GIENIC MAM A I. 
OK 
HOW TO RESTORE HEALTH 
AND SECURE LONGEVITY. 
ON RATIONAL PRINCIPLES. 
Trrrr.ANi*, vt. 
Author of ‘‘Life and Health,” and Drofessor of 
I’hysiology. 
BY GEO. DUTTON. A. M., M. D. 
RUTLAND: 
AtC LEAN & ROBBINS, PRINTERS. 
186:. HYGIENIC MANUAL 
OR 
HOW TO RESTORE HEALTH 
AND SECURE LONGEVITY. 
on national prWcipi.es. 
BY GEO. DUTTON. A. M., M. D. 
RUTLAND, VT. 
Author of u Life and Health,” and Professor of 
Physiology. 
RUTLAND: 
MC LEAN & ROBBINS, PRINTERS. 
1807. INTRODUCTION. 
“ Leaves have their time to fall, 
And flowers to wither at the north wind’s breath, 
And stars to set, but all 
Thou hast all seusuns for thine own, O deatli!” 
To save life and health and make the peri- 
od of our physical existence as certain and 
definite as the planets’journey across the sky, 
or the setting of a star, is the aim and object 
of a familiar acquaintance with physiology. 
To this field of study every benefactor of 
the race is invited. 
“ Silence is vocal if we listen well, and life 
and being sing in dullest ears from morn to 
night, from night to morn again with fine ar- 
ticulation.” 
The following pages have been written with 
the view of embodying very briefly some of 
the more obvious principles and laws of the 
above mentioned science, for the use of those 
who wish to avoid sickness and secure a green 
and ripe old age. 
MRS. HEMANS. LIFE AND HEALTH. 
“A STRICT CONFORMITY TO THE LAWS OF 
life, not only furnishes the best antidote to 
the common ills which flesh is heir to, but 
makes the cheapest, best and most reliable 
defence against the pestilence that walketh in 
darkness and the destruction that wasteth at 
noonday.” 
Since life is the necessary medium of every 
other blessing, a depreciation of its value can 
only arise from malevolence or ignorance. 
Hence the progress of a true Christian civili- 
zation will enhance the value of human life. 
“ If ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise.” 
But “Wisdom is justified by her children;” 
and Solomon has left a worthy tribute to her 
worth in the following language, viz: “In 
her right hand is length of days.” 
The worthy and benevolent Cornaro who 
lived for a hundred years, remarks, “As each 
can boast of happiness of his own, I shall not 
cease to cry to them, ‘Live—live long.’” 
Let many gather wisdom and hope from the 
example of his life. He is said to have been 
horn with a feeble constitution, and at the age 
of thirty-five was told by his doctors that he 
could not live more than two years. Admon- 
ished by the warning, he abandoned his per- 
nicious habits ; dissipation gave way to regu- 6 
larity, sobriety succeeded intemperance.— 
For half a century lie confined himself to 
twelve ounces of solid food per day, and dur- 
ing the time was not ill. He placed sobriety 
of diet above all other precautions, but did not 
neglect others. He avoided extremes of heat 
and cold, violent exercise, bad air and late hours. 
That prevention is better than cure, is a 
true and popular saying; but both patients 
and physicians have been content to leave the 
matter in its proverbial form and virtually 
limit the duty of physicians to the cure of dis- 
ease, ignoring the noblest sphere for the ex- 
ercise of his skill and wisdom, which is to 
prevent disease and preserve health. 
We are hedged in and governed by laws 
which are really what the Median and Persian 
only pretended to be—unalterable. To obtain 
a familiar acquaintance with these laws in 
detail, demands an expenditure of time and 
means which few enjoy; but each individual 
can be taught to manage his digestive organs 
and lungs, with almost the same facility that 
a person learns to control the gate of a mill 
that sets in motion vast and complicated ma- 
chinery. 
Obedience to the few simple rules which 
science has deduced from experience will or- 
dinarily secure a good degree of health and 
long life; rvhile disobedience, with depend- 
ence on drugs and medicines, often dealt out 
in absolute ignorance of their entire effect, 
can only tend to degradation and suffering; 
and to prescribe medicine for the cure of a 
disease which is the result of an unnatural 
habit unrelinquished, is quackery most inex- 
cusable. In all such cases true science in- 7 
stead of prescribing, proscribes spirituous liq- 
uors,tobacco, coffee, tea, the disturbing cause. 
The skill of the whole medical world may be 
taxed and no permanent relief afforded while 
the cause of the malady is allowed to contin- 
\ie; but remove the cause and in nine cases 
out of ten nature alone will restore so far as 
restoration is possible. The idea that medi- 
cine must be given for every ill should be 
abandoned. All medicinal agents are unnat- 
ural to the laws of healthy life, and unless 
really needed do harm. The physician is but 
the handmaid of Nature, and in all cases his 
legitimate sphere is to discover her indica- 
tions and supply her wants : sometimes rest, 
sometimes abstinence, sometimes food of a 
specific quality and kind, and sometimes medi- 
cines. The highest respect is due the medi- 
cal profession as a science and an art, and the 
benefit and relief it often affords should not 
be undervalued. But its abuses, which are 
many, will not be spared or concealed by men 
worthy of the profession. 
To overlook or neglect the cause of disease ; to 
give medicine when it is not needed, and to give 
medicines which entail injury upon the patient, by 
poisoning the system or creating erroneous 
habits, are abuses in the profession which call 
for reform. As no equivalent for life and health 
can be given, no excuse can be rendered for 
these abuses. A single instance must suffice 
to show irrational treatment, which is all too 
common. We wdll take a case of plethora, 
which is an inordinate fulness of the blood 
vessels, and charactei'ized by redness of the 
surface, swelling of the veins, and occasion- 
ally bleeding from the nose; and is usually 8 
attended with heaviness, lassitude, dizziness, 
&c. It may he reduced by vigorous exercise 
and perspiration; by diminishing the quantity 
or quality of food; by taking medicines which 
produce unnatural secretions and discharges, 
and by blood-letting. Now the first and sec- 
ond means are both natural and harmless, and 
no less surely accomplish the desired object 
than the third and fourth; indeed the latter do 
not accomplish it at all, but give only tempo- 
rary relief, and often leave the person worse 
than at first. But the latter are more fre- 
quently employed, for the simple reason that 
patients more willingly pay for medicine than 
advice; for we must either adopt this conclu- 
sion, as the more probable in most cases, or 
take the other horn of the dilemma and 
attribute it to the ignorance of physicians. 
'Well-bred physicians rarely take much medi- 
cine themselves, or give to their families, and as 
they grow old in practice give less to their 
patients, and depend more on regimen and 
good nursing. 
These facts are not without significance; 
and let it be remembered by all, that of all 
the cures that can ever be found, there is 
none that can be so valuable as prevention. 
Notwithstanding the fall, the laws of physical 
life are perfect, and if obeyed, they ivill defend 
us to the last. 
The following rules are believed to embody 
wisdom and truth, and are corroborated by 
the teachings of experience : 
1st. Be cheerful, hopeful and charitable. 
A just God presides over all, aud provides 
for his creatures joy or sorrow, success or 9 
defeat, as is necessary to teach them wisdom. 
2d. Avoid all excesses. To obey this law of 
nature and philosophy will require great wis- 
dom and entire self-control, which is rarely 
or never found; but every act of obedience 
brings a lasting reward. 
The disobedience of this law is most com- 
mon from indulgence of the appetites and 
passions. It has been said of the teeth that 
every one lost drives another nail in our cof- 
fin, but it is equally true that many dig their 
graves with their teeth! Dyspepsia is the 
torment, greater or less, of half the people of 
every civilized nation. The chief source of 
which difficulty is excess in quantity of food; 
which, again, is caused principally by too 
great variety of dishes at a meal. A person 
in ordinary good health will rarely eat too 
much at a single meal made of two or three 
articles of food. To taste of but a single dish 
at a meal is the safest and surest rule. Vari- 
ety at different meals is proper and even 
desirable; for no single article of food con- 
tains all the elements in due proportion for 
nourishing the different organs and tissues of 
the system any great length of time. The 
sleepless instinct of appetite which tires of 
and single article long used as food, is the 
call of nature and should be heeded. The 
above caution, as to variety, is perhaps suffi- 
cient for a healthy stomach, but under cer- 
tain conditions of the stomach and system all 
food is excessive; abstinence alone will suf- 
fice. Such a condition is found immediately 
after great bodily exertion, when the demands 
of the weary stomach are imperative for rest. 
Here, also, as in diseased states of the stom- 10 
ach, the instinct of appetite should he con- 
sulted and moderately indulged, when nature 
calls for food; but otherwise abstinence alone 
is safe. A good relish for plain food should 
always be preserved by moderate indulgence 
at the table, and nothing taken between meals or 
late in the evening. 
Excess of drink is perhaps no less common 
than excess of food. All drink with food 
which is not very dry is doubtless an excess. 
Drinks dilute the gastric juice and thus weak- 
en the power of digestion. If any drink is 
taken at meals it is better at the close, lest it 
be used to moisten the food which is the prop- 
er office of the saliva of the mouth, or to 
wash down food not properly masticated. 
Excess of heat and long exposure to cold, 
even of not very low temperature, will seri- 
ously undermine the health. 
Excess of animal or natural heat is often 
produced by too severe and protracted exer- 
cise in warm weather, and is designated sun- 
stroke. It quickly impairs the tone of the 
vital economy; hence, hot stoves and heated 
rooms are to be shunned much as is consistent, 
and vital warmth preserved by judicious clothing 
and exercise. 
Of the passions we cannot speak at length. 
Envy, malice, hatred, are always in excess. 
No wise man will harbor them in his thoughts. 
Grief insidiously corrodes like a canker, and 
slowly but surely kills. Hence to indulge it 
is a crime. Let the sufferer travel and dis- 
cover the beauties and harmonies of nature, 
seek the company of friends, study, read, or 
Avrite upon interesting subjects, or rigidly fol- 
low some business. Pure, disinterested, univer- 11 
sai love is much to be desired. It promotes 
the circulation of the vital currents, strength- 
ens and animates the entire being. 
3d. Bathe the whole system once or twice a week 
regularly. 
This is essential to health and cleanliness, 
and may he done with a pint af water and a 
coarse towel and sponge. Warm water and 
soap are best for cleansing and may sometimes 
be necessary; but soap should not be allowed 
to dry upon the skin. When used it should 
immediately be removed by a second bath of 
pure water. Cold water is best when it can he 
borne without chills, but otherwise tepid or 
warm water must be used. Never fail to 
excite a glow or sensation of warmth after bathing 
by gentle and brisk rubbing. This willl 
sometimes be best secured by bathing a, part 
only at a time, commencing with the head, 
successively bathing and rubbing the head, 
chest, stomach, back and limbs, and leaving 
off at the feet, which is the natural order 
and least disturbs the circulation. In cases 
of very susceptible persons this order of bath- 
ing is essential. Never bathe when hungry, 
or fatigued or immediately after eating. A 
little salt or saleratus added to the water will 
often be beneficial. Remember to bathe without 
chills or not at all. 
A brilliant skin is a certain indication of 
temperance and cheerfulness, and a prerequi- 
site to beauty. It can only be secured by 
healthful exercise proper bathing, sobriety 
and regularity of diet, pure food and pure 
air. More than one-half of all our food 
and drink passes from the body through the 
skin by insensible perspiration. This fact 12 
should teach us the importance of propel 
attention to tliis delicate and elastic Covering. 
4th. Keep the feet and hand's warm by exercise 
rubbing or the foot bath-. 
An equal balance of the circidation is 
sesential to health. If the feet are wet, or any 
part of the Clothing, change the clothing for 
'dry short as possible after vigorous exertion 
Ceases, and do not allow wet clothes to dry 
'upon the body. They absorb too much ani- 
mal heat and are otherwise injurious. 
Do not remove damp clothing from the 
body, which is already warmed by the natu- 
ral heat of the system, and replace it with 
garments that are either damp or cold; nor 
allow cold air to chill the body while making 
the exchange. Hang the garments by the fire 
a few minutes before putting them on, and 
make the exchange if possible in a warm 
room. 
If the head aches, wet it with cold water, 
put the feet in warm water for twenty min- 
utes, and then apply mustard druglits to the 
soles, which with abstinence from food will 
generally suffice to restore the balance of cir- 
culation and relieve the head. If these means 
are not sufficient, and the bowels are consti- 
pated or irregular, swallow not a particle of 
medicine, but by the advice of the best physi- 
cian that can be found, one who has been 
well educated in his profession, and has suffi- 
cient regard for life and health to discard 
bleeding and the internal use of poisonous 
minerals. 
5th. Discard the constant use of the following 
articles, viz: ardent spirits and malt liquors, tobac- 
co in every form, tea, coffee, swine's flesh and 13 
lard, opium, pepper, ginger, mustard, spiers, 
unripe fruits, confectionery, rich gravies and all 
highly seasoned dishes. 
That some persons have constantly diso- 
beyed this law and yet lived in tolerable 
health, and died at an advanced age, does not 
in the least prove that these articles are not 
injurious to the human system, and should be 
very rarely used. Some stomachs have it is 
said, digested steel, but this does not prove 
that it is suitable for food. Especially should 
the young be reared in strict accordance with 
this law, for it should be remembered that 
conditions, and food of specific kind and quality 
most powerfully affect the health and devel- 
opment of the individual in the earliest period 
of its life. In other words, the child is far 
more susceptible than the adult. As a single 
illustration of this law in the animal kingdom, 
we may mention a fact well known by those 
acquainted with the habits of the honey-bee. 
If by accident the queen be destroyed, or 
purposely removed for the sake of experi- 
ment, the bees immediately civ 3" the cells 
of two or three neuter eggs into royal cells 
by changing their form and enlarging their 
dimensions; and when the larvae from these 
eggs come forth they are supplied with royal 
jelly, an aliment very different from the bee- 
bread with which the worker-grubs are nour- 
ished. After going through its transforma- 
tions the grub thus treated comes forth a per- 
fect queen, differing materially from the neu- 
ter into which it would otherwise have 
changed. This change of development is 
chiefly caused by difference in quality of food. 
Parents can bequeath no richer inheritance 14 
to their children than a sound and vigor- 
ous constitution and a well disciplined mind. 
Enough has been said and written by wise 
and benevolent men against the use of intox- 
icating drinks to require no further mention 
here. Coffee, as many know from experi- 
ence, will soon debilitate the most healthy 
digestive organs if continually used, and with 
its companion tea should be reserved for 
remedies in certain exhausted conditions of 
the vital economy. 
Pork and lard we expect will still be used 
by many to engender scrofula, humors and 
cancer. A little cream and butter will form 
a substitute for lard in families who really 
wish to carry pure and healthy bodies. If 
any one desires to know the effect of mustard 
upon the stomach, let him apply a plaster of 
the same to the outside for half an hour. If 
continued it will raise a blister on the skin. 
