Copyright 1897, 
BY 
O. A. PALMER. PHYSICAL PERFECTION, 
BY 
xA\\ 
O. A. PALMER, Ph. D., M. D. 
BATE PROFESSOR OF HYGIENE IN THE WESTERN 
RESERYE COEEEGE. FORMERLY PROFES- 
SOR OF GENERAL MEDICINE AND 
DISEASES OF THE EYE AND 
EAR IN ST. LOUIS CITY 
HOSPITAL, MISSOURI. 
WARREN, O. : 
FRANK W. PERRY, PUBLISHER. 
1897. PREFACE. 
This little volume deals with subjects of no 
little importance to every man, woman and child. 
It has been written with a great desire to make 
it useful in the w7ork of physical and mental 
improvement. My aim is not so much to unfold 
new principles as to popularize those already 
established, and to show, to some extent, their 
practical application in health and disease. 
These pages have been written in thoughtful 
earnestness, and if I shall succeed in awakening 
an interest in the great subject of natural and 
diseased life, I shall not have labored in vain. CONTENTS* 
page. 
Chapter I—Life 5 
“ II—The Will 10 
“ III—Sensible Etiquette 10 
“ IV—General Thoughts 20 
“ V—Sensations 33 
“ VI—Nutrition 39 
“ VII—Appetite 44 
" VIII—Indigestion 51 
“ IX—Taking Cold 58 
“ X—Cold Hands and Feet 60 
“ XI—Exercise 72 
“ XII—Air 78 
“ XIII—Water 85 
“ XIV—Personal Beauty 91 
“ XV—Sleeping and Dreaming 106 
“ XVI—Sight 113 
“ XVII—Insanity 125 
“ XVIII—Heart Disease 134 
“ XIX—Infant Feeding 144 
“ XX—Foods 149 
“ XXI-Natural Cure 162 
“ XXII— Diseases in General 181 
“ XXIII—Natural Death 208 THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
TO MY WIFE, 
AUSTINE S. PALMER, 
WHO HAS RENDERED VALUABLE ASSISTANCE 
IN ITS PREPARATION. LIFE. 
** Life is the happiest gift of God; 
And the human body is the best of Nature’s hand- 
iwork.”— Hale. 
Life is the force causing the phenomena 
of organized beings; it is the power by 
which an organism exists. Dr, Draper 
says that life is “a self-conscious and 
immortal principle which animates this 
machine.” It is not an easy matter to 
define life, and nature is likely to keep 
the secret to herself. This formative 
force holds the thread from the first to 
the last point of life, and we know it 
only by its effects. There has been much 
investigation as to the source of life. 
One class of thinkers believe it to be 
the result of vital operations, and that 
it is to be explained upon chemical prin- 
ciples. Another class believe that the 
vital spark is a thingbeyond our knowl- 
edge, and without the province of human 
reason. I believe that life is a supernat- 
ural gift, and is from God. 
This organic life is perceived by its 6 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
results in every person. It gives us the 
power of self-preservation, and enables 
all animals to resist the power of nox- 
ious and injurious changes. It is this 
force that enables the living body to 
perform every process that is necessary 
to make a healthy individual. Every 
person is born with a certain amount of 
it, which is capable of increase or de- 
crease, according as the conditions are 
favorable or unfavorable. 
In the human body there are two 
kinds of forces which work against each 
other. They are called the vital and 
chemical, respectively. The vital or life 
force is that power which forms from a 
single cell, the entire body. Every thing 
we eat, drink or breathe, if in a perfect 
condition, is used by this force to better 
the condition of our existence. The 
chemical force is the cause of the decline 
of the body, and is the destroyer which 
produces any kind of change, from a 
state of health, to disease and death. 
Health, then, is a forced state of being, 
which consists in the maintenance of the 
proper equilibrium between the life force, 
which builds, and the chemical, which 
destroys. Wherever we find life, it is 
governed by certain conditions. As we 
have said, if they are favorable, it is sup- 
ported and increased, and if unfavora- 
ble, it is decreased, if not entirely lost. LIFE. 
7 
This will be illustrated by the possibil- 
ities of a kernel of corn. 
A certain chemist requested an apt 
pupil to put together the elements of a 
kernel of corn, and prepare it for plant- 
ing. After some experimenting,the pupil 
concluded that the elements were all 
right, but that something was lacking, 
and he soon determined that the some- 
thing was the force, or life principle, that 
is received only from the Maker’s hand. 
Had this student possessed the power 
to form this kernel, and had he planted 
it in rich soil, observing all its laws of 
growth, moisture, light, heat, cultiva- 
tion, etc., it would have developed into 
a fine stalk, with possibly two large ears 
of corn. So, this little life force, under 
proper care, has been made to grow not 
only a great stalk, but to stamp many 
kernels with the same reproductive 
powers. Now if this same kernel were 
planted under unfavorable conditions, it 
might start and try its best to live, but, 
sooner or later, it would have to die, be- 
cause it was not favored with the neces- 
sary conditions of life. 
The conclusion is thus drawn that the 
life force is dependent upon conditions. 
It is not possessed by all persons in an 
equal degree. In some it is strong, giv- 
ing health and great power of existence, 
while in others it is feeble, causing a 8 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
weak body, disease, and, eventually, 
death. It has been thought that this 
living force has a central seat, from 
which it sends vitality to every part of 
the body, but this is untrue. We find 
that each cell or structure has its own 
life within itself, and the power to use it, 
and to supply its place with another cell 
when it is gone. As is this life principle, 
so is the body, and it is beyond question 
that every influence has its effect, whether 
for good or evil. 
One writer says that the body is crys- 
talized spirit. To every thinking mind, 
then, it will be easy to see that the better 
care we take of this formative force, the 
better we will be spiritually and physic- 
ally. If we desire physical perfection,we 
must cultivate every condition that will 
conduce to health. We should not live 
contrary to the laws of life, but learn 
what they are, and obey them. 
In treating disease we often find the 
life force so nearly gone that only a rem- 
nant is left of the once grand structure. 
After the earthy part of man was 
formed, God gave him the breath of life, 
which has come down through the ages 
as a great vitalizing and preserving prin- 
ciple. 
In the beginning, man was made per- 
fect in the image of his Maker, and that 
perfection is his heritage and should not FIFE. 
9 
be allowed to deteriorate. It would not 
require much thought or effort to pre- 
serve this perfect condition, if, in the 
beginning, all our habits were correctly 
formed, so that no law of our being was 
disobeyed; the struggle against disease 
would not be so great. 
In the condition called perfect health, 
all the processes of the body are uncon- 
sciously performed, we live without sens- 
ing our existence, and as soon as dis- 
ease comes, we .sense our unhealthy liv- 
ing and long for relief. When we con- 
sider that perfect health is a condition 
of perfect happiness, we can comprehend 
the importance of perfect living. THE WILL, 
God made thee perfect, not immutable; 
And good he made thee, but to persevere, 
He left it in thy power; ordained thy will 
By nature free, not over-ruled by fate. 
—Milton. 
A great deal is being said today about 
“bull-dog tenacity, unflinching purpose, 
indomitable will,” etc.', but we are bold 
to say that we doubt if the persons who 
go about using these terms so carelessly 
realize the significance of what they are 
saying. The strength that lies in the 
silent forces of thought, the subtle, in- 
tangible power called will, can be dilated 
upon ad infinitum. And yet they are 
familiar terms, every-day expressions, 
which still convey little of their true 
meaning to uncomprehending ears, for, 
surely, if a larger proportion of human- 
ity’s struggling mass understood the 
practical part this force plays in life’s 
drama, a larger proportion would strive 
to develop this power, if they had it by 
nature, and to acquire it if they have it THE WILL. 
11 
not. Great powers may result in failure 
because of irresolution, and mediocre 
abilities attain the most brilliant success 
because of strength of will. 
Will means character, which dies with 
its absence. One family will have no 
brilliant attributes, yet always be re- 
spected for their decision of character, 
and another will sparkle with talents 
galore, yet we do not value their opinion; 
their advice has no effect upon us even 
though good, and although the same 
line of arguments from one of stronger 
will might convince. Like Meredith’s 
Lord Yargrave, their lives 
“ Though in all things so gifted and skilled, 
May be yet but a promise, with nothing fulfilled.” 
There is no permanent excellence in the 
individual who, when the hour of temp- 
tation comes, has no will to resist it. 
Temptation is the crucial test of charac- 
ter. There is no merit in well doing if 
there is no temptation to sin. And yet 
this same coveted power of will may lie 
a great blessing or a greater curse; com- 
bined with the powers of evil it has 
formed some of the worst characters of 
the world’s history, it depends upon its 
relation to other qualities, whether it 
maybe regarded as an unmixed blessing. 
A terrible determination to perform evil 12 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION'. 
deeds has at times seemed to conquer 
right and throw doubt upon the glorious 
truth, that good is ever stronger than 
evil, which has no reality, and is but 
a shadow. 
We would speak here of the habit of 
critical self-analysis, which when formed, 
is “a consummation devoutly to be 
wished.” It is an obsolete idea today 
that all criticism of character is essen- 
tially hostile. We have come to study 
character scientifically, as we would 
play a hand at whist, for the intellectual 
pleasure of it, and when applied to self, 
it becomes of vital importance. All men 
have their weak points, and to know 
our own is to prevent other people from 
playing upon them. 
In such analysis, the will power must 
ever rank as first numeral. Upon it de- 
pend all other traits and their relative 
value. In the course of such a self-exam- 
ination we may exhume many unpleas- 
ant facts, but this is not the point to 
desist, but rather to continue unflinch- 
ingly. “ Know, then, thyself; presume 
not God to scan. The greatest study of 
mankind is man.” Too often it is neg- 
lected, this study of self, family, and 
especially children. The future of a child 
can be forecast with a tolerable degree 
of accuracy, in the ratio of a greater or 
less degree of will power. If .it is THE WILL. 
13 
possessed of a strong determination, 
the never-give-up quality, itcan safely be 
placed where its fortunes are controlled 
by its own efforts. If weak of purpose, 
it had better be allowed to run in a cer- 
tain groove, where, for a said amount of 
labor it receives a said sum, and no 
demand be made upon it beyond its 
powers. 
“I may fail now, but I shall not surren- 
der; I will rise to the top; I will com- 
mand success,” are magic words that 
will accomplish wonders. A man who 
will see where his faults lie, and l'emedy 
them, can “climb the sunlight heights,” 
but he who is entirely satisfied that the 
fault lies entirely with others, will re- 
main “forever in the valley.” He is 
stricken with the devil’s palsy of self-ap- 
probation, and will never achieve any- 
thing worth the doing. He has no 
glimmerings that “knowledge is power,” 
nor does he know the delights of a well- 
stored mind. 
“Genius,” some one has said, “is sim- 
ply a capacity for hard work,” for that 
sustained, steady drive, which is the real 
test of ability. A great many people go 
about the world bragging of the smat- 
tering somethings which they have done, 
and expecting to receive great consider- 
ation therefore, in utter ignorance of the 
sorry figure they cut as compared to 14 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
these real-in-earnest people who have 
moved mountains. 
Gribbon said that “every person has 
two educations—one which he receives 
from others, and one which hegives him- 
self.” Upon this later topic we would 
dwell a moment. It is an unhappy fact 
that few, so very few, realize the impor- 
tance of this matter of self-education. 
Great and essential as are the founda- 
tions of the early education, still greater 
and still more essential are the princi- 
ples of the later education which every 
individual should give him or herself. 
First, he should know himself, that crit- 
ical self-analysis which involves such a 
keen detection of petty defects and larger 
faults as well as a recognition of strong 
points, and how to make the most of 
them, then, having this knowledge, to 
possess or acquire the resolute will to 
rise to the situation ; to control,govern, 
master. . “To be right in great memor- 
able moments is perhaps the thing we 
need most wish for ourselves,” said 
George Eliott. And great moments are 
the sudden test of long forming charac- 
ter. To be strong in the hour of bitter 
need, when the very life’s strings seem 
strained, is to be strong indeed. At such 
times as this, there sometimes appears 
in quiet people, a reserve will power or 
force, which only sudden emergency can THE WILL. 
15 
call out, and which inspires to great and 
heroic deeds. This is never the product 
of a weak nature, but self-culture, which 
is its own reward, is its creative element. 
“This above all—to thine own self be true, 
And then it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou caust not be false to any man.” 
Yet another matter remains to be eon- 
sidered,and that is thephysical strength 
which goes with the resolute will. It is 
of small use putting a man with a strong 
consumptive tendency to an office life in 
a crowded city, with badly ventilated 
rooms for a background. The will 
power could hardly stave off the break- 
down which would be sure to come un- 
der such circumstances. 
It has been said that “everything is 
possible to a man with a good diges- 
tion,” and there is “more truth than 
poetry” in this statement. The person 
who starts out in life with defective 
digestive organs is heavily handicapped. 
They can do less work, and with greater 
effort, than one whose stomach is strong. 
Persons who are unable to sleep well are 
as irritable as dyspeptics. There have 
been a few instances of great men (nota- 
bly that of Napoleon, who throve upon 
four hours of sleep,) who have been able 
to get through an enormous amount of 16 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
work with no corresponding amount of 
rest, but the ordinary individual de- 
mands the regulation amount of “na- 
ture’s sweet restorer” to preserve good 
health. 
In diseases which are compatible with 
recovery, the influence of the will is as 
potent as elsewhere. It often makes the 
difference between life and death. “You 
must have a blister or you will die,” said 
her physician to the Duchess of Marl- 
borough. “ I will not have a blister on, 
and I will not die,” said the redoubtable 
Sarah, and she did neither. A strong 
motive to live, in reality keeps some peo- 
ple alive, while none at all produces a 
complete lack of resistance, which is 
fatal. The will power stands in some 
curious relations to the nervous system. 
In cases of imaginerv diseases, the 
patient is sometimes highly intelligent, 
but a disorder of the will takes place, 
which in turn creates a bodily disease in 
which it finds expression. When the will 
is entirely in abeyance, chronic melan- 
choly is the result, which, in a stronger 
form, is insanity. When the will fails, 
the battle is lost. 
Mind controls matter to an extent 
that few people outside of the so-called 
Christian Scientists recognize, yet it is a 
common fact of physiognomy that the 
character is written on the face in letters THE WILL. 
17 
of fire, to him who knows how to read. 
Treachery lurks in the shifting, uneasy 
eye, about the lines of the irresolute 
mouth, or honor sits enthroned upon a 
lofty brow, and unflinching integrity 
closes the firm lips. 
That hatred, jealousy, rage, grief and 
fear will swiftly cause indigestion, dys- 
pepsia, headache, fever and derangement 
of the heart, is equally admitted. The 
reflection of evil passions or lovely 
thoughts upon the body is as sure as the 
sun shines. Who does not know that a 
mad fit of anger will cause fever, head- 
ache, hysteria? And who does not know 
that love and happiness are greater pro- 
moters of health than all the drugs in 
chrisendom? 
Why does a conscientious physician 
prescribe, along with sunshine, flowers 
and fresh air, cleanliness and godliness, 
that these tiresome pessimists who are 
eternally chattering of disease, danger 
and death, be kept out. The breezy, 
cheerful doctor, whose eve beams with 
encouragement, and whose very pres- 
ence inspires hope, works magic cures. 
The patient remarks : “I always feel so 
much better after Doctor So-and-So’s 
visit; it does me good to see him.” 
If the English speaking people would 
accompany the handshake with an utter- 
ance of a cheerful thought instead of the 18 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
everlasting inquiry about health, health 
would be more apt to stay by them. 
“As a man thinketh so is he.’’ SENSIBLE ETIQUETTE. 
“ Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us 
To see oursels as others see us.” 
Burns’ modification of the golden rule 
as well as the whole strength of the 
divine rule itself, may be said to be the 
basic principles of all true politeness. 
Manners and morals are closely allied, 
and a society where bad manners prevail 
will never be pervaded by a high moral 
tone. It is only the ill-bred who fail to 
recognize the importance of these truths. 
A writer has said that as savages know 
nothing of the virtues of forgiveness, 
and think those wanting in spirit who 
are not revengeful, so the underbred do 
not understand undue civilities extended 
to promote the general interests of so- 
ciety. 
How often do we meet those people 
who have not the slightest comprehen- 
sion of the nobility of nature which 
makes an instant apology for a con- 
scious wrong an imperative necessity. 20 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
They proudly affirm that they would 
never “crawl” to any one, not knowing 
that it is to preserve the harmony of 
unbroken self respect that the individual 
makes the effort. 
We have heard the small civilities called 
the “cheap bought grace of life,” and 
what a delicate poetry does the grace 
of perfect breeding lend to the character 
of a friend, softening often the too rugged 
prominence of strong virtues, and mak- 
ing us forget great faults or petty foibles ! 
If they be absent or dead we cast regret- 
ful thoughts back to them. The charm 
lingers over their memory like a faint 
perfume that refuses to fade. The mem- 
ory of them will be ever 
“Like a vase in which roses have once been dis- 
tilled— 
You may break, you may shatter the vase if you 
will, 
But the scent of the roses hangs over it still.’’ 
The little amenities being born of love, 
human or divine, come next to it, and 
make life endurable and worth the 
living, often when there is nothing else. 
When we observehow unlovely,how un- 
attractive, men and women can make 
themselves; when their conduct gives 
evidence of that want of self respect 
which alone leads men to rush in where 
“ angels fear to tread,” we will have suf- SENSIBLE ETIQUETTE. 
21 
ficient excuse, we think, for the follow- 
ing. 
There is a class of people who effect to 
despise etiquette, and take pleasure in 
outraging its rules, nav even more, we 
are loth to admit it, but this class is not 
confined to the illiterate. We have in 
mind now, a man of splendid genius and 
great abilities, which would certainly fit 
him for high places, who is now, and 
always will be, held down simply and 
solely by his utter boorishness of man- 
ner, yes, and by his neglect, too, of dress 
if you please. 
There are men, who, by sheer strength 
of intellect, will push their way, but 
their lack of culture in dress or manner 
is ever at the same time a millstone 
about their neck. Think of a man of 
gigantic brain, whose eminent position 
depended upon the vote of a number of 
men, being objected to, because he wore 
soiled garments, by an intellectual pigmy, 
who dwarfed into insignificance beside 
him. Yet we have known such a case in 
actual experience. 
It is not our purpose to write upon the 
details of social laws. Good books upon 
etiquette are accessible in any bookstore, 
and, standing in the light of these last 
illustrations, who shall dare to say they 
go for naught. Of course we are aware 
that there is an opposite danger. Men 22 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
of vile lives, low principles and black 
hearts, can often impose upon society 
with the veneering of a polished manner, 
but we make a nice distinction here. 
There are two classes of good manners. 
One springing entirely from a love of the 
world; a desire to be in “good form,” 
that one may mingle with a certain set. 
The other springing from the divine wish 
to make others happier; to reverse the 
sad story of “man’s inhumanity to 
man ; ” to do good unto others even as 
we would have it done unto us. 
The people who possess this latter 
class of good manners, recognize the fact 
that a courteous bow, a kindly smile, a 
warm handclasp, will sometimes brighten 
a whole dark day, in some life where 
there is much rain and little sunshine. 
They know, also, that slanderous ton- 
gues, biting sarcasms, unjust criticism, 
the judging of lives they know not of, 
are not attributes of the Christ, whose 
God-like adjuration, “ Let him among 
you, who is without sin, cast the first 
stone,” scattered abashed the crowd of 
scandal-mongers, and will ring through 
all eternity to the triumph of infinite 
charity. The first mentioned class are 
well known. Their good manners sit 
uneasily upon them like a new garment, 
they are easily caught off-guard, and 
their company smiles and attitudes de- SENSIBLE ETIQUETTE. 
23 
ceive no one. An auther has said that 
“ women may be as good as they ever 
were, but their manners are indisputably 
decaying.” 
The old theory of the “divinity that 
doth hedge a king,” was not more high 
than the divinity that should hedge a 
refined and pure woman. Have you 
never met a woman to whom a man un- 
consciously raises his hat, the act being 
perhaps as involuntary as anything he 
ever did in his life? This is due to the 
atmosphere of magnetic, unruffled lady- 
hood with which she encircles herself. 
The sway is purely spiritual as are all 
things that are lasting. If every woman 
could realize the power she could attain 
by the demanding of a certain amount 
of deference from men (a tax paid to her 
sex as it were), she would never will- 
ingly forfeit that privilege. Her influ- 
ence would be felt from the most 
well-bred gentleman, to the roughest 
workman. All alike would yield her the 
respect she asks for. What is the use of 
springing to open a door, place a chair, 
or raise a fallen handkerchief for a 
woman who is just as well pleased if 
you do none of these things ? 
There is a lesson, we believe, for all 
thoughtful women in this. Life is made 
up of details. The strong mind can 
afford to descend to them ; it is only a 24 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
weak one that fears to be narrowed by 
them. The man or woman who really 
loves beauty will cultivate it in the 
smallest thing around them. The study 
of the beautiful rightly undertaken is 
the study of God, and by its cultivation 
we approach Heaven. 
Every human being should cultivate 
good manners; they are an essence of 
the beautiful, and consequently of God. 
“ Self-denial is the attribute of the 
Christian, forgetfulness of self, that of 
the w'ell-bred.” Both are reflections of 
divinity. The more religion a man has 
the higher his moral character is devel- 
oped, and the more polite he will spon- 
taneously become, for true religion 
teaches him to forget himself, to love his 
neighbor, and to be kindly even to his 
enemy. 
Upon physical perfection depends all 
that is perfect in the mental. The per- 
fect body, perfectly controlled and tem- 
pered with right living, produces the 
perfect mind tempered with right 
thinking and crowned with wisdom. 
From this course of reasoning we deduct 
the fact that hygiene is an indispensable 
requisite to the higher education of the 
people. Ignorance of it is fatal to all 
alike. 
The physiological motto is: Educate 
a man for manhood, a woman for SENSIBLE ETIQUETTE. 
25 
womanhood, and both for humanity. 
In this lies the hope of the race. Then 
theories will not be simply theories, but 
the strong body can execute what the 
strong mind plans, and the flesh will 
not be weak where the spirit is willing. 
We can honestly say that we may 
“Do noble things, not dream them all day long, 
And so make life, death, and the vast hereafter 
One grand, sweet song.” GENERAL THOUGHTS, 
It should be well understood bv all 
that the bowels and kidneys are the 
organs intended by nature for the re- 
moval of the refuse and waste of the 
system. No person can enjoy good 
health who does not see that these 
organs properly perform their functions. 
A healthy person, whose digestive 
organs are strong, should have a free 
discharge from the bowels once in 
twenty-four hours. There are some 
corpulent people who find two necessary 
in that length of time in order to avoid 
a dull headache and a sense of lethargy 
and oppression. There are exceptional 
cases of individuals who find once in 
forty-eight hours all that is necessary, 
but it is unsafe for anyone to allow a 
longer period than this. 
One of the strongest natural causes of 
disease is constipation of the bowels, 
which may be occasioned by causes 
which are manifold.. Highly seasoned 
and indigestable food, much fat or but- GENERAL THOUGHTS. 
27 
ter, warm bread, hot drinks, spirituous 
liquors, astringent wines, sedentary 
habits, lack of exercise, indolence, irreg- 
ularity of habits, late rising in the 
morning are numbered among them. 
Another very common cause is the habit 
of neglecting nature’s call, which may 
prove fatal. No matter how absorbed 
one may be in business or pleasure, this 
matter should receive immediate atten- 
tion and at a regular time. The dire 
and divers evils which arise from con- 
stipation are too numerous for mere 
mention, even within the limits of this 
chapter. Flatulence, no appetite, rest- 
less sleep, bad dreams, swelling of the 
bowels, headache, debility and convul- 
sions constitute a few. The evil should 
be overcome either by proper discipline 
or proper medical treatment. 
Fully as important as the above men- 
tioned difficulty is an irregular or 
insufficient action of the kidneys. The 
kidneys remove from the blood those 
effete matters which, if permitted to 
remain, would speedily destroy life. 
A total suspension of the urinary dis- 
charge will destroy life in from thirty-six 
to forty-eight hours. Under no circum- 
stances should this derangement be 
trifled with, nor should there be any 
delay in consulting a physician. 
The powerful sympathy existing 28 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
between mind and body makes it nec- 
essary that the conditions of mind be 
properly attended to. 
The brain, like the muscles of the body, 
must have exercise to remain healthy, 
but judicious and prudent exercise. No 
known disease works such terrible and 
speedy destruction to the human body 
as uncontrolled and violent human pas- 
sions. Love, one of the most powerful 
of these, and designed by the Infinite 
Wisdom to be productive of blessings 
and happiness, can by perversions of 
fear, jealousy and anxiety, be the source 
of terrible mischief to the brain and 
nervous system. The abnormal state of 
the brain in this case may undermine the 
constitution to such an extent as to pro- 
duce fatally, acute or hopelessly chronic 
diseases. 
Fear or dread is a powerful menial 
factor. There are instances on record 
where a terrible fear has produced im- 
mediate idiocy, changed the hair to 
sudden whiteness, or it fell from its 
roots, leaving the head bald. During an 
epidemic of some contagious disease, 
there can be no doubt that some people 
suffer and die with symptoms of the dis- 
order, who in reality do not have it 
at all. 
Anger is apt to be of sudden origin in 
excitable people, and exerts a most po- GENERAL THOUGHTS. 
29 
tent and damaging influence upon the 
system. Violent anger will produce the 
rupture ol a blood-vessel, convulsions, 
epilepsy, apoplexy and sudden death. 
To overcome a naturally, ungovernable 
temper requires a most resolute will, but 
it can be done, and the individual mak- 
ing the effort will be doubly repaid in 
the beneficial results. 
A person who is possessed of absolute 
control and dominion over themselves 
is possessed also of an ease and power 
that is utterly unknown to fractious 
natures—a power over others as well as 
themselves which may be productive of 
unlimited good. No attempt should 
ever be made to settle a dispute while in 
an irritated condition. Reason is prac- 
tically in abeyance and the attempt only 
makes matters worse. Get away from 
the scene of contention as soon as pos- 
sible; change the circulation by sitting 
if you are standing, or rise and walk 
about is a better way, if you are sit- 
ting. A drink of cold water is often a 
help, and people of inflammable temper- 
aments should avoid the use of intoxi- 
cating drinks and stimulating foods. A 
mother can never govern her child wisely 
unless she first governs herself, and 
having done that she will do well to 
train and influence the child and not 
govern it at all. 30 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
Grief is more a passive than an active 
state and is less a question of will than 
the other. We cannot help grieving, but 
when it is observed that it is producing 
a slow but none the less sure undermin- 
ing effect upon the constitution, it 
should be controlled to the greatest pos- 
sible extent. It exerts a debilitating 
influence upon the whole system and 
often occasions sleeplessness, loss of 
memory and premature old age. Grief 
is a most difficult passion to overcome, 
and all possible aid should be given a 
patient in struggling with it. The mind 
should be kept diverted with cheerful 
conversation, pleasant books, congenial 
companions, etc., and if possible, travel, 
involving change of scenes, atmosphere 
and mode of life. 
“Joy seldom kills,” is an old saying 
and a true one. It rather exerts a san- 
itary influence upon the body and causes 
an increased action of the various 
organic functions. Sometimes, however, 
especially when preceded by great de- 
pression, it approaches hysteria, occa- 
sioning wild laughter, tears, etc. In this 
case a good effect may be obtained by 
arousing an opposite emotion, such as 
fear or anger, dashing cold water in the 
face, causing physical pain, etc. 
The foregoing are the principal emo- 
tions which exert the most powerful GENERAL THOUGHTS. 
