its use. There is, perhaps, nothing, ex- 
cept milk in infancy, and bread in adult life, of which man- 
kind, where the taste is not perverted, are so universally 
fond. 
Secondly. The juices of fruits are so diluting and cooling 
to the blood, that he who reflects, can scarcely help thinking 
the great Author of nature had in view this very thing, when 
he created or caused them to grow. If in this general adap- 
tation of fruit to the wants of the human system, there is not 
proof of design, I know not where to seek for it. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
335 
Thirdly. The particular adaptation of fruits to the wants 
of particular seasons, is another evidence, at least to my own 
mind, - and a very striking one, too, - of the divine intention 
concerning it. • The strawberry, for example, with very little 
acid in its composition, comes early, when the keener acids 
arc less needed. Nearly the same thing may be said of the 
cherry, raspberry, and blackberry. But in July and August, 
when the heat becomes great, and the blood thick, and nu- 
merous causes tend to deteriorate it, the currant comes with its 
strong acid, and the melon with its abundance of water and 
mucilage, to meet the exigency. A little later, we have the 
early apple, pear, and peach. These are digested with more 
difficulty than the smaller fruits, and therefore present them- 
selves after the great heat and other causes have ceased to 
debilitate us, when our systems have begun to react. If they 
came sooner, we could hardly digest them. 
Fourthly. It has been thought that the use of fruits invited 
disease. The abuse of them - a thing fearfully common - 
has this effect, most certainly. But their right use has a re- 
verse tendency. It is a preventive of disease. This is a 
most admirable proof of its dietetic usefulness. How much 
better to eat fruit than calomel, or rhubarb, or quinine 1 I 
might even say than mustard, pepper, and saleratus! 
One or two authors have spoken of the grape as being the 
most valuable fruit among us. I regard the apple as by far 
the most valuable, in every country where it can be profitably 
raised ; and it may even be sent in tolerable condition to 
foreign countries. I once sent a quantity of apples to Trebi- 
zond, and though they were sadly delayed, a part of them 
arrived in good condition. 
One excellence of the apple is its composition. It is not 
stringy on the one hand, nor too watery on the other. It has 336 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
some sugar in it, with a good share of the acetic and malic 
acids. When digestion is too feeble for the apple in its raw 
state, it is well to bake or boil it. Another thing in favor of 
the apple is its durability. By good management wo may 
have this excellent product of the orchard nearly perfect for 
about eight months of the year, beginning with September; 
several kinds do not seem to be fairly ripe till nearly winter; 
and some writers have even spoken of them as ripening in 
midwinter itself. 
In general, the sweet apple is the best; not solely because 
it is the richest in nutrient principles, but because, also, it is 
the easiest of digestion. Dr. Beaumont says it digests - he 
means, is changed into chyme * - in about three fourths of 
the time required to chymify the sour apple. 
Children under the age of two years arc said, by Dr. 
Dewees and others, to be almost wholly incapable of digesting 
fruits, especially the apple. So with dyspeptics, and some 
other persons who arc debilitated. In such cases, the apple, 
and several other fruits, may be either baked or roasted. A 
small quantity of baked sweet apple may be digested even by 
children one or two years old. 
Much use is made of the apple in preparing pics. For this 
purpose the sour apple is usually preferred. When apples 
first come into market, and for a long time afterwards, I have 
observed that the sour apple, even if only half ripe, sells bet- 
ter than the sweet one. Sweet apples are seldom used for 
this purpose. The reason, as I suppose, is, the housekeeper 
* I have hitherto forgotten to say that the experiments of Dr. 
Beaumont on digestion, as they arc called, though deeply interesting and 
important, arc, after all, little more than experiments on mere chymifi- 
cation. (Sec Appendix, Note D.) FOOD AND COOKERY. 
337 
or cook has little opportunity of displaying her skill on 
chopped or sliced sweet apples. There would not be room 
enough for sugar or molasses. The compound, when fin- 
ished, would be too tame ; or, in other and fewer words, sweet 
apples for pies arc unfashionable. 
The plain matter of fact is, that no apple pie ought to be 
tolerated. If there were no loss in substituting the coarse, 
sour apple for the sweet one, and paying a larger price for a 
_ worse article, there would be loss to health in adding that 
miserable compound called pie crust. 
Stewed apple is not objectionable, '/here no additions are 
made but water ; and yet where do we find any such sim- 
plicity ? Lemon peel, orange peel, or some of the aromatics 
are not unfrcquently commingled with the apple. How sel- 
dom does it escape poisoning in one way or another! 
Worse, still, is the common apple sauce of the country. 
Sweet cider is first boiled down to a considerable thickness, 
and then the apples, properly prepared, are added. The re- 
sult is a compound quite difficult of digestion. Stewed in 
simple, new, unfermented cider, apples would be tolerable ; it 
is the boiling that spoils apple sauce. 
But of all the abominations connected with cooking the 
apple, - except putting it into mince pies, - the process of 
frying it is worst. Commodore Nicholson, of revolutionary 
memory, would never have a frying pan in his house ; and I 
honor his memory, were it for no other reason. 
Next to the apple, in point of importance, as an item of hu- 
man diet, is the pear. It has, indeed, one advantage over the 
apple itself. When perfectly ripe, it melts more readily in 
the mouth. This is not, indeed, a certain test of excellence ; 
but it is an almost infallible test of ease of digestion, or, 
at least, of solution. There is, however, an immense differ- 338 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
ence in the quality of pears. Some of them - as the Bart- 
lett, for example - are tender, and exceedingly easy of so- 
. lution, while others, especially several kinds of late or win- 
ter pears, are equally tough and insoluble, until they have 
been long boiled. Some pears are improved by baking. 
One objection usually made to the pear is, that the tree is 
exceedingly slow in its growth. If the comparison be made 
with the peach, it certainly is of slow growth. But I have 
seen it come forward as fast as the apple. Besides, the 
dwarf pear may be cultivated, which gives us fruit almost im- 
mediately. 
There will be a wide difference between the health of two 
men, whose constitutions and habits are otherwise alike, one of 
whom, during the months of August, September, and October, 
of each year, for ten years, shall, at every dinner, eat a good 
Bartlett pear, and the other shall take, in its stead, the same 
amount in weight of mince pie, or rich pudding, or costly 
cake. The one will have the full benefit of the chyle of 
six or seven hundred pounds of rich fruit pulp, diffused 
through his system to cool the feverish tendencies, allay 
the rising irritation of the alimentary canal, and prevent 
disease ; the other will suffer all the accumulated evils re- 
sulting from compelling his system to overcome and reduce 
to something in the shape of chyle and blood six or seven hun- 
dred pounds of a substance which is almost rank poison to him. 
The peach is excellent, but is usually eaten with so little 
mastication that it is by no means a wonder if we find some 
persons on whose stomachs it sits badly, and lies coldly. 
Much depends on the manner of eating it. The same re- 
mark might have been made concerning the apple and pear. 
If swift eating were any where to be tolerated, it is not so 
here. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
339 
The peach, like the apple and pear, may be stewed, and I 
have occasionally seen it boiled. In some parts of the United 
States, peach sauce, in the winter, is used in very large quan- 
tities ; and a table is scarcely set without it. The usual 
difficulty with it is, it is made too rich by means of extras. 
Dried peaches are very common in particular portions of 
the country, but neither so common nor so good as dried 
apples. Pickled peaches I find, also, very frequently; but 
they are no better than other pickled vegetables-indeed, I 
think they are more thoroughly unfitted for the digestive ma- 
chinery than pickled cucumbers. Some of our peaches are 
stringy, and not very palatable, especially the very late na- 
tive peaches. I hardly need to repeat that all stone fruits, with 
stringy or fibrous pulp, arc difficult of digestion, but none 
more so than the autumnal peach. 
Of the nectarine and apricot I know but little. The apri- 
cot so closely resembles the peach that any remarks concern- 
ing that fruit will apply here. Dr. Paris speaks of the liabil- 
ity of the nectarine to derange certain stomachs; but the 
presumption is, that for healthfulness it is about on a par with 
the poach. 
The juice of the grape is exceedingly nutritious, cooling, 
and healthful. It should not, however, be used, unless the 
grapes from which it is expressed are perfectly ripe. The skin 
and seeds, say Dr. Pereira and other writers on the 'subject, 
are indigestible, and should be rejected. 
The Portugal or Madeira grape, that comes to us packed 
in saw dust, and is of a pale-green color, is probably the 
most digestible of the .grape family. It is large, fleshy, 
sweet, and at the same time very slightly acid. The Isabella 
and several others are tolerable. Some of our domestic or 
native grapes arc exactly the reverse of the Madeira, though 340 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
a few are tolerable. And yet our people eat them, and will eat 
them. And worst of all, they swallow the central, solid, sour, 
and bitter mass, containing the seeds ; usually without the 
slightest mastication. Hardly any thing could be more un- 
wise. If punishment always followed closely upon the heels 
of transgression, these grape eaters would perish by hundreds 
and thousands. 
Raisins are sometimes made by dipping the ripe clusters in 
a mixture of water and ashes, with a little sweet oil, and 
afterwards drying them in the sun. By this treatment, how- 
ever, the juice exudes and candies on the fruit. Those made 
by simply drying them slowly in the sun are preferable. 
They arc more nutritious than fresh grapes, for they abound 
more in sugar; but they are less cooling. Raisins have 
suffered more reproach than they really deserve. True it is, 
that eaten with the skins and seeds, as is the custom with 
many children and thoughtless older people, they are very 
indigestible. But when subjected to cookery, in a proper man- 
ner, they are as healthy as almost any foreign fruit, and more 
so than those fruits which are collected when in an unripe 
state. 
Take good box raisins, at a season when other fruit is 
scarce, say in April and May, and stew them slowly in a 
very small quantity of water, and few fruits can be more 
delicious, or, indeed, more wholesome. The skins are per- 
fectly digestible ; but the stones or seeds must be rejected by 
those whose stomachs are not peculiarly strong. 
There is a wide difference of opinion among the proper 
authorities in regard to the plum. Pereira says, " Taken in 
moderate quantity, fresh, ripe plums are wholesome and 
nutritive, but when eaten freely are apt to disease the bowels." 
Dr. Bell says, " At best it [the plum] is more grateful to FOOD AND COOKERY. 
341 
the taste than wholesome." Several other fruits arc doubtless 
preferable. 
The prune is a species of plum slowly dried in the sun; 
or in cold countries by artificial heat. Stewed properly, it is 
as good as any of the stone fruits - perhaps the best. 1 
hardly know how it happens, but all stone fruits have a bad 
reputation, even to the peach. Perhaps it is because thev 
have so often a stringy pulp. 
I do not think highly of the quince ; and yet I raise it, 
partly for its beauty. Baked or boiled slowly, or stewed, 
with much sugar added afterwards, it makes a tolerable article 
of food, when better fruits cannot be had. Quince sauce, 
like other complicated sauces and preserves,' is unhealthy. 
Strawberries are among the most delicious of our summer 
fruits. They arc the more agreeable to the taste, and much 
more welcome visitors at our tables, from the fact that they 
are the first fruits that arrive after the long winter. They do 
not contain much nutriment. They are soluble, however, 
and easily disposed of, though in feeble stomachs the grains 
or seeds sometimes irritate. They arc not very digestible. 
The usual additions made to them, such as wine, milk, 
sugar, and cream - particularly the latter - render them still 
more so. 
Nothing is more common where strawberries arc abundant 
than to eat them with milk, at the morning meal. Now, they 
should be eaten as a part of our meals, most certainly; and 
they are best for health either in the morning or at noon, but 
they are not a suitable accompaniment of a bowl of milk. 
It is high time the custom of eating fruits, of any kind, 
with milk, were abandoned. There is a presumptive reason 
against combining the two articles, at the outset. Milk is 
undoubtedly the food of infancy, while fruits arc the food of 342 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
adult life. The latter are known to be but poorly adapted to 
children under two years ; why should the former be adapted 
to adults ? And if their adaptation to different periods of life 
is so obvious as to raise a doubt whether little children ought 
to eat fruit at all, or adults milk, is it at all probable the two 
articles should come together at the same meal ? But we 
have facts. Many a person whose digestive powers are not 
strong, has found the combination to be wrong by his ex- 
perience. 
I do not say there is no choice to be exercised. If fruits 
and milk must be eaten together, the sweetest of the fruits are 
the best, such as the baked sweet apple, the whortleberry, the 
raspberry, the blackberry, and the mulberry ; and the sourest, 
such as the currant, sour apple, and cranberry, are the worst. 
Nor do I mean to say that strong, healthy adults should not 
eat milk. I only say that it cannot be the first and most 
important article for them. To feeble, infantile stomachs, 
such as we too often find in full-grown men and women, I 
have elsewhere said that bread and milk are a very tolerable 
combination. 
The raspberry, like the strawberry, contains very little 
nourishment; but it is highly agreeable, and sits well on deli- 
cate stomachs. With breakfast or dinner-used occasion- 
ally, but not too often - it is deserving of much attention and 
very great regard. 
One thing in favor of strawberries and raspberries is the 
great ease with which they arc raised. Only procure a hand- 
ful of the plants, such as come well recommended ; make your 
soil mellow, and tolerably rich; and set them, and keep out 
the weeds, and in two or three years you will have enough 
and to spare. 
One thing more. The labor of taking care of the vines FOOD AND COOKERY. 
343 
and gathering the fruit may be chiefly done by female mem- 
bers of the family, - at least in many instances, -■ to whom 
the exercise will be precisely what their health demands, 
while it will give them a certain and very agreeable reward 
for their industry. 
The blackberry is an excellent fruit; but it has not yet 
been extensively cultivated. The dewberry is small. The 
whortleberry is in some respects preferable to the blackberry; 
at least it is sweeter and more nutritious. The bilberry is 
extremely acid, as well as sweet, but in moderate quantities is 
wholesome. The mulberry is so sweet as to be, to many, 
disagreeable. 
The cherry is an early fruit - almost or quite next, in 
order of appearance, to the strawberry. It is beautiful, but 
its reputation is not so high as that of the strawberry. Some 
of its varieties are much larger, as well as much richer in 
nutrient particles, than others. 
It.has been said of cherries, in former times, that, in any 
quantity whatever, nobody would be injured by them, if they 
would but swallow the stones. But these days of ignorance 
are beginning to pass by. Some still swallow cherry stones, 
from sheer indolence or carelessness ; but there are few who 
would defend the practice. 
There has been another strange error about cherries, viz., 
that we might overload the stomach with them, and yet suffer 
no penalty, if we would follow up the indulgence by a free 
draught of brandy. I do not deny that brandy is, to some ex- 
tent, a remedy in such cases, but am inclined to think the 
remedy worse for the constitution than the disease. 
Cherries are stone fruits, and those, as I have already told 
you, more than once, have long been proscribed. There is 
one reason, at least, why they should be so. I allude to the 344 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
great danger of letting the stones fall into the windpipe 
Many valuable lives have been lost in this very way.* 
I have said, in my Young Housekeeper, that in eating 
cherries,.care should be had to select those which have the 
thinnest skin and the driest pulp. Or, whatever may be the 
thickness of the skin, be careful to secure as mealy or dry a 
pulp as possible, and, above all, be careful not to swallow 
the stones or kernels. Cherries, moreover, should never be 
cooked. It completely spoils them. Yet we have cherry 
pies, cherry puddings, and many more preparations from 
cherries. The best use which can be made of these last 
dishes is to throw them away. 
Bell speaks of one use of cherries, which he calls devilish. 
It was customary, in former times, to put them in rum. 
When the liquor was drunk off, the cherries were distributed 
among the younger members of the family. If any thing 
in early education would deserve such an appellation as Dr. 
Bell has given, surely it is an abomination like this. 
The currant is a more important item in the list of fruits 
for our tables than many suppose. Of course it should not 
be eaten with milk, but, like most other fruits, with some 
member' or members of the farinaceous family ; and it should 
never be eaten till it is perfectly ripe. I mention this because 
thousands among us mistake redness for ripeness, and by 
beginning to eat them too soon, they disorder their stomachs, 
and cannot receive them when they are ripe. I speak here, 
of course, of the common or red and white varieties; for 
there are other kinds. 
* I am by no means certain that the prejudice against the stone fruits 
may not have arisen from the well-known fact that some of those stones 
contain a bitter poison, called prussic acid. Such is the fact with regard 
to the kernel or stone of the peach, as well as the stones of some kinds of 
cherries. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
345 
The custom of picking them while quite green, and stew- 
ing them, or even making them into pics, is still worse. If 
they must be eaten green, it may be well to cook them ; but 
cooked or uncooked, they never ought to be eaten till they 
are quite ripe - nor,-indeed, any other fruit. 
Jellies are sometimes made from currants, as they are also 
from apples, strawberries, raspberries, and quinces. I do 
not like them; and yet, I must confess, they are not very 
objectionable, except that their preparation seems to me like 
a wicked waste of time. Dissolved in water, they make a 
very pleasant - I will not say drink, but - mixture. They 
are also made into jams. These, being more concentrated 
and more thoroughly impregnated with, and changed by, the 
sugar, are less wholesome. If jellies are tolerated, these 
should not be. They have indigestible properties. Indeed, 
they arc not in general use, except in high life. 
The cranberry has come into use, within a few years, in 
this country, to an extent which has justified many persons, 
in particular situations, in laying themselves out very largely 
to raise it. The culture is very profitable. I do not regard 
this fruit as very healthy, though it is certainly very palata- 
ble. The barberry is still more doubtful. 
The tomato came into vogue a few years since, under the 
sanction of a certain medical professor, on the ground, if I 
recollect right, of its supposed antibilious properties. And I 
have very lately seen a long analysis of the fruit, with many 
good things said in its favor. It contains an acid and a 
quantity of mucilage. 
The fact that it contains medicinal - that is, anti-vital - 
properties, would, if established, seem to be against its dietetic 
use rather than in favor of it. It certainly would, if food and 
medicine do not belong together. Besides, 1 doubt whether 346 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
aside from its novelty, it is, intrinsically, better than a sour 
apple. People are mostly but children of a larger growth; 
and, like other children, are fond of new things. They be- 
come tired of the same articles of diet, and desire new ones. 
Hence they like the tomato. Hence, too, they like maca- 
roni, or vermicelli, or farina. They like any new thing. A 
thousand other new things will probably come up, and have 
their day - and their exit, too. 
As long as we persist in a diet as highly stimulating as the 
present fashionable course, we shall be apt to become tired 
of the old, and fond of the new. And it is, perhaps, wisely 
ordered that it should be so ; for otherwise I see not how, as 
a race, we should ever be likely to lay aside the wrong, and 
betake ourselves to the right. 
The cucumber is a fruit which has been in use from 
the earliest known period of the world's history; and yet it 
has by the medical faculty, time immemorial, been con- 
demned. I think the reason is obvious. The cucumber is a 
fruit whose ripeness is not so readily discernible as that of 
most other fruits. And then the fondness which mpst per- 
sons have for something green and crispy has led them to 
forget or overlook ripeness, and to eat it more and more 
early, till they have gone to that extreme which common 
sense and science every where condemn. 
Now, I have not a doubt that the cucumber is a legitimate 
Article of human diet, and that it should occupy a small space 
at our tables for a very short time. It comes at a season 
when its cooling properties are certainly useful. It should, 
however, soon give way to the melons, which are preferable.' 
But while I would restore the cucumber to its rights and to its 
proper place, I wish to be distinctly understood. I do not 
recommend the article in an uhripe state, and without any FOOD AND COOKEKY. 
347 
cookery. Still worse is it when used not only in a green 
state, but in company with heating condiments and vinegar. 
Some of the Oriental nations boil the cucumber. I have 
eaten it in this way. It is quite as palatable and as whole- 
some as the common summer squash, which is ordinarily 
prepared in the same manner. But I apprehend there is a 
more excellent way than even this. It is simply to eat it, 
as we do other fruits, in a ripe state. By ripeness I do not 
mean decay. There is a short period in the history of every 
cucumber, when it is in a ripe condition; being neither 
hard and indigestible on the one hand, nor acid and un- 
pleasant oi- offensive on the other. That period, I grant, is 
very short; and it requires some little skill to detect it. But 
it can be done. And though-, as I have before affirmed, the 
cucumber is far inferior to the melon, it yet has a degree 
of sweetness,-when exactly ripe, of which few persons are 
aware. 
Suffer me to digress a moment to speak on this very point 
- the ripeness of fruits. The great law concerning them is, 
that they should be eaten ripe. Before, they are unwhole- 
some, and tend to disease ; afterwards, there is a tendency to 
decay and decomposition, which also renders them unfit to be 
eaten. What is wanted, then, is to confine ourselves, in their 
use, to the short period of their natural ripeness. 
This period in the mulberry is only a few minutes. In 
the raspberry it is rather more, but not, in all probability, an 
hour. In the cherry and blackberry, it is a few hours only. 
In the whortleberry and currant, it is several days. In the 
peach, it is a very few days - if, indeed, it is, in some kinds, 
more than one. In the apple and quince, it is several weeks or 
months. In the melon and cucumber, the season of perfect 
ripeness, though not so short as that of the mulberry and 348 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
strawberry, is yet very short - probably a few hours only. 
Delay too long, and there is acidity. Eaten a few hours too 
soon, and there is no saccharine matter-no sweetness. 
I think the cucumber best at the noon meal or dinner. To 
those who are accustomed to its use, however, the morning 
will answer very well. I use it at either meal. And it is a 
singular, but certainly undesigned coincidence, that I have 
made my breakfast of cucumbers while writing these para- 
graphs. 
" But how shall it be eaten ? " some will ask. " Would 
you pare it, as is customary with the green cucumber ? We 
know you would not add the condiments, - pepper, .salt, 
vinegar, &c., - but what would you dress it with ? Surely 
you eat it with simple salt, if nothing more." No, not even 
that; though you, as free agents, can, of course, do as you 
please. I no more use condiments or dressings, in preparing 
it, than in preparing a watermelon. And if you know how 
to eat a watermelon, you know how to eat a cucumber. 
Simplicity is very simple. 
I am accustomed to take a common caseknife, and cut it in 
two across the middle, and then with the knife scoop out the 
soft middle part. In a good-sized cucumber, you thus obtain 
of pulp - including mucilage and seeds - a little more than 
half a gill; or, say, three fourths of a gill. 
Half a dozen cucumbers, with a little bread, thus make a 
tolerable breakfast. The veriest gormandizer, who should 
confine himself to cucumbers, would hardly require more 
than a dozen at a time. Some, however, eat fifteen or 
twenty. They are best eaten with bread; though I have 
made many a meal of the cucumber alone. 
" But can laborers work on more fruit ? " you will perhaps 
ask. " I should think the cucumber would not be nutritious 349 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
enough." Well, for many successive meals it probably 
would not be ; but I do not recommend any such thing. Be- 
sides, remember that the man who eats a dinner of cucum- 
bers, labors, for the afternoon, on the strength derived from 
his breakfast, rather than from that derived from his dinner. 
You are apt to forget this. 
Do you eat the seeds ? This question I have often heard; 
and it deserves an answer. The seeds are yet soft, and are 
but consolidated mucilage. They are not difficult of diges- 
tion, even when swallowed almost whole. But you may chew 
them as finely as you please. They are very sweet. Or, if 
you prefer it, you may reject them. 
Of the watermelon, as an article of diet, I need not say 
much, because I suppose every body, or almost every body, 
will admit this to their table, in a perfectly ripe state. I 
never knew it eaten unripe, or with condiments. It is excel- 
lent in hot weather, though not very nutritious. 
To the muskmelon many have objections - I know not 
why. We are easily misled, in early life, by improper asso- 
ciations. It is possible that the frequent prejudice against 
this most excellent fruit has its source in this way. Its ripe- 
ness may be mistaken, by some, for putrescency. A strong 
will, however, in general, soon overcomes the difficulty. 
Of one or two of the foreign fruits - the raisin and the Ma- 
deira grape -I have already incidentally spoken. In general, 
let me repeat, the foreign and tropical fruits, for us in America, 
are far inferior' to our own. There is, however, a wide dif- 
ference. Those which are collected unripe are the worst. 
These are the orange, lemon, pineapple, banana, shaddock, 
&c. The other and better class are the raisin, fig, prune, 
date, &c. It is to be observed that I only mention the lead- 
ing articles of the respective classes. The number and 350 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
variety of foreign fruits, brought to our shores, at the present 
day, is very great. 
The fig, eaten with bread, and well masticated, is compara- 
tively wholesome, and is much used by the laborers of South- 
ern Europe and Western Asia. Bread, figs, and a herring, to 
them, as we have seen, make quite a lordly dish. The fig is 
said to be sometimes cooked - I believe boiled ; but of this 
I have no knowledge from experience. 
The date is a tolerable article, but rather cloying in its 
nature. This, too, should be eaten with bread. It is very 
nutritious. Perhaps this fact is the greatest objection to 
its use, as it comes to us. The Author of nature does not 
seem inclined to give us a very large proportion of nutriment 
in our fruits. It is not, usually, till we torture them in some 
way, that they arc injurious. 
The tamarind is a tolerable article of food, were it not for 
the expense which attends its use. In general, it is bought 
only for the sick room, to which it is admirably adapted. It 
is cooling, diluting, moderately laxative, agreeably acid, and 
not very nutritive. 
In regard to fruits, generally, I sec no way of having a 
good supply of perfect fruit for family use, but by raising it 
for ourselves. And to this, most happily, both in the old 
world and the new, the public attention is at length turning. 
Let us then thank God and take courage. No man or wo- 
man, whatever may be their mode of employment, - not 
even the professional man, the mechanic, or the manufac- 
turer, - should fail of working in the open air at least three 
or four hours a day. And, in general, much of this work 
may be applied to the cultivation of fruits for the table. 
The fruits are sometimes diseased. I stated, in the lecture 
on digestion, that I had once known the apples of a certain FOOD AND COOKERY. 
351 
orchard diseased. How extensively the fruits arc subject to 
disease is, I believe, not yet fully understood. 
The summer fruits - I mean, in particular, the products of 
the vines - are somewhat injured and rendered irritating by 
the acrid recent manures which arc applied to force their 
growth. One might think it bad enough that hothouse fruits 
should be forced into disease, by the contents of the vault 
and the sty ; but when our field fruits - our melons, squashes, 
cucumbers, and strawberries - are poisoned in the same way, 
it is high time to complain. 
Perhaps Boston market, in proportion to its extent, has as 
many healthy vegetables as any market in this country ; and 
yet I should not, in one case of a hundred, dare to guaranty 
the perfect hcalthfulness of the vegetables found there. If 
they arc not absolutely diseased, they have "been plucked un- 
ripe, or arc beginning to decay. Am I not, then, fully justi- 
fied in the conclusion that they who value fruits, as the second 
great class of substances God has designed for our tables, 
should leave no stone unturned in endeavoring to raise with 
their own hands, and in their own way, a good supply of 
those which are most needful and most indispensable ? (See 
Appendix, Note A.) 
One or two thoughts may be useful on the preservation of 
fruits. I have spoken, very fully, of the sin of making pies, 
preserves, &c., which involve such a waste of time ; and have 
also said, in the same connection, that we injure the proper- 
ties of the articles themselves. But are there no methods of 
preserving them which are legitimate ? 
Three ways have been recommended. The first is, by 
drying. Almost every fruit may be preserved in this way, 
though it costs a great deal of trouble. Some of them are 
not much injured by the drying process; but others lose 352 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
nearly all their peculiar distinctive properties. The apple, 
quince, peach, plum, grape, and whortleberry may, by great 
pains, be preserved in tolerable perfection ; and perhaps also 
the pear. To drying several of these I have already alluded. 
The berries, generally, are injured by drying; and some of 
them, such as the blackberry and raspberry, nearly spoiled. 
There is a curious way of preserving the cucumber - were 
it but worth the pains - which is practised in the Oriental 
countries. When fully ripe, it is cut in pieces, and dried in 
the sun, or by artificial heat, and finally reduced, by grinding, 
to a coarse meal. This is eaten with fat, oil, butter, or some 
other abomination. 
The second way of preserving fruit is, by keeping it in a 
temperature so low that no chemical changes can pass over it. 
Theoretically, this is a most beautiful method, and promises 
to be useful. Fermentation, it is well known, cannot take 
place unless the temperature of the substance is as high as 
about sixty'degrees. All we have to do, then, as it would 
seem, is to place fruit in large icehouses, and take it thence 
whenever we want it. Dr. Ross, of New York, in a recent 
work on health, speaks of the facility and usefulness of this 
method, in terms of the highest praise. Future experience 
will determine on the excellence of the plan. As yet neither 
science nor experience has decided against it. 
The other plan for preserving fruits consists in placing them 
in proper vessels, and pumping out the air. How far this 
method has been tried in the spirit of candor and carefulness, 
I am not informed. It seems to me, however, that the second 
plan proposed is the easier, and on many accounts preferable. 
3. Esculent Roots. - One or two of the more important 
of these have been included under the head Breadstuff's. 1 
need not, therefore, again advert to them. Besides these, the FOOD AND COOKERY. 
353 
more important are beets, turnips, carrots, and parsnips. 
The radish and onion, though much used, are worthy of very 
little notice, except for medicinal purposes. 
Beets are very nutritious, but yet not remarkably wholesome. 
It is commonly said in their favor, that they abound in sugar, 
which is true. But this alone docs not determine with regard 
to their dietetic excellence. Perhaps they contain too large a 
proportion of sugar for the amount of starch and other ingre- 
dients. For while the good beet contains only fourteen parts 
of starch, and thirteen of albuminous matter, in a thousand, 
it has twelve per cent, of saccharine substance. 
The beet has a high reputation - perhaps for its beauty, at 
least in part. It is most healthy when boiled. Some of its 
varieties are much richer than others. Many eat it with vin- 
egar, as they do baked beans. The practice, in either case, 
is wretched. Cold boiled beets, with vinegar, are almost 
as indigestible as cast iron. They are not, even, easily 
soluble. 
The turnip is, in some of its varieties, a more wholesome 
article than the beet, though not one third as nutritious, except 
the Swedish turnip, which is believed to be nearly half as rich 
as the beet. Ninety-two and a half per cent, of the turnip is 
water. It contains but little starch or sugar,* and yet it has 
an agreeable sweetness. 
To those who live chiefly on succulent food - good bread 
and fruits - the turnip is hardly necessary. But for those 
whose food is alkaline and dry, and who use a large propor- 
tion of flesh meat, the turnip becomes almost indispensable. 
Hence the association of beef and turnips ; beef, turnips, and 
* Drapier, however, says it contains nine per cent, of sugar - a pei' 
centage equal to that of Indian corn. 354 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
potatoes, &c. The longer we accustom ourselves to flesh 
meat, the more attached we become to turnips. 
One precaution should be used by those who prepare the 
turnip for the table. It should be peeled. There is an acrid 
principle, we are told by Bell,* residing in the peel of the 
turnip, which is analogous to that in the radish, and in mus- 
tard, and which should be got rid of if possible. The turnip 
is best when boiled, and next best roasted. 
" In 1629 and 1630, when there was a dearth in England, 
good, white, wholesome bread," says Dr. Bell, " was made 
of boiled turnips, deprived of their moisture by pressure, and 
then kneaded with an equal quantity of wheaten flour." But 
it is natural to inquire whether an article so watery is very 
well adapted to the purposes of bread making. 
The carrot is rather richer than the turnip, and nearly as 
nutritious. It is light and wholesome to those whose stomachs 
can endure, undisturbed, so much sweet as this and the beet 
contain. It is used for domestic animals more than for men; 
and is, on the whole, deserving of the reputation it has 
obtained. The carrot is usually boiled, and eaten like the 
turnip. Some, however, prepare pies from it, and even 
puddings. A few fry it. Fried carrot is delicate, but not 
wholesome. In some countries it is pickled. It is much 
used by nursing mothers, and, for a similar reason, for 
milch cows. 
Of the parsnip I know, by experience, very little. It has 
some slight resemblance, in its properties, to the carrot, but is 
rather more aromatic. It is usually boiled, though some pre- 
fer roasting it slowly in the ashes. The latter method of 
roasting vegetables, but for its vulgar appearance, would be 
* Regimen and Longevity, p. 181. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
355 
highly commendatory. The potato, roasted in the ashes, is 
far better than when prepared in any other way whatever. 
I have so frequently alluded to saccharine matter, - its 
proportion in vegetables, fruits, &c.,- that I have not a doubt 
the inquiry must have arisen, in many minds, whether sugar, 
when extracted from the substances with which it is usually 
found incorporated, is wholesome. 
Now, it is my opinion - an opinion which has not been 
taken up in haste - that, as a general rule, the addition of 
sugar to such articles of food as are already rich in this 
product cannot be desirable. The Creator must have known, 
most certainly, in what proportion it was best to mingle it 
with other ingredients. Whether it is equally undesirable that 
sugar should be mingled, in small quantity, with those vegeta- 
ble substances that do not contain it, is*a question I am not 
able to answer. The thought already referred to, that the 
divine Former knew best how to make them, and had his 
reasons for omitting it, very naturally arises to our minds. 