Most of the other articles mentioned are 
scarcely less injurious. 
6th. Caref ully note what articles o f diet, among 
those not entirely excluded, best agree with the 
system and act accordingly. So various are the 
circumstances and modes of life under which 
the system must be nourished that no special 
diet can be prescribed which shall best meet 
the wants of all. A laboring man requires 
more concentrated and nutritious food than 
one whose employment demands less bodily 
exertion. Such diet is supplied by fine flour, 
meat, beans, onions, potatoes, sugar, pre- 
serves, &c. But the sedentary man will 
choose the Graham, Indian, rye, or oatmeal, 
stewed fruit, milk, and vegetables, with a little 
cream and sugar. In all cases moderation and 15 
thorough mastication of the food in the mouth is a 
prerequisite to health and enjoyment. Lean 
meat—especially beef steak—furnishes ready 
nutriment for muscle, and fatty meat for the 
production of animal heat, but the latter con- 
taminates and corrupts the fluids of the bodg un- 
less in very cold climates. 
Let any one troubled with humors or sores, use 
an exclusively vegetable diet. Kemember this 
use it, publish it, and save your friends from 
the hands of merciless and rapacious quacks, 
whose “wonderful cures” are not to be de- 
sired. 
Sores are to the system what the safety 
valve is to the steam engine, or the craters.of 
volcanoes to the earth. They are the outlet 
to disease, the mouth or window out of which 
nature throws the poison; and if injudicious- 
ly closed while the disease remains in the sys- 
tem, what they would have discharged will be 
thrown upon more vital organs, causing con- 
sumption or fatal congestion, as certainly 
as the boiler will be shivered if all escape of 
steam is prevented while the tire is continued. 
Quench the internal fires and the volcano be- 
comes extinct. 
7th. Avoid a stream of air, or sensation of chill, 
which can cause a sudden check of sensible perspi- 
ration, as you would a poisoned arrow. While 
free perspiration continues, there is no dan- 
ger, except from excess of heat; but the 
moment exertion ceases, provide extra gar- 
ments or continue moderate exercise, and 
allow the temperature of the system to fall 
gradually. A neglect of this law is the every 
day cause of fevers, rheumatism, colds, 
and consumption. When the vital powers 16 
are exhausted by protracted exertion or 
fasting, there is increased danger. At such 
times, like the mercury in the barometer 
before a fearful storm, the index of life, 
if exposed to chills, falls with appalling rapid- 
ity. When flannels are worn they should be 
left off at night and dried. 
8th. Preserve the Teeth. To obey this law 
will require an expenditure of time amounting 
to about two days in a year or four minutes 
per day. The wages offered in this service 
are in ordinary cases, the use of a good sound 
set of natural teeth instead of artificial, with 
exemption from toothache and dentists’ bills, 
aside from the effect on the general health, 
which is by no means inconsiderable. If the 
remuneration is sufficient and you wish to en- 
gage, provide a soft brush and tooth-pick 
made of quill or horn, which are all the im- 
plements that will ever be needed, provided 
you enter the service with a capital stock of 
sound teeth and a good constitution. Never 
allow profane or insulting language to escape 
through the teeth. It sometimes causes them 
to fly down the throat. Avoid quack doctors, 
those who give quicksilver, and reckless den- 
tists, who may loosen your teeth with calomel 
or corrode them with acids. Do not expose 
the teeth to hot liquids or hot air from a pipe. 
Hot drinks not only injure the teeth but the 
coating of the stomach. On the other hand 
avoid ice-water, very cold food, and exposure 
to cold air. The latter can be avoided by 
breathing through the nose and observing 
silence when exposed to keen cold air. To 
breathe cold air through the nose not only 
protects the teeth but the lungs, and hence is 17 
doubly useful. Nature is a true economist. 
Do not bite bard substances or in any way 
wrench the teeth in their sockets. Vinegar, 
very sour apples, confectionery, and all acids 
are injurious to the teeth; also all substances 
which tend to disorder digestion and injure 
the general health, especially in childhood 
and youth. So much for precautionary mea- 
sures 5 besides which it is necessary to keep 
the teeth clean. With the pick remove all par- 
ticles of food that stick among the teeth and 
use the brush with tepid water. If cold water 
must be used hold it in the mouth a moment 
to remove the chill. This with strict propri- 
ety should be done at the close of every meal. 
A little shaving soap or Castile soap applied 
with the brush once or twice per week is use- 
ful, and a little salt added to the water occa- 
sionally is recommended. 
‘ What pity, blooming girl, that lips so ready for a 
lover 
Should not beneath their ruby casket cover one tooth 
of pearl 1 
But, like a rose beside the church-yard stone, 
Be doomed to blush o’er many a mouldering bone ! 
9th. Pay your debts and keep your word. 
The relation of this rule to health may, at first, 
seem paradoxical. The great power of the 
mind upon the body has long been noticed by 
men of medical skill. A very worthy and 
honorable physician once remarked to the 
author : “ Conceit can cure, and conceit can 
kill.” 
How else explain the magical effect of bread 
pills and pure spring water when the mind is 
concentrated by direction of the attendant? 
Matter is subservient to spirit by the fulfill- 18 
ment of certain conditions. Spirit is the sub- 
stance, matter the form, which the spirit as- 
sumes ; the form changes, the substance re- 
mains the same. But the practical applica- 
tion of the effect of mind upon matter is to 
make conditions favorable to the highest ex- 
ercise of its powers; hence the rule given 
above. Debts oppress the spirit, and are to 
be considered an evil not to be allowed in the 
absence of greater ills. Again, a broken 
promise destroys confidence, which, par excel- 
lence, is the young man’s capital; therefore 
loss of confidence may involve in debt, debts 
oppress, and oppression engenders disease ef 
protean forms. 
To obey the above rule will require the 
earnest pursuit of some useful trade or em- 
ployment. All, even the so-called rich have 
debts to pay, although not always acknowl- 
edged. Humanity has claims upon all. A 
distinguished London banker has nobly ac- 
knowledged the claim by founding several 
Institutes for the diffusion of useful informa- 
tion among the people. In one of the schools 
largely aided by his munificence you may 
read upon the wall, “ Education—a debt 
WHICH THE PRESENT O'WES TO THE FUTURE.” 
A wise man will not repudiate it. Indolence 
and over-taxation should be equally avoided. 
Every portion of the system, physical and 
mental, demand daily exercise and rest. Mo- 
tion is the exercise of the physical, thought of 
the mental. Cessation of motion allows the 
body to be invigorated; cessation of thought, 
as in sleep, re-invigorates the brain. When 
the body cannot rest, as in convulsive disease, 
it dies, and sleeplessness protracted is the first step to madness. Too little rest and 
sleep are false economies of time and pro- 
ductive of disease. 
Rule for Sleep.—Retire to bed at a uni- 
form, early hour; rise as soon as nature 
wakes you up. Day-sleep may be allowed 
only when the usual hours have been neces- 
sarily encroached upon. Nature cannot be 
defrauded. Bedclothes should be light upon 
the chest. A small weight there will oppress 
the lungs. Mattresses are preferable to 
feathers, especially in summer. Feathers in 
warm weather injure the spine. Children 
impart vitality to the aged and will suffer if 
allowed to sleep with them. Let the child 
have a separate bed. Sleeping rooms should 
be airy and well ventilated and the bed well 
aired daily. 
The following beautiful and truthful lan- 
guage is from Hassar Imma, an Arabian: 
“ Start from thy couch betimes; the moments 
of the morning are sacred and salubrious; 
then the genii of health descend and commu- 
nicate with those who visit the herbage of the 
field while rich with the dews of heaven. How 
pure and sweet the smell of the air in this un- 
polluted state before it is contaminated by 
corporeal effluvia! The fragrance of the 
groves will regale your senses, and the mel- 
ody of birds allure your hearts to gratitude 
and praise. 
“ Forget not to mingle moderation and ab- 
stinence even with the holiest rites of wed- 
luck. A proper and habitual restraint in con- 
jugal pleasure is like incense to the flame of 
the altar. So far from quenching, it cherishes 
and improves the heavenly fire. Healthy, 
19 20 
happy, vigorous and beautiful are the off- 
spring of chaste and rational love.” 
Bread-making.—Bread is the staff of life ; 
it strengthens and warms us. To be able to 
make good wholesome bread is really a desid- 
eratum, an accomplishment, which all sensi- 
ble young ladies will seek to acquire, and 
which every sensible man will truly value. 
The most nutritious and wholesome bread is 
made of coarse wheat meal mixed with water 
and well baked in an oven; but art has inter- 
fered to pamper the appetite and make a curse 
of what is by nature a blessing. Various mix- 
tures of yeast, cream of tartar, saleratus, 
soda, &c., are used by art to make bread 
“ light,” all of which act in the same manner, 
i. e., by producing in the dough an invisible 
substance called carbonic acid gas. 
In the use of cream tartar and soda in mak- 
ing bread, a certain definite quantity of each 
will mix and form carbonic acid gas upon the 
application of heat, and if there be a surplus, 
that surplus remains in the bread as cream of 
tartar or soda; hence, one item of skillfulness 
in making healthy bread is to putin the exact 
amount of the articles named, for in propor- 
tion as either is in excess, there is laid the 
foundation of disease and death. But few 
servants or breadmakers will be exact about 
these points, hence in strict propriety these 
articles ought not to be used. If there is too 
much soda or saleratus the bread will be yel- 
low, the natural acid of the gastric juice of the 
stomach will be neutralized, digestion will 
not be properly performed, and the body 
will be harmed. Yeast answers the same 
purpose as cream of tartar and soda. As 21 
soon as the dough in which it has been mixed 
is placed in a heat of from seventy to ninety 
degrees, Fahrenheit, it begins to rise, that is, 
it begins to be puffed up by the globules of 
carbonic acid which are let loose; we call 
it fermentation; it is decomposition; it is the 
first step towards destruction or putrefaction, 
which would take place in time if not exposed 
to the greater heat of the oven which arrests 
the throwing off of carbonic acid; the hard 
crust on the outside of the loaf keeping it with- 
in the loaf in spite of the greater heat. When- 
ever bread is sour, it is because the fermen- 
tation had continued too long or under too 
great heat which burst the little vesicles of 
carbonic acid gas and allowed the bread to fall. 
Some bakers use an ounce of alum in a 
hundred pounds of flour. This makes the 
bread lighter and whiter, and enables a loaf to 
retain more water, so he gets more money 
and his customers less bread. By studying 
the principles mentioned the reason will be 
seen why too little heat in baking “ raised ” 
bread will make it sour or heavy. Too 
great heat will burn the outside while the 
inner part is not cooked. Experience alone 
can impart the proper instruction. Warm 
bread, newly baked, contains heated gas 
which is injurious to delicate stomachs. 
When cold, it may be toasted without being 
liable to this objection. 
The Sense of Vision.—Reading while in 
motion is very pernicious. The slightest mo- 
tion of the body alters the focal point and re- 
quires a painful straining effort of the mus- 
cles of the eye to readjust it. Reading by 
artificial light is not desirable if daylight can 
be used. Never read by twilight. Never 22 
sew upon dark materials by artificial light. 
Gazing at the sun or its reflection in water 
is very injurious. The world is a looking- 
glass ; and, as we show to it a sour or pleas- 
ant countenance, will exhibit to us a sour or 
pleasant face in return. 
Cuke for Consumption.—The remedy 
about to be given is believed to be superior to 
cod-liver oil, tar, hypophosphites, or any 
other so-called specific; and is within the 
reach of all. Consumption signifies a “wast- 
ing away ” of the powers of life : lienee any- 
thing that will enable the system to appropri- 
ate that which will nourish and support it is a 
valuable remedy. The great desideratum is 
to get up a good appetite and a good digestion. 
A good circulation of the blood and fluids of 
the body is necessary to a good digestion; 
and over the circulation man lias not directly 
any control, but indirectly he has, and that is 
through respiration or breathing. Respiration 
promotes the circulation, and respiration is in 
a large degree, under the control of the volun- 
tary muscles. Now for the remedy. It is 
labored breathing, or the persevering practice 
of deep and full respiration in the open pure 
air. This promotes the circulation, circula- 
tion promotes digestion, which repairs the 
waste and perfects a cure. A plain but nutri- 
tious diet, good company and judicious exercise, 
are necessary concomitants of the remedy. 
The persevering application of these mea- 
sures will prove infallible in all cases where a 
cure is possible. More specific directions in 
regard to diet and exercise for individual cases 
may be needed, which may be obtained from 
any well educated physician. 
Scrofula.—Scrofula is a term derived 23 
from a Latin word, which means a “ sow ” be- 
cause it is said that swine were affected with 
that disease. Thus the devil whose name is 
“ Legion ” is sent back to the herd of swine 
in very truth. (The more philosophic opin- 
ion is that eating swine’s flesh is the frequent 
cause of scrofula.) Tt manifests itself, in 
some, in or a variety of breakings out 
on the skin; in others, it causes some inter- 
nal malady. In either case the essential dis- 
ease is the same; is in the blood, and the at- 
tempt should be to eradicate, not to cover up. 
If there is an external manifestation, exter- 
nal appliances can never radically cure ; their 
tendency is to suppress—to drive inwards, 
and the whole history reads, “ cured, then 
died.” Salt Rheum, caused by an inordinate 
use of salt and salted food, is a*form of scrof- 
ula, and afflicts persons for many years, then 
sometimes disappears to the great gratifica- 
tion of the patient. The next report is “ con- 
sumption,” or “water on the brain.” Medi- 
cines may relieve temporarily but no perma- 
nent cure must be expected except from a 
change in the habits of life. Medicines as 
generally given, more frequently aggravate 
the error and hasten the fatal result. 
The application of the principles and rules 
of life and living as herein prescribed, will 
hold scrofula in abeyance. Some mild reme- 
dies may assist while making the change of 
habits, but must not be relied upon for a cure. 
Mineral poisons will in all cases only aggra- 
vate the malady. 
Constipation.—This is one of the first 
symptoms of chronic indigestion, and is the 
almost certain precursor of many far more se- 24 
rious maladies. Sufficient attention has never 
been paid to it either by patient or physician. 
The usual treatment by active cathartics only 
aggravates the difficulty. Nature demands r 
removal of the cause. Improper food, want 
of attention to the natural promptings of the 
bowels, mechanical pressure, and nervous de- 
rangements are prolific causes. No one 
should ever hold the bowels in check if it be 
possible to avoid it. Such a practice may lead to 
untold suffering. 
Salted meat, salt fish, old cheese, dough- 
nuts and all food cooked in butter or lard, 
crackers, fine flour, and all concentrated food, 
such as animal oils or fats, much sugar, and 
sweetened food, should be avoided by those 
troubled with constipation. 