31 
influence upon the human body, but an 
excess of any passion will impair the 
mind and through it the physical 
energies. Health and happiness depend 
upon keeping the passions under rigid 
discipline, and by persistent effort this 
can be accomplished. Too little thought 
is given to children in the cultivation of 
their emotional natures. It is less 
trouble to require them to obey without 
rhyme or reason or attempt at explana- 
tion, and many parents unhappily pur- 
sue this method without considering the 
impression they are making upon young 
and tender minds. Children are gener- 
ally very sensitive and deeply alive to 
injustice, unkindness or neglect, and a 
young mother will find that an hour 
spent in reasoning with her child, in- 
stead of compelling by brute force, is, 
perhaps, the most valuable hour of her 
life. 
A word now concerning occupations 
in life and their choice. A person, whose 
trade or profession requires them to be 
much in the open air, has decidedly the 
advantage of one w7hose life is neces- 
sarily spent indoors or bending over 
desks, and this fact should be remem- 
bered in advising young people. The 
popular mistake is to “find something 
easy” for those who are delicate and 
wreakly, and “something easy” gener- 32 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
ally means a confined position indoors. 
No greater error could be made. 
Nervous temperaments especially should 
have squarely the opposite. They fre- 
quently thrive and gain strength and 
nerve force in the open air, when they 
would certainly go down otherwise. 
Those people, who are blessed with 
robust and healthy constitutions, are 
much better calculated to stand seden- 
tary habits and a life of close mental 
application. In any event, if the last 
mentioned life must be followed, it can 
be rendered much less prejudicial to 
health by all possible precautions, such 
as good ventilation, temperance, cleanli- 
ness, attention to diet, baths, bowels, 
etc., and all the open air exercise that is 
possible. SENSATIONS. 
Sensation is that condition of the 
mind by which it is possible to receive 
an impression, and is a function of the 
brain. Through the brain we are made 
conscious of our existence. As the brain 
is, so will be our sensibility. If we have 
a healthy brain with all of our bodily 
functions working in shape to keep it so, 
our sensibilities will be perfect, and any 
impression made upon us will convey 
the correct idea. I have often seen a 
slight disease of the brain or nerves be 
the means of conveying the wrong in- 
formation, and trouble follow. Any 
nerve of the body may become diseased 
and cause a local defect in the system, 
which should be treated as such, even 
though the brain is affected by it. 
From the above statements it will be 
observed that the brain or nerves may 
either one become affected, making a 
general as well as a local condition. I 
wish first to consider the general causes 
preventing the brain from doing its 34 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
work well. There may be an exeessive 
general sensibility, which may be pro- 
duced by an increased amount of blood 
in the brain from any excitement, fevers 
or inflammation. Occasionally we meet 
with marked cases in severe fevers where 
a little increase of light and sound 
makes such a great impression on the 
irritated brain that more or less pain is 
produced. 
In cases of fever, where the blood is 
very impure, the brain is always irri- 
tated to such an extent as to almost en- 
tirely prevent it from working. This 
irritation may cause a constant head- 
ache and an unfavorable condition over 
the entire body, or it may cause any 
nerve to become affected, and we then 
have a local disease. We meet many 
people in feeble health—in whom a de- 
ficiency of blood causes an under-supply 
to both brain and body. Such people 
are usually very nervous and require 
careful handling. In most nervous cases 
some one nerve is more affected than the 
others and neuralgia or a local pain is 
the result. 1 have seen people lose their 
health permanently through lapsing 
into a state of nervous weakness, which 
is left untreated and allowed to become 
chronic. Instead of being too sensitive 
there may be a want of sensibility, and 
the patient may appear being very dull SENSATIONS. 
35 
and lifeless, not receiving even ordinary 
impressions. The brain and nervous 
system become so weak that the blood 
does not circulate freely and congestion 
follows as a natural result. Or if the 
brain does not receive enough blood to 
support it, softening of the brain ensues, 
with more or less impairment of the 
senses of sight and hearing. 
Paralysis, from too much blood in the 
brain, is not uncommon, and in some 
cases recovery can never be complete. 
Now and then we see instances of per- 
verted sensibility, as noticed in cases 
where there is a sensation of crawling 
over the surface of the skin, a feeling of 
cold where the body is warm, an intense 
burning in any portion, itching without 
a cause, etc. Dr. Williams says that in 
cases of perverted general sensibility 
there will be feelings of tingling prickly 
heat, trickling cold, of a lump in the 
throat, a hot ball in the side, a fluttering 
at the stomach, and illusions of the 
special senses severally and variously 
affecting persons whose sensibility is 
modified more in kind than degree. 
Such patients may also have a depraved 
appetite, craving for sour things, cinders, 
mortar and all manner of filth. These 
symptoms generally occur in females, 
often in connection with irregular men- 
struation, and therefore are called 36 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
hysterical. But their cause must be 
sought in the nervous system, the func- 
tions of which become deranged, prob- 
ably from irregular supply or bad 
quality of the blood. 
When the nerve of the eye takes on a 
perverted condition, the sufferer will 
have flashes of light, sparks of fire and 
floating specks in their field of vision; 
especially are they seen if the brain is 
affected. If the nerve of hearing be- 
comes diseased in this way, there will be 
roaring in the ears, the sound of bells, 
voices and other sounds that are always 
more or less annoying. 
As sensation is a condition of the 
mind by which we receive information, 
it can be clearly seen that the mind must 
be healthy in order to perfectly perform 
its work. Only a healthy body can pro- 
duce a healthy mind. 
An eminent authority says: “The 
mind is closely united and yet distinct 
from the material organ through which 
it acts, dependent for its manifestations, 
yet independent in essence. So intimate 
is the union, that the body exercises a 
powerful influence in leading us upward 
into a true and higher life, or downward 
into a low and sensual existence. 
What this influence shall be, depends 
somewhat upon inherited organization, 
but more upon education. Accepting SENSATIONS. 
37 
the theory already advanced, as at least 
illustrative, we see that if the thoughts, 
feelings and volitions are pure and true 
and good, their impressions or residue 
remaining in the nerve cells are of the 
same character, and tend to give a right 
direction to the future activities of these 
cells. If the thoughts, feelings and 
volitions are evil in nature, the impres- 
sions or residua, will also be evil, inclin- 
ing to evil activities in the future. When 
we resist a temptation to wrong action, 
then we not only avoid the particular 
evil, but lay up that which will render 
the next resistance easier and more 
natural. If we yield to the temptation, 
we are not only guilty of the particular 
wrong, but lay up that which will make 
resistance more difficult, or yielding 
more easy and natural for the future. 
When a man sets his heart to do right, 
all his physical being struggles to give 
him aid, and when he sets his heart to 
do wrong, its energies are expended in 
dragging him downward. The visible 
impressions which the workings of the 
mind leave upon the body, are worthy 
of our notice. The character of a man 
is declared by the lines of his muscles, 
which tell no lies; especially is this true 
of the muscles of the face. Let him nar- 
row his soul b\r penuriousness, become 
the victim of rasping jealousy, wear the 38 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
nettles of envy against the heart, or be 
the slave of defiling lust, and in spite of 
any natural comeliness or studied con- 
cealment, his true character will be pro- 
claimed to all. ‘Be sure your sin will 
find you out,’ says He, who has made 
the fleshly lineaments to reveal the most 
hidden vice. The more secret the vic- 
iousness, the deeper is the impression. 
But if the spirit of evil thus leaves the 
traces of its blackness upon the face, the 
spirit of goodness, also, writes thereon, in 
no less legible characters of light, purity 
of heart, nobleness of purpose, restful- 
ness of soul, and softens, irridiates and 
spiritualizes the outer man, giving a 
higher beauty than that of form or com- 
plexion, even to him who is wrinkled by 
years, bowed by infirmity, and scarred 
by the battles of life.” NUTRITION, 
Nutrition is the consummate purpose 
of all the various functions of the 
human body. It is life itself. Alimenta- 
tion, absorbtion, digestion, secretion, 
respiration and circulation are all 
directed towards the same end, nutri- 
tion, and the failure of any one of these 
functions, implies impaired nutrition, 
which injures the life-force. 
The connecting link between the func- 
tions is the blood, in whose vital fluid 
their elements are contained. The two 
elements necessary to support nutrition 
are nitrogen and carbon, the one pro- 
ducing muscular force, the latter bodily 
heat. An abundance of these should be 
found in the blood, which obtains them 
from different articles of food, and from 
the atmosphere through respiration. 
The supply of either of these elements 
being deficient, the functions dependent 
upon them become weak in proportion. 
Malnutrition or bad or insufficient 40 
PHYSICAL, PERFECTION. 
nourishment may spring from any of 
the causes given below : 
1st. An inherited defect of constitu- 
tion. 
2nd. The presence of some acute 
disease. 
3rd. A continued lack of assimilation 
and digestion of food. 
Patients coming under the first named 
class are indeed unfortunate. They have 
not a fair start from the beginning, be- 
ing almost predestined, as it were, to be 
the receiving ground for all sorts of 
noxious germs and specific micro- 
organisms. Such a person is apt to be 
undersized and frail, easily fatigued and 
very receptive to disease. They usually 
go through the whole category of in- 
fantile diseases, and those usually of the 
most malignant type. The bacilli of 
consumption, if not already there by 
inheritance, is easily sown, and to such 
an individual, life is one of infinite pre- 
caution and infinite care to themselves 
and their friends, with very little comfort 
as an adjunct. 
A lack of proper nutrition, as a result 
of some acute disease, is apt to be less 
enduring in its nature, but it leads to 
various complications during its exist- 
ence, which may be fatal. There may 
be various factors in the case of malnu- 
trition coming from non-assimilation nutrition. 
41 
and digestion, i. e.: An insufficient sup- 
ply of food, as to quality and quantity; 
an excess of food; the habit of using 
stimulants, alcoholic or otherwise, 
narcotics, etc., and various chronic dis- 
eases. 
When the element of carbon, producing 
animal heat, is lacking, the patient is 
deficient in flesh and strength, and sub- 
ject to a chronic sensation of chilliness. 
This condition is serious, predisposing 
to scrofula and consumption, and the 
fatty element being an important one to 
the system, benefit is often derived from 
an ingestion of oily preparations, such 
as cream, fresh butter, etc., until the de- 
ficiency is supplied. 
When the nitrogenous element is the 
deficient factor, and the carbon is in 
abundance, the wear and tear of the tis- 
sues is abnormally great and the repair 
insufficient, and degeneration ensues. 
We are often deceived by the appearance 
of such a person. They seem well- 
nourished and rounded in outline, but 
they have no resistance to fatigue, pos- 
sessing no strength of muscle, and the 
apparent flesh is often due to a dipose 
tissue. 
Again the most common cause of mal- 
nutrition is dyspepsia, “that ailment of 
the over-fed,” to quote from a contem- 
porary. This is found more largely 42 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
among the leisure classes who live in- 
active lives, and who eat for pleasure 
more than to sustain vitality. The 
want of exercise is the fatal lack here, 
as it is absolutely nesessary for the 
proper assimilation of nitrogenous 
foods, and to their ability to produce 
muscular vigor. The excess of nitro- 
genous food is thus eliminated by the 
bowels and kidneys, and the carbona- 
ceous is deposited in fatty tissue all over 
the body. Such a condition may be 
hereditary, but in either case it is dan- 
gerous, as the tendency is to become 
more and more inactive in habits, and it 
reduces itself to the point, that regular, 
persistent and vigorous muscular ex- 
ercise, is absolutely the only safeguard 
or preventative against fatality. 
Mal-assimilation, resulting from 
chronic diseases, is to be considered, and 
is one of the most common forms. An 
impoverishment of the blood accom- 
panies diseases of the stomach, liver, 
intestines, lungs and kidneys, and the 
consequent impairment of the digestive 
processes impairs nutrition also. 
Defective nutrition, as the consequent 
of some mild chronic disease, should not 
be left untreated, as it may create some 
disease of a structural nature, presum- 
ably of the kidneys or liver. The con- 
traction of malignant maladies is much NUTRITION. 
43 
more likely to occur when there is a lack 
of proper nourishment, and a person in 
a perfect state of nourishment could ex- 
pose themselves, comparatively speak- 
ing, with impunity to contagion. 
Science teaches us that we are daily 
brought in contact, in the atmosphere 
we breathe, in the food we eat,etc., with 
poisonous and virulent germs of disease. 
Why is it that some people perfectly re- 
sist the invasion of the bacilli, while 
others have no resistance? Because a 
constitution in a weakened condition 
and badly nourished is in precisely the 
proper state to receive and propagate, 
with terrible rapidity, the disease germ, 
just as a perfectly and completely nour- 
ished organism is in precisely the proper 
condition to resist and defy them. 
A potent cause of non-nutrition may 
be a lack of proper food. A patient 
ueeding animal foods should not be fed 
upon vegetables, whose largest element 
is starch, and if a man wants heat- 
producing foods, he cannot well exist 
upon beef tea, and a class of food that 
has no heat-producing qualities. APPETITE, 
There is no subject that should be bet- 
ter understood by the human race than 
how to govern the appetite for food. 
Appetite, in a general way, means a 
natural degree of hunger or desire to 
take food to support the body. It 
should be remembered that we eat only 
to supply the loss our bodies undergo 
during their active existence; that appe- 
tite or hunger is of the body, or the 
body’s way of saying that nourishment 
must be supplied to continue life. 
As all food must go through the di- 
gestive organs and be carefully prepared 
by them for the body’s use, one may 
readily see that hunger would depend 
upon the working ability of the prepar- 
ing organs. A certain amount of food 
is required to support the body, and if 
the digestive organs have not the 
strength to digest it, the body will make 
it known by the sensation, termed 
hunger. Hunger may be natural or 
unnatural. APPETITE. 
45 
The natural hunger is not a diseased 
condition. It is but nature’s prompter 
to furnish what is needed. Very few 
people have a natural appetite. This is 
the result of the improper living and 
methods of cooking now practiced. We 
should all live in such a manner that we 
will possess a natural appetite for food. 
By so doing one half the ills “that flesh 
is heir to ’’ would be avoided. When the 
appetite is natural we take pleasure in 
eating, and when we take the proper 
quantity and quality, nature very kindly 
handles it with ease. 
The abnormal or morbid appetite is 
generally produced by continued habits 
of indulgence, which enfeeble and insidi- 
ously impair the health until the ability 
of the digestive organs and the strength 
of the body is exhausted. The individ- 
ual becomes weak, irritable and selfish, 
and possibly may lose his self-respect, 
and all native refinement and delicate 
feeling, and become of no use to himself 
or the world. 
A learned author says : “ The natural 
sun of heat and light within the body, 
and the soul, being overcast by the clouds 
and exhalations of unhealthy organs, 
often leads the victim of self-indulgence 
to seek externally for artificial stimu- 
lants to keep up an appearance of genial 
warmth within. But this can be appar- 46 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
entlv successful only for a time, and soon 
the penalty of the transgressing of the 
laws of nature must be paid in full, and 
with a large additional amount of costs. 
It is of great importance therefore to 
watch the appetites of body and mind, 
to study the laws of healthy equilibrium, 
and above all, to learn to know and 
understand the dangers of prolonged 
self-indulgence of the appetites of pleas- 
ure in mere animal sensation and wild 
imagination.” 
Appetites, properly so-called, apprise 
man of the natural wants of the organ- 
ism, and compliance with these internal 
promptings is rewarded by the double 
pleasure of the sense of taste in eating, 
and the feeling of comfort within, arising 
from the food supplied to the digestive 
system. But where the mind is weak 
and the delights of bodily sensations 
strong, the pleasures of taste, or the 
charms of varied sensations in the pal- 
ate, dwell on the imagination and 
excite it to renewed indulgence of phys- 
ical sensations, irrespective of the wants 
of the internal organism, and this, even, 
notwithstanding its declining health and 
manifest debility. 
The morbid cravings and perverted 
tastes must not be confounded with the 
natural appetite. This unnatural crav- 
ing is illustrated in the animal creation APPETITE. 
47 
by the bear in his inordinate fondness 
for honey. His sense of taste for it is so 
great, and it works on his imagination 
to such an extent, that he will risk being 
stung to death rather than not have the 
sensual delight of licking out the honey- 
comb. This same principle is blindly 
followed by the human race. It causes 
a large amount of suffering which is 
styled indigestion, headache, nervous- 
ness, rheumatism, neuraligia, etc. 
No careful observer of the habits of 
the people can fail to account for all the 
diseases that afflict the human family. 
They are too much the victims of diso- 
bedience. They do not obey the natural 
laws of life, and as a result, we have 
diseases which speak to us too plainly 
to be misunderstood, if we would but 
listen to their warning voices. 
The very common error of eating at 
all hours of the day and night to satisfy 
our craving appetite, only makes a bad 
matter worse. Acidity, flatulence, 
heartburn, slight pain in the head, un- 
easy sensations anywhere about the 
body, all speak too plainly of trouble 
soon to come unless soon relieved. 
When we And ourselves in this condition, 
nothing should prevent our speedy ex- 
trication from the annoying and de- 
pressing condition resulting from these 
cravings. It must be remembered that 48 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
if the appetite for food becomes morbid, 
all the other cravings of the system be- 
come morbid also, and too often control 
the individual, instead of the individual 
controling them. Unless we have a 
well-balanced physical status, the most 
thorough education of our youth on the 
highest moral plane will avail but little. 
The Duke of Argvle very properly 
says : “ The truth is, we are born into a 
a system of things in which every act 
carries with it by indissoluble ties, along 
train of consequences reaching to the 
most distant future, which, for the 
whole course of time, affect our condi- 
tion, the condition of other men, and 
even the conditions of external nature. 
And yet we cannot see those consequen- 
ces beyond the shortest way, and very 
often those which lie nearest are in the 
highest degree deceptive as an index to 
ultimate results. Neither pain nor pleas- 
ure can be accepted as a guide.” 
With the lower animals, indeed, these 
for the most part tell the truth. Appe- 
tite is all that the creature has, and in 
the gratification of it, the highest law of 
the animal being is fulfilled. 
In man, also, appetite has its own in- 
dispensible function to discharge. But 
it is a lower function, and amounts to 
nothing more than that of furnishing to 
reason, a very few of the primary data appetite. 
49 
on which she has to work. Physical 
pain is indeed one of the threatenings of 
natural authority, and physical pleasure 
is one of its rewards. But, neither the 
one nor the other, forms more than a 
mere fraction of that awful and imperial 
code under which we live. 
Man has been, and still is, a constant 
prey to appetites which are morbid; to 
opinions which are irrational; to imag- 
inings which are horrible, and to prac- 
tices which are destructive. The preva- 
lence and the power of these in a great 
variety of forms and degrees, is a fact 
with which we are familiar. So familiar 
indeed, that we fail to be duly impressed 
with the strangeness and the mystery 
which really belongs to it. 
All savage races are bowed and bent 
under the yoke of their own perverted 
instincts. Instincts, which, generally in 
their root and origin have an obvious 
utility, but which in their actual devel- 
opement are the sources of miseries 
without number, and without end. 
Some of the most horrible perversions 
which are prevalent among savages, 
(and which to a greater or less degree 
effect all civilized peoples,) have no 
counterpart among any other created 
beings. And when judged by the barest 
standard of utility, they place man im- 
measurably below the level of the beasts. 50 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
We are accustomed to say of many of the 
habits of savage life, that they are 
brutal. But this is entirely to misrep- 
resent the place which they really occupy 
in the system of nature. None of the 
brutes have any such perverted dispo- 
sitions. None of them are ever subject 
to the destructive operation of such 
habits as are common among men. And 
the contrast is all the more remarkable 
when we consider that the very worst of 
these habits effect conditions of life which 
the lower animals share with us. Any 
departure from those natural laws which 
they universally obey, must necessarily 
produce, and do produce, consequences 
so destructive as to endanger the very 
existence of the race. 
Such are all those conditions of life 
effecting the relations of the sexes,which 
are common to all creatures. And man 
alone, exhibits the widest and most hope- 
less divergence from this order of nature. 
Byron was in touch with this sentiment 
when he said: 
“ Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle, 
Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime ; 
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruits, 
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute ; 
Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, 
And all, save the spirit of man, is divine.” INDIGESTION, 
But indigestion hath the power 
To mar the soul’s serenest hour—■ 
To crumble adamantive trust, 
And turn its certainties to dust. 
To dim the eye with nameless grief, 
To chill the heart with unbelief, 
To banish hope, and faith, and love, 
Place heaven below and hell above. 
—Mark Twain. 
What a world of health and happiness 
is lost in the significance of this common 
word ! What a world of misery does it 
convey to the mind of the person who 
has realized its true meaning. It is, 
practically speaking, the crying ill of the 
American people. 
We are a race of gourmands. There is 
no civilized nation under the sun, that 
eatssomuchsohurridly or so unadvised- 
ly as the American. The English, with 
their long drawn out dinners, come next; 
and they have the merit of eating slowly. 
Then the Italian and the French, barring 
their cooking, have eating reduced to a 
fine art. 52 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
Taken in its fullest sense, digestion 
comprises all those processes which the 
food undergoes in passing from its crude 
form to its ultimate destination of 
tissue, whether for building or for force 
production. These processes may be di- 
vided into two classes—external and in- 
ternal digestion. 
The first comprises the successive steps 
by which the food elements are prepared 
by the mouth for admittance to the in- 
terior of the body. The latter consists 
in absorbing the elements that they ma v 
be made available for nutrition and 
force production. It is a form of diges- 
tion less understood than the first, and 
probably its disturbances constitute the 
cause for a large class of the most 
serious diseases. 
There has been a nice distinction 
drawn between dyspepsia and indiges- 
tion, giving to the former the idea of a 
laborious performance of the digestive 
processes, while in the other there is no 
process performed at all. Practically, 
however, there is no such distinction, as 
both terms indicate a greater or less de- 
rangement of the digestive operations. 
The causes of indigestion may be di- 
vided into two classes, those involving 
the character of the food itself, and 
those consisting in the imperfections of 
the process to which it is subjected. INDIGESTION. 
53 
There is a small number of people 
who do not take food enough to furnish 
the digestive organs with a sufficient 
amount to work upon. There are the 
hard-working women in large cities try- 
ing to exist upon bread and tea. Then 
the fashionable people who have 
mounted the hobby of dieting, and ride 
it to such extremes that it would be 
laughable, were the results not so 
serious. 
It has been claimed, and with consid- 
erable truth, that the decline of the 
Irish race is largely due to their almost 
exclusive use of potatoes as food. There 
is so little of the nourishing element in 
them that the excessive amount eaten, in 
order to satisfy hunger, results in bur- 
dening the digestive organs with a bulk 
of useless material. This impairs their 
force, and the body, at the same time, is 
underfed. It is the quality, not the 
quantity, that nourishes the system and 
sustains life. 
Again, the use of alcohol will diminish 
and eventually take away the appetite 
for solid food. This is a particularly 
lamentable custom among workingmen, 
where the tendency is to spend so much 
for drink that they have nothing left 
with which to procure food, even if they 
had a desire for it. The result is starva- 
tion dyspepsia. 54 
PHYSICAL, PERFECTION. 
But overeating is the more common 
fault. It is probable that the majority 
of people habitually eat more than their 
systems require. The excess renders in- 
effective the various acids designed to 
operate upon a moderate amount. The 
uncomfortable dilation of the stomach 
and intestines follows. 
One very prevalent cause of this is the 
short time usually given to meals. 
When the normal stomach has received 
a sufficient quantity,impressions carried 
to the nerve centers produce a decrease 
of appetite. But if the food is hastily 
swallowed, time is not given for the reg- 
ulating processes to take place, and the 
stomach is overloaded before the warn- 
ing is received. The art of cooking 
should be to render food more digestible 
instead of spurring the appetite beyond 
its limit. 
Another source of digestive derange- 
ment is irregular and improper times of 
eating. Many busy men and women 
take the noon-day meal to suit the 
occasion—sometimes hot, sometimes 
cold ; light or heavy, as convenient. 
The digestive organs, like all others 
belonging to the body, require periods of 
rest. If these periods are broken in upon 
at every and any hour of the day, it is 
evident that the functions cannot per- 
form their work properly. A hearty INDIGESTION. 
55 
meal taken just before going to bed is 
likely to interfere with digestion or 
sleep, possibly both. 
The chief meal of the day should not 
be allowed to occur just before a period 
of great activity—mental or physical. 
For action elsewhere will abstract the 
blood from the alimentary canal, and 
the secretions will be defective. When 
the power of the stomach has been 
weakened, frequent light meals might be 
permitted, that the organism may be 
afforded the necessary amount of nutri- 
ment, and at the same time, prevent 
overwork. Yet, even in such cases, it is 
necessary for the stomach to have a cer- 
tain number of hours daily for rest. 
Each person must be a law unto him- 
self as to the quality and quantity of 
food to be used. Men of active outdoor 
habits can live with impunity upon a 
character of eatables that would bring 
death and destruction to those of an 
indoor and sedentary mode of life. Yet, 
even these gastronomic giants, were 
they to change their mode of living, 
could no longer live upon underdone 
pastry, warm, soggy bread and fat- 
soaked cakes. Many rosy-cheeked coun- 
try girls, learning a trade in the city, lose 
health and beauty through ignorance of 
the fact that they can no longer live 
upon their accustomed diet. 56 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
The use of fluids, when eating, is 
another potent cause of trouble which 
seriously interferes with the ferments. 
One cup or glass of any liquid is all that 
should be taken while eating. More 
than this quantity should be taken 
either a half hour before or two hours 
after a meal. Man is the only animal 
that drinks while eating, and it stands 
to reason that a quantity of food float- 
ing about in an undue amount of liquid, 
cannot be acted upon properly by the 
juices of the stomach. As a result, it 
will neither be digested nor assimilated. 
In cases of weakened stomachs it is 
well to cut off the use of sugars and 
fats, as these are especially difficult for it 
to handle. While pepper and spices are 
sometimes a useful adjunct in moderate 
amounts, they are apt to over-stimulate 
the mucous membrane of the digestive 
tract, and so lead to exhaustion. 
Excessively hot and excessively cold 
foods require only to be mentioned as 
disturbing causes. A glass of ice water 
taken during digestion will lower the 
temperature of the stomach to seventy 
degrees, and it will not regain its normal 
temperature for about half an hour. 
Nervous stimulants such as tea, coffee 
and tobacco, may be classed with condi- 
ments in their effect. 
The French cooking, which is coming INDIGESTION. 
57 
more and more into vogue, has many 
grave faults, its object being not whole- 
someness, but rather to develop abnor- 
mal appetites. Broiling, roasting and 
boiling are preferred methods of cooking 
meats. Frying produces a greasy coat- 
ing composed of the fat in which it is 
fried, and this resists the action of the 
digestive fluids. This constitutes a 
grave objection against all kinds of fried 
foods. 
The local symptoms of indigestion are 
well known—the coated tongue, bad 
breath, and other derangements produc- 
ing irritability. 
A perfect body is formed from the food 
in a perfectly digested condition. There- 
fore, to have perfect bodies it is necessary 
to have perfect digestion. This forms 
perfect blood, which is the body in a 
fluid state, and from it we get the per- 
fect organized body. TAKING COLD. 
The matter of taking cold is one that 
is so familiar to us that we do not often 
stop to question the why and wherefore. 
In the minds of the majority of the peo- 
ple, the idea of a cold is associated with 
the absolute sensation of cold, or a direct 
loss of heat from the body. That this is 
an erroneous idea, is proved by the fact 
that the body is constantly radiating 
heat without in any way suffering there- 
from. It is one of nature’s beautiful 
laws of balance that the supply of 
animal heat is equal to the demand. 