Sugar is pure nutriment, or almost so ; and a very small 
quantity of it suffices to nourish the human body. In travers- 
ing vast deserts, it is said the Arabs and other Orientals some- 
times take with them a small quantity of sugar or gum Arabic, 
on which they contrive to subsist for a long time. And yet 
the North American Indian of two centuries ago would sub- 
sist nearly as long and as well on a small amount of nokakc^ 
- which was essentially Indian meal,- a substance not more 
than two thirds as nutritious as sugar. This fact, as far as it 
goes, serves to show that our digestive powers are not always 
able to extract nutriment from a substance in the exact pro- 
portion in which it exists in that article. 
And while sugar is so highly nutritious, it is a fact wel 
established by the experiments of Magendie and others 356 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
that this substance alone will not long sustain animal life, or 
at least the lives of animals below man. Whether the ex- 
periment has been tried on man, I do not now recollect. 
The old notion that sugar spoils the teeth is partly true 
and partly untrue. It is true that it makes the stomach foul, 
and that the gums become spongy and the teeth carious, as 
the consequence of the bad condition of the gums ; but it is 
not true that it injures the teeth merely by coming in contact 
with them. Molasses, honey, and all other concentrated 
sweets are injurious to the teeth in the same way ; that is, by 
first injuring the lining membrane of the stomach, and then, 
by sympathy, affecting unfavorably the gums and teeth. Cal- 
omel and most other strong medicines probably injure teeth 
in the same way. 
If I were to lay down a rule in regard to sugar and other 
highly-concentrated sweets, it would be never to use them 
in food, or with it, except by way of compensation, as in the 
case of rice, which is almost destitute of saccharine matter, 
or baker's bread which has been overraised, in order to pro- 
cure a large loaf, and thus robbed of all its saccharine sub- 
stance. Any further use of them should be the same as that 
which I have advised with regard to the other condiments. 
If sugar, for example, must be eaten, I would make a whole 
meal of it. We might not be able to make a very large meal 
of it, but I think we may be well assured that what we can- 
not receive at once is just so much more than our necessities 
require. 
Finally, however, if we are determined to eat concentrated 
sweets, let it be in their most simple forms. Candy, even 
molasses candy, is unwholesome; but how much worse is 
confectionery 1 Some kinds of confectionery are not only 
injurious by reason of the sweets they contain, but by reason FOOD AND COOKERY. 
357 
of poisons superadded in the way of coloring matter. How 
many persons have been poisoned during the last ten years 
by confectionery ! It is usual to point out the tendency of 
physical excitements, when much indulged, to the grosser 
and coarser immoralities; but my limits forbid doing so in 
this place. 
4. Oily Substances. - These I shall speak of under two 
heads. First, oily nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, butternuts, 
hazelnuts, filberts, cashew nuts, cocoanuts, and olives - to 
which Pereira adds the pistachio nut, and the stone pine nut. 
Secondly, animal food and animal products - milk, butter, 
cheese, lard, eggs, &c. 
Oily Nuts. - The almond is first on the list. Of this there 
arc two kinds - the sweet and the bitter. The kernel or 
stone of the latter is vciy oily; but it is rather a medicine 
than an article of daily sustenance. I am but little ac- 
quainted with it. 
The walnut is common and abundant. It is quite oily, but 
loss so than the butternut. It is exceedingly difficult of diges- 
tion to any but the very healthy. It should be eaten as a 
part of our meals, and not as an addition to a meal already 
too large ; nor late in the evening. 
The butternut is, to most persons, very palatable ; but from 
the great abundance as well as from the internal character 
of its oil, few persons of our modern, deteriorated generations 
can either dissolve or digest it. Much, however, depends, in 
this particular, on habit. Some will digest them better than 
others. 
Hazelnuts and filberts are less oily than walnuts and 
butternuts. They are more like the chestnut and chincopin. 
Still they have some oil, while the chestnut can hardly be 
said to have any. Of the remainder of the nuts I havo 358 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
scarcely any knowledge; and the information I can obtain 
from them through books is very limited. 
Perhaps I ought, in passing, to notice the acorn. Dr. 
Dunglison says, that " in time of scarcity it has served for 
food, notwithstanding its astringent properties ; " and we have 
other accounts of its being used for food, both in ancient and 
modern times. It is disagreeable, indigestible, and rather 
innutritions. 
Much is said, by Dunglison and others, of the tendency of 
oily nuts to produce stomach and liver disease ; and as man- 
kind now are, and as these substances arc generally used, I 
have no doubt they arc very hurtful. Still I think they were 
divinely intended to be a part of human diet. I am pretty 
sure some oil is necessary. 
Admitting this, however, to be true, is any thing more 
natural than the inference that nuts were made to be eaten - 
not merely by squirrels, but also by man ? Our stomachs 
are fallen stomachs ; is it not more than probable that, in a 
normal state of the digestive system, they would bear them in 
moderate quantity perfectly well ? 
Olive oil, when not rancid, can hardly be very objectiona- 
ble. I used it, at one time, as a bridge from butter to sub- 
stances which required neither. I think it more digestible 
than butter, or, at least, somewhat less irritating. Perhaps it 
is the best substance of the condiment kind. Particular care, 
however, should be had to procure it in a perfect state. 
Animal Food and Animal Products. -For reasons which 
will be seen by and by, I propose to begin my remarks, 
under this head, with the animal products, rather than with 
animal food itself. The first of these, in a natural order, 
is milk. 
There is a vast difference in the kinds of milk used as FOOD AND COOKERY. 
359 
food, as well as a very considerable difference in that of the 
same animal. The milk of the cow is most used as an arti- 
cle of human diet, except, of course, in the merest infancy ; 
though in some countries considerable use is made of that of 
the marc, goat, ass, and sheep. 
The three most important ingredients in all these five kinds 
of milk, are butter, sugar, and caseine. These, together, 
make up little more than one seventh of the whole. The 
remainder, varying, in the different kinds of milk, from eighty- 
five to ninety-two per cent., is water. So, at least, the French 
chemists Henri and Chevallier tell us. 
Human milk is richest in sugar and butter, or oil, except 
that of the ewe ; and it is even much richer in sugar than the 
latter. In the ass's milk there is almost no oil or butter at 
all. The milk of the cow is tolerably well supplied with but- 
ter - containing something over three per cent. All milk is 
provided for the food of young animals, till they have teeth 
and opportunity for obtaining other food. And, at every age, 
there is reason to believe it might be used, in part at least, by 
most animals, though probably at a disadvantage. Strong 
meat appears to belong to those of full age ; milk is the food 
of babes. A man in Barnstable county, in Massachusetts, 
has made two persevering experiments of feeding his horse 
with milk, but always with ill success. " But why should not 
the horse live on milk as well as the ox or cow ? " you will 
ask ; " for these thrive very well kept in this manner." 
This last is easier said than proved. I know of no facts to 
substantiate the statement. The only one that seems to bear 
in that direction is the case of certain mammoth calves - so 
to call them - that have been reared to the ago of two or three 
years on milk. First they sucked one cow ; next two; then 
three ; and so on. But these petted creatures were monsters 360 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
for size and fatness, and were reared in this way that they 
might be exhibited as such. We do not know how healthy 
they were, nor how healthy their progeny were. We know 
they were monsters. Is a monster a fair sample of his 
species ? Suppose Benjamin Pritchard or Daniel Lambert 
had attained to their monstrous size on milk ; would you at 
once and for that reason have pronounced milk a healthy 
diet for adults generally ? Who would be willing to be as fat 
as they, or to have a son or a daughter so ? 
I do not mean to say that, taking us as we are, we should 
- not eat milk. Human diet is, every where, imperfect. It 
may be nearly as good in the United States as any where. 
Yet even here there are so many dietetic errors that a gradual 
change from the present to a bread and milk diet might be 
an improvement. But along with this concession, I should 
still say it remains to be proved that milk, for the healthy 
adult, is, by any means, the lest food. I should still believe, 
with Paul, that stronger food is required for full age, especially 
for full age normally. 
But I have spoken of milk, incidentally, before, and of but- 
ter and cheese still more frequently. I must therefore pass 
to eggs, merely stopping a moment to throw another missile 
or two at butter, and those vile compounds into which butter 
enters. And I make this attack, in passing, not so much on 
account of the small amount of this article used in our com- 
munity in the old-fashioned way, that is, spread over slices of 
well-baked dry bread of suitable age, and well masticated, as 
on account of the general invasion it has made, these late 
years, of all our dietetic territories. 
I might fortify my statement by authorities innumerable - 
but I forbear to do so. I will only present the statement of 
Erofossor Hare, of London, in his 'admirable work on the 361 
stomach, at page 190. " Butter," he says, expressly, " in every 
state and shape, is a most active promoter of nausea, heartburn,' 
and indigestion." But it is with this as with a thousand other 
things, that we cannot judge of their ill effects, in our own 
experience, till we have been for a considerable time emanci- 
pated from our slavery to them. 
Though man is required, as I think, to use some oil, yet I 
must think olive oil, - sweet oil, as it is usually called, - the 
oil contained in milk, or even the cream separated from the 
milk, far preferable to butter, especially salted butter. And 
as for rancid butter, that is worst of all. 
The French are said to have six hundred and eighty-five 
mixed dishes into which eggs enter as a component part, or 
a condiment. And the English, and their descendants, the 
Americans, are not very far behind the French in this career 
of egg eating. They have been, ever since the days of La- 
fayette, fast coming up with them. 
I am not disposed to ridicule the use of the egg, eaten as 
an egg, boiled, stewed, or even raw. It is this foolery of 
commingling it with almost every known substance, if not in 
the heaven above, at least in the earth beneath, at which I 
laugh. It is this making every thing, or almost every 
thing, smack of egg. But then, if eaten even by itself, it 
should be cooked properly, which is seldom done. There is 
but one method, by the way, of cooking an egg. If you 
choose to eat it raw, do so ; but if you cook it at all, place 
it, without breaking the shell, in water, at one hundred and 
fifty to one hundred and sixty degrees, - never beyond one 
hundred and sixty-five,- and let it remain from twenty to 
thirty minutes. 
If you wish to know the reasons why, ask chemistry. She 
will tell you that the white of an egg is albumen; that it co- 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 362 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
agulatcs at one hundred and sixty-five degrees, and that when 
coagulated it is utterly insoluble in any common menstruum, 
and, of course, is insoluble in the stomach. By the time 
you have heard her answer thus far, you will guess the rest. 
Lard I must say a word about, having recently visited 
Cincinnati, the land of hog killing and lard oil making. 
Now, if nothing else were done with this strong, foul stuff 
but make it into candles, thus killing.the swine and saving 
the whales alive, I would not say so much against it. But 
when it comes into our families, and alternates, for variety's 
sake, with butter, - and when it .comes to this, that one can 
hardly get a mouthful of food, even at the kind hands of 
vegetarians themselves, but what smells or even tastes of 
lard, - I cannot refrain from entering my protest. Let 
others swallow hog's grease who will, but, in mercy's name, 
spare me. 
We are come now to animal food proper ; I mean flesh, fish, 
and fowl. Of these there is a great variety, though, after all, 
it is a few only that may properly be regarded as the staples. 
The rest are introduced as occasional friends only. 
These, in some shape or other, occupy the centre of all 
our tables, at least in Britain and America, where they can 
be obtained. In most countries, I know, they cannot be had, 
except as an occasional treat on Sundays or at Christmas. 
And if we speak numerically, I suppose that to a majority of 
the world they are wholly inaccessible. 
To us, in a country which uses more animal food than 
almost any other, it would seem very strange not to find the 
flesh platter, at least once or twice a day, occupying a con- 
spicuous place. Every one knows that this and the medicine 
chest, of which I have before spoken, occupy the centre of 
the table. And yet, how happens this ? Bread, time im- FOOD AND COOKERY. 
363 
memorial, has been called the staff of life; why, then, is it 
not treated as such ? Why should it not stand, instead of the 
flesh meats, centrally ? 
Corn, wine, and oil arc the Old Testament order. Not 
oil, corn, and wine, nor oil, wine, and corn, nor yet wine, oil, 
and corn; but corn stands first. Corn is the representative 
of the farinacea, wine of the fruits, or rather of the fruit 
juices, and oil of the substances into which it enters as a 
component part. 
But whether you regard this arrangement as authoritative, 
or a mere play of the fancy, - I mean so far as the present 
argument is concerned, - one thing is certain - that bread, 
in some of its various, but legitimate shapes, is entitled to stand 
in the middle of the table, the place now assigned by univer- 
sal consent to the flesh platter. I will say even more than 
this. The man who shall go through the world, - or even 
through our own little United States,-and persuade mankind 
to set their bread on the centre of the table will perform a 
greater work of benevolence than was ever done before by 
mere man - Howard himself not excepted. 
This is the order more fully : Bread, in some shape, in the 
centre ; fruits next; and the oily substances - a little milk, 
a little olive oil, or a few nuts, or a little flesh and fish - 
next; unless, indeed, you should take it into your head to 
rebel against a custom of four thousand years standing, and 
crowd the latter dishes off the table. 
But we must be patient and " bide our time." Christiani- 
ty will not linger always. The diet assigned by high Heaven 
six thousand year's ago, and which still stands as a broad 
bill of fare on Heaven's own first immortal page, places bread 
not only first, in order, at the table, but gives it the predomi- 
nance every where. I do not mean to intimate that Chris 364 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
tianity, or even Judaism, furnishes us, in as many words, with 
a system of diet and regimen. But it does give us a benevo- 
lent system. It gives us humanity. It does not compel us 
to be accessary to that which directly or indirectly " makes 
countless thousands mourn.1' It does not teach us any prin- 
ciples which should lead us to fill our domestic retirements 
- those dear resorts of peace, harmony, and love - with 
relics of the slain. It does not aim to convert our kitchens 
into slaughter houses, nor our tables into vast repositories of 
mangled bodies. 
But if, as the monarchs of the world, we must do all we can 
to eat up the world, lest the world should eat us up, - for Dar- 
win says that " Eat or be eaten is the great law of nature," 
- if we must continue to bespread our table in such a way 
that it resembles more the dungeon of Bunyan's Doubting 
Castle than the table of a Christian, then lot us make our- 
selves as acceptable monarchs and tyrants as we can. 
Animal food, as we have seen, should be healthy. But 
this is not enough. The healthier the animal the better. 
The flesh of full-grown animals is better, all things consid- 
ered, than that of animals immature or old. Ripe animals, 
- so to say, - as well as ripe fruits, are to be preferred. On 
this point I have at least one authority, Dr. Whitlaw; I be- 
lieve, also, half a dozen others. 
Then they are not to be fattened by any forcing process. 
They should be taken from the open, healthy field, or -from 
the woods, sky, or sea ; never from the crowded pen, or cage, 
or coop, or even from the well or artificial pond. They arc 
to live free and die free, in order to be worth eating. 
Again : animal food is not to be corned, salted, spiced, or 
poisoned. As long as we can keep it without casks, saltpetre, 
pyroligneous acid, smoke, suet skins, or the skins of other FOOD AND COOKERY. 
365 
animal's intestines, why, very well; but when we can no 
longer keep it in an eatable state without these and kindred 
abominations, let it go. 
Then, in cookery, do not, in the first place, over cook it. 
Do not cook it in any other substance, nor add to it any other 
substance after it is cooked, unless it is a little salt. Do not 
besmear it with gravies, or sprinkle it with pepper, garden 
herbs, or snuff; or scent it with musk or assafoetida. 
Here follow a couple of anecdotes, which you may or 
may not have heard. A foreigner, sitting at a table, it is 
said, where one person had taken from the castor the pepper 
box, and after besprinkling a platter of food with it, had said, 
" I take it, gentlemen, you all like pepper," took from his 
pocket his snuffbox, and after sprinkling its contents over 
the same dish, said, " I take it, gentlemen, you all like 
snuff." 
One of the professors in Yale College told me of a cook, 
in Philadelphia, who had a wonderful reputation for prepar- 
ing beefsteak. She was at length prevailed on to part with 
the secret of her success. She was accustomed, as she said, 
to rub over the surface of the warm dish, before she laid the 
cooked steak on it, with a piece of assafoetida. 
Boiling is, on the whole, the best way of preparing flesh, 
fish, or fowl. It is the best, both because it is the simplest, 
and because it does not ordinarily expose us to the danger 
of any new play of chemical affinities. If it be objectiona- 
ble in any way, it is on the ground that it dissipates, if not 
wastes, a small portion of the nutriment. 
Next to this is roasting by the fire. It is customaiy, in 
some places, to suspend a piece of meat by a string before 
a hot fire, with a dripping pan underneath, and frequently 
turn it till it is done. The surface becoming somewhat drierf 366 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
or crisped, the juices are nearly all retained in the meat. 
This, next to boiling, is most truly physiological. 
Frying is the worst of allTnown processes for preparing 
food of any kind, animal or vegetable. A part of the fat, 
in frying, becomes changed, and new and unwholesome 
developments take place, which would be intolerable to the 
nasal organs, but for the influence of long habit. 
One might speak of endless abuses in cookery, a large 
portion of which pertain to the preparation of animal food, or 
its products, and eggs. I have alluded to some of these, and 
it seems needless to repeat. Sausages, mince pies, fritters, 
&c., are at the head of the list. I will only speak of one 
abuse more in this department; indeed, it is enough to men- 
tion on any single day. 
A friend of mine was dyspeptic ; she knew what her disease 
was, and how to manage herself. And yet, occasionally, 
after days, and perhaps weeks, of denial, she would go back 
to certain abuses which would prostrate hex' for a long season, 
and which she knew would do so beforehand. Such is the 
power of ungoverned appetite. 
On some of these occasions, for example, she would take a 
ball of butter, place it at the end of a stick or spit, and aftei 
turning it frequently and rapidly, she would dip it, with the 
surface all 'melted, into flour. Then she would roast it again 
a few seconds, till it was all moist on the surface with the but- 
ter, then dip it again; and thus she would proceed, till she 
had a ball of flour, permeated completely with fat. This, 
feeble as she was, she would take for her dinner. I hardly 
need say that it made her sick, for it could not have been 
otherwise. She expected to be confined to her bed for one 
day, and sometimes for two or three. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
367 
III. DOMESTIC POISONS. 
* 
There is a very strange notibn abroad, to some extent, that 
unless an article of food contains a little poison, it is good for 
nothing. Some, no doubt, advance this opinion as an oblique 
defence of their own intemperate indulgences ; but there are 
a few adherents to this opinion, who can hardly be called in- 
temperate. 
I need only say that such an opinion is entirely unfounded. 
Eor although it may be true that men can go on for years - 
for, indeed, the whole of a short life - in the habitual use of 
alcoholic beverages, opium, tobacco, coffee, or even arsenic, 
and yet not appear to suffer greatly, it is also true that there 
is a tendency- in themselves or their offspring - to disease, 
as the consequence. Much of our scrofula and consumption, 
as we have seen, come in this very way. 
The more we avoid poison of every kind, solid, liquid, and 
aeriform, the better. Hence the necessity of introducing 
this subject in connection with food and cookery. For so 
strangely departed from every scientific principle arc our 
modern forms of cookery, that we are exposed to poison 
almost every day of our lives. 
We are exposed to poison from animal food. So many 
cases of this kind have already been alluded to, that in this 
particular I shall be brief. 
I spoke of diseased or poisonous sausages in the kingdom 
of Wurtemburg. Two hundred and thirty-four cases of this 
poisoning in that country, in the course of about thirty years, 
are mentioned by Christison, in his work on Poisons, of which 
no less than one hundred and ten proved fatal. 
Christison also mentions, in the same work, a family of five 
persons, at Macclesfield, England, who were all poisoned by 368 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
eating beef which, before cooking, had a dark appearance, 
and had been suspected. One of the number actually died, 
and two others barely escaped with their lives. 
True, it is doubtful, in this case, whether the poisoning had 
any thing to do with the cookery of the meat • but as it stood 
thus connected in the public mind, it is desirable to mention 
it in this connection. There was the best of evidence that 
the trouble originated with the beef in some way. 
Chevallier, in his Journal de Chimie Medicale, for 1831-2, 
gives several examples of disease produced by eating flesh, 
which, before being submitted to the process of cookery, had 
undergone a degree, greater or less, of decomposition. The 
following are some of his moj'c striking cases : - 
" A female, in May, 1832, after purchasing and eating some 
pork, was seized with violent vomiting, purging, &c. The 
utensils in which it was cooked underwent a rigorous exam- 
ination ; the meat which was left was analyzed by three skil- 
ful chemists, and every thing was done, apparently, that could 
be done to lead to the detection of the poison. The conclu- 
sion of the matter was, that it was not a change which the 
meat underwent in cookery, that did the mischief, but an in- 
cipient decomposition. A part of the unconsumed meat was 
mouldy, and the whole extremely filthy ; and yet it is quite 
possible that unscientific cookery had something to do in the 
matter." 
Another case was that of a physician, who, with his family 
of five persons, was poisoned by pork, though none of the 
family died. Several other persons, who bought pork of 
the same butcher, and from the same animal, were also made 
sick in a similar manner. 
M. Chevallier mentions two cases more - a family at 
Paris, that became dangerously sick after eating a ham pie FOOD AND COOKERY. 
369 
and a family of seven persons elsewhere who were also taken 
violently ill ; and three of them died after eating Italian 
cheese. In the cases of poisoning by cheese, already adverted 
to, I am not aware that the poison has ever been detected by 
the most skilful chemists. 
M. Chevallier believes* that these and kindred evils are more 
likely to arise from the use of pork than from that of any 
other article ; and he declares loudly against its extravagant 
use, saying, that the value of the pork used in Paris, yearly, 
is eight million pounds sterling. Is there no mistake here ? 
Why, this would be six hundred to eight hundred pounds of 
pork a year, for a family of five persons. If this is so, the 
inhabitants may expect to suffer ! 
The London Repository says, that, in 1826, four adults 
and ten children, living on the Galloway coast, partook, at din- 
ner, of a stew from a calf found dead on the sea shore. All 
were made sick by it about three hours afterwards, and one 
of them died. 
A French report, drawn up by three highly-intelligent men, 
relates to a meat pie which caused the sickness of eight per- 
sons, and which they were deputed to examine. After a long 
investigation, they came to the conclusion that the sickness 
was caused solely " by an incipient decomposition of the pie, 
which had been kept too long in a warm place." * 
Cases of this same general character might be produced 
almost without end. They are reported in the papers every 
* I have noticed a conjecture in the papers that Sir John Franklin 
and his men, though they may not have lost their lives from the use of 
bad meats, must have been sufferers from them. Developments in Eng- 
land seem to confirm this opinion. There is little doubt that a part, at 
least, of his stock of meats was in a diseased, semi-putrid, or poisoned 
condition. 370 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
year. But I have given enough for my present purpose. 
I need only add, that the cases of poisoning from the animal 
kingdom are more fatal, with few exceptions, than any other, 
- which is a reason of no little weight against the too liberal 
use of this species of food ; and one of still greater' weight 
in favor of cooking it in a simple manner. 
Of poisoning by cheese I have spoken at sufficient length 
already. Of irritation - it might as well be called poison- 
ing- by salted or pickled butter, I have also cited one or 
two cases. Whether eggs are ever rendered quite poisonous 
in this way, is not so certain ; but according to the testimony 
of Dr. Dunglison, there is reason for suspecting it. 
That milk is often rendered poisonous in consequence of 
the food of the cow, there can be no doubt. The fact is 
abundantly proved by Dr. Whitlaw and others. The butter- 
cup, in particular, is a source of much irritation and disease, 
in this way, especially in the neighborhood of large cities 
and towns, where an extensive use is made of recent and acrid 
manures. On this subject a few facts will be presented in the 
Appendix, Note E. 
Christison, who is high authority on the subject of poisons, 
tells us in his work, that " the effect of disease, in general, is 
to impair the activity of poisons." He says their activity, 
not their strength. Hence, for aught I see, the healthier we 
are, the greater the probability that we shall experience the 
effects of poison immediately ; and the more unhealthy, the 
more remotely. 
Will not this account for the fact that rum, opium, and 
even arsenic, may be taken for many long years, provided 
we increase the dose gradually, without any apparent evil 
effects ? Does not this " Mithridation," as some have called 
it, of the human system, operate by gradually deranging it in FOOD AND COOKERY. 
371 
such a manner that though there is a constant increase of 
mischief, yet the effects are not perceptible till there comes 
an outburst or explosion ? For Christison himself testifies, 
as do all who have examined facts, - from Solomon's day to 
this, - that " a person may be carried off by a malady, the 
seeds of which may have been sown by the operation of poi- 
son many years before." " Because, sentence is not speedily 
executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men is set in 
them to do evil." 
We arc exposed to poison both from mineral food and 
from the mineral kingdom in the way of cookery. You may 
be surprised to hear me speak of mineral food ; but by what 
other name shall I call nitre, salcratus, salt, and arsenic ? 
I will begin with salt. Not that it is worst in its natdre, by 
any means ; quite the contrary. But its constant use, in 
almost every thing that comes to our tables, renders vs more 
frequently exposed to its ill effects, if any such can be shown, 
than almost any other article which could be named - cer- 
tainly among minerals. 
The dangers which arise from the excessive use of salt are 
well known to the scientific world. Professor Gohier, of the 
Veterinary School of Lyons, in a series of experiments on 
animals, found that the muriate of soda, or common salt, 
given to the horse in the dose of two or three pounds, causes 
great disorder, and even death. 
Christison speaks of a glutton in London, who one day pro- 
posed to take a pound of salt in a pint of ale; and though he 
had an attack of vomiting before he was half through his 
feat, he persevered in his foolhardiness. He was soon after- 
wards seized with all the symptoms of irritant poisoning, and 
died within twenty-four hours. The stomach and intestines 
were found, after death, excessively inflamed. 372 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
In 1829, in the month of July, no less than one hundred 
and fifty persons, in two parishes of France, were attacked, 
some with pain in the stomach, nausea, slimy and even 
bloody purging ; others with tension of the stomach, puffi- 
ness of the face, inflammation of the eyes, and swelling of 
the legs. In another region, one sixth of the inhabitants 
were affected in the same way. The salt they used being 
suspected, it was analyzed* and found to contain a hundredth 
part of its weight of hydriodate of soda. 
In the last case, the suffering is not, of course, to be attrib- 
uted to pure muriate of soda; but in the former cases it was 
so. Now, if a pound of salt-nay, much less, since 
some of it was vomited up - would produce such mischief, 
can it be that smaller quantities, even though they should not 
exceed a teaspoonful, at once, arc perfectly harmless ? But 
you must answer this question for yourselves. All I know 
from observation is, that they who use salt very freely, from 
day to day, grow thin and pale, and suffer considerably from 
debility. I have personally observed no other ill effects from 
salt than this. One danger, at all events, we should guard 
against - which is its adulteration. 
You will say, " But if salt is poisonous, how comes it to 
pass that men and animals, especially the latter, thrive under 
its use ? " I might reply by asking another question : " How 
comes it to pass that they thrive under the use of arsenic ? " 
But that they do, we have what I regard as ample and une- 
quivocal testimony. 
That the use of wine, and cider, and beer, may be so 
moderated, and so cautiously applied, as for a time to improve 
the appearance of a person, and that this is the fact with 
regard to coffee, is, I believe, well known. But that the 
same effect can be produced by arsenic, as well as alcohol, FOOD AND COOKERY 
373 
is not so well known as it should be. Yet we have it 
stated in the Annual of Scientific Discovery for 1852, 
and indorsed by Chambers's Journal, that the custom of 
eating arsenic prevails extensively in Lower Austria and 
Styria, where it is taken for the express purpose of giving 
the person a fresh, plump, healthy appearance. It is true, 
that when taken in excess, as sometimes happens, it destroys 
life, as do alcoholic drinks or opium ; but in moderation the 
first effects are the reverse. 
In a late poisoning trial in Vienna, one of the most 
eminent physicians of that place was called upon to testify 
in regard to this very point. He repeated what has been 
said; viz., that the poison eaters are distinguished for their 
blooming complexion and appearance of exuberant health. 
He spoke of some who, by increasing the dose gradually, 
had succeeded in producing this effect to comparative 
old age.* 
I am not about to compare the use of common salt with 
that of arsenic. But when the question comes up bow an ar- 
ticle can be poisonous, and yet produce immediate good effects, 
it is well to answer it. The truth is, that all extra stimulants, 
in a certain amount, - coffee, alcohol, and arsenic, - improve 
the condition of the individual at the expense of the race, if 
not of the future portion of the life of the individual himself. 
Now, if this is the fact with regard to salt, what shall we 
say ? Yet Mr. Cline, a distinguished breeder in Great Britain, 
gives it as his opinion that it is so in the case of domestic 
* Some dozen or fifteen years ago, a family in Boston sickened sud- 
denly, and the cause was referred to a cheese they had eaten, made in 
Grafton, where, it was said, the housekeepers used a little arsenic in 
their cheese, to give it a particular flavor. I do not know whether the 
fact was ever established. 374 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
animals. Others incline to the same opinion. Is it not true 
that effort is required, in crossing breeds, &c., in order to prevent 
deterioration, just in proportion to the quantity of salt which 
is used ? You will ask, " What, then, shall we do ? " My reply 
is, that I do not know, except to eat as little salt as possible. 
If we eat none - changing our habits very suddenly - we 
may suffer. The arsenic eater does, whether man or horse ; 
for they give it to horses, too, for the same reason that 
they give it to men, and for the same purpose that salt 
is given - to improve the appearance. Yes; I know of one 
thing more, still, which can be done. If it is so difficult to leave 
off the use of alcohol, arsenic, salt, and other stimulants, 
whenever we get enslaved to them, we can at least see that 
each rising generation is trained to more perfect freedom than 
the preceding one. 
You will still ask, " But is not salt needed in the human 
economy ? " Pereira says, " Though salt is a constituent of 
most of our foods and drinks, we do not, in this way, obtain 
a sufficient supply of it to satisfy the wants of the system." 
Plow does he know this ? Some of the savage tribes, that 
use no salt, are as vigorous and healthy as any other savage 
tribes in similar circumstances. Pereira indeed says that 
nature has furnished us with an appetite for salt; but he offers 
no proof of this. What becomes of nature's appetite for salt 
in the Camanches Indians, who never use, but abhor it ? 
What becomes of it in the flocks and herds of Upper Hin- 
dostan, that never have any salt, and yet are among the best 
cattle in all that country ? What became of nature's appetite 
in the case of Methuselah ? 
But it is not so much the moderate use of salt, in the pres- 
ent generation, of which I complain, as the general impres- 
sion in its favor-when there is every reason to suspect it to FOOD AND COOKERY. 
375 
be, in its nature, a poison to the human system, and as cer- 
tainly injurious, in a degree, as the other table medicines, 
which are so freely and largely used. 
" Nitre," otherwise called saltpetre, " is," says Christison, 
''a dangerous poison." Cases are on record of poisoning 
from an ounce or an ounce and a half. In general, it is a 
dangerous and rapid poison in the dose of an ounce. What, 
then, shall we say of its safety for culinary purposes ? 
Some of our learned men in the United States have written 
on this subject, and have cautioned the public mind in regard 
to its application in the way of preserving meats. In my own 
view, the caution should be repeated, and applied to its use in 
every thing which has any thing to do with human diet or drink. 
Saleratus, or pcarlash, (for they are essentially the same 
thing, except that the former is a little stronger as an alkali,) 
enters into our food, nowadays, almost as frequently and as 
largely as butter, eggs, or salt. If a poison at all, it must 
therefore have a very great effect. It must poison its hun- 
dreds, anc^ thousands, and millions. 
Let us, then, inquire into the matter. Orfila, in his work 
on Poisons, sets down the subcarbonate of potash or pcarlash, 
which is but half as strong, in potash, as the bicarbonate, 
or saleratus, as one of the concentrated alkalies; which he 
calls poisons. 
The following are the symptoms which he says follow the 
use of a considerable dose either of a concentrated acid 
or a concentrated alkali; some degree of which must, in the 
nature of things, attach to the use of saleratus or pearlash. 
I will quote his own words, and the public may judge for 
themselves whether they indicate the existence of poison. 
" A disagreeable, acid, burning taste; heat in the throat 
and stomach ; acute pain in the throat, which soon descends 376 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
to the bowels ; insupportable fetor of the breath ; frequent ris- 
ings ; inclination to vomit; abundant vomiting of different col- 
ored matters, sometimes mixed with blood ; hiccough ; consti- 
pation, but more frequently copious, and, more or less, bloody 
stools ; colic ; burning thirst; cold and clammy sweats," &c. 
The physicians of New Brunswick are wont to say that 
mothers there kill half their children with saleratus. How 
is this ? Are they poisoned outright ? Is their dissolution 
preceded by such a cluster of symptoms as the foregoing ? 
Or does the saleratus destroy by uniting itself with other inju- 
rious agents ? 