Graham, or'coarse bread, rye bread and rye 
pudding, baked and stewed apple, have a ten- 
dency to relieve costiveness. Hominy or 
samp sometimes agrees well. To be effective 
the diet must consist entirely of these articles 
and not mixed with various other indigestible 
substances. A little milk and cream and soft 
boiled eggs are generally admissible. 
Every weight should be removed from the 
bowels, the dress and all the garments sus- 
pended from the shoulders, and the bowels 
repeatedly pressed upwards, or what is better, 
drawn upwards by raising the shoulders, and 
exercising the intercostal and abdominal mus- 
cles several times per day. In some cases of 
female weakness, an abdominal supporter 
may be useful for a time, but proper means 
should be used to invigorate the whole mus- 
cular system. 
Mental discipline will accomplish much. 25 
A determination to move the bowels at a reg- 
ular hour of the morning, with sufficient per- 
severance, will generally prove efficient; just 
after breakfast should be preferred. If the 
above means are not sufficient, a mild laxa- 
tive, extract of dandelion root, or a tea of the 
same, or syrup or extract of butternut bark, 
may be used until a regular habit is estab- 
lished. 
Feeding and Care of Infants.—We 
doubt not the love of parents for their chil- 
dren. ’Tis a beautiful provision by the Au- 
thor of nature whereby these tender plants 
may be unfolded in beauty. But the question 
of moment, involving the curse or blessing of 
both parent and child, is, do I wisely love ? 
No one dare affirm it who has any knowledge 
of the laws of life. He knows that they are 
constantly violated; but we can only mention 
within these limits one common fault,—a try- 
ing sin, for it produces more crying and fret- 
fulness than any other cause. ’Tis irregularity 
of diet. Always feed at regular hours, and 
give nothing between meals. The infant has 
a quicker pulse and breath—really lives fast- 
er than adults, and requires its natural food, 
or substitute, once in two or three hours dur- 
ing the day, but nothing at night. These 
hours should be regular. When the child 
has teeth to masticate solid food it should 
then be fed only three times per day. Wise 
love and true affection will not indulge a child 
to his certain injury. Uniform obedience to 
physiological laws will save the child from 
suffering, and ensure his blessing upon the 
parents. The same laws which govern 
healthy adult life should be more strictly ob- 26 
served with children, because of their greater 
susceptibility. The practice of handaging 
the infant’s body at birth is a murderous one, 
a relic of the dark ages, and should never he 
allowed. The slightest compression of the 
chest at this early period causes deformity 
and lays the foundation of life-long disease. 
The attending physician is culpable if he neg- 
lects this physiological fact. 
Difference of Green Tea from Brack. 
—There are ttvo great districts in China, one 
for black, the other for green tea. 
The plant raised in the green tea district 
is stronger, and the leaves are somewhat 
larger than the black tea plant, but the color 
of both is the same. The essential difference 
lies in the mode of preparation. A natural 
green can be given to the leaves of either 
plant, if they are put in the roasting pan 
shortly after being plucked, and the whole 
drying process finished rapidly. The natural 
color of the black tea leaf is lost by allowing 
the leaves to lie together in heaps for several 
hours after being gathered. In the prepara- 
tion of the green tea the color is not merely 
preserved, but the leaves are painted and 
dyed to make the tea look uniform and pretty, 
since teas so painted always bring a better 
price in the market. For this purpose a pow- 
der of gypsum and Prusian blue (ferrocyan- 
uret of iron) is used in the proportion of 
about one-half pound of coloring matter to 
one hundred pounds of tea. The Chinese 
never drink dyed teas themselves, but sell it 
to those who prefer a mixture of gypsum and 
Prusian blue. 
Nursing, or Care for the Sick.—Pa- 27 
tients who have the best medical advice often 
die for want of proper nursing. It is hoped that 
the example and “notes” of Florence Night- 
ingale will induce more of the gentler sex to 
qualify themselves for this useful position. 
Some of the most important things which 
will receive the constant attention of every 
good nurse are air, food or nourishment, 
medicines left by the physician, warmth of 
the patient, bed clothes, cleanliness and light. 
Pure air is the most important of all reme- 
dial measures. Never be afraid of open win- 
dows when the patient is iivbed. With prop- 
er bed clothes and hot bottles if necessary, 
you can always keep a patient warm in bed, 
and well ventilate him at the same time. The 
time when patients take cold is when they 
first get up after the exhaustion of dressing 
and the relaxation of the skin from lying in 
bed. The same temperature which refreshes 
the patientin bed, may destroy him just risen. 
At such a time a temperature must be secured 
which will prevent chills. Patients often 
starve from indiscretion, neglect or ignorance 
in regard to nourishment. Not only must 
proper food be given, but at the right times 
and quantities. Cream seldom disagrees, and 
is easier of digestion than milk. Florence 
Nightingale says of cream, “ In many long 
chronic diseases it is quite irreplaceable by 
any other article whatever.” Tomatoes in 
small quantities are generally harmless when 
anything at all can be taken. Eggs and 
cheese frequently disagree, but when craved 
by the patient should be given in small quan- 
tities. Milk is a valuable article for the sick, 
but the least change or sourness makes it 28 
objectionable. Buttermilk is less objection- 
able than milk after it is changed. Indian 
gruel is generally safe. But the main ques- 
tion is what the patient’s stomach can assimi- 
late or derive nourishment from, and gener- 
ally the patient’s stomach, but not the patient 
himself, is the best judge. 
Water Gruel.—Mix two table-spoonfuls 
of Indian or oat meal with three of cold 
water. Have ready a quart of boiling water 
in a saucepan or skillet, that is perfectly clean ; 
add gradually, while stirring, the mixture of 
meal, and boil moderately for one hour. Skim 
off- the scum that rises and season with a lit- 
tle salt. If gruel is scorched in preparing, 
or for any reason is not nice, throw it away 
and make more. Be scrupulously neat in 
serving up food for the sick. Use your pret- 
tiest dishes and finest napkins. The eye and 
taste of the patient maybe unusually critical. 
Milk Porridge.—This is made much like 
gruel, only using flour instead of meal, and 
part milk instead of water. It should be 
cooked before the milk is added, and only 
boiled up once afterward. 
Frumenty.—Bruised wheat boiled in water 
until quite soft; thin with milk, sweeten and 
flavor according to taste. 
Caudle.—Into a pint of thin gruel put, 
while it is boiling hot, the yolk of an egg, 
beaten with sugar, and mixed with a table- 
spoonful of cold water, a glass of wine, and 
some nutmeg. Mix well together. A nour- 
ishing, restorative mixture given in convales- 
ence. 
Chicken Panada.—Take the white meat 
of a boiled or roasted chicken, free it from 29 
the skin, and cut it into small morsels; pound 
these in a mortar, with an equal quantity 
of stale bread, and a little salt, adding gradu- 
ally some of the water in which the chicken 
has been boiled, or some beef tea, until the 
whole forms a thin liquid paste. Put this into 
a pan, and boil for ten minutes, continually 
stirring. 
Boiled Flour.—Take of fine flour a pound, 
tie it up in a linen cloth as tight as possible, 
and after frequently dipping it into cold water, 
dredge the outside with flour till a crust is 
formed around it, which will prevent the 
water from soaking into it while it is boiling. 
Boil for a long time, permit to cool, when it 
will become a hard, dry ma(ss. This is to be 
grated and prepared like arrowroot. A good 
diet for children in diarrhoea, &c. 
Wine Whey.—Milk, two-thirds of a pint; 
water, one-third of a pint; maderia or other 
wine, one gill; sugar, one dessertspoonful. 
Place the milk and water in a deep pan on 
the fire, and at the moment it begins to boil 
pour in the wine and sugar, stirring brisk- 
ly while it boils for about fifteen minutes. 
Lastly strain through a sieve. This is excel- 
lent in all forms of fever, given in small quan- 
tities. Take a wineglassful at a time either 
cold or tepid. 
Beee Tea.—Cut thin slices of fresh lean 
beef, put it into a large-mouthed bottle or jar, 
add a little salt and water, place the vessel in 
a kettle of boiling water for one hour and 
then strain. No particles of fat should be 
used. This has been retained on the stomach 
when nothing else could. 
Toast Water. — Toast a slice of stale 30 
bread till well browned; put it into a pitcher 
and pour over it a pint of boiling water. Af- 
ter two hours decant the water. Pleasant 
drink in febrile affections. 
A careful nurse will keep a constant watch 
over her sick, to guard against the effects of 
the loss of vital heat. 
In certain forms of disease, there is a con- 
stant tendency to the decline and ultimate 
extinction of the vital powrnrs by the call 
made upon them to sustain the heat of the 
body. Cases where this occurs should be 
watched with the greatest care, and the feet 
and legs examined by the warm hand every 
few minutes, and whenever a tendency to- 
chilling is discovered, hot bottles, hot bricks, 
and warm flannels, with some warm drink 
should be made use of until the temperature 
is restored. The fire should be replenished 
if necessary. Patients are frequently lost in 
the latter stages of disease from want of 
attention to such simple precautions. The 
nurse may be trusting to the patient’s diet, or 
to his medicine, or to the occasional dose of 
stimulant which she is directed to give him, 
while the patient is all the while sinking from 
want of a little external warmth. Such cases 
happen at all times, even during the height of 
summer. This fatal chill is most apt to occur 
towards morning at the period of the lowest 
temperature of the twenty-four hours, and at 
the time when the effect of the preceding 
day’s diet is exhausted. 
Let no one ever depend upon fumiga- 
tions for purifying the air of a sick room. 
The offensive thing itself must be removed 
far as possible. Give free ventilation. One 31 
of the best and most pleasant disinfectants is 
coffee. Stew the prepared powder of the Java 
bean over a moderately heated iron plate; or 
traverse the house with a roaster containing 
freshly roasted coffee. The onion is a supe- 
rior disinfectant. Two or three good sized 
ones, cut in halves and placed upon a plate 
on the floor will absorb the noxious effluvia 
very quickly. Burning tar upon live coals of 
fire is said to act like magic in clearing the 
house of the odor of the skunk or the virus of 
small pox. The chlorides of soda and lime 
are much used as disinfectants. The meth- 
ods first mentioned are in most cases to be 
preferred. 
Damp towels and clothes should not be left 
to dry in the room, but carried out. If dried 
in the room the moisture remains in the air. 
The best way to remove dust is to wipe with 
a damp cloth. Dusting as usually done 
means nothing but flapping the dust from one 
part of a room to another with doors and 
windows closed. ’Tis better to leave the dust 
alone unless it is taken away from the room. 
Light for the sick is a need rarely appreciated. 
They want not only light but sunlight. The 
sun is not only a painter but a sculptor. You 
admit that he does the photograph. He has 
quite as real and tangible effects upon the 
human body. Let the patient be able to see 
from his window without rising or turning in 
bed, sky and sunlight at least, and landscape 
if possible. A pleasant view, a variety as to 
flowers and especially light, cheers and enli- 
vens. The cases of disease on the dark side 
of an extensive barrack at St. Petersburg 
have been uniformly for many years more 32 
frequent in the proportion of three to one than 
on the side exposed to strong light. 
The practice of shutting out the light from 
rooms on account of flies, often leads to dis- 
ease, and sometimes insanity. 
A CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE NATURE 
AND USES OE TOBACCO. 
The object of this essay is to evoke science 
and elicit truth. No man is porfect or pos- 
sessed of infinite wisdom. It is recorded that 
“ Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in 
favor with God and man.” Such is our priv- 
ilege, such the path of honor and happiness 
for the race. This essay is now open to crit- 
icism, and if in rooting out the error, ye root 
out also the truth your labor is vain. 
“ Truth crushed to eartli will rise again, 
The eternal years of God are hers.” 
Botanically considered, tobacco belongs to 
the natural order of plants called solanacete, 
or nightshades. This family embraces sixty 
genera, or kinds, and about 900 species, which 
flourish mostly in the torrid zone, but are 
found also to some extent in the temperate 
zones. 
Of the sixty kinds of this order of plants, 
a large portion are pervaded by a narcotic 
principle, rendering the herbage and fruit 
dangerously poisonous, and furnishing some 
of the most active medicines ; such are the gen- 
era Hvoscyamus, Atropa, Datura and Nico- 33 
tiana, or in the English language, respective- 
ly, Henbane, Belladonna, Stramonium, and 
Tobacco. The later genus, which has sev- 
eral species, was called Nicotiana from John 
Nicot of Nismes, or Languedoc, who sent a 
specimen of it toErance about the year 1560. 
The Virginia tobacco, which is considered 
superior, is a native of Central America, and 
was first exported to Europe in 1586. Sir 
Walter Raleigh has the unrivalled honor of 
first introducing the practice of smoking into 
England, and in his house at Islington is still 
to be seen a shield bearing his arms, with a 
tobacco plant at the top. I will not disturb 
the ashes of the illustrious dead by comment 
upon his escutcheon, but cannot forbear the 
remark that the evil that men do lives after 
them. Between five and six thousand hogs- 
heads of tobacco are annually shipped to 
Great Britain from one single city of these 
United States. It is largely exported from 
the Southern and Western States to almost 
every country on the globe, and its use has 
become almost universal—a striking illustra- 
tion of the force of habit. Its first use produces 
a deadly sickness, and it is only by repeated 
and painful trials that it can be tolerated. 
Taken into the stomach it is a powerful nar- 
cotic poison. 
Hence from the nature of tobacco, the bot- 
anist would infer prima facie that it is a plant 
unsuitable for food or the habitual use of 
man. But since a knowledge of the uses of 
plants comes within the province of botany, 
let us ask the use of tobacco. For what was 
it made ? The answer to this question must 
be interesting. It is often asked by the to- 
bacco user. 34 
The botanist assigns it a place among the 
active and powerful medicines. But the 
medical profession, if we may be allowed to 
except those who practice upon themselves, 
almost entirely repudiate it as a medicine. 