Of course this refers to a state of 
health when the heat of the body is 
constantly maintained at all seasons 
and at all times at a temperature of 
98% degrees. Any variation from this 
standard, be it ever so small, consti- 
tutes a condition of disease. 
When the demand for heat is great, as 
when the thermometer ranges below 
zero, it is supplied by the rapid heat 
production going on in the system. This TAKING COLD. 
59 
results in part, from the vigorous exercise 
which extreme cold usually induces. 
The source of this animal heat has 
been the subject of many theories on the 
part of physiologists, but it is now 
known that all processes of nutrition, 
growth and development of the human 
body, constitute a form of oxygenation, 
which is the heat-producing factor of the 
organism. This process is not confined 
to any one portion or member, but goes 
everywhere, maintaining the above 
mentioned equable temperature of 98% 
degrees. 
Now, experience teaches us that the 
risk of taking cold is not incurred by ex- 
posing the whole body to a lower tem- 
perature, but any portion of it. 
Draughts of air make more mischief 
than any amount of dry cold. With 
greater impunity can we expose the 
whole body to a blast of cold north 
wind, than to chill the feet from wearing 
too thin soles. 
Of the four seasons, the days of our 
greatest liability to colds are not those 
of winter, but the moderately cool ones 
of spring and fall, when the atmosphere 
is largely charged with moisture. A 
low temperature is not dangerous. 
Dampness makes the trouble. 
The heat of the body is go veined by 
the central nervous system, and any dis- 60 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
turbance of the heating apparatus in 
one part, leads to a disarrangement of 
the whole system. An eminent author 
has compared this central nervous 
system, which governs the whole matter 
of warming the body, to a chandelier 
with five gas jets. If they are all lit and 
burning with a steady flame, this consti- 
tutes health. If we turn out a part of 
them, two or three perhaps, we find that 
the others flare up with an increased 
intensity, which represents a diseased 
condition. Now, if one of the burners is 
somewhat weakened, it flames up above 
the globe of the chandelier in an abnor- 
mal jet. We may liken this to the in- 
flamation caused by taking cold. Thus 
it may be argued that inflamation is 
simply an exaggerated state of health. 
Nutrition being disturbed in one part of 
the body, the central nerve force govern- 
ing the heat production goes on creating 
the same amount of energy as before, 
sending it with increased intensity to 
another part. This may result in bron- 
chitis or cold in the head. 
Inflamation or cold settles itself in the 
weakest place. This will explain the 
fact that the mucous membrane lining 
the nasal passages is oftenest attacked, 
because the majority of people have a 
mild chronic inflamation there. Perhaps 
it is scarcely noticeable, but being ag- TAKING COLI). 
61 
gravated, starts tip into nn acute state. 
Following the line of weakest parts, it is 
apt to give rise to sore throat, swollen 
tonsils, an attack of irritable bladder, 
or (perhaps) lumbago. In cases of 
chronic inflamation a patient may be 
subject to colds in the head for years, 
and, as the disease travels downward,it 
settles in the bronchial tubes or larynx, 
leaving the nasal passages clear, but 
they become involved later. 
There is no term in medical literature 
that has been the source of so much mis- 
conception as that of chronic catarrh, 
which means nothing more than a dis- 
charge from the nose. This has been 
made to cover the whole category of 
diseases which may be met with in the 
nasal cavity. The term chronic catarrh 
is a meaningless one, and conveys no 
idea other than that one has something 
the matter with the nose. 
An intelligent comprehension of how 
to prevent a cold is of far more impor- 
tance to the general public than to know 
how to treat one. This can be done by 
a proper regulation of the clothing, 
keeping the skin active with the daily 
bath, a good ventilation of living and 
sleeping apartments, exercise, etc. It is 
an almost banished idea to load on all 
the clothes a person can possibly carry 
to avoid taking cold. We wear clothes 62 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
to protect ourselves from low tempera- 
tures, and we should wear just enough 
for this and no more. The moment we 
overdo the matter we are liable to work 
mischief. There should be an equal dis- 
tribution of garments also. The mo- 
ment we clothe one portion in excess of 
another, we are opening the way for 
disease. 
The most important part of the cloth- 
ing is, of course, that lying next to the 
skin—the underwear. There is more 
heat in the body than is necessary to 
keep it at the normal temperature. This 
excess of heat is dissipated by a means 
called insensible perspiration, which is 
going on constantly. It is estimated 
that in twenty-four hours about sixteen 
ounces of water are dissipated from the 
body of an adult. This goes on without 
our being conscious of it. When we in- 
dulge in violent exercise the perspiration 
becomes excessive and perceptible, but it 
is the insensible perspiration which is 
important in this connection. 
The highest authorities say that a 
person in vigorous health should wear a 
light weight of woolen or knitted under- 
wear the year around, making no 
change for the four seasons. They claim 
that we would be warmer in winter and 
cooler in summer for this practice. This 
theory is based upon the fact that the TAKING COLD. 
63 
fibre of wool is elastic and curling, offer- 
ing a porous cloth next to the skin, 
which does not interfere with this in- 
sensible heat radiation. That of silk, 
cotton and linen is straight and in- 
elastic, making an impermeable dense 
surface which allows less outlet to the 
excretions of the skin. Our houses are 
ordinarily kept at a temperature of 68 
to 70 degrees in winter, which does not 
vary greatly from the average tempera- 
ture of the summer months. There are 
many cases, however, in which this 
would be impracticable. But it is a fact 
that one does not perspire so freely in a 
suit of woolen, for the reason that the 
wool absorbs the perspiration and 
allows the bodily heat to pass through 
it. One is also protected from sudden 
chills in this manner. But there are in- 
dividuals so sensitively organized that 
they cannot endure the feeling of woolen 
next to the skin, to whom silk, linen or 
cotton are agreeable and healthful. A 
change of underclothing, according to 
the season and in compliance with the 
outer garments, would be advisable in 
many circumstances. 
Some think that the Creator did not 
intend us to wear hats, supporting their 
theory with the idea that the long- 
continued and excessive use of head 
covering causes much of the baldness 64 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
prevalent, especially among professional 
men, men of indoor habits and great 
brain workers. Men’s headgear, also, is 
usually of heavy felt or silk, while that 
of women is apt to be more airy. This 
is the reason given by some for their 
healthy and luxuriant growth of hair. 
There are certain pernicious habits of 
unduly muffling the neck, padding the 
chest, etc. A writer has said that the 
best place to wear a chest protector is 
on the soles of the feet. It illustrates 
the idea that the part of the body ex- 
posed to draughts, has nothing what- 
ever to do with the portion in which the 
cold or inflamation is likely to appear; 
that the feet, coming in contact as they 
do with damp and cold pavements, 
should be most looked after and pro- 
tected. Thick soles or cork soles are 
exceedingly good protection. Rubber 
overshoes are a necessary evil that 
should be used as little as possible. 
They contract the feet, retard circula- 
tion and retain moisture. 
Sealskins were designed for animals in- 
habiting the Arctic Ocean and not for 
sensible men and women of the temper- 
ate zones. They are absolutely imper- 
meable to cold or air, and almost 
invariably throw the wearer into a 
perspiration. The evil of the chill con- 
sequent upon removing the garment is TAKING COLD. 
65 
evident. It is a fact that these beautiful 
articles of feminine apparel have caused 
more death in the city of New York in 
the last five years, than smallpox. 
We have observed that the people 
who wear the greatest amount of cloth- 
ing are always shivering at the slightest 
gust of cold air, while those who harden 
themselves by moderate dressing are 
able to face the coldest winds of mid- 
winter with a sense of exhilarating 
comfort. Of course young people, old 
people, or those enfeebled by disease, 
cannot come under this rule. Their 
heat-producing powers are not normal, 
and discretion must govern. 
Of more importance even than proper 
clothing is the proper use of the bath as 
a preventative against colds. A daily 
bath is almost an absolute necessity 
with a healthy person. Not as a matter 
of cleanliness in all cases, but because of 
its effect—a vigorous stimulation of the 
skin and increased circulation of the 
blood. COLD HANDS AND FEET. 
Many people, though in fair health, 
have cold hands and feet most of the 
time. This is indeed of such common 
occurrence, that its importance as an 
indicator of disease does not strike the 
attention as it should, not even with 
those who suffer the most frequently 
with this uncomfortable sensation. This 
should be a symptom that calls atten- 
tion to danger, and indicates a disorder 
of the bodily mechanism or of deteriora- 
tion of the vital fluids, either of which 
should receive prompt attention. If dis- 
regarded, it may lead to grave diseases. 
The above conditions must not be 
confounded with a temporary chilling of 
the limbs from exposure to cold or 
moisture, which may be easily relieved 
by warmth. 
How often do we see people make 
.serious mistakes by not heeding nature’s 
common signs of distress. There are 
several conditions that will give rise to 
cold hands and feet. The most common COLD HANDS AND FEET. 
67 
are: Indigestion, nervousness, imperfect 
circulation, impure blood, and want of 
life force. 
In order to fully understand how these 
causes produce such results, we should 
not forget that the circulation of the 
blood, which gives the heat to a part, is 
governed by a delicate system of nerves 
which regulates the size of the blood- 
vessels. One set of nerves causes the 
blood-vessels to dilate and admit the 
proper or abnormal quantity of blood 
into a part. The other set contracts 
these vessels and prevents the blood 
from flowing to the extremities or skin. 
When the nerves act suddenly from any 
cause and dilate the blood-vessels, we 
will notice blushing or a red condition 
of the surface. But if from any cause 
the vessels are contracted suddenly by 
the nerves, then pallor of the face and 
external surface will follow. 
Indigestion is the most common cause 
of cold hands and feet. The undigested 
matter in the stomach and bowels irri- 
tates and stimulates the nerve centers, 
causing contraction of the blood-vessels, 
which prevents sufficent blood flowing 
to the parts to keep them warm. 
In fermentive dyspepsia, where there 
are large quantities of gas forming 
nearly all the time, it not only produces 
cold hands and feet, but a pale and sickly 68 
PHYSICAL PER F ECTION. 
appearance of the entire skin. This 
want of blood in the surface of the body 
prevents the parts from getting their 
proper nourishment, and without sup- 
port they must fail. If this failing goes 
through the tissues, they will take on 
organic disease and be beyond relief. 
How often have we seen people decline 
and become unfit for pleasure or busi- 
ness, from neglect of nature’s minor 
warnings that there are existing ail- 
ments near the vital centers. 
Nervousness often gives rise to cold 
extremities. The nervous system is so 
finely organized and so sensitive to im- 
pressions, that little irritations and 
shocks impress the nerve centers in an 
unfavorable manner, and by so doing, 
cause an unequal circulation of the vital 
fluids. 
Almost everyone is familiar with the 
effect of emotions. Anger, pain, sorrow, 
jealousy, hatred or joy, will set the 
nerves immediately at work to contract 
the blood-vessels, deprive the surface of 
blood, and depress the temperature of 
the parts. Such a high grade of nerv- 
ousness should not be allowed to con- 
tinue, as it soon leads to an inability on 
the part of the nerves to do their work, 
and finally to serious organic diseases. 
No person should allow themselves to 
continue in such an exaggerated condi- COLD HANDS AND FEET. 
69 
tion without hastening to determine its 
cause and effect an immediate relief. 
Imperfect circulation is often responsi- 
ble for coldness in any part of the body. 
There is a good reason why the extrem- 
ities should be cold in this age of weak 
hearts, for we often find that organ not 
strong enough to propel the blood into 
the extremities with sufficient force and 
rapidity to keep them comfortable. It 
should also be remembered that the 
hands and feet are more remote from 
the central organ of circulation than 
any other portion of the body. 
If from any cause we are led to think 
that we are suffering from a weak heart, 
the most beneficial treatment should be 
commenced at once, as the body will 
soon badly suffer without the proper 
quantity of blood to support it. Then, 
too, the weak heart may soon develop 
into an actual organic disease. 
Coldness of the extremities may also 
be occasioned by impure or unhealthy 
blood. The natural heat of the body, 
as well as its growth and repair, is 
mainly adue to the oxidation occurring 
in all the tissues. The red corpuscles of 
the blood convey to the tissues the 
oxygen required for this very important 
process. If these red corpuscles become 
diseased, they cannot act as builders, 
and convey the amount of oxygen 70 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
needed for the body. If from any cause 
the proper number of corpuscles is not 
kept up, the tissues do not receive their 
required amount of oxygen, and they 
fail for want of nutrition. This is a 
very common cause of decline. 
A very able authority has recently 
stated that the human race requires one 
third more oxygen than it ordinarily re- 
ceives. If this condition is allowed to 
continue, the race will certainly grow 
weaker and never enjoy a desirable de- 
gree of strength. This lack also leads 
to an inability to keep up to the 
standard of normal bodily heat, and 
the extremities being the most exposed, 
are the first to suffer. All people suffer- 
ing in this way have but little power to 
live, and their appearance will not de- 
ceive the careful observer as to the 
effecting cause. They have clammy 
skins, pale faces, bad digestion, enfeebled 
muscles, weak nerves, inactive kidneys, 
no healthy sleep, always tired, and feel- 
ing in a general way that life is a fa ilure. 
Obeying the laws of life and the proper 
medical attention may soon restore a 
normal condition. 
Many people suffer with the opposite 
difficulty—an excessive burning of the 
extremities. As a general rule, abuse of 
the digestive organs is the disturbing 
cause. An enfeebled condition of the COLD HANDS AND FEET. 
71 
sympathetic nervous system causes a 
dilation of the blood vessels in the ex- 
tremities, and consequently we have an 
excessive amount of blood in these parts 
which will continue this diseased con- 
dition until the causes are removed. 
Nervous and excitable temperaments, 
subject to dyspepsia, are very prone to 
this affection, which is commonly con- 
fined to adult life. A permanent cure of 
this condition is difficult to accomplish, 
but it can be made if the cause is re- 
mo ved. EXERCISE. 
The whole study of physiology and 
anatomy proclaims that the human 
organism was intended for activity. 
The power of muscle, nerve control, 
digestion and circulation, all depend 
upon exercise. Man must labor, hence 
action is a necessity. But, if working to 
no purpose, nothing appeals to his in- 
telligence, and is consequently of little 
benefit. 
Labor in moderation is a benefit and 
a blessing. But when unhappy necessity 
causes it to be carried to excess, as is 
the case with so many of our unfort- 
unate brothers, it becomes a drudgery 
and a curse. 
As skill in any one line of labor re- 
quires time, thought and intelligence, we 
are apt to confine ourselves to that one 
line in order to acquire greater facility. 
The tendency of this system is to call 
some powers into active exercise and 
leave the rest unused. There are few 
people who do not require more activity EXERCISE. 
73 
than their ordinary occupation calls 
into play. We will treat of the benefit 
of systematic and well-regulated exercise 
to eradicate this evil. 
The involuntary processes, as diges- 
tion, circulation, respiration, secretion, 
etc., which are carried on independently 
of the will, are dependent upon food 
assimilation for their energy. The vol- 
untary muscles, which give rise to labor 
and action, are, in turn, dependent on 
these. Exercise involves waste and re- 
pair. This calls into higher action the 
whole apparatus of supply and excre- 
tion , causing that vital renovation which 
is the source of energy. 
Movement aiding the contraction of 
the voluntary muscles, the flow of blood 
is accelerated to all parts of the body, 
and helps to remove all waste products 
by rapidly transferring them to the 
proper eliminating organs. Increased 
circulation meets the demand for new 
material and renews the disintegrated 
structures. 
Exercise is a well-known heat-produc- 
ing factor. Hence, walking is effectual 
in warming the feet. Whatever quickens 
the pulse hastens the breathing. The 
office of respiration is to rid the system 
of its refuse carbonic acid, and to furnish 
it with that vital element—oxygen. As 
a consequence, free respiration in a pure 74 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
atmosphere is an essential to proper 
exercise. 
Muscular movement depends upon the 
excretion of carbon from the system, 
and this depends upon the state of the 
air itself. Thus, badly ventilated 
houses, workshops and factories, unfit 
an undividual for active exercise. One 
hour in the open air is worth half a 
dozen in gymnasiums. 
As muscular power comes from a 
proper assimilation of food, a throwing 
out of force sharpens the appetite. Per- 
sons engaged in close mental application, 
or those troubled with indigestion, in- 
duced by sedentary habits, can easily 
find relief in systematic exercise in the 
fresh air. One should not exercise after 
a full meal, as the stomach is more or 
less distended, and this condition inter- 
feres with the free movement of the 
diaphragm and heart. The digestive 
organs need their full force of workers 
to accomplish digestion, as they cannot 
afford to allow the blood and nerve force 
to be drawn away to the other muscles 
at such a time. 
During active exercise the skin becomes 
invigorated through the increased 
amount of blood drawn to the surface, 
and heat is rapidly developed within. 
This escapes by water through the skin. 
If the individual is in active motion, the EXERCISE. 
75 
skin may be exposed without danger. 
But when the exertion is over, the heat 
rapidly declines and a sudden cooling 
causes congestion. 
Like all habits of hygiene, exercise 
should be regular and a daily duty. In 
order to be effectual it should be con- 
tinued for at least half an hour. If the 
exercise be associated with something 
pleasant, spontaneous and exhilarating, 
it becomes a pleasure. 
A sufficient amount of work put upon 
the muscles increases their vigor, size 
and elasticity. But should it be pushed 
to the point of exhaustion, destructive 
changes pervail over reparation, the 
equilibrium is lost, bodily vigor lowered, 
the encroachments of disease facilitated, 
and the finale is a broken down consti- 
tution and premature decay. 
The opposite picture is not flattering. 
Inactivity entails debility. As nutrition 
and a healthy development of all active 
parts depend upon a proper amount of 
action, its absence gives rise to feebleness 
of the whole organism. However, if the 
lethargic condition is accompanied with 
a corresponding ratio of low diet, the 
evils resulting will be comparatively 
negative. But if it be coupled with a 
free indulgence of the appetite, a long 
list of afflictions follows in its train. 
Food that should be assimilated and ex- 76 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
pelled from the system accumulates, 
clogging the machinery, decaying in the 
stomach and poisoning the blood. 
Among its prominent results are: An 
abnormal accumulation of flesh amount- 
ing to actual disease, fatty degeneration 
of the heart, etc. 
The amount of exercise required by 
each individual can be determined by 
himself alone. No one can be a true 
judge in every respect for another. 
But exercise has a still higher applica- 
tion. The mind has its states of health 
and disease like the physical, and is in- 
timately dependent upon the body. We 
are confronted with the problem of mind 
and body, a living unit, each ever react- 
ing one upon the other. The mind is 
dependent upon the condition of the 
brain, and the brain is controlled by the 
condition of the body. Hence, our very 
intelligence is governed by the care 
taken of the body. 
If we are nervous, low-spirited and 
irritable, we are filled with gloomy and 
foreboding thoughts. We have spent 
much timeindoors,inhaling little oxygen 
and our systems are filled with carbonic 
acid. The circulation of blood through 
the brain is low. We are dull and stupid. 
We should walk out into the free air of 
heaven and breathe pure oxygen. The 
poisonous carbon is expelled; the quick EXERCISE. 
77 
motion sends the blood coursing through 
the body and brain, bringing it to the 
surface. Our spirits rise, doubts and 
fears flee away, and we re-enter the 
house at peace with ourselves and our 
neighbor. AIR. 
The atmosphere is to us so simple and 
natural a thing, such a matter of every 
day breathing, that its very familiarity 
is apt to make us lose sight of its im- 
port for good or evil. 
A proper supply of pure fresh air is 
essential to the preservation of life and 
health, as well as to the maintainance 
of cheerfulness of spirits and consequent 
enjoyment of life. We sleep in badly 
ventilated bedrooms, or worse, with no 
ventilation at all—all during the winter 
months; spend two-thirds if not all of 
our time within doors, and then wonder 
why we do not feel better. 
There is a great difference in individ- 
uals as to their sensitiveness to impure 
air. Some persons can sit with comfort 
in an apartment, the atmosphere of 
which would stifle another upon enter- 
ing. However, the air of an ordinary 
home is seldom so bad as to cause any 
sudden discomfort, or even to be noticed 
by the casual observer, but it is never- AIK. 
79 
theless, a fact, that the majority of 
houses are so badly arranged with re- 
gard to ventilation, as to cause a slow, 
but none the less sure, impairment of the 
vital energies. This is particularly true 
in the case of invalids and young chil- 
dren. 
Pure air contains 20.99 per cent, of 
oxygen and .033 of carbonic acid gas, 
the rest being made up of nitrogen, 
watery vapor and traces of ammonia. 
The relative proportions of oxygen and 
carbonic gas differ slightly with the 
locality, some places being blessed with 
more oxygen than others. The air of 
high mountains, contrary to the general 
belief, contains more carbon and less 
oxygen than that of the low districts. 
There is always less oxygen in cities 
than in the country. The average pro- 
portion of watery vapor is 1.46 per 
cent. A deviation from this standard 
renders the air too dry or too moist for 
comfort. 
The impurities of the atmosphere may 
be classed under two heads—gases and 
matters held in suspension. We may 
discover the latter in any chance sun- 
beam. 
Oxygen is the life-giving element of the 
air, and carbon the destroying. When 
we breathe we consume oxygen and ac- 
cumulate carbon, and if this process 80 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
goes on for a short space of time, even 
in a small room with bad ventilation, 
the air speedily becomes unfit to support 
life. The result then of putting several 
human beings together in such a manner 
may be imagined. 
Bad air is responsible for more tired 
feelings and dull headaches than any 
other cause. Every apartment should 
be provided with means of egress for 
impure air at the top, and access of a 
sufficient amount of fresh air in the 
lower portion. Perfect ventilation can- 
not be obtained without this, but as the 
majority of houses contain no provision 
of this sort, the best we can do is to 
open the windows wide. 
A lighted candle, a gas jet and an air- 
tight stove vitiate the atmosphere to a 
great extent, but an open fire is an 
efficient means of purifying the air. It 
is estimated that a solitary act of 
breathing spoils good air to the extent 
of losing one-third of its oxygen, this 
being replaced by the deadly carbonic 
acid gas. This process going on 
through eight or ten sleeping hours, 
renders evident the necessity of the 
sleeping apartment being the most airy 
and well-ventilated in the house. Almost 
every bedroom may have the door left 
ajar, the window sash let down a few 
inches at the top and raised slightly at AIR. 
81 
the bottom, and this precaution would 
secure a lighter, shorter and more invig- 
orating sleep. If, on the contrary, as is 
frequently and unhappily the case, ever\r 
door, window and aperture is carefully 
guarded from the air, the sleep is heavy, 
unrefreshing, and partakes more of the 
character of insensibility. 
Nearly one-third of our lives are 
passed in our sleeping rooms, and a 
dread of draughts should not prevent 
them from being properly aired. Beds 
also should be thoroughly and com- 
pletely aired every day. Bed-clothing 
has a strong tendency of itself to absorb 
moisture from the atmosphere, and two 
persons occupying a bed for eight hours, 
will impart to the sheets by insensible 
perspiration, and to the air by breath- 
ing, a pound of watery vapor charged 
with latent animal poison. 
Sleeping rooms on the upper floor are 
preferable, as they are usually of a suffi- 
cient height to raise them above the 
poisonous miasms which lurk close to 
the ground, more especially at night, 
when not affected by the sun’s rays. 
Unaired cellars in houses are also a 
fruitful source of disease. It is not nec- 
essary to have a cellar half filled with 
rotting garbage to be unhealthy. Cel- 
lars, from their location near the 
ground, contract dampness and earth 82 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
poisons, even when constructed so as to 
be water-proof, and thorough ventila- 
tion is their only salvation. 
In the most of houses, especially those 
heated by air-tight stoves, the air is 
gravely deficient in moisture. The com- 
mon method of simmering water in an 
open vessel is seldom sufficient, and a 
better plan is to wet a large cloth in 
water and suspend it upon some frame- 
work. A little chlorate of potash in the 
water adds to the moisture. The cloth, 
if unsightly, may be concealed behind 
some pretty screen or curtain. Thus 
moisture, even if produced artificially, is 
necessary to give the air the soft and 
balm}' qualities essential for comfort. If 
the air is very dry, an open vessel filled 
with boiling water may be added to this 
arrangement. 
A good deal has been said about the 
poisonous influence of green paper wall- 
hangings. It is a fact that the basis of 
the bright green coloring matters is 
arsenite of copper, which is deadly 
poison, and it is a fact also that a room 
papered in this fashion would, in damp 
weather, exhale a certain amount of 
poisonous vapor. This pigment pro- 
duces the most beautiful of bright colors, 
but the use of green should be avoided 
in wall papers. 
House plants are rather favorable AIR. 
83 
than otherwise in their effect. In the 
day time, under the influence of light, 
they absorb carbonic acid from the at- 
mosphere by their leaves, decompose it 
and return pure oxygen to the air, thus 
tending by a double action to purify it. 
In the absence of light, the action of the 
leaves is reversed. Thus, in sleeping 
rooms, their tendency would be to im- 
purity rather than purity. As regards 
moisture, they are useful in supplying 
dry air with the requisite humidity, 
their leaves exhaling dampness through 
their pores. 
Parents should always inspect the 
size and ventilation of the schoolrooms 
where their children spend so much of 
their time, as loss of appetite, headaches 
and general delicacy often attributed to 
overwork, is, in reality, due to the want 
of fresh air. 
The ventilation of churches is notori- 
ously bad. Mr. White says in this 
connection: “The wakefulnesss of 
congregations would be much promoted 
if the truth were more freely mixed with 
oxygen. Nothing except dull sermons 
makes men more sleepy than carbonic 
acid.” 
We have one consolation in it all. In 
all healthy localities the atmosphere is 
more or less self-purifying. There are 
many natural causes at work which 84 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
tend to remove impurities—processes of 
vegetation, rain, lightning, storms and 
winds, which, operating through vast 
volumes of atmosphere, set free poison- 
ous gases and emanations, and oxygen 
burns them. Thus the atmosphere is a 
law of purity unto itself, and preserves 
on a grand scale, its own undisturbed 
vital relation to animal life. WATER. 
Water is as important an element of 
the life forces as light, heat and air, and 
it is a prominent factor in all kinds of 
foods. All fluids taken into the stomach 
are conveyed to the blood, thus supply- 
ing the constant waste which is going 
on in the system, by means of perspira- 
tion, etc. 
Thirst is the sensation resulting from 
the demand of the system for fluids, as 
hunger is the result of a corresponding 
demand for solids. When there is a 
great loss of fluids from the body, thirst 
is constant; in warm weather, when a 
greater amount of fluid is expelled in the 
form of perspiration, thirst is more 
urgent, and also where there is an inordi- 
nate use of salt, spices, stimulating liq- 
uors, etc. The only fluid which is suita- 
ble for the customary drink of man, and 
for the proper dilution of his food, is 
water. In some cases of sickness or de- 
bility, where water alone disagrees, it is 
sometimes advisable to mix with it 86 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
certain aromatic, acidulous or farina- 
ceous substances. 
The quantity of water which should be 
taken, varies with circumstances, and 
with the individual. During an exces- 
sively warm day, a healthy adult should 
consume from three to four pints, while 
a pint or half pint will suffice for cold 
weather. It is not wise to swallow 
large quantities at once; two or three 
mouthfuls are all that should be taken 
at a time, and that slowly. 