Most unquestionably in the latter way. When they buy a 
barrel of flour, they buy also a smaller bucket of saleratus.* 
It is used liberally in all sorts of bread, cake, &c. The chil- 
dren, of course, eat it freely. It irritates the lining mem- 
brane of the alimentary canal, and sometimes not only in- 
flames, but actually corrodes it. The result is, that, the system 
being thus prepared for it, the bowel diseases of August and 
September' become severe, unmanageable, and .dangerous, 
and what would otherwise have been a comparatively mild 
form of diarrhoea, dysentery, or cholera becomes almost cer- 
tainly and immediately fatal. 
If the use of this strange medicament in human food - 
this bitter, nauseous thing, that should almost remind us of an 
infernal, rather than a-benevolent origin - were confined to 
New Brunswick, I might say less concerning it. But its use has 
spread, and is still spreading. New England is but little be- 
hind in the " march ; " and the west and south are coming on. 
At the close of a lecture in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in 
* A respectable merchant in Boston, who deals much with the New 
Brunswick and Nova Scotia people, confirms this statement. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
377 
which I had spoken of the frequent consumption of ten or 
twelve pounds of saleratus in a family in a year, a gentleman 
observed that his family, as he thought, used fifty pounds. 
His wife, who was present, doubted whether they used half 
that amount. They discussed the matter, and came to a con- 
clusion that they used about twenty-five pounds. It was a 
family of ten persons. 
Throughout New England it is quite common to find fami- 
lies of five persons that consume ten pounds of this poison 
yearly in their food. Even in Ohio I found families of ordi- 
nary size that used six or eight pounds. Whereas, fifty years 
ago, a quarter of a pound of pearlash was deemed a yearly 
supply for many a family. 
Those remarks are not applicable, in all their severity, to 
the use of saleratus, where the object is merely to neutralize 
acetic acid, as in the case of over-risen bread. For here, 
the saleratus, if not applied in excess, induces a chemical 
change. The acetic acid combines with the potash to form a 
new substance, called acetate of potash, which is less irritating 
than saleratus; while the carbonic acid escapes, causing a 
degree of effervescence. 
I do not mean to say that even this process is desirable. 
I do not mean to say that even the acetate of potash is salu- 
tary. Only, if we are not willing to eat bread with acetic acid 
or vinegar in it, we have a way of getting rid of the vinegar, 
without substituting another poison in its stead. 
" Worse, and still worse ! " some may exclaim ; " and is 
vinegar, too, a poison ? " This brings us to the confines of 
vegetable poisons. I will, therefore, proceed to say that, 
though this article has not generally been regarded as a poi- 
so, Orfila speaks of it as such. Four or five ounces of it 
given to a dog proved fatal in ten to fifteen hours. 378 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
Spurred rye is one of the worst vegetable poisons with which 
we ordinarily come in contact in domestic life. Indeed, it can 
hardly be said to be very commonly encountered, since the 
public begin to understand its properties, and to avoid it. 
Most happily, it is easily seen and easily separated. What 
also renders it less necessary that I should speak of it very 
fully, is the consideration that it is not much found in New 
England, and but rarely in other parts of the United States. 
Many years ago, it was thought to do mischief in the State of 
New York ; but I have heard nothing about it lately. I have 
seen it but once in the rye fields of Massachusetts. 
Spurred corn has occasionally been found to produce the 
most terrible results; but I believe not in our own country. 
In Colombia, in South America, men and other animals are 
made sick with it. The black rust of wheat, according to 
the French chemists, is also slightly poisonous. 
Unripe grain, according to Christison, Bouvier, and other 
French writers, is more or less injurious - I might almost say 
poisonous. Epidemic diseases have been ascribed to it. In 
the year 1793, an epidemic dysentery laid waste several de- 
partments of the Oise, in France, which was referred to the 
use of unripe grain. (See the Appendix, Note F.) 
Lettuce is poisonous. Why should it not be so ? It con- 
tains a substance called lactucarium, which is narcotic, and is 
of the opium family. Galen, it is said, used to eat it at sup- 
per, because its narcotic properties were favorable to sound 
sleep. Yet people eat it, as they do arsenic, with seeming 
impunity. 
Mushrooms are, in some places, a very fashionable article 
of food. There are several species of them, some of which 
are hardly poisonous at all, while others are very deadly. 
The poisonous may be distinguished from those which ara FOOD AND COOKEKY. 
379 
regarded as innocuous; but the safest way is to let them all 
alone. 
Annatto is procured from the seeds of a Mexican plant. It 
is chiefly used as a medicine. How it came to be deemed 
safe to color butter and cheese with it, is unknown. It is not 
greatly poisonous, but only slightly so ; still it should be re- 
jected, except by the physician and apothecary. 
Exposed potatoes are poisonous. These are generally dis- 
tinguishable by their dark-green appearance. The potato, as 
is well known, belongs to a poisonous family of the name of 
solanum, and there seems to be a tendency, when the plant is 
less cultivated, to revert to its natural state. Decayed pota- 
toes are believed to be poisonous. (See Appendix, Note G.) 
Bread mould has a bad name. Were it necessary, I could 
present a long list of cases of poisoning of this sort. They 
would be principally gleaned from English papers, but would 
be entitled to credit; but I will not inflict so heavy a tax upon 
your patience. Whether the alum, and other kindred sub- 
stances, - so much used by bakers, in order to procure a 
large loaf, and for other purposes, - ever actually poison 
those who use them, is a question which I am at present una- 
ble to solve ; they should not, in any event, be tolerated. 
Much mischief has been produced, as I have before inti- 
mated, by the well-known plant ranunculus, or buttercup. 
It grows with the greatest luxuriance where the soil has been 
enriched by hot, rank, recent manures, as around our houses 
and barns, and in the immediate vicinity of a dense popula- 
tion. It may be known by its beautiful yellow blossoms. 
Nothing is better proved than that this plant, whenever eaten 
by our domestic animals, poisons them. In a time of abun- 
dance of food, they will not usually taste it, except by acci- 
dent, though in a time of scarcity they sometimes will; they 380 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
will also eat it when mixed with the hay on which they feed 
in midwinter. 
It is also a well-established fact that it produces inflamma- 
tion and ulceration in the stomachs of the animals that eat it. 
And must not the flesh and milk of animals thus poisoned be 
productive of irritation when received into the human stom- 
ach ? How many thousands of us, then, must be more or less 
poisoned by buttercup ! 
I suppose it to be generally known that the milk of an ani- 
mal is liable to contain, unchanged, more or less of the sub- 
stances on which she feeds. How many times have I detect- 
ed the common bitter weed in milk ! Flow many times the 
carrot! But this is not all. Poison taken by an animal that 
gives milk must, of course, affect that milk. The poison 
eaten by a cow or sheep may destroy the calf or lamb, while 
the mother remains almost or quite uninjured. And are we, 
who use milk of this kind in our families, entirely unscathed ? 
Whether the flesh of fattened animals that have eaten 
more or less of the buttercup can affect seriously those who 
use it, is not so certain as that milk will produce these effects ; 
nevertheless, I do not believe there can be much doubt on 
the subject. 
There is one more species of domestic poisoning which is 
worthy of our notice for a few moments. It might have 
been conjoined with the consideration of what I have called 
mineral poisons; but I chose to defer it. I speak here of 
poisoning through the medium of the vessels used in cookery, 
and in eating and drinking. 
The various preparations of lead, in all probability, do as 
much mischief in domestic life - especially in the line of 
cookery - as any one class of substances which we have to 
do with. Among them are the mere oxide of lead, acetate of FOOD AND COOKERY. 
381 
lead, commonly called sugar of lead, red lead, litharge, and 
white lead. 
Red earthen ware is usually glazed with melted oxide of lead. 
This is the reason why so many people have been poisoned by 
eating pickles, sauces, &c., which had been kept in these ves- 
sels. The acid - oftentimes the acetic acid - acted upon the 
lead, and combined with it to form a new and poisonons sub- 
stance. 
The most remarkable instance of.this kind of poisoning I 
have ever known, took place at Elizabethtown, in Pennsylva- 
nia, in the year 1814. The people had just supplied them- 
selves with red earthen vessels from a new pottery, into which 
they put what they called their apple butter. The acid in it 
united with the oxide of lead in the glazing, and produced ace- 
tate of lead. A severe colic prevailed in the neighborhood, 
to which many fell victims before the cause of the disease 
could be finally traced out, and its progress fully arrested. 
Many people set their milk - or formerly did - in red 
earthen pans. This is highly dangerous ; for the slightest • 
change in the milk will generate acidity, a portion of the lead 
of the glazing will be dissolved, and a diseased state of the 
stomach and bowels will be the inevitable consequence. The 
mother of a child seven days old, in a family with which I 
was intimately acquainted, having drank water from a pail 
just painted on the inside with a paint prepared from white 
lead, the child was taken the following night with nausea, 
pain, and vomiting, and suffered severely. 
Red lead is an oxide of lead, is much used in painting, and 
is a component part of some of our red wafers. I have 
known clerks and others made sick by eating these wafers; 
and have not a doubt that the stomachs of many knights of 
the quill become diseased in this very way. 382 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
The London Lancet states that the secretary of a well- 
known institution in England was twice attacked with a 
violent salivation, so severely as to render medical aid indis- 
pensable, from his having wafcTed five hundred circulars with 
red wafers, which he had wetted with his mouth. I have 
known some of our American clerks suffer in the same way. 
Litharge is an orange-red substance prepared also from 
lead, by oxidizing it, and is equally poisonous. It is used in 
making confectionery. Indeed, red lead, and another lead- 
ing substance called massicot, arc both used for the same 
purpose. Whether our confectioners know that they are 
using poison, in these cases, I have not the means of deter- 
mining. 
Many a time* have individuals, and sometimes a whole 
family, been so poisoned by the frosting, as it is called, of 
our confectionery, as to be sick, several of them at once. In 
general, the quantity used in coloring small toys is so incon- 
siderable, that the poisonous effects are not immediately 
obvious, especially in children who are so tenacious of 
life. 
A family of five persons, in New York, were all severely 
sick, and some of them came very near dying, in the year 
1835, in consequence of eating the frosting of a confectionery 
cake. Drs. Hosack and Rogers analyzed the colored orna- 
ments of the part of the cake that remained of it, and found 
one fifth of it rank poison. 
There has been great trouble in our country from lead 
pipes. Some of these cases have come under my own ob- 
servation. Many attempts have been made to explain the 
matter, but they are not wholly satisfactory. One thing, 
however, all are agreed in, viz., that lead pipes are very 
unsafe. FOOD AND COOKERY. 
383 
Poisonous substances arc sometimes developed during the 
process of cookery. Thus I have many times seen vegetables 
taken from a common iron pot or kettle, almost as black as 
if they had been boiled in ink. What was the cause ? 1 
have suspected the presence of a little sulphuric acid and a 
little oxide of iron, or iron rust, in the kettle, which being 
united, produce sulphate of iron, or common copperas. 
Passing through Hartford, in Connecticut, one day in my 
early life, I saw at a corner' some maple sugar. It was dark 
colored, unusually so. I bought and ate a few ounces of it; 
but it poisoned my mouth and oesophagus so that I could 
scarcely speak or swallow for several days. 
There are two kinds of verdigris. We are more or less 
exposed to them both in modern cookery, and they are both 
extremely poisonous. One is, in chemical language, the car- 
bonate of copper, the other the subacetate of copper. The 
last will dissolve in water, and is very poisonous, in every 
shape and form. 
Too much care can hardly be taken to prevent the forma- 
tion of this substance in kitchen utensils; and yet, through 
the neglect of housekeepers, hardly any thing is more com- 
mon. Saucepans, whether of copper or brass, - for brass 
contains much copper, - if well tinned and kept perfectly 
clean, are not at all dangerous, whatever may be cooked in 
them. But when they are badly tinned, or not well cleaned, 
not only wine, cider, vinegar, currant and gooseberry juice, 
but oil, and all greasy substances, cause the formation of 
verdigris, and may occasion the most fatal accidents. 
When the substances of which I have been speaking, 
especially oily or greasy food, are not only prepared in cop- 
per vessels, but also left to cool in them, the quantity of ver- 
digris formed is apt to be considerable. It is, therefore, of 384 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
the utmost importance to pour off whatever we cook in these 
vessels while it is still boiling. 
It is stated in our more elaborate works on poisons, that 
people are sometimes made sick by eating salads seasoned 
with vinegar, in consequence of the previous exposure of the 
vinegar, in some way, to copper. 
In the Boston Journal for January 1, 1852, is an account 
of poisoning with copper, which, though taken from an Eng- 
lish paper, seems to bear the marks of authenticity. A 
female cook, about to die, confessed that she had carelessly 
sent a stew to a table, a part of which had stood some time in 
copper, till it was green. The mixture was eaten, and several 
died. Afraid she should be held accountable as a murderer, 
though without intending to be so, she had not dared to con- 
fess the fact till she lay on her death bed. 
Pure tin is not much used for culinary utensils. What is 
usually called tin is an alloy of tin and iron. To form it, 
very thin plates or sheets of iron are dipped into melted tin, 
which not only coats the iron plates, but penetrates them. 
There is no danger in the use of this substance as long as it 
does not rust or oxidate. But the moment either this tinned 
ware, or the genuine tin, or bntanma, becomes rusted or 
oxidated, it is extremely poisonous. 
But I must close. Should any housekeeper, who considers 
well this whole subject, longer doubt of the usefulness to her 
profession of a knowledge of chemistry and the laws of life, 
she must be differently constructed, at least mentally, from 
most persons who possess a thinking apparatus. Her scep- 
ticism or her stupidity must be beyond the reach of hope. 
(See Appendix, Note H.) EXERCISE AND REST. 
385 
LECTURE IX. 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
I. ACTION OR EXERCISE. 
Pope has said that " order is Heaven's first law ; " but 1 
nave sometimes been inclined to question his " orthodoxy." 
Action or motion - confused and chaotic though it should be 
- seems to me, in the divine arrangement of things, to be 
first. Order, indeed, comes next, and is the wise and appropri- 
ate direction of that action, so that it may tend to " universal 
good." 
To what part of the Creator's vast domain shall we repair 
to find no action - no motion - in a word, absolute quies- 
cence ? Shall we turn our eyes to the everlasting hills ? 
Not, surely, to the granite hills of New England; for these 
are by no means stationary. They are continually changing 
- crumbling away with the action of the sun, air, and rain 
- to say nothing of any internal changes. Their surfaces 
are wasting here, or gaining, by accretion, there. Are not 
the beds of our rivers and oceans hourly receiving, from the 
firmest rocks on the globe, fresh deposits ? 
What is crystallization, that curious and wonderful process, 
but a motion of the parts of solids, directed by law ? Nay, 
does not the geologist tell us of changes mightier than these, 
perpetually going on ? Are not many of our firmest solids 
resolvable, in the crucible of the chemist, to liquids, and even 
to gases ; and our liquids and gases to solids ? But how 
much more frequently do these results take place in Nature's 386 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
great crucible, and in the hands of a Chemist whose skill and 
power are almighty ! 
But if the most solid parts.of the great globe we tread on 
are not quite solid, after all, - if even here there is perpet- 
ual action or motion, - how much more is this the case with 
its less solid portions, the oceans and their numerous tributa- 
ries ! What action - what mighty and incessant action - is 
here! 
Even in the world's chaotic state, the Spirit of the Almighty 
moved upon the waters. How much more obvious arc motion 
and change now! Ever since the decree of the Eternal di- 
vided the waters from the waters, and made an ocean in the 
atmosphere as well as on the earth's surface, a most surprising 
current of action has been going on, which, though it may 
elude the eye of sense, is as real as the recurrence of day 
and night. The ambient atmosphere, forty-five miles high, 
as truly holds a world of water in solution as the bed of 
the ocean itself. For, according to the estimates of some, 
the average amount of water in solution, in the atmosphere, 
at a common summer temperature, could it be precipitated at 
once, would cover the surface of the earth to the depth of 
more than three feet, and if gathered to the oceans, would 
cover them to the depth of five feet. Surely, then, there is a 
smaller ocean above us, as well as a larger one below- us; 
and what is more curious still, these oceans are forever inter- 
changing commodities. 
Here, if nowhere else, is free trade. The ocean below is 
constantly giving off, from its mighty mass, by evaporation, 
to the ocean above - the atmosphere; while the latter is, 
ever and anon, precipitating what it has received, in the form 
of rain, hail, or snow, upon the earth's surface, to fertilize it, 
to form springs, brooks, and rivers, which again return to EXERCISE AND REST. 
387 
their mother ocean, whence they came. Whether there is 
any secret, under-ground communication between the oceans 
and the springs, by means of which a portion of the water of 
the former finds its way to the latter, like the venous blood, 
against all natural law, except it be that of capillary attrac- 
tion, to the heart, is not so certain. 
The waters of the earth are kept in incessant agitation, in 
a degree a.lso, by the atmosphere. Their surface is, nearly 
every where, more or less in action; and they mutually give 
and receive. This mutual action and reaction, among other 
things, contribute to prevent that stagnation of the great aque- 
ous mass, which, notwithstanding the laws of evaporation and 
motion, might otherwise be inevitable. 
This should serve to remind us of the incessant motion 
going on in the atmosphere itself. Rarefied at the tropics or 
elsewhere by heat, portions of air continually ascend from 
the earth's surface, and are as continually replaced by those 
which are heavier and colder. On this great fact is based 
the modern theory of winds, by which a circulation takes place, 
as important as that of the mighty mass of waters - and, 
like the latter, resembling, in no small degree, the circula- 
tion of that world in miniature, the human body. 
Thus we see that the various portions of the inorganic and 
inanimate world - solid, fluid, and aeriform - demand exer- 
cise, and demand it, too, continually; and for what is so 
necessary to their well being and our own, the great Creator 
has made effectual provision. Nay, more than even all this; 
not only are the various parts of the earth in almost incessant 
motion, but so also are those, as we have good reason to be- 
lieve, of all the bodies of our solar system. Made, as they 
most certainly are, of materials not unlike those of which our 
globe'is composed, and subject, in general, to the same laws, 388 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
is not perpetual motion - action - exercise - a first and 
most important law of Heaven in them, too ? 
And then - onward in our march - if we extend our im- 
agination to those myriads of worlds, those systems on sys- 
tems with which all space, visible and invisible, is replenished, 
are not these same laws, in all probability, still in operation ? 
Once more. Not only are the component parts of the 
world we inhabit, and of other worlds, in perpetual motion, 
but also the worlds themselves. It would be as hard to find 
a world quiescent, as an atom. Has not our world - have 
not its sister worlds-their twofold motion, annual and di- 
urnal ? Think of the velocity with which they move on their 
own axes ! But think still more of the amazing velocity with 
which they are whirled in their orbits around their respective 
centres or suns ; and these last, each, perhaps, with its retinue 
around another centre ; and then, perhaps, still, a host of these 
systems on systems revolving around the great centre of cen- 
tres, the throne of God ! What incessant, what mighty motion 
is here ! What specimens these of the importance which 
Jehovah attaches to action, or exercise, as well as to order, 
the secondary law to direct that motion ! 
But to return to our own little planet. I have spoken of 
the necessity of action or motion in the inanimate portions of 
the globe we inhabit; but how much more curious are the laws 
which prevail when we rise a step higher, to the notice of 
organic bodies! 
The moment we come to the vegetable domain, we per- 
ceive, much more than in the world of mere inanimate mat- 
ter, the importance and necessity of motion. Here is a 
cluster of atoms arranged in a new and wonderful manner, 
and endowed with a wonderful property, called vitality ot 
! EXERCISE AND REST. 
389 
In other words, here is a particular form of matter endued 
with a particular structure, and invested with powers which 
enable it, for a time, to resist the tendency to those changes 
it would be compelled to undergo, were it merely inert or 
dead substance. Though filled with juices, and covered with 
leaves or fruits full of the same, and subject to stagnation, 
decay, putrefaction, &c., or to be destroyed by the sun's keen 
rays, or by some new play of chemical affinities, it lives on, 
resisting all these influences, and maintaining its station, prop- 
erties, and relations - in other words, maintaining life - 
for months and years, and sometimes, as in the case of 
the oak, for centuries. 
Flow is this accomplished ? Though we do not fully un- 
derstand the nature of life, even in its simplest forms, we do 
understand, very well, that motion - motion, too, in great 
abundance - is indispensable. Grasses, plants, and trees 
could never thrive were there not a circulation of fluids within 
them, and this circulation is carried on through ten thousand 
little vessels. The circulating fluid, or sap, analogous to the 
material of circulation in the human body, the blood, de- 
mands motion almost as incessant, though not quite so rapid, 
as the latter fluid does ; and suffering or evil - I will not call 
it punishment - as inevitably follows when this motion is 
interrupted. 
But to obstruct this vegetable motion is no easy task. Here 
the Creator has kept the reins of government in his own 
hands - not delegating it, as in our case, to free agency. 
Besides establishing his laws within their structure, he has 
made permanent provision, in the nature of things around, 
for their fulfilment. The light of day and the darkness of 
night; the vicissitudes of summer and winter, and heat and 
cold ; the rain and the breezes, - all perform an important 390 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
mission in respect to the vegetable. Not a ray from the sun 
reaches it, not a drop of rain from the clouds falls on it, nor 
a breeze of wind stirs it, without exerting an important agen- 
cy in regard to the simplest and smallest vegetable ; and I 
have been often delighted, as I have seen the tall tree tops 
waving in the breeze, to consider the provision made by 
Heaven, in this mode of exercise, for their health and vigor! 
From vegetation, we come, at last, to animal life. Here, 
from the merest polypus to man, - the highest in the scale, 
- the same almighty hand which has so bountifully provided 
action or exercise for the other kingdoms of nature, is still 
seen, and even more distinctly than before. 
So wonderful, in truth, are the laws of animated nature, - 
so curious, yet varied are its instincts, - that Addison, in the 
caption to a chapter in the Spectator, has the following re- 
markable words: " God himself the soul of brutes." And 
we must not blame him too much for the expression. For 
who has reflected on the laws of motion and the importance 
of action or exercise, and witnessed the sports of the finny and 
scaly tribes, the gambols of the lamb, the playfulness of the 
kitten, and tlfe movements and songs of the feathered tribes, 
without saying within himself, - and this, too, without incur- 
ring the charge of pantheism, - Surely God himself is here ! 
Nor is man, by birthright, and at birth, less an animal - 
whatever higher qualities he may possess - than the rest of 
the tribes. His whole nature, under the guidance of instinct, 
calls for exercise, and that, too, almost perpetual. No sooner 
is he possessed of the machinery of motion than he com- 
mences his exercise ; and whether in an aquatic, a terrestrial, 
or a celestial state, motion is, to him, Heaven's first law. 
Such motion, or action, in order, to be right action, must, in- 
deed, be directed; and here the second law of Heaven - due EXERCISE AND REST. 
391 
order-comes in. But, I repeat it, action or motion is the 
bent of his nature, from first to last, whether obedient or 
disobedient, whether happy or miserable, whether here or 
hereafter. He loves action in the cradle; his cries are 
action ; the gratification of his appetite for food is action ; his 
grasping for the candle is action; his gambols of every sort 
are action ; the studies and employments of later years are 
action; life is the continuance of his action, and so is 
eternity. 
The redeemed, before the throne of God, are represented 
as active in the highest degree. If they are not spoken of 
in every instance, as fly ing through the midst of heaven, on 
Heaven's important errands, they are at least represented as 
saying, " Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ! " Nor is there 
less of activity - a terrible activity though it should be - in 
the world of the lost! 
In short, whether we study the material or the imma- 
terial world ; whether we are at home, or take to our- 
selves the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts 
of the earth ; whether we look around us or within us, above 
or below us, - all is and must be ever-during activity. 
No being, however, belonging to this terrestrial sphere, 
demands action or exercise more than man. What is true of 
all other worlds and beings is especially true of him for 
whom-as the poet Young has said - all other worlds, if 
not beings, were made. No one has a more complicated 
system of machinery than he. He has been called a world 
in miniature. Within the narrow domain of the human body 
are performed several processes as much more curious than 
the processes of vegetable circulation as those are more 
curious than the mere formation of a crystal. These internal 
processes, moreover, are best performed when he has a full 392 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
supply - not, indeed, an over supply, but a. full - of pleasant 
and healthful exercise or motion of another kind. 
I should like to take up and treat of these internal pro- 
cesses, involving such a variety and extent of motion, or at 
least of the machinery connected with the performance of 
these processes. But it would be foreign to my present pur- 
pose to do so. Besides, it would involve much repetition of 
what has already been said under other heads. 
The Creator has given us, as he has the brutes also, but 
not the vegetables, a locomotive power - the ability of 
moving from place to place at our pleasure. With the proper 
exercise and right direction of this power, he has kindly con- 
nected a large measure of our happiness. To that instinct, 
moreover, which he has given both to us and to the brutes, 
he has superadded reason. In the exercise of this reason, 
that is, in the capacity of free agents, it is obvious to those 
who have made the inquiry, carefully, that the more our 
bodies are exercised, within certain limits, the better it is for 
our health. I have already said that the internal processes 
themselves will be better performed in proportion. 
For when we exercise ourselves properly, - that is, when 
we move ourselves from place to place as much as we ought, 
and thus agitate, gently, all the machinery within, - then is 
the object of that machinery best accomplished. In other 
words, then is our health best preserved, and our happiness in 
the highest possible degree promoted. 
It is true that there are cases on record of personsjwithout 
the power of moving from place to place, and who have been 
moved but little by others, who have yet lived on to twenty 
or thirty years of age. It was stated in the papers, a few 
years since, - probably with truth, - that there was a female 
in North Carolina, whose whole frame consisted of mere head EXERCISE AND REST. 
393 
and trunk, as destitute' of limbs - the chief agents of locomo- 
tion - as a log for the fireplace. She only moved as she was 
taken up and carried from chair to chair, or to and from the 
table oi' the bed. Yet, said the papers, she was healthy. 
They said, however, she was very corpulent. Now, such re- 
markable corpulence is disease ; and this young woman, 
healthy as she was said to be, no doubt long ago paid the 
debt to nature. 
The slightest inspection of the human locomotive appara- 
tus is sufficient to convince any candid inquirer after truth 
that the Creator has not made it without intending it for a 
very important use. Let us, therefore, for a few moments, 
make this slight examination ; it may at the least amuse us. 
The human body, whose weight averages, in the male adult, 
one hundred and fqrty pounds or more, is prevented from being 
crushed to the earth by a strong framework, called, when 
detached from the body, a skeleton; but when in the living 
body, simply the hones. This framework, though it seems 
very simple, and made up of a very few pieces, is really 
quite complicated. 
It consists of at least two hundred and forty bones, or pieces. 
The brain case, or skull, which looks like one smooth, glob- 
ular piece, is made up of as many as eight pieces, which, in 
the young, are as separable as the bones of the fingers. Each 
hand and wrist, too, have no less than twenty-seven. Indeed, 
in childhood and youth, the number of separate bones and 
pieces of bone are much greater than two hundred and forty, 
as there are then found, at the end of most of the long 
bones, other shorter pieces, which afterwards, in later life, ad- 
here to and become a part of them. Some also, as the breast 
bone, are in several divisions during infancy ; but in maturer 
life they become consolidated into one. 394 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
Some of the bones are joined together in one way, some in 
another. The eight pieces of skull bone, as we advance in 
life, are fitted together by serrated or saw-tooth edges. The 
teeth seem driven like nails into a ridge, or jaw bone. Most, 
however, are fastened by a sort of hinge ; and in some the 
hinge is very perfect. 
The ribs have a slight, but very complicated motion, which, 
if not disturbed by compression, greatly favors the healthy 
action of the lungs and heart, which they enclose as in a 
cavity. I have dwelt on this before, and alluded to some of 
the errors of modern training, which interfere greatly with this 
full and free motion. 
The sixty bones of the arms and hands, sixty more of the 
legs, feet, and knees, twenty-four of the spine, and some 
twelve to twenty more connected with the jaws and elsewhere, 
amounting in all to more than one hundred and forty, should 
have - and do have, if we are not greatly in fault - a very 
free and full, and even frequent and rapid, motion. 
These bones are coated, or lined all over, with a thick and 
rather tough membrane, called periosteum. This is still 
tougher at their ends, which are often surrounded with a kind 
of purse, or sac.. In this sac a liquid is formed and poured 
out, gradually, to keep the joints from wearing. It is called 
synovia. Some have compared it with the tar which the 
wagoner uses on his wheels for a similar purpose. 
All these bones are at first mere pieces and lumps of jelly ; 
they are converted into bone by degrees. First, a small speck 
of bony matter is left - culled out or secreted - where the 
bone should be ; then more is added : this is called ossification. 
It begins about the middle of the long bones, and near the 
centre of the flat ones. 
It happens, by the way, that Nature - ever true to hei EXERCISE AND REST. 
395 
trust when not abused or trifled with - sometimes takes on 
an unnatural process, and forms bony matter where there 
should be none. Such a result is becoming quite common in 
later years; but I have spoken of this in treating of diseases 
of the heart. 
Human transgression, moreover, in various shapes, throws 
upon nature the necessity of making other efforts. Thus, where 
there is a rickety tendency in the system, we find a deficiency 
of the work of ossification, and the bones become soft, and 
yield under pressure. This is because there is not power in 
the system to apply new particles to the parts, when the old 
or waste particles are taken away. 
A more dreadful disease than even rickets sometimes oc- 
curs. All the bones become soft: this is called, in books, 
mollities ossium. The system loses the power to make any 
new bony particles, and when the old ones are one by one 
taken away, nothing is at length left but mere gristle, as in 
infancy. 
Let no one be frightened, however, at the idea of suffering 
from ossification of the heart, rickets, mollities ossium, &c., 
because the mere fear of these diseases will be of no service. 
All he has to do, - and this is enough to prevent it, - is to 
learn and obey the laws of life and health ; or, if there are 
already diseased tendencies in consequence of inheritance, 
obedience will probably check or arrest their progress. 
But as the bones - however well adapted at their ends, 
and indeed throughout, for motion - will not move of them- 
selves ; how are they to be moved ? How are the arms to be 
raised, and the legs carried forward ? Or, if we attempt to 
give motion to the bones in any way, how is that motion to 
be regulated ? 
The work is performed by means of muscles. A muscle 396 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
is a strip of lean flesh, somewhat enlarged, usually, in the 
middle, but tapering towards each end. What we call lean 
meat consists of muscles - or, more correctly, as they are 
seldom found single, of a package or parcel of them. 
The fleshy part of the arm below the shoulder, for exam- 
ple, is composed of several muscles ; they are so connected 
with each other, that when we cut off a large portion of the 
flesh, it appears like a solid mass rather than like a package 
of small bundles - as it really is - of fleshy fibres, sliding 
among one another. Here is a view of some of them. 
But how do these packages of fleshy fibres move the bone i 
is still the question. The muscles are larger in the middle, 
and tapering towards their ends, where they usually terminate 
in broad, flat, whitish straps, called tendons. The ends of 
these tendons are attached to the bones, so that, when the 
muscles shrink, motion is effected. 
Thus, in the present case, suppose I will to bring my 
hand to my head. The muscles of the arm shrink, which 
Specimens of muscles and their tendons. EXERCISE AND REST. 
397 
must of necessity bring the shoulder nearer the hand, or the 
hand nearer the shoulder. As the last result is easiest, the 
hand comes towards the head. Place your hand on your 
arm while the muscle shrinks, and you will perceive the 
swelling. 
When I wish to carry my hand back again, the muscles, 
which were before contracted or shrunk, begin to relax or 
yield, and the muscles on the back side of the arm, in their 
turn, contract and extend the arm, and carry the hand, of 
The biceps muscle contracted, in order to move the arm and hand. 
course, along with it. This is, briefly, an account of muscu- 
lar motion. 
The movements of the legs and every other part of the body 
are effected essentially in the same way. There are usually 
two sets of muscles to a part - called flexors and extensors. 
Flexors bend the part, and extensors carry it back or extend 
it. The bones and muscles, moreover, make a set of levers 
and pulleys; and most of our locomotion simply consists in 
being pried about. Whether we walk, run, creep, climb, or 398 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
swim, we are still pried from place to place ; and if we could 
fly, it would be the same thing, essentially. The birds are 
pried along, as well as we. 
There are about four hundred and fifty muscles, usually in 
pairs, employed in moving the body about; of which the far 
greater part are exceedingly active. Except in case of dis- 
ease, they obey the will. In chorea, and in the case of cramp 
or spasms, they are not obedient to the will in every in- 
stance ; and in sound sleep, we have not much power over 
them. 
Thus there are from one hundred and thirty to one hundred 
and fifty muscles concerned in keeping the body in an erect 
posture; from fifty to one hundred in moving it in any 
desired direction, forward, backwards, or sidewise; from 
eighty to ninety in moving the arm and hand; about one 
hundred should be employed in moving the chest - in breath- 
ing, speaking, singing, &c. ; and about forty in performing 
the various motions of the face. I should also add to these 
the various ligaments or straps which hold the joints in their 
places, of which there are three or four hundred of impor- 
tance. What a wonderful apparatus this - of two hundred 
and forty bones, four hundred and fifty muscles, and three 
hundred ligaments, contrived, by the great Creator, for effect- 
ing human motion, and promoting our happiness ! 