Its chief use in medicine has been to relax 
the muscles in dislocations of bones, tetanus 
and spasmodic croup, but so deadening is its 
influence that it is considered unsafe, and 
such men as Professors Crosby of Hanover, 
and Waring of Washington City, have rejec- 
ted it as unsafe for such purposes. Its repu- 
tation as a medicine is not therefore settled; 
yet it is to some extent used, but more gener- 
ally for outward applications than as an inter- 
nal remedy. Its use in destroying vermin 
upon plants, sheep and lambs is well known 
to be effective. This is no doubt a legitimate 
use. Besides these uses it furnishes food for 
an unsightly worm, which takes the name of 
its food—the tobacco worm, and the rock 
goat of Africa. All other animals except 
man so far as known, reject it. Man natu- 
rally rejects it, as I have already said, but 
forces nature into compliance. So much for 
the botanical aspect of the weed. Let us now 
treat it medicinally. In addition to proper- 
ties already mentioned, it is an emetic, and if 
applied in the form of smoke to the coatings 
of the bowels, cathartic. Snuffed up the nos- 
trils it excites violent sneezing and a copious 
secretion of mucous, and when chewed it in- 
creases the flow of saliva. Five or six 
grains of the powdered leaves will generally 
induce vomiting, but is apt to occasion such 
excessive and distressing nausea that it is 
seldom administered by the stomach. Mod- 
erately taken it calms inquietude and produc- 35 
es a state of languor and repose which for 
those who have become habituated to the im- 
pression, is said to have great charms. In 
larger quantities it gives rise to confusion of 
the head, dizziness, stupor, nausea, vomit- 
ing, convulsions and death. It strikes its 
first blow directly upon the nervous system— 
the citadel of life. This science has proved 
by experiments upon lower animals. Its first 
and immediate effect is to stimulate the base 
of the brain, and through that the whole ner- 
vous system, which increases the action of 
the heart or arterial circulation. This effect 
is quickly followed by a reduction of the ner- 
vous and arterial power, which we call the 
secondary effect of a narcotic. Let a single 
cigar be smoked, or the habitual use of tobac- 
co be abandoned for forty-eight hours, and 
the true effects will be discovered, while un- 
der the constant use the secondary effect is 
lost, or rather not discovered by reason of 
the constantly renewed stimulus, which keeps 
the vital power upon the strain, and shortens 
the natural period of life; a result always 
constant from the use of unnatural stimuli. 
The natural stimuli—as plain food, innocent 
amusement, music, &c., are without doubt 
just sufficient to keep the vital engine at a 
safe and healthy speed, and if the engineer 
pours tar upon the tire, or screws down the 
safety-valve, which human reason represents 
in man, both of which the intemperate man 
does, we regard him reckless of life and prop- 
erty. 
It is a paradox, a strange fact, that the most 
valuable thing which man possesses, viz : his 
own life and health, with a knowledge of the 36 
laws which govern them, is the last thing it) 
Which he applies his reason. The subject to 
be sure is complicated and mysterious, de- 
manding a well matured reason and sound 
judgment, but if any one will apply his reason 
he may learn to run this delicate machine of 
physical being with safety to every organ 
with almost the same facility that he learns to 
run an engine on the railroad. 
I was speaking of the medicinal properties 
of tobacco. In the same form as opium it has 
about three times the strength of that drug. 
Two or three drops of the essential oil put 
upon the tongue of a cat or dog, destroys 
life. The odor of the oil may be found in an 
old tobacco pipe 5 yet physicians, so called, 
are constantly telling their patients that smok- 
ing is harmless. It seems to me that such 
physicians must lack one of two essential 
things for a good physician, wisdom and hon- 
esty. 
The habitual use of tobacco gives rise soon- 
er or later to one or more of the following 
symptoms, viz: weakness of the digestive 
organs, torpor of the liver, confusion of the 
head, dizziness, debility, emaciation, loss of 
energy and muscular power, palpitation of 
the heart, palsy, cancer, fatal nightmare and 
delirium tremens, or symptoms similar. This 
I say by reason of the popular opinion that 
delirium tremens only arises from excessive 
use of alcohol. 
With such a train of symptoms, which an 
intelligent and observing physician can hard- 
ly fail to discover, we should not expect the 
tobacco disease would originate from his pre- 
scriptions, but like the doctor who said he 37 
could perform the cure if he could change the 
case to one of fits, for he was death on fits, 
they create the tobacco disease, and then, unlike 
the fits doctor, find themselves inadequate to 
the cure. The fact is, I belive that tobacco 
rarely or never cures disease. Persons may 
perhaps be found who will state that they 
have been cured with tobacco a hundred 
times. But their testimony proves too much. 
To cure the disease a hundred times is nine- 
ty-nine times too many. Few other remedies 
would be pursued with such persevering as- 
siduity as this. There is, indeed, a lurking 
suspicion among tobacco users that all is not 
sound in Denmark, but they continue to flat- 
ter themselves with the delusive idea that 
they alone are in possession of the secret, 
and listen to the voice of the charmer, till the 
silver cords are loosed and the golden bowl is 
broken at the fountain. 
Many chewers, probably, take enough ev- 
ery day to kill three healthy men unaccus- 
tomed to its use. Divide a large chewer’s 
twenty-four hours quantum into three'parts, 
and compel each of the three to use a part in 
the same length of time. They would not 
probably survive to complete their portions. 
This may be doubted, and the experiment 
cannot be tried. But let me illustrate in a 
measure, by experiments with doves, which 
are generally repeated in the lecture room. 
Place a dove in a glass receiver over a water 
bath which confines the air. After the dove 
becomes somewhat stupid from long confine- 
ment in his limited portion of air, which by 
repeated breathing has been deprived mostly 
of oxygen, and its place supplied by carbonic 38 
acid gas, let another dove right from the pure 
air be introduced into the same receiver, by 
plunging it through the water. The dove last 
introduced immediately shows signs of dis- 
comfort, and presently dies, while the stupid 
dove, which has breathed the same air for 
hours continues to live. This experiment 
shows how nature will gradually conform as 
best she can to her resources, but does not 
prove carbonic acid gas harmless to life. Nor 
does the fact that moderate tobacco users 
sometimes live to old age, prove tobacco 
harmless to the human system. If such in- 
stances are adduced as proof that the moder- 
ate use of tobacco promotes health and lon- 
gevity, then by parity of reasoning, we prove 
that alcohol, opium, arsenic, and other poi- 
sons, promote health and longevity; for many 
cases of old age may be mentioned which 
were reached under the constant use of these 
articles. In certain parts of Europe, arsenic 
is habitually used, and thought by the users 
to preserve youth and vigor; and it is record- 
ed in history that Methridates daily accus- 
tomed his system to poisons, as a preventive 
of assassination by poison. 
These facts prove nothing but the native 
strength and firmness of such constitutions, 
else we are forced to the conclusion that 
poison does not kill, and all the train of mor- 
bid symptoms which follow the use of these 
articles must be assigned to other causes, 
forming an argument which we call in Geom- 
etry reductio ad absurdinn. But no argument 
is too absurd to satisfy any unnatural appe- 
tite. The tobacco user believes apparently, 
and perhaps sincerely, that instead of des- 39 
troying life, it actually tends to sustain it, and 
in confirmation of this belief, it is said that 
sometimes the Indians, in their lengthy hunt- 
ing excursions, get out of food, and absolute- 
ly save themselves from starvation by the use 
of this article. That tobacco under such cir- 
circumstances will prolong life a little space 
I do not doubt, but that it has one particle of 
nutriment to sustain the system, I do not be- 
lieve. In some acute diseases the very sever- 
ity of the pain may waste the patient’s strength 
and shorten life. In such extreme cases the 
physician is justified in administering opium, 
or some other powerful narcotic. In this 
manner tobacco, by paralyzing the nerves of 
the raging stomach, and thus allaying the 
gnawings of hunger, may prolong the life of 
a starving man. In all such cases the nar- 
cotic is but a choice of evils. As a narcotic to- 
bacco will sometimes relieve sposmodic asth- 
ma and croup, and spasmodic strictures of the 
bowels and other channels of the body, but 
does not cure. It rather tends to increase the 
probability of a recurrence of the same diffi- 
culty, and since its use in all its forms is con- 
sidered by the medical profession unsafe, and 
there are other milder means of reducing 
spasms, its use as a medicine in the profession 
is somewhat rare. 
Let me now call attention to the one strong- 
argument of the tobacconist, by which he 
gets great gain, as the Ephesians by their 
silver shrines, viz : it is a luxury. This ar- 
gument, hardest of all to meet, and only sec- 
ond in potency for evil, as fashion stands at 
the head, to lure the young; this argument, 
stronger than any other with the habitual 40 
user, rendering the habit more difficultof re- 
moval than any other, even the use of stimu- 
lating drinks; this argument, I repeat, is a 
libel on human nature. So far from being 
a luxury, unperverted human nature cannot 
tolerate the weed. The whole physical be- 
ing revolts at its touch, and the stomach casts 
it forth as a loathsome thing. The brute cre- 
ation. with two exceptions, reject it, and can- 
nibals will not even eat the flesh of its con- 
sumer. Yet it is a fact, as we must confess, 
that an animal, not well defined by natural- 
ists—a sort of nondescript—courts the des- 
troying angel by its odor and its essence. 
Like all genera of animals and plants, there 
are several species of this; some more attrac- 
tive in their habits and others less. Like birds 
and man they are gregarious, and it is noticed 
that the several species generally congregate 
together. The face of this animal is said to 
be angelic, and even divine, but it is in one 
of the species disfigured by a small but rude 
tavern sign, suspended from each corner of 
the mouth, Avhichreads, “Inn for tobacco.” 
It is usually thought to be a step from the 
sublime to the ridiculous, but here the two 
seem to commingle. “ God made man up- 
right,” says Solomon; “but he has sought 
out many inventions.” 
Losing sight of God and his attributes, man 
indulges the idea that he can excel the 
Almighty in devising ways and means of hu- 
man happiness. Unable to read the law of 
Deity revealed in his own constitution, unable 
by the blindness, entailed upon him by erring 
parents, to discover the abundant natural 
resources of happiness, he appoints himself a 41 
committee of ways and means to devise artifi- 
cial resources of enjoyment. The effect is 
disastrous. While the natural sensibilities of 
the unnarcotized man are awake to the varie- 
gated beauties furnished by the different king- 
doms of nature, and their possessor is feasting 
on the rich luxuries which Heaven has spread 
over earth, his mind clear and comprehensive, 
his soul illumined with truth and wisdom, 
while his spirit communes with angels and the 
Father of light, the independent man is work- 
ing hard at the mill grinding the weed, ex- 
pressing its juice, and corrupting every fluid 
and tissue of the body. For proof of this 
prepare a bath for an inveterate smoker or 
chewer, and get up a perspiration for an hour 
or more while in the bath. The room will 
become scented with tobacco, and the water 
of the bath will, by virtue of its poison, des- 
troy the vermin of plants. With the body 
thus saturated the mind is beclouded and the 
soul incarcerated in prison walls. For man is 
a unit, i. e., while living here in this present 
state, his spirit, soul and physical body are 
inseparably connected. As is the body so is 
the mind. Let the physical body be rendered 
impure by noxious and subtile poisons, as 
alcohol, opium, tobacco, coffee, or by. any 
intemperance in eating and drinking, or even 
by neglect of judicious exercise, and the mind 
suffers equal injury. The ear is not equally 
delighted with the sweet concord of sounds, 
the busy hum of nature, the singing of birds 
and the harmonies of music ! the eye fails to 
discover the rich beauties of color, symmetry 
and form; the delicious odors of the field 
and garden pale before tobacco, taste is per- 42 
verted, toueli uncultivated and obscure, while 
the possessor of invaluable gifts from mother 
Nature turns the cold shoulder upon his ben- 
efactress, and worships at the shrine of tobac- 
co. This devotion is the keystone to the 
arch of his life. “The rest which there are 
put, is nothing till this comes to bind and 
shut.” He can work hard and long, go with- 
out food, and subject himself to many other 
inconveniences, but must have his tobacco, is 
lost without it. If a deacon in the church he 
can’t enjoy his religious meeting. This is no 
phantasmagoric representation. Allow me to 
substantiate by introducing a deposition. “ I 
a deacon in a Christian church, in regular 
standing, thus depose and say, if I go to con- 
ference or prayer meeting without first smok- 
ing or taking a chew of tobacco with me, I 
cannot enjoy the meeting. I cannot speak or 
pray well without it; the meeting passes like 
a dull and heavy task; I enjoy none of its 
exercises; and I long to have it close that I 
may procure relief. But when I previously 
smoke or carry my plug of tobacco with me, 
I then can enjoy the meeting, can talk and 
pray, get good and do good, and all goes 
well.” The name of this deacon is withheld. 
Ilis inspiration, you readily perceive, was not 
of the Holy Ghost, but of tobacco; not from 
above, but from the vegetable kingdom below 
him. Tobacco and the Holy Ghost can no 
more dwell together in the same person than 
the Holy Ghost and alcohol. An elderly lady, 
professedly pious, but who allowed for many 
years her devotions to her pipe to have the 
mastery, one night dreamed of an aerial flight 
to the regions of the spirit world, where not 43 
only her eye could feast on the beauties of 
elysium fields, hut where she could converse 
with perfected spirits. One of these she 
asked to go and look for her name in the 
Book of Life. He complied; but at length 
returned with a sad countenance, saying it 
was not there. Again she besought him to go 
and search more thoroughly. After a more 
lengthy examination, he returned without 
finding it. She wept bitterly, and could not 
rest till a third search was made. After long 
and anxious absence, the messenger returned 
with brightened countenance saying it had 
been found, but so deep was the covering 
which years of tobacco smoke laid over it, 
that it was discerned with great difficulty. 
She awoke and found herself prostrated with 
weeping. This dream produced in the old 
lady a pious resolution to cast the idol at her 
feet, and lay no more of her time, money and 
vital energies upon its unholy altar. 
It not only embarrasses the indwelling of 
the spirit by beclouding the man’s inner tem- 
ple, but by defiling the outer temple. The 
spirit of God not only chooses a pure heart, 
freed from the stains of unhallowed lusts, 
but a body free from the literal defilement of 
gross indifference and filthy physical habits. 
Wrong physical and bad moral habits clus- 
ter together. Rum and tobacco have been 
long associated. Not, to be sure, in every 
case. We speak not of personalities or spe- 
cialties, but of principles; and generally 
speaking we may truthfully say that rum, 
tobacco and profanity go together, and too 
often gambling. Rarely can a profane oath 
be found isstiing from a clean mouth and with 44 
a pure breath. The more reckless the bodily 
habits, and the larger quantities of unnatural 
stimulants, the more reckless and profane the 
words that give utterance to the soul. The 
general standard of virtue will rise or fall 
with the comparative elevation or degradation 
of physical hahits. One excitement creates 
a demand for some other excitement, and thus 
it is that tobacco greatly retards the progress 
of temperance, by creating a dry, parched 
feeling in the mouth and throat, and a sensa- 
tion of faintness or goneness at the pit of the 
stomach. So it comes about that what stimu- 
lus is denied in one form is in another. Cof- 
fee possesses a large amount of sedative poi- 
son, but not the potency of tobacco. This is 
the major general of the great army of inva- 
ders which array themselves against human 
life and virtue. 