While it is an undisputed fact that the 
majority of people do not drink enough 
water, there is a danger of adding too 
much fluid to the circulation, which in- 
creases the systematic waste, and makes 
an increased demand upon the vital 
energy. It has been supposed that the 
excessive use of fluids tends to produce 
leanness or emaciation, but observation 
has proven that corpulent people are 
apt to be the greater consumers of all 
beverages. It is an extremely bad thing 
to do, to flood the stomach with any 
sort of fluid just before a meal, as it 
seriously interferes with digestion, by so 
washing out the gastric juices that they 
cannot properly attack the food thrown 
into the digestive tract. 
The use of ice water during the very 
warm weather, is now very gener- 
ally condemned by seekers after health, WATER. 
87 
but its temperate use often acts as a 
healthful stimulous to the stomach. 
When a person is overheated by 
exercise, however, and thirst is great, 
overdraughts of ice water often produce 
fatal results, and great prudence should 
be observed. 
As a matter of course, purity is the 
standard of perfection in water, and in 
this respect, spring water stands at the 
head, rain water next, and river water 
following—that is, if it contains no in- 
jurious substances. Hard water, as a 
rule, is more or less impregnated with 
mineral substances, which greatly lessen 
its solvent powers, and give rise to ab- 
normal conditions of the blood, from 
which spring many chronic diseases. No 
water coming in contact with lead 
should ever be used, as its action is ex- 
tremely poisonous. Well water, when it 
is pure, is also desirable, but the use of 
wells is attended with so many detri- 
mental contingencies that they are gen- 
erally considered unsafe, especially in 
towns which at all approach cities in 
size. All waters are improved- by boil- 
ing, but they should be poured from one 
vessel to another, in order to regain from 
the atmosphere, the oxygen which they 
have lost. 
Water is purified by allowing it to 
slowly filter through charcoal, but the 88 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
charcoal should be renewed every three 
or four days, as it loses its purifying 
qualities. A good home-made filter can 
be made of sand, gravel, porous earth 
and stone, the water being kept covered. 
Various substances are added to water 
to form nutritious, palatable or stimu- 
lating beverages. Toast-wateris a drink 
formed by pouring boiling water over 
bread or biscuit toasted very brown. It 
constitutes a pleasant and slightly nu- 
tritious fluid for weak stomachs, and is 
useful in settling a stomach just recov- 
ering from a bilious attack. 
When milk is allowed to stand for a 
length of time, it separates into two 
parts; curd, the white or solid part,and 
whey, a thin, greenish-yellow fluid. This 
has an agreeable taste, it digests easily, 
and effects a healthful change in the 
bodily fluids and secretions. It will be 
found a very good article to allay thirst 
in hot weather. 
Mineral waters, both natural and arti- 
ficial, are very grateful, but they should 
be used, as a rule, under prescription, 
and never immediately before or after a 
meal, on account of the gas which they 
contain. This rule applies to all soda 
waters, which should be taken in mod- 
eration and with caution. They are 
doubtless a temptation on a hot day, 
especially when put up in the pleasant WATER. 
89 
forms drawn from our soda fountains, 
and are often a pleasant stimulous, not 
harmful in instances of great fatigue, 
but great prudence and discretion should 
be observed in their use. 
Tea, the familiar household drink, has a 
variety of qualities, pro and con. There 
is no doubt, however, that tea used 
daily, and in any quantity or strength, 
is decidedly injurious, especially to ner- 
vous temperaments. Black tea is prefer- 
able to green, as it contains less stimu- 
lating and narcotic principles. A weak 
infusion of tea may be taken at the 
evening meal without harm, and is often 
very refreshing. It should not then be 
taken through the day, however, and it 
is well to vary the drink with each meal, 
never using the same one three times a 
day, and always remembering that pure, 
cold water, is best adapted to the needs 
of man. 
Mocha, Java and Havana, are said to 
be the best brands of coffee. On account 
of its strong, stinmlating properties, the 
continued use of this article is apt to 
form a habit as pernicious and difficult 
to discontinue as that of alcoholic liq- 
uors. The animation and brilliancy it 
occasions, is, of course, unnatural, and 
is invariably followed by sadness and 
lethargy, with the accompanying wear 
and tear upon the system. It deranges 90 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
the stomach and injures the digestive 
organs, and should never be used by 
children or dyspeptics. A moderately 
strong cup at breakfast, may be taken 
by persons of active habits. 
Chocolate is a very nutritious drink to 
those who can handle it, but its exceed- 
ing richness makes it difficult of diges- 
tion. 
Cocoa is less oily than chocolate, less 
difficult to digest, and agrees very well 
with many persons. Its action on the 
bowels is rather astringent. PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
“The outward sign of the inward 
grace.” This is the connection in which 
we would introduce this subject as re- 
lated to our work. Just as refinement 
and taste in dress are sure indica- 
cations of a certain amount of refine- 
ment and taste of mind, so is a desire to 
preserve to the utmost every charm of 
health and beauty, a sure sign of an 
inward harmony. Certain laws and 
rules helpful to such a desire, may be 
said to be in the borderland between 
physician and artist. It is wholly within 
the province of neither. Health is a 
source of beauty, but not a solitary one. 
We would offer certain suggestions from 
hygiene, physiology-chemistry and phar- 
macy—certain innocent devices which 
lend aid to the secret arts and mysteries 
of the toilette, by which we outdo nature 
at her best, and crown herhighest efforts 
with an added glory. If we take under 
our special charge this, alas, too much 
ignored branch of study, let not our 92 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
efforts be disdained. We are mindful of 
the fact that “ a thing of beauty is a joy 
forever.” A knowledge of this delicate 
cunning will enable many a wife to retain 
her husband’s affection, and many a 
slighted maiden to obtain that attention 
and courtesy for which her soul pines in 
secret. 
Napoleon said of Josephine, that “she 
was mistress of the toilette,” a remark 
which leads us to believe that this was 
not the least of the golden chains that 
bound the conqueror of the world at 
the feet of a woman. 
What a fine thing it will be when 
women combine the freshness of youth 
with the intellect and philosophy of age. 
And such things may be. We may 
“grow old gracefully.” But at the out- 
set we would have our readers under- 
stand we do not promise too much. We 
do not come with a draught of the foun- 
tain of Ponce de Leon, which will enable 
the drinker to be forever fair, and forever 
young. It is only by selfdenial that we 
gain any permanent good, and, in a 
thousand small ways, here a little and 
there a little, by obeying rules of health, 
diet, exercise, and the mystic arts of sur- 
gery and pharmacy, our patient may 
learn to transform herself from homely 
into passible, from passible into attrac- 
tive, from attractive into beautiful. PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
93 
We will begin with the human form as 
a whole, before passing to its many sub- 
divisions. There are certain rules, de- 
rived from a careful study of the finest 
living models and the most noted ancient 
statues, by which we shape the outlines 
of the human figure. We give these rules, 
not to discourage our readers, but sim- 
ply to form a standard of perfection by 
which he or she may measure themselves. 
The height should be exactly equal to 
the distance between the tips of the mid- 
dle fingers of either hand when the arms 
shall be fully extended. Ten times the 
length of the hand, or seven and a half 
times the length of the foot, or five 
times the diameter of the chest from one 
armpit to the other, should also give the 
height of the whole body. The distance 
from the junction of the thigh to the 
ground, should be the same as from that 
point to the crown of the head. The 
knee should be precisely midway between 
the same point and the bottom of the 
heel. The distance from the elbow to 
the tip of the middle finger, should be 
the same as from the elbow to the mid- 
dle line of the breast. From the top of 
the head to the level of the chin, should 
be the same as from the level of the chin 
to that of the armpits, and from the heel 
to the toe. 
Now, having ascertained by these meas- 94 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
urements how far from perfect we are, 
we will now proceed to see what is to be 
done about it. American women, as a 
rule, measure between five feet two 
inches and five feet four inches in height. 
Those who are much above, or under 
these figures, will be unpleasantly aware 
of the fact. They should remedy it, but 
how, in the name of all that’s wonder- 
ful? we hear in imagination. To those 
who are under height we would say, 
that very few people sit or stand their 
full height. They drop all together (to 
use a coined expression,) in a loose, 
slouchy fashion, usually with one hip or 
shoulder higher than the other, the ab- 
domen thrown out in ugly contour, the 
weight upon the heels, or the outside of 
one foot. Take this same figure and 
throw the weight upon the balls of the 
feet, the hips back of the shoulders, thus 
drawing in the abdomen and forming a 
straight and perfect outline, the chest 
swelled, the shoulders back, the head 
well poised, the chin slightly dropped so 
that the eyes meet those of another 
squarely and courteously, and, behold 
the transformation. You have a figure, 
which, in its lithe and easy grace, shall 
form a dignity which will make the be- 
holder quite forget any discrepanc}- in 
height. The same balance preserved in 
walking, throws the work where it be- PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
95 
longs, upon the strong hi}) muscles, and 
not upon weak backs, and will enable 
delicate women to walk without great 
fatigue, and to attain that graceful and 
erect carriage which is so much to be de- 
sired. 
As regards sitting we would say, that 
we believe rocking chairs to be an abom- 
ination and a nuisance. They induce a 
tendency to lounge which is inelegant 
and injurious, as it throws the weight 
squarely upon the end of the spine, pro- 
ducing, in many cases, a nervous irrita- 
tion. In a straight backed chair one 
sits squarely from the hips up, their full 
height, the weight upon the strong hip 
muscles again, the body well back in the 
chair, the shoulders straight, one foot 
slightly in advance ready to rise with 
ease, and there you are—a model of dig- 
nity, grace and comfort. 
Almost any one can acquire a fine fig- 
ure by patience and long practice. For 
example of this, look at the raw recruit 
when taken into the standing army, and 
then observe the practiced ease, the mili- 
tary erectness, the unconscious grace of 
the “old regular.” This tells what train- 
ing may do. 
It is not so easy, one might think, to 
veil unusual height. In sooth, it is a 
more serious problem, although it is not 
impossible. We would have our reader 96 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
notice what a common thing it is among 
tall people to endeavor to hide their 
height by a shambling walk, and a 
stooping of their shoulders, forgetting 
the fact that a harmony of proportion 
does away with the impression of great 
height. A person who preserves a sym- 
metry of balance, will be blessed with 
more or less perfection of proportion, 
and will get themselves styled “a superb 
creature,” instead of‘‘a great awkward 
thing.” One of the most common blem- 
ishes is that of stooping the shoulders, 
and it is productive of a train of evils. 
It destroys the contour of the neck, and 
and the pose of the head. It throws the 
shoulders upward and forward, and in- 
duces consumption. And yet it is com- 
paratively easy of remedy. A daily and 
regular practice of the following exercise 
will entirely do away with the habit in 
in the young, and largely correct in 
those with whom it is of long standing. 
Stand erect, with the weight thrown 
forward, the hand clasped loosely behind 
the back, and inhale slowly and gently 
through the nose, with the mouth closed. 
When the lungs have been filled to their 
utmost capacity, slowly exhale with the 
mouth open, consuming as much time 
in the exhalation as possible. The inhal- 
ation should be so deep as to move the 
lower muscles of the abdomen. By this PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
97 
means the chest is permanently expanded, 
which, perforce, throws the shoulders 
back in their place. We thus kill two 
birds with one stone—straighten the 
shoulders, and fill empty air cells, flat- 
tened by long disuse. 
Having thus dilated upon the human 
body as a whole, we will now proceed 
to its subdivisions, and offer what mod- 
est hints we may, as to the correction 
of their faults. 
The neck should be one-half the height 
of the head, from the level of the chin to 
to the summit, and, at its narrowest 
part, should have twice the circumference 
of the wrist. Through the neck the 
great vessels pass to the brain, and the 
spinal column conveys the sensations 
from all parts of the body to the brain, 
where resides the intellect. Therefore it 
is of great importance in reading char- 
acter, to the physician and physiogno- 
mist. Rounded, regular shoulders, and 
a full chest, are next in order. The shape 
of both can be greatly improved by the 
breathing exercise before mentioned. 
The waist of a woman five feet high, 
should be twenty-five inches in circum- 
ference, and it should increase half an 
inch for every additional inch in height. 
Listen to this, gentle reader, if you are 
inclined to endorse that absurd and ugly 
fashion of lacing down to the wasp-like 98 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
waist, against which artists and phy- 
sicians have so long and so vainly pro- 
tested. We think, however, that later- 
da\' women have too much intelligence, 
and have, perhaps, suffered too much, 
and also the evil results of this custom 
are too well known to need a desserta- 
tion from us. But we cannot promise 
our readers health or beauty, in the 
smallest degree, unless we are obeyed in 
this particular. 
The head is that part of the body 
which distinguishes the noble from the 
ignoble. It should appear as a perfect 
oval. Its height should be one-eighth of 
the whole height of the person. The 
greatest diameter should extend from 
the forehead to the back of the skull 
above the neck; the shortest from one 
temple to the other. The two hemis- 
pheres should be perfectly even, and the 
curve of the summit regular and even. 
The rule of artists for the forehead of a 
woman, is that it should be broad and 
low, but from time immemorial, a lofty 
brow has been the throne of intellect. 
The reader may thus be consoled with 
either one. 
The face, like the head, should be oval, 
and, as the curve is the line of beauty, a 
face that is full of soft curves and with- 
out abrupt angles or sudden depressions, 
is more apt to be beautiful. But the PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
99 
face, perhaps, more than any other part 
of the body, is under our control, for it 
is the expression (the soul, if you will, 
shining through its mortal coil,) that 
makes it; and sweet and lovely thoughts 
are very apt to make sweet and lovely 
faces, despite any irregularit3r of feature. 
It is a good thing to remember to keep 
the face in repose while talking. The 
habit of twisting and contorting the 
face to express every varying thought, is 
unnecessary, and is fatal to beauty. The 
habitual use of one muscle above an- 
other enlarges it, and leaves its mark 
upon the countenance. On a calm face 
the passing emotions mirror themselves 
quietly, like clouds on the surface of 
some unruffled lake, and gain tenfold 
fascination in the doing. No feature of 
the face is so expressive as the eye; none 
so important to have under control and 
to use to the best advantage. The eye 
can command empires, sway multitudes 
and subdue even the fierce beast of the 
jungle. They should be horizontal, and 
of a color to correspond with the skin 
and hair; their motion should be free, 
slow, and not jerky, and the white of 
the eve pure and pearly. It is apt to be- 
come yellow in diseases connected with 
the digestive organs or liver, and streaked 
with red in those who are given to vio- 
lent fits of temper, or to excesses of food 100 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
or drink. A weak eye is rarely a pretty 
one, so it behooves every one to preserve 
the sight, for a two-fold reason. Avoid 
straining them by lights too bright or 
dim, and never read lying down. The 
eyebrows are very significant of charac- 
ter. They should be moderately thick, 
especially at the inner third, the outer 
extremity tapering to a point, with soft, 
regular hair, slightly arched, and well 
defined against the skin. They should 
never be allowed to grow together, as it 
is indicative of the lower emotions. If 
nature plays the trick upon }rou, remove 
them by shaving, or the use of tweezers. 
The eyelids should neither be widely sep- 
arated nor half closed. The former 
habit gives a scared, uneasy look; the 
latter a sleepy, sensual expression, far 
from the ideal of art. All the pupil 
should be visible, but none of the white 
of the eye, either above or below it. 
The mouth, the home of smiles and 
merry laughter, the spot where love 
seals its vows, and friendship offers its 
warmest pledges, comes next for study. 
It should be of moderate size, the cor- 
ners symmetrical; when closed, the line 
perfectly horizontal; the lips well defined 
and rosy red, the lower lip slightly more 
prominent than the upper, both covering 
readily the teeth. Health preserves their 
natural carmine and softness, and a con- PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
101 
tinned drying and cracking of the lips is 
usually caused by some disorder of the 
stomach or internal organs. Endless lip 
salves do no good in such a case. The 
cause itself must be reached. A chafing 
caused simply from exposure to the 
weather, can be remedied by touching 
them with cold cream, or a preparation 
of ten drops of carbolic acid, a teaspoon- 
ful of glycerine, and two drops of ottar 
of roses. A use of the many poisonous 
lip salves, to give false color to the lips, 
should be carefully avoided, as should 
the habit of sucking and biting them for 
the same purpose. It destroys their 
shape. There are many people whom 
mirth robs of half their good looks. 
They twist and contort the features, 
producing permanent wrinkles. The 
lips should part moderately, in a lovely 
smile, disclosing the teeth, but not the 
gums, and the whole face should brighten 
accordingly. What beauty is there in a 
smile, unless it discloses two symmetrical 
rows of “delicate little pearl-white 
wedges, all transparent at the edges?” 
There is no excuse in our day, when 
dental surgery has reached such a state 
of perfection, for bad teeth. The count- 
less ills that follow in their train, are too 
well known to need mention, as is also 
the unpleasantness of unbrushed teeth. 
An offensive breath is such a serious 102 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
fault that we make especial mention of 
it. Many a one, who would otherwise 
be an engaging companion, is rendered 
intolerable by it. In the great majority 
of cases, it arises from either the lungs, 
the stomach, or the teeth. When the lat- 
ter are at fault, they should be put at 
once under the care of an approved den- 
tist. When the stomach is the cause, 
dyspepsia in some form is present, and 
requires the enlightened care of a phy- 
sician. When the trouble is in the lungs, 
the gravity of the case is apparent, and 
the battle is not for good looks, but for 
dear life. But whatever the cause, every 
possible means of remedy should be 
taken, as we have not the least right to 
go about rendering ourselves objects of 
aversion, and we are no less with this 
fault. A temporary relief may be found 
in the following mouth wash : One table- 
spoontul of Listerine in a half teacup of 
soft water. Rinse well several times 
during the day. 
The care of the ear consists principally 
in cleanliness, and this is important, as 
the hardening of the wax from neglect, 
often causes deafness. No base metal 
should be worn in the ears, and no gold 
less than eighteen carats fine, as the 
alloy used in lower grades irritates and 
inflames the skin. 
The shape of the nose is often indica- PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
103 
tive of race, and of all the types, the 
Grecian is said to be the most artistic. 
This has the line of the nose straight, or 
nearly so. 
Of all the senses, that of smell is the 
most delicate, and due regard should be 
paid to this thought, in the use of odors. 
A faint suggestion of delicate perfume, 
wisely chosen, is a very charming attri- 
bute of a lady’s toilette, but the immod- 
erate use of strong odors is vulgar, and 
highly significant of its use as a cover 
for uncleanliness. Sachet bags skillfully 
disposed about the person, are the most 
dainty means of scent. 
The nose, as far as is consistent with 
keeping it clean, shoidd be left alone. 
Nervous habits of frequent wiping and 
blowing, pulling and twitching, are very 
apt to destroy the shape. 
We now come to the skin and complex- 
ion, and on this subject the burden of 
oursongis, soap and water. A thorough 
cleansing with soap and water twice a 
week, and a daily bath in tepid rain- 
water, followed bvagentle rubbing with 
a Turkish towel, productive of a gentle 
glow over the entire body, is the best 
beautifier the skin can have. If rain- 
water is not available, water softened 
with borax is the next best, and tepid 
water is better than extremely hot or 
cold. To those who have sufficient 104 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
strength of constitution, the Turkish 
bath once or twice a month is highly 
beneficial, and the discriminate use of 
pure rice powders, scented, are 
not injurious, and are often a protection 
against sun and wind. Add to these 
directions a proper regulation of the 
bowels and diet, and plenty of physical 
exercise in the fresh air, and you have 
the secret of a good skin. 
In these days of manicures, good hand 
lotions, cold creams, etc., almost any 
one not obliged to perform very severe 
labor, can have a white, smooth hand, 
and pretty pink nails. But this, like 
every other good, is not attainable with- 
out care and patience. 
The hair—that crowning glory of a 
woman—should be washed in soft water, 
with pure castile soap, thoroughly rinsed 
and dried, and the scalp well rubbed, 
once a fortnight in the summer, and once 
a month in the winter. This is abso- 
lutely necessary to keep it in good con- 
dition. Split, or otherwise injured hair, 
should be carefully clipped from the head 
two or three times a year, and every 
possible pains should be taken to ar- 
range the hair artistically, and in a man- 
ner mostbecomingto the face and figure. 
It is needless to say that any attempt to 
change the natural color of the hair, by 
the use of dyes or bleaches, is an infring- PERSONAL BEAUTY. 
105 
ment of nature’s laws, for which she will 
most promptly avenge herself, in most 
grotesque looking, if not utterly ruined 
hair. 
To the results of these rules, implicitly 
obeyed, add a soft voice, “that most ex- 
cellent thing in woman,’’ and you have 
that most beautiful of all things—a 
beautiful woman. 
Guided by the laws of wisdom in pas- 
sions and tastes, and in all things, mod- 
eration, observing scrupulously that 
cleanliness which is next to godliness, 
and we have a house for our soul, a just 
appreciation of which leads us to a con- 
templation of that Celestial Beauty, like 
unto whose perfect image, man was cre- 
ated. SLEEPING AND DREAMING* 
“To sleep, perchance to dream, 
Aye there’s the rub; 
For in that sleep 
What dreams may come.” 
—Hamlet. 
Nearly a third of our time is spent in 
sleep, and it is comforting to know that 
the time is not wasted. The result of 
active exercise is the breaking down of 
innumerable cells, which must be replaced 
when the body is inactive. Therefore, 
the wonder would be if we did not sleep. 
The regular work of the body is sus- 
pended during sleep, and the organs un- 
dergo a period of restoration which is 
requisite for future activity. In the 
work and thought of the day this accu- 
mulated energy is gradually distributed. 
Each evening finds the store exhausted. 
This organized being is a self-repairing 
machine, but there must be recurring 
periods of repose. Finally, when it is 
no longer capable of repair, there comes SLEEPING AND DREAMING. 
107 
that deep sleep from which there is no 
awaking. 
The question might be asked, why do 
we awake from sleep? The accumula- 
tion of nervous energy might cause it if 
nothing else. Habit also influences it. 
We allow the system so many hours for 
repose and repair, and it accomplishes 
all in the given time. 
Sleep does not come upon us sud- 
denly. We lose the power of our sen- 
ses gradually, each following in suc- 
cession after the loss of sight. There are 
also different degrees of sleep—so many 
intermediate steps between it and awak- 
ing, that we may be said to graduate 
from a deep, unconscious sleep, to a state 
well illustrated by thegradual change of 
night into day. A lightly sleeping per- 
son may answer a question given in a 
familiar tone, without knowing he has 
done so. Somehave even slept on horse- 
back, or when walking, when the mus- 
cles of the back were in motion. But in 
standing, the body would fall forward 
unless supported. 
A healthy sleep is perhaps perfectly 
dreamless. Dreams are interesting for 
three reasons. They illustrate the va- 
garies of the mind, are the result of 
physical disturbances, and they resemble 
insanity. 
It is noticeable that in all our wander- 108 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
ings through dreamland, doing the 
most absurd and improbable things, 
that there is still underneath all an in- 
stinct of identity. The surprise awak- 
ened by assuming such fantastic forms, 
proves that there is something deeper 
than physical personality. The subtle- 
ties of the mind are things almost too 
subtle, to be handled by the clumsy 
vehicles of speech. Yet, through the 
delicate workings of associative mem- 
ory, the sudden flash of recollection, 
faces long dead, voices long still, between 
which and the present there seems to be 
at first no connecting link, goes to prove 
the unconscious something which lies 
above all the ordinary workings of the 
mind. There is a self beyond all bodily 
function, of which we have occasional 
lightning-like glimpses. 
It is said that there is no such thing as 
forgetting what we have once atten- 
tively observed. The impression is made 
unconsciously upon the inner self, and 
there stored for future use. And from 
this store-house, material is furnished 
for many dream fancies. 
Many are the ways in which memory 
is awakened. A picture, a story, the 
sweet strains of music, or a particular 
odor,may revive the slumbering thoughts 
of recent or remote happenings. And 
even in the silent night, we may enter SLEEPING AND DREAMING. 
109 
into its details more perfectW, thus re- 
living the past. 
We experience the feelings of the day, 
and perform its occupations, awakening 
more tired than when we sought our 
couch. The muscles, as well as the 
mind, were working all night. We for- 
got to let go of ourselves. But this feel- 
ing can be prevented by the relaxation 
of the muscles. An excellent exercise is 
to raise the arms slowly to a horizontal 
position while taking a long breath, and 
and then suddenly drop them to the side. 
A repetition of this exercise with the 
eyes closed, will secure that lifeless, re- 
laxed feeling needful for refreshing sleep. 
The application of a hot water bag 
to the body, a sudden sound, heavy, or 
insufficient covering upon the bed, will 
cause dreams often distressing in their 
nature. This shows that part of the 
brain is active, while the other is asleep. 
Each internal organ effects the brain 
directly or indirectly. Hence any disor- 
ders will cause the sleep to be labored 
and exhausting. It may cause the night- 
mare, in which we can trace a relation 
to insanity. Any sudden noise ma}r 
cause a fear of something terrible about 
to happen. 
Such unrest cannot assist the storing 
of energy, or allow a restful suspension 
of the organs of life. Rest is absolutely 110 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
necessary for a healthy life. The heart 
and lungs take a short rest between each 
pulsation or respiration. These inter- 
vals are longer when the body rests, 
although they never cease their daily, 
hourly, life-long task. 
Scientists today say that we should 
live to be one hundred and ten years 
old. But improper methods of living, 
such as overeating, without proper exer- 
cise or rest, we destroy the natural work- 
ings of the human organism that sup- 
ports the vital spark of life given us. 
Without sleep, which is nature’s true 
rest, we cannot enjoy the benefits of 
judicious exercise. Rest and exercise are 
brothers that cannot be separated in the 
proper support of the body. There can- 
not be healthful exercise without health- 
ful rest. 
Thus it can be seen that normal sleep 
is probably one of the greatest invigor- 
ators of the body. Each individual is a 
law unto himself in regard to the amount 
of sleep required to make the repair 
needed. We know of some individuals 
that have done wonders upon four hours 
of sleep, which were enough to properly 
restore their physical organizations. 
The majority of people require from six 
to ten hours of perfect sleep. By care- 
fully examining and observing the effects 
of sleep upon ourselves, we can deter- SLEEPING AND DREAMING. 
111 
mine the amount needed for the repairs 
that nature intends we should have. 
Then we should not deviate from nature’s 
requirements. If we do, we must pay 
the penalty. We cannot borrow from 
the future without shortening our lives. 
It is a well known fact that one hour 
before midnight is worth two after. 
Then the old adage, “early to bed and 
early to rise, truly makes a man healthy, 
wealthy and wise.” 
The requirements of business and so- 
ciety have done more to prevent “na- 
ture’s sweet restorer” from doing her 
work than all other agencies combined. 
Many commercial men, authors, profes- 
sional men, as well as a large class of 
brain workers, rob themselves of 
strength and ability that belongs to 
them, because they do not allow sleep 
to do its perfect work. Nature may per- 
mit this for a time, but, sooner or later, 
the nervous system begins to show evi- 
dences of overtaxation. As a perfect 
life is dependent upon a proper amount 
of rest, we cannot continue to overtax 
without bringing on a permanent deter- 
ioration or loss of our ability in what- 
ever line of work we are engaged. 
It is a common thing forpeople today, 
to enjoy what they term “outings.” 
They overtax the body eight to ten 
months in the year, and then trv to re- 112 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
pair it in two. It can readily be seen 
that this cannot be done, as the over- 
taxation destroys the ability of the sys- 
tem to make an immediate repair. 
Many are much improved, while others 
return without regaining what they ex- 
pected, and others have so nearly de- 
stroyed their power to live that they 
cannot regain any of their strength, but 
continue to lose it. This is the class of 
people who are largely disturbed with 
dreams. It shows that their general 
and nervous system is no longer able to 
duly repair when she most needs it. This 
class are resting upon the danger line of 
their existence. And if the little life- 
force yet remaining is not improved so 
as to overcome all these dangerous 
warnings, the sleep that knows no wak- 
ing will soon overtake them. 