Now, I say again, that we find those who most use this 
locomotive apparatus, if they do not use it unreasonably and 
abusively, - if, too, all other things are as they should be,- 
the most healthy. The strong and robust, as a general fact, 
have firm, strong, and even active muscles; while the feeble 
individual has his muscles thick, small, soft, and weak. 
It is admitted that there are a few apparent exceptions to 
this rule ; but they are only a few. When people are healthy EXERCISE AND REST. 
399 
without good muscles, they are probably so by inheritance, 
and in spite of their want of muscular vigor, rather than on 
account of it; or the vast majority of their habits are cor- 
rect, and the neglect of locomotion, as an error, stands almost 
alone. 
Nor is this all. The vigor, if not the activity, of the brain 
- the organ of the mind - will always be in due proportion 
to the muscular vigor and energy of the body, according to 
the old Roman notion that a sound mind can only be had in a 
sound body. Hence the importance of knowing how to secure 
muscular power. 
A contrary doctrine has, I know, prevailed, even among 
physiologists. It is asserted, by some of them, that a 
strong body is absolutely at variance with the development 
and manifestation of strong mental powers. Those who wish 
to know what has been said - and with much seeming plau- 
sibility - on this subject, may consult Richerand's Physiolo- 
gy, in the article on Temperaments. The error referred to 
has probably had its origin in the fact that a few men with 
giant intellect, - or at least with giant brilliancy, - with 
bodies perhaps originally strong, have early wasted their 
physical energies, and at the period when they were most 
distinguished in the literary world, have been equally distin- 
guished for broken-down frames and feeble constitutions. 
There is, however, a wide difference between intellectual 
strength and intellectual activity. These " giant intellects " 
have been more remarkable for the latter than for the former. 
No truth can be better substantiated than that the strongest, 
soundest minds are, as a general fact, lodged in the strongest, 
soundest bodies. 
For though we may find, both among the ancients and the 
moderns, a few sickly or deformed Alsops, Pascals, and Popes, 400 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
with mental powers rising somewhat above mediocrity, how 
much oftener do we find the contrary ! Moses, David, Alex- 
ander, and Julius Ceesar were men of great bodily power. 
Who but Alexander could mount and manage Bucephalus ? 
And, in later periods, Franklin had twice the strength of an 
ordinary London printer, and Washington, for muscular 
strength, hardly had an equal. Spurzheim, too, had great 
muscular power; nor was George Combe, in his better days, 
in this respect deficient. Napoleon, even, to whom intellect- 
ual power is usually awarded, was by no means deficient in 
muscular vigor. 
I might even come to the mighty men - intellectually - 
of our own time. But I forbear ; only adding what I do not 
think will be disputed, that there are not six men with feeble 
frames at all distinguished in history ; and that I do not know 
of a greater number among the living. 
As the general vigor of the body and the mind, in all their 
functions and faculties, taken as a whole, is usually in due 
proportion to the health and vigor of the muscles and bones, 
- the moving powers,- so the health and vigor of every part 
is always in proportion to the muscular force and activity of 
that part. Thus the strength and vigor of the lungs are, in 
no small degree, in proportion to the vigor and power of the 
muscles concerned in the work of respiration, and in voice 
and speech. Hence the importance of that early discipline of 
the lungs for which I have already contended. 
Hence, too, the importance of recreations and employments 
that have the same tendency. And hereon is founded - 
more, perhaps, than most people are aware - the necessity 
of numerous athletic sports and recreations for children and 
young people, and of having them, too, in the open air. 
Were the indications of Nature properly studied, and her EXERCISE AND REST. 
401 
voice duly regarded, I have not a doubt that we should find 
our children could easily be led to seek the very forms of 
amusement that their opening and expanding minds and 
bodies would demand. 
In selecting amusements for ourselves and our children, 
some regard should always be had to the nature of our occupa- 
tions. A boy who has been on the bench, at school or at 
home, six hours of the day, should neither be required nor 
permitted to sit on a bench the rest of the day; or, indeed, 
any considerable part of it. Let him have exercise which is 
more active than morris, dice, or Chinese puzzles ; or read- 
ing a novel or a story book ; or sitting on a shoe bench or a 
tailor's bench ; or setting card teeth, or performing any other 
manual labor that requires the sitting position, or even the 
standing one - especially where there is a temptation to sit 
or stand long. Let him have exercise which will bring into 
action as many muscles as possible, especially those which 
have been longest inactive or quiescent. In all cases, it 
should be unconstrained and joyous, and never fettered or 
depressed. Recreation, to be profitable, should, as it were, 
re-create the subject of it. 
Those who use the forty muscles of the face as they ought 
have countenances more strongly marked, and, as a general 
fact, more interesting, than those who do not. This is not 
mere imagination; it is sober fact - a fact, however, which 
is but little regarded, practically, in early education. 
Some individuals have their countenances so grave and 
staid, - so destitute of the least expression,-that, however 
well formed their features naturally may be, we cannot regard 
them as beautiful; hardly interesting. Yet they have the same 
number of muscles in their faces, or at least once had, that 
others have whose countenances are full of expression, and 402 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
who, wherever they go, win golden opinions. I have seen 
those whose features were, by inheritance, rather ugly, become, 
by long cultivation of the tender and benevolent feelings, 
nearly handsome.* Is it too much to say that our beauty is 
almost put in our own power? Dr. Mussey, of Cincinnati, is 
wont to say of Adam and Eve, that they were exceedingly 
beautiful. 
Again: those who use the muscles of their backs and 
lower limbs properly, acquire thereby a degree of strength 
in those parts which is truly surprising. Many porters will 
carry from four hundred to one thousand pounds on their 
backs at once; and Captain Williams, of Boston, assures me 
he knew a Mediterranean porter who would carry more than 
one thousand pounds. 
Many an individual has walked two hundred miles a week, 
or thirty-three and a third a day, not only without loss of 
energy in the muscles and other parts chiefly concerned, but 
with a considerable increase of vigor, both local and general. 
This is wonderful, when we consider the following estimates 
and statements. 
In order to travel thirty-three and one third miles, each 
* As an indication of the power which education and habit possess 
over the muscles of the face, suffer me to relate an anecdote. 
Some twenty-five years ago, at an exhibition of the deaf and dumb, 
in New Haven, Connecticut, Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, their teacher, proposed 
to relate a story with his mere face, in such a manner as to be intelligible 
to them. He folded his arms, and without a single gesture - with the 
mere motion of the face and eyes - related the story of Peter walking 
on the water to go to Jesus : and one or two of the pupils wrote it down. 
There is every reason for believing that there was no deception in the 
case, or exaggeration. Yet it was curious to observe - for I was pres- 
ent- the movements of Mr. G.'s face, and the intense interest of th« 
pupils. EXERCISE AND REST. 
403 
lower limb must probably be moved about forty thousand 
times, or both of them eighty thousand. The arms, in swing- 
ing at his side, would move as many. The aggregate is one 
hundred and sixty thousand. This sum, multiplied by the 
two hundred muscles which are brought into greater or 
less action at every step, would give a product equal to 
thirty-two millions. 
Can it then be that our systems are so constituted as to be 
able to expend, daily, vital energy enough to perform all these 
thirty-two millions of muscular actions or motions, not only 
with no loss by " wear or tear," but with advantage ? Why, 
no iron or steel would endure so much attrition as our joints 
thus do. No wonder Galen was cured of atheism by the 
study of anatomy ! 
But we have ample evidence of the importance of muscu- 
lar motion in the effects which uniformly follow from its neg- 
lect. For want of due exercise we see, every where, immense 
suffering. Let us dwell, for a few moments, on this subject. 
I have elsewhere endeavored to show you not only that the 
internal action of the system - digestion, breathing, circula- 
tion, innervation, secretion, and even thinking - can be car- 
ried on to better advantage when the frame is properly 
agitated by large and varied muscular motion, but also that it 
will render the bones and muscles themselves more healthy 
and vigorous. 
It follows, almost of course, then, that, for want of this, 
there must be an experience of greater or less suffering. Ac- 
cordingly we find the flesh of the lower limbs of those who sit 
too much at their employments soon become soft and flabby, 
the joints weak, and the whole frame and limbs compara- 
tively feeble and inefficient. 
And again : bind up an arm, and carry it in a sling from 404 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
day to day, and from month to month, and you will at length 
find it becoming soft and flabby, if not actually feebler and 
smaller than the other. Does not every body know this to be 
the fact ? Why is the right arm often larger, and almost al- 
ways stronger, than the left ? * Why do children of every 
age, particularly very young children, grow pale, and often lean 
and feeble, from sitting too long at the school bench ? Why, 
especially, does the back grow weak and become crooked, 
and the limbs less vigorous, active, and sprightly ? 
Let it not be said, as it sometimes has been, it is because 
they walk too far to school, or play too hard at recess or inter- 
mission, or, perchance, study too hard. Some of these causes 
may have contributed to the result; but this is not very prob- 
able. If children are to fare, at the school room, for a cen- 
tury to come, as they have for a century past, it were a mercy 
if every child was obliged to walk two miles every day to 
school, and play, not .indeed violently, but briskly, an hour 
or two while there. 
Muscular power is greatly increased by habit. It is a law 
of the human system, that if an organ - a muscle among 
the rest - is exerted, over and over again, to the utmost 
healthy extent, both as regards energy and activity, it be- 
comes more and more easy to exert it, and the part actually 
gains strength by it. Who has not heard the story of Milo and 
the ox ? Now, whether this story is, in any part of it, or in 
whole, fictitious, is of little consequence ; it illustrates a great 
and important truth, and every one who will may profit 
by it. 
* I do not forget that there is a difference, anatomically, in the man- 
ner of distributing blood to the two arms; but this will not whollj 
account for the fact alluded to. EXERCISE AND REST. 
405 
This law - the increase of power, as well as activity, in 
a part, by habitual use - is a great and important law of our 
natures. Would to God it was better understood, and more 
sacredly regarded. Were mankind duly enlightened on this 
subject, and would they practise more in accordance with 
their knowledge, it would prevent an ocean of suffering in the 
world we inhabit. 
*Some of the ancients not only held, like the moderns, that 
appropriate exercise from the cradle upwards, and even to 
the grave, would prevent the acquisition of disease from new 
sources, and keep down all the tendencies in that direction 
from inheritance, but that it would even cure nearly all dis- 
eases after they had arisen. I have in my possession an 
English book, printed in 1705, entitled Medicina Gymastica^ 
in which the author goes very far towards advancing the idea 
that almost every disease can be cured by exercise. And 
Plato, it is said, in his day, went still further, and affirmed, 
gravely and seriously, that it would cure even a wounded 
conscience ! 
There is, however, no necessity of making every thing of 
what is, obviously, only a part. Still I do not hesitate to say 
that, in the present state of human knowledge, we can neither 
set limits to the local and general strength which exercise 
may be made to impart, nor to its remedial agency and pow- 
er, especially when combined with cheerful and appropriate 
mental employment and exercise. 
Hundreds of people sit, as it were, in sackcloth and ashes, 
or, if they go abroad, have to hold up their stomachs all the 
while, or some other debilitated or wretched organ, who might 
have their health again, in a year or two, could they but be per- 
suaded to let medicine alone, look on the bright side of things, 
and take proper exercise. But, as I have already intimatedj 406 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
exercise, to be useful, to its full extent, must be agreeable. 
To walk, or ride, or saw wood, or plough, for the mere sake 
of recovering health, while our hearts are not in the employ 
ment, and, above all, when we perfectly hate it, as we would 
a dose of rhubarb or calomel, will do comparatively little 
good. 
I will not affirm positively that it will do no good; for a 
mass of fluid will not stagnate as soon when forced into action 
a few times, or even once, daily, as when let alone entirely. 
I will not say it will do no good to walk every day to a cer- 
tain tree, or post, or bridge, and then walk back again, even 
though it were in the attitude and habiliments of woe. But 
it would do more good - I might almost say, infinitely more 
- if it were accompanied with cheerful conversation, fa- 
vorite and choice thoughts, or some new scheme for doing 
or communicating good, either during the journey or at the 
end of it. 
There must be something to keep the mind out of the 
old, beaten, often painful, mill-horse track, to which it has 
been accustomed, as well as to prevent it from preying upon 
itself. And blessed arc those invalids who take hold of exer- 
cise with this key to unlock its principal benefits.* 
It may be inferred, and very naturally, that I prefer walk- 
ing to nearly every other form of exercise. It is certainly 
one of the best, on certain conditions. It is certainly all but 
the best; and there are not wanting instances in which it will 
be found quite the best which can be adopted and pursued. 
* He who can " bury his business " while he amuses himself or 
uses exercise, will most surely be benefited. In being absent from my 
study table only three or four days, I have actually forgotten, on my 
return, at what point I left off. I seemed to have been absent foi 
months or years. EXERCISE AND REST. 
407 
But to render walking a means of accomplishing all the good 
of which it is susceptible, there must be conjoined with it 
a hungering and thirsting to do good. They who possess 
this heavenly appetite, and are now in tolerable health, can 
hardly sicken. Our Savior could hardly fail to keep his 
health; nor could any one else who should walk about with 
his spirit and desire of communicating good. Nor could 
many invalids, who should follow him, fail to recover their 
health, even without miracle. 
But of all the forms of exercise, short of this, with which I 
am acquainted, agriculture and horticulture seem to me most 
useful ; and to those whose education is any thing like what 
it should be, it is one of the most agreeable. It is to be pre- 
ferred, when the mind can be made to go along with it, for 
many reasons. It is performed in the open air - where, if 
any where, the air is pure. It calls into action a great variety 
of muscles. This renders it less probable that any particular 
muscle, or set of muscles, will become overburdened or over- 
fatigued. The eye, too, is agreeably influenced and em- 
ployed, which all experience shows to be healthful in its 
tendency. 
"But do you still adhere to the opinion already expressed, 
that females, as well as males, need this species of exer- 
cise ? " some will say. Most certainly I do, with this limita- 
tion or exception, that females shall not be employed in the 
severer labors of the field, but iq the lighter ones. If our 
females were now trained, as once they were, to handle the 
broom and duster, to spin at the larger wheel, to perform all 
the labors of the kitchen, and while young to romp and play 
freely, the necessity to which I refer would not be so impera- 
tive. As they are, the lighter agricultural and horticultural 408 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
employments, for a few hours of each day, are more needed 
by them, if possible, than by our own sex. 
Some, I know, may smile to think how a young woman of 
fashion would appear, while pruning grape vines, cultivating 
strawberries or gathering them, or budding or grafting trees, 
with tawny hands, and sunburnt cheeks ; but had they the 
most distant conception of the advantages it would secure 
to her, they would smile rather at the superlative folly of 
those present customs which deny her their pleasures as well 
as their benefits. 
Did professional men, students, and all our public teachers, 
know half the advantages which are to be derived from de- 
voting but a few hours, daily, to these same exercises, they 
would not, as it seems to me, be half as often weighed down 
to the ground with a load of nervousness, hypochondria, dys- 
pepsia, scrofula, and consumption. Did our factory people 
understand this subject better than they do, and would they, 
in these days of improvement and " striking " for certain 
supposed privileges, strike also for time and means of labor- 
ing four hours a day on some little spot which they could 
either buy or hire at a reasonable rate, they would not so 
often break down their constitutions, and become sufferers 
for life. 
There is one thing to be remembered. Those who labor 
in this way should labor for pay. This would lead them to 
take an interest in their employments. Some may deride the 
idea, and say the prospect of a reward, either in money or in 
a part or the whole of the crop, would make little difference 
with them. 
So thought a young man to whom the late venerable Dr. 
Cogswell once recommended manual labor. He worked one EXERCISE AND REST. 
409 
whole summer, but was not much improved. My friend Dr. 
C. bade him try it another summer, and receive for compen- 
sation one half the produce of his labor. His health, under 
this new regimen, greatly improved. 
Our mechanics of almost every description might derive 
several important hints from the foregoing remarks. Our tail- 
ors, shoemakers, millers, hatters, printers, painters, druggists, 
stonecutters, engravers, watch makers, glass blowers, &c., 
&c., might all gain large percentage of health, by better 
obeying the physical laws, especially the laws of exercise. I 
know there are difficulties, for I have myself had to encounter 
them. But I know they may often be overcome. " What- 
ever ought to be done can be done," is, with me, a maxim. 
Is it not founded in truth ? Or is man the greatest puzzle in 
the whole universe ? 
Horseback exercise, to some persons, is exceedingly valua- 
ble. Many an incipient consumption has been shaken off on 
horseback. In those cases where there is much bleeding at 
the lungs, it may not be advisable, though some have insisted 
on it even here. My own experience of a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago is greatly in its favor. 
Sailing, as a passive exercise, is one of the best. I have 
sent many an invalid on a sailing excursion, but especially on 
a fishing voyage. I have usually preferred an arrangement 
which gave them full employment. Dr. Rush used to require 
his patients to go at once before the mast, if their strength 
would possibly permit. 
But I forget that I am teaching prevention, and not cure ; 
though, by the way, it often happens that both can be accom- 
plished at the same time. There are many more forms of 
exercise, but I have, directly or indirectly, spoken of several 
of them already. 410 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
I do not like the pleasures of the chase, as they are called, 
on account of their immoral tendency. The more I reflect 
on them, the more my whole soul revolts against them. The 
same remark and sentiments are applicable to angling, and 
other forms of amusement in which the lives of poor animal's 
are at stake, and must be sacrificed. There is room enough 
in the world for exercise without coupling with it either cruel- 
ty or murder. 
The best hour for physical exercise is the morning, or - 
rather, as I should say, the early part of the day. Some con- 
stitutions will not endure walking, &c., before breakfast. 
About two hours after breakfast, to such persons, is a very 
favorable season. Next to this is the afternoon hour, say at 
two hours before sunset. 
I do not forget that we are met here with a difficulty, which 
to some may seem almost insurmountable. " Why, the 
morning," they will say, " is the best for study, too, and for 
devotion and labor ; the labor, in particular, must not be 
omitted. But how is this ? We cannot do every thing at 
once." Certainly not; but every one must judge for himself 
which of these various morning duties shall give way. That 
they seem thus to interfere a little is not my fault, if, indeed, 
it were a fault at all. I only point to an arrangement which 
I did not make. All we have to do in such cases is, to con- 
form as nearly to the law as we can. 
But every thing, or almost every thing, has its opposite. If 
we have muscular exercise, we must have rest. This is es- 
pecially true of all muscles which are under the power or 
control of the will - what we call voluntary muscles. We 
will come then at once to that subject. EXERCISE AND REST. 
411 
II. REST AND SLEEP. 
In the former part of this lecture, I have spoken of action 
and exercise, and have attempted to show that action, or exer- 
cise, is the first law of the Creator. I have shown that in this 
world, and, so far as we have any information, in all others, it 
. is incessant, or almost incessant. I have shown that whether 
we study matter or spirit, - the mineral, vegetable, or animal 
kingdom, - it is difficult to find any thing in a state of abso- 
lute quiescence; that is to say, for any considerable length of 
time. There are, indeed, suspensions or intermissions of 
action, but they are not permanent. Crystallization has its 
apparent interruptions ; and so has vegetation. 
Yet even here, at least in the vegetable kingdom, we do not 
know that the cessation of action is entire. The circulation in 
our shrubs and trees is, indeed, impeded by the cold and frost; 
but is it ever wholly stopped, even in our own frozen climate ? 
For if it were so, would not life be extinguished ? Do not 
vegetables sleep during the winter, rather than expire ? 
In passing from vegetables to man, we find some of the 
lower, cold-blooded animals, in whom life seems to be almost 
as much extinct, during the winter, as in vegetables. I refer, 
here, to the snake, toad, frog, tortoise, &c. Nay, there is a 
sleep more entire than even the ordinary hybernation of these 
animals. The toad has been repeatedly found imbedded in 
the heart of huge trees, and even of solid rocks, far below 
the surface of the earth, where he must have lain for centu- 
ries. Yet, though utterly motionless, so far as the naked eye 
could discern, he has usually regained life and motion, on 
being gradually exposed to the action and warmth of atmos- 
pheric air. 
It is difficult, however, to believe that action, in these 412 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
instances, entirely ceases. It is still sleep, though it seems 
like the sleep of death. We have even hybernating animals 
among those of warmer blood, as the woodchuck, the hedge- 
hog, the marmot, the bat, and perhaps a few others ; but 
they are not very numerous. 
Let us consider rest and sleep in man. For some of the 
internal organs not subject to the immediate control of the 
will, the Creator has made special provision. Thus the heart, 
after a contraction, may be said to rest about as long a time 
as was taken up by the contraction. So the whole arterial 
system, receiving a shock, as it docs at each beat of the heart, 
rests during each intermission. 
Again : the lungs may be said to have their season of rest. 
The dilatation and contraction of the chest occupies, in an 
adult, about two seconds, after which there is a rest of one or 
two seconds before the next motion begins. I might cite other 
examples. 
But though the internal or nutritive organs all require their 
seasons of rest, and this rest is thus provided for, there are 
no organs which are very sensibly and strikingly affected by 
§leep, except the brain and nerves, the locomotive system,- 
the bones, muscles, &c., - and the organs of sensation - 
of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. These constitute 
what are called the animal funct ions. 
I have said already that, in the most perfect sleep, the* 
animal functions are completely suspended. So, for the most 
part, the senses. Though our eyes should be open, we see 
not, except in the rare case of somnambulism ; though our 
ears are open, we hear not; and though our organs of taste, 
smell, and bearing remain the same, their action for the time 
appears to be wholly suspended. 
Were we to attempt to dispense with sleep too long, we EXERCISE AND REST. 
413 
should experience considerable lassitude and fatigue. As the 
fatigue continues to increase, the muscles lose the power to 
contract, - to pry us about from place to place, as usual, - the 
brain and nervous system begin to lose their power of per- 
ceiving, or communicating impressions,- in common lan- 
guage, grow dull, - the senses, sight and hearing espe- 
cially, grow more and more obtuse, and we at length become 
exceedingly torpid. Or, if we are prevented from sleep by 
excitements, such as intense anxiety, or care, or stimulating 
drugs, the body becomes pale and somewhat emaciated, a fe- 
verish state is induced, digestion is impaired, thought is dis- 
turbed, and in some persons there is a tendency to a species 
of insanity. In truth, there is not a function of the system 
that does not soon suffer, more or less, if the watchfulness is 
long continued, while the nervous prostration is extreme. 
Much, indeed, depends on constitution and habit, but the 
strongest are at length compelled to succumb. 
But the evils resulting from too great indulgence in sleep, 
as Dr. Dunglison very justly remarks, are not less signal than 
those arising from its privation. " The whole nervous system 
becomes blunted, so that the muscular energy is enfeebled, 
and the sensations and moral and intellectual manifestations 
are obtunded." More than this, " All the bad effects of inac- 
tion become developed; the functions are exerted with less 
energy ; digestion is torpid ; the excretions are diminished, 
while the secretion of fat, accumulates (in some instances) 
to an inordinate extent." But I must break my quotation from 
Dr. Dunglison, to make a remark or two about fatness. 
Dr. Dunglison here speaks of the rapid or extraordinary 
accumulation of fat, as one of the bad effects of inaction. I 
am glad to find this concession. Contrary to what is sup- 
posed by many, an inordinate accumulation of fat, in man or 414 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
any other animal, is disease or the consequence of disease; 
as much so as inordinate leanness. The books include it 
under the name of plethora. 
Thus we hear of beautifully fat babies, just as if fatness 
here, if nowhere else, was desirable. Whereas, beyond a 
certain degree of plumpness, fat, even here, is indicative of 
disease. Extreme fatness, in the infant, is often followed, 
sooner or later, by the other extreme of leanness. It is, more- 
over, a common saying that fat babies are particularly subject 
to croup ; which could not be so, if fatness was a sign of 
health. 
But to return to the effects of too much inaction and sleep. 
" The memory is repaired, the powers of the imagination are 
dormant, and the mind falls into a kind of hebetude, chiefly 
because the functions of the intellect are not sufficiently ex- 
erted when sleep is too prolonged, or too often repeated." 
Magendie indeed asserts that protracted indulgence in sleep 
sometimes occasions serious diseases, as idiocy and lunacy. 
Willich says that by too long sleep the solids become relaxed ; 
the blood becomes thickened and impeded in its circulation, 
and remains particularly long in the head; * perspiration is 
disordered ; the fluids are all thickened ; the body increases in 
fat and thick humors ; the memory is enfeebled; and we 
are apt to be afflicted with costiveness and obstructions. 
In short, there is hardly a single disease in the whole cata- 
logue of human ills which may not fall to the lot, either of 
too much watchfulness, on the one hand, or too much indul- 
gence in sleep, on the other. So important to human happi- 
* Inducing a sensation in the head, when we first wake, after too much 
sleep, and are about to rise, which most of us have felt, but which it would 
be difficult to describe. EXERCISE AND REST. 
415 
ness is the proper adjustment of this temporary suspension 
of the animal functions. 
Here the question naturally arises, " If a due amount of 
sleep is thus important to human happiness, what is that just 
amount ? What is the medium quantity of this ' tired Na- 
ture's sweet restorer 1 - this winder-up of the human ma- 
chine - which is necessary ? " But to answer this question in 
few words is no easy task. One will tell you four hours in 
twenty-four are enough; another thinks five necessary. 
Another says six are indispensable for adults, and eight for 
children. Another very sensible writer will tell you that no 
person ought to be considered as wasting his time, who does 
not sleep more than eight hours. 
Now, the truth is about this: As it is with regard to food, 
and almost every thing else, so with sleep - that man is, to a 
very great extent, the creature of habit. He can accustom 
himself, from the very first, to an extremely small quantity 
of food, or to as much as a Siberian receives. So, I say 
again, in regard to sleep, he may accustom himself to sleep 
much or little. 
He may habituate himself to eat one pound of food a day, 
or twelve ; and may seem for the time - observe, I only say 
for the time - to be about as well nourished or sustained in 
the one case as in the other. He may accustom himself to 
four or five hours of sleep in a day, or he may bring himself 
to consume, and apparently to enjoy, eight, or nine, or ten. 
This custom, of which I speak, is second nature, and second 
nature is admitted to be stronger than first nature. Hence - 
that is, from custom or habit - arise many of those differences 
of physical character which are so generally attributed to our 
first nature, and which, when they involve us in misery, men 
- are practically apt to charge back on the great Creator. 416 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
This tendency of custom or habit - however abused at 
present - is susceptible of being turned, as may easily be 
seen, to a good account as well as a bad one. For it is not 
less strong in intellectual and moral matters than in physical. 
The proper course is to bring it to bear, with all its force, in 
the formation of good habits. 
Addison, I say again, has told us that, in manners and com- 
mon every-day morals, it is well to fix on a course that we 
know will be best, and custom will soon make it agreeable. 
And just so it is in physical matters. We are here the crea- 
tures of habit, as much as elsewhere. 
Take the custom or habit of chewing tobacco, for example. 
Now, I know of but three animals on earth that will eat this 
vile plant; viz., a species of goat, the tobacco worm, and man. 
All other animals, so far as I know, regard it with the utmost 
abhorrence, as they would the rankest poison. And so does 
man, at first. Led on, however, step by step, in the usual 
fashionable course, he comes at length to be so fond of it 
that he will forego his regular meal of food for it. Is not 
second nature here stronger than first nature ? 
But let us recur to sleep. All healthy children, who have 
been correctly trained, like to rise early. But teach a child 
to lie late, or even be in bed late, and let him come to the age 
of forty in the habit of sleeping from ten o'clock in the even- 
ing to eight the next morning, and will he not cling very 
closely to his pillow ? Will he not prefer it to his breakfast ? 
It matters little whether you bring him to this point in one way 
or another - whether by scolding him largely, or dragging 
him out of bed, or in some other way. It will amount to the 
same thing. He will cling to his pillow. He will tell you he 
believes his constitution requires a great deal of sleep. Is not 
second nature, here,* stronger than first nature ? EXERCISE AND REST. 
417 
Children maybe trained - and so may adults, only with 
more difficulty-to consume almost any desired amount of 
time in bed ; in sleep, too. That children require more sleep 
than adults, it is hardly necessary that I should stop here to 
say ; but that they are often indulged in much more than 
they actually need, is equally undoubted. Our wisdom in 
training them in the way they should go - and ourselves, 
too - will be best shown in forming habits of sleeping 
enough ; for nothing is more indispensable than a sufficiency 
of sleep, at the same time, that we avoid sleeping too much. 
It consists, as elsewhere, in hitting the golden mean. 
But here the original question recurs, " How much is 
enough ? " *>I'he same answer, however, recurs with it, so far 
at least as I am concerned, viz., that I do not know. If an 
aged individual could be found among us, who had always, from 
birth, enjoyed perfect health, it is most likely that individual's 
habits would be perfectly correct habits; and his habits in 
regard to sleep would be so, among the rest. 
One healthy individual might be taken as a standard, by 
which or from which to measure out the real natural wants of 
others - allowance of course being made for difference of age, 
sex, temperament, &c. But there is no such perfect individ- 
ual to be found among us. And not only is there no person 
whose habits, as a whole, are correct, - perfectly so, - but 
there is no individual of whom we can say with certainty, that 
any one of his habits is as correct as it could be made. 
There is not, probably, one person of the race of Adam, 
whose digestion, nutrition, respiration, perspiration, exercise, 
or sleep, is so perfect that it could not be more or less 
improved ; and consequently we possess, as I have already 
asserted, no perfect standard. 
Besides this, the measure of sleep required - I mean the 418 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
number of hours - will depend very much upon its quality 
whereas, in this respect, there is almost as much variety as 
there is of individuals. No two persons, in strict physiologi- 
cal truth, will sleep the same amount or quantity in the same 
time, unless - what could rarely happen - their previous 
habits and condition as to exhaustion, fatigue, general health, 
age, and sex were the same. In other and fewer words : One 
person will really sleep as much - that is, his constitution 
will be really as much restored or renovated by five hours of 
slumber, perhaps even by four - as another will by six. 
The truth is, that there is not so great an inequality in the 
amount of actual sleep procured by individuals^of the same 
age and general habits as is sometimes supposed. Nature is 
not so easily cheated out of her rights, after all. If a person 
sleeps but little, - that is, but a few hours,- she contrives to 
wind up the system faster in proportion, or at least somewhat 
so. If, on the contrary, an individual lies in bed a great 
deal, - that is, many more hours than are really necessary, - 
his sleep is less sound and restorative, and, in all probability, 
very much disturbed by dreams. But I have a fact or two 
to corroborate what might otherwise be regarded as mere 
theory. 
Sir Gilbert Blane, in his Medical Logic, speaks of certain 
missionaries, who, in order to save time, contrived to sleep but 
little, in the following manner: They went to sleep with a 
small weight in their hands, over a basin. On falling to sleep, 
the weight would drop from their hands on the basin, and 
wake them. This, repeated a few times, seemed to restore 
them, and thus saved a vast amount of time for translating, 
&c. Sir Gilbert accounted for the fact by supposing that the 
restoration of the system is vastly more rapid when we first 
fall asleep than afterwards. This will partly account for it EXERCISE AND REST. 
419 
but, as I think, not wholly. The principle above should also 
be involved ; and it may also be conjectured that they had a 
greater number of short naps than Sir Gilbert supposes. 
Notwithstanding all the difficulties in the way of determin- 
ing how many hours of sleep the system ought to be ac- 
customed to, - that is, how many are really necessary, - we 
may make an approximation to the truth ; and this in various 
ways. One of the safest is the following : - 
By comparing results in men of different habits, - especial- 
ly the healthiest men, - and at the . same time studying the 
physiological nature, general character, and condition of the 
race, we shall probably be led to the conclusion, that about 
six hours of actual sleep, when we become fairly accustomed 
to it, is the least lest quantity for adults, as a general rule ; 
and that more than eight is too much. 
In order, however, to get six hours of sleep, it is necessary 
to remain in bed something more than six hours ; for' it usually 
happens that he who, under the idea of sleeping just six hours, 
.ies down at nine and rises at three, will rarely get more 
than five hours and a half of really sound'sleep, and some- 
times not more than five. He will not always fall asleep as 
soon as he lies down, and there will also sometimes be small 
inroads upon his time in the morning. A certain student 
undertook once, in order to get five hours' sleep, to lie in bed 
only just five hours. The result was, that he had only about 
four hours of sleep, upon the average. I repeat, therefore, he 
who would sleep fully six hours, must lie in bed something 
more than this. He must either go to bed at eight and a half 
and rise at three, or retire at nine and rise at three and a half. 
This indulgence is the more necessary, as it is morally if not 
physically, important to be exactly true to our hours, whatever 
they may be ; never continuing in bed a minute, or even a 420 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
quarter of a minute, after our appointed hour for rising has 
arrived. 