Alcohol has retired from respectable soci- 
ety, behind the screen and to private life; 
but Gen. Tobacco is a fashionable guest, and 
puffs his cigar ad otium cum dignitatr. This it 
is that draws the young into his circle. Every 
chew he gives increases his self esteem; and 
and to show his superiority to tire brutes who 
only chew, he smokes and snuffs. Smoking 
is no small evidence of personal importance; 
and Gen. Tobacco has a standing advertise- 
ment before the public, to the effect that every 
young man who wants to make a figure in the 
world should not fail to acquaint himself with 
the art of smoking. When he has so perfect- 
ed it that he can carry a cigar with becoming 
style, poising it between the first and second 
fingers, reserving the third to brush the ashes 
dexterously from the end of the burning roll. 45 
and genteelly forming one corner of liis 
mouth into a kind of chimney for letting off 
the smoke, he has added much to his person- 
al dignity. Before this lie was, perhaps, able 
to pass only for a common man, or a mere 
boy, but new he can rise to perfect manhood, 
and associate with the highest statesmen, 
jurists and divines. Smoking and chewing 
are double accomplishments. I have seen 
the Vice President of this nation spit tobacco 
juice freely upon the door of the Senate 
Chamber. Surely with such an illustrious 
example our young men will rapidly perfect 
themselves in the art of chewing, and between 
the periodical discharge from the face, will 
talk largely of the political interests and con- 
diets of the nation, and the progressive and 
retrograde movements of the governments of 
the world. We say in sorrow, it is fashion- 
able. Were it not so, the habit would be 
considered by all an outrage upon civiliza- 
tion and gentlemanly conduct. The constant 
spitting upon the doors and carpets, of offices, 
saloons, cars and hotels, upon walls, and 
dresses, upon the faces of spittors and spit- 
tees ; the beclouding and adulterating of the 
atmosphere, would seem sufficient to exclude 
the thing from gentlemanly society. Yet 
fashion makes head against all these consid- 
erations. The person who dlls the public 
room with smoke, evidently thinks like the 
man who dined with the Scotchman and 
sprinkled pepper upon his food, that they all 
like it. But the Scotchman, unable to toler- 
ate the pepper, and unwilling to be outdone 
by his messmate, remarked, I take it you all 
like snuff, and immediately emptied the con- 46 
tents of his snuff box upon the victuals be- 
fore them. The fumes of the tobacco leaf 
are, to some persons who never used it, agree- 
able when puffed in the open air. One may 
come, I think, so near as this, to a natural 
appetite for the weed by hereditary taint, and 
in no other way. “The parents have eaten 
sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set 
on edge.” If this passage does not explain 
my meaning, perhaps another will, viz : “The 
sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the 
children to the third and fourth generations.” 
In 1590, a Persian King sternly prohibited 
the use of this drug. In 1610, at Constantino- 
ple, a Turk was led through the streets with his 
nose transfixed with a pipe, as a punishment 
for smoking. The police regulations of Berne, 
Switzerland, in 1661, contained a prohibition 
of its use; and Popes Urban and Innocent 
XII. both excluded snuffers and smokers from 
the chnrch. Tlie”n it was not fashionable. 
Let me ask in candor, does fashion change 
the real character of the habit or the proper- 
ties of the plant? 
One other argument of the tobacco user 
demands passing notice. Too fond of pork 
and beef, rich gravies and fixings, he grows 
too corpulant and has to keep using tobacco 
to keep down the flesh. Young ladies some- 
times resort to vinegar for the same purpose, 
but consumption is the usual attendant upon 
its continued use. Let us see at what expen- 
diture of vital force, tobacco keeps the system 
lean. Nature has provided in and about the 
mouth three pairs of glands, called salivary, 
whose office it is to secrete a fluid called sali- 
va, which must be thoroughly mixed with the 47 
food in the mouth in order to prepare it for 
the stomach and other digestive organs. 
These glands are mostly called into action by 
the motion of the jaws and tongue in chew- 
ing. Now tobacco usurps nearly the whole 
service of the glands and carries off their 
secretions from their appropriate purpose. 
An essential element of vitality is spit away, 
and not only so, hut from the almost con- 
stant exercise of these glands, unnatural 
quantities of saliva must be formed from the 
blood to spit away, which produces a drain 
upon the system, like a running sore or ulcer, 
diabetes, or any other morbid discharge, 
which by reducing vitality must shorten the 
natural period of life, and impair the diges- 
tive organs. Some ehewers, more economi- 
cal, save the saliva by swallowing the spittle, 
and thus get more of the poison from the 
same quantity of tobacco. 
Smoking makes a less draft upon the sali- 
vary glands, but a greater inroad upon the 
nervous system than chewing. 
I have now done with the arguments in fa- 
vor of the habitual use of this article; have 
spoken of it as a luxury, as a medicine, and 
a plant. As a plant it is poisonous, as a med- 
icine unsafe, as a luxury a libel upon human 
nature, and the arguments in favor of its 
habitual use are proved by straight forward 
common sense to be fictions of an unnatural 
appetite. What man wants is truth and 
knowledge; he wants to see the light. Words 
are vain and empty, unless they carry con- 
viction by their truth, and are enforced by 
example. Peter the Great proved himself 
worthy the title, when he made the expression, 48 
“ I can reform my people, but how shall I 
reform myself?” How shall I reform myself? 
is the important question for the world. Self 
is the starting point, the point of power. 
Who feels for humanity ? Let him prepare 
himself for the work by living a pure and 
noble life, in all things temperate. 
Let us now briefly notice the probability of 
reform. Education will do much for the ri- 
sing generation, but how muclif or the present 
consumer of this article ? His argument con- 
densed and reduced to lowest terms is com- 
prehended in three short words, viz : “I love 
it.” The magnet will attract the steel, and 
the needle revolve to the magnetic meridian. 
So this matter of love and appetite is equally 
blind and uncontrollable. Philosophy alone 
can solve the problem. Her teachings are to 
bring to bear a stronger magnet—a more 
powerful motion. But how measure the 
power of attraction ? How strong is this love 
of appetite? Is human sympathy a mag- 
net of inferior power ? Many a man would 
see widows and orphans, and even his own 
wife and children, suffer long for want of 
bread and clothing, and spend their means of 
sustenance to feed his unnatural appetite. 
How many by their conduct will prove these 
words erroneous? 
Money is a powerful motive. How much 
can we offer him to abandon the habit, and set 
reason at the helm? 
Our computation shall extend over a period 
of thirty-four years—the probable period of 
his life under its use. We will take a medi- 
um case, or an extreme case, if such it seems 
to any. Suppose three cigars a day are used, 49 
at three cents apiece, and tobacco in other 
forms for chewing and smoking, to the amount 
of $4.59 per year. We will invest the money 
at 7 per cent, with annual settlements. The 
amount of the bill for the first twelve years is 
$669.75; for twenty-three years, $2,000.65; 
and for the full period of thirty-four years, 
$4,802. For the last year the interest alone 
amounts to over $800—$311. So we can 
offer a person who uses this quantity of tobac- 
co, $4,800 to abandon the habit. If any 
doubt the correctness of the computation let 
them figure for themselves, or in case of ina- 
bility from their juvenile years or want of ad- 
vantages in early life, present the problem to 
the school teacher. This computation may 
be further useful to show how rapidly nature’s 
bill for damages accumulates. She will bear 
long with the offender, but is not to be put off 
at last; a broken constitution, a diseased liv- 
er, a cancer, or delirium tremens, may close 
the account for this world, and as for the next 
we leave every transgressor to his sober re- 
flections. Nature’s bill must be added to the 
other, for the culprit has it to pay. Let the 
tobacco user put these bills, which are not yet 
receipted, into his pocket for his memoranda. 
These arguments cannot be gainsaid; and yet 
to preserve the figure of the magnetic needle, 
change not its polarity. Lastly we will put 
all the powerful magnets of life’s laboratory 
into the account together. Let the physician 
portray the ruinous effects of its habitual use 
upon the body and mind, and show how the 
passion may seek vent in the system of the 
offender’s grandchild; let the theologian and 
the financier show the loss in funds, and the 50 
withered prospect of a blessed existence in 
the spirit; put all these motives together, and 
bring them in contact with this unnatural 
habit and artificial appetite for tobacco. We 
should say, from our knowledge of these 
forces before the trial, that the needle would 
be changed again to the true meridian, and 
the appetite for tobacco lost. 
But so strong is the force of habit that the 
mania continues, and comparatively few re- 
form. Let us then save the young from con- 
tracting it by giving them knowledge in sea- 
son. It is the honest conviction of physiolo- 
gists and thorough reformers that tobacco 
using is doing more to-day to degrade the 
race than liquor drinking. Tobacco torpifies 
the brain and nervous system, and lowers the 
tone of the whole moral nature. No woman 
of natural instincts and delicate sensibilities 
can ever wed a tobacco user without doing 
violence to her whole nature; nor can a child 
be born unto him without inheriting more or 
less, a depraved organization. 
Man, naturally noble, will put this evil aside 
when he becomes sufficiently enlightened to 
recognize the entire truth. Study physiolo- 
gy, and let the wheels of progress roll. 
Worms.-—These are chiefly of three kinds 
—the tape worm, round worm, and the short 
pin worm. The tape worm is rare except 
where the people use much pork, or swine’s 
flesh, and lager beer. An infallible remedy 
for tape worm, so far as tried, has been found 
in the flowers of the Afric Ivooso. The na- 
tives where it grows are much subject to tape 
worm. Hound stomach worms and pin worms 51 
are quite common in this country, caused in 
all cases by a weak stomach or disordered diges- 
tion. W or ms never infest the alimentary canal 
when digestion is perfectly healthy and vigor- 
ous. A radical and permanent cure is found 
only in establishing and preserving a healthy diges- 
tion. To this end every means should be 
used to invigorate the whole system. A plain 
and regular diet is all important. Confection- 
ery of all kinds, unripe fruit, meat long salt- 
ed, old cheese, much better, large quantities of 
cow’s milk, fat, or animal oils, pastry, as gen- 
erally made, and very sweet food, should be 
avoided, as they all tend to derange the diges- 
tive organs and produce the condition that 
breeds worms. Cold sage tea, drank for some 
time as the only drink, will generally suffice 
to cure if the above directions are understand- 
followed. 
In what is called a turn of worms or worm 
fit, these vermin sometimes rise in the pa- 
tient’s throat, and produce a sense of suffoca- 
tion and spasms. Weak lye made from 
charred corn cobs and drank, will neutralize 
the acid of the stomach, and often give relief. 
Salt and water is sometimes given, but if 
given too strong may aggravate the symptoms. 
To expel these intruders forcibly from the 
body, feed them for two days on summer sa- 
vory and sage, equal parts, finely pulverized, 
and mixed with molasses, or pulverized dried 
egg shell and molasses; a teaspoonful of 
either three times per day with very little 
other food; and then give, the second night, 
a cathartic of rhubarb and senna, equal parts. 
But it should not be forgotten that if every 
worm is removed by a vigorous action of the 52 
bowels, the same came or depraved condition 
will soon produce them again ; so we should not 
•rely upon any vermifuge except nature’s own 
remedy, which is a healthy stomach and bowels. 
For temporary relief from pin worms 
(thread worms) which cause sometimes an 
intolerable itching about the seat, use a small 
injection of camphorated oil, with milk, equal 
parts, or a weak solution of salt and water, 
or they may be reached with the finger, first 
moistened with the white of an egg and then 
immersed in a solution of salt and water. 
A dose of aloes removes them, but renders 
their recurrence more likely, and if often 
used, frequently induces hemorrhoids or piles. 
A healthy bowel is the only permanent cure. 
Hemorrhoids, or Piles.—This complaint 
is known by pain, bleeding, or falling of the 
lower bowel, or rectum. The bowel falls by 
reason of debility or weakness of the muscu- 
lar tissue; it bleeds from a sluggish state of the 
circulation, congestion or distention of the 
hemorrhoidal veins; and the pain is caused 
by the irritation and soreness consequent up- 
on the two conditions just named. These 
two conditions are often induced by one or 
more of the following causes, viz : Active 
purging, or the use of violent cathartics, long 
standing constipation, straining at stools, 
heavy lifting, and sedentary employments. 
A radical cure must be sought by increasing 
vitality through hygienic measures, improving 
the circulation and invigorating the bowrel. 
A strictly vegetable diet for several weeks 
with much friction of the entire surface of the 
body will do much to remove the difficulty. 
The skin is a large and important organ, and 53 
must not be neglected. See rule 3d, p. 11. 
Constipation must not be allowed, nor violent 
cathartics used. See article on Constipation. 
The application of varnish is Said to cure per- 
fectly blind and bleeding piles. One pill of 
the pitch of white pine, taken fasting, usually 
cures bleeding piles. When the bowel comes 
down and forms tumors, it must be immedi- 
ately replaced with some emolient ointment. 
The following are excellent for piles Equal 
parts of bark of buttersweetroot, inner bark of 
sweet elder, and the leaves and tops of live- 
forever or common house-leek; simmer one 
day in sweet cream, squeeze and strain.— 
Bark of bittersweet root, and root and top of 
red plantain; simmer half a day in soft water 
under cover, strain and simmer to an oint- 
ment with wild (bear, skunk, &c.) oil. These 
receipts have been kept as great secrets and 
sold for large sums. Tannin mixed with sweet 
cream forms an excellent application, and is 
lqore readily procured. Do not rely upon 
any local remedy for a permanent curt, however 
valuable for relief. 
To Cure Obstinate Ulcers, cleanse the 
blood, and when you wish to heal them apply 
white sugar dissolved in a strong decoction of 
walnut leaves, if the blood is thoroughly 
cleansed nature will heal the ulcer. See arti- 
cle on Purity of Blood. 
To Stop Nosebleed. — Hold up one or 
both hands high as you can, standing erect. 
Certain remedy. 
The Ear.—This is a delicate organ and 
should not be roughly used. Never put any- 
thing hard in the ear or work at it with any 
instrument whatever. If wax accumulates 54 
so as to obstruct the hearing, it can be soft- 
ened in a few hours with oil of sweet almonds, 
and then removed by means of an ear syr- 
inge and a suds made of soft warm water and 
castile soap. Let a drop or two of the oil fall 
in the ear at night, and use the syringe (not 
very forcibly) in the morning. To avoid tak- 
ing cold in the ear, sleep on a hard pilloiv that 
will not allow the head to be buried in it and 
kept too warm. For offensive discharge of 
the ear, treat it precisely like any running 
sore or ulcer, viz : purify the blood and invig- 
orate the system by proper attention to hy- 
gienic rules as to diet, pure air, vigorous hand 
baths of the entire surface often, &c. Keep 
the ear cleansed by using the syringe once 
per day with a very weak solution of perman- 
ganate of potash, following each application 
with a drop or two of glycerine. See article 
on Purity of Blood, and Permanganate of 
Potash, which follow. 