The natural way of living is to repair 
each day what is necessarily destroyed 
in life’s active work, of whatever sort. 
Then we hold ourselves above every 
danger signal, and life, with all its 
glorious workings, we are fully permitted 
to enjoy. SIGHT. 
I believe that man received from the 
Creator perfect sight, but, through his 
transgressions, it has become imperfect 
and subject to various diseases. 
There are defects in the eye that are 
termed “optical,” which are of interest 
to all. The eye is a camera, subject to 
the ordinary laws of light; it may be 
perfectly sound, and still vision be not 
perfect. This is caused by the rays of 
light not being accurately focused upon 
the retina. The rays of light may be 
focused in front of it, as in myopia, or 
back of it, as in hvpermvtropia. There 
is perfect vision when the parallel rays 
of light that come from an object twenty 
feet away from the observer are focused 
sharply upon the retina. In this con- 
dition, the eye is adjusted for distant 
objects, and all of its parts are at rest. 
The cornea, aqueous humor, crystaline 
lens and vitreous humor, are refractive 
media, and, when taken together, act as 
a bi-convex lens, causing the parallel 114 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
rays of light to be brought to an exact 
focus upon the retina. 
If we wished to see near objects, the 
eye must change to some extent, and the 
lens become more convex. The eye pos- 
sesses the power to adjust itself for 
various distances. This power is termed 
accommodation. When the ciliary mus- 
cle contracts, the lens has the power to 
become more convex, mostly on the an- 
terior surface, causing it to have a 
shorter focus, and greater magnifying 
power. This is an involuntary act that 
is not under control of the will. 
Children with healthy eyes have good 
accom modation, but it diminishes as they 
grow older, so that at forty or fifty, it 
is very difficult to accommodate for fine 
objects at a near point. In order to see 
well, they find it necessary to hold every- 
thing a greater distance away from the 
eyes than they have been in the habit of 
doing. This condition of the eye is 
termed presbyopia, or old sight. 
From what has been stated, we learn 
that divergent rays of light, coming 
from a near object, are brought to a 
focus on the retina by increasing the 
convexity of the lens. When the sub- 
stance of the lens is soft, this can be 
more readily accomplished than when 
the lens becomes denser, as it does in ad- 
vanced life. Now it can be readily un- SIGHT. 
115 
derstood why it is, when the lens becomes 
hard so that it is not able to increase its 
convexity, that objects near to the eye 
cannotbeseen. If weholdthe object the 
proper distance away from the eye, so 
that the rays of light are not as diver- 
gent, the lens will have convexity suf- 
ficient to focus the rays on the retina. 
It has been stated by high authority, 
that presbyopia has commenced as soon 
as the near point is further than eight 
inches from the eye. This statement is 
of no practical value. Presbyopia has 
commenced when the person finds that 
he can no longer use his eyes with ease 
for near work, at the distance which he 
has always used them. The first symp- 
tom of old sight is usually when the 
person cannot see to read fine print by 
arti ficial light. Soon there will be noticed 
a sense of strain in using the eyes for 
near work. This straining sensation is 
caused by the over-exertion of the ciliary 
muscle to produce the required amount 
of convexity in the crystaline lens. 
Some people believe that this discomfort 
should be borne as long as possible, and 
that the eyes are weakened if anything 
is done to relieve the strain. We find the 
reverse of this is true, and that presby- 
opia will increase more rapidly when 
glasses are not worn, than when the cor- 
recting lenses are used. In obtaining 116 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
glasses for the presbyopic condition, it is 
best to choose the glass which makes 
ordinary print plain at the usual reading 
distance of the patient. Every glass 
should be accurately fitted to the eye, 
so that they will not prove a source of 
danger to it. 
It is unwise to contest with age, and I 
think we would be acting the part of 
wisdom to yield gracefully. Then, when 
it is no longer possible to read with per- 
fect comfort without glasses, their use 
should be commenced. Hypermytropia, 
or long sight, is caused by the eye being 
too flat; that is, the eyeball is not long 
enough from the front to the back por- 
tion. On account of this flatness of the 
eye, the rays of light do not focus on the 
retina, but some distance back of it. 
This condition should not be confounded 
with presbyopia, which, as we have 
learned, affects the near point of distinct 
vision, causing it to be removed further 
from the eye, while in hypermytropia, 
both the near and far point is involved, 
so that there can be no distinct vision at 
any distance, without more or less strain 
on the eyes. This strain on the ciliary 
muscles is so great that a condition of 
weak eyes is frequently developed. This 
condition is often seen in young persons. 
Whenever they read, write, or do any 
fine work, the vision is at first perfectly SIGHT. 
117 
clear, but soon, if they are reading, the 
letters begin to run together, and the 
sight becomes dim, making it necessary 
to stop work for a short time, until the 
eyes regain their strength. If the eyes 
are constantly used, a feeling of aching 
will be felt across the brows, which 
will frequently be followed by a severe 
headache. Sometimes the eyes become 
quite red, nausea and vomiting come 
on, and the patient is considered very 
sick. 
The condition of the nervous system 
should be noticed in all cases of hyper- 
mytropia. Children, or adults with a 
weak, nervous system, cannot endure 
even a small amount of this trouble 
without great suffering. Some months 
ago I saw a marked case of this kind. 
A number of distinguished physicians in 
the east said that he was suffering with 
a serious disease of the whole nervous 
system. His eyes troubled him very 
much, especially if he read any length 
of time. His vision was perfectly clear 
at first, but after he had read a few 
minutes, his eyes would become blurred, 
misty, and sometimes vision would be 
gone entirely for a few moments. The 
nervous disease became very much better 
soon after he commenced the use of the 
proper glasses. 
Nearlv one-half the children of this 118 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
country have hypermetropia. Five hun- 
dred and twenty-three school children 
out of eight hundred and ninety, were 
found hypermetropic. Some of these 
children areconsidered dull,and very poor 
students. Parents are sometimes quite 
severe with their children because they do 
not study better, and keep up with their 
classes. I have seen children that were 
obliged to leave school on account of 
headache, fatigue, irritability and mental 
confusion, that would come on after 
studying for awhile. Many of these chil- 
dren never get an education, because “ go- 
ing to school does not agree with them.” 
The majority of them can go to 
school and keep up with any class, if 
their hypermetropia is properly treated. 
The use of the correct convex glass is 
the remedy for this trouble. By using 
these glasses, the parallel rays of light 
will be made converging before they en- 
ter the eye, so that the muscle of accom- 
modation is relieved of its extra work, 
and the focus is brought forward on the 
retina, which gives natural and easy 
vision. 
Myopia, or short sight, is caused by 
the eyeball being too long from front to 
back, so that the rays of light come to 
a focus before reaching the retina, or 
somedistance in front of it. The poster- 
ior portion of the eye is pushed too far SIGHT. 
119 
away from the anterior, so that there is 
an elongation of the axis of the organ. 
In some cases the eye, instead of being 
round, becomes egg-shaped. This trouble 
is one of the results of advancing civili- 
zation, and is seen more frequently in 
old countries than new. It is seen more 
among students and literary people, than 
among laboring persons. 
Myopia is very prevalent in Germany, 
and it is impossible to fill the ranks of 
the army with men who can get along 
without using glasses. It is not often 
observed among farmers and seamen. I 
am informed by a responsible party that 
Indians are never short-sighted. In 
most cases there is thought to be a 
hereditary tendency to short sight. It 
may originate from abuse of the eyes, 
and be increased by close work. That it 
is transmitted from parent to child, is 
shown by its greater prevalence among 
those who use their eyes constantly. 
During childhood, when the eyes are 
growing and the tissues are changing, 
short sight will increase to some extent, 
even with the best of care. We find a 
large amount of myopia developed in 
the schools. Dr. Cahn, of Breslau, ex- 
amined the eyes of more than ten thous- 
and school children, and found the per- 
centage of short sight increasing from 
year to year. The following table shows 120 
P HYSICA L PE R F ECTIO X. 
the average increase per cent, in each de- 
partment: Elementary schools, 6.7 per 
cent.; intermediate schools, 10.3 per 
cent.; high school, 19.7 per cent. We find 
the same thing in this country, and it is 
time some active measures were taken 
to prevent the sight of the American 
youth from being lost to such a large ex- 
tent. But few school houses are prop- 
erly constructed to save the sight. Dr. 
Wells says: “There can be no doubt 
that the degree of myopia is often 
greatly increased during childhood, by 
long-continued study, more especially by 
insufficient illumination, and a faulty 
construction of the tables or desks at 
which pupils read and write. An insuf- 
ficient illumination necessitates a close 
approximation of the object, which gives 
rise to a straining of the accommodation, 
and congestion of the eyes. A faulty 
construction of the tables, or the dis- 
tance between the latter and the seats, 
is also injurious, by forcing the children 
to stoop.” Dr. Cahn said: “I could 
distinctly trace the increase in the pro- 
portion of the myopia, according to the 
construction of the desks, and the light- 
ing of the school rooms.” 
It is thought by some that short- 
sighted eyes are stronger than others, 
because they can see small objects very 
distinctly, and can read after middle age SIGHT. 
121 
without glasses. This is an error. A 
myopic eye is almost always an unsound 
one. The real defect is a bulging back- 
ward of the sclerotic or outer coat of 
the eye, which yields more readily as it 
becpmes thinner by stretching. Any- 
thing that causes an extra flow of blood 
into the eyeball will increase the pressure 
and force the weakened sclerotic further 
back. The stooping position that child- 
ren are obliged to take because of the 
faulty construction of seats and desks in 
most of our school houses, will cause 
an increased flow of blood into their 
eyes, and, consequently, an increase in 
their mvpoia. 
The choroid and retina are injured in 
following the sclerotic as it is forced 
backward. If the bulging backward of 
the sclerotic goes on rapidly, as it does 
in some cases, the retina will be detached 
from the choroid, and forced forward 
into the vitreous humor, where it can be 
seen in loose folds. Sight is now lost. 
This is the course of a rapidly progressive 
myopia. This can usually be avoided, 
still it should be borne in mind as possi- 
ble. 
Myopia, especially in a high degree, is 
a serions affection, and requires careful 
and skillful treatment. In this trouble, 
parallel rays of light must be made di- 
vergent before they can be focused on the 122 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
retina. By using the proper concave 
glass, we can obtain the desired result. 
It is very necessary that a short-sighted 
person be accurately fitted, as much 
harm may be done by wearing the wrong 
glasses. It may be well to remember 
that myopia may cause the eye to turn 
out—strabismus divergeus, while hyper- 
metropia will cause it in some cases, to 
turn in—strabismus convergeus. 
In hypermetropia, the strain on the 
accommodation causes an excessive 
tendency to convergence, which term- 
inates in a permanent turning inward of 
the eye. This kind of squint or cross- 
eye, usually commences in children from 
two to five years of age. It will be 
noticed first when they are looking at 
some near object; soon it will occasion- 
ally occur when they are looking at 
distant objects; finally one eye remains 
permanently turned in. It is a popidar 
idea that squint is caused by whooping 
cough, measles, convulsions, etc., but 
they act only to reduce the patient, so 
that the strain of the hypermetropic 
condition cannot be borne. 
When there is a want of harmony in 
the action of the external muscles of the 
eyeball, the rays of light that enter 
them will not focus on the same point on 
each retina; on this account we have 
double vision, or see objects double. sight. 
123 
This is termed diplopia, or double sight. 
Prismatic glasses may be used to correct 
this trouble. If the glasses are uot 
used, the person will learn to suppress 
the image on the retina of the squinting 
eye, to avoid the annoyance of double 
sight, and on account of the non-use of 
the squinting e\re, the sight will be im- 
paired ; in some cases, accurate vision is 
lost, even though the eye looks healthy. 
Squint that comeson suddenly is usually 
the result of paralysis of one of the ex- 
ternal muscles of the eye, and may be 
the result of some brain disease. 
Astigmatism. Every eye is more or 
less astigmatic, but in some eyes the 
degree is so slight that it does not cause 
any trouble. When there is a want of 
uniformity in the curvature of the 
cornea, astigmatism exists. The cornea 
may be too flat in the vertical meridian, 
orfromthe upper to the lower portion, so 
that the rays of light will focus back of 
the proper point. While from right to 
left it may be too bulging, causing the 
rays of light that pass through this por- 
tion to be focused in front of the retina. 
One portion of the cornea may be cor- 
rect, and the other myopic or hyperme- 
tropic. Astigmatism may be complicated 
with hypermetropia or myopia, which 
makes vision quite uncertain. Children 
with myopic astigmatism are apt to be 124 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
dull, and slow about learning. The use 
of the proper cylindrical glasses by these 
children will brighten their intellects, and 
cause them to see nature's beauties with 
much better satisfaction. One eye may 
be long-sighted, and the other correct; 
one eye may be short-sighted and the 
other long-sighted, so that the myopic 
eye may be used for near objects, and the 
other for distance. 
Asthenopia or weak sight, is any con- 
dition in which the eyes cannot be used 
for a time without more or less pain, 
fatigue, or other bad symptoms. The 
eyes are unable to bear the strain of con- 
tinued application to close work. As- 
thenopia may result from any of the 
optical defects that have been described 
above. In some cases the eye symptoms 
are very mild, in fact, not noticed, but 
the strain is manifest by nausea, dizzi- 
ness, headache, and general nervous irri- 
tability, which may excite some fears 
with regard to the health in the future. 
Weak sight may come from bad gen- 
eral health, especially if it is of a nervous 
character. Now and then we see a case 
that the sensibility of the retina is easily 
exhausted, so that objects looked at for 
a short time seem to fade away. The 
muscle of accommodation may act pain- 
fully or irregularly, so as to not allow 
much use of the eyes. INSANITY. 
The question of insanity is one that 
has more interest for the world at large, 
than is generally accepted by the public. 
Standing in this light, it has two sides, 
one appealing to the amount of philan- 
thropy that may have been developed in 
our modern civilization, and the other, 
to our common selfishness. That insan- 
ity is increasing, rather than diminish- 
ing, is a fact familiar to all, and the 
latter motive alone, should lead us to 
consider it. An insane person has lost 
his mental capabilities, and is unable 
either to care for himself, or earn his 
living. 
Undoubtedly one of the first causes of 
insanity is defective natural organiza- 
tion, and a very slight degree of mental 
impairment is sufficient to reduce such 
a person to the level of dependence. It 
is rather the exceptional circumstance 
when persons of extraordinary capabili- 
ties become insane, and then it is under 
exaggerated circumstances. 126 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
It is an undeniable fact than any indi- 
vidual with brains is liable to become de- 
ranged, but, fortunately for the majority 
of us, ordinary provocation is not suf- 
ficient to overthrow our mental mechan- 
isms. Now a great number of active 
and apparently capable business men go 
down with paresis, which would seem 
to belie our above statement, but if these 
cases are carefully considered, they will 
be found to belong to a class liable to 
become insane, because of inherited pecu- 
liarities, and because they are prone to 
the indulgence of habits, more than or- 
dinarily provocative of brain disease. 
“ Whatever improves the physical quali- 
ties of the brain, improves also the mind; 
whatever deteriorates the brain,impairs 
the mind.” The brain, like the body, has 
its changes of waste and repair, only 
the process is conducted with twice the 
rapidity that it is in the body, and upon 
this the mental condition is vitally de- 
pendent. If the circulation of blood 
through the brain is lowered, mental 
activity is diminished; if accelerated, the 
mind’s action is quickened. Much think- 
ing exhausts the brain, as much activity 
exhausts the muscles, and to go on 
thinking, or attempting to think, after 
the brain is thoroughly tired, and with- 
out giving it time to recuperate, is a 
prominent element in causing insanity. INSANITY. 
127 
An author has said, that diseases of the 
brain are “perverted physiological ac- 
tions.” There is a misleading theory 
afloat in the minds of many, which has 
been productive of much evil, that the 
mind is a vague abstraction, connected 
in some unknown way with the body. 
This view excludes the idea of physical 
relief, which is the only way to approach 
the disease, and puts it in the light of a 
supernatural possession of evil spirits, 
etc. 
A healthy and normal brain requires 
a healthy and normal body, and depends 
upon due nutrition, stimulation and re- 
pose. An interruption or clogging of 
these processes, results in all sorts of 
disturbances. The brain is the most del- 
icate and complex of all the organs of 
the body, and consequently all of its 
manifestations, whether of order or disor- 
der, will be varied and complex also. 
The causes of its impairment may be re- 
garded as moral and physical, and pre- 
disposing and exciting. The moral causes 
are those resulting from worry, over- 
study, overwork of any kind, and great 
griefs. The physical causes act directly 
upon the system, as blood poisoning, by 
fever, narcotics, or an injury to thehead. 
Predisposing causes act remotely and 
slowly, to undermine the mental health, 
and exciting causes are those shocks 128 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
which usually precede the breaking down 
of the mind. People commonly make 
the mistake of blaming the immediate 
shock or calamity for the outbreak of 
insanity, while in reality the cause is 
much further back, and the event in ques- 
tion is only the occasion of its develop- 
ment. The germ of insanity may have 
been deeply latent, and a long train of 
influences may have been at work to im- 
pair the cerebral vigor. 
The human mind does not snap like 
cast iron. Insanity is seldom or never 
produced from a single cause. Only by 
a “conspiracy of conditions,” internal 
and external, proximate and remote, is 
the delicate fabric of reason usually over- 
thrown. 
The structure of the brain consists es- 
sentially of millions of little cells and 
fibres; the .former the generators, and 
the latter the transmitters of force. In 
thinking, these are called into exercise, 
and according to its intensity, exhausted. 
And their functional power is restored 
by perfect nutrition. We attribute a 
large share of mental disease to an im- 
perfect nourishment of the brain, which 
produces derangements of its structures, 
and these take many forms of cerebral 
disease. Nutrition is the result of a re- 
lation between the nerve tissue and the 
blood. Its perversions, therefore, are to INSANITY. 
129 
be found in disturbances of the circula- 
tion, as well as the nerves. 
The supply of blood to the brain must 
be good in quantity and quality, in order 
to furnish its minute blood vessels,which 
imparts to the cells the material of their 
renewal and waste. Excessive mental 
activity sends an increased flow of blood 
to the brain, and if this is prolonged be- 
yond a certain limit, congestion follows. 
There are few brain workers who have 
not felt the primary symptoms of this. 
Deep in thought, the student’s head be- 
comes hot and painful, and his brain 
feels too large for his skull. An hour’s 
recreation or freedom from thought' be- 
fore going to bed, would enable the par- 
tial congestion to recover, and secure 
the much needed sleep, which, otherwise, 
is apt to be disturbed and unrefreshing. 
This should be avoided as much as pos- 
sible, as the tendency is to permanently 
impair the organ. 
The opposite state from the one last 
mentioned, Anaemia or bloodlessness, 
powerfully predisposes to insanity. It 
implies a poverty or dilution of the 
blood, and may be caused by imperfect 
digestion, or any of the many influences 
which impair the nutrition. This is apt 
to develop in persons of a scrofulous 
tendency, and produces an irritable 
weakness, excitable emotions, etc., the 130 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
action of the blood being powerless and 
irregular. Headaches, giddiness, low 
spirits, hysteria, neuralgia, and even epi- 
lepsy follow in its train. 
The blood, in a state of health, is kept 
in exquisite balance of harmonious 
action, producing perfect thought and 
emotion, but foreign substances and 
bodily impurities being introduced into 
it, the result may be anything from a 
gentle excitement to the most furious 
delirium. The presence of Idle in the 
blood, for instance, will generate so 
many gloomy thoughts in the mind of a 
patient that he approaches desperation, 
although, curiously enough, he knows, 
too, their origin. 
This state of affairs prolonged, will 
result in genuine insanity. The poor 
brain is the one organ of the body which 
has no escape from overwork. If we 
overload the stomach, appetite is lost, 
and the task is no longer imposed. If 
we overstrain the muscles, the injury is 
thrown upon the nervous system. The 
overtasked lungs throw part of their 
burden upon the skin and liver, and the 
liver upon the kidneys, but the brain has 
no such relief. Exhaustion, continues 
exhaustion, till the most fatal results 
are reached. “ Night, darkness, and 
silence, alternate with light, stimulation, 
and day.” INSANITY. 
131 
The evil effects of insufficient sleep are 
well known. A deep, dreamless, happy 
sleep, is the over-burdened brain’s sole 
chance of life. Its absence gives rise to 
irritability, peevishness, dissatisfaction, 
dejection, lassitude, which the best self 
discipline can scarcely control. 
Want of proper sleep is one of the most 
direct causes of insanity. Among its re- 
moter causes, is that of hereditary trans- 
mission. There is perhaps no constitu- 
tional defect more markedly hereditary, 
than morbidities of the nervous system. 
The common belief that insanity is in- 
herited only when insanity in the parent 
appears as insanity in the child, is a ser- 
ious error. It is transmitted in an end- 
less variety of infirmities. A nervous 
defect in the parent may appear in a 
descendent of the second generation, per- 
haps, in an unbalanced character, which 
develops violent outbursts of passion 
and unaccountable impulses, or breaks 
into insanity in a sudden emergency, 
while perhaps an immediate descendant 
of the first generation may go 
through life without exhibiting peculi- 
arities of any kind. Sometimes a whole 
family seem fated to organic decay, and 
where there is a strong predisposition to 
insanity, one member will suffer from 
some form of nervous disease, another 
from epilepsy, another from hysteria, 132 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION, 
while another may commit suicide. 
There is no doubt that debilitated stock 
is a great source of criminality. Our 
jails and prisons are filled with unfor- 
tunates, who, starting in life with low 
organizations and defective brain power, 
grow up among the lowest and most 
vicious surroundings, and so are fairly 
trained for their career of crime and mis- 
ery. The baneful connection of criminals 
with the social world is afamiliarhorror, 
and in our schemes of reformation, we 
should not overlook the physical agen- 
cies which determine the efficacy of the 
brain, while bringing to bear upon them 
the kindly influences of education and 
religion. 
The simple state of the savage, stoical, 
steadfast, fearless, with few emotions 
and fewer tears, is rarely or never pro- 
ductive of insanity. The complex emo- 
tions of our civilized life, and the nervous 
tendency to indulge them on public and 
private occasions, is provocative of much 
mischief. Worsethan all, our education, 
instead of being a training to self-con- 
trol and systematic discipline, is con- 
ducted under the spur of competition 
and public examinations, and public ap- 
plause, in the place of quiet and solid 
attainment, for attainment’s sake. The 
victims of overtasked intellects and over- 
stimulated brains, fill the asylums. INSANITY. 
133 
Probably six hours a day of close brain 
work is all that the organ will endure 
without detriment, yet how many com- 
ply with this rule ? Of all the calamities 
to which man is liable, none is so appal- 
ling as the loss of reason. Yet it does 
not come unheralded, nor should it be 
regarded in the light of a fatality from 
which there is no escape. 
The many active symptoms of mental 
disease may be noticed, and often the 
dread horror may be circumvented if 
taken while yet there is time. “ There’s 
the rub.” A false notion of delicacy im- 
pels the friends of the majority of pa- 
tients predisposed to insanity to make a 
mystery of it, regard it as a disgrace, 
conceal the conditions of it, and so neg- 
lect the first dictates of common sense, 
until the golden opportunity has flown, 
and it is forever too late to treat, dic- 
tate or advise. 
The majority of cases of insanity are 
curable. If the proper methods are fol- 
lowed, all eases that have not true or- 
ganic disease in some form, can recover. HEART DISEASE. 
During a practice of nearly a quarter 
of a century, I have been watching what 
may now be very justly styled the Amer- 
ican heart. It is very proper that the 
people should know more in regard to 
this subject, especially when every one 
should be deeply interested in so vital an 
organ. 
In man}' instances, the State and Na- 
tion have been shocked at the sudden 
deaths of some of their best men and 
women, from diseases of the heart. 
Every well informed physician will tell 
you that the heart does not become dis- 
eased at once. On the contrary, its de- 
velopment from a healthy into a diseased 
organ, is a slow process. They will also 
tell you that these conditions may be 
detected and carefully cared for, so that 
fatality, when it comes,may spring from 
an entirely different affection. But too 
often the heart is allowed to wear out, 
and we are pained to read in the daily 
papers, of the death of another citizen. HEART DISEASE. 
135 
It might be asked, why are these people 
stricken down in the prime of life, and, 
possibly, of their usefulness ? No chance 
is allowed to give any parting words to 
loved ones or friends. In many instances 
the deceased looked well, and appeared 
to the ordinary observer, in the best of 
health. When an investigation is made, 
it is rarely that we find that the diseased 
condition has been detected early enough 
to prevent death from claiming an un- 
timely victim. How often do we read in 
our papers something like the following: 
“ He sailed with a happy company, from 
Philadelphia, on the 15th, in the very best 
of health. He stood the voyage well, 
but during the first night after landing, 
he was stricken with heart disease, and 
died.” 
To “forewarn and to forearm,” is the 
object of this chapter. I shall call atten- 
tion to the indiscretions of life which 
give rise to certain forms of this malady. 
I shall also show how patients afflicted 
with organic heart disease may,by their 
own efforts, prolong their days, and, in 
many cases, live to a good old age very 
comfortably. I wish to make plain some 
of the causes of heart failure resulting in 
immediate death in many diseases. An 
intelligent explanation of some of the 
most common forms of heart disease 
will, I think, be appreciated by every 136 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
reader. The public generally, has an idea 
that there is but one form of heart dis- 
ease, and that invariably fatal. This 
idea, however, is entirely erroneous, as 
many grave forms are entirely recovered 
from. 
A careful study of simple enlargement 
of the heart, has proven that this is not 
a diseased condition, but is nature’s 
method of overcoming some one or more 
obstacles to the blood current, either in 
the heart or blood vessels, and if a dis- 
ease of the valves should develop, the 
greater strength of the organ will often 
do the work quite easily, and the person 
live to a good old age. The majority of 
people supposed to be suffering from 
heart disease, are in reality not affected 
with any disease of that organ. Most 
persons, imagining that they have heart 
disturbances, have other organs affected 
that interfere with its natural workings, 
and we have what is generally called 
functional heart disease. 
For convenience, I will divide diseases 
of the heart into two classes. Those 
originating from an inflammation of the 
lining of the heart, and those originating 
from without, or diseases of the body of 
the organ. The first class is common to 
all periods of life, but occurs more fre- 
quently before maturity, and involves 
the left side of the heart, which is di- HEART DISEASE. 
137 
vided into two parts by a valve. This 
inflammation is a complication follow- 
ing many acute diseases, and the same 
acid poison that helps develop them, irri- 
tates also the lining of the heart. The 
acid matter that causes rheumatic fever 
or inflammatory rheumatism, injures the 
heart more than any other cause. More 
than one-third the cases suffering with 
the last mentioned disease, have inflam- 
mation of the lining of the heart, as a 
complication. It is not long after the 
lining membrane becomes diseased, before 
the valves are affected also, and become 
deformed, which prevents them doing 
their perfect work, and we have “valvu- 
lar disease of the heart” as a result. 
Any patient suffering with this is crippled, 
but if the health is kept good, all indis- 
cretions avoided, and they follow an oc- 
cupation that does not require much 
physical strength, life may be prolonged 
in comfort for many years. 