It will here, perhaps, be asked," If the human system is so 
accommodating that the same amount of sleep - or of that 
restoration which sleep affords-can be obtained in four 
hours, as in six, why should we not form our habits to that 
number of hours as soon as possible ? Why waste two ad- 
ditional hours of valuable time ? " The proper reply to this 
question is, that when we compel nature to make up by un- 
natural or over effort what is wanted in time, - that is, when 
we crowd into four hours what ought to be the sleep of six, 
- we cause a waste of vital power or energy. 
It is as if we should compel the digestive system to a habit 
of working up our food into chyme and chyle sooner than 
otherwise it would - a result which condiments and sauces, 
and perhaps a little wine, would accomplish. But what we 
gain by the over-stimulus, in both cases, is more than lost by 
the disturbance or debility which follows; or, at any rate, by 
the loss of vital energy which is almost or quite inevitable. 
Or if this should not be admitted, it is at least true, that we 
sleep too soundly when we crowd the appropriate rest of six 
hours into four, and we are never so well refreshed and 
restored by sleep which is either too profound or not profound 
enough, as by that which is exactly right. 
The notion that, because the system is accommodating, all 
her efforts at accommodation are safe, is a most erroneous one ; 
and is fraught with almost infinite mischief to the human con- 
stitution. All these accommodations are made at a sacrifice 
of vital power ; and though they afford present relief or 
aid, they do it at our future expense. 
It is on this principle that we explain the paradox of the 
medical man, in the country, who, though so frequently dis- EXERCISE AND REST. 
421 
turbed in regard to his rest, seems at length to get accustomed 
to it, and often lasts on to considerable age. Yet he will, 
after all, break down several years sooner, - that is, he will 
abridge his life several years, - by his unnatural course. 
Were it not for this almost necessary hygienic error, most of 
the other habits of physicians in this country are such as arc 
calculated greatly to promote their health, and increase their 
longevity ; whereas we find few of them attain to a greater 
age than sixty-three or sixty-five. 
It is generally thought that those whose bodily fatigue is 
very great, require sleep in proportion ; and great mental 
fatigue, as well as the depressing passions,- grief, fear, and 
the like, - when they operate strongly upon us, seem to make 
the same demand ; and it is an undoubted fact that under all 
these circumstances our sleep will often be more than usually 
profound. But whether we really need more of healthy sleep 
in these circumstances, is quite another question. 
I believe it would be useful to recline, after unusual bodi- 
ly fatigue, even if we do not sleep. An easy, recumbent po- 
sition appears to rest the body greatly, even if it is of no 
service to the mind. Probably six hours of sleep, and two 
hours in a recumbent posture without sleep, after great fatigue, 
arc worth as much as seven hours of sound sleep, and far 
more than eight. 
It is a very common opinion that, if we are kept awake - 
say by the sickness of friends - the whole of a night, we 
ought to sleep enough the following night to make it up. 
Now, after fasting a whole day, who would think of eating 
enough the next day to make up the loss ? If any indulgence 
should be allowed in either case, it should be but little. 
Indeed, I do not think there should be any indulgence at 
all. I suppose that in both cases it would be better for the 422 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
system, in the end, that we should eat and sleep no more after 
the privation than if nothing at all had happened ; and if the 
privation has been great and lasting, not quite so much. 
There would be an advantage in lying down longer, but not, 
as it seems to me, in sleeping longer. 
There is a curious fact, - at least I believe it to be a fact, 
- which deserves to be mentioned in this place, viz., that the 
less alive a person is, that is, the more sluggish and inac- 
tive he is in body and mind, the more sleep he appears to 
require. 
Thus the most dull and stupid animals, as every one whc 
will observe for himself may see, sleep the most, and theii 
sluggish natures appear to require it. So among individuals 
of our own species. Those who are most indolent and most 
vacant minded seem to require most sleep. They seem not 
only to avail themselves of it, but to require it. Whereas, on 
the contrary, they who are most active in body and mind, 
provided both are active in about the same degree, appear to 
require less sleep than others. 
Now, if what appears to be a fact is really such, we sec why 
such men as Napoleon and Brougham do not break down soon- 
er than they are accustomed. We also see one glorious advan- 
tage to be derived from improvement in knowledge and virtue. 
Many good men have regretted that necessity of our natures, 
which requires us to spend so much of a life already too 
short in such a low and semi-bestial condition. But if it be 
true that in proportion as we improve body and mind, and 
truly refine and elevate our race, so as to render them worthy 
of receiving the boon, we can safely encroach upon the hours 
which, in a more degraded condition, have been allotted to 
necessary rest and sleep,, and thus really prolong *our 
lives, we ought certainly to take courage. The time may EXERCISE AND REST. 
423 
come, for aught we now know, - that is, if the principle in 
question is correct, - when very little time will be needed 
for rest and sleep. At any rate, it is impossible, in the 
present state of our knowledge, to set limits, in this respect, 
to our progress and advancement. 
There is one more general fact with regard to sleep. It is 
said by authors that not only are those species of animals that 
sleep much, apt to be colder than otl|er animals, but this is even 
true of individuals of the same species. Those adults and chil- 
dren, it is said, who sleep most, find most difficulty in endur- 
ing the cold. The idea is certainly a very natural one, since 
we understand full well the tendency that too much soaking 
in beds has to relax the solids ; but I am not able to attest its 
truth from actual observation. I know, indeed, that late risers 
are apt to be but ill able to endure the cold ; but late risers do 
not always sleep most. Some go to bed so late, that though 
they lie late the next morning, they do not get their full 
allowance of sleep, especially of a natural and healthy kind. 
But I must enter with a little more of particularity upon 
the conditions of sound and healthy sleep. They are numer- 
ous, but I shall only select four or five of the more important. 
1. Our sleep should be as much as possible in the night. 
Some may suppose, at first thought, that it makes little differ- 
ence how and where sleep is obtained, if it is only actually 
obtained. But those who have followed the spirit of my re- 
marks thus far will see that, according to the views I have 
presented, there is such a difference in the quality of sleep as 
renders this supposition wholly untrue. 
I presume the experience of every one who has slept much 
in the daytime will bear me out in the assertion, that a given 
number of hours devoted to sleep during the day are far less 
refreshing and restorative than the. same number in the night. 424 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
But to those who think otherwise, the following anecdote 
may be interesting : - 
Two distinguished European generals were discussing this 
very subject. Unable to agree, they resolved on an experi- 
ment. They were about to perform a march of several hundred 
leagues ; it was agreed that the one should march his army in 
the night, and sleep in the daytime, and the other should 
march in the. daytime, as usual, and sleep by night. The 
result was, that the soldiers in the first division reached their 
journey's end enfeebled and sickly ; while those who slept in 
the night, according to their usual custom, were in good con- 
dition ; and this, too, although their rations, and all other cir- 
cumstances, were as nearly as possible the same. 
This experiment is not conclusive, for obvious reasons ; but 
it proves something. There were, doubtless, other differences, 
not easily distinguishable ; still I have seen so many smaller 
cases of a similar general character, having the same bearing 
and termination, that I feel assured of the truth of the con- 
clusion which has been made. 
Now, if night is the best time for sleep, he who sleeps at 
all in the daytime, when night will as well answer his pur- 
pose, is so far wrong. What, then, shall we say of him who 
sleeps away an hour or two in the morning after it is broad 
daylight, when he might just as well go to bed an hour or 
two earlier at evening, and thus prevent any such necessity ? 
It is an old maxim, that an hour's sleep before midnight is 
worth two afterwards ; but I have already had occasion to say, 
I believe more than once, that old maxims are not always 
founded in truth. Such, I imagine, is the case with that now 
in question. I suppose it is one of those white, or good- 
natured lies, told to do good, of which there have been usually 
quite enough in the world. It was probably told to the EXERCISE AND REST. 
425 
ignorant, or the infantile, to drive them to bed early, 
for convenience' sake, rather than for the sake of their 
health. 
For my own part, I see no reason why an hour's sleep, if 
it be true sleep, should not be worth as much an hour or two 
after midnight as just before it. If the time be removed to 
six or eight hours from midnight, or so far as to carry it into 
daylight, in cither direction, it is easy to see that the sleep 
would not be so good, for reasons which have already been 
given. 
It is always unwise to bring doubtful arguments in support 
of our views, when we have an abundance of those which are 
not doubtful. The true reasons for going to bed early are, 
that we may be ready to get up early, and because we ought 
to place our midnight, as nearly as possible, where God in 
nature has placed it. In other and better words : As God has 
placed midnight in the middle of the night, it is but reasonable 
to suppose that we ought to be in the midst of our slumbers at 
that time ; and that he who gets much more than half his 
sleep either before or after that hour is physiologically and 
practically in error. 
Not that the slight variation of half an hour or a quarter of 
an hour from that practice which should grow out of this rule 
would produce large or immediate mischief. Still it would 
be wrong as far as it went, and the course of conduct which 
is exactly right would be better. 
If we need seven hours' sleep, it is probably better that we 
should go to bed at half past eight, and rise at half past three, 
than that we should go to bed at nine, and get up at four; 
although I cannot say that the difference is very considerable. 
If, however, a difference is made either way, - if we must 
sleep more than half our allotted number of hours either 426 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
before or after midnight, - it is better that it should be before 
than after, for the following reason : - 
The human system is not only debilitated, and more or less 
irritable, as soon as the darkness of the evening comes on, 
but it is actually feverish. The pulse is quicker and more fre- 
quent, and there is apt to be more heat and thirst, which are 
indications of fever. Now, there is nothing which will so 
soon and so happily remove this miniature fever as sleep. 
But people take so much comfort, I shall be told, in sitting 
round a blazing fire and enjoying the evening, especially 
the long winter's evening, that they will be loath to receive 
such a doctrine as this. All this may be so ; but it does not 
alter facts. The question is not so much whether the doc- 
trine will be acceptable, as whether it is true. 
Permit me, however, to ask whether the evening is any 
longer than the morning, and whether our social joys would 
be less in sitting round a blazing fire four hours before the 
morning light, in winter, than four hours of the evening ? 
Would they not be heightened in the morning, inasmuch as 
sleep may be supposed to have restored our bodies and minds 
to their wonted activity and vigor ? 
" But the eyes are injured by the morning light," I shall 
be told ; and the sentiment will be sustained, perhaps, by the 
sage remark of some individual who claims the character of 
a physician. I grant there may be an evil here. I admit, 
most cheerfully, - for it is true, - that if we get up and ex- 
pose our eyes suddenly to the full glare of the lamp or candle, 
and the firelight and heat too, it may not be well for us. 
But if we come to the light gradually, there will be less 
injury to the eyes in the morning than in the evening ; be- 
cause, like the rest of the system, they are strongest in the 
morning, and best able to resist injurious impressions; and EXERCISE AND REST. 
427 
as to the glare of a firelight, however pleasant it may be to 
many on account of early associations, or for other reasons, 
it ought never to be allowed. If a fireplace or open stove is 
used, a screen should be interposed whenever we sit long 
around it, or we should turn our backs to it. 
Inquiry is often made about the healthfulness of taking a 
nap after dinner. There are a few diseased persons who 
may require this, - perhaps also a smaller number who are 
comparatively healthy. As a general rule, however, it is to 
be avoided. There are many objections to it. One of the 
strongest of these is, that our sleep, the following night, will 
be less natural. He who is up by three or four o'clock, and 
sufficiently active all day, in body and mind, will be likely, 
on going to bed at eight or nine o'clock, to be sleepy. He 
knows not the pleasure of going to bed early, and enjoying 
the most quiet and happy rest, who does not rise early and 
keep awake all day. 
On the contrary, he will never be likely to form the habit 
of getting up early, who does not retire early. Thousands who 
tell us they cannot wake in the morning, or, if they wake, can- 
not get up, would cease this song, very soon, if they would only 
go to bed in good season. It cannot be expected that they 
should rise at four who sit up till midnight. And I have not a 
doubt that one hour between eleven and twelve, in these cases, 
is worth two after sunrise next morning. 
2. One important condition of sound and good sleep is a 
healthful supper - or third meal. Many persons take no 
third meal at all. But of these I have told you before. 
If supper, or a third meal, is ta^cn at all, it should be very 
light and dry, and at the distance of three hours, if possible, 
k from the hour of retiring to rest. Thousands and tens of thou- 
sands suffer for want of heeding advice like this. " Suppers," 428 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
says an old maxim, " kill more than the greatest doctor ever 
cured." But it is late suppers and bad suppers that do the 
mischief. 
Even Dr. Dunglison, who in many things pertaining to 
diet is quite a latitudinarian, goes so far as to say, " A hearty 
supper, especially if it have consisted of materials difficult of 
digestion, may occasion a disturbed rest, frightful dreams, 
and - in those who are predisposed to it - somnambulism." 
And as if to make the sentiment strike deeper still, he adds, 
that sleep is more frequently broken by internal irritants - 
that is, by something in the stomach which should not be 
there - than by those which are external. 
Nay, he even goes much further still, and illustrates his posi- 
tion by accounting for all sorts of frightful dreams on this very 
principle. Willich, too, in his excellent work on Diet, very 
justly observes that sleep may be impeded by hot, spicy, 
and other stimulating drinks. 
It would be difficult to say which class of persons injure 
themselves most, in respect to healthy, quiet sleep - the 
fashionable in our towns and cities, by their late, hot, stimu- 
lating suppers, or the farming community, by their heavy 
and indigestible ones, at the end, often, of a very hard day's 
work. 
How common is it for laboring men, when they are exceed- 
ingly exhausted by the combined powers of heat, long-con- 
tinued toil, drenching perspiration, and excessive eating and 
drinking, to sit down to an exceedingly heavy supper of flesh 
meat and vegetables, covered with mustard, vinegar, and 
salt, and perhaps blackened with pepper into the bargain ! 
Nor is this all; for I was brought up among them, and 
only testify of what I have seen. Some of them eke out 
their supper with at least a quart of bread and milk, or hasty EXERCISE AND REST. 
429 
pudding and milk, with cheese, and perhaps pie, besides. And 
if a quantity of green cucumbers and vinegar should be 
added, it would not be stranger than things that have hap- 
pened. Some there arc, who, not trusting to the mustard and 
other powerful condiments to sharpen - madden, rather - 
the appetite, preface the whole with a dram ; and I have 
heard men, who passed for oracles in the neighborhood where 
they resided, gravely, and indeed eloquently, defend its 
necessity. This, however, was thirty years ago. 
Can we wonder that, despite of their numerous healthy 
habits tending to counteract it, this late gormandizing should 
cause a foul mouth or dull headache, and a general feeling 
of exhaustion on attempting to rise the next morning; and 
that a dram to cut away the cobwebs was once deemed as 
necessary as a cup of tea or coffee now is ? Can we won- 
der, moreover, that such persons have distempered and dis- 
tressing drcams* - that a rock detached from a precipice 
is about to roll on them, or that a monster has them almost in 
his very jaws, while they have no power to escape ? Can 
* The great physiologist Haller considered all dreaming as symptom- 
atic of disease; in which view he is supported by Willich and many 
others. There is, it must be acknowledged, a wide difference of opinion 
on this subject. Those who maintain that the soul always thinks will, 
of course, be likely to deny such a doctrine ; while those who hold that 
the soul, like the body, needs a species of repose, at least while with the 
body, maintain, almost, of course, that we never dream while we have 
perfectly sound, healthy sleep. I am compelled to incline to the latter 
opinion ; but the full discussion of the subject would carry us far off 
into the world of metaphysics. One thing, however, seems to me cer- 
tain- that, if we have dreams, we forget them in exact proportion to our 
temperance in all things ; " - in other words, just in proportion as we 
comply in all respects with the moral, social, and physical laws of God, 
and with the conditions or laws of sleep in particular. 430 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
any body wonder that, nightmare should afflict such persons 
with all its horrors ? 
With those who place any value on time, there is another 
circumstance in favor of light suppers, which can hardly fail 
to have weight, but which has not often been urged. It is the 
fact that light and plain food, both at suppers and at all other 
times, require less sleep than that which is more heavy and 
indigestible. 
How much I wish this fact were better understood, by man- 
kind at large, than we have reason to think it is ! Although 
it furnishes an argument which, as I have already said, is 
seldom, if ever, urged in favor of plain and simple eating and 
drinking, it is one of immense weight. 
There is much of trouble short of nightmare. How many 
millions wake in the morning with a sort of half conscious- 
ness that they must get up, and yet feeling as if they had 
scarcely slept at all, and must sleep longer ! How many 
raise their heads, to begin ; but, O, the bad feelings that 
crowd upon them, and they lie down ! They try again 
and again ; and it is only after many trials that they suc- 
ceed. Such persons should know the cause. 
3. But if plain and cool food and cool blood arc so ex- 
ceedingly important to sound sleep, general tranquillity of 
body and mind is scarcely less so. The circulation of the 
blood should be calm and tranquil; the brain and nerves 
should be tranquil; and all the faculties and functions of the 
system should be at ease. On this account, it is highly de- 
sirable, not only that all excitants should be avoided at sup- 
per, but also during the whole evening. 
Let us suppose the supper, or third meal, to have been 
taken at six o'clock, and that the family do not retire till nine 
o'clock. Now, how is it desirable that the intervening three EXERCISE AND REST. 
431 
hours should be spent, in order that " tired nature's sweet 
restorer, balmy sleep " may perform its full and perfect 
mission ? 
It is much easier to answer this question negatively than 
affirmatively. It is much easier, at any time, to tell what we 
should not do, than to say what it is desirable we should dp. 
The world is full of Thou shalt nots. In the present case, 
however, perhaps a few negatives are nearly all that can 
reasonably be expected. 
First. We should not sit, during the evening, around a 
very hot fire ; or, indeed, in a very hot room, even though 
there should be no fireplace in it. Secondly. There should 
be no eating of nuts, condiments, fruits, oysters; or drinking 
of cider, wine, beer, tea, or coffee. Thirdly. There should 
be no exciting company, nor any very exciting books or 
papers. 
Willich says that to read interesting letters received late 
in the evening, usually occasions an unquiet sleep. He also 
adds, - what is almost equally pertinent - that the mind 
ought to be serene and cheerful previous to going to rest; 
we should, therefore, as much as possible, avoid gloomy 
thoughts which require reflection and exertion. It is, also, 
a pernicious and dangerous practice to read ourselves asleep 
in bed. 
This advice is of the highest importance. As to the prac- 
tice of reading ourselves to sleep in bed, it is, as it is com- 
monly managed, so dangerous that I had not thought it neces- 
sary to speak of its unquiet tendencies, or even to mention it 
at all. He who knows how many precious lives have been 
lost in this way will be cautious about indulging in it. 
All meetings, except the occasional enlargement of the 
family circle" for social cheer, seem to me undesirable at 432 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
these hours, especially all crowded meetings. It were far 
better that meetings of the latter description should be at- 
tended in the afternoon. If they are not of sufficient conse- 
quence to induce an attendance in the afternoon, the question 
may fairly be raised whether we ought not to omit them alto- 
gether. There is, however, one other resort. Meetings for 
scientific and religious purposes have been held in the morn- 
ing, and, if necessary, could be again. 
A thousand frivolous objections would immediately spring 
up, I know, in most minds, to such a suggestion. But they 
might almost all be resolved into one word - inconvenience. 
The strongest, that we have not the time, maybe met by saying 
that an hour is no longer in the morning than in the even- 
ing. That it is worth more I grant; but is not this a strong 
reason which benevolence might urge, why we should give it 
to social or religious purposes - to our fellow-men or to the 
Lord ? Shall we continue to give to God and others that 
which is almost good for nothing to ourselves ? 
Some of the most spirited and permanent meetings for 
prayer I have ever known were held in the morning. One 
in Taunton, Massachusetts, was kept up without intermission 
many years. Scientific lectures have also been delivered 
successfully in the morning ; as at Portland, Maine, and other 
places. 
Thus far I have spoken as if I were almost or quite unable 
to answer, in an affirmative manner, how the evening hours 
ought to be spent. There is one species of social meeting, 
however, which, it must be obvious on the barest inspection, 
might serve as a preparation for quiet and healthful sleep. 
I refer to family religious exercises. These should be com- 
menced soon after the evening meal; that is, by about seven 
o'clock. This secures the attendance of the cltildren, who will EXERCISE AND REST. 
433 
gradually disappear soon afterwards. The hour from seven to 
eight might be spent in a review of the day - something 
after the Pythagorean manner. 
From eight to nine, or till the time of retiring, might be a 
season of the most entire relaxation. Light reading, light 
conversation, - I do not mean trifling or sinful,- light exer- 
cise, the warm bath and friction, for such members of the 
family as use it, might all have a place. 
The occasional use of the pediluvion, or warm foot bath, 
on going to bed, by equalizing the circulation, or at least 
quickening capillary action, seems to have a most happy ef- 
fect on the nervous system, and, if properly managed, to 
secure a healthful and undisturbed night of rest. If the gen- 
eral warm bath is taken, it should be at this hour. 
Franklin long ago said to those who were desirous of pro- 
curing pleasant dreams, - which is next to sound sleep, - that 
a good conscience was indispensable. Now, I go a little far- 
ther than Franklin, and endeavor to secure a sleep that shall 
have no dreams at all. 
A cool room, but especially a pure room, is another of the 
indispensables to sound and healthy sleep. A spacious room 
is indeed desirable ; but if we cannot have quite so much of 
space, we must make up for the want of it by due regard to 
ventilation. 
I do not like very warm rooms for sleeping rooms ; but 
there is less objection to a temperature not exceeding fifty 
or fifty-five degrees, than there is to impurity. . He that 
would be perfect, in this matter, should have a large, dry 
room, - one which is unoccupied during the day, - with free 
access to light when he chooses to admit it, and with the 
means and implements of excluding it. 
The ceiling should be high; there should be a chimney 434 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
flue ; and the bed should stand out.a little from the wall. A 
distant door or window should be left open during the hours 
of repose, taking care to prevent the possibility of the fresh 
night air falling in a current directly on the bed. There 
should be but one bed in the room, and that should have but 
one occupant. 
Still there is always a second best, when circumstances 
do not permit any thing more. A smaller room may answer 
very well the purposes of health, when every thing else is 
favorable. Two beds in a very large room, or two occupants 
of a very broad bed, may also be allowed, when circum- 
stances render it indispensable. 
I have, incidentally, discussed all these topics in a former 
lecture ; but it seems needful to review. I will, however, bp 
short. 
The bed should be plain, and, if the spiral wire bed cannot 
be had, may be made of corn husks, well hatchelled ; of 
'dried straw or hay ; of palmetto, Manilla grass, moss, wood 
shavings, &c. Mattresses of horsehair and other similar sub- 
stances answer a very good purpose. Some use cotton; but 
I do not like it. It may, indeed, be true that cotton is better 
than feathers; but it is by no means cleanly or easily venti- 
lated. As to feathers, they seem wholly inadmissible, not be- 
cause they are soft, but for other reasons. Mere softness, as 
I have shown elsewhere, would be a recommendation. 
It is on this account, more than any other, that I prefer 
the elastic wire bed, so lately come into fashion. It was 
alluded to at page 220. It secures all the advantages of 
feathers, without retaining any of their disadvantages. It 
will, most undoubtedly, ere long, come into very general use. 
Willich attaches great importance to the right preparation 
and condition of beds and bed clothing. He recommends, as EXERCISE AND REST. 
435 
I do, that a bed should be soft, but made of cool and light 
materials, and that it should be protected by porous covering. 
He says that, if the bed is what it should be, the occupant will 
not be apt to sleep in it too long, but " will generally awake 
in six hours, feel himself refreshed, rise with cheerfulness, 
and be fit to undertake his usual tasks, either of body or 
mind." 
All this may be true to the letter; but I confess I have not 
quite so much faith in the efficacy of a single choice arrange- 
ment in human circumstances to restore human nature to its 
original integrity. 
Some people allow themselves to sleep with their heads 
covered by the bed clothing. This is a bad practice for sev- 
eral reasons. 1. The head is kept too warm. 2. We are 
not so apt to awak^ promptly. 3. A still stronger objection 
is found in the fact that we are thusl iable to breathe, over and 
over again, the poisonous gas which is formed on the surface of 
our bodies. To nightcaps I am also strongly opposed, un- 
less in the case of the aged and those who are destitute of 
hair. If they are used by other persons, however, as by 
females, they should be as thin and light as possible. 
Lamps or candles, left burning in a room, after the English 
fashion, render the air impure, to say nothing of any other 
danger or accident to which they expose us. So does the 
respiration of domestic animals, as cats and dogs. And the 
same might be said of plants left in the room during night. 
I have known a few parents, who, ignorant of its unhealthy 
tendency, allowed the favorite cat or dog to sleep, not only 
on, but sometimes in the beds of their children. A few have 
supposed the breath of the dog quite sanitary. No mere 
mistake could be more reprehensible. 
Darkness favors sleep ; it has therefore been recommended, 436 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
by many writers on health, to render a sleeping room as dark 
as possible. In many circumstances, this does not seem 
desirable. On the contrary, I have supposed that the or- 
dinary darkness of the night, whatever that might be, was 
sufficient. 
Much importance has been attached to the position of the 
head, while we sleep; and indeed of the whole body. Per- 
haps, as a general rule, the head ought to be a little elevated. 
Something depends upon shape. Persons with projecting 
shoulders need higher pillows than others, at least if they 
sleep on their sides. 
Perhaps, too, as a general rule, it is well to sleep either on 
the right side or on the back. I would be able to sleep in 
any position ; but there are physiological reasons for not often 
sleeping on the left side. He who gets the sleep is the favorite 
of high Heaven, whether he sleep in one position oi' another. 
Many have trained themselves to the habit of sleeping on 
their backs, in order to straighten their round shoulders. In 
one instance, I have known this to succeed. Others do it to 
strengthen, as they say, a chest already feeble by inheritance. 
Some, however, are unable to do it, if they would. 
I know a young student near Boston, who belongs to a 
round-shouldered family, and who found himself, at the age 
of sixteen, becoming round shouldered, like the rest of his 
friends. To prevent such a result, he betook himself to the 
habit of sleeping on his back, with a pillow under it. Not 
one young man in ten is as straight as he now is. 
A man in Lancaster, Massachusetts, assures me that he 
was once consumptively inclined, and among other measures 
which he pursued, he slept, for eight years, on his back, on 
a plank. In summer he used the plank with little or no cov- 
ering ; but in cold weather, he interposed a comfortable or 
thick coverlet between. EXERCISE AND REST. 
437 
But whether we sleep in one way or another, or on one side 
or another, or on oui' bpcks, a little contrivance, on retiring to 
rest, will save us many uncomfortable feelings, if not many 
sleepless hours. The following is an example of the con- 
trivance to which I refer : - 
As I seldom rest all night in the position which I take when 
I first lie down, I have devised the following plan for securing 
sound sleep. Thus, supposing it to be my intention to sleep 
on my right side, I first lie down on my left side, or on my 
back. After lying in this position as long as I dare lest I 
should fall asleep in it, I turn myself upon my right side, and 
sleep quietly for several hours - sometimes almost the whole 
night. Whereas if I lie down on my right side, and go to 
sleep in that position, I am apt to be restless, and change sides 
sooner than if I first spend a little time on my left side. 
A good deal depends, with reference to sound sleep, on the 
position of our body and limbs. Thus, if one limb rests on 
the other, the weight sometimes causes sleeplessness and 
dreaming. Or if the bed is too soft, so as to sink the hips 
or body too low for the head, or give a crooked shape to 
the frame, or if we lie too straight, our sleep may be less 
sound and less refreshing. 
If we lie on either side, the body and all the limbs should 
be gently bent, so as to be in an easy position. In this way 
all the muscles - both the flexors and the extensors - appear 
to have a season of quiet rest. 
I make these statements with many misgivings, because I 
know, full well, that they will be made, for most persons, in 
vain. They are not willing to pay the tax required. They 
are not willing to take the necessary pains for securing sound 
and refreshing sleep. But if I arrest and secure the attention 
of even a few, I shall not think my labor lost, 438 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
Do females require more sleep than males ? This is a 
question often gravely put by grave men, and as often an- 
swered. It is, however, answered both ways. My opinion is, 
that they do not; for I see no physiological reason for be- 
lieving otherwise. That children need more sleep than 
adults will not by many be disputed. There is no respecta- 
ble authority that thinks otherwise, so far as I know. Still I 
have no doubt that we educate them to sleep a great deal 
more than is really necessary. 
It is so convenient to busy mothers to have their children 
out of the way, that they are too generally overcome by the 
temptation, and the child is thrown upon the bed. I have, 
however, seen little children that did not sleep more at a 
very early age than adults, and yet their health did not appear 
to suffer from it. 
The following table, presented by M. Friedlander, in a late 
work dedicated to M. Guizot, shows the number of hours 
which he supposes it necessary to consume in sleep, between 
the seventh and fifteenth year of life. It is also exceedingly 
curious on account of other items it contains. Let it be re- 
membered, in passing, that M. Friedlander is one of those 
who hold that mental instruction should not begin before the 
seventh year. 
Age. 
Hours of Sleep. 
Hours of Exercise. 
Hours of Occupation. 
Hours of Repose. 
7... 
... 9 to 10.... 
10 
1 
4 
8... 
9 
a 
2 
4 
9..*.. 
9 
8 
3 
4 
10.... 
....8 to 9.... 
8 
d 
4 
11.,.. 
8 
Z 
5 
4 
12... 
8 
6 
6 
4 
13.... 
>r 
4 
14.... 
7 
K 
o 
4 
15.... 
7.... 
4 
9 
4 EXERCISE AND REST. 
439 
What he means by " hours of repose," I do not exactly 
understand; but the rest of his table is perfectly intelligible, 
and, on the whole, instructive. It is said, also, by the author, 
that it is something more than mere theory; as it contains, 
practically, the experience of many instructors and educa- 
tors. 
My own observation and reflection would lead me to make 
a single criticism. Instead of sleeping seven hours at fifteen 
years of age, the children in our own country sleep eight or 
nine, and in winter much more ; and though I think this too 
much, it is believed that seven would be rather too little. I 
believe that eight would be preferable. 
There are many things, both curious and useful, connected 
with the philosophy of sleep, which have been purposely 
omitted. No man can do entire justice to so important a sub- 
ject, in a single popular lecture. Macnish has given us a vol- 
ume of about three hundred pages on this subject, without 
exhausting it. 
Somnambulism has attracted great attention within the last 
twenty-five years. The story of Jane Ryder was written by 
one of my classmates ; the subject is interesting, but cannot 
be discussed here. There is some fancy work about it, but 
a good deal of truth. Nor ought I to dwell for a moment on 
mesmerism. Those who wish to inform themselves on that 
wonderful subject must go elsewhere. But they need not go 
far ; almost every neighborhood has somebody in it w,ho can 
mesmerize ; and perhaps act the clairvoyant, and communicate 
with the spirit world besides 1 ! ! 
I ought not to close this lecture without saying that the 
quantity and quality of our sleep will both be determined, in 
no small degree, by the tendency to diseases which various 
'ndividuals either inherit or have acquired. Thus a consump- 440 
EXERCISE AND REST. 
tive person will need less sleep - other things being equal 
- than one of a bilious or dropsical habit. • 
This part of our subject is left out of this lecture, both be- 
cause it belongs to pathology rather than hygiene, and also 
because some things will be said bearing closely upon it in my 
remaining lecture, to which I must beg leave for the present 
to refer you. THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
441 
LECTURE X. 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
Mankind, in almost every thing, seem prone to extremes. 
Now, the tendency is wholly to the right hand, till they come 
to some barrier which appears insurmountable ; now, again, 
they go to the left, till they meet with an obstruction in that 
direction, when, like the pendulum, they vibrate once more to 
the opposite extreme. 
Time was, for example, when, as a general rule, we were 
accustomed to reverence the clergy - I had almost said 
worship them. Now, and for some time past, the tendency 
has been in the opposite direction ; and there is a growing in- 
clination to throw them all " overboard." How soon we shall 
get sick of that idea, and vibrate to the first extreme, remains 
to be seen. 
The public opinion with respect to physicians and medicine 
has not formed an exception to the truth of this remark. 
From the disposition to regard the medical man as a sort of 
magician, and his medicines as incantations, we are passing 
rapidly to the theoretical belief that all physicians are worse 
than useless; and that true wisdom would teach us to have 
every man become his own doctor. 
Are mankind always to be, in this respect, children ? Are 
we destined to a zigzag movement of this sort, forever, with- 
out making any real progress ? or, will the pendulum, in 
some truly favored golden period of the world's history, cease 
to vibrate, and remain midway between these extremes ? 
There are those who believe that our race, for the last 442 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
three or four thousand years, at the least, - have remained 
stationary. They do not believe at all in the so much boasted 
march of the human mind. They believe, as Solomon, at 
one period of his life, was inclined to believe, that all things 
come alike, in every respect, to all men. These are general- 
ly middle-aged men. 
Another class believe the world is going " ahead," at a 
rapid rate. They are a favored generation, and the old were 
fools. The improvements already made, and such others as 
these seem to guaranty, will whirl us on at a most rapid rate 
to the bliss of Eden - to the long-lost paradise. These, of 
course, are the young. 
But another class regard the world as, in every respect, 
retrograding. They place the golden age in the past. The 
present is a most sad departure from that blissful state which 
was once ours ; and of the future they have still less hope. 