Purity of Blood.—This does not depend 
upon medicine, but upon the food we eat, the 
air we breathe, and the conditions in which 
we live. To have pure blood the food must 
be free from all poisons and indigestible sub- 
stances, the air must be pure that we breathe 
and all the organs of the body in healthful 
play; especially must there be a healthy ac- 
tion of the shin, lungs and bowels. The three 
articles most injurious to the blood as now 
used are undoubtedly alcoholic drinks, animal 
oils or fats, and salt. These with all food and 
drink that contains them in any very consid- 
erable quantity, should be avoided. The food 
should be plain, regularlij taken in moderate 
quantities, and every morsel thoroughly mastica- ted dnd mixed with the saliva of the mouth before 
it is swallowed. The lungs should be largely 
developed by repeated exercises in deep and 
full inspirations in open air or well venti- 
lated rooms. The skin should be kept active 
by frequent bathing—always rubbing the skin 
till dry and warm—and moderate exercise 
should be taken each day for two or more 
hours if we wish the purest blood. As to ac- 
tion of the bowels, see article on Constipation,. 
Permanganate of Potash.—This is the 
best wash ever used for Leucorrhcea, ulcers, or 
any old sore whatever. ’Tis much used by 
eclectic physicians. Should be kept in well 
stopped vials and wrapped in paper. A very 
minute quantity, two grains, is sufficient to 
dissolve in half a pint of water. It tinges the 
water of a beautiful color. If it settles—the 
water becoming clear after standing two days 
—it is not good. This is the test. A conven- 
ient way of keeping it is to make a saturated 
solution, and preserve in a vial with a glass 
stopper. Then when needed a few drops may 
be let fall into the requisite quantity of water. 
Por Leucorrhcea use the syringe once per 
day. Por any very offensive sore use oftener. 
55 
HYGIENIC FOOD. 
Our food and drink have more to do with ottr 
health, mental, social and moral conditions 
than we know. Improper dietetic habits will ac- 
count for fully one half of the evil which ex- 
ists in the world. Physiology is coming to 
the rescue. The fundamental error lies in the 
prevalent belief of the masses that a radical 
reform will diminish and almost destroy all 56 
gustatory enjoyment. Exactly the reverse is 
true. The strictest temperance and regularity 
enhances every pleasure. Those who live con- 
stantly upon animal oils, much salt, and stim- 
ulating food can never know the enjoyment 
of “ eating to live,” or sense the delicious 
flavors of the various fruits, the delicate aro- 
ma of flowers, or the spiritual influx of heav- 
enly harmonies. The transition from gross 
and stimulating food and drink to nature's sim- 
ple sustenance—the nectar of Jupiter and the 
food of the gods—will likely demand the 
whole strength of manhood, aided by intelligence; 
but the better way will finally prevail, and the 
pure atmosphere of mental truth will rectify 
eventually every pernicious habit. 
The physiologist’s duty is not to compel 
but to convince the judgment. These pages 
are only intended as a guide to those who 
having been convinced, wish to apply the 
truth. Perseverance will accomplish. 
Housewives are largely responsible for the 
health of families, so far as it depends upon 
dietetic habits, since most persons eat of such 
food as is set before them. As they love the 
dear ones around them, let them see to it that 
they set before them healthful food. 
Bread.—The objections to bread as usu- 
ally made are principally three, viz : 1st. 
Finely ground and bolted flour tends to pro- 
duce constipation. 2d. Fermentation is a 
process of decomposition. 3d. The soda, 
saleratus, alum, ammonia and other alkalies 
often used are decidedly injurious. Yeast 
when first made, contains a vegetable growth, 
but when sour it contains animalcules, or mi- 
croscopic animals something like those in vin- 57 
egar. If yeast is used in making bread it 
should be fresh and sweet, and the bread 
should be baked soon as it logins to rise, and 
not allow it to sour in the least degree. 
There is then no excuse for using alkalies, 
soda, salcratus, &c. 
The following recipes have been selected as 
some of the more simple from Mrs. Mattie 
M. Jones’ Hygienic Cook Book : 
Unleavened Bread.—No. 1 Gems.—Into 
cold water stir Graham flour sufficient to 
make a batter a trifle thicker than that used 
for ordinary griddle cakes. Bake thirty or 
forty minutes in a hot oven in small tin patty- 
pans, two inches square and three-fourths of 
an inch deep; or use the French-roll dishes. 
The flour should be new and sweet. 
Note.—This makes delicious bread. No definite 
rule as to the proportions of flour and water can be 
given, owing to the difference in flour. A little ex- 
perience will enable any person to approximate to 
the right proportions. The flour should be stirred 
into the water slowly as in making mush. No more 
stirring is necessary after the flour is all added. If 
the water is hard some milk should be used in mak- 
ing, or the gems will be slightly tough. It is neces- 
sary that the pans be of the size mentioned and the 
oven hut in order to have them light. 
No. 2.—Graham Biscuit.—Make Graham 
mush as for table. When cool, mix with it 
Graham flour sufficient to roll well. Knead 
for a few minutes, roll three-fourths of an 
inch thick, cut with a common biscuit cutter, 
and bake in a hot oven from thirty to forty- 
five minutes. 
No. 3.—Graham Biscuit, (another form.) 
—Stir into cold water Graham flour enough 
to make a rather soft dough; knead it for five 58 
or ten minutes and bake the same as No. 2. 
Note.—When these have become a little dry or 
hard, cut in small pieces, cover with cold water, soak 
till thoroughly soft, when the water should be all 
absorbed. Strain through a colander, mix Graham 
flour sufficient to roll, and bake in the same form as 
at first. This is even superior to the original bread, 
Eye and Oat Meal Bread. — Prepare 
after recipe No. 3. 
Corn Cake.—Pour one quart of boiling 
water on one quart corn meal, and stir quick- 
ly. Wet the hands and form the dough into 
small round cakes one-half an inch thick, and 
hake. The addition of a few huckleberries 
or sweet apples chopped fine is an improve- 
ment. 
Corn Meal Gems.—Stir slowly into one 
quart of sweet milk, corn meal sufficient to 
make a very thin batter. Bake in a hot oven 
in the gem tins or French rolls. 
Persons accustomed to eating much salt 
will miss it in all these preparations. Such 
persons can add a moderate quantity at first 
and gradually diminish. A strictly physiolog- 
ical reason can be given why much salt will 
render the blood impure. ’Tis best not to 
use it. 
Mushes. — Cracked Wheat Mush. — The 
wheat may be ground for a small family in a 
large coffee mill, as the meal is best when 
fresh. If the grits are coarse they require 
boiling five or six hours, but one or two hours 
answers for ordinary meal. The double 
boiler (found at most hardware stores) is 
most convenient to prevent scorching. It is 
a tin or iron vessel sui'rounded by hot water, 
and contained in another vessel which comes 59 
in contact with the tire. The mush may be 
eaten with a little milk, cream or white sugar. 
Hominy or Samp.—This is generally in 
the market, prepared from the white corn. 
If fine grained it will cook in an hour and a 
half, hut the coarse Hew England samp < 
requires boiling five or six hours. 
Indian Meal Mush—Hasty Pudding.— 
Made from oat meal it is called in Scotland 
“ stirabout.” It should be cooked from one to 
two hours. 
Corn Starch Blanc-mange. — Dissolve 
half a pound of corn starch in a pint of cold 
milk; then put it into three pints of boiling 
milk, and boil very moderately five or six 
minutes. 
Note.—Many consider the cracked wheat and 
mushes preferable when made of half milk. 
Rusk.—Dry rye and Indian bread crusts in 
an oven till they can be easily crushed fine in 
a mortar, or ground in a coffee mill. Eat the 
powder in milk. Quite delicious as a rarity 
and quite hearty. 
Crusts for Pies.—Potato Pie Crust.— 
Boil one quart dry, mealy potatoes. The 
moment they are done mash them, and sift 
through a colander. Stir thoroughly togeth- 
er one cup Graham flour and one cup white 
flour, then add the potatoes, rubbing them 
evenly through the flour in the same manner 
as the shortening in common pie crust. Have 
ready one cup corn meal; pour over it one 
and one-third cups boiling water, stirring it 
till all the meal is wet, then add it to the po- 
tatoes and flour, mixing only till thoroughly 
incorporated together. No more flour should 60 
be added. The moulding board should be 
well covered with dry flour, however, as it is 
slightly difficult to roll out. It should be 
rolled very thin, and baked in a moderate 
oven. 
Noth.—It is very essential that the above condi- 
tions should all be complied with. Bear in ftiind 
that the potatoes must be hot, and mixed immedi- 
ately with the flour: the water be poured while 
boiling, upon the corn meal, and the whole mixed 
together very quickly and baked immediately. In- 
attention to any of these requisites will be quite apt 
to insure a failure. 
Cream Pie Crust.—Take equal quantities 
of Graham flour, white flour and Indian meal, 
rub evenly together, and wet with very thin 
sweet cream. It should be rolled thin and 
baked in an oven as hot as for common pie 
crust. 
Note.—This makes excellent pastry if properly 
baked. Many patients have said to us they did not 
see how they could ever again relish the pastry in 
common use, (this is so much sweeter and more 
palatable, to say nothing of its wholesomeness ) It 
is more generally relished than the potato crust, 
although not quite so hygienic. 
Pies.—Pumpkin Pies.—Select a pumpkin 
which has a deep, rich color, and firm, close 
texture. Stew and sift in the ordinary man- 
ner ; add- as much boiling milk as will make 
it about one-third thicker than for common 
pumpkin pie. Sweeten with equal quantities 
of sugar and molasses, and bake about one 
hour in a hot oven. 
Note.—Those who will try this method will be 
surprised to find how delicious a pie can be made 
withont eggs, ginger, or spices of any kind. The 
milk being turned boiling hot upon the pumpkin, 
causes it to swell in baking, so that it is as light and 
nice as though eggs had been used. Squash Pie.—This is even superior to 
pumpkin, as it possesses a richer, sweeter 
flavor, and is far preferable. It is made in 
precisely the same manner as pumpkin pie. 
Sweet Potato Pie.'—Boil and sift through 
a colander, nice, ripe, sweet potatoes, add 
boiling milk, and make the same as pumpkin 
pie. 
Sweet Apple Pie.—Pare mellow, sweet 
apples, and grate them upon a grater. A 
very large grater is necessary for this pur- 
pose. Then proceed as with pumpkin pie. 
Sour Apple Pie.—Take nice, tart apples 
—spitzenbergs are best, although pippins, 
greenings, russets, &c., are excellent. Slice 
them; fill the under-crust an inch thick; 
sprinkle sugar over them; add a spoonful or 
two of water: cover with a thin crust, and 
bake three-fourths of an hour in a moderate 
oven. 
Raspberry Pie.—This stands at the head 
of the list of all berry pies in point of excel- 
lence. Take nice ripe berries, either red or 
black are about equally good, wash and pick 
them over carefully; place them an inch or 
more thick on the under crust; strew a small 
quantity of sugar and a trifle of flour over 
them; put on the upper crust and bake half 
an hour. 
Blackberry Pie.—This is made in the 
same manner as the preceding. All berries 
for pies should be ripe or nearly so, and as 
fresh as possible. 
Whortleberry Pie. — Whortleberries 
make excellent pies, and are in market usu- 
ally longer than any of the summer fruits. 
It is made in the some manner as raspberry pie. 
61 62 
Strawberry Pie.—Is made in the same 
way also. This fruit is rather acid, and re- 
quires considerable sugar to make it pleasant. 
PUDDINGS. 
Many physiologists object, and justly, to 
the extensive use of puddings as an ar- 
ticle of diet. They admit of but very im- 
perfect mastication and insalivation, even in 
their best forms, and are to be permitted 
rather than recommended. However, as peo- 
ple usually demand something as a dessert 
occasionally, by way of variety, they are ad- 
missible. 
Baked Indian Pudding. — Two quarts 
sweet milk, one heaping teacupful of Indian 
meal, one-third cup molasses, one-third cup 
sugar. When the milk is boiling hard dip 
out one-lialf of it, and into the remainder stir 
the meal slowly, taking care that no lumps 
remain in it. Add the rest of the milk, the 
sugar and molasses, and bake about two 
hours, or until it is a bright cherry color. 
Stir once or twice the first half hour, but not 
afterward. 
This proportion of meal will not hold good 
in all cases, owing to the difference in the 
thickening properties of different kinds. Of 
some it will require one and one-third cups, 
others one and a half. This can easily be 
determined by one trial. 
Tapioca Pudding.—Two quarts milk, one 
cup tapioca, two cups apples, sliced. Bake 
one hour and a half. It is well to soak the 
tapioca over night. 
Bread Pudding.—Pour a quart of boiling milk on as much bread, biscuit or crackers, 
broken or cut into small pieces, as will ab- 
sorb it; cover it and let it remain till quite 
cool; then sweeten and bake an hour and a 
half. 
Cracked Wheat Pudding.—Boil wheat- 
en grits till quite soft; then dilute the mush 
with milk to the proper consistency. It 
should be rather thin; sweeten and bake one 
hour. 
Hominy Pudding—Mix cold, boiled homi- 
ny with milk till sufficiently diluted; sweeten 
and bake in a hot oven an hour and a half or 
two hours. 
Rice and Apple Pudding.—Boil half a 
pound of rice in half a pint of milk till it is 
soft; then fill the pudding dish half full of 
apples which have been pared and cored; 
sweeten with brown stlgar or molasses; put 
the rice over the fruit as a crust, and bake 
one hour. 
Apple Pudding.—Boil one pound and a 
half of good apples with a gill of water and 
half a pound of brown sugar, till reduced to 
a smooth pulp; stir in one gill of sweet 
cream, a teaspoonful of flour or fine bread 
crumbs; flavor with a little lemon juice or 
grated lemon, and bake forty minutes. 
63 
FRUITS. 
Next to good bread, there is nothing 
that can compare in value as an article 
of diet with good ripe fruit. 
Good unleavened bread and the variety of 
fruits in their season contain all the elements 
necessary to the support of human life. Yet 64 
there is a large class of vegetables which are 
palatable and wholesome, and may be used 
by most persons in health. Still the fruit of 
the vegetable kingdom forms the purest and 
best food for the highest development of ani- 
mal life. 
More attention should be given to raising 
fruit, especially grapes, apples, pears, peach- 
es and plums. What a blessing to the race if 
all the vineyards of the world were made to 
supply wholesome food to children instead of 
poison for adults. So ’twill be in the good 
time coming. 
The best way to preserve fruit is to put it 
up in cans. Heat it through, and then entire- 
ly exclude from air. Stewed apple of the nicer 
varieties, and flavored with a little quince, 
sugar or nothing at all, is the cheapest and 
best sauce. 
VEGETABLES. 
Boiled Potatoes. — Always take them 
out of the water the moment they are 
done. When cooked in any way, they 
become heavy and “watery” by cooking 
them after they are once softened through. 
Old potatoes are improved by soaking in cold 
water several hours, or over night, before 
cooking. They should never remain covered 
after having been roasted or boiled to keep 
them hot. 