A noted author says: “All are liable 
to diseases producing this form of heart 
lesion, whether their lives are good or 
bad, discreet or indiscreet, but not 
equally liable by any means. A good 
and discreet life adds to the resisting 
power against disease producing influ- 
ences, and to the powers of endurance, 
while a bad and indiscreet life reduces 
the vitality and resisting power. Those 138 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
following the latter course are much 
more liable to suffer bv exposure to in- 
fection, or poison in the blood, to sud- 
den change of temperature, and to other 
malignant influences.” 
The second class of heart diseases, or 
those which develop outside of the organ, 
are generally the residt of hereditary 
eauses, or irregularities of living, and 
can as a general rule, be prevented. If 
they are detected before established, they 
may, in some cases, be cheeked, and the 
morbid condition cleared away. Fleshy 
people suffering from short breath ami 
palpitation of the heart, and having 
pains in that region are readily alarmed, 
and imagine themselves in danger, but I 
am glad to say that the majority of 
these people are safe, and have no cause 
for fear. It is well to remember that 
fleshy people do not always have a fatty 
heart, although its action may be ob- 
structed by too much fat. Much has 
been said about fatty degeneration of 
the heart, or a condition in which the 
muscles of the organ are changed into 
fatty substance. This generally occurs 
where the blood is poisoned and the 
parts imperfectly nourished, or the blood 
vessels carrying the blood that nourishes 
the heart, may be obstructed and dis- 
eased. By proper management, the 
larger portion of people suffering in this HEART DISEASE. 
139 
way may be improved, and many may 
be cured. 
A diseased heart may suddenly stop, 
owing to a shock, a fit of passion or 
over-exertion. A sudden change from 
the recumbent to an upright position 
will produce the same result, or a chilling 
of the surface of the body, which throws 
nearly all of the blood into the heart. 
If the heart walls are weakened from any 
cause, death may take place during an 
attack of angina pectoris, or neuralgia 
of the heart. Any person with a sound 
heart may have repeated attacks of an- 
gina pectoris, without any real danger. 
Neuralgia of the heart is a transient 
disease of the nervous system, caused by 
an irritation of the nerve centers, from 
which proceed the nerves supplying the 
muscles of the small arteries of theheart. 
This irritation causes the arteries to con- 
tract and throw the larger portion of 
blood into the heart, producing over- 
distension and over-taxation. It will 
thus be observed that if the heart is 
weak or diseased, it might fail in its 
struggles, and stop with its cavities full 
of blood. Neuralgia of the heart can be 
prevented by proper living. People who 
live up to the laws of life, and having a 
perfectly pure and healthy system, never 
have this disease. A heart that is over- 
burdened with flesh will be caused much 140 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
over-work to handle the increased 
weight. Generally speaking, life is in no 
way endangered by this condition. The 
superfluous fat is readily removed under 
proper treatment and diet. 
When the blood vessels supplying the 
heart with nourishment are diseased or 
obstructed, we have developed the most 
incurable condition that is seen. The 
heart having no proper support, becomes 
very much weakened, and its bad con- 
dition comes to the front at once, in 
cases of fever, debilitating diseases and 
severe surgical operations. 
While I do not believe in the too fre- 
quent use of the term heart failure, yet, 
in the above mentioned conditions, true 
heart failure does take place. In aged 
people, the walls of the vessels often be- 
come diseased, and if this occurs in those 
near the surface of the body, the blood 
will be forced into the heart and larger 
internal blood vessels, causing them to 
be more tense than is normal. Theheart 
to overcome this condition, beats with 
greater force, and finally enlarges to be- 
come strong enough to overcome the 
obstruction. The increased pressure on 
the internal vessels, stretches them to 
their utmost capacity, and weakens 
them so that when the heart recovers 
strength, and sends the blood with 
greater force, the weakened points are HEART DISEASE. 
141 
apt to give way. If a blood vessel bursts 
in the brain, we have apoplexy or a 
stroke of paralysis. If the arteries in 
the nose become debilitated, there will be 
repeated attacks of hemorrhage from the 
nose, or, it may be, from the lungs. I 
have often seen people spit blood from 
the lungs from this cause. 
Violations of the laws of health, such 
as over-eating and drinking, etc., and 
everything that injures the system, are 
the causes of the condition just related, 
and if we wish to keep clear, we must 
obey the laws of life. If we are on the 
way to trouble, the thing to do is to call 
a halt, and mend our ways. 
In cases of inflammation of the lungs 
and pleurisy, the heart has extra work 
to do to overcome the results of the in- 
flammation, and being itself partially 
exhausted by fever and diseased blood, 
may fail to do its work until the disease 
gives way, and if it gives out, the patient 
dies of true heart failure. In all cases 
where theheart is weak, the S3rstem does 
not get its natural quantity of blood, 
and it fails for want of nourishment. 
Heart disease resulting from disease of 
the blood vessels, is generally seen in 
middle and advanced life, and can be 
avoided by proper living. Rheumatism, 
want of exercise, and over-ingestion of 
food are the common causes of every 142 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
form of heart diseavse. It must be re- 
membered that the heart must work con- 
stantly, and it is true that excessive 
physical and mental work does cause 
prostration, and puts the nervous sys- 
tem into a state of exhaustion, which 
prevents it from furnishing the heart 
with nerve force and muscular power. 
Only temperate people that work mod- 
erately, eat moderately, sleep mod- 
erately, and observe in all things, mod- 
eration, can have any certainty of a long 
and healthful life, and, finally, a quiet 
and peaceful death. 
Many people suffer with heart disease 
in imagination, when they are alarmed 
or worried over any occurrence. This 
condition is a nervous affection, and 
soon develops what is termed “irritable 
heart,” which is a constant annoyance. 
How can we live so as to have good 
acting hearts and prevent sudden deaths? 
I cannot better answer this question 
thon to quote from an esteemed writer: 
“1. That alcohol, even when used within 
the limits of temperance, is prejudicial in 
its effects on the heart, and should be 
avoided. 2. Do not take to excess any 
kind of food, especially meats. 3. Be 
active, and take a proper amount of 
physical exercise in the open air. 4. 
Avoid mental strain, and too close atten- 
tion to business. Eat regularly, that HEART DISEASE. 
143 
you may not contract dyspepsia, and 
lose appetite and ability to sleep. 5. 
Take exercise without fatigue, food with- 
out stimulants, and amusement without 
excitement.” INFANT FEEDING. 
As the future of our nation depends 
upon our babies, and our babies upon 
good digestion, and good digestion upon 
their proper feeding, we think no more 
important subject can engage our at- 
tention. 
First in point of excellence, of course, 
is the mother’s milk, on which the in- 
fant should be fed exclusively, up to the 
age of one year. A child should never 
be weaned during the hot months unless 
there is some unavoidable reason for so 
doing. A gradual process of weaning is 
preferable to a sudden discontinuance. 
If the mother’s milk is not available, 
substances most closely allied to the 
human milk are the most favorable, and 
these are not gained through using con- 
densed milk and the prepared foods. We 
believe that the use of these articles if 
they give proper strength and nutrition, 
is also accompanied by some disad- 
vantages, usually constipation, a chronic 
weakness of the digestive organs, etc. INFANT FEEDING. 
145 
At an advanced age, they may perhaps 
be used with advantage, but not as the 
sole diet of young infants. 
We have, then, cow’s milk, sterilized, 
and mixed with boiled water, and lime 
or barley water. Those to whom a ster- 
ilizing apparatus is not available, can 
get the same effect at home, in the fol- 
lowing fashion. Good milk should be 
obtained if possible, and while it is still 
fresh, it should be placed in a thoroughly 
cleansed glass bottle, and a piece of clean 
cotton cloth put in the place of the 
stopper. It should then be placed in a 
kettle of cold water, which should be 
brought to a boil slowly, and allowed to 
boil thirty minutes. When cooled, the 
stopper should be replaced, and the bot- 
tle kept on ice until ready for use, when 
it should be slightly warmed. A tea- 
spoonful of lime water to two ounces of 
the mixture, should be used. To guard 
against constipation and aid digestion, 
barley water may be used instead of 
pure water, for dilution. The barley 
water should be prepared as follows: 
Take an ounce of barley in the whole 
grain, wash thoroughly with cold water, 
and boil in about half a pint of water 
for five minutes, and throw this liquid 
away. Then add two pints of boiling 
water, and boil down to one pint; strain 
this, put in a dean, tight bottle, and 146 
keep on ice until needed. The following 
table for dilution will be found useful: 
PHYSICAL, PERFECTION. 
AGE OF INFANT. 
PARTS MIEK. 
PARTS WATER. 
1 month, 
1 
3 
2 months, 
1 
2 
3 months, 
2 
2 
6 months, 
3 
2 
9 months. 
3 
1 
12 months, 
6 
1 
If the child cannot handle cow’s milk, 
(as some cannot) the following recipe 
may be used: 
3 tablespoons rich cream, 
2 tablespoons pure fresh milk, 
10 tablespoons boiled water, 
33/8 drachms milk sugar. 
This mixture should be sterilized thirty 
minutes, like the cow’s milk, following 
the same directions. It should be kept 
tightly corked, on ice, and warmed a 
little for use. 
No two babies are alike as regards the 
capacity of the stomach, and under no 
circumstance should the amount of food 
exceed that capacity. A New York phy- 
sician says that “more babies die of 
over-feeding than under-feeding.” A lit- 
tle cool boiled water will often stop their 
crying and quench their thirst. Except 
when very young, they should not be fed 
at night, and they should be fed at regu- 
lar intervals. 
The following table, giving the ratio INFANT FEEDING. 
147 
of ages and amounts, may be referred to 
with good effect: 
AGE. 
INTERVALS. 
AMOUNT. 
1 month, 
every 2 hours, 
1 oz. 
2 months, 
every 2 hours, 
2 ozs. 
3 months, 
every 2 hours, 
3 ozs. 
4 months, 
every 2j4 hours, 
4 ozs. 
5 months, 
every hours, 
5 ozs. 
tt months, 
every hours, 
6 ozs. 
7 months, 
every 3 hours, 
6 to 8 
ozs. 
8 months, 
every 3 hours, 
6 to 8 
ozs. 
9 months, 
every 3 hours, 
5 to 8 
ozs. 
10 months, 
every 3 hours, 
6 to 8 
ozs. 
11 months, 
every 3 hours, 
0 to 8 ozs. 
If the infant does not digest its food 
well, the following preparation of Malt- 
ine may be used with benefit. This mix- 
ture should be used with fresh or steril- 
ized milk, in equal proportions: Beat 
one heaping teaspoonful of flour with 
half a medium-sized coffee cup of cold 
water, till perfectly free from lumps. 
Add this to one and a half cups of boil- 
ing water, in the inner vessel of a double 
boiler. (A tin vessel inside of a teaket- 
tle may be used for a double boiler.) 
Stir well, cover, and cook for ten minutes 
by keeping the water boiling in the out- 
side vessel. Take out the inner vessel 
and add to contents one and a half cups 
cold water, then mix in a scant teaspoon 
Maltine plain, and stir thoroughly with 
the same teaspoon, cover, and let stand 
fifteen minutes. Then put the inner vessel 148 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
back into the boiling water, and cook 
for fifteen minutes. Strain, and keep 
well covered in a cool place. In case of 
diarrhoea, use two cups of boiling water 
instead of one and a half, cool off with 
one cup of cold water instead of one and 
a half, and allow to stand three minutes 
instead of fifteen. 
These directions must be strictly fol- 
lowed, or the flour may not be properly 
prepared for the stomach of the baby. 
Barley flour may be used instead of 
white. The nursing bottles should be 
kept especially clean after each using. 
The bottle should be rinsed first with 
cold water, and then with hot soapsuds. 
It is well to have a number of bottles, 
and to keep them soaking in soda or 
borax water when not in use. The long 
rubber tubes with attached nipples 
should never be used, as they can not be 
kept sufficiently clean. The dark rubber 
nipples which fit directly on the bottle, 
are the best, and these should be turned 
inside out once a day, and thoroughly 
brushed. They should also be kept soak- 
ing in borax or soda water. 
There are many farinaceous foods pre- 
pared for the use of infants and young 
children, and of these, Mellin’s, Nestle’s 
and Ridge’s foods and Malted Milk are 
perhaps among the best. FOODS. 
Food is the material which adds weight 
and strength to the bod}r. If there be 
not sufficient nourishment, the body loses 
in substance; if the amount of nourish- 
ment is equal to the daily waste, a happy 
equilibrium is preserved, and if it exceed 
the demand, no beneficial result is 
reached; on the contrary, much harm is 
produced. 
The most important element in food is 
oxygen. Three-fourths of the human 
body is oxygen, and it is present in differ- 
ent forms, in air,water and food. It is also 
the essential of fire. Fourteen different 
elements of the earth are required to 
make the human body, and thus the life- 
principle in food is from the earth. This is 
an important thing to remember in the 
consideration of food, which is divided 
into two classes—that proceeding from 
animals or meat, and that produced 
from vegetation. The meat of animals 
fed on vegetable substances is alone fit 
for use. 
The above mentioned fourteen elements 150 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION, 
of which the body is composed, are as 
follows: Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, ni- 
trogen, calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, 
sodium, chlorine, fluorine, iron, potas- 
sium, magnesium, silicon. It is essential 
that every seeker after health should 
know what foods and combinations of 
foods contain these elements and their 
combinations, which are seventeen in 
number. All fourteen of these primary 
elements should betaken into the system 
every twenty-four hours, as a deficiency 
of any one of them produces mischief. 
Yet how few of our men and women 
know anything of the nature of foods or 
their properties, good or bad. 
To arouse a more intelligent attention 
to this subject is the purpose of this 
chapter. Three general divisions may 
be remembered : 1. Phosphorus, which 
furnishes the vitality, including brain, 
nerves and bones. 2. Nitrogen, which 
supplies the muscles. 3. Carbon,which 
makes heat and fat. These three elements 
havetheirproportion, and should neither 
be deficient nor in excess, and it is the 
duty of every intelligent person to learn 
this proportion, and how it is contained 
in the common articles of daily food. 
Each organ of the body draws the ele- 
ment peculiar to its existence, from the 
general mixture of elements, which are 
taken into the circulation. So long as POODS. 
151 
the fourteen elements are organized from 
pure vegetable matter, they are in a per- 
fect state, and perfect health results, but 
if foreign matter enters into the system, 
rebellion follows. 
There are few single foods which con- 
tain together carbonates, phosphates 
and nitrates. Whole wheat, however, 
is one of these. The nitrates are found 
in the outer shell, the carbonates in the 
main portion, and the phosphates in the 
germ. It will thus be seen that fine 
wheat flour that is made from the center 
alone, consists almost entirely of carbon- 
ates, and it is a common error of fam- 
ilies to use heat-producing foods in ex- 
cess, without the balance ofnitrates and 
phosphates. The result of this is a ten- 
dency to inflammations, headaches, 
fevers, neuralgic pains, defective teeth, 
weak muscles and shattered nerves, and 
this due simply to ignorance upon the 
subject of proper combinations of foods. 
The steady use of white breads, butter, 
sugar, potatoes, rice, etc., carbonaceous 
or heat-producing foods may be offset by 
lean meats, milk, cheese, fish, peas and 
beans, containing nitrates and phos- 
phates, giving strength to the muscles 
and brain. Whole wheat bread will sus- 
tain life indefinitely, while it is estimated 
that a person could live on white bread 
for about two months only, providing 152 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
no other food was used. Cracked wheat 
taken with milk and sugar, is a perfect 
food, as it also farina, taken in the same 
may. Rye is not so perfect a grain as 
wheat, but, used with nitrogenous foods, 
such as meat, etc., it is valuable, espec- 
ially to people who are constipated. 
The white corn that is found in the 
South, comes next in the line of grains. 
It furnishes food to the muscles and 
brain, and has a small proportion of 
heating properties. The yellow corn of 
the North, however, is the reverse of this, 
as it abounds in carbonates, and should 
be used very cautiously, as it overheats 
the blood. Sugar, butter, lard, or ani- 
mal fats of any kind, will not sustain life 
longer than from twenty to thirty days. 
These belong to the carbonates. On the 
other hand, the nitrogenous or muscle- 
making foods before spoken of, are in- 
capable of sustaining life without some 
carbonates to produce warmth in the 
body. Shell-fish, lean meats, active 
fishes, birds, etc., which give vital en- 
ergy to the nerves and brain, contain 
too large a proportion of phosphates for 
the ordinary duties of life. Thus the 
most necessary of the fourteen elements 
should be taken in the smallest propor- 
tion. Fruit, berries and green vegeta- 
bles, are apt to produce more waste 
than nutrition, and, while taken alone, FOODS. 
153 
especiall\r in the summer, they cause 
bowel trouble, yet, taken in connection 
with more dense foods, the}' serve to 
keep the system cool and free from sur- 
plus. 
Food which is easily and rapidly di- 
gested, does well for delicate stomachs, 
and people who are not active in their 
habits, but people of strong, muscular 
work, need foods that have more stay- 
ing power. The digestive organs need 
to be given their full capacity of work 
to perform, as they are formed for that 
purpose, and they grow strong by the 
means, but if they have more put on 
them than they can possibly manage, 
they flatly refuse to do anything, and 
then chaos follows. 
A person who has his own best health 
interest at heart, will make it a religious 
duty to study minutely just what his 
digestive organs can or cannot do, and 
then obey them to the letter. 
Cheese is very nutritious, but must be 
taken in small quantities. A person liv- 
ing on nothing but cheese, would soon 
reduce his stomach to about one-seventh 
its natural size, which would reduce the 
secretion of gastric juice, as distention of 
the stomach is necessary for this process. 
Rice is a safe food for invalids, being of 
easy digestion, but it is nearly all carbon, 
and, used as a diet, produces an ener- 154 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
vated body and brain. Beans contain 
the three vital elements in excellent pro- 
portion, and support either hard brain 
or muscle work for a considerable length 
of time. The difficulty lies in the fact 
that they require strong stomachs to 
digest them. It is said that “ a pound of 
beans will do nearly as much muscle 
work as two pounds of meat or whole 
wheat, and fully as much brain work.” 
They should be eaten with bread and 
butter or fats, to gain the heat produc- 
tion. Peas are easier of digestion, and 
fully as valuable. Oatmeal is very strong 
in muscle and brain-producing material, 
and can be put to excellent uses, but it 
should never be eaten as a mush. It 
should be used in the thinnest of gruels, 
and should be cooked for hours. Taken 
in great strength, it is rank poison to 
some, and, in fact, the majority of con- 
stitutions. 
Two per cent, only of the nutriment 
taken into the human system should be 
phosphorus, except in cases of people 
whose lives run to great and continued 
mental activity. Salt is chiefly useful in 
exciting the gastric juices. Buckwheat 
is so great a producer of animal heat 
that it gives rise to divers ills in the way 
of skin eruptions and bad blood. It 
should be used in great moderation, and 
infrequently, and should be accompanied FOODS. 
155 
with nitrates and phosphates. Barley is 
probably one of the best foods for brain 
workers of sedentary habits, that we 
have. It nourishes the brain and keeps 
the bowels sufficiently active. Prize 
fighters and men who engage in contests 
of muscle, use barley bread exclusively. 
The best way of eating it, is in a porridge, 
eaten with milk. “The muscles of beef 
and mutton contain the same elements 
as human muscles, and are therefore 
adapted to nourish them.” Thus we in- 
fer that the flesh of beef and mutton, 
used with barley, forms an ideal diet. 
It is an interesting fact to note, that the 
flesh of animals who exercise much, fur- 
nish the most strength to man, and this 
extends even to the part of the animal 
most exercised, so that a round steak, 
usually cast aside as the poorest part of 
a steak, in reality contains the most 
strength, and a tenderloin the least. On 
the same basis, the white meat of tur- 
keys and chickens contains little nour- 
ishment, and the dark meat is rich in 
phosphates. Pork, also, coming from 
the laziest of animals, has little to rec- 
ommend it. Lobsters and crabs contain 
a large portion of nitrates and phos- 
phates, but they are hard to digest. The 
prevalent idea that oysters are rich in 
nourishment, is unfounded ; they may be 
classed with pork. 156 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
If the stomach is in a right condition 
to handle it, being perfectly sweet, milk 
is an ideal food, containing in proper 
proportion, all the elements necessary to 
the support of man, the difficulty being 
its tendency to sour upon an easily dis- 
ordered stomach. 
An individual in good health and of 
average weight, requires five ounces of 
nitrates for the muscles, twenty ounces 
of carbonates for heat, two and a 
half per cent of phosphates for the brain 
and nerves, and some waste to aid the 
liver and kidneys in throwing off effete 
matter. In this connection it is well to 
classify foods, as to their properties, and 
give a short list to be used for reference. 
Under the head of phosphatic or brain 
foods, are lean meat, fish, cheese, whole 
wheat, oatmeal, almond nuts, Southern 
corn, beans, peas, potatoes, figs and 
prunes. Under the head of carbonates 
or heat and fat producing foods, are fat, 
sugar, butter, rice, rye, chocolate, dates, 
buckwheat and Northern corn, and 
white bread. Under the nitrates, pro- 
ducing muscle, are vermecelli, cheese, 
meats, Southern corn, salmon, lentils, 
peas and beans. 
The great tendency is to eat a supera- 
bundance of carbonaceous foods. A 
over-heated condition of the blood is the 
result, which is productive of many dis- FOODS. 
157 
eases. Nitrogenous foods, as a rule, are 
difficult of digestion, and should be ac- 
companied with a sufficient amount of 
waste, and foods containing carbonates 
and phosphates. In short, to preserve a 
happy balance in the proper selection of 
properfood, is one of the greatest secrets 
of health. 
Clergymen, lawyers, over-worked phy- 
sicians, shop girls,schoolgirls,care-worn 
mothers, in fact all classes of people who 
suffer from a tired brain, lose great quan- 
tities of phosphorus, which needs to be 
replenished. This is best accomplished 
by keeping as close to nature as possible. 
Phosphorus as found in drugs, is infer- 
ior to that contained in the natural 
products, such as fish, grains, meats, 
etc. A very simple and nourishing 
drink, when a person is utterly wearied 
and despondent from long mental strain, 
is water mixed with bran, and allowed 
to stand for about six hours. This 
abounds in phosphorus, and will quickly 
brighten the eyes, quicken the brain, and 
rest and strengthen the nerves. A very 
weak stomach, by care, may be trained 
gradually, to digest more difficult food. 
“Meat should not be eaten by very 
young persons. The healthiest and pur- 
est lives come from those who do not eat 
meat before the age of fifteen.” 
All rich pastry clogs the stomach, and 158 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
is poison to the liver. The dull liead- 
aches and disposition to do nothing, re- 
sults from eating too much heat-produc- 
ing food. 
It is a very familiar but sadly neglected 
fact, that milk should be kept in tightly 
covered and entirely sweet glass jars or 
earthen crocks. No known liquid will 
absorb impurities quicker than milk, yet 
how totally this idea is disregarded, a 
visit to some of the milk houses of our 
farms will prove. There are few articles 
of food so full of nutrition, or contain- 
ing so happy a proportion of the neces- 
sary elements as an egg. Great care 
should be used in the feeding of hens. 
They should be grain fed, and they should 
have pure water, as the flavor and whole- 
someness of the egg depends upon this. 
They should be cooked as lightly as pos- 
sible, frying and hard boiling being the 
most objectionable methods. 
Apples are an excellent fruit, and, taken 
with meals, are very beneficial. Oranges 
whose skins emit a stinging oil, should 
be avoided. There are some individuals 
who can not use the acid of an orange 
at all. In fact, it is the exception where 
it agrees with the stomach. 
Bananas, in America, are seldom a 
good thing. In their own country they 
are said to be very nutritious, and an 
excellent article of food, but of that we foods. 
159 
have little example here. They are us- 
ually brought to this country in a green 
condition, and are ripened under favor- 
able or unfavorable conditions, as the 
case may be, and are apt to be impure. 
Lemons are often useful in many ways. 
Their best use is without sugar. 
Nearly all brands of grapes are safe, 
except the Catawbas, which are poison- 
ous to some constitutions. Grapes are 
usually best when the bloom is on them, 
as it indicates their freshness. 
Peaches are a very mild and pleasant 
fruit, and have no harmful qualities. 
Pears have a good action upon the 
kidneys, and are very cleansing. They 
decay easily. 
Tomatoes should be used cautiously; 
their acid is very strong, and is dubious 
in its effect. 
Water melons are said “to absorb the 
low poisons that lurk near the ground.” 
This is a matter of opinion, as they 
might be raised upon elevations, which 
would dispute this fact, assuming that 
it is true. 
The almond is said to be the best of 
nuts, which are rich in phosphates. 
The following table will be of inesti- 
mable use to those who propose to give 
this study their intelligent attention. 
The average time required for the diges- 
tion of various articles of food : 160 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
HOURS. 
MIN. 
Apples (boiled) 
2 
30 
Barley (boiled) 
2 
Beans, Lima, (boiled) 
2 
30 
Beef (roasted) 
3 
Beef (fried) 
4 
Beef, salt, (boiled) 
2 
45 
Bread 
3 
30 
Butter 
3 
30 
Cheese 
3 
30 
Chicken (fricasseed) 
2 
40 
Custard (baked) 
2 
45 
Duck (roasted) 
4 
Eggs (raw) 
2 
Eggs (soft boiled) 
3 
Eggs (hard boiled) 
3 
30 
Eggs (fried) 
3 
30 
Fish, various kinds, (raw, boiled, fried) 
2 
44 
Fowl (roast) 
4 
Hashed meat and vegetables (warm) 
2 
30 
Lamb (boiled) 
2 
30 
Milk (raw) 
2 
15 
Milk (boiled) 
2 
Mutton (boiled) 
3 
Mutton (roast) 
3 
15 
Oysters (roast) 
3 
15 
Oysters (stewed) 
3 
30 
Pig’s Feet, soused (boiled) 
1 
Potatoes (baked) 
2 
30 
Pork, salt, (stewed) 
3 
Pork (roast) 
3 
15 
Rice (boiled) 
1 
Sago (boiled) 
1 
45 
Soup (barley) 
1 
30 
Soup, chicken, etc. (average) 
3 
15 
Tripe, soused, (boiled) 
1 
Turkey (roast) 
2 
30 
Veal (boiled) 
4 
Veal (fried) 
4 
30 
A person who lives right will have a vigorous appetite upon arising, and will 
crave a hearty breakfast. His mouth 
will be free from bad tastes, his breath 
will be sweet and clean, his head clear, 
his eyes bright, and he will awaken with 
a sense of refreshment. 
In a line with all we have said in our 
chapter upon foods, we would close with 
saying that the meal hours should be 
the happiest of the daj\ To think of 
what you are eating, how you are eat- 
ing, and of its probable effect upon you, 
and to engage in none but the lightest 
and most cheerful of conversation's the 
best way to insure a good digestion, “ a 
long life, and a merry one.” 
FOODS. 
161 NATURAL CURE. 
This is an age of truth finding and idol 
breaking. The cherished beliefs of today 
are swept away by the investigations of 
tomorrow. 
Since I have been working in the heab 
ing art, the results of careful search have 
caused great progress, and I feel a sense 
of relief and satisfaction when I reflect 
that at last, the truth is the corner stone 
of our medical knowledge. 
It is not necessary for us to think of 
the isms, theories and confusions of the 
past, to arrive at an understanding of 
the manner in which nature provides for 
and corrects the diseased changes of the 
human organism. 
Our bodies are composed of the same 
materials that are contained in plants, 
all being necessary, and if one or more 
of the organic or inorganic constituents 
becomes deficient, nature promptly de- 
mands repair, and if this is not supplied, 
a diseased condition follows. We recog- 
nize this condition by the symptoms, or NATURAL Curl. 