Most happy would they be, could all that pertains to our de- 
teriorated planet, on some December night, be suddenly con- 
gealed, to prevent any further deterioration. It is hardly 
necessary to say who these are. 
Now, although you may be inclined to consign me to 
the latter class, I do not really belong to it. I believe most 
fully in human progress, both as a principle and as a fact. 
Some progress, I believe, has been made; and much more 
may and will be made. Not by miracle either ; but, under 
God, by those capabilities which he has himself delegated. 
I believe, even, that we shall one day or another learn to 
make a steady, onward march. It is probable that something 
has even been gained by each past zigzag. Still our gains will 
be greater when we can rise beyond this painful practical 
necessity. And the day when we can do this is not now 
very distant. The signs of the times can hardly be mistaken. THE EIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
443 
I have said that there is abroad a theoretic belief that 
physicians are useless. Why I call this belief theoretical is, 
that the individuals who proclaim their faith most loudly, are 
the very persons to act contrary to it in practice. For sup- 
pose they are ill, or their friends. While in health, they 
would not go for a physician, especially a " regular " one, 
for their lives. Nor will they now, as long as they are not 
very sick. But let one and another and another of their 
friends come in, and say, with a woe-begone countenance, 
" How dreadfully sick you are 1 Why do you not have a 
doctor ? " and it is ten to one but they will send, post haste - 
perhaps for the very man whom, but a few days before, they 
were sneering at. 
Others, however, are wiser, or at least more prudent. They 
will die sooner than have an " apothecary doctor," even 
though he " does not give calomel." But let some seventh son 
of a seventh son come along, or some drunken Indian, - sober, 
perhaps, just at the moment of his call, - with whom they 
would not trust a sixpence of their property, and they place 
their own lives and those of their children at once in his hands. 
Or, still more to the disparagement of poor human nature, 
let some one come in with Mrs. Somebody's cordial. The 
patient has had within a month - certainly in his whole life- 
time - one alvine movement, and he has, forsooth, a bowel 
complaint! The cordial has cured its thousands who were 
just as he is. No one present knows so much as the ABC 
of the human constitution, or the nature of medicine or 
disease ; but they know what ails the patient, and they know 
the cordial will cure him ! Such, I mean, is their self-confi- 
dence - the result of their ignorance. And the patient be- 
lieves ; and his faith is in proportion to their impudent assur- 
ances. Science is modest, and wishes to ask a hundred 444 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYS1V.ANS. 
questions; but ignorance knows, because she knows. She talks 
large, and looks learned ; and the doctor hater at once takes 
it all for gospel, and down goes the medicine. If the patient 
gets well notwithstanding, the latter is immortalized ; if the 
patient dies, he dies of the disease, not that the medicine 
destroyed him! 
My master in medicine, when I began to ride abroad with 
him among his patients, used to arrest my attention, sudden- 
ly, at times, by this question : " Do you know how to insure 
success as a physician ? " " Why, no, not exactly." " Well, 
you must learn to look very wise." 
It is a pity - but so it is - that the greater the fool, who 
attempts at all to prescribe for you, the greater his confidence 
in himself and in his medicine. And the contrary is equally 
true, that the wiser the man whom you consult, the more he 
is conscious of and feels his own fallibility and the " glorious 
uncertainty " of medicine. 
You will forestall my inference. It is, however, this. If 
you are sick, and cannot confide in your own judgment 
longer, and consequently need advice, consult a wise man in 
your own and the public estimation, and not a fool. The 
more he understands of the human constitution and the na- 
ture and power of medicine, - provided he is not a mere 
book worm, - the better. 
And hence the first right use of physicians - to patch 
us up, as I have before styled it. They may not be able to 
do much; perhaps not much ought to be done. But what 
ought to be done they will be as likely as any body to find 
out; and what they believe ought to be done, they will be as 
likely as any body to do. They may not - probably will 
not-give much medicine. Physicians, all who are worthy 
of the name, all who are progressives, have greatly improved THE KIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
445 
their practice within the last twenty-five years. They do not 
give one fourth as much active medicine - perhaps not one 
tenth - as they then did ; and they are giving less and less 
every year. 
They may not pledge themselves to avoid, entirely, any 
particular medicine, or make use of any special favorite. 
Like the pilot to whom, on a dangerous coast, you commit 
unreservedly the care of your vessel, the wise physician will 
expect to do as seems to him best, in the circumstances. He 
will not concede to you - you should not claim - any re- 
served rights. And what he advises, you must implicitly 
hearken to and follow, as nearly as you can, or else dismiss 
him. 
He may not pledge himself to the exclusive use of even as 
good a remedial agent as water ; for though there may be 
individuals so situated as to deem it their duty - partly, per- 
haps, to inspire public confidence in pure water - to confine 
themselves to it for a time, yet there are few who could be 
expected long to do this without becoming the disciples of 
empiricism. 
Your physician - if he is the right man - will be what I 
would call an eclectic. I do not know what idea the public 
mind has already attached to this term, but I mean, by it, a 
man who acts according to the circumstances before him ; 
who seldom, if ever, finds two cases <5f disease alike ; and 
therefore, seldom, if ever, prescribes exactly the same course 
for two persons. 
In short, the true physician of nature endeavors to follow 
nature ; and if, in doing so, he comes to the conclusion that 
it is beskto give no medicine at all, but simply place his pa- 
tient under law, and keep him so, and then leave the rest to 
wiser direction than his own, you need not marvel. Such 446 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
medical men are to be found ; they will be still more numer 
ous a century hence. 
I have said " leave the rest." It is an old saying that a 
good nqrse or attendant of the sick is worth half as much 
as a frfiysician. The wise physician will fully subscribe 
to t^e truth of this saying; and even to such a modification 
of it as should make the words half as much read quite as 
much. Competent, well-educated nurses, at the present day, 
are exceedingly rare ; and blessed is the plan of modern times 
of educating a class of females for this special purpose. All 
who love their species, or value health, will hail this as one 
of the omens of a better and happier day about to dawn on 
our dark world. 
But a second and more important duty of the enlight- 
ened physician is to teach mankind, as fast as possible, to let 
alone medicine - I mean to let alone prescribing it for them- 
selves or others. The task will be a heavy one, and will re- 
quire long time and much patience. It is, however, a depart- 
ment of the great work of human improvement which de- 
mands our attention. 
At the present time, if a person is ill, especially an ig- 
norant person - and who is not ignorant in this matter of 
health and disease ? - the cry is, " What shall we do ? " 
No matter if it is nothing but a cold, or a surfeit- when the 
question might more properly be, " What shall we not do ? " - 
in other words, " What shall we refrain from doing ? " - the 
inquiry is still the same, and is made with the same blind confi- 
dence. And there are always at hand fools enough to re- 
spond to the inquiry. They can tell you the very remedy for 
your disease, and where it is to be found. The apothecary 
sells ten times as much of his poison without the prescription 
of any physician, old school or new school, before him, as THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
447 
with it. And he is quite a sober, legitimate, moderate seller, 
compared with many of those who sell medicine around him. 
Then there is another species of apothecary shops, which 
the enlightened physician must endeavor, by all means, to 
put down; although his motives, in this as well as his other 
duties, may be variously construed. For my own part, I am 
persuaded that here, if nowhere elsc^ 'he must, in acting 
his proper part, act against his own interest. I refer to the 
apothecary's shops in dwelling houses. Many a mother has 
been so effectually trained, at maternal hands, to maternal 
drugging and dosing, that she has introduced this medicine, 
and that, and the other into her closet, till one might find it, 
difficult to mention a potent article of the whole materia 
mcdica, which, in an emergency, she could not furnish. 
It was my own lot, in early medical life, to be a boarder 
in a family of this description. The wife had received a 
training somewhat peculiar. She was an only daughter, 
and constitutionally feeble; and her mother, being greatly fear- 
ful about the future, had doctored her from fourteen years of 
age to twenty-four - till she had literally learned to live on 
medicine. I found her feeble, scarcely able to sit up half the 
day, and unable to do any work but a little light sewing and 
knitting. Her skin, not accustomed to see the sun, was so 
pale, and withal so transparent, that one might almost see 
through it. Her lungs were feeble, her appetite bad, and all 
the functions of her frame were very imperfectly performed. 
When I first sat at the table, it was no uncommon thing for 
a little Stoughton's Bitters, or some other medicament, " good 
to give an appetite," to appear at the table, and to be taken 
before the dinner could either be received or relished. And 
of what I have elsewhere called table medicines, there was 
the most liberal abundance. 448 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
And there were more where both of these came from. 
It was difficult to say which had the best assortment of 
drugs, the wife in her closet, or the husband - who was 
an apothecary by profession - in his shop. The latter, no 
doubt, had a few larger parcels, and had them labelled in a 
more glaring style. The wife, however, was, in this respect, 
fast coming on ! 
Need I say that this maternal apothecary's shop was not 
only kept, but used ? The husband, moreover, was a doser 
as well as his wife, only he had not learned it of his mother 
in early life, and as yet he had a somewhat better consti- 
tution. 
I left them, after a residence in the family of a year or 
so, and did not see them again to know much of their habits 
till something like eight years had elapsed. Meanwhile they had 
reflected on my often-repeated remarks, and partly reformed. 
Besides, fortune - so to speak - had been in their favor; for, 
by unforeseen calamities, they had been obliged to labor. 
On calling on them after the aforesaid long absence, I met 
first with the husband. " How do you do ? " I said, familiarly, 
looking at his brown skin and ruddy countenance. He com- 
prehended my meaning, and replied, most emphatically, 
" Perfectly well; I can eat my allowance now ; " and burst 
into a loud laugh. While I stood talking with him, along 
came a matronly-looking woman, with her sleeves rolled up, 
- it was washing day, - and a sufiburnt appearance, whom 
I was glad to call his wife. Yet, O, how changed ! Eight 
years before, she could not have stood before the wash tub 
and ironing table, to save her life. Up came a little girl, too. 
" What, is this yours ? " I said. " Indeed it is," was the 
reply. I was more surprised than ever to see her, for, 
though very young, she was quite promising ; whereas, till THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
449 
they abandoned medicine, they never had but one living child, 
and that did not survive a month. 
In short, there had been a very great reform, and the whole 
family were now reaping the reward of their deeds. They 
took little medicine, and therefore needed little-just as 
others take much, and therefore need much. For the more 
we take medicine, the oftener we feel ourselves under the 
necessity of taking it; and the contrary. 
This is a strong case ; but it is only a specimen, in kind, of 
what our country abounds with. I could give a hundred sim- 
ilar instances of similar general character, but must confine 
myself to one or two. 
A family in Boston had for its maternal head a young 
woman who had been brought up in the family of a physician 
of high reputation, whose mantle, as she supposed, had fallen 
on her. She was always dosing, and, as she said, always 
curing. Her children, at the least, recovered in spite of her; 
but they were always getting sick again. In this family, also, 
I became a boarder. Instead of a closet full of drugs, here 
was a regularly-built medicine chest; and it was used, too, 
with a vengeance. Sometimes, especially in the spring, the 
husband had sick turns, and these were cured as successfully 
as those of the children. In other words, the husband, like 
the children, lived through it. Nature is tough. 
Here I plied my no-medicine doctrines ; but here, too, for 
the time, with little apparent effect. But the hour of separa- 
tion came. I went elsewhere, and they . removed into the 
countiy. Here the seed I had sown began to germinate, and 
finally to bring forth fruit. Within ten years, an entire 
change was effected. No medicine was given, and none ap- 
peared to be needed. From that day to this - now some 
ten or twelve years - I do not believe a dollar's worth of 450 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
medicine has been taken in the whole family, which is con- 
siderably large. They appear to be almost entirely emanci- 
pated. And not only so, but they have become preachers of 
the faith they once destroyed. 
My own family have their ill turns, and occasionally their 
severe diseases; but we give no medicine. We leave all to 
nature, taking care only that no further violations of nature's 
laws take place. We do not even use water, except to give 
them their regular daily bath, and to furnish them with drink. 
One evening, several years since, a distinguished hydro- 
pathic physician came to see me. Our little boy was getting 
sick. " If that boy were mine," said he, " I would give him 
a tepid bath." " It might be well enough," was the reply, 
" but as it is somewhat late in the evening to begin the work 
of preparation, and early sleep will do him more good than 
late sleep and the bath together, I think I will leave him to 
nature." In the morning he was better; and the following 
day nearly well. Had we followed either hydropathy or 
allopathy, I do not know how a more rapid cure, under the 
circumstances, could have been effected. And if any, who 
heard that Dr. S. was at our house, attributed the cure of the 
boy to hydropathy, I do not see that it can be helped. The 
doctor certainly looked at him, and expressed his benevolent 
desires! 
We have just now - while this work has been going 
through the press - had a " touch " of the prevailing epidemic. 
All the family have been sick but myself-some of them 
quite sick. Have we taken medicine ? We have scarcely 
thought of it. We have tried to be obedient to nature. 
One night, and one only, the children bathed their feet in 
warm water. 
These are specimens of family reform such as can be THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
451 
found all over the country. Such and similar instances the 
wise physician can bring to his people, in order to show them 
the superlative folly of maternal dosing and drugging. He 
may do much more. He may tell them the consequences of 
this wretched habit, to the race. He may tell them how fast 
we are sowing the seeds of neuralgia and scrofula. 
The physician of the soul teaches us to pray that we may 
not be led into temptation. The physician of the body should 
endeavor to persuade us to suit the act to the word, and re- 
move temptations as far as possible out of the way. No 
medicine should be kept in our houses ; my family keep none ; 
and others may do the same. What man has done, man 
may do. 
A thousand difficulties will be started with regard to the 
practicability of having families who live remote from an 
apothecary's shop, banish medicine wholly. But to all of 
them I have but one answer : Make the experiment for the 
next ten years, and if at the end of this time you are not sat- 
isfied, I have no more to say. 
Quacks of all sorts - thicker than frogs ever were in 
Egypt - have come among us of late years, and their influ- 
ence is most deadly. But make this quackery as bad as you 
may, - as bad, if you please, as the reality, - and what is 
it, in its consequences, in comparison with the evils which 
mothers inflict ? For these last should remember that a little 
mischief,--a slight morbid tendency, - implanted in the 
constitution at a very tender age, may grow with its growth 
and strengthen with its strength, till it becomes a huge tree, so 
deeply rooted that it can hardly be destroyed. 
Mothers, I know, are apt to think they understand their 
children's constitutions better than any body else ; but this 
cannot be so, and the medical man can easily show them 452 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
their mistake. If life is not long enough to enable the profes- 
sional man to understand " constitutions," how can others 
know much about them ? 
Another right use of medical men consists in teaching, 
every where, how to prevent disease. The good old maxim, 
" An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is uni- 
versally applicable, but nowhere more so than in its applica- 
tion to the art of preventing disease. 
1. Much may be done by the physician at the houses of 
his patients. For during the progress of disease, or the stage 
of convalescence, nothing will be more natural than the in- 
quiry how the disease originated. It certainly did not grow 
out of the ground. It certainly had its cause, or causes, like 
other effects. Now, what were they ? 
I grant that, in order to this end, a physician must be moved 
by principle. He must be essentially a missionary of health. 
He must feel that to preach this part of the everlasting gos- 
pel, as well as that of the moral or religious teacher, is indi- 
rectly to spread the gospel of the soul. And he must be as- 
siduous in his efforts to do his duty, in season and out of sea- 
son. Moved thus, as other ministers of the gospel are, by the 
Holy Ghost, he can hardly fail to sow his seed wherever he 
goes, in the house and by the wayside. Foreven when sown 
as he passes along the public highway, some of it will take 
root, and grow to such a size as to defy the future storm and 
tempest. 
In regard to teaching our patients to trace effects to causes, 
the foundation of this work ought to be laid, as I'have else- 
where said, in early life. It should be a part of our educa- 
tion. But since it is not so, the medical man has the greater 
obligation imposed on him ; and happy is he who discharges 
faithfully his duty. THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
453 
2. He should visit schools, either officially or otherwise. 
It would be an admirable arrangement that should secure at 
least monthly visits from some competent medical man to 
every school ; and I hardly know how money could be more 
judiciously applied than in the payment of such services. 
But in the absence of such an arrangement, at least as a 
general rule, I am again about to appeal to his philanthropy. 
Let him visit schools, whether paid for it or not. Let him at- 
tend to the school house, its construction, location, and health- 
fulncss. Let him have a particularly watchful eye on the 
interior. Let him observe the habits both of the teacher and 
his pupils. Let him make his suggestions in regard to im- 
provements, whenever they are needed. They may be made 
to the teacher privately, and still oftener to the committee. 
They may be made verbally, or in writing. Whenever it is 
an unofficial matter, perhaps the former mode would be pref- 
erable. 
Physicians to schools are as needful an appendage as phy- 
sicians to workshops and houses of correction or almshouses ; 
and if prevention is worth more than cure, still more so. 
Were there such an office, and were it duly filled, we should 
not so often find our children suffering in point of health, 
while at school, as we now do. We should not have so much 
disease, and so many premature deaths. 
The Germans are said to be quite before us in this impor- 
tant particular. We are told that they take measures to find 
out whether their children are improving at school, physically, 
no less than intellectually and morally. If they are not, and 
the existing evil cannot be removed, they withdraw them. 
It is well to avail ourselves of these lessons of wisdom, though 
they happen to come to us across the Atlantic. 
If a boy is pale and languid for want of breathing pure air 454 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
at school ; if he has his nose bleed frequently in consequence 
of sitting with his feet cold and his head hot; if he exercises 
too violently when out of school, or, on the contrary, neglects 
his exercise ; or if he studies beyond his strength, - it is alike 
the interest of parent and teacher to be informed of it. 
Teachers are usually so ignorant on all these points as 
greatly to need information from somebody. And from no 
person, if given in a kind manner, do they receive it so will- 
ingly as at the hands of a judicious and respectable physician. 
So, too, in regard to parents. 
Little girls are sometimes made unsymmetrical and crooked 
for life - to say nothing of physical maternal sufferings - 
by a bad position of the spine or the shoulders, or by the ap- 
plication of undue excitements to study, or by sitting with cold 
-feet, and highly-heated head and upper extremities. 
But my object was merely to hint at what a physician 
could do, and ought to do, in relation to schools. A volume 
on school physiology would hardly include too many particu- 
lars. Perhaps the physician should himself be the very vol- 
ume needed. 
3. There should be physicians to factories. For say what 
we may about the excellent condition of our factories, there 
is hardly any limit to the mischiefs to human health that grow 
out of them directly and indirectly. Some of these evils, I 
grant, are inseparable from the necessary condition of the 
operatives ; but others might be gradually removed. 
A better system of ventilation might be adopted, beyond a 
doubt. More time might be allowed to exercise in the open 
air. Systematic, vigorous, and profitable exercises might and 
should be provided; and there are not wanting those who 
should be compelled to use them - I mean when all other 
motives but compulsion fail. THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
455 
Much might be done, too, with regard to the health of 
boarding houses, dormitories, wells, and cellars. You doubt- 
less remember an anecdote I gave you of a raging epidemic 
m Newton Upper Falls, in Massachusetts, ^vhich was at once 
put to flight by a man who knew very little of disease or hy- 
giene. What he could do in his ignorance, an aged and 
respected physician could do still better. 
The diet of the inmates of our factories is often as wrong 
as wrong can be. How to remedy this evil, even with the aid 
of a missionary of health in some form or other, I hardly know. 
But without medical effort, as a general rule, it will never be 
attempted. I wait, therefore, with considerable anxiety, to 
see what can be done, in this particular as well as many 
others, by physicians to factories. 
4. Some have supposed we need physicians to churches, 
conference rooms, vestries, lecture rooms, town halls, court 
houses, &c. I could give a long list of human ills that might 
have been prevented, had there been such an officer, and had 
he faithfully performed his duty. " Jail fevers, hospital fe- 
vers, camp fevers, all owe their origin," says Dunglison, " to 
the deteriorated air of those places." Why, then, do we not 
have a more thorough oversight of all these places, and such 
arrangements with regard to cleanliness, ventilation, &c., &c., 
as shall render such terrible results impossible ? 
Who is there that has not read or heard of the Black Assize, 
at Oxford, England, in 1577 ? It received its name from the 
great mortality produced in court by the effluvia from a pris- 
oner brought to the bar after having been some time confined 
in a small dungeon. On one side of the culprit was an open 
window, and almost all the judges, counsel, jury, and others, 
who were placed to the lee of the prisoner, were attacked with 
putrid fever, of which many died. 456 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
At Exeter, also, in 1586, and at Taunton, in 1730, the 
same thing occurred, and from similar causes. And in 1750, 
the contagious jail fever, introduced into the court, destroyed 
the lord mayor, two judges, and several spectators. Why 
were prisoners permitted to be confined in an air so pestifer- 
ous? Why no physicians to the jails and other places of 
confinement ? 
But another right use of physicians consists in re- 
quiring them to give public instruction on such parts of anato- 
my, physiology, and hygiene - especially the latter - as 
may be most important to the mass of the community, and as 
they may be best prepared to receive. Especially should 
public instruction be given on the best means of promoting, 
or, as I have all along called it, manufacturing health. 
Of the importance - the indispensable importance - of 
this kind of information, there can be, at present, but one 
opinion. Whether we regard its bearing on the social circle, 
public life, intellectual cultivation, or moral and religious 
progress, it is, as it were, in the present state of the world, 
the one thing needful. 
It is more than two centuries since the venerable Indian 
apostle, John Eliot, made an effort, as I have before inti- 
mated, to induce a learned teacher from the old world to 
come to New England and teach anatomy and physiology 
to the native American Indians ! Such a fact may seem 
strange, but it is well attested. The attempt, it is true, 
proved a failure. 
Zeno Scudder, a distinguished member in Congress from 
Massachusetts, has been heard to say that weekly lectures on 
these subjects were needed throughout the year, all over that 
commonwealth. But if needful in Massachusetts, I am sure 
they are so elsewhere. Lectures of this sort have, during THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
457 
the last twelve or fifteen years, been somewhat frequent in 
this country. And yet they have not exactly accomplished 
the whole object desired. Some have been too purely ana- 
tomical ; some have been too learned; some have had 
mingled with them much which did not belong, of necessity, 
to the subject; and some have neither had nor deserved the 
public confidence and favor. 
It is highly desirable that this department of public instruc- 
tion should be in the hands of good men whom we know, and 
not in the hands of strangers, or of men in whom we cannot 
confide. It should not be done for money solely, nor 
for display; nor to gratify a prurient and never gratified 
curiosity. In short, it belongs to physicians, provided they 
can be obtained. I know there are difficulties, for I have 
myself been compelled to encounter them. To one of these 
difficulties I have already had occasion to allude. Physicians 
who are worthy of the name are modest men. It will be 
hard to enlist them. But they must be pressed into the har- 
ness if possible. Encourage them by the purchase of a 
manikin. It will cost something, but you will never regret 
your efforts, or your contributions. But if this cannot be 
done, let them at least collect such dried preparations as 
may be within their reach - to which they may add cheap 
diagrams. 
In their public ministrations, medical men should keep 
prominent one great idea, that to a much wfider extent than 
almost any one is aware, health is the product of manufacture 
just as much as any thing else, and that God has, as a general 
rule, made it optional with us, when we know his laws, to 
manufacture health or disease. 
There has been much of infidelity-or rather of irrever- 
ence- abroad in regard to this whole subject. Practically 458 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
we have been inclined to shift the responsibility, in regard to 
health, upon every body else rather than ourselves - especially 
upon our Father who is in heaven. This great error ought 
to be removed immediately; and no man can do this service 
to God and humanity better than the medical teacher. 
Salzman, a distinguished German educator, has said that 
whenever we find evils rising up among the children of our 
charge, we must look for the cause in ourselves ; and there, 
very often, we shall find it. It is somewhat so in the matter 
before us. The cause of our illnesses and those of our fami- 
lies will generally be found at home, if we look deep enough. 
Would that this view, so far as it is correct, could be spread 
abroad, from one end of the land to the other! Would 
that when sickness prevails - influenza, consumption, or 
cholera - people might look in themselves for the cause, 
and not behind the clouds, nor in the first, third, or seventh 
heaven. 
While a person is laboring, correctly, to prevent disease, 
he is at the same time practically doing much to manufacture 
health. Still there should be special effort for this purpose. 
Remember that in the decalogue of the Christian there are 
not only a list of Thou shalt nots, but also many Thou shalts. 
Nor can the moral laws of any decalogue, ancient or mod- 
ern, be fully obeyed, .to the largest extent, till the- physical 
code has its place. I pity those who, in the great work of 
preventing disease and manufacturing health, see nothing 
but what is secular. It is high time these things were made 
matters of conscience towards God. 
But there is one more right use of medical men, on 
which I must dwell a little more particularly than I have 
on any of the others;- both on account of its intrinsic impor- 
tance, and because it has hitherto been almost wholly neglect- THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
459 
ed. I refer to the work of making physiological examinations. 
Some of our phrenologists have done- a little of this sort of 
work. But there have been here two difficulties. First, the 
public have regarded them quite too much as a new sort of 
mountebanks, or, at most, of magicians, and have not laid up 
their incidental counsels in their hearts; and, secondly, many 
of them have proved themselves unworthy of being regarded 
as any thing else. 
It is the family physician alone, next to the beloved minis- 
ter of the gospel, who should so far have our confidence as to 
be admitted to the sanctum sanctorum of this divine temple. 
Let mere head feelers stand at a distance. 
By physiological examinations I mean this: Physicians 
should sit down, and, as it were, dissect the physical constitu- 
tion of a person, and ascertain, as near as possible, how he is 
made up ; and then, either verbally or in writing, - but the 
latter is preferable, - give him a chart of himself, accom- 
panied by the necessary rules of hygiene. 
They should examine all classes. The most prominent 
class will be those in our own families who are already 
diseased, either by inheritance or acquisition. The physi- 
cian must ascertain how far they are diseased ; what has been 
the medical treatment hitherto, if any; what their tempera- 
ment, idiosyncrasies, diet and regimen, employment, studies, 
amusements, hopes, fears, &c. 
It is only by this minute dissection, as I have called it, of 
the physical constitution, - this entering into the very sanctum 
sanctorum of the living temple, - that the physician can hope 
or expect to be prepared to render an individual that aid to 
which the spirit of these remarks has reference, and which 
next to the very salvation of the soul, is to him most important. 
Without such aid and advice - such is the popular igno- 460 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
rance at the present time - he may be in the daily habit of 
that which is as diametrically unfavorable, as if it were aimed 
solely at his temporal destruction. For want of such advice, 
millions, and hundreds of millions, have verified the truth of 
the declaration of God by the son of Beeri, " My people are 
destroyed for lack of knowledge." 
But there is a particular class, which, though usually less 
prominent, when these examinations arc proposed, are far more 
important, because here you come to the stream whose 
waters you would analyze, that you may purify and direct 
them much nearer the fountain. 1 speak, of course, of our 
children. 
No matter how healthy they are - the more physical capi- 
tal we have to work with, the greater will be our gains. No 
matter how young; the younger the better. They are our 
sheet anchor. They are our hope, and the world's. " Give 
me the ballad making of a country," some one has said, " and 
I care not who makes the laws." Give me the health of the 
children, and I care not who has care of the adults. 
No two children in a family require exactly the same treat- 
ment, whether we have reference to their diet and regimen, 
their dress and clothing, or their exercise, amusement, and 
employment. There needs to be, at least, a shade of differ- 
ence in the treatment, varying according to the temperament, 
strength or debility of body, or mental conformation. 
Now, I do not believe there is one parent in fifty who aims 
at the slightest diversity of this kind, or even so much as 
dreams of its necessity. Some indulgence is indeed, at times, 
granted to a delicate or sickly person, or child - precisely 
the one which should not be treated in this manner; but in 
general there is the same thing for all who are considered to 
be in their usual health. THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
461 
The same dress, essentially, is applied from the first, 
whether they are strong or weak, and whether it is summer 
or winter. The same form of ablution is used, - cold or 
warm, showering or plunging, or sponging, - and whatever 
may be the temperament or tendencies, healthy or diseased ; 
and if ill, the same form and dose of elixir, or senna and salts. 
The same food and drink, essentially, are given to all; in- 
deed, so far as drink is concerned, it should be so. And as 
to food, the difference required in early life is so trifling, that 
we need not be over-solicitous on this point, unless there is a 
particular diseased tendency ; especially if the diet is plain 
farinacea and milk. After two years of age, and espe- 
cially after seven, more attention to this subject will be 
necessary. 
And then at just such an age all go to school, where they 
pursue about the same routine of study, under the influence 
of nearly the same sort of excitements. And as they advance 
beyond life's merest threshold, and are beginning to think of 
employment for life, this subject is in general disposed of 
according to parental convenience, and the whims of the 
children themselves. 
Now, these things ought not to be so. Every wise physi- 
cian knows they ought not to be so. Every parent ought to 
know it. It is for the life of his child. It is more than for 
his life, merely, in this world. It is for his usefulness here, 
and his happiness here and hereafter. 
Take, for example, the matter of school going. Now, there 
may be in many of our families, here and there, an individual 
who can go to school, say A B once or twice, and sit on a 
hard bench, midway between earth and heaven, five or six 
hours a day, and escape uninjured. But for one who can de 
this, there are probably a dozen who cannot. 462 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
Much. I admit, will depend upon the wisdom displayed in 
the arrangements for their reception there. If the teacher 
and the visiting and superintending committee or physician 
are physiologists, many more of our little ones can be 
allowed to go to school at four years of age, than as circum- 
stances usually are. In general, however, a majority of the 
young will be far better off in the end not to go to school till 
they are six or seven years of age ; and some should not see 
the inside of a school house till they are at least ten. And 
when a child is scrofulous, or consumptive, or rickety, I would 
hesitate long, before, as a physician, I would advise their 
being immured in bad air, at school or any where else, even 
as early as at ten years of age. 
Then, too, the studies presented to their minds first in 
order, and the incentives to study, should be various. Some 
need, as a motive to activity, the simple token of approba- 
tion, only, that Pestalozzi meted out to all alike - " That's 
right." Others, however, need something ffse. And in re- 
gard to their studies, some should begin wlih geometry, some 
with drawing, some with reading, otherj ivith botany, accord- 
ing to genius and temperament. 
In deciding upon all this, wise, ard judicious, and kind 
physiological advice is valuable beyond all possible price. 
Yet here is a field of influence, in the formation of human 
character, almost wholly unoccupied. More parents have 
thought of the right education of the children of the Sand- 
wich Islanders than of this department of the education of 
their own children ; though the great difficulty with most 
is, they do not think at all. 
Another example of the need of physiological exam- 
inations and hygienic advice, in early life, is found in the 
fact that the vast majority of our race are directed wrong in THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
463 
regard to employment. Thousands and millions, in every 
period of the world's history, have been almost entirely in- 
efficient in life, who might have been greatly useful but for 
this misdirection. Other thousands and millions, though they 
set out right, arc not educated to their profession. 
One of the most important professions among us-per- 
haps I should say the most important - has been often de- 
spoiled of its beauty, and half defeated in its intentions of good 
to men, either because parents have not known the will of 
God during the period of early education, or, knowing it, have 
not done it. 
In most families there is at least one boy who is scrofulous. 
This is early manifested, not so much externally as by his 
fondness for learning, his active conscientiousness, and his 
great physical sensibility - in a word, by his mental preco- 
city. He is, perhaps, unwilling to labor, and almost unfitted 
for it, - for he is not muscular, but rather delicate, - though 
he would study and read, if he might, all night long. This 
son, so fond of books, so brilliant, and, as it is supposed, so 
promising, must have an education. The parents would, in- 
deed, be glad to give what they call a good education to all 
their children ; but as they are not able, they are content to 
make a learned man of one of them. Nor are they long in 
deciding which it shall be. 
The boy is prepared for college at fourteen, and through 
it by eighteen - perhaps with the highest of college honors. 
But alas ! alas ! his health. This began to fail before he en- 
tered ; but too great ambition, too little exercise, a bad diet, 
haste in eating, too little sleep, and sundry other bad habits, 
have made it worse. In short, he is either dyspeptic or con- 
sumptive. 
But he is eighteen, and has graduated, and must begin ta 464 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
think of a proper sphere of action. What shall he do ? He 
is conscientious, and would gladly be useful. Perhaps he is 
religious, and would gladly serve God and mankind. He re- 
flects on the subject. He must live by learning, and not by 
work. At length he decides to be a minister, which brings 
him to the theological school one, two, or three years. His 
health here is still more seriously impaired, but his desire 
of usefulness is increased - his impatience, too, for entering 
upon life's great theatre. Perhaps he believes he has the 
key to a new mode of explaining, to human comprehension, 
those things which have hitherto been received by faith alone ;• 
and he longs to go' out and spread his new light over the fair 
face of society. 
Well, he has a call; as he is a young man, perhaps several 
of them. He is soon settled in the ministry, as both pastor 
and preacher - a task sufficient for Samson and Hercules 
united. He can write two sermons a week, and commit them 
both to memory ; at least with the aid of tea and coffee. All 
this, too, at the immature age of twenty-one or two, besides 
having the care of a family. 