Mashed Potatoes.—Pare and wash the 
potatoes ; drop them into water which is boil- 
ing very hard; let them boil moderately till 
done. As soon as they will pierce easily with 
a fork, pour off the water, place them over the fire again for a couple of minutes till per- 
fectly dry, then mash them till they are en- 
tirely free from lumps. If any seasoning is 
desired, a little rich milk or sweet cream is 
all that is sufficient. 
Stewed Potatoes.—Cut cold boiled pota- 
toes into thin slices, cover with milk or dilu- 
ted sweet cream, and stew slowly till warmed 
through. 
Mashed Parsnips.—Wash them thorough- 
ly and remove the skins by scraping. Split 
them in halves or quarters, and boil till ten- 
der. When done, mash them the same as 
potatoes. 
Mashed Turnips.—This is the best meth- 
od of preparing watery turnips and a good 
way of cooking all cookable kinds. Pare, 
wash, and cut them in slices; put them in 
just enough boiling water to cover them; let 
them boil till soft; pour them into a sieve or 
colander and press out the water; mash them 
with fresh milk or sweet cream until entirely 
free from lumps; then put them into a sauce- 
pan over the fire, and stir them about three 
minutes. 
Greens. — Spinach, beet tops, cabbage 
sprouts, mustard leaves, turnip leaves, cow- 
slips, dandelions, and deerweed are all excel- 
lent for greens. They all require to be care- 
fully washed and cleaned. Spinach should 
be washed repeatedly. All the cooking req- 
uisite is boiling till tender, and drain on a 
colander. Lemon juice is the only admissi- 
ble seasoning. Vinegar is not a physiologi- 
cally healthy article of diet. 
Asparagus.—Put the stalks in cold water; 
cut off all that is very tough; tie them in 
65 66 
bundles ; put them over the fire and let them 
boil fifteen to twenty-five minutes, or until 
tender without being soft. No one has a 
right to desire a better vegetable than this 
with no other preparation than boiling. It 
should be cooked soon after being picked, or 
kept cool and moist in a cellar till wanted. 
WHOLE GRAINS. 
Boiled Wheat.—Select fair, plump wheat, 
pick it over carefully and wash it perfectly 
clean. Let it soak in cold water twenty- 
four hours. Boil it in the same water (ad- 
ding more if necessary) till perfectly soft. 
It will require several hours to cook it. It 
may be eaten with milk, or cream, or sugar, 
or without any of these, as preferred. 
Boiled. Bice.—Be careful and select for 
this purpose the large, plump kernel called 
head-rice. Boil it in pure, soft water, and in a 
covered vessel, about twenty minutes, stirring 
it gently occasionally; then set it off from 
the fire, and in a place just warm enough to 
simmer; let it remain an hour and a half 
without stirring; the grains may then be taken 
out full and unbroken. 
Note.—The best method of cooking rice is to cover 
it well with water and set it in a moderate oven, 
stirring it occasionally. When nearly done and the 
water mostly absorbed, milk or sweet cream may 
be added if desired, making a very rich dish. Or the 
water may be omitted, ana it may be cooked entirely 
in milk, using the same proportion of milk and rice 
as for a pudding, but omitting the sugar. 
Another excellent method of cooking rice 
is by steaming it. A double boiler, common- 
ly called a “Farina Boiler,” is best for this purpose, but if none can be had a tightly cov- 
ered tin pan, set over a kettle of boiling wa- 
ter, will answer. If soaked over night, rice 
will cook in ten or twelve minutes. Cook in 
same water. 
Parched Corn.—Procure a wire appara- 
tus called a “com popper." They can be 
bought at almost any hardware store for a 
mere trifle. The common “Tucket” corn is 
best for popping. Have the corn thoroughly 
dry. Place a large spoonful in the “popper,” 
and pass it back and forth very quickly across 
the top of a red hot stove till done. Two 
minutes will suffice to produce a quart of 
great white kernels, as delicious as ever were 
eaten. 
Rice Soup.—Boil one gill of rice in a pint 
of water till soft; then add a pint of milk, a 
teaspoonful of sugar, and simmer gently five 
minutes. 
67 
Steamed Bread.—Make mush as for the 
table—Graham, hominy or corn meal mush 
as preferred. When cool, to one quart add 
one pint of hot, boiled potatoes mashed 
through a colander, half a cup of molasses, 
one tea-cup of boiling milk, with equal parts 
of Indian meal and Graham or rye flour suffi- 
cient to make a rather soft dough. Place it 
in a deep basin or pan; smooth it evenly 
over the top; cover it tightly and steam four 
hours. 
Rye and Indian Bread.—Take one part 
rye meal and two parts of Indian; pour boil- 
ing water over the Indian, and stir it till the 
MISCELLANEOUS. 68 
whole is sufficiently wet to work in the rye 
without adding any more water, and then 
when about milk warm, work in the rye meal. 
Should the dough be too stiff, add as much 
warm, but not hot, water as may be necessary; 
bake in a round iron dish from three to five 
hours. 
Milk Toast.—This is made by scalding 
sweet milk and thickening it with a very 
little moistened flour or corn-starch. Let it 
boil well. Split open the gems or diamonds, 
or whatever bread you choose to use; toast 
them nicely, then place them in a dish for the 
table, and cover with thickened gravy. 
Cream Toast.—Toast the bread and turn 
over it, while hot, boiling sweet cream diluted 
with milk. 
Custard without Eggs.—Take one quart 
of sweet new milk, four table spoonfuls of 
flour, two table spoonfuls of sugar. Boil the 
milk over a brisk fire, and when boiling stir 
in the flour (having been previously mixed 
with cold milk to prevent lumping.) When 
thoroughly scalded, bake in a crust or in 
cups. 
Bice Custard.—Boil two ounces of ground 
rice in a pint and a half of new milk; add 
four ounces of sugar, an ounce of grated co- 
coa nut, four ounces of sweet cream, and 
bake in a slow oven. 
Apple Cream.—Pare and boil good rich 
baking apples till soft; rub the pulp through 
a hair sieve; add the sugar while warm; 
when cold, stir in a sufficient quantity of 
sweet cream, and serve cold. 
Baked Milk.—Put the milk into ajar; tie 
white paper over it; let it remain in a moder- 69 
ately warm oven all night, and it will be of 
the consistency of thin gruel. 
Strawberry Short-Cake.—Make a rath- 
er stiff hatter of rich milk, or thin, sweet 
cream and Graham flour. Bake in a quick 
oven. When done, cut open and put the 
berries, previously sweetened and slightly 
mashed, on the under crust, sprinkle a very 
little sugar over, and add the other crust. 
No one need desire a more palatable or 
healthful fruit cake. Raspberries, blackber- 
ries, whortleberries, currants, tomatoes, or- 
anges, and all of the juicy fruits, make an ex- 
cellent dish thus prepared. 
Griddle Cakes.—Griddle cakes made of 
buckwheat flour, are very extensively used 
for breakfast in many parts of the coun- 
try, and many persons think that buckwheat 
is poisonous. As generally cooked and eaten 
they are no doubt injurious. The injury is 
due to the fat burnt upon the griddle and the 
large amount of butter and sugar eaten with 
them. Baked upon soapstone griddles with- 
out fat and eaten with a little milk or cream and 
sugar, they are quite icliolesome. 
The preceding rules and recipes for cook- 
ing strictly hygienic food are not given as a 
full exposition ol' the art of cooking, but will 
serve as an index to healthful culinary prep- 
arations. In a more enlightened age the 
housewife and the cook will understand prac- 
tical chemistry and physiology. 
Man is cosmopolitan and omnivorous, i. e., 
can exist inany part of the world, and upon 
food that is vegetable, animal or mixed. Ani- 
mal food furnishes more ready nutriment for 
muscle and vegetable for brain. 70 
Persons who perform much heavy muscu- 
lar exercise will feel the need of some animal 
food. For such we subjoin a few remarks. 
Too severe and protracted labor is a curse to the 
race. Four hours of intelligent labor cach day 
would supply man’s physical needs and every 
man would he healthier and happier to labor 
such a part of the time. A purely vegetable 
diet will he attended by greater power to ward 
off disease, by calmer temper, and by exalta- 
tion of all the spiritual and intellectual facul- 
ties, but does not furnish so ready nutriment 
for muscular strength. The purest flesh is 
that of fowls, beef, mutton, and fresh water 
fish. If swine’s flesh is used it should be 
reared upon potatoes and grain. In cooking, 
broiling or boiling is far preferable to frying 
so far as health is concerned. Burnt fat is 
very injurious to the stomach. Persons will 
have firmer health during the hot weather 
who eat less meat or animal food during 
spring. During the hottest weather, flesh 
will become partially putrescent in a short 
time, and will create summer complaints. 
During this season dried or corned beef is less 
dangerous. Salt and vinegar taken together 
one spoonful of vinegar, half a teaspoonful 
of salt, is a rational remedy for summer 
complaint caused as above mentioned. 
CAUSES OF DISEASE. 
1st. Hereditary transmission. 
2d. Improper dietetic habits. 
3d. Poisons, narcotics and stimulants. 
4th. Over-taxation and want of exercise. 
5th. Impure air and deficient respiration. 6th. Undue excitement and indulgence of 
the passions. 
7th. Exposure to excessive heat or cold. 
9th. Mechanical injuries. 
10th. Depression of spirits or immoderate 
grief. 
No one can long enjoy perfect health under 
the operation of any of these causes; and it 
is the noblest occupation of the physician to 
see that they are removed. 
71 
VALUABLE RECIPES AND PRESCRIP- 
TIONS. 
For Sudden Cold.—Take immediately, 
soon as possible after the first, sensation of chill, 
a full and vigorous hand bath of the entire 
surface with a little saleratus water; and take 
some internal stimulant (not alcohol) as gin- 
ger tea, or a dose of hot drops. 
Cold Feet.—Bathe the feet night and morn- 
ing in water for a few minutes, then wipe and 
rub vigorously for sometime with the dry 
hand. A certain remedy if used persever- 
ingly. 
Sick Headache.—Abandon the use of all 
food containing saleratus, and drink only cold 
sage tea, or lemonade, without much sugar 
If this fails then adopt and practice the fol- 
lowing 
Rules for the Dyspeptic.—Eat not a 
particle of anything oftener than three times 
per day; eat a quantity so small and of food 
so simple that it cannot disagree with the 
stomach; eat slowly, thankfully, and thoroughly 
masticate every morsel. Rub vigorously over 
the pit of the stomach for several minutes after every dinner. Never eat when very tired. 
Ten minutes perfect rest of body and mind be- 
fore eating will work wonders. Much butter, 
fat or greasy food, will be found to disagree, 
and generally much sweet food. These rules, 
with proper attention to the skin and bowels, 
are infallible. See articles on Bathing and 
Constipation. 
For Neuralgia. — Equalize the bodily 
temperature by taking two sweats or Turkish 
baths every day, followed every time by a 
vigorous hand bath in weak vinegar and salt. 
Have the diet simple, and practice deep, full 
breathing to arterialize the blood. 
To Destroy Warts.—Pare thin, apply 
for a few minutes a little common potash, and 
then squeeze out the seeds or little sacks of 
glairy matter. 
Paste for Corns and Warts.—One- 
fourth pound potash, one drachm of extract 
of belladonna, two drachms gum arabic, dis- 
solved in warm water and made into a paste 
with wheat flour. Pare the corn or wart, 
spread a little of the paste upon it, and you 
can soon remove it. Then apply a little 
vinegar to neutralize the potash, and soften 
with a little sweet oil. 
Laxatives, or Mild Cathartics.— A 
spoonful of Indian meal in a tumbler of cold 
water, taken on rising in the morning. 
2d. Tea of dandelion root or a pill of the 
solid extract of the root. 
3d. Syrup or pill made from butternut bark. 
4th. Powdered root of mandrake, twenty 
grains. 
5th. Tincture of rhubarb and fluid extract 
of senna, equal parts; one teaspoonful. 
72 6th. Conserve of rose leaves. 
More active cathartics should rarely if ever 
be given. 
Note.—The above dose of mandrake is for adults. 
Hestorative Wine Bitters.—For gen- 
eral debility, female weakness, and nervous 
complaints. Golden seal two ounces, bitter 
root one ounce, ladies slipper one-half ounce, 
popple bark two drachms, and African cay- 
enne one-lialf drachm. Pulverize and add 
one gallon good wine. Dose, one spoonful 
three times a day. 
Nature’s Pomade.— Wet the head and 
rub the scalp vigorously every day, using on- 
ly a coarse comb and brush upon the hair. 
This course will preserve the hair soft and 
luxuriant. 
Hot Drops.—For chills, colic, indigestion 
and any sudden attack of pain or disease, 
tincture of myrrh, African cayenne, essence 
of sassafras and essence of peppermint, of 
each, an ounce, all put together. Dose— 
from ten to thirty drops in one-third cup of 
warm water sweetened to the taste. 
Wash for the Teeth. — Dissolve two 
ounces borax in three pints water; before 
quite cold add one teaspoonful tincture of 
myrrh and one table spoonful of spirits of 
camphor; bottle for use. Half a wine glass 
added to a small cup of warm water is suffi- 
cient for each application. Use once or 
twice per day. The mouth should always be 
well rinsed and cleaned after eating. Ivory, 
or goose quill makes the best tooth pick. 
Anything harder injures the enamel. 
Catarrh.—The majority of all the people 
73 74 
in so-called civilized nations arc more or less 
troubled by this complaint. It is caused in 
its worst and most offensive forms by loss of 
vitality through the social or solitary vice. The 
very icorst forms will, I think, be found as the 
result of the solitary vice. The immediate cause 
of catarrh is checked perspiration, usually styled 
“catching cold.” But persons of deficient 
vitality and impure blood are the ones who 
take cold most frequently. While pure blood 
courses freely through all the veins and arteries 
a cold is seldom or never contracted. For a 
permanent cure one must sometimes, by a 
life-long devotion to nature’s laws, overcome 
a hereditary disease; but the complaint may 
be greatly relieved by the following rules : 
Abolish the use of all sweet food and drinks 
and all hot drinks. Eat meat (flesh) only 
twice per week. Bub the entire surface of the 
body and limbs twice or more per week vig- 
orously with the hand dipped in cold water, 
dipping the hand and then rubbing a small 
part till the hand and skin are dry and warm; 
then dip the hand and rub another part till 
the entire surface is completed. An attend- 
ant should rub the back. In the absence of 
an attendant draw a long towel back and 
forth over the surface. Avoid heated rooms, 
feather beds, heavy bed clothing, and impure 
air. Be much as possible in open air. Sniff 
cold water daily; and if the discharge is very 
offensive, then use once or twice per week a 
solution of the permanganate of potash. If 
the head aches and much mucous or matter 
collects in the nasal passages and throat, pour 
very warm water upon the forehead for five or 
ten minutes at a time. This will give imme- 75 
diate relief. The water may be used at a 
temperature of 115 deg. Fahrenheit. A 
healthy condition of the digestive organs is 
necessary. In an enfeebled condition of the 
system a mild tonic may be useful. See the 
recipe for Restorative Wine Bitters. Ca- 
tarrh snuffs are seldom of much benefit. 