163 
nature’s cry for the deficient elements, 
In cultivating any vegetable, it is nec- 
essary that the earth surrounding it 
shall contain all the elements essential 
for its growth, or it becomes diseased, 
and, eventually, dies for want of nour- 
ishment. The same laws govern the 
growth and repair of the body. 
Dr. Schuessler, of Germany, after a 
careful series of experiments, determined 
that the human body is made up of two 
main constituents, organic and inor- 
ganic. The organic are sugar, fat and 
albuminous substances. The inorganic 
are water, and twelve minerals, called 
cell-salts. Water constitutes overseven- 
tenths of the body, the cell-salts about 
one-twentieth, and the inorganic matter 
the remainder. The inorganic salts are 
the workers, the vital portion of the 
body, and they use the water, organic 
substances and inert matter, to build 
the cells of the body. The inorganic 
salts are, three of lime, one of iron, three 
of potash, one of magnesia, three of soda 
and one of silicia. 
Dr.Carey says : “ Should a deficiency oc- 
cur in one or more of these twelve work- 
ers, some abnormal condition arises. 
These abnormal conditions are known by 
the general term, disease, and according 
as they manifest themselves in different 
ways and in different parts of the body, 164 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
they have been designated by various 
names. But these names totally fail to 
express the real trouble. Every disease 
which afflicts the human race, is due to a 
lack of one or more of these inorganic 
workers. Every pain or unpleasant 
sensation indicates a lack of some in- 
organic constituent of the blood. Health 
and strength can be maintained only so 
long as the system is properly supplied 
with these cell-salts. Having learned 
that disease is not a thing animate or 
inanimate, but a condition due to some 
lacking element of the blood, it follows 
naturally that the proper method of cure 
is to supply to the blood that which is 
missing. In the treatment of disease, 
the use of anjffhing not a constituent of 
the blood, is unnecessar\r, and to give 
poisons to a sick person, is simply bar- 
barous and inhuman. True, many have 
survived it, but equally many have been 
hurried thus to their graves.” 
Dr. Virchow, the greatest living au- 
thority, defines disease as ‘‘a lack of 
some constituent part of the blood at 
the part affected.” 
A host of able men have become enthu- 
siastic over the simple facts that are 
now known as nature’s own methods 
of cure. 
These men declare that it is beyond a 
doubt, that disease is an altered state of natural cure. 
165 
the cells of the affected part or parts, 
produced by some irregularity in the 
supply to the cells, of one or more of the 
inorganic tissue salts. 
Health is a normal condition of the 
body, produced by the requisite quantity 
of cell-salts being furnished to the differ- 
ent tissues. 
The system is not harmed by an over 
supply of these salts, as they are readily 
carried out of the body, largely through 
the skin, kidneys and bowels. 
In order to prevent disease, our food 
supply should be studied, to see that it 
contains all that is necessary to prevent 
the body from becoming deficient in any 
one or more of the required elements. 
Our food is obtained from both the 
vegetable and animal kingdoms. Be- 
cause the vegetables derive their nourish- 
ment directly from the earth, they 
become our most valuable foods. When 
we use animal food we get the inorganic 
salts after they have served in one 
animal body, and they are not so well 
prepared to combine with the cells of 
the human body. It is not true that we 
must eat meat to be strong. The 
herbivorous animals are far superior in 
strength to the carnivorous. The ani- 
mals that are noted for intelligent 
capacity for toil, and have endurance, 
courage and power are herbivorous. 166 
The carnivorous animals are ugly, fero- 
cious, and do not take kindly to work 
or the needs of civilization. 
The diet of the Greek athletes was figs, 
nuts, cheese and maize bread without 
wines. 
The physical labor performed by non- 
meat eating people of all countries and 
climates is enormous, and demonstrates 
conclusively that we can live without 
meat. Some English authorities state 
that meat eating is a main cause of 
many diseases, and especially mention 
cancers as a direct result of its use. 
The majority of people use a mixed 
diet, and have too great a variety. 
The horse will live on hay and oats 
(and if properly cared for) without dis- 
ease. and endure a large amount of 
work. 
Man should have a better quality and 
a less number of foods to get the proper 
amount of ingredients to support the 
body. In the chapter on foods I have 
given a fair consideration of what we 
should eat, but it will not be out of 
place to add a few more thoughts. 
In answer to the question, What is 
best to eat to get nature’s foods ? I use 
a portion of the language of one who is 
living and enjoying the benefits of it. 
We use all the vegetables in varieties 
of ways, plenty of fruit, especially 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. NATURAL CURE. 
167 
apples, baked and raw, and nuts of all 
kinds. Many people say that they find 
nuts indigestible, but it is usually be- 
cause they eat them after a hearty din- 
ner, which has already sufficiently taxed 
the stomach. 
Make nuts a part of the meal, and in 
a majority of cases they will be digested 
if properly masticated. Of course, if 
anyone finds that nuts, in moderation, 
as food, do not agree with them, their 
use should be stopped. Two things 
must be remembered: That it is not 
necessaiw to eat more than you would 
under a meat diet, and also that one 
cannot simply drop meat from the bill 
of fare and add nothing to take its 
place. For instance, if beefsteak and 
potatoes have constituted breakfast, 
simply leaving out the meat would be 
unwise, but if a saucer of some good 
preparation of wheat with cream be sub- 
stituted, the breakfast will be found all- 
sufficient, especially if, as is the case with 
many, there is a first course of fruit. 
I have discarded oatmeal entirely, and 
use for cereals, wheat germs, wheatlet 
and a delicate preparation of hominy 
called “ Snowdrift,” also shredded wheat 
biscuit, which we think ver}r delicious as 
well as valuable. If one does not spend 
from twenty-five to fifty cents for steak 
or chops, ten cents can be spent for 168 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
cream and still have money left. Al- 
though shredded biscuits are so gen- 
erally used now, yet, but few stop to 
think in how many good ways they can 
be used. Many persons pour over the 
biscuit enough hot water or milk to 
soften them, then use cream freely. 
Sliced apples or bananas can be used on 
them before the cream, which will be a 
great addition. 
Granola and granose flakes are used 
in the same way as the shredded biscuits, 
although the heating is not necessary. 
Croquettes are made of almost every- 
thing and fried in cottolene. Some 
prefer pure olive oil, which, I believe, is 
the best. Our favorite kind is made of 
split peas and potatoes, the peas alone 
being too heavy. The peas are boiled to 
the consistency of mush, and then nearly 
an equal quantity of mashed potato 
added and seasoned to the taste. To be 
made especially delicious, there should 
be added half a cupful of pounded 
peanuts. 
Croquettes made of rice and seasoned 
with nut-butter, using perhaps a table- 
spoonful of the butter to a dozen cro- 
quettes, are better than those of plain 
rice. 
This nut-butter is a useful addition to 
soups, and gives a rich, nutty flavor 
wherever used. Chestnut croquettes are NATURAL CURE. 
169 
made by blanching the nuts and boiling 
for a quarter of an hour, then using 
potatoes, as in the case of split peas, 
and for the same reason. Raw peanuts 
may be used instead of chestnuts, but 
they must be boiled longer and pounded, 
as they will not soften li ke the chestnuts. 
Croquettes may also be made of beans, 
parsnips, hominy, in fact, anything in 
the way of vegetables properly seasoned 
and well cooked can be served. 
Of soups there is also a variety; the 
purees of split peas, beans, etc., all the 
cream soups, celery, corn (I used the 
grated corn),green peas,etc.; a delicious 
vegetable soup is made of a turnip, two 
potatoes, a carrot, a few sticks of celery, 
a little tomato and corn or beans that 
happen to be left over. The raw vegeta- 
bles are cut into dice and cooked until 
soft, then the others added. The number 
and kinds of vegetables can be changed 
according to circumstances or taste. 
All these soups are of course without 
stock. Potato soup without milk can 
be made richer by pouring it boiling hot 
over an egg broken into the tureen and 
stirring rapidly while pouring. 
Most of the vegetables can be used for 
salads, especially with celery salad, if 
one part English walnuts to two of 
celery is used with a mayonnaise dress- 
ing, the result will be surprisingly good. 170 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
Delicious sandwiches are made of 
pounded nuts mixed with a little hard- 
boiled yolk of an egg and salad dressing 
spread on thin slices of buttered bread. 
People are more and more realizing that 
white bread is not nourishing, because 
the most valuable part of the wheat is 
removed. The entire wheat flour is sup- 
posed to contain all the nourishing part 
of the wheat without the hull. White 
bread is never seen on our table except 
occasionally for guests, and they usually 
prefer the better kind. 
One thing more I wish to mention as 
a valuable article of food, and that is 
what is commercially known as 
“nuttose.” It comes in small cans and 
is very delicious and concentrated. It is 
good sliced, plain or warmed with a 
brown gravy. A piece the size of two 
fingers is almost a meal in itself. 
All the “weeds,” like celery, lettuce, 
spinach, etc., are useful and palatable 
additions to an}' table, and in these 
days can be obtained at all seasons of 
the year. Some readers may ask how 
we make plum pudding and mince pies 
without meat? I reply that these are 
mixtures not fit for any ordinary 
stomach. The appetite for highly sea- 
soned food and rich mixtures is not a 
natural one, and a simple diet is much 
better. Pies for dessert will soon be a NATURAL CURE. 
171 
thing of the past, and their place will be 
filled by fruits and delicate desserts like 
blanc-mange. Usually the dessert is just 
so much more than the stomach can 
well digest, especially if there have been 
several courses. When one sees the 
ordinary bill of fare of the average 
home he wonders, not that the children 
begin young to have dyspepsia, but that 
they live at all. If we could only rid 
our minds of the old prejudices we could 
more easily assimilate new ideas. 
The golden rules for eating must not 
be forgotten in whatever is taken for 
food if good health is desired. They are 
as follows: Chew your food thor- 
oughly ; eat slowly; eat as little as 
possible and be comfortable; do not 
drink much near the meals; eat a good 
breakfast; a fair dinner, and a light 
supper. 
To get a fair understanding of the 
general application of the above men- 
tioned tissue salts, I give their name and 
some hints in regard to their sphere of 
action in disease. 
This salt is indicated in all diseases 
affecting the substance forming the sur- 
face of bone, the enamel of the teeth, 
and part of elastic fibres, no matter in 
what structure they may be found. For 
CALCAREA FLUORICUM. 172 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
instance, all ailments that can be traced 
to a relaxed condition of the elastic 
fibres, including dilitation of the blood- 
vessels, blood tumors, piles, enlarged 
and varicose veins, indurated glands, 
relaxed uvula, etc. The symptoms are 
all worse in damp weather, and are re- 
lieved by fomentations and by rubbing. 
CALCAREA PHOSPHATE. 
The sphere of the phosphate of lime 
includes all bone diseases, whether due 
to some inherited dyscrasia or to defect- 
ive nutrition in osseous and other 
structures dependent upon a proper dis- 
tribution of lime molecules in the body. 
Is of importance in anaemia and chloro- 
sis; in convulsions and spasms in weak, 
scrofulous subjects; during dentition, 
when the teeth are slow in making their 
appearance, or decay too rapidly. In 
convalescence after acute diseases, and 
in chronic wasting diseases, it acts as a 
tonic, building up new red blood cor- 
puscles, and restoring the lost vitality. 
Deficient development of children and 
young people; emanciation without 
apparent cause; onanism ; suppuration 
of bones; spinal weakness and curv- 
ature, and aids the union of fractured 
bones. Cold, motion, change of weather, 
getting wet,generally aggravates symp- NATURAL CURE. 
173 
toms. Relieved by rest, warmth, and 
by lying down. 
CALCAREA SULPHATE 
This is a most excellent remedy in sup- 
purations, to which it is closely related. 
It is indicated in swelling in the soft 
parts, in connective tissue, with threat- 
ened suppuration, or where supputation 
has already taken place. Abscesses, 
either aborting or hastening suppura- 
tion; boils, carbuncles, felons; pimples 
and pustules on the face; in fact, in all 
ailments where pus-formations are liable 
to, or have developed. 
Symptoms are aggravated by getting 
wet or by washing and working in 
water. 
FERRUM PHOSPHORICUM 
Is given in the initial stage of all conges- 
tions, inflammations and fevers. Iron 
possesses an affinity or attraction for 
oxygen, and hence is an important agent 
in all diseases in which the blood and its 
corpuscles are involved. Consequently, 
the first remedy in all cases depending 
upon a relaxed condition of the muscu- 
lar tissue, and in abnormal conditions 
of the corpuscles of the blood themselves. 
In all frebrile disturbances and inflam- 
mations, at the beginning, especially 
before exudation has commenced, the 174 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
accompaniments of these conditions 
manifested by flushed face, quick, full 
pulse, hot, dry skin, thirst, pain and red- 
ness of the parts. An excellent remedy 
also in anaemia, and to make blood. 
The symptoms calling for this deficient 
cell-salt are always aggravated by 
motion and ameliorated by cold. 
Is given for the sequelae of all inflamma- 
tions, for exudation and infiltration, 
especially of fibrous character, and in 
the inflammation of serous membranes, 
when the exudation is plastic in nature. 
A most excellent remedy in the later 
stages of all catarrhal states. The most 
characteristic symptoms of the chloride 
of potash are glandular swellings, dis- 
charges or expectorations of a thick, 
white, fibrinous consistency, white or 
gray exudations, and a white or gray 
coating at the base of the tongue. The 
efficacy of this remedy is demonstrated 
in chronic catarrhal conditions, croup, 
diphtheria, dysentery, pneumonia. In 
alternation with Ferr. phos. in coughs, 
deafness from catarrh of the eustachian 
tubes, skin eruptions with small vescicles 
containing yellowish secretions, ulcera- 
tions with swellings and white exuda- 
tions ; in leucorrhoea, with characteristic 
discharge, etc. Symptoms in general 
KALI MURIATICUM NATURAL CURE. 
175 
are worse from motion; gastric and 
abdominal being worse after taking 
pastry, rich and fatty foods. 
KALI PHOSPHORICUM. 
Nervous conditions known as neu- 
rasthenic, is the field in which this salt 
has become pre-eminent. The results of 
a want of nerve power, as prostration, 
exertion, loss of mental vigor, depression, 
brain-fag, softening of the brain, and 
when there is rapid decomposition of the 
blood. It is curative in septic hem- 
orrhages, scorbutic gangrene, stomatitis, 
offensive, carrion-like diarrhoea or dys- 
entery, adynamic or typhoid conditions, 
incontinence of urine, urticaria, predis- 
position to epistaxis in children, dizziness 
and vertigo from nervous exhaustion ; 
tongue coated as if spread with dark 
liquid mustard. Many symptoms are 
aggravated by noise; by rising from a 
sitting position; by exertion, physical 
and mental; pains worse in cold air; 
ameliorated by gentle motion, eating, 
excitement, anything, in fact, that will 
relieve the mind and aid in restoring the 
lacking nerve force. It is the remedy for 
insanity. 
KALI SULPHURICUM. 
The chief indication for this remedy is 
a yellow, slimy deposit on the tongue; 176 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
all divscharges and secretions are of a 
thin, sticky, watery or slimy-yellowish 
nature. It has been given in bronchitis 
with yellow, slimy or thin, watery ex- 
pectoration ; skin diseases with a sticky, 
yellowish secretion and peeling off of the 
epidermis; scarlet fever, especially in 
stage of desquamation ; dandruff, yellow 
scales; dyspepsia; catarrh of the 
stomach with a yellowish, slimy coating 
of tongue; catarrh of bowels; diarrhoea; 
leucorrhoea; ophthalmia, if secretions 
are as above described ; sudden suppres- 
sion or retrocession of eruptions; men- 
struation too late and too scanty, with 
weight and fullness in abdomen,etc.,etc. 
All ailments are worse in a warm 
room and toward evening, and better in 
the cool, open air. 
Is to be thought of in all diseases having 
their origin in the nerve cells, or in the 
terminal bulbs of the nerves, in the mus- 
cular tissues, or in the muscles them- 
selves. It is particularly indicated in 
lean, thin, emanciated persons of a 
highly nervous temperament. The value 
of this remedy is shown in all forms of 
spasms, in cramps, tetanus, St. Vitus’ 
dance, epilepsy, spasmodic retention of 
urine, colic, paralysis agitans, etc. It is 
the remedy for neuralgic pains in the 
MAGNESIA PHOSPHORICUM NATURAL CURE. 
177 
head, face, teeth,stomach and abdomen. 
The Magnes. phos. patient is languid, 
tired and easily exhausted. All pains 
are lightning-like, shooting or boring, 
and change their location frequently, 
and are worse on the right side, from 
cold air, washing in cold water, 
and from touch; relieved by warmth, 
pressure, friction, and by bending double. 
Wherever is found a hypersecretion of 
the watery elements of the body, with 
simultaneous want of activity in some 
other portion of the mucous membranes, 
you will find Natr. mur. the remedy. It 
acts upon the lymphatic system, the 
blood, liver,spleen, and upon the mucous 
lining of the alimentary canal. Natr. 
mur. is indicated in headache, toothache, 
faceache, stomachache, etc., where there 
is either salivation or hypersecretion of 
tears, or vomiting of water and mucous; 
also catarrhal affections of mucous 
membranes, with secretion of trans- 
parent, watery, frothy mucous; also 
small watery blisters, breaking and 
leaving a thin crust; diarrhoea, trans- 
parent, glossy, slimy stools; conjunc- 
tivitis with discharge of tears and clear 
mucous; tongue clear, shun-, small bub- 
bles of frothy saliva on sides; leu- 
NATRUM MURIATICUM. 178 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
eorrhoea, watery, smarting or clear, 
starch-like discharge, etc., etc. 
NATRUM PHOSPHORICUM. 
This is the remedy in all cases where 
there is an excess of acid. Acts also 
upon the bowels, glands, lungs and 
abdominal organs. It cures sour beleh- 
ings and rising of fluids ; sour vomiting ; 
greenish, sour-smelling diarrhoea ; colic ; 
spasms; fever from acidity of the 
stomach in children; ague with charac- 
teristic coating of tongue; eyes dis- 
charging a yellow, creamy matter; 
gastric derangements with acidity and 
flatulence; indigestion; intestinal worms, 
etc. A characteristic indication is a 
moist, thick, golden-vellow coating on 
the tongue and palate. 
An active carthartic is pre-eminently a 
liver remedy. In addition, however, it 
exhibits a marked similarity to the uric 
acid diathesis, and is certainly a valuable 
remedy in combating numerous phases 
of that malady. It is indicated when 
there is a dirty, brownish-green or 
gravish-green coating on the root of the 
tongue, and dark-greenish stools from 
excess of bile; in biliousness, excess of 
bile, bitter taste, greenish diarrhoea, 
vomiting of bile; jaundice; dropsy from 
NATRUM SULPHURICUM. NATURAL CURE, 
179 
disease of theliver; also after scarlatina, 
bilious headache; intermittent fever 
with vomiting of bile and above symp- 
toms; diabetes, when the liver is at 
fault; erysipelas, smooth, red, shiny, 
coming in blotches, with swelling of 
skin; gravel; oedema of prepuce and 
scrotum; vomiting in pregnancy with 
bitter taste. Always worse in damp, 
wet weather, and from lying on left side; 
relief in warm, dry weather, and in the 
open air. Pains necessitate frequent 
change of position. 
SILICEA. 
A remedy for deep-seated suppurations 
affecting the tendons, periosteum and 
bones. Promotes suppuration, therefore 
indicated when there is hardness and in- 
duration with suppuration ; infiltration 
terminating in suppuration, and in im- 
perfectly nourished constitutions due to 
deficient assimilation. Valuable also in 
diseases resulting from suppressed foot- 
sweats ; in menstruation associated with 
icy coldness over whole body, constipa- 
tion and foetid foot-sweats; in car- 
buncles; swellings which become hard 
and threaten to suppurate; styes on 
eyelids; chronic syphilitic indurations; 
suppurating glands ; epilepsy nocturnal, 
with change of moon ; gouty deposits in 
large joints of fingers, etc. Symptoms 180 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
are always worse at night, during full 
moon, in the open air, and from sup- 
pressed foot-sweats; the application of 
heat and warmth is a relief to these con- 
ditions. DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
Disease is a condition of the body 
marked by an unhealthy action of one 
or more of its various organs. There 
are about twelve hundred different dis* 
eases that may affect mankind, and 
when we consider that these diseases 
may be complicated with nearly eight 
hundred more diseased conditions, we 
can readily see that it is no easy matter 
to fully understand all the unhealthy 
workings of our body. 
Sickness is such a common condition 
that few escape its severe changes. Dis- 
ease is the result of disobedience. The 
laws of perfect living have been broken, 
and suffering comes as a natural result. 
Whether it is a medical or surgical affec- 
tion, it is the result of a cause, and this 
cause can always be traced to one or 
more broken laws of life. 
Every one wishes to be healthy, and 
never to suffer with the tortures of dis- 
ease. I am happy to state that this is 
possible. If the causes of disease, in its 182 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
various forms, were better understood, 
there would be less breaking of the laws 
of living. Two classes of influences are 
at work to prevent us from living per- 
fectly. External and internal. The hu- 
man body is exposed to infection or 
poison of various kinds, at every point. 
Some twenty-five years ago, we did not 
feel so alarmed concerning what we ate, 
drank and breathed. Modern research 
has proven, however, that we are in 
danger of severe results from what was 
once supposed to be innocent causes. 
Death frequently carries off a person in a 
few hours or days,who was in the prime of 
life and apparent good health. Epidem- 
ics have appeared in very unexpected 
neighborhoods, which could be traced to 
impure water and food. Sometimes, 
even, several members of the same fam- 
ily die. This arouses public opinion, and 
awakens professional interest in a very 
important and intricate subject. 
In the daily round of human life, the 
processes of building up and breaking 
down never cease, and the complex mol- 
ecules which make up the body, pass 
through several important changes. 
Experience clearly teaches that man is 
constantly in danger of being overpow- 
ered by poisons, generated within his 
system. Self-poisoning is prevented only 
by the natural working of the five excre- DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
183 
tory organs, namely, the skin, kidneys, 
bowels, liver and mucous membranes. 
The kidneys and liver are two great sen- 
tinels which are always at work, to pre- 
vent the system from being injured or 
destroyed by poisonous compounds. 
Careful chemical investigations have 
shown that many severe diseases depend 
upon the products of fermentation and 
putrefaction. The products continue to 
act long after the fermentation and pu- 
trefaction are checked. 
Disease is not independent of the body. 
On the contrary, it is a thing that is part 
of it, and destroys its ability to properly 
care for itself. It is beyond question 
that what we take to support the body— 
air, fluids and solids, are a great source 
of disease. It is very important to pre- 
vent the system from becoming poisoned 
by the absorption from the digestive 
organs, of badly digested food, and any 
material that has undergone putrefac- 
tion. 
Dr. Bouchard says that self-poisoning 
is the cause of most of the diseases of 
the human race. This poisoning takes 
place largely in the digestive organs, and 
considering the important part they play 
in supporting the S3rstem, it is proper to 
carefully study the best methods of car- 
ing for them. 
The tongue gives us the best informa- 184 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
tion in regard to their workings, from 
infancy to old age. If anything goes 
wrong to any extent, the tongue is sure 
to give the warning, in a correct way. 
It is a part of the tongue’s work that 
always tells the truth, and we should 
not fail to heed its warnings. The 
tongue being a part of the digestive 
tract, supplied by the same nerves and 
invested with the same mucous mem- 
brane, can speak with authority. The 
form of the tongue changes in many dis- 
eases, and is quite expressive. A pointed 
tongue shows irritation and too much 
blood in the stomach and bowels. The 
dry tongue shows that the digestive 
organs can do but little work, and fluids 
should be used mostly, until the secre- 
tions from the intestinal canal and asso- 
ciate glands are established again. The 
cracked tongue points to inflammatory 
affections of the kidneys. A pure white 
coat on the tongue generally indicates 
acidity of the stomach. A yellow coated 
tongue points to liver affections. A 
bright red tongue indicates irritation of 
the stomach. A deep red tongue, which 
is usually contracted and dry, is seen in 
protracted and low forms of disease, 
which generally take on a typhoid type. 
The tongue gives the best evidence of 
the condition of the blood, and is care- 
fully observed by the critical student of DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
185 
disease. The coat on the tongue is 
caused by the condition of the digestive 
organs and the blood. About two-thirds 
of it conies from the bad condition of 
the digestive tract, and one-third from 
the glands of the mouth. 
In order to have a clean tongue and 
enjoy all the benefits arising from it, the 
working condition of the stomach and 
bowels must be perfect, and their ability 
to handle food should not be overesti- 
mated. During infantile life the mouth 
of the child should be kept carefully 
cleansed, especially before each feeding. 
One of the best washes, is a weak solu- 
tion of borax, in warm, soft water. 
The milk that remains in the mouth 
often ferments, causes irritation and a 
sore mouth may develop, as well as irri- 
tation of the stomach and bowels, giving 
rise to colic and diarrhoea. 
As soon as the child’s teeth appear, 
they should be brushed every day, with 
a soft tooth brush. 
Overfeeding has killed more babies than 
starvation, and is responsible for most 
of the ailments of infancy, such as gas- 
tric catarrh and diarrhoea. This is es- 
pecially true in summer, when the fret- 
fulness of the child, which is often mis- 
taken for hunger, may be due to thirst, 
the external temperature, to warm cloth- 
ing or indigestion. 186 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
The best thing to do at such times, is 
to reduce the bulk of each meal by one 
quarter, and give the infant more water, 
as infants, like adults, require less food 
in hot weather. 
If the child is having frequent greenish 
discharges from the bowels, some mild 
laxative should be given to clean the 
digestive organs of all fermented mater- 
ial. Our first thought is to stop the 
diarrhoea, but this should not be done, 
as it is nature’s way of removing all 
deleterious substances until all irritating 
material is removed. Soon the stomach 
and bowels will regain their strength if 
properly managed, and digestion will go 
on in the natural way. 
Infants and animals never have gastric 
catarrh if let alone, for nature wisely 
provides for them. They are prompted 
to take food when they need it, and are 
not apt to get too much. 
Dyspepsia is an affliction of civilized 
life, and has become our national disease. 
I believe it is safe to state that more peo- 
ple are made unhappy and miserable by 
it than from any other affliction. 
The human body is a self-preserving 
machine, and is presided over by a form 
of intelligence called instinct, which is 
independent of the higher power of 
reason. Instinct gives warning that 
repairs are needed,when the body is worn DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
187 
out and wasted away from any cause. 
A recent writer says : “ This informa- 
tion is sent forward to the stomach from 
all parts of the body, through the ner- 
vous system, as if by a network of tele- 
graphic wires. In the stomach they all 
center, with a result to fill certain vessels 
with a fluid substance. As the need for 
repair increases, these vessels distend 
more and more, and their distension 
causes the feeling of hunger, which be- 
comes more and more pressing, unpleas- 
ant and painful, as if to compel the 
individual to attend to the urgent needs 
of the system. The very instance the 
first particle of food reaches the stomach, 
the sluices of the engorged vessels open, 
enveloping each particle closely, begin- 
ning to dissolve it at once. The unload- 
ing of these overfilled vessels gives ease 
first, then comfort, thence positive pleas- 
ure ; hence we warm to the humanities 
of life as the meal progresses.” 
It should be remembered that the 
amount of gastric juice and digestive 
fluids are prepared and adapted by in- 
stinct, to the wants of the system. 
Nature will rectify an error now and 
then, but if we insist on taking more 
than the system needs, disease must fol- 
low. Eating too much and too fast, 
without taking the required amount of 
exercise, causes the majority of the dis- 188 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
eases of the digestive organs. No won- 
der that dyspeptics are full of complaints. 
Their blood is made from badly digested 
food, and their body is made from bad 
blood. The result is that every atom 
of their bodies is impure and unhealthy. 
Most bad blood is made from imperfect 
digestion, and the remainder from the 
fact of the system not carrying out of 
the body all of its own waste matter. 
In order to always have good blood, 
good food should be taken, and it should 
be perfectly digested. 
Indigestion is the father, and bad blood 
the mother of most diseases, hence to 
avoid the far-reaching and destroying 
effects of indigestion and bad blood, we 
should study carefully what we can di- 
gest perfectly. 
It should be remembered that want of 
exercise is a great cause of dyspepsia. 
All persons suffering with this disease 
will have all or part of the following 
symptoms : Weight in the stomach and 
often oppression in the chest; bad taste 
in the mouth, especially in the morning; 
no appetite, or it will be fitful or excess- 
ive; acidity with belching of gas and a 
burning sensation in the stomach; 
nausea and a sinking feeling that often 
comes on suddenly; the bowels are cost- 
ive, which is the greatest cause of the 
dull headache that most cases have ; DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
189 
stomach and upper part of the bowels 
are very tender; there is more or less 
gnawing, dull or griping pain in the 
bowels; palpitation of the heart is often 
a very annoying symptom; disturbed 
sleep, dreams and nightmare is noticed 
in most cases; the haggard face and 
general distress is a prominent symp- 
tom. 
The mental symptoms are many, but 
the most common are nervousness; 
want of strength or energy; a discour- 
aged and fretful feeling; more or less 
irritable and despondent; in bad cases 
there is often suicidal thoughts and self- 
distrust. Most cases are moody and 
suspicious, and there is more or less loss 
of flesh. 
The most prominent of the mental 
symptoms is depression of spirits, which 
often govern the whole life of the indi- 
vidual. All dyspeptic cases get cold 
easily, and if there is a weak portion of 
the bod\r it will become diseased in most 
cases. The cold drives the bad blood 
from the surface of the body into the 
internal organs, and if every organ is 
not able to stand the overcharge, it 
will become irritated, inflamed or con- 
gested. Indigestion with a hard cold 
may cause irritation, inflammation or 
congestion of any internal organ of the 
body, and it is the reason why so many 190 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
people suffer with pneumonia, bronchi- 
tis and bowel affections like diarrhoea, 
acute inflammation and winter cholera, 
also rheumatism, neuralgia, sore throat, 
earache, toothache and catarrh. 
A body made from well digested food 
is not in danger of every ill. It has the 
power to care for itself, and successfully 
resist all dangerous causes of disease. 
From what has been said it can readily 
be seen that good digestion is the foun- 
dation stone of the human body. Espec- 
ially is this true with children as tlie\r 
are not matured, and their constitutions 
have less vitality to overcome the errors 
of improper living. 
The best remedy for bad blood is good 
digestion. Indigestion is a curable dis- 
ease, and should be treated before all its 
injurious results develop. Nearly all of 
the other diseases that affect the digestive 
organs, are caused by the various forms 
of dyspepsia. 
The liver is a very important organ in 
digestion and in purifying the body. 
When the liver does not act or is diseased 
in any way, it is folly to take solid food. 
Water, only, or non-fermenting liquids 
should be used. Nature steps in and 
takes away the appetite, to prevent ua 
from further oppressing the liver and 
system with an additional load. To eat 
without an appetite, is to make a bad DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
191 
condition worse, and soon nausea, and 
sometimes vomiting, comes on, prevent- 
ing any further abuse. The liver will 
take care of itself the best of any organ 
in the body, if it is not prevented from 
doing its regular work. 
If from any cause the bile remains in 
the blood, a heavy or sluggish feeling 
will be noticed. Many persons suffer 
with stupidity, sleepiness, and a dull 
headache. The stagnation of bad blood 
about the brain causes the headache, 
and, if allowed to continue in feeble peo- 
ple, may cause congestion of the brain. 
If the bad blood is driven to the internal 
organs from a cold or overdoing, con- 
gestive fever will follow, and if any vital 
organ is totally destroyed by con- 
gestion, death takes place immediately. 
I have seen cases where more than one 
vital organ would become affected, and 
they would linger until relief or death 
made a change. 
The harmful effects of bad blood can- 
not be described. If any organ becomes 
irritated or injured, it will be made worse 
by its deletorious effects. Any injured 
part will not heal, but generally matter- 
ates, and is kept in a state of chronic 
inflammation for a long time. 
It is a generally accepted fact that we 
inherit bad blood, weak constitution, 
and many diseases, and, to a certain ex- 192 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
tent, this is true. Parents may be so 
weak from disease or overwork, that 
they do not transmit the vitality to 
their offspring that they should. We do 
not inherit a disease, but an inclination 
or weakness that allows moderate 
causes to bring it on. If the bodies of 
the parents are impure, their children 
must be also, and it would be very diffi- 
cult for the children to so live as to fully 
free themselves of their imperfect consti- 
tutions, but they can be greatly im- 
proved by carefully observing all the 
laws of life. 
It is beyond a doubt that the majority 
of bad blood is made from imperfect liv- 
ing. A perfect body can be made impure 
and entirely destroyed by not observing 
the laws that keep it in a normal state. 
In other words, our bodies are what we 
make them. If we have an unhealthy 
one, we can improve it, and, in many 
cases, make it perfect by what Dr. Cham- 
bers terms, “renewal of life.” 
Medical history informs us that we 
still have the same number of diseases 
that they did in ancient times, but in a 
modified form. The causes have always 
been the same for each disease, but its 
treatment has changed every few years. 
It will be impossible to mention every 
cause of diseased conditions that exist, 
but the majority should be fairly well DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
193 
known. Causes that are parts of the 
natural order of the universe, and are 
beyond human control are: temper- 
ature, atmospheric pressure, electrical 
conditions and storms. 
Causes springing out of nature in some 
unknown way and very difficult to con- 
trol are: all causes that communicate 
from one person to another, specific dis- 
eases which are produced by organic 
poisons, such as measles, scarlet fever, 
etc. All diseases that are communicated 
by descent are included in this class, as 
consumption and cancer. 
The causes of disease that depend on 
age and modes of life, as overwork, in- 
jurious foods and drinks, bad habits, 
improper exercise, over-study, occupa- 
tions, ungoverned passions, privations, 
moral contagions, senile decay, have 
been fairly well considered in other chap- 
ters of this work. They are all subject 
to certain continually recurring external 
variations; which imperceptibly produce 
the most marked physiological action, 
even on the healthy body. This can 
readily be seen when we look over the 
diseases of the various seasons of the 
year. It is not fully known why 
catarrh, croup, bronchitis, pneumonia, 
influenza, pleurisy, quinsy, erysipelas, 
acute rheumatism, gout, chronic asthma, 
carbuncle, diptheria, diarrhoea, and dys- 194 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
entary prevail at certain seasons with 
greater severity. 
During the winter and spring, influ- 
enza, catarrh, bronchitis, croup, acute 
rheumatism and a few other diseases are 
apt to be very severe and cause many 
deaths, especially among the young and 
old people. Probably the extreme 
humidity of the air with a temperature 
from 40 to 60 degrees Fahr., and the 
unfavorable conditions to equalization 
of the animal heat by evaporation and 
radiation, with the fact that the body is 
actually wasting and losing faster dur- 
ing these months, are some of the 
reasons why so many febrile and inflam- 
matory diseases are seen during the first 
six months of the year, 
A sudden fall of temperature strikes 
with telling effect upon a great many 
people of all countries. The mortality 
increases, largely with young and old, 
as the temperature declines. At or near 
thirty, the effect of cold does not change 
the mortality much, but on those above 
this age the mortality doubles for every 
ten years of life. If one person is killed 
at thirty, two will be at forty, four at 
fifty, and so on in this ratio. 
In nearly the language of an English 
author, we find an explanation of the 
effects of cold in the simple estimate we 
have already formed, as to the force of DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
195 
vitality at different ages. We have as- 
sumed that the body reaches its maxi- 
mum of development at not far from the 
age of thirty. At this period, if it be 
healthy, it generates by its own chem- 
ical processes as much force as shall 
enable it, within given bounds, to work 
its own machinery, to call forth at will 
a limited measure of extra force, and to 
supply a fluctuating loss that may be 
conveyed away by contact with the 
surrounding air, and by other bodies 
that it may touch, and that are colder 
than itself. The body yields, therefore, 
applied force, reserved force, and waste 
force. 
These, under ordinary circumstances, 
are sufficient to maintain the perfect 
organism in effective life. So much ac- 
tive force gives the body the power to 
perform so much labor; so much reserve 
force supplies it with the power to per- 
form a measure of extra labor to meet 
emergencies; so much waste force en- 
ables it to resist the external vicissitudes 
without calling on the supply which is 
ever wanted to keep the heart pulsating, 
the chest heaving, the glands secreting, 
the digestive apparatus digesting, and 
the brain receiving or thinking. Let 
this distribution of force be disturbed, 
and the life power is reduced. 
If we use active force too long, we be 196 
PHYSICAL, PERFECTION. 
come exhausted, and call upon the 
reserve; and if we still continue the 
process we fail at last, unless sleep 
forces itself upon us and brings renewal 
of power. If we are robbed of the 
waste force quicker than we can supply 
it, exhaustion is produced; inefficient 
nervous control over the circulation 
developes, and a congested condition of 
the lungs and all internal organs super- 
vene, which causes death so easily when 
exhaustion is severe. 
That the exhaustion should be more 
rapid in the man who has reached his 
prime, is but natural. In his past he 
has been growing, developing his body, 
and in the course of development, he has 
used up an excess of force commen- 
surate with the demands of his growth. 
When he stops in development, and 
stands on a fair level with the external 
forces that are opposed to him, then his 
own force, for a short time balanced, 
soon becomes second in command. 
He feels the cold more severely if his rest 
is broken, and his demand for artificial 
heat becomes urgent. If he loses or 
cannot take food from any cause, he 
fails rapidly. 
As a matter of course, if cold affects 
a healthy man in this way, it would be 
still more severe in the unhealthy. If 
the man has a weak point in the vessels DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
197 
of the brain, exposure to cold renders 
that point more liable to pressure and 
rupture, with apoplexy or paralysis as 
the consequence. His ills will be doubled 
if he has bronchial disease. If he has a 
feeble heart, it will sink under the strain 
put upon it. If he has enfeebled circula- 
tion through the kidneys, complete ob- 
struction may be the result. If he is 
improperly clothed and fed, he will be 
subject to intestinal congestion and diar- 
rhoea. 
From the above it can readily be seen 
why the mortality of all diseases runs 
up so fast whenever there is a sudden fall 
of the temperature. 
In this age of electricity, the effects of 
electrified air or ozone upon the human 
body, should be generally known. Many 
attempts have been made to determine 
the influences of electrified air on animals 
as well as man. During the seasons 
when catarrhal affections prevail, there 
is an increased electrical tension. 
It has been found by experiment, that 
inhaling ozone, a distinct nasal catarrh 
can be developed, accompanied with pain 
in the forehead, hoarseness and sore 
throat. It has been proven beyond a 
question, that meat-eating animals are 
more susceptible to its effects than those 
that live on herbs, grain and fruits. 
A constant exposure to ozonized air 198 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
produces congestion of the lungs, bron- 
chial irritation, the formation of a tena- 
cious mucus in the breathing tubes, and 
a destruction of the most vital part of 
the blood, which allows most of the 
inflammatory affections to develop. 
The reason why all people are not af- 
fected alike, is because some persons are 
not so susceptible to the influence of 
ozone as others It is probably true, 
also, that the ozone produced in the 
atmosphere in electrical storms, may 
not diffuse equally, but in lines or local 
currents, so that but a limited number 
of persons would become affected. Dur- 
ing short and local electrical storms, the 
inhabitants over which they would pass 
would be more or less affected. 
It is probable that during many ozone 
periods, the ozone is greatly influenced 
by the temperature. It has been deter- 
mined that ozone will not produce catar- 
rhal symptoms when the temperature is 
up to 75 degrees, or above. 
Heat so changes the special influences 
of electrified air upon animal organisms 
that some will suffer, and others escape 
from its influence, even though it be 
widely diffused. 
Judging from what is already known 
of the effects of ozone, I am led to believe 
that not far in the future we shall fully 
understand the nature of the external DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
199 
and uncontrollable causes of the inflam- 
matory maladies included under the 
names of catarrh, bronchitis in its va- 
rious forms, irritation and congestion of 
the lungs, pneumonia, influenza, croup, 
laryngitis and la grippe. 
From all the evidence I have before me, 
lam convinced that soon we will be able 
to predict the outbreak of these diseases 
from the meteoroligical changes, and 
forewarn the community of their dan- 
gers. 
The following quotation will explain 
what the atmosphere is without elec- 
trical influences : “In some researches I 
conducted on the inhalation of oxygen 
gas, I observed that if an animal were 
made simply to breathe an atmosphere 
of pure oxygen gas, although the oxygen 
was perfectly cleared of the products of 
the combustion of the animal, it would 
not sustain life, but would allow the 
animal to fall into a somnolent condition 
and to die. But if electrical discharges 
were passed at intervals through the 
oxygen, or if it were kept at a tempera- 
ture above 75 degrees Fahr., it would 
continue to sustain life. In another ser- 
ies of experiments, I learned that if oxy- 
gen were freshly made and passed in the 
fresh state through a chamber in which 
living animals were placed, the animals 
would continue to live. But if the oxv~ 200 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
gen that had swept through the chamber, 
although it were thoroughly purified of 
animal products, and although it still 
appeared to be absolutely pure oxygen, 
were used again, it failed to sustain life 
until it was subjected to the action of 
the electric spark, when it regained its 
activity.” 
1 infer from this quotation that oxygen 
may exist in the atmosphere in an inac- 
tive condition, not inducing a healthy 
state, but depression of mind, languor, 
torpidity, and a feeble body. 
It can be seen from the above why 
some sections of the country are more 
healthy than others. Electrified air gives 
energy, and power to do a large amount 
of work. 
It is a well known fact that the atmos- 
phere presses on the earth’s surface at 
the rate of fifteen pounds to the square 
inch on an average. This pressure exerts 
an influence on the animal functions, 
and if it is reduced to any extent, it will 
often be attended with aches and pains 
in one or more joints or limbs. Reduced 
pressure effects many people very un- 
favorably. Every form of chest dis- 
eases are more severe when the barom- 
eter is low. Coughs are more frequent; 
all kinds of pains are intensified, and 
persons suffering with rheumatism or 
neuralgia, will become worse. In all DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
201 
cases suffering with irregular circulation 
through the brain, giddiness and vertigo 
is easily developed. Fevers and inflam- 
matory affections become more severe 
when the barometer is low. 
Reduction of atmospheric pressure is a 
great cause of suffering to all persons 
afflicted with consumption. Winds and 
air saturated with moisture, is conducive 
to the development of rheumatic disease 
and organic heart affections, that may 
result from rheumatism. 
Malarial fevers and consumption are 
induced by long exposure to moist air, 
especially during sleep in damp and low 
buildings. Just what part winds play 
in causing disease is not known, but it is 
true that their effects are unfavorable. 
South-west wind is known to increase 
acute inflammatory conditions, while 
north or north-east winds aggravate all 
kinds of pains. A cutting and depress- 
ing east wind is very severe to those 
who have a very’ low stock of vital en- 
ergy. Cold winds should be avoided by 
old and feeble persons. 
Air is charged with all kinds of impur- 
ities, which come from animal and vege- 
table decay, and it is not a very pleasant 
thought that we are constantly’ breath- 
ing through our nose and mouth, all 
sorts of microbes and diseased germs. 
We should not breathe through the 202 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
mouth, but if we do, it has the power to 
care for itself much better than the nose. 
The mouth can be easily washed out, 
and the teeth can be readily cared for, 
but the nose is so formed that few peo- 
ple think of cleaning it, unless some dis- 
ease or accident especially calls our at- 
tention to it. It is exposed to all kinds 
of odors, being a nidus for all kinds of 
fine dust from organic and inorganic 
matter, which decomposes and becomes 
mixed with its own secretions. This in- 
fected matter irritates and inflames the 
mucus membrane, which is the main 
cause of most of the acute and chronic 
disturbances that are so frequently seen 
in the nose. 
The mucus membrane in the nose is 
laid on bones mostly, instead of muscu- 
lar tissue as in nearly every other part 
of the body. If a mucus membrane 
becomes inflamed or ulcerated, over a 
muscle, its action will so injure the 
nerves in the tender mucus surface that 
pain will call our attention to it. But 
this is not true in the nose. All forms of 
ulceration can go on for a long time 
without causing any pain or special dis- 
comfort. 
The nose has no cleansing power ex- 
cept forcible expiration of air through it 
to blow out accumulated matter, which 
is probably the greatest cause of it being DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
203 
affected with inflammatory disorders 
more frequently than any other part of 
the body. It has two functions, respir- 
ation and olfaction, which are carried on 
in almost a passive manner. 
Being passive in action, our nose is 
unable to keep itself free from irritating 
matter that is constantly collecting in it, 
which in time produces diseased changes 
that generally extend into the throat, 
ears, larynx, lungs and general system. 
One author says, “that a filthy nose is 
the home of colds,” and I find it difficult 
to deny that this is not true, to a certain 
extent, at least. I can easily see how 
infected matter could be absorbed from it 
into the system to such an extent as to 
cause a general poisoning of the body, 
and chilly sensations come on as a result 
which would cause the usual tingling 
and fullness in the nose, or an increase of 
the already existing irritation or inflam- 
mation. 
These facts should remind us to “keep 
our nose clean.” 
Every year thousands of people are 
laying the foundation for deafness, dis- 
eases of the throat, lungs and general 
system, by allowing colds to “ wear 
out,” which injures the feeble parts of 
our body the most. If the lungs happen 
to be weak or irritated from any cause, 
a more severe condition will be apt to 204 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
develop, and if repeated attaeks of 
eolds are allowed, death from consump- 
tion may be the probable result, espec- 
ially if the digestive organs do not do 
their work well. Whatever organ is de- 
bilitated, it- is liable to be excited into a 
worse or uncontrollable condition. 
A knowledge of the favorable or un- 
favorable changes of disease which are 
determined by the symptoms, is of great 
value to all. The most prominent and 
important are: 
Bleeding from the lungs, stomach, kid- 
neys, bladder and bowels, which is 
always more or less dangerous, and 
demands prompt attention. 
Great anxiety is an alarming symptom, 
especially in fevers, diseases of the brain, 
injuries and striking in of eruptions. 
Very difficult breathing is an unfavor- 
able indication in fevers, consumption, 
inflammation of the lungs and injuries. 
It is also dangerous in croup, where 
there is rough, loud, crowing or hissing 
cough. 
A constant disposition to sleep, or 
coma, in acute diseases is a severe symp- 
tom, and energetic measures should be 
used to give relief. 
Convulsions are often seen, and are 
more dangerous among children than 
adults; they are especially to be feared 
when occurring during, before or after DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
205 
diseases of the brain, fevers, inflamma- 
tions, whooping cough, or when there is 
striking in of any eruptive disease. 
Confusion of ideas and thoughts, and 
a loss of memory are unfavorable 
changes in all acute affections and dis- 
eases of the head. 
A sudden cessation of any cough, at- 
tended with prostration and nervous- 
ness, should receive immediate attention. 
Delirium is dangerous only when se- 
vere, as in the low muttering kind which 
is often seen in load injuries of the head, 
cessation of the urinary discharges, and 
diseases of the chest, especially con- 
sumption. 
Diarrhoea demands immediate atten- 
tion, and should be feared if it occurs 
during inflammations, low fevers and 
the later stages of chronic diseases. 
Deafness may require attention when 
occurring during the course of diseases 
of the chest, and fevers, but is not an 
alarming symptom. If difficulty of 
swallowing comes on during the course 
of diseases of the stomach, head, fevers 
and some affections of the throat, it is 
very dangerous. 
Emaciation, or loss of flesh, when con- 
tinued for any length of time, is always 
unfavorable. 
Long continued ulcerations of any 
part of the body, especially if they are 206 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
purplish and dark, are unfavorable. 
Fainting is a serious symptom with 
most persons suffering with diseases of 
the heart or profuse bleeding from any 
part. 
If hiccough continues in spite of all 
treatment during the course of acute 
or chronic diseases, it is an unfavorable 
symptom. 
The abnormal conditions of the eye, 
as squinting, too great a contraction or 
dilation of the pupil, or a fixed condi- 
tion of it, are to be regarded unfavor- 
ably during the course of any disease. 
If the eyeball turns up under the 
upper lid, or the eyes become set so the 
patient does not notice any object that 
comes suddenly before them, then we 
have a very serious condition. 
Hoarseness, manifesting itself early, 
and not yielding readily to treatment, 
in measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, small 
pox or any eruptive disease, should 
be considered dangerous. 
Violent paroxysms of cough that are 
often seen in whooping cough, should be 
feared, especially if they last a long time 
the face becomes purple, the forehead 
covered with sweat, and the eyes are red 
and protruding. These cases should re- 
ceive attention at once, lest they die of 
congestion of the brain, convulsions or 
apoplexy. A dark or purplish pale coun- DISEASES IN GENERAL. 
207 
tenance is a danger signal in till inflam- 
mations of the air passages. 
If the pain suddenly disappears, what- 
ever organ is affected, it should be re- 
garded as a dangerous symptom. The 
seriousness of the disease is frequently 
pointed out by the patient’s position in 
bed. A constant lying on the back, and 
tendency to sink toward the foot of the 
bed, is very unfavorable. 
Vomiting, in the advanced stages of 
acute or chronic diseases, when contin- 
ued and violent, is a serious condition, 
especially if the matter thrown up is 
dark, putrid or offensive. 
Perhaps the following are the most 
dangerous symptoms that a patient can 
have, whatever the disease may be: 
Picking the bed clothes, grasping in the 
air, gritting the teeth, throwing off the 
cover, sleeping with the lids partly open, 
muttering during sleep, awakening with 
a vacant stare or look, rattling in the 
throat, and continued stupor. 
The symptoms of approaching death 
may be followed by supposed death. A 
patient may be in a stupor for a long- 
time, and have nearly all the indications 
of actual death, and still recover. NATURAL DEATH. 
In our first chapter, we considered the 
beginning and the general working of 
life, while in this, we will think of its 
elose, or death. Authors tell us of cer- 
tain modes of dying, and it is well we 
should fairly understand what takes 
place. 
Life depends mainly upon the proper 
performance of the functions of circula- 
tion and respiration, and death is due 
finally to the cessation of one or the 
other of these. The causes which sus- 
pend or check the circulation and respir- 
ation, operate directly or indirectly upon 
them through the nerve centers, which 
regulate their action. 
Death begins at one of three organs of 
the body; either the heart, the head or 
the lungs. If it begins at the head, we 
have death from central paralysis,which 
destroys the nerve centers governing cir- 
culation and respiration. The main 
symptom indicating death from this 
cause, is unconsciousness; the respira- NATURAL DEATH. 
209 
tion becomes slow and labored, and at 
last, either tranquilly or after convul- 
sions, stops. 
If death takes place from failure of the 
heart, from any cause, it may be gradual 
or sudden. There are many causes 
which destroy the heart’s action. It 
may be rendered incapable of propelling 
its contents by gunshot injuries, a blow 
on the head, violent emotions, (as fri ght 
or griel,) a blow on the stomach, the 
rupture of an internal abcess, very cold 
drinks, or an overheated condition of 
the system. A momentary cessation of 
the heart’s action is termed syncope or 
fainting, which takes away the blood 
from the nerve centers which propel the 
heart. In fatal syncope, the individual 
suddenly turns pale and dizzy, a cold 
perspiration starts, the pupils dilate, the 
vision grows dim, the pulse becomes 
slow and flickering, and in a few moments 
life is extinct. The gradual failure of the 
heart is usually the result of chronic dis- 
eases, which cause it to lose its contrac- 
tile power. In acute diseases the heart 
may lose its ability to work, from high 
temperature, poison in the blood, and an 
overdose of strong medicine. The most 
prominent symptoms noticed from these 
causes, are great muscular debility and 
a feeble and rapid pidse, depending en- 
tirely on the heart. 210 
PHYSICAL, PERFECTION. 
A gradual or sudden cessation of res- 
piration will cause death. The gradual 
failure of respiration may be produced 
by anything obstructing the air pas- 
sages, as tumors, false membrane, etc. 
Inflammation of the lungs may result in 
death in this way. Where the respira- 
tions are checked suddenly, there will be 
violent efforts at breathing, followed 
(we are told by good authority,) by 
brief periods of remarkable clearness of 
mind and pleasant sensations, finally 
merging into an unconscious condition, 
or irregular action of the muscles ~ the 
face is blue and swollen, the eyes pro- 
truding, and soon the heart stops. 
A man should die as unconscious of his 
death as he is of his birth. We all sleep 
through the processes of birth, and feel 
the painful or pleasant impressions of 
this life only after awakening. 
Death is a painless process, and when 
the cycle of life is completed, the living 
being sleeps into it. The natural and 
easy descent into oblivion is the sequel of 
health; it is the happy death engrafted 
on the perfect life. Death should be di- 
vested of all fear, sorrow and suffering, 
and should come to us at last as a quiet 
sleep. 
Dr. Richardson says: “If you ask me 
what proof there is of the possibility of 
such a consummation, I point to our NATURAL DEATH. 
211 
knowledge of the natural phenomena of 
one form of dissolution, revealed to us 
even now, in perfect, though exceptional 
illustration. We have seen nature, in 
rare instances, vindicating herself despite 
the social opposition to her, and show- 
ing how tenderly, how soothingly, how 
like a mother with her foot on the cradle, 
she would, if she were permitted, rock 
us all gently out of the world. How, if 
the free will with which she has armed 
us were brought into accord with her 
designs,she would give us the riches, the 
beauties, the wonders of the universe for 
our portion, so long as we could receive 
and enjoy them, and at last would 
gently withdraw us from them, sense by 
sense, with such perception that the pain 
of the withdrawal would be unfelt, and, 
indeed, unknown.” 
A few times in the last twenty years, I 
have witnessed a perfect death. No pain, 
no no ambition, no 
linger on the shores of Time, but a de- 
sire to sleep and not to dream, until the 
animal life no longer sustains the physi- 
cal forces, and the closing act of life ap- 
pears at the appointed hour. When we 
think of the change as one of comfort 
and ease, the sharpness of the sting is 
removed, and we think of the joys and 
of the .brightness of heaven. 
When nature has no chance to kindly 212 
PHYSICAL PERFECTION. 
perform her last earthly work, but is 
badly interrupted, we are led to wonder 
and weep at the injustice. We are born 
for a higher destiny than that of earth. 
There is a realm whose beauties never 
fade. The beautiful spirits of earth, 
with their bloom, will rest there from 
the gaze of human eyes. The hand of 
death can be seen everywhere; his voice 
can be heard in every sweep of the wind.' 
Faith lifts the veil and discloses the in- 
visible. Death is a power that awakens 
into new life forms well known, but 
holier and lovelier than when we knew 
them here. Death brings a sorrow from 
which we refuse to be divorced. We 
should feel that when it does its perfect 
work,'it is the most glorious earthly 
change. Death is a part of the scheme 
of life, and comes after the natural 
of life is over. 
May we walk in the path of the just; 
may we grow happier every day; may 
we grow brighter and brighter, until at 
last we can enter into the noontide 
splendors of the heavenly glory.