But he has already seen his best years, physically.- Be- 
fore his bony frame is consolidated into physiological man- 
hood, he is completely crippled, and his days, instead of being 
what his early youth seemed to promise, are days of sorrow. 
He goes either to a premature grave, or he is compelled to 
spend a large portion of his precious time, through a mod- 
erately long life, patching up his nerves or his stomach. 
And now I appeal to those who have had much experience 
and observation in this world to say if I have not presented 
- painful thoughthetask has been-a faithful picture of 
the life and sufferings of a very large number belonging to 
this important and useful profession. And if a loss there is THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
465 
to the world,- such a loss as I have described, - " that loss 
how great! " 
The suffering and the loss -though always greater than a 
world like ours can well afford to bear - are not quite so 
great when the precocious and diseased young man happens 
to fall into another profession - one which gives him more 
exercise in the open air, with less, at the first, of respon- 
sibility. We have, it is true, quite enough 'dyspeptic and 
consumptive lawyers and doctors, but not so many as of 
ministers. 
Now, then, one right use of physicians would be to assist 
parents in the education of precocious children. If one 
of them is to become a scholar, what is the best method 
of accomplishing his object ? No son, nor any parent, 
wishes to secure eminence at the expense of health and 
life. It is paying too dear, as Dr. Franklin would say, for 
the whistle. 
Perhaps the young man may accomplish his purpose by 
delaying his studies a little, and in the mean time endeavor- 
ing to harden his constitution. He is disinclined to exercise, 
it is true; but so much the greater is its necessity. If the 
family physician says so, moreover, he will surely much 
rather hoe or plough than take the blue pill. He will much 
rather work than die. 
A young map of this description might far better delay the 
work of education a little while than destroy his usefulness 
for the whole of his after life. It is by no means certain that 
he who commences a professional career at twenty-nine or 
thirty, - as our Savior did, - having his mind well prepared 
and lodged in a sound and vigorous body, - will not accom- 
plish more in the world than he who begins earlier. 
And from what I have seen, I have very little doubt that 466 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
many a scrofulous young man, by proper general manage, 
ment, by a due alternation of labor and study, and by mar- 
rying, and entering upon his profession at twenty-eight or 
thirty, might secure to himself a life of tolerable health and 
vigor, and of much usefulness to the world, instead of passing 
away from the world almost at its very threshold, or being 
buried while yet alive. 
In some cases, however, a judicious medical adviser would 
labor to dissuade the scrofulous young man from pursuing a 
studious life, and to reconcile both him and his friends to 
agriculture or the mechanic arts, as a course which would 
render him more efficient, and probably more useful. It is a 
mistake into which many fall, that a feeble person cannot be 
useful any where except in one of the learned professions, or 
in mercantile life. And if Satan has an agency in these 
matters, I have not a doubt that he delights to aid in the dif- 
fusion of such a sentiment. For are knowledge and piety, 
and the influences of the Holy Spirit, of no use, or almost 
none, in any of the more common and humble spheres of 
human action? For my own part, I wish every farmer and 
mechanic could be, for knowledge, a Cuvier or a New- 
ton ; and every one for piety an Edwards, a Brainard, or a 
Payson. 
It will be asked whether a physician could be of any ser- 
vice in changing the tastes of young men. For it is 
probable that most young men have their predilections and 
tastes about going to college, and parents do not think it safe 
to cross them in their inclinations. I am well aware of the 
force of this objection. And yet it seems to me no sensible 
parent or young man would suffer himself to be led, by fancy 
or inclination, too far. I certainly would not be forward to 
oppose either; but neither would I be backward to do sc THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. ' 
467 
where reason seemed to require it. Mere feeling or inclina- 
tion is blind. The head should be the helmsman. 
The judicious medical adviser could have no motive that 
would be likely to urge him onward in a path which would not 
be safe. His great question would not be, " What is for the 
parents' convenience ? - or what would gratify his pride, or 
the young man's inclination," - but rather, " What is right? " 
It is not, however, the learned professions alone that suffer 
in the way I have alluded to, but others. There is suffering 
in the mercantile world. Let me give one or two cases, which 
came under my own observation, and which will illustrate the 
subject I am endeavoring to enforce upon your attention. 
A father in Massachusetts and in the ministry, having a 
family of sons, without much reflection sends one to college, 
one to the farm, and another to merchandise. The farmer 
succeeds: the young man at college has not yet had time 
to show what his course is to be, except that his health is 
somewhat impaired. But the young man who goes to mer- 
cantile life, pure, honest, enterprising, and even pious, applies 
himself with all diligence to his business, but neglects exer- 
cise. His constitution, naturally delicate, begins to wane. 
But he has a good stand for business, and he must drive it, 
sink or swim - so he supposes. His head, as well as his 
hands, is employed in his business, and he dreams about it 
at night. 
He does not ask counsel of his father ; and he, alas!' never 
asked counsel of science - hardly of God. He consulted 
his own convenience. Had he permitted God to rule, - that 
is, had he found out, by wise medical counsel, what God had 
said in his son's constitution, - had he, in one word, consulted 
God's convenience, and not his own, his son might have been 
long useful. 468 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
But his history is that of thousands in the metropolis. He 
persists in violating the physical laws of God, till return to 
the path of hygiene is impossible ; and he sinks to the grave 
at a premature age, to add another to the long catalogue of 
what are called mysterious providences. 
Another father, with only one son, finds it very convenient 
to have him become a mercantile man. He has a spinal 
complaint, which he seems to suppose will disable him for 
manual labor; besides, he has no farm for him to work upon, 
if he desired it. So, after much reflection, but without medi- 
cal consultation, he sends him to the city. This father, too, 
is a minister. He knows his son to be scrofulous ; and knows, 
too, his danger, for he is rather indolent at home. And yet, 
in view of all this, he leads him into temptation, moral and 
physical. Or, rather, he permits him to go in the way of 
temptation, when he knows, or might know, he will be likely 
to fall; which is about the same thing. 
Now, would this have happened had there been a medical 
man at hand, to whom the public were accustomed to look in 
such cases, and in whom they were willing to confide ? 
Would it have happened in a neighborhood where the right 
use of physicians was fully understood ? This last young 
man appears very well, thus far; but the end is yet to come. 
I have no doubt - it is impossible for me to have - about 
the final results. He will lose his elasticity and vigor entirely, 
within a few years ; and perhaps, too late, be ordered away to 
a farm, in hopes of a restoration. 
But a better day is coming. The hearts of fathers are be- 
ginning to be turned towards children. In other words, the 
importance of early education is beginning to be acknowl- 
edged. I do not say it is beginning to be felt; but it is some- 
thing gained to a good cause, when men begin to compliment it. THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
469 
Physical education, I grant, lags behind the rest, and I fear 
will do so till the truest, noblest offices of the medical man 
are better understood. It will do so till they who know its 
value, and possess a good share of the true missionary spirit, 
make more sacrifices in its behalf than they have yet been 
willing to make. 
Parents, as yet, have very little idea of the manifold ad- 
vantages they would derive from being able to sit down at 
the very threshold of their little ones' lives, and ask how they 
shall manage them. A good physiological chart of an infant 
child would be worth more to the wise and docile parent - at 
least might be made so - than hundreds of dollars. 
The physician, with such information as the parent could 
furnish, will be able to determine, almost to a certainty, to 
what diseases a child is inclined by inheritance, as well as 
to what other diseases he will, by his temperament and con- 
stitution, and probable education, be exposed hereafter. He 
will be able, also, with such facts as the foregoing to aid him 
in setting out, to direct as regards dress, clothing by night 
and day, amusements, studies, diet and regimen, bathing 
and cleanliness, and medicine. For though the general 
principles I have laid down in these Lectures are applicable 
to all, there are particular modifications and directions to be 
made to meet the circumstances of each individual. 
Parents must not suppose they understand the particular 
constitutions of their own children better than the physician 
of hygiene. They may know something; but the physician, 
who is worthy of the name, will know much more, because 
he is better able to dissect their character than parents, in 
general, possibly can be. 
Thus, suppose the question to be raised in regard to a child's 
food. Now, divine Providence has settled what that shall be 470 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
till he has teeth ; but after that, what shall he take ? 0, 
" he likes this," and " he likes that; " and " this agrees with 
him," and "that does not;" we are told. Parents should 
know, in the outset, that all these likes and dislikes do not 
amount to much. Not, by any means, that they are to be 
turned out of doors. They are to be remembered, and to 
some extent regarded ; but our appetites are fallen appetites. 
A child who is a year old may be very fond of peaches, for 
example ; but if his digestive powers, by reason of a scrofu- 
lous constitution, are feeble, he cannot bear them. They will 
cause acidity and flatulence, and diminish the amount of 
elasticity and vigor. 
The parent may not know this, and may even think the 
peaches agree with him ; and that the acidity, instead of being 
caused by the fruit, is caused by something else, or perchance 
comes of itself So in regard to other things. The physician, 
along with the parents, will judge far better than the parents 
can alone. 
You see, therefore, how much ground these physiological 
examinations of which I have spoken should cover, especially 
in the case of very young children, to whom, of course, they 
are most important. You see that they would cover the whole 
ground of physical education - a subject which can never 
be too much magnified. 
But it is not little children, alone, who may be made the 
subjects of physiological examination. Nor is it one exami- 
nation, merely, to which I would call public attention. Some 
dentists examine teeth quarterly. I will not say whether 
these examinations should be quarterly or yearly ; but .they 
might profitably be frequent, and might include older per- 
sons as well as younger ones. 
" Is the physician to do this gratuitously ? " you will ask. THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
471 
Not at all. You must expect to pay him. And if prevention 
is worth more than cure, you can well afford to pay him. 
A reasonable compensation for a reasonable amount of this 
kind of instruction would be one of the most profitable in- 
vestments a parent could possibly make. There is no fee I 
would so willingly pay as that of a wise physician, for sitting 
down with me and my family, and assisting, once a year or 
so, in these physical and physiological examinations. 
In regard to older children, and adults generally, I suppose 
the importance of their own experience will be still insisted 
on. And be it remembered, I do not reject this experience. 
Yet much of it, by reason of our having been trained wrong, 
physiologically and morally, is false experience, and is worth 
very little. Any wise man who has studied this subject to 
the bottom, and made a sound physical examination, can tell 
an individual how and what he should eat, drink, wear, &c., 
and how he ought to exercise, sleep, &c., a hundred times 
better than he can himself tell, in his depravity and ignorance. 
I know this doctrine will by fools be sneered at; but truth has 
been sneered at before. 
In giving to parents for the sake of their children, or to 
them or any other individuals for their own sake, what I have 
called a chart, whether verbal or written, I would have partic- 
ular reference to those habits, and that course of life, which 
should be likely to harden and thoroughly renovate the con- 
stitution. The particulars of such directions, of course, can- 
not be given in a lecture; but the main idea may be illus- 
trated by practical examinations, at the homes and firesides 
of those concerned. More time is required than can usually 
be given in examinations which are made public. 
There is one application of this great principle of physio- 
logical examinations which would be productive of immense 472 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
benefit to the world, without waiting for a new generation. 
I refer to the examination every where of candidates for the 
gospel ministry. There are more Timothies and fewer Pauls 
now than there were eighteen hundred years ago; and yet 
the ability to " endure hardness " has diminished, while the 
necessity has increased. 
Connected, therefore, with each of our " schools of the 
prophets," should be a board of physiological examination ; 
and no young man should be permitted to pursue a theologi- 
cal course of study till he has passed the ordeal, and been 
approved. Along with his certificate of approbation should 
also be a prescription with regard to his future course as re- 
gards diet and regimen, for a certain number of years ; and if 
after being approbated, he should depart from the general 
tenor and spirit of the prescription, he should be liable to be 
refused a license to preach. These examinations should of 
course include the candidate for a foreign missionary field, to 
whom, by the way, it would be peculiarly applicable. Some- 
thing like this, had it been put in operation thirty years ago, 
might have saved hundreds of valuable lives, to say noth- 
ing of its pecuniary advantages. It might have placed the 
cause of foreign missions on a footing which, at the present 
rate of proceeding, it will take at least a century to attain, if 
not a thousand years. 
The question may have often come to your minds while I 
have been speaking, " Why has not the kind of work you men- 
tion always been done by medical men ? They must see its 
importance ; they cannot help it. How, then, is their long 
neglect of it to be accounted for ? " 
In the first place, they follow their profession as the mere 
tradesman or mechanic does his - to get a living by it. 
They do not follow it as a means of doing good. They de THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
473 
not pursue it as a matter of mere philanthropy. They do 
not even pursue it as a means of personal improvement, 
though that were still mere selfishness. 
A young man who had just set up business, and who was 
as little inclined to a benevolent course of life as almost any 
other physician that could be named, said to me, one day, 
" No man ever ought to practise medicine for money. He 
should do it from pure benevolence." 
But young men soon become older ones, and fall into a 
routine of business that excludes, almost entirely, all thoughts 
higher than, " Who will show us any good ? " The idea of 
improving themselves and their profession is the highest aim 
they have, and very few of them ever soar as high as that. 
Secondly. As they pass on, the love of money begins to 
grow, as it not unfrequently does in old men. The love of 
pleasure had probably obtained a lodgment long before. But 
now the desire of accumulating property has come in; and 
not merely come in, but has taken possession. In short, they 
are miserly. 
The one great object, now, is to accumulate property; not, 
indeed, to become greatly wealthy : from all such thoughts 
they would shrink at first. But the aim would be to obtain a 
competence, a sum sufficient for all the purposes of an ordinary 
family. Not the necessaries of life merely, but its luxuries 
- such, at least, as may happen to be in fashion. But their 
desires grow quite as fast as their gains, and probably a little 
faster, unless the gold, silver, houses, lands, and stocks of 
medical men are unlike those of other people. And the re- 
sult is, that, instead of having more leisure for philanthropic 
effort than they had at first, they seem to themselves to have 
less and less. 
Thirdly. Prior to all this, however, one thing is to be 474 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
recollected - that their medical education has been such as to 
* 
unfit them entirely for performing what I have shown to be 
their right and proper offices, except so far as mere cure is 
concerned. Is this doubted ? Let us then look at it. 
To teach mankind the art of preventing disease, and man- 
ufacturing health, they must of course understand those laws 
which govern the human frame in health as well as in sick- 
ness. In other words, they must have a good practical 
knowledge of hygiene ; but this they usually have not ob- 
tained. 
Is it so, then, you will say, that physicians are not taught, 
as a part of their profession, the laws of health? It certain- 
ly is so. Not that every one is destitute of this knowledge, 
entirely; for here and there an individual acquires it after 
what is usually called his course of study is completed. But 
few, if any, acquire it at the medical schools. 
They study anatomy and physiology, it is true. These 
are, often, the first lessons assigned them ; but the physiology 
gives way, usually, to anatomy, and that to a little knowledge 
of the body through the medium of dissections, with a view to 
its pathology. The student, instead of fixing his eye on the 
great facts before him, and making the proper deductions, is 
continually looking forward, and, as he supposes, higher. He 
studies physiology, but it is as a mere illustration of anatomy, 
and as a preparation for surgery, materia medica, and patholo- 
gy. He knows something of structure, a little of functions, 
but almost nothing of relations. Nor do his after studies add 
much to his stock of hygiene, or even of physiology.- 
Fourthly. But if physicians are duly prepared for the 
performance of this noblest part of their office, it would seem 
to avail little at present, since the public are trained to de- 
mand nothing more than what they now receive. They seem THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
475 
willing to blunder along as they have hitherto done, time im- 
memorial. They are willing to go on in their transgres- 
sions ; but when the penalty comes to be imposed,- whether 
the death penalty or something short of that, - they cry out. 
They make good the old couplet, - 
" No man e'er felt the halter draw 
With good opinion of the law." • 
They blunder on, and when they are deep in the slough, are 
ready to call on Hercules for assistance. 
I grant that physicians ought to be self-denying enough to 
step out of the ordinary routine of public demand, and offer, 
gratuitously, what is not yet called for. But this self-denial 
- it might even amount to self-sacrifice - can, after all, 
hardly be expected. They are not prepared for this, and 
they know it. 
Do you ask when they will be prepared ? Just when there 
is a strong public demand, and not one moment before. No 
profession will ever reform itself - certainly no one which is 
situated like the medical. The priest will be graduated by 
the people. If the people love to be humbugged out of 
money, and health, and life, they can and will be. 
But let them but make a strong demand that physicians 
shall teach the laws of health and life, and manifest a willing- 
ness to pay them, and the difficulty will soon be got over. If 
it should not be so, the circumstances will present an anomaly 
in the history of the world and of human nature. For it 
has hitherto been a well-known fact, that in a country like 
our own - a Yankee country - there is a tendency in the 
market to supply the demand. Let any thing be demanded 
which, in the nature of things, the country can produce, 
and it will soon be found. So with regard to preventive 476 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
physicians. Let there be but a strong demand for them, 
and they will be forthcoming. They will study anatomy, 
and physiology, and hygiene, with a view to understand and 
teach them, at least as far as they can be taught with profit 
to the world. 
Fifthly. There is, however, one more very important rea- 
son why medical men have not (and in the present state 
of things are not likely to do it) attended to the matter unde' 
discussion. Perhaps this has a more paralyzing tendency 
than any other. 
They are paid in a way which presents no motive to sani- 
tary efforts. The more sickness, the greater their receipts, 
and the contrary. In order to interest them in the means of 
preventing disease and promoting health, we should pay them 
according to the degree of exemption from sickness in society, 
and not according to the amount of disease. 
It is said that in some of the Oriental countries they are 
beforehand with us in this important particular. It is saief- 
though I know not with how much of truth - that physicians 
have a salary which is varied according to the rise and fall 
of the scale of public health. If general health prevails and 
increases, their salary rises; if sickness prevails and in- 
creases, it is lowered in proportion. Under these circum- 
stances, no intelligent body of physicians, in any country 
of the wide earth, would ever remain long stationary in the 
mere ranks of the curative. The prevention of disease would 
immediately become a matter of pecuniary interest, and would 
receive a full share of attention. 
I do not, of course, place implicit credence in the received 
opinion that medical* men are accustomed to make their 
patients worse, and keep them so, for the sake of making out 
a long bill against them for services and medicine. I do not THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
477 
believe such a charge against physicians of any school could 
often be substantiated. On the contrary, I think it argues 
very much in their favor, as a profession, that Jhis does not 
often happen, especially as our mode of employing and pay- 
ing them presents the highest possible motive to such conduct 
- so far, I mean, as mere pecuniary interests are concerned. 
Few of the professions or occupations of mankind would be 
proof, I fear, against temptations so powerful. 
Here, I am well aware, I shall not be able to excite the 
sympathy of " priest or people." Medical men of the differ- 
ent schools, though they would not themselves make such 
tt charge against their opponents, are rather apt to pander 
to a perverted public sentiment, and leave untouched an im- 
pression which they might do much to remove. These, of 
course, will not sympathize with me. And as for the mass of 
the non-professional, they will say, " O, he is an old-school 
man, after all; at least he was educated so. Can the Ethio- 
pian change his skin or the leopard his spots ? We know he 
is pretty liberal, but he will always retain a spice of partiality 
for his profession." 
Be it so, then ; for of this the public must judge. Old 
Amool or new school, I am not conscious of any partialities 
hat would lead to misrepresentation or concealment. I ask 
be favor Oi no man any further than I deserve it; nor his 
gvod opinion of my aim and intention. In truth, I have 
.nothing to do with different schools of medicine. I am as 
entirely aloof from them as if I had never belonged to a 
medical society. If I but do my duty to the generation to 
which I belong, it will hardly be asked, a hundred years 
hence, what my views were of disease - of pathology or 
therapeutics. 
But I have said already - and have no desire to retract 478 
THE RIGHT USE OF PHYSICIANS. 
any thing I have said on the subject - that, owing to the po- 
sition of medical men, both individually and socially, there is 
no hope of reform from any efforts of theirs. At least, they 
will never be the first to move. When the reform is fairly 
under way, some of them will be ready and willing to join 
in it. 
" Where, then," you will again ask, " shall the reform begin, 
and what is our hope ? For if medical men will not move 
to enlighten the public mind, and that mind, being unenlight- 
ened, will not move, we see not but we must sit down in 
despair. Or are we to hope, in these days, for miraculous 
interposition ?" 
As to miracle, that is out of the question. We shall have 
no millenniums, except such as, under God, we ourselves 
make. We shall have no reform in regard to the right use 
and right employment of physicians, either now or at any 
future time, in any other way than by our own exertions, 
accompanied, or rather followed by, the divine blessing. 
Observe, however, I have not said that there is no possibili- 
ty of any aid from medical men. I only say it is not to be 
expected - hardly to be hoped for. And yet God, in his 
infinite wisdom and goodness, may yet move the hearts of 
some of our leading physicians to make the self-denial and 
self-sacrifice to which, as it seems to me, both philanthro- 
py and religion loudly call them. Let us devoutly labor 
and pray for a consummation so highly conducive to human 
happiness. APPENDIX. 
Note A. Pages 324, 351. 
FRUITS AS FOOD. 
When I speak of bread or breadstuff's, as of the first 
importance in human diet - as occupying the centre of the 
table, &c., and of fruits, as occupying the second place or 
rank, I mean only that the former is the stronger kind of 
food, and should be, as it were, the basis. It were a very 
different question, which should be consumed in greatest 
quantity, though by no means a question difficult of so- 
lution. 
Some have contended that the word bread, which figures 
so largely in holy writ, and is almost always placed first in 
order, cither, for the most part, means fruit, or includes it. 
How this may be, I do not know. That mankind, if trained 
properly, might subsist almost entirely on well-selected fruits, 
I have no doubt; but whether it would conduce to the best 
interests, physical, intellectual, and moral, of the race, is less 
certain. For one, I do not believe it would. I have, indeed, 
among many other experiments in hygiene, made one which 
has a bearing in this direction. I lived on fruit almost wholly 
for nine successive days of the year 1852, with no inconven- 
ience, and with even an increase of gustatory enjoyment, and 
of intellectual and animal vigor. But I commenced the experi- 
ment with a slight bowel complaint, (and, in truth, recovered 
under it,) so that the circumstances were not favorable for 
making those inferences which would be of much service to 
the healthy. I may safely say this, however - that the more 
I live on fruits, provided I do not use them in excessive quan- 
tities, r- which from my great fondness for them I am liable 
to do, - the better and stronger I am. And I have observed 
the same result in others. My most decided opinion, there- 
fore, is, that, in this country of abundance of fruit, both 
479 480 
APPENDIX. 
domestic and foreign, every adult might advantageously be 
trained to make three fourths of his diet, by weight, of fruits. 
His breakfast might, as a general rule, be made almost 
wholly on fruit. For my own part, I prefer such a breakfast 
for the year together. The dinner, as I think, might and 
should include some of our farinaceous or mealy vegetables, 
such as potatoes, rice, peas, beans, chestnuts, or squashes. 
Of course these should be boiled, and well boiled. Or at least 
they should be cooked. But here, even, at the dinner table, 
fruits should constitute, in bulk, more than one half. In the 
present state of society, trained as we are, I would omit 
them almost entirely at the third or evening meal. That 
should consist of dry bread, or some other comparatively dry 
farinaceous substance. 
My reasons for supposing that neither the farinacea alone, 
nor fruits alone, are adapted to the best interests of man, are 
various. Some of them have appeared in the foregoing lec- 
tures ; but others have not yet been adverted to. The food 
assigned us at the creation appears to have been fruits and 
farinacea ; and the frequent allusion, in the Scriptures, to 
" corn and wine " seems to sustain, as it were, the divine 
decree - wine being the representative of the fruits or their 
unfermented juices. Then, again, most of the farinacea are 
too nutritious to be used for many meals in succession, with- 
out a due admixture of something far less so. The potato 
and several esculent roots do, indeed, meet this necessity of 
the system, to some extent; but not in every particular. The 
cooling, antiseptic or antiputrescent properties of the fruits 
are greatly needed to correct that heat of the blood and over- 
fulness of the vessels which arc apt to occur in summer and 
autumn, and are ever liable to follow from living too exclusive- 
ly on such highly nutritious articles as bread, rice, peas, 
beans, &c. Nor is this all. There is a positive as well as a 
negative effect on the living organism produced by fruit, 
which, in the present state of our knowledge, it may not be 
easy to account for, or explain, but of which he who has had 
experience in its use is most fully assured. In short, did the 
limits of a work like this, and my original plan, permit, I 
should like to present a birdseye view of the whole argu- 
ment. Has the reader, by the way, read a new English work 
entitled " Fruits and Farinacea the proper Food for Man," 
by John Smith ? APPENDIX. 
481 
Note B. Page 325. 
NUTRITIVE PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF 
FOOD. 
In speaking of the comparative amount of nutritive matters 
contained in different articles of food, it is usual to refer to 
the experiments of MM. Percy and Vauquelin, of France, 
and Sir Humphrey Davy, of England. The following table 
was prepared for my work on Vegetable Diet, and may be 
seen at page 269 of the last edition of that volume : - 
Of nutritious matter, - 
Wheat contains 85 pounds in 100. 
Rice " 90 " " 
Rye " 80 " " 
Barley " 83 " " 
Peas " 93 " " 
Lentils " 94 " " 
Beans " 89 to 92 " 
Bread (average) 80 pounds in 100. 
Meat (average) 35 " " 
Potatoes " 25 " " 
Beets " 14 " " 
Carrots 10 to 14 " " 
Cabbage " 7 " " 
Greens & turnips 4 to 8 " " 
It must be obvious, on the least reflection, that these are 
• only approximations to the truth ; and that, in a brief space, 
we can have nothing more. Thus the potato is here said to 
contain twenty-five per cent, of nutriment; but it may, and 
doubtless does, vary from ten to twenty-five ; the latter being 
the probable maximum. The soft, watery, sodden potato 
has not half the nutriment of the fine-grained, mealy article. 
The same remark is applicable to most other farinaceous 
articles. Again: it does not follow that he who receives 
these various articles of food is able to extract all the nutri- 
ment they contain. Much depends on the state of his 
stomach as regards emptiness, tone, vigor, &c. And prob- 
ably no one ever extracts all the nutriment from several arti- 
cles in the list, such as rice, beans, peas, &c. Of fat, which 
is pure nutriment, few persons can extract one fiftieth. 
When I say probably, I use too mild a term. It is pretty 
well settled, by the experiments of Goss, Whitlaw, and Beau- 
mont, that the stomach does not attempt to manufacture into 
chyme all that is crowded into it. What gastric juice it has 
energy to form, it docs form, and no more. So that, when 
it has finished its work, if one fourth or one half the contents 
of the stomach remain unchanged, there is no remedy. 
This portion, then, of the contents of the stomach remains 
there for a time, - I mean in the case of feeble stomachs, - 482 
APPENDIX. 
and causes sensations of dulness, heaviness, or uneasiness. 
There may also be flatulence, acidity, heartburn, or even pain. 
In general, however, in those who are tolerably healthy, 
there is no report sent up to the brain, of any sort, at least 
directly. The mass of which I have spoken is gradually dis- 
solved by such fluids as happen to be present in the stomach, 
after the gastric juice is withheld, or which are introduced 
afterward, and without being acted upon by the gastric juice, 
is propelled slowly, and from time to time, into the small intes- 
tines. Here, in the form of a half-liquid substance, it is 
absorbed, - except such portions as the system has no power 
to dissolve, - and carried into the circulation, to be conducted 
away, through the kidneys and skin. The stones, skins, and 
seeds of fruits, the hulls and skins of grain, and jackknives 
are disposed of in another manner. 
Note C. Page 326. 
SUPERIORITY OE UNFERMENTED BREAD. 
My views of the superiority of unfermented bread are not 
new. Dr. Cullen, who will not be suspected of dietetic here- 
sy,- since he wrote almost seventy years ago, - says as 
follows: - 
"In Scotland, nine tenths of the lower class of people - 
and that is the greater part of the whole - live upon unfer- 
mented bread, and unfermented farinacea in other forms; and 
at the same time, I am of opinion that there are not a more 
healthy people any where to be found. In the course of fifty 
years that I have practised among them, I have had occasion to 
know this, and have hardly met with a disease, of any conse- 
quence, that I could impute to the use of unfermented fari- 
nacea." 
Dr. Whitlaw, in his New Medical Discoveries, after quoting 
Dr. Cullen, says thus : - 
" In America, Asia, and Africa, and some parts of Europe, 
rice, Indian corn, peas, beans, and barley are used in an un- 
fermented state, notwithstanding the people enjoy as good 
health as those who eat fermented bread." 
Mr. Graham, in his Science of Human Life, has the fol- 
lowing remarks : - 
" Aside from the changes that are produced by the process 
of fermentation, there are many other considerations why APPENDIX. 
483 
unleavened bread, of a proper quality and age, is better adapted 
than any other to sustain the alimentary organs and general 
constitution of man in their best and highest condition." 
A more recent authority is that of Professor Thomson, of 
Glasgow, in his work on the Food of Animals, at page 161. 
After alluding to the facts referred to above by Dr. Cullen, and 
many other kindred facts, he thus observes : - 
" With such an experience under our daily observation, it 
seems almost unnecessary to remark that the Jew does not 
labor under indigestion, when he has substituted, during his 
passover, unleavened cakes for his usual fermented bread ; 
that biscuits are even employed when fermented bread is not 
considered sufficiently digestible for the sick ; and that the in- 
habitants of the northern parts of India and of Affghanistan 
very generally make use of unfermented cakes. 
" Such, then," he adds, " being sufficient evidence in favor 
of the wholesomeness of unfermented bread, it becomes im- 
portant to discover in what respect it differs from fermented 
bread. The result gained by this process (fermentation) 
may be considered to be merely the expansion of the par- 
ticles of which the loaf is composed, so as to render the 
mass more readily divisible by the preparatory organs of di- 
gestion. But as this object is gained at a sacrifice of the 
integrity of the flour, it becomes a matter of interest to ascer- 
tain the amount of loss sustained in the process. To deter- 
mine this point, I had comparative experiments made, upon 
a large scale, with fermented and unfermented bread." 
One of the parcels upon which he experimented was fer- 
mented in the usual manner, by a process in which saccharine 
matter is changed into carbonic acid and wine, and thus much 
of the vitality of the bread lost; and the other by means of 
hydrochloric or muriatic acid, and carbonate of soda, which 
leaves in the bread a mere residuum of common salt. 
" The result of my experiments upon the bread produced 
by the action of hydrochloric acid upon carbonate of soda 
has been, that, in a sack of flour, there was a difference in 
favor of the unfermented bread to the amount of thirty pounds 
thirteen ounces ; or, in round numbers, a sack of flour, would 
produce one hundred and seven loaves of unfermented bread, 
and only one hundred loaves of fermented bread of the same 
weight. Hence it appears that, in the sack of flour, by the 
common process of baking, seven loaves, or six and a half 
per cent, of the flour, are driven into the air and lost." 484 
APPENDIX. 
The italicising in the last paragraph is my own, for it 
is an important point. Here is a dead loss, by the common 
or fermenting process, of more than one sixteenth of the 
nutriment in a sack of flour, or three hundred and sixty-four 
pounds, to say nothing of the gain in having the loaves duly 
salted, - which some would think an advantage,-while 
there is no gain to set off against all this loss, according to 
Dr. T., but the saving of a little labor to the teeth and salivary 
glands. A very doubtful gain, even this- small as it is ! 
Note D. Page 336. 
EXPERIMENTS IN CHYMIFICATION. 
I have alluded, at page 55, to the experiments of Dr. Beau- 
mont, of Plattsburg. As was there stated, I have witnessed 
some of them. I have also before me, in his book entitled 
Experiments on the Gastric Juice, a table, of which I make the 
following abridgment. 
But before directing the reader's attention to the curious 
and instructive facts it contains, I must warn him against 
making too much of them. They do not prove all they seem 
to prove. The rapidity of digestion, (chymification,) as the 
author himself shows, and as Dr. Pereira has stated after him, 
varies greatly, according to the quality eaten, the amount and 
nature of the previous exercise, the interval of the preceding 
meal, the state of health, &c. ; also of the weather, and the 
state of the mind. Whereas in hardly any of the experi- 
ments have these conditions been complied with. And, then, 
finally, a thing may be slower of chymification, and yet, for that 
very reason, less irritating and more healthful. It does not fol- 
low that because a thing is changed sooner, it is changed better. 
Nor is this the worst. Dr. ^Beaumont had access to the 
stomach only ; and all his observations have reference to the 
mere chymification of food. This, as you know already, is 
only one process of the work of digestion. An equally impor- 
tant part of this «great work is performed by aid of the bile 
and pancreatic juice, in the small intestines, quite beyond the 
stomach - a region which Dr. B. was not permitted to ex- 
plore. Really, therefore, his table, and in truth his whole 
work, is nearly worthless, except to a very few, who have the 
leisure and the ability to make the proper deduction and dis- 
crimination. APPENDIX. 
485 
But let us come at once to the table I promised ; only pre- 
mising that other experiments, made by Goss, of Geneva, and 
Whitlaw, of Scotland, go far towards sustaining the same 
views with those of Beaumont. 
Articles. 
Preparation. 
Time. 
Hours. 
Min. 
Apples, sweet, mellow, 
Raw, 
1 
30 
Apples, sour, mellow. 
CC 
2 
00 
" " hard, .... 
cc 
2 
50 
Aponeurosis, 
Boiled, 
3 
00 
Bass, striped, fresh, .... 
Broiled, 
3 
00 
Barley, bolted, 
Boiled, 
2 
00 
Beans, pod, 
a 
2 
30 
Beef, fresh, lean, rare, 
Roasted, 
3 
00 
" " " dry, 
CC 
3 
30 
Beefsteak, 
Broiled, 
3 
00 
" with salt only, 
Boiled, 
3 
36 
" with mustard, . 
CC 
3 
10 
" fresh, lean, .... 
Fried, 
4 
00 
" old, hard, salted, 
Boiled, 
4 
15 
Beets, 
CC 
3 
45 
Brains, 
cc 
1 
45 
Bread, wheat, fresh, .... 
Baked, 
3 
30 
Bread, corn, 
CC 
3 
15 
Butter. 
Melted, 
3 
30 
Cabbage, head, .... 
Raw, 
2 
30 
" with vinegar, 
CC 
2 
00 
Cake, sponge, 
Baked, 
3 
20 
Carrot, orange 
Boiled, 
3 
15 
Cartilage, (gristle,) .... 
CC 
4 
15 
Catfish, fresh, 
Fried, 
3 
30 
Cheese, old, strong, 
Raw, 
3 
30 
Chicken, full grown, .... 
Fricasseed, 
2 
45 
Codfish, cured, dry, 
Boiled, 
2 
00 
Corn, green, and beans, . . 
CC 
3 
45 
Custard, 
Baked, 
2 
45 
Ducks, domesticated, .... 
Roasted, 
4 
00 
" wild, 
Cl 
4 
30 
Eggs, fresh, 
Boiled hard, 
3 
30 
Cl IC 
" soft, 
3 
00 
cc cc 
Fried, 
3 
30 
cc 
Raw,. 
2 
00 
cc 
Whipped, 
1 
30 
Flounder, fresh, .... 
Fried, 
3 
30 
Fowl, domestic, 
Boiled, 
4 
00 
Gelatine, " .... 
Cl 
2 
30 
Goose, 
Roasted, 
2 
30 
Heart, 
Fried, 
4 
00 
Lamb, fresh, 
Boiled, 
2 
30 
Liver, beef, 
Broiled, 
2 
00 
Milk, 
Boiled, 
2 
00 486 
APPENDIX. 
Articles. 
Preparati on. 
Time. 
Hours. 
Min. 
Milk 
Raw, 
2 
15 
Mutton, fresh, . . . . 
Roasted, 
3 
15 
g g 
Broiled, 
3 
00 
G G 
Boiled, 
3 
00 
Oysters, fresh, 
Raw, 
2 
55 
G . G 
Roasted, 
3 
15 
G G 
Stewed, 
3 
30 
Parsnips, 
Boiled, 
2 
30 
Pig, sucking, 
Roasted, 
2 
30 
Pigs' feet, soused, .... 
Boiled, 
1 
00 
Pork, fat and lean, .... 
Roasted, 
5 
15 
" recently salted, 
Boiled, 
4 
30 
G 
Fried, 
4 
15 
" steak, 
Broiled, 
3 
15 
Potatoes, Irish, 
Boiled, 
3 
30 
G G 
Roasted, 
2 
30 
G G 
Baked, 
2 
30 
Rice, 
Boiled, 
1 
00 
Sago, 
G 
1 
45 
Salmon, salted, .... 
G 
4 
00 
Sausage, fresh, 
Broiled, 
3 
20 
Soup, barley, 
Boiled, 
1 
30 
" bean, 
G 
3 
00 
" beef, vegetables, and bread, . 
G 
4 
00 
" chicken, 
G 
3 
00 
" marrow bone, 
G 
4 
15 
" mutton, ..... 
G 
3 
30 
" oyster 
G 
3 
30 
Suet, beef, fresh, .... 
G 
5 
30 
" mutton, 
G 
4 
30 
Tapioca, 
G 
2 
00 
Tendons, (whitleather,) . 
G 
5 
30 
Trout, salmon, fresh, .... 
G 
1 
30 
G G G 
Fried, 
1 
30 
Tripe, soused, 
Boiled, 
1 
00 
Turkey, domesticated, 
Roasted. 
2 
30 
" wild, 
G 
2 
18 
" domesticated, 
Boiled, 
2 
25 
Turnips, flat, 
G 
3 
30 
Veal, fresh, 
G 
4 
00 
« « 
Fried. 
4 
30 
Venison steak, .... 
Broiled, 
1 
35 
The candid and careful reader can hardly fail to make the 
following deductions from the foregoing, in corroboration 
of what I have stated in the progress of my lectures. 
1. That, so far as reliance can be placed on these " ap- 
proximations," animal food is slower of chymification than APPENDIX. 
487 
vegetable. The abridgment was made indiscriminately - 
all the omissions were of articles not much in use, without 
any reference to their character, whether animal or vegeta- 
ble. Yet, on a fair comparison, it will be found that the aver- 
age time required for the chymificaffon of dishes prepared 
from flesh and fish and the products of animals is three hours 
and two minutes, while the average time required for the 
chymification of vegetable dishes is only two hours and eight 
minutes, making a difference of fifty-four minutes, or almost 
an hour, -or nearly one third of the whole time, - in favor of 
the latter. I find, however, by examining the whole table, 
without abridgment, the difference is only about twenty-five 
minutes. But even this is very considerable. 
2. That soups are slower of chymification than more solid 
food. Seven kinds of soup consume an average time of three ' 
hours and thirteen minutes. This is more than the average 
time required for the chymification of animal food. 
3. It will be also seen that green vegetables, such as cab- 
bage, are changed in the stomach more rapidly when condi- 
ments are added than when alone. So also meats, such as 
beefsteak. 
4. It will be seen, once more, that, other things being 
equal, meats are generally rather quicker of chymification 
when boiled than when cooked in any other manner. 
5. That fruits, so far as experimented on, are quicker of 
chymification when mellow and sweet than when hard or 
sour. 
Note E. Page 370. 
POISONED MILK, BUTTER, &c. 
In Lecture IL, as well as in the passage to which this 
note refers, I have spoken of the poisonous character of 
cheese. But it is not easy to conceive of cheese as injurious, 
and yet butter' and milk innocuous. Reasoning a priori, we 
should expect to find them at times deteriorated, if not abso- 
lutely hurtful. 
But we have facts and testimonies ; and some of these 
have been gathered since my lecture on digestion went to 
press, otherwise they might have been appended to it in a 
note. It appears most clearly, that many plants and grasses, 
especially when the ground is stimulated by strong, acrid, 488 
APPENDIX. 
recent manures, if eaten by animals, poison them in a degree, 
and sometimes cause death. This is particularly true of the 
poison sumach, the poppy, the spurge, and the buttercup. 
But where the animal gives milk, it appears that, instead of 
suffering in its own system from the poison, the latter is ab- 
sorbed and carried into that fluid, to poison the calf or the hu- 
man being that receives it - whether it is received in the 
form of milk, butter, or cheese. Whether the milk disease, 
as it was called, of the west, which was common a few years 
ago, - and perhaps still exists, - had its origin in any such 
source, I am not informed. But I promised facts, and facts 
you shall have. 
In the year 1825, Dr. Renick,of Chillicothe, Ohio, wrote to* 
Governor De Witt Clinton, concerning a certain vegetable in 
that region, as follows : - 
" This vine or weed, whatever it may be called, grows in 
moist land, or round the edge of swamps, and perhaps is the 
most poisonous vegetable that grows. Horses, cattle, and 
sheep feed on it in the fall. It very often proves fatal in a 
few hours. The first symptom is a trembling and weakness 
in the limbs. The cow that gives milk is not affected with it 
so long as she is regularly milked ; but the milk is certain 
death to any animal, human or brute, that uses it to any ex- 
tent. The flesh of any animal that dies with it also becomes 
fatal to the dog, the wolf, the eagle, or the buzzard, that takes 
a full meal of it. The use of the milk has proved fatal to a 
great number of people." 
These views of Dr. Renick are very striking, but doubtless 
perfectly reliable. I was, I confess, not a little surprised to 
find that domestic animals would eat this species of rhus, or 
sumach, - for this it proved to be, - for it is not usually so at 
the eastward and northward. But in Western New York and 
Upper Canada, a few years later, Dr. Whitlaw informs us he 
learned of the same result. " I was informed," says he, 
" that infants on the breast had been poisoned through their 
mothers' using the milk of cattle which had been fed on the 
rhus, while the mothers themselves received no injury." It 
is worthy of note, too, that, according to Dr. R., the flesh of 
animals that eat poisonous food is not very healthy. 
The buttercup, or ranunculus, is not so poisonous as the 
sumach, but according to Dr. Bigelow, of Boston, Dr. Murray, 
and others, is a very active poison, and before cantharides APPENDIX. 
489 
began to be used for blisters, was applied to the skin by phy- 
sicians, for similar purposes. It is even said that the fresh 
juice of it will produce a blister almost immediately. Orfila, 
who is high authority, and who has made experiments on it, 
confirms the general opinion of its poisonous character. So 
also Haller, the physiologist. 
Dr. Whitlaw says, " The dairy cows of London feed on 
buttercups and other poisonous plants, cut in the summer for 
food.: there is not one out of twenty but have diseased livers. 
When the cattle are fed as above, the stomach, bowels, liver, 
and the whole viscera become inflamed and ulcerated ; the 
matter and bile mingle with the chyme and chyle, pass into the 
circulation, and form part of the body of the animal, render- 
ing the flesh a corrupt mass of disease, and highly injurious 
to those who eat it. The milk, butter, and cheese are still 
more pernicious." 
He goes on to say, " I will give the result of an experi- 
ment I macle on the milk of a number of cows fed on the best 
pasture in Hyde Park, where a poisonous weed is not to be 
seen, and the milk of a number of cows fed on the above 
poisonous v'eeds, cut and carted to them in their green state. 
The two sorts of milk were mixed in separate dishes, with a 
proper quantity of rice in each, and put into the oven to bake, 
without any other ingredients. The first sort, the whole of 
its properties combined with the rice, and made an excellent 
pudding ; even the oil was scarcely observable on the top ; and 
when taken out of the oven, it had an agreeable smell. The 
poisonous milk, the properties of which separated in the bak- 
ing, parted with a portion of its oil, and it floated on the top, 
and had a loathsome, disagreeable smell. The albumen ap- 
peared in acrid, indigestible curds, and the whey tasted like 
mustard whey, and was strongly impregnated with bile. 
" When we consider that such milk forms the principal 
food of children, as well as the corrupt milk of their mothers, 
composed of the assimilated juices of bad food, the use of 
such milk and animal food, given in their infancy, I pro- 
nounce to be one of the most fruitful sources of disease that 
can be imagined." 
" The true cause of gastric fever is," he says elsewhere, 
" the use of milk, butter, and the fat of diseased butcher's 
meat, when sheep and cattle are fed on pasture where the ra- 
nunculus or buttercup and other poisonous plants abound." 490 
APPENDIX. 
Speaking of cancers, which are becoming common in all 
densely-populated regions, he says, " The next fatal disorder 
[to bronchitis] is cancer. As to its chief cause, I boldly 
assert it to be buttercup, and pledge myself to prove it; and 
will challenge the faculty to produce a case of cancer where 
the buttercup does not grow. I could immediately excite 
inflammation and cancer, by giving the buttercup, butter, 
and butcher's meat to eat." 
But the poppy is much at fault, it would seem, as well as 
the buttercup. It grows largely in the mowing fields about 
London and the large cities of the East. Orfila has shown 
that it is poisonous. Dr. Whitlaw says,- 
" I have travelled over a large portion of the globe, but 
never witnessed a parallel to what I have seen in England - 
the horses, like the people, with diseased blood vessels, and 
the veins of the legs of the former varicose. It is common 
to see cartloads of green clover and poppies, and grain and 
poppies, brought into town to feed the milch cows. It is true 
the cows are not so much affected as the horses, for the poison 
passes off by the milk vessels, and the milk is regularly served 
out to the inhabitants of this great city, [London,] particularly 
the children. A portion of green fodder is free from the 
above plants ; and if all fodder were, it would be a fortunate 
thing for the public, especially for the cooks, who would re- 
joice at getting the milk free from the poison, as it would 
prevent many a mishap to their puddings, pies, &c., that con- 
tain a portion of the milk from cattle fed on poppies." 
Euphorbium, or spurge, is another plant which is said by 
Orfila and others to be extremely poisonous. There can be 
no doubt.that, when eaten by cows and fattening cattle, it poi- 
sons the milk of the former and the flesh of the latter. The 
results of Orfila's experiments are very striking ; but I cannot 
enter into further detail. 
Butter, as it will be perceived by the above extract and au- 
thorities, comes in as one of the accused. In a list of diseases 
and their predisposing causes prepared by the last-mentioned 
writer, it figures more largely still. Here is a specimen : - 
" Chicken Pox. Caused by milk. 
" Cold and Cough. Acrid food, salt, bad butter, and fat. 
" Bilious Fever. Bad butter, the fat of meat, and other 
acrid substances. 
" Miliary Fever. Poisonous substances contained in the APPENDIX. 
491 
milk, butter, and the fat of meat, excited by hot liquids and 
regimen. 
" Scarlet Fever. Poisons received through the mother's 
milk. 
" Rheumatic Gout. Wine, salt, bad butter, and cold damp. 
" Bleeding at the Lungs. Acrid substances, particularly 
the poppy and the buttercup. 
" Measles. The poisonous virus received through the 
mother's milk and that of the cow. 
Strangury. Buttercups, cantharides, and other acrid 
substances." 
At page 226 of his New Medical Discoveries, Dr. Whitlaw 
says, - 
"Butter is liable to variety. During the three summer 
months, its general quality is of a very poisonous nature, and 
will produce the most acrid fermentation, and, of course, in- 
flammation of tbc stomach and viscera, severe bilious head- 
aches, bilious fevers, diseased livers, indigestion, and its 
attendants, terminating, very frequently, in cancer, diseases 
of the nerves, - particularly that formidable disorder tic dou- 
loureux,- which, from the most attentive inquiries and ob- 
servations 1 have made, proceeds from butter and the fat of 
meat -the produce of cattle that have been fed on food in 
which a great proportion of the buttercup and other poison- 
ous plants might be found, - and aggravated by mercury and 
other drugs so frequently employed by the faculty." 
Of cheese I need not say more than 1 have said already, 
unless to close with the following extract from the New Medi- 
cal Discoveries »- 
" Millions of seeds, as well as the animalculse of insects 
eaten by cattle, after they have passed through the milk ves- 
sels of cows, may be found in butter and cheese. They are, 
of course, in a dormant state, and only require heat and 
moisture to start them into existence." 
Note F. Page 378. 
DISEASED EICE. 
" In 1816," says Dr. Whitlaw, " I was lecturing at Savan- 
nah, in Georgia; and in the winter they began to thresh out 
the rice on the plantations. Much of the rice was diseased 492 
APPENDIX. 
by insects depositing their eggs in the grain, which changed 
it to a black or dark-brown color; which might have pointed 
out to the most superficial observer that the grain was poison- 
ous and unfit for food. The negroes were ordered to pick 
out the black grain, as it spoiled its sale. Not being the best 
judges of the qualities of rice, they began to eat what they 
picked out. All who ate of it were immediately seized with 
the cholera of India. Many of them, after a hearty break- 
fast, in good health, were dead by noon. 
" The cholera-phobia at once seized the public, more par- 
ticularly the doctors; They had it dancing in the air like an 
ignis fatuus; and woe to the man who came in contact with 
the deadly blast. The people were afraid to breathe, although 
the weather was clear and cold. They were running from 
place to place with handkerchiefs at their mouths, and fre- 
quently the water streaming out of their eyes, for fear the 
cholera should leap down their throats. Even the physicians 
that visited them stood at a distance, and looked askance at 
the unfortunate children of Ham, but would not come in con- 
tact with them. 
" A planter came to my room, and told me that the phy- 
sicians had refused to come to his negroes, and he was afraid 
he should lose the whole of them; and he wished me to go 
with him, and see if I could administer any thing to their relief; 
which I at once consented to do. The first thing I asked was, 
what they had been eating. A parcel of rice was shown me. 
The moment I examined the color, I pronounced it to be a 
perfect poison. The planter doubted; but as they were 
cooking some of it for their breakfast, to convince them that 
it was poisonous, I gave some of it to the hounds. They 
were shy of eating it, but I had some milk mixed with it, 
when they ate the whole. I tied their mouths to keep them 
from retching. They all took the cholera that day. 
" It was painful to witness the agony the poor hounds suf- 
fered. Their bowels became powerfully relaxed. I took off 
the muzzles from two of them, to see if they would eat any 
thing to cure themselves. They retched, but the poison had 
such firm hold of them that they would not move from the 
place ; their faculties seemed to be completely destroyed. 
They howled most piteously ; they grew weaker and weaker, 
till death closed the scene. 
" Had the diseased rice been sent to London and eaten, it APPENDIX. 
493 
would have produced the cholera; and I have no doubt a 
cordon of troops would have been placed round the city to 
prevent the inhabitants from making their escape." 
Note G. Page 379. * 
POTATO DISEASE. 
.Dr. Whitlaw speaks of travelling, in 1830, between Bel- 
fast, in Ireland, and Stewartstown, where, he says, the land is 
fertile beyond any he ever saw, but completely covered with 
weeds. Among these weeds were the buttercup, the scorpion 
grass, and the dog's mercury - three plants sufficient to 
disease all the animals and people that inhabit the country. 
" The pasture fields," he observes, " were covered, in most 
places, with buttercups and ragweed, growing three or four 
feet high; and where the cows were wading through them, 
their backs only could be seen. Large fields of potatoes were 
mostly covered with water ; a man with only a spade might 
have let it off in two days, and saved the crop. The potatoes 
from such fields are sure to affect the people with typhus fever 
- a disease they are now grievously afflicted with." 
" The Clutterback fever is nothing more than the potato 
fever of Ireland. The learned professor might have observed 
persons who lived chiefly on potatoes, how irritable they be- 
come, more particularly when they use ardent spirits, as it 
stimulates their brain to madness, especially if the potatoes 
that are made use of were raised in wet or clay soil." 
Again he says, " I went to Dublin. I found the practical 
remarks I had made on the pernicious effects of recent 
manure verified to a most awful extent in the mountains near 
Dublin, where the peasantry are in the habit of raising pigs. 
They save their manure and the manure from the horse, and 
put it into the beds and rows of pdtatoes, in a recent state. 
The potatoes thus manured arc sure to give them the typhus 
fever." 
We learn two or three important facts from these state- 
ments - the ill effect of water on potatoes; the bad effects 
of recent manure ; and the certainty that potatoes may, 
from known and obvious causes, become diseased. 
42 494 
APPENDIX. 
Note H. Page 384. 
ULTRA VIEWS ON DIET. 
In preparing the foregoing lectures for the press, it was no 
part of my intention to depart widely from the original text. 
In other words, it was my object to present to the public, for 
the most part, a correct transcript of what has- actually been 
given a hundred, if not a thousand times over. 
Some, who know my ultra views on dietetics, may be a 
little surprised that I have not made them more prominent. 
But I have had my reasons. The public mind has been 
placed in a peculiar attitude, in relation to this subject, during' 
the last quarter of a century; and though the wheels of 
revolution arc not apt to go backwards, there was, a few years 
ago, a retrograde motion, which it seemed as useless to oppose, 
just then, as the downward tendency of a mountain torrent, 
or of Niagara. I have therefore lectured on other topics, 
rather than on pure dietetics. And the two lectures in the 
foregoing series, which occupy a part of the ground, and 
■embrace the general principles of diet, though they go 
deep enough, for such a course as this, do not go to the 
bottom of several subjects. The great and weighty argu- 
ments in favor of a well-selected vegetable diet, in preference 
to a mixed one, are not, of course, to be found there. Neither 
are those which I hold with regard to avoiding medicine, and 
using no drink but water. A course of lectures on the prin- 
ciples of human diet, independent of the foregoing, may yet 
appear. 
In the mean time, and to show that the friends of a more 
radical reform in diet are not " behind the age," and have not 
forgotten its scientific benefactors, -Liebig, Playfair, Boussin- 
gault, &c.,- I subjoin a table which is founded on the princi- 
ples and experiments of the above-named gentlemen, and 
may be relied on as substantially correct. It was copied, in 
the present article, from Smith's Fruits and Farinacea. 495 
Proximate Principles and Value of Various Kinds of Grain, 
Roots, ^c. 
APPENDIX. 
Solid 
matter 
per cent 
Flesh- 
forming 
princi- 
ple. 
1 feat- 
forming 
princi- 
ple. 
Price per 
stone of 
14 lbs. 
Nutri- 
ment per 
stone. 
Flesh- 
formin" 
principle 
pr stone. 
s. d. 
s. d. 
s. d. 
Wheat, 
85 
21 
62 
1 6 
1 9 
7 2 
Oats, 
82 
11 
68 
1 0 
I 2 
9 0 
Peas, 
84 
29 
51 
1 6 
1 9 
5 2 
Beans, 
86 
31 
51 
1 6 
1 9 
5 0 
Barley meal,. 
84 
14 
68 
1 2 
1 5 
8 4 
Maize meal, 
90 
11 
77 
1 0 
1 1 
9 0 
Bice, 
92 
8 
82 
3 6 
3 9 
41 1 
Sago, 
88 
3,4 
84 
4 0 
4 6 
117 8 
Potatoes, 
28 
2 
25 
0 6 
1 9 
25 0 
Beef, 
25 
25 
0 
7 0 
28 0 
28 0 
Carrots, 
13 
2 
10 
0 3 
1 11 
12 6 
Turnips, . 
11 
1 
9 
0 1£ 
1 2 
12 6 
Beet root, 
11 
1,6 
8,5 
0 2 
1 6 
11 1 
The first column in the table shows the amount of nutri- 
ment per cent, in the various articles ; the remainder of the 
hundred being water. Wheat, for example, contains eighty- 
five per cent, of solid nutriment, and, of course, fifteen per 
cent, of water. 
In the second and third columns, we may see how this 
nutriment is divided into flesh-forming and heat-forming prin- 
ciples, according to the views entertained by Liebig and 
others. The ashes supposed to form the bones vary from 
one to three per cent., and are omitted in the table. 
In the fourth column is given the price of each article in 
its marketable state per stone. These prices may be regard- 
ed as the average for a number of years, in England. 
In the fifth column is seen the price of real nutriment, free 
from water. 
In the sixth column, we have the price, per stone, of the 
flesh-forming principle, rejecting, altogether, the amount of 
the heat-forming principle. 
If the prices in the last column be considered as the real 
value of each article, then sago and rice are the dearest, beef 
next, and beans the cheapest. But, until we are better ac- 
quainted with the real principles of nutrition, and with the 
changes effected upon food by the assimilating processes of the 
animal economy, it will be nearer the truth to estimate all 
the articles used for human food by the amount of solid 496 
APPENDIX. 
nutriment, including both the heat-forming and flesh-forming 
principles. 
I hardly need to add that the prices are in sterling money, 
of which one penny is equal to about two cents. 
One thing in this table will be a little startling to some. 
Beef, it will be seen, is put down as containing only twenty- 
five per cent, of solid matter, and that is wholly nutritious - 
not a particle of it going to furnish heat, or, as the chemists 
say, to burn in the lungs. " How is that ? " will be the in- 
quiry. " Do our senses deceive us ? Does not beefsteak 
warm us, at least for the moment, more than potatoes or 
bread ?" 
There is probably no error in the conclusions of the chem- 
ists, as adopted into the foregoing table ; but there is certainly 
much need of qualification and explanation. Beefsteak, 
pure muscle, - when the fat is all removed, - as the table 
says, contains only twenty-five per cent, of solid matter, the 
rest being water. But then, in a natural state, - that is, be- 
fore the muscle is macerated and blanched, - lean flesh or 
muscle almost always contains, .in the cellular membrane, with 
which it is every where interspersed, more or less of fatty 
matter ; and fat, as you know, is nearly all carbon, or fuel for 
the lungs. So that what is true in theory, is not exactly true 
in practice. Beefeteak, as commonly eaten, does contain a 
little of the heat-forming principle, perhaps from one to five 
or six per cent. 
But this alone will not account for the sensation of heat, to 
which most flesh eaters refer, when they compare the imme- 
diate effects of a meal of beefsteak and a meal of bread and 
potatoes. A part of this is, no doubt, referable to habit. It 
is highly probable that the potato dinner of the Irishman 
warms him more, for the moment, than would a beefsteak din- 
ner, to which he was as yet unaccustomed. And then, again, 
the flesh meat dinner is usually accompanied by more exciting 
and heating condiments than the dinner of bread or potatoes. 
Let the dinner of bread or potatoes be surrounded by all the 
cousins and cousins-german which accompany flesh pots, and 
let the prejudices be removed which flesh eaters are wont to 
feel when they think of a vegetarian dinner, - enough, in a 
world of cannibals, to make one shiver at first, - and the 
temperature of the stomach and of the whole system would 
be greatly altered. Innervation, after eating and consequent APPENDIX. 
497 
gastric activity, has much to do with the feeling of satisfaction 
which the flesh cater always has, but which, too, the vegeta- 
rian has before he has had any experience beyond. 
But the greatest difficulties which the readers of the fore- 
going Lectures will feel is of quite another kind. A man, 
who had seen some of the proof sheets, said to me, the other day, 
" Your system may be true, sir, but it cuts us off from almost 
every thing to which we have been accustomed, (alluding to 
the two lectures which involve remarks on Diet and Cookery,) 
and leaves us little more than prisoner's fare." I endeavored 
to show him that, on the contrary, the world of farinaceous 
vegetables and fruits was so extensive that my great difficulty 
was in making a selection. He admitted it, but said I made 
objections to the form or accompaniments of almost every 
thing. " Why," said he, " 1 wish to eat and drink what is 
set before me, asking no questions for conscience' sake. I 
don't wish to think about my food." It is quite as inconvenient 
to us, to think about what we shall eat morally. How trou 
blesome to have a conscience ! Why not leave every body to 
enjoy their own opinions, morally and religiously ? Why 
even give the matter any thought ? The thoughtless impeni- 
tent man, is he not the very man to be envied ? The mo- 
ment you wake him up to thought about the future, you only 
make him miserable. Let him eat and drink, for he dies to- 
morrow. Is not this true wisdom ? 
But stop, my friend, and in the fear of God, and the judg- 
ment that is to come, here and hereafter, review such opin- 
ions as thou wilt then be ashamed of. Has not God made 
thee susceptible of progress, morally and physically? To 
this end has he not given thee a gospel ? But is not this gos- 
pel for the body as well as for the soul ? Dost thou not know 
that it is they who are least conscious of the necessity of a 
gospel who most require it ? And wilt thou, by thy stupidity 
about the necessity of redeeming the body from its bondage 
to appetite, and bringing it under law, prove that thou art the 
very person for whom the gospel was sent - that whatever 
may be thy fancied attainments, thou art not yet entered, 
heart and hand, upon the road of progress, but art, physically, 
if not morally, wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
and naked ? 
But apostrophe apart - it is a well-known fact that from 
the days of Hippocrates to the present hour there has been 498 
APPENDIX. 
but one opinion among medical men in regard to the impor- 
tance of diet, in its connection with health and disease, while 
there has been but one voice among the multitude who have 
been addressed on the subject, viz., a plea to be let alone, that 
they may continue their erroneous habits and indulgences. 
The plea made assumes many forms; but its true intent is, 
after all, about the same. It is, I say, a plea to be let alone 
in their sins. Their god is their stomach ; and its worship 
must be undisturbed ! 
One of the more common and specious forms in which the 
half-enlightened man is wont to cloak his aversion to freedom 
from the dominion and slavery of appetite is an expression 
not unlike the following: " Every person, of much observa- 
tion, can tell what food or drink agrees with him, both as re- 
gards quantity and quality." Yet to what does this statement 
amount ? There is no error in the world of dietetics, which 
is ever so injurious or intolerable, but may find license under 
its covert. Somebody will be found with whom the worst ar- 
ticles- judging by such a rule as this - seem to agree. 
Many things, I admit, are found to disagree, and these it is 
right and even necessary to avoid ; but as to things which 
appear to agree with us, there may be, and undoubtedly is, 
much error abroad. Much, did I say ? The world is full of 
it. It is as impossible, for the most part, to ascertain what 
agrees with us beyond the limit at which a thing received into 
the stomach causes irritation or disturbance, as it would be to 
calculate an eclipse by experience. On this point, the whole 
world, as it were, lies in ignorance. 
Let me illustrate the subject by a familiar example or two. 
Many a person cannot use strong coffee without perceptible 
injuiy. He knows its use to be wrong, by experience. He 
abstains from it, and he does right. But others do not know 
that it injures them. On the contrary, they suppose it agrees 
with them. But does it therefore agree with them ? They 
may not be under obligation to abandon its use, merely be- 
cause some person, even a person in whom they are ac- 
customed to confide, says it is hurtful to them. Whether they 
should or should not do this, is quite another question. But 
does it follow that their experience alone determines its use- 
fulness to them ? What, then, becomes of science, which es- 
tablishes the fact that coffee always acts injuriously, in a 
greater or less degree, on the liver, and that, though it is more APPENDIX. 
499 
hurtful - i. e., more immediately so-to some persons than to 
others, it is nevertheless of more or less evil, in its effects, to 
all who use it ? 
The confirmed tea drinker often thinks her favorite bever- 
age is not only uninjurious to her constitution, but that it 
agrees with it. It relieves her pains and nervous affections 
almost immediately. Can she, then, be mistaken, in regard to 
its beneficial tendency ? Yet science shows that she is mis- 
taken. For though it relieves her pains, it prepares the way 
for acutcr suffering at the next recurrence, or for a longer 
continuance of it. Nay, more than this might be said. It is 
those, for the most part, with whom tea or coffee seems best 
to agree-judging of it by mere experience - who are, in 
the end, most injured by it. 
So it is with a hundred other things, at least in a degree. 
The principle is the same. Some thirty years ago, I drank a 
small quantity of French brandy, for some time, with my din- 
ner. Judging from experience, merely, - a very limited one, 
- it agreed with me most admirably. My digestion appeared 
to be improved by it. Was it, therefore, beneficial ? Did it 
agree with me ? Science, and even a more extended ex- 
perience, would say no, most decidedly. Judging in the same 
way, I might mention other things that seem to agree with 
me. Among them is a small quantity of opium daily. The 
Austrian might say the same of his arsenic, and the Russian 
of his brandy. 
The truth is, that, though we can tell something by our own 
experience, it does not, and cannot, tell the whole story. It 
should never be despised - never, above all, turned out of 
doors. On the contrary, it should go for what it is worth. It 
should even be most sacredly regarded. But the wise and 
enlightened man will understand *ttiat it covers only a part of 
the ground. It leaves a vast field of practical life to be cor- 
rected by the experience of others, or by science, which is 
about the same thing. 
Need I repeat that dietetics, as a branch of hygiene, - as a 
matter of science,-have never, yet, been much studied? 
Prejudice, error, lust, and appetite have prevented it. There 
is, it must be confessed, not a little error connected with the 
subject, in which prejudice has delighted to revel, and in which 
one would think she might legitimately do so. Most who 
have been roused to pay any degree of attention to their diet 500 
APPENDIX. 
have been miserable invalids, - very often dyspeptics, - 
whose minds were about as much crippled as their bodies. 
What they have done has been by fits and starts, and not in 
a steady, persevering manner. Betaking themselves to a 
change, or to some new article of diet, they have only used 
it a few days, perhaps, and then turned to something else. 
And in endeavoring to ascertain its effects by an isolated and 
limited experience, they have fallen into a habit of watching 
their own feelings and sensations in a manner which, as a 
whole, is, if possible, more hurtful than the disease they were 
desirous of removing. They have become filled with whims 
and caprices. Indeed, it is very difficult to attend to this sub- 
ject in later life, for the first time, without running upon this 
very rock of practical error ; and I see no remedy for such a 
condition of things but a different training of several succes- 
sive generations. 
This, then, - I mean, now, early and correct physical cul- 
ture,- is the great desideratum of our day. This would 
pioneer the way to something efficient and truly worthy of the 
race. It would prepare for a general and highly-important 
reformation. Our eating and drinking, like our exercise, cloth- 
ing, sleep, &c.,- indeed, our whole nature, - must be bap- 
tized into science and Christianity. Whether we eat or drink, 
or whatever we do, we must do all to the glory of God. Thrice 
happy that state of human society which learns the practical 
blessedness of an injunction as much in accordance with true 
reason as it is with revelation.