The best kind is powdered poke root. Two 
or three drops of camphor should be rubbed 
into a small vial of the powder to preserve it. 
Do not sit upon damp seats nor expose the 
person to damp cold storms. Keep tlxe feet 
warm and dry. 
Gum Plaster.—Three parts hemlock and 
one part white pine. Melt and strain; spread 
on thin leather and apply warm. Good for 
lame back caused by straining or lifting. For 
debility or weakness of the spine, ’tis better 
to apply the following 
Liniment.—Oil of wormwood, oil of hem- 
lock and aqua-ammonia, of each two ounces; 
oil of spearmint, one-half ounce, and alcohol 
one pint. Rub in vigorously with the palm 
of the hand daily. Useful in rheumatism and 
chilblains. 
For Night and Cold Sweats.—Bathe the 
whole surface of the skin with strong tea of 
sweet fern. ’Tis a pleasant application 
and very efficacious. The same is good to 
drink in a weakened and relaxed condition of 
the stomach and bowels. 
Genuine Hair Tonic.—Sugar of lead and 
lac sulphur, of each one ounce; oil of berga- 
mot one-half ounce; bay rum one gill; and 
salt one teaspoonful. Dissolve the oil of 
bergamot in half a gill of alcohol; then add 
all the ingredients to one gallon of rain wa- 76 
ter, and bottle tight. Rub it into the scalp 
thoroughly once per day. This is second 
only to Nature’s Pomade, which has been al- 
ready given. 
Cosmetic.— Wash in lemon juice, wipe 
dry and apply a preparation of one ounce 
tincture of benzoine in one pint of soft or 
distilled water. This preparation emits an 
agreeable perfume. The above is good to 
prevent freckles. For pimples, wash the 
surface in a solution of corrosive sublimate, 
one grain to an ounce of water. This is poi- 
sonous, and is chiefly useful to destroy animal- 
cules that sometimes burrow beneath the 
skin. Keep the bottle plainly labelled. 
Elegant Pomade. — Spermaceti tallow 
one part, and oil of sweet almonds four parts, 
perfumed with a few drops of oil of eitron- 
ella, lavendar or bergamot. Melt together 
slowly and stir till cold. When the articles 
arc pure there is no nicer preparation made. 
Eruption Wash.—Poke root and yellow 
dock root, equal parts, pulverized and mixed. 
Put a large spoonful of the powder in a pint 
of vinegar; let it stand' a few hours, then 
use twice per day. With sufficient attention 
paid to bathing and cleanliness it will soon 
remove all troublesome skin diseases. 
Best Cancer Plaster. — Heads of red 
clover and yarrow, of each a bushel; boil 
together in a large kettle for two hours, strain 
and squeeze out all the liquid, then boil down 
to the consistency of tar, and preserve for 
use in a well stopped bottle or jar. 
No. 2.—Press the juice from wood sorrel, 
and evaporate either in the sun or by means 
of the water bath. 77 
No. 3.—A similar extract made by leaching 
the ashes of hickory, or the oak, and evap- 
orating the lye forms a good vegetable caustic. 
The secret for making cancer plaster No. 
3 has been sold for fifty dollars. Either of 
the others is. superior. 
Poultices are often useful to reduce in- 
flammation. They should be changed often 
enough to keep them soft and moist. Ground 
flaxseed or flaxseed meal is much used for 
poultice, either alone or mixed with powdered 
slippery elm bark. They are generally 
mixed with warm water. When several 
ingredients are used they should be well 
mixed in the powder before wetting. Pow- 
dered charcoal and yeast form excellent in- 
gredients with flaxseed or elm for cleansing 
gangrenous ulcers. For indurated and in- 
flamed mammae (breasts,) the powdered root 
of white pond lilly and slippery elm, equal 
parts, mixed in warm milk or water is a nice 
poultice. 
Capt. Anderson’s recipe for the dedkkaed 
as a substitute for his drachm: Sulph. Ferri. 
(sulphate of iron) five grains, magnesia ten 
grains, peppermint water eleven drachms, 
and spirit of nutmeg one drachm. Taken 
twice per day. 
liemedy for the tobacco chewer : Sub- 
stitute for a season the leaves of red plantain, 
and meanwhile exert the whole force of your 
moral nature to rise to the equipoise of true 
manhood. 
Venomous Bites. — Onion, tobacco and 
salt, equal parts, made into a poultice and 
applied to the bite of a rattlesnake or mad 
dog is said to effect cures. 78 
Rheumatism and Rheumatic Fever.— 
These complaints are induced by the old 
practice of giving mercury, antimony and 
other mineral poisons; by sudden exposure 
to cold and damp air after violent exercise; 
and by improper digestion. sometimes 
been remarked that persons subject to inflam- 
matory rheumatism are generally self-willed 
and obstinate. If the farmer is too tenacious 
of his purpose to leave his field work when 
the damp, cold storm approaches, nature will 
sooner or later demand a sacrifice of his phy- 
sical comfort. The excruciating pain of rheu- 
matism may often be greatly relieved by the 
warm vapor bath. When the patient is 
able to sit up and be moved, place him in a 
chair, surrounded by blankets, and set be- 
neath the chair a bucket of boiling water. 
After a few minutes put carefully into the 
hot water so as not to scald the patient, a 
common brick heated very hot, and thus con- 
tinue the sweating for twenty or thirty min- 
utes. Then pour suddenly over the patient a 
jug of cold water, or sop quickly with sponge 
or cloth, and rub him all over vigorously 
with a dry towel and the dry hand. Have 
the room comfortably warm. 
To steam a patient in bed, heat two or 
more bricks very hot, wrap them with coarse 
flannels soaked in vinegar and place them in 
the bed upon plates near the patient. After 
the steaming rub the patient over, first with 
a damp or wet cloth and afterwards with the 
dry. Always work briskly when rubbing 
and never chill the patient. Repeat the 
bath in twelve or twenty-four hours if neces- 
sary. 79 
An alcoholic bath may be given by burn- 
ing alcohol in a saucer under the chair in- 
stead of using the boiling water. Set the sau- 
cer on the floor with a few spoonfuls of alco- 
hol in it; set the alcohol on fire and keep the 
blankets closed around chair and patient. 
Rye pudding or mush is a good diet for 
rheumatic patients. 
Many persons are able to predict storms 
by the pain in their bones. When mercury 
is stricken from the list of remedies, as it 
soon will be, we shall have fewer walking 
barometers. 
Baldness. — To prevent, keep the feet 
warm, and wear light caps and hats with a 
few little holes in the top, and use the re- 
ceipt for “Nature’s Pomade.” To cure—put 
one gill of peach meats, pounded fine, into a 
pint of vinegar, bottle, and apply with soft 
brush three times per day. 
Bukns and Scalds.— A prompt remedy 
is doubly efficacious; therefore, study this 
subject here and elsewhere till you have the 
requisite knowledge at your command. Chil- 
dren can be early taught the nature of fire by 
little attention. Allow them to feel it a little 
too hot for comfort till they are willing to 
leave it alone. A small burn is far prefera- 
ble to a large one. To check the progress of 
the burn soon as possible after the visible fire 
is extinguished, exclude the air. This may be 
done with folds of linen and almost any oint- 
ment or oily substance, as cream, lard, sweet, 
linseed, or castor oil. But the two applica- 
tions most highly recommended are soft soap, 
and an ointment made of pulverized charcoal 
and lard. Essence of peppermint may be more painful at the instant, but is an excel- 
lent application. 
Enlarged Tonsils. — Excision (cutting 
out) is of doubtful utility. The tendency is 
to grow less as the patient becomes older. 
Endeavor to improve the general health by hy- 
gienic measures. 
Cold Cream.—A very excellent article 
for the hands, lips, &c. Oil of sweet almonds, 
two ounces; white wax and spermaceti, of 
each one drachm; melt gradually, and while 
warm add rose water, two ounces, and or- 
ange-dower water, half an ounce. Stir while 
cooling. 
To Remove Freckles.—One ounce each 
of alum and lemon juice in a pint of rose 
water. Apply twice per day. 
Rose Water.—Otto of roses twelve drops; 
white sugar half an ounce; magnesia two 
drachms ; pure soft water one quart; alcohol 
two ounces. Rub the otto of roses with the 
sugar and magnesia, and gradually add the 
water and alcohol, previously mixed, and fil- 
ter the whole through paper. 
Best Face Powder. — Levigated talc 
passed through a silk sieve. This is not dis- 
colored by the perspiration of the skin or by 
impure air. 
A Graduated test for tiie Freshness 
of Eggs.—Eggs perfectly fresh and new will 
lie down flat in a dish of water. As they 
begin to grow old the large end rises by de- 
grees according to the age of the egg till it 
stands erect and finally rises to the top of the 
water. An egg that stands erect is too old 
for use. 
Sore Nipples.—These often cause great 
80 discomfort. To prevent, wash frequently for 
several weeks previous to confinement with 
tea of nut-galls or sweet fern. To relieve 
and cure, apply a mixture of glycerine and 
yolk of egg well mixed in a cup or mortar 
once or twice per day. Use, by weight, four 
parts yolk of egg to five parts glycerine. 
This is harmless to the infant and can be ea- 
sily removed with water. 
Milk.—This is the most perfect nutriment 
for the young of the human race and the high- 
er classes of animals, and is furnished in a 
manner which confers upon both giver and 
recipient the most placid enjoyment and hap- 
piness. It contains caserne, from which cheese 
is made, a fatty principle, (butter,) a peculiar 
sugar, (sugar of milk,) and various mineral 
salts, which enter into the structure of bone, 
blood and brain. Cow’s milk contains three 
times more caseim than human milk; hence 
the necessity of diluting the former with two 
parts water when used as a substitute for the 
latter. Sweet tvherj sometimes serves a bet- 
ter purpose than the entire milk, especially if 
the infant’s stomach is weak. Cows are often 
diseased more or less. Their health and the 
health of mothers should be carefully looked 
after. The color, odor and taste of the milk 
is changed by the food of the animal. Anger 
of the mother will sometimes render the milk 
poisonous to the infant. The secretions of the 
body are all changed by different states of 
mind. Platonic and universal love can alone 
ensure the highest and most perfect develop- 
ment. 
Best Cosmetic.—Temperance, and purity, 
a life in harmony with nature’s laws. 
81 INDEX. 
Page. 
Apple Cream, 68 
Alcoholic Bath, 79 
A Critical Essay on 
Bath, alcoholic 79 
Bath, vapor 78 
the Nature and 
Uses of Tobacco 32 
Bread, 20, 56, 58 
Bread-making, 20 
Bandaging the In- 
fant’s Body, 26 
Bitters, 73 
Best Cancer Plas- 
ters, 76, 77 
Bites, 77 
Bathing, 11 
Baldness, 79 
Burns and Scalds, 79 
Best Cosmetic, 81 
Best Face Powder, 80 
Blanc-mange, 59 
Baked Milk, 68 
Cancer Plasters, 
76, 77 
Constipation, 23 
Cathartics, 72, 73 
Cold Feet, 71 
Page. 
Causes of Disease, 
70, 17 
Catarrh, 73, 74, 75 
Cosmetic, 70 
Cosmetic, best 81 
Cold Cream, 80 
Cracked Wheat, 63 
Crusts for Pies, 50 
Custard, 68 
Difference of green 
and black Tea, 26 
Dyspepitc, rules 
for 71 
Disease of the Ear 53 
Disease, causes of 
70, 71 
Danger from check- 
ed perspiration, 15 
Eruptive wash, 76 
Elegant Pomade, 76 
Ear, 53 
Enlarged Tonsils, 80 
Egg Test, 80 
Face Powder, 80 
Freckles, 80 
Gems, 57, 58 
Graham Biscuit, 57 83 
Page. 
Gruel and other 
preparations for 
65 ‘85 ‘>Pls OHl 
Grains, whole 66, 67 
Griddle Cakes, 69 
Gum Plaster, 75 
Health, rules for 
8 to 18 
Health, remarks 
on 5 to 8 
How to safely re- 
move wet cloth- 
ing, 12 
How to use and pre- 
serve the teeth, 16 
How to prepare 
gruel, porridge, 
&c., 28, 29 
How to purify the 
air of the sick 
room, 30 
Hemorrhoids or 
Piles, 52 
Hygienic Pood, 55 
Headache, 71 
Hot Drops, 73 
Hominy, 59 
Infants, care of 25 
Importance of light, 
31 
Importance of mas- 
tication, 54, 15 
Laxatives, 72, 73 
Liniment, 7 5 
Labor, 70 
Milk, 81 
Tage. 
Mushes, 58 
Neuralgia, 72 
Nipples, sore, 80, 81 
Nursing, or care 
for the sick, 26 
Nosebleed, 53 
Nature’s Pomade, 73 
Night and Cold 
Sweats, 75 
Nine Pules for 
Health, 8 to 18 
Obstinate Ulcers 53 
Purity of Blood, 54 
Permanganate of 
Potash, 55 
Pimples, 76 
Pie Crusts, 59 
Pies, 60, 61, 62 
Pomade, 73 
Puddings, 62, 63 
Preparations for 
the Sick, 28, 29 
Rules for Health, 
8 to 18 
Rule for bathing, 11 
Rule for Sleep, 19 
Rules for the Dys- 
peptic, 71 
Recipes and Pre- 
scriptions, 71 
Restorative Wine 
Bitters, 73 
Recipe for the 
Drunkard, 77 
Remedy for the 
tobacco chewer, 77 84 
Page. 
Rheumatism and 
Rheumatic fever 78 
Rice Soup, 67 
Rose Water, 80 
Rusk, 50 
Rye and Indian 
Bread, 67 
Scrofula 22 
Salt Rheum, 23 
Sick Headache, 71 
Sore Nipples, 80, 81 
Samp, 59 
Soup, rice 67 
Steamed Bread, 67 
Strawberry Short- 
cake, 69 
Test for eggs, 80 
Things to be avoid- 
ed in diet, 12 
Page. 
The sense of vis- 
ion, 21 
Thorough masti- 
cation essential, 
15, 54 
To stop nosebleed 53 
To destroy warts, 72 
To remove freck- 
les, 80 
Valuable Recipes 
and Prescrip- 
tions, 71 
Vegetables, G4, 65, 66 
Worms, 50 
Wash for teeth, 73 
Wash for Leucor- 
rhcea, 55 
Warm vapor bath